2018 In Between Grand Slam Thread

yerwanthere123 · 13-02-2018 11:57pm

Pretty serious allegation made by Donald Young about Ryan Harrison last night

https://twitter.com/Yimlife1313/status/963277551677378562?ref_src=twcamp%5Ecopy%7Ctwsrc%5Eandroid%7Ctwgr%5Ecopy%7Ctwcon%5E7090%7Ctwterm%5E0

jr86 · 14-02-2018 10:11am

Remember he started abusing Kokkinakis in a match because of the Kyrgios incident

He seems a right tool

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 14-02-2018 10:40am

I saw someone on twitter say there's some other lower ranked player he apparently had words with at some point too.

jr86 · 16-02-2018 2:19pm

A win tonight against Robin Haase assures Federer of the number 1 spot.

Completely deserved, even playing a tailored and reduced schedule

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 16-02-2018 2:28pm

Wozniacki not exactly covering herself in glory this week. Fighting with umpires and complaining about opponents on court. Not very becoming for the World #1.

mickmackey1 · 16-02-2018 9:54pm

Greatest Of All Time In All Sports.

Chivito550 · 17-02-2018 1:29am

mickmackey1 wrote: »

Greatest Of All Time In All Sports.

How do we compare across sports though?

For example, Edwin Moses was unbeaten for 122 straight races over 400m hurdles from August 1977 to June 1987. 9 years, 9 months and 9 days without defeat. After this defeat, he went on to win another 10 races straight.

He won Olympic gold in 1976 and 1984, and was robbed by the US boycott in 1980. He also won the inaugural world championship title in 1983, and defended his title 4 years later in 1987, before bowing out of the sport with Olympic bronze in 1988 in the final race of his career.

All these years on, he remains the second fastest man in history, with only a freak run surpassing him. He ran under 48 seconds an outrageous 45 times during his career.

He’s just one example of pure greatness. Is he better than Federer? I don’t know how we can compare really.

Recency bias is a huge factor in these discussions.

yerwanthere123 · 17-02-2018 4:20am

On the Ryan Harrison thing, this was posted a couple of days ago.
https://twitter.com/Mike_Bruno55/status/963928659244568576

Harrison has subsequently been cleared of all racial accusations. He's clearly a dick, but racist? I hope not.

Speaking of dicks, Wozniacki is always arguing with the umpires. She argued with at least three at the Australian Open, and was mocking Niculescu's grunt yesterday

I imagine she's kept quiet whenever she's played Azarenka or Sharapova. Anyway, hope Kvitova can take care of business tomorrow :cool:

NoviGlitzko · 17-02-2018 11:09am

Yeah wouldn't be too keen on Caroline either. Though i've watched Niculescu play and regardless of the grunt she has the WORST play style I've ever seen. She makes Errani look like a ball basher.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 17-02-2018 11:12am

The thing about Harrison is he may well be saying racially motivated things but not everyone judges racism on the same scale. If he had called Young the N word then it would have been obvious to everyone who heard it. If he said something like "that's what you people all do" well not everyone who overhears that is going to jump immediately to racism but it very well could be racially motivated.

My opinion of Harrison is that he's a casual racist. He may genuinely believe he isn't and he may not be marching with the KKK but I think from a lot of things he says and does he's got some prejudices, at the very least.

mickmackey1 · 17-02-2018 4:45pm

Chivito550 wrote: »

How do we compare across sports though?

For example, Edwin Moses was unbeaten for 122 straight races over 400m hurdles from August 1977 to June 1987. 9 years, 9 months and 9 days without defeat. After this defeat, he went on to win another 10 races straight.

He won Olympic gold in 1976 and 1984, and was robbed by the US boycott in 1980. He also won the inaugural world championship title in 1983, and defended his title 4 years later in 1987, before bowing out of the sport with Olympic bronze in 1988 in the final race of his career.

All these years on, he remains the second fastest man in history, with only a freak run surpassing him. He ran under 48 seconds an outrageous 45 times during his career.

He’s just one example of pure greatness. Is he better than Federer? I don’t know how we can compare really.

Recency bias is a huge factor in these discussions.

The last 18 months clinches it imo, 35/36 is an outrageous age for a tennis player to be achieving these standards. Ed Moses was only 33 when he had to settle for bronze. There will never be a unanimous verdict of course, but Fed must have as good a claim as any.

Meanwhile Goffin forced out of his semi v Dimi with a freak eye injury from the ball rebounding off the racquet frame.

mickmackey1 · 17-02-2018 4:57pm

https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/964880230287515653

yerwanthere123 · 18-02-2018 12:22pm

Kvitova a win away from her second title on the bounce and re-entering the top ten. Pretty good going considering it was once unclear if she'd be able to return to any kind of competitive level.

PropJoe10 · 18-02-2018 4:58pm

Another title on the board for Roger, 97 now in his career and 12 behind Jimmy Connors.

Rob2D · 18-02-2018 9:09pm

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Another title on the board for Roger, 97 now in his career and 12 behind Jimmy Connors.

I never thought anyone would come close to Connors. Crazy.

Royale with Cheese · 18-02-2018 9:52pm

Oldest ever world no.1 by a good 3 years, and he did it after skipping the entire clay court season :eek:

Koala Sunshine · 19-02-2018 9:16am

Congrats to old man Fedmaking world number one, now at about 70% of his previous 2006 peak and still manages to make number 1! His forehand is a shadow of it's former self and he moves around the court like a snail compared to 2006.

yerwanthere123 · 22-02-2018 9:30pm

Thrilled Petra got back to the top ten. Good SF lineup in Dubai as well, hope Kerber can take the title.

Bouchard's long awaited case against the USTA has been in court the last couple of days, with a verdict due today. Word is that she'll win, in which case it would remain to be seen how much compensation she'd get. Personally I think it would be a token amount, I can't see how she'd get anything substantial given how her 2015 had gone prior to the fall and how her career has gone since. I think the most she can reasonably be compensated for is that tournament and the rest of the season, anything beyond that wouldn't be appropriate imo. The "millions and millions" that her lawyer is seeking is beyond ridiculous.

jr86 · 23-02-2018 10:16am

I've just been looking at Wawrinka's results since the AO, dear me he is WAYYY off where he needs to be

I speculated at the time last year when he was ruled out that we may not see him near his best again. Granted, I'm looking in from the outside but he never struck me as someone who'd burst his gut to get back near the top.

Wouldn't surprise me to see him slide down the rankings and become a peripheral player from here

It's very funny how sport works, you often get players/teams who just take advantage of half-chances in big events - players like Tsonga, berdych, Ferrer, (even Delpo too who only has 1 slam) have been toiling away at the top for far longer and been much more consistent players year round at their best, but their best form early this decade coincided with the big 4 total dominance

yerwanthere123 · 23-02-2018 2:25pm

So Bouchard won her case, although she was deemed to be 25% liable. Today begins proceedings for how much compensation she'll get. I've seen estimates that she could get up to $40 million, which would be a farce imo.

Obviously only she can know how much the concussion affected her. But still, it's extremely difficult to imagine that the concussion had much to do with how her career has panned out. She had already flopped at various tournaments throughout 2015, and given how little she appears to actually care about her tennis and correcting her technique, I'd be very reluctant to put much blame on the concussion.

Her lawyers can make an argument for all the tournaments she *could* have won, but common sense need to come into play here. She'd won Nurnberg. That's it. By all means compensate her for a deep run at the US Open and a strong finish to the season, but to get tens of millions would be beyond ludicrous.

Johnmb · 23-02-2018 5:26pm

jr86 wrote: »

I've just been looking at Wawrinka's results since the AO, dear me he is WAYYY off where he needs to be

We won't really know where he's at until the Slams. Even at his best he had a habit of losing terrible matches at normal tournaments, and then being on fire during the next Slam.

jr86 · 23-02-2018 5:29pm

Johnmb wrote: »

We won't really know where he's at until the Slams. Even at his best he had a habit of losing terrible matches at normal tournaments, and then being on fire during the next Slam.

Ivashka? Basic? Griekspoor?

Who the hell even are these people? :eek:

RosyLily · 26-02-2018 5:17pm

http://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/22585510/davis-cup-transformed-world-cup-tennis-2019

Changes to the Davis Cup is long overdue. I'll miss the home/away aspect of it - made for some great atmosphere! Wonder if the Fed Cup is next.

Rob2D · 27-02-2018 1:16am

Good. Davis Cup has been a complete mess for too long.

yerwanthere123 · 27-02-2018 3:47am

Nice title win for Tiafoe, the youngest American to win a debut title since Andy Roddick.

Regarding the Davis Cup changes, I'm not sure how motivated the players will be to play it at the end of the season. I think the best thing to do would simply have been to change it to a biennial event, something I know some players have previously advocated.

jr86 · 27-02-2018 10:32am

Good to see changes, but I agree with yerwanthere with regard to the skepticism about players' effort levels at the end of the season. How many top players in recent years have we seen rock up to the Tour Finals and given a token effort?

Every 2 years would be ideal. As for when - it's difficult to find an ideal time unless other events are moved. During the summer is tricky as too close to August has players pulling out to head to North America (as we saw with the Olympics in 2016), and too close to Wimbledon might mean top players pulling out who go deep at Wimbledon and on the other end of the scale more tank jobs at Wimbledon in the first round

RosyLily · 27-02-2018 7:51pm

Agreed. Not a good time to have it. Most of the players are knackered/not bothered by then, you can see that as clear as day at the World Tour Finals. It would have made more sense to have it after the US Open or maybe in the Spring.

Floppybits · 28-02-2018 4:38am

Nadal pulls out of Acapulco at the last minute due to a hip injury. Its not looking good for him for indian wells.

yerwanthere123 · 28-02-2018 4:44am

With his body as crippled as it has been, it's really bizarre that he still bothers with tournaments like Rio at this stage of his career.

jr86 · 28-02-2018 10:38am

Yeah it's about time he committed to a reduced schedule at this stage

That should include not bothering with grass anymore

2018 In Between Grand Slam Thread

Comments