2021 In Between Grand Slam Thread

Would hardly be worth his while turning up in Australia next year either if he's going to go down this route. I wonder would he be allowed to eventually just play the clay season.

Osaka has withdrawn as well

paulie21 wrote: »

Osaka has withdrawn as well

No shock there. She dug herself such a hole during the French Open, that to play Wimbledon would probably have been viewed as a climb--down of sorts. Not to mention her record is as poor at SW19 as it is at Roland Garros.

She's talking big about coming back for the Olympics and winning Gold. Well, "She would, wouldn't she?", but it's hardly going to reduce the spotlight on her. The pressure from the Japanese press may well be greater than anything she's yet experienced.

glasso wrote: »

I suppose that there won't be press conferences at the Olympics in the same way as at a GS event so wouldn't be surprised to see her there and will defo be in for the US Open and kid gloves will be sold out in New York for the duration of the tournament.

As you said dug her own hole here the way she went about things.

I can see her opening a can of worms in Tokyo if she takes the knee or wears any BLM apparel.
Both have been banned by the IOC.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/apr/21/podium-protests-to-be-banned-at-tokyo-olympics-after-athletes-poll

Cracking final at queen's Norrie versus Berretini.
Norrie gave him a battle....but Berretini is a serious player...he could go very very far at Wimbledon

Girly Gal wrote: »

He can certainly get to the latter stages, has a good serve and Djokovic and Federer apart, very few of the top 20 guys have done anything at Wimbledon plus haven't played on grass for 2 years. If you were to take Djokovic out, it would be an extremely open tournament and would be difficult to predict a winner

Between them, Zverev, Thiem, Medvedev and Tsitsipas have been in 86 finals (43 victories), from ATP 250 level all the way up to the grand slams. But on grass, they have just 3 finals (1 victory, by Thiem). The last of those grass finals was in 2017. Medvedev made QF at Wimbledon in 2019, the other three have all been to the 4th round once there.

Even with relatively few tournaments on grass, and none at all last year, that is still a poor return on grass. None of them look to be Wimbledon champions in waiting, not in the near future anyway, unless the draw falls apart in their favour.

Girly Gal wrote: »

Tsitsipas looks the best of the younger guys atm, Sinner still has a bit to go, but, time on his side. For me Zverev, Medvedev and even Thiem have proven themselves not to be up to the task, will probably end up with a few slams each once Djokovic finishes up, but, that'll only prove that the level has dropped. If Tsitsipas proves to be the real deal he could really begin stacking up the slams once Djokovic goes. Don't think we'll ever see a player reach the levels the big 3 reached, but, it's quite possible that a dominant player in a weak era could break all their records, which isn't something I'd like to see.

Got to agree with you there. Tsitsipas looks the best of them atm and able to handle it physically and mentally. Zverev as good as he is unless he pull himself together is never going to win anything. Thiem I thought had got over that hurdle winning the US Open but he seems to have gone to pieces since. Medvedev I think can do it, he seems mentally strong maybe needs a bit more physicality.

In other news I see Niaomi Osaka is on social media promoting her picture on the cover of Vogue magazine, I thought she was suppose to be taking it easy with friends and family

Girly Gal wrote: »

Tsitsipas looks the best of the younger guys atm, Sinner still has a bit to go, but, time on his side. For me Zverev, Medvedev and even Thiem have proven themselves not to be up to the task, will probably end up with a few slams each once Djokovic finishes up, but, that'll only prove that the level has dropped. If Tsitsipas proves to be the real deal he could really begin stacking up the slams once Djokovic goes. Don't think we'll ever see a player reach the levels the big 3 reached, but, it's quite possible that a dominant player in a weak era could break all their records, which isn't something I'd like to see.

I know we're told to never say never, but there isn't a hope that's happening IMO. The next gen are much too inconsistent to get anywhere near the records of the Big3.

Also, you'd have to imagine that the current homogeneity of the courts (which certainly favoured Nadal and Djokovic's games) will not last forever, and we will have a greater disparity in court characteristics, leading to the clay-court specialists, grass-court specialists of old. In this case, you won't have the same players competing at the latter stages of all events.

dominatinMC wrote: »

That's not really saying much though is it. He was up 2 sets on Djokovic at the FO and, as well as Djokovic played, Tsitsipas crumbled. I know Djokovic is one of the greatest, but you really need to be capitalising on those sort of situations.

I would give him the benefit of doubt on that one. It was his first GS Final and maybe that got to him a bit. As they say sometimes to got to lose a final to win a final.

Girly Gal wrote: »

Once Djokovic goes I think we're going to see a period in the men's game where players will come from nowhere, win a slam and disappear, similar to the women's game.

Quite possibly. As long as it's not the big servers at Wimbledon though. I don't think i could stomach a final between (say) Reilly Opelka and some other beanpole, Average rally length of oh, 2.1 shots, no break points, and thus a tie-break in every set.

For all the talk of random slam winners amongst the women, I've got to say that (for me) by far the most unexpected slam run in recent years was by Karatsev, who qualified and then made SF in the Australian Open this year, before Djokovic beat him in straight sets. It was the first time ever in the Open era a slam debutant made the semi-final.

Meanwhile ... there is still tennis this week, plenty of it in fact, between the last of the warm-up events and Wimbledon qualifying,

At Eastbourne, the 3 women's semi-finalists so far are all have serious pedigree on grass: Kontaveit, Giorgi and Ostapenko. Ostapenko started terribly against Kasatkina (finalist last week in Birmingham), but finished it well on top, hitting winners from everywhere as only she can. That wasn't the best part of the match though. Drama follows Ostapenko everywhere, from being ratted out by a line judge for bad language, then telling the umpire to change said line judge, adding "I don't want to see her face ...", then being wrongly awarded a point at a critical stage two minutes later.

There was a great match now in Bad Homburg (Germany): Kerber beat Kvitova 3-6 4-6 7-6. It was the second match of the day for both, after a washout yesterday. It's not often two multiple slam champions go head-to-head in the semi-final of a low-level (WTA 250) event.

I forgot that I pass this place every morning on the dog walk.

I must call in some time to see if they have any vaccine-free, vegan spare ribs.

Djokovic's restaurant in Belgrade