The Tennis Thread

[Nu-Eclipse]

I'll always bat for the like of Nadal and Sampras as my all-time faves and many others will bat for Federer, but I think that Novak Djokovic, for all of his many detractors, has ended the Tennis GOAT debate pretty conclusively - the numbers don't lie and the records and his longevity are really really hard to argue against at this point.

Unless he has a spectacular physical decline in the next year or two, I can genuinely see him ending his career with 30 major wins.

[Anpanman]

I like Novak - a lot, I hope I can see him play before he retires. Personally don't think he will get to thirty though I hope he at least gets another one.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I like Novak - a lot, I hope I can see him play before he retires. Personally don't think he will get to thirty though I hope he at least gets another one.

Frankly, he looks like he'll win several more before he's done. If he doesn't get to 30 slam wins, he'll get close. He "only" has to repeat a three-slam year twice to get there.

Alcaraz and possibly Medvedev aside, there's nobody else to challenge him and even those two can't do it consistently enough to deny him.

But we'll see.

[Anpanman]

I take your point, but the way I see it is that every GS Novak is getting older and at his age he will probably regress every so slightly, certainly every year there will be a fall-off whereas Alcaraz is getting stronger.
Novak is the fittest tennis player we've ever seen - I think but even he can't last forever. If we were having this discussion five years ago then I would say getting to thirty is almost nailed on.

The men's game at the moment is riveting.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I take your point, but the way I see it is that every GS Novak is getting older and at his age he will probably regress every so slightly, certainly every year there will be a fall-off whereas Alcaraz is getting stronger.
Novak is the fittest tennis player we've ever seen - I think but even he can't last forever. If we were having this discussion five years ago then I would say getting to thirty is almost nailed on.

The men's game at the moment is riveting.

That is why I said it will obviously depend on if he physically declines in the next year or two - something that doesn't appear to be the case. Also, he is clearly prioritising his schedule for the slams and Masters 1000 events so he doesn't have a heavy workload. With his fitness, a slight regression may still be enough to win 1-2 majors a year.

Bottom line is that he still the best in the world right now and Alcaraz and Medvedev, as good as they are, are not at his level of consistency. 30 slams may not be nailed on but it isn't impossible so I wouldn't be surprised if he actually did it.

[Anpanman]

Congratulations Sinner wins AO, wife picked Sinner from the start. Medvedev played a cracking first set but long matches previously took their toll.

Kyrgios has been excellent as a colour commentator, his on court interview with Djokovic the other day was top drawer.

Djokovic also gets my award for the best kit.

[Anpanman]

Watched Stan and Murray last night, good match but you can see Murray is near the end, Stan looked much more like his old self.

Very nice moments at the end from both of them.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Bounced due to recent thread duplication.

[fallenangle]

Thanks for directing me to this thread, I did a quick search and didn't find this existing one.

I'll just repeat what I said there in that closed thread and then continue, if that's OK.

I'm mainly interested in the womens' game to TBH as I find the mens' five set serving contest slogs tedious in the extreme. The women often get it over and done with in under an hour but when it does become epic length it is usually a genuinely interesting watch.

The Eastbourne, Devonshire Park tournament is on TV (BBC) this week and often provides clues as to who is on form for Wimbledon. In the women's games all three top GB players, Katie Boulter, Emma Raducanu and Harriet Dart are all looking good. In the singles if there is going to be any GB interest in the later stages of Wimbledon I'd expect it to come from one or more of them rather than any of the GB men.

Emma Raducanu in particular is back on form, beating another former US Grand Slam winner Sloane Stephens yesterday in just two sets with the second one being particularly impressive and good watch.

Currently keeping an eye on Katie Boulter's match at Eastbourne taking on the powerful Jelena Ostapenko. Going fairly well so far at 5 - 4 in the first set and a decent well matched contest too...................and, finally, KB has the first set.

EDIT
KB made hard work of it but finally beat her 6-4 7-5; tough match against a world class player ranked 19 places higher than her.

[Anpanman]

I saw some of Raducanu today, played well. I like Pegula though.

Prefer the men's game but I will say this (perhaps same with most sports), the women's game live is very entertaining.

[fallenangle]

All three GB women I mentioned earlier had excellent results yesterday against genuinely higher ranked opponents.

Apparently it is the first time since 1978 at Eastbourne they've had three GB women in the quarterfinals. Not seen the end of the Raducanu match yet as the BBC cut off broadcast coverage after to two sets to give us the lead up to the Euro football games in the afternoon/evening.

Do we really need 45 - 60 mins of that for every game? I don't think so and shifting the coverage of it to the BBC iPlayer and sticking with the tennis broadcast as it involves GB players would be a more appropriate solution.

I doubt all the GB women will get through the quarterfinals at Eastbourne but I think there is a decent chance, looking at the opposition, two possibly but it will be tough for all of them.

https://www.lta.org.uk/fan-zone/rothesay-international-eastbourne/news/three-british-women-make-quarter-finals-in-eastbourne-for-the-first-time-since-1978/

Thursday Later Edit

One out (Harriet Dart) as I thought might be the case; fairly easily beaten unfortunately so now only two GBW remaining.

Even Later Edit

Didn't go well for any of them as I was afraid would happen.

However Harriet Dart is through to the womens' doubles semi-final with another Brit: Maia Lumsden and on the mens' side GB has a semi-finalist in the singles: Billy Harris and Neal Skupski in the final of the mens' doubles.

[charlesr]

Women's tennis seems all over the place, with people dropping in and out of the rankings like crazy.

[fallenangle]

More evenly matched than the men game? Currently no one dominant player and even a top seed can get beaten by a much lower ranked player. You're never sure what you're going to get which is one of the things that often make it a more interesting watch for me than the mens' games.

There was COVID which affected the ranking from 2022 onwards but there is also a flu like illness of some sort that has going around some of the big tournaments recently. Most of the GB womens' team have have had it and Katie Boulter was forced to pull out of the Birmingham tournament about ten days ago because she had it too.

When a whole load of players are randomly under performed because of illness the theory is that with 'only' three sets it amplifies that unpredictability. Not sure I'd go with this but it is a theory I've seen proffered in more than one place.