Tennis Anyone?

[Plai]

Rybakina v Sabalenka
What a battle of similar styles! Two power hitters. Rybakina's serve against Sabalena's groundstrokes.
Who would be more consistent? Who wouldn't crack under the pressure?
It was very close. Could have gone either way. Congrats to Sabalenka.

 

[AmyPJ]

Rybakina v Sabalenka
What a battle of similar styles! Two power hitters. Rybakina's serve against Sabalena's groundstrokes.
Who would be more consistent? Who wouldn't crack under the pressure?
It was very close. Could have gone either way. Congrats to Sabalenka.

It was an incredible match!

 

[Skitechniek]

128 players compete for the title and in the end Djokovic wins, tennis in a nutshell.

 

[Plai]

Even playing with a hamstring issue, basically moving at less than 100%, Djokovic makes it look easy. 50% serves were unreturned in the first two sets! That's amazing.

 

[Skitechniek]

Played a bit of tennis myself against someone who made incredible progress. Really good fun. We both didn't play our best unfortunately, probably cause of nerves haha.


^This is the progression of the guy I played against, pretty impressive!

 

[Skitechniek]

Anyone watched this?
Pretty amazing how van Assche is playing. 18 years old, beat Wawrinka and took Djokovic to 3 sets. Incredible!

 

[Plai]

Yes, watched a bit. Really like Luca's playing style.

I think the newer crop of men are more complete than the older guard at their age. Love some of the rivalries that are building: Alcaraz, Sinner, Rune. This is really good for men's tennis.

 

[James]

Is Zverev back from his ankle shredding?

 

[Skitechniek]

Yes, watched a bit. Really like Luca's playing style.

I think the newer crop of men are more complete than the older guard at their age. Love some of the rivalries that are building: Alcaraz, Sinner, Rune. This is really good for men's tennis.

That is probably a fair assumption!
Alcaraz and Sinner are awesome, not the biggest fan of Rune his antics on court. But definitely can't deny he's a great player.
But happy about how much young talent there is now, cause for a long time it felt like there were no players to 'replace' the likes of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Players like Zverev, Tsitsipas and Thiem all didn't even come close. Only Medvedev maybe. But with Alcaraz, Sinner and Rune it feels like tennis is going to be in very good hands again for the forseeable future.

Is Zverev back from his ankle shredding?

Yes, but not back to his best form.

 

[Skitechniek]

Absolute tennis brutality from Alcaraz. Incredible! I really hope he and Nadal will face off at Roland Garros. That is going to be fireworks!

 

[S.H.]

Absolute tennis brutality from Alcaraz. Incredible! I really hope he and Nadal will face off at Roland Garros. That is going to be fireworks!

I just hope Rafa is close to fully healthy for RG.

 

[Skitechniek]

I just hope Rafa is close to fully healthy for RG.

I feel like that whole show has been going on for years now. Every year he's injured and then ends up winning Roland Garros.

 

[Tony S]

I feel like that whole show has been going on for years now. Every year he's injured and then ends up winning Roland Garros.

Seagull dropping in here. Apologies.

I haven't followed tennis closely (or played it much) for 25 years, but still have warm feelings about the sport. Back then, the venue was called Roland Garros, but the tournament itself was invariably referred to as "The French Open." What changed?

 

[Skitechniek]

Seagull dropping in here. Apologies.

I haven't followed tennis closely (or played it much) for 25 years, but still have warm feelings about the sport. Back then, the venue was called Roland Garros, but the tournament itself was invariably referred to as "The French Open." What changed?

No worries! Nothing has changed, Roland Garros and French Open are used interchangeably.

Maybe time to pick up a racquet again? I promise it is just as much fun as 25 years ago!

 

[Plai]

haven't followed tennis closely (or played it much) for 25 years

Oh the game has changed: equipment, technique and strategies. If you're a nerd (who isn't on this site?), you'll have a lot of fun catching up, experimenting. Best to find a club team to join, easiest way to find hitting partners.

 

[S.H.]

I feel like that whole show has been going on for years now. Every year he's injured and then ends up winning Roland Garros.

Yeah, but rumblings seem less good, and ... you know, he's old. I was surprised he pulled out of Barcelona.

I don't think Alcaraz is ready to win RG yet.

 

[Skitechniek]

Yeah, but rumblings seem less good, and ... you know, he's old. I was surprised he pulled out of Barcelona.

I don't think Alcaraz is ready to win RG yet.

Why do you think that? He's won a GS already

 

[S.H.]

Why do you think that? He's won a GS already

These are (obviously) all opinions, but:

• I think he's still a little impatient, which goes against winning 7 consecutive best-of-5 on clay. Hard courts tend to mitigate this (though Indian Wells was god-awful slow this year...)
• Beating Rafa/Djok in a 1000 is still very different than beating them in a major
• RG is the domain of Rafa, and I don't think he's ready to take over the Spanish/clay mantle yet.
• I'm a little disappointed by the way he bowed out of RG last year vs Zverev.
• He's been anointed the next king of clay and everyone expects him to win multiple RGs (including me), and I think that's harder to do than winning the first major where it's a bit unexpected
• I think winning the second major is harder than winning the first one
• Alcaraz has struggled with conditioning several times in hot/humid conditions ... there's usually a day or two of that at RG. Though I'd guess that he gets mostly last-on day session matches, so that will be less of a concern

But could I see him winning RG23? 100%. I'm just taking the field. Alcaraz is still 19. He'll be 20 for RG. He's got a long career ahead of him, hopefully. I'd expect him to win multiple RGs, but ... I just don't think it's happening this year.

 

[James]

Are they going to play half the night again at RG? The US Open has gotten totally out of hand. I saw Blake-Agassi there in 2006, and it went really late but nothing like lastbyear where they're playing till 3am. Ridiculous.

It may be you just can’t have two matches at night at the US Open.

 

[S.H.]

Are they going to play half the night again at RG? The US Open has gotten totally out of hand. I saw Blake-Agassi there in 2006, and it went really late but nothing like lastbyear where they're playing till 3am. Ridiculous.

It may be you just can’t have two matches at night at the US Open.

i dunno, i was at cilic-alcaraz last year (ended at 2:23) ... worth it. great atmosphere.