Congrats to Sinner. I feel sorry for Medvedev but Sinner has been the best player his tournament and it's a fully deserved win. Seems like a really good guy too.
Tennis 2024
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Congrats to Sinner, we will see a lot of moments like this in this year.
Great game, brilliant win for Sinner. Feel bad for Medvedev, but Sinner totally deserves it
Sinner is box office.
Murray vs Danlil next year please. One zero has gotta go.
Which do you think will hurt more for Medvedev, this defeat or the one a couple of years ago vs Nadal?
A part of me thinks the Nadal one, due to the crowd and him being 0-40 up on Nadal's serve in the third set.
A part of me thinks the Nadal one, due to the crowd and him being 0-40 up on Nadal's serve in the third set.
Pretty tough choice.
Rafa was always in that final, should have won the second and rose his level far beyond Medvedev in the final 3 sets.
Medvedev was in complete control this year, but tired out as the match went and his body gave in.
I'd argue this will hurt more. For two sets, he was flawless. But couldn't keep it up.
Any specific reasons they are boo’ing their elected officials? 
What a player that guy is. Chuffed for him. Tough luck for Medvedev but good match from him too
Really looking forward to tennis without the Big 3 now.
Hopefully Alcaraz comes back firing and the rivalry builds for the two at the highest level.
If Med recovers mentally he can have another go at the next AO, possibly the US.
Hopefully Alcaraz comes back firing and the rivalry builds for the two at the highest level.
If Med recovers mentally he can have another go at the next AO, possibly the US.
They’re Australian?Any specific reasons they are boo’ing their elected officials?
that was the main non specific reason.Well done to Sinner. Beating Djokovic (without facing a single break point) and Medvedev back to back to win a hard court grand slam is stellar no matter how you look at this. His potential was clear for a long time (I remember his run to the Miami final in 2021), but he really made huge strides during the back end of last season with his flurry of title wins and Davis Cup heroics. It seemed like he was ready to win a grand slam, the main problem there though, I thought, was the presence of a certain Novak Djokovic in his half of the draw.
Coming back from 2 sets to love down to win a grand slam final, as Lendl did at RG in 1984, Agassi did at RG in 1999, Djokovic and Nadal have both done in recent years etc. is always impressive. But Sinner doing it, having never previously been in a grand slam final before, seems even more noteworthy to me.
Hopefully this is the first of multiple grand slam titles for him. Of course like Alcaraz, they'll probably be hysterical overreactions whenever he loses big matches and doesn't win everything in sight from now on.
Medvedev had clearly hit the wall physically by the 5th set, after having previously come through a series of 5 setters against Ruusuvori, Hurkacz and Zverev to get this far. He is now 1-5 in grand slam finals, losing 3 of them in 5 sets and 2 of them from 2 sets to love up. His defeat to Nadal 2 years ago 'broke' him a for a while. I wonder how he'll respond to this latest defeat.
Coming back from 2 sets to love down to win a grand slam final, as Lendl did at RG in 1984, Agassi did at RG in 1999, Djokovic and Nadal have both done in recent years etc. is always impressive. But Sinner doing it, having never previously been in a grand slam final before, seems even more noteworthy to me.
Hopefully this is the first of multiple grand slam titles for him. Of course like Alcaraz, they'll probably be hysterical overreactions whenever he loses big matches and doesn't win everything in sight from now on.
Medvedev had clearly hit the wall physically by the 5th set, after having previously come through a series of 5 setters against Ruusuvori, Hurkacz and Zverev to get this far. He is now 1-5 in grand slam finals, losing 3 of them in 5 sets and 2 of them from 2 sets to love up. His defeat to Nadal 2 years ago 'broke' him a for a while. I wonder how he'll respond to this latest defeat.
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To me the main improvement has been racket and string technology, notably poly strings (i.e. making it much easier to hit ball hard from the baseline and in the court), and there hasn't even been much development there since the mid 00s. That's another big advantage that the big 3 enjoyed, especially Nadal and Djokovic, over previous legends, who had to adapt a lot more to changes in racket technology during their careers, in some cases completely changing the type of racket that they used, facing legends who made that change before they did etc. Give Richard Krajicek and Sergi Bruguera modern day rackets and they'd be scary. Bruguera was already hitting insane topspin pre-poly strings, imagine him with poly strings.
But I doubt the players nowadays are better than ever technically, though they have access to better rackets, better nutrition and sports science. Many of them are good when it comes to fundamentals, but play what I call 'bland academy style tennis', and lack the ability to be 'spontaenous', deal with changes to their rhythm etc. Players nowadays don't have to adapt to as different a set of conditions or playing styles from opponents either thanks to the increased homgenistation, and also are better protected by 32 seeds at grand slams. Sampras won his first grand slam title beating an elite serve volleyer and then an elite baseliner within 24 hours, going from hitting passing shots all the time to hardly hitting them at all.
Obviously Alcaraz and Sinner have been a refreshing change from the likes of Medvedev, Zverev and Tsitsipas (there were worries about them potentially becoming a new 'big 3' for a period). Medvedev being completely thrown off by a 35 year old Nadal slicing more often during the Australian Open final 2 years ago, and being completely thrown off by a 36 year old Djokovic volleying more often during last year's US Open final, and today playing increasingly passively during the last 3 sets, doesn't fill me with confidence about his ability in relation to previous legends including those with far better volleys and slices. Mix things up slightly and he doesn't know what to do.
In terms of talent pool, men's tennis is comprehensively dominated by players from Europe, where participation for the most part is declining (as I said it's highly likely that male participation is holding up worse than female participation for obvious reasons). Also lower ranked players, i.e. around 250 in the world, nowadays are financially worse off than they were 20-30 years ago, as playing expenses have increased at a faster rate through inflation than lower level prize money. That indicates to me that after the global boom caused by Connors, Borg and McEnroe, making tennis 'cooler' and more accessible, it has become more elitist and financially restrictive again. Plus it's more and more difficult for tennis to compete with team sports financially. If Nadal and Murray were born 10 years later, would they still choose tennis over football? I doubt it.
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I don't think there will because the expectations with him have been far more balanced and reasonable than they ever were with Carlos. The latter just got overhyped and put under way too much pressure. I think he'll probably be happy with being under far lesser pressure now with the attention slightly off him.
Just watching the rerun of this now. Plenty of Italian flags in the audience, not so many Russian flags (early in the 5th set now).
Another 1st round exit for Raducanu at the Qatar Open.
Obviously building back from injury but it does appear like her big trophy moment was a bonafide fluke from an average player, rather than a situation where a promising player has lacked focus
Murray has confirmed that this will likely be his last summer playing on tour. I'd expect Wimbledon to be his final tournament, though there's probably small chance of him playing doubles at the Olympics. He's done well to come back from his hip replacement but ultimately he's just no where near the level he once was. At least he won't retire with any regrets and with a healthy body.
Absolutely right to be frustrated with constant "retirement" questioning. Annoys me no end whenever anyone hits 35, you hear it all the time. A fair few now coming out saying the constant questioning about retirement is basically pissing them off - LeBron's another... just enjoy them I say!
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Djokovic losing to a <top 100 lucky loser after barely beating Vukic the other day. Starting to think the decline has started, and that it’s steep.
He's been below par in Masters for a couple of years now. Any talk of a decline will only be serious if he starts crashing out early in Slams and I don't see that happening for a while yet.
I think Djokovic's decline will be due to injuries rather than him just randomly falling out of form. I didn't watch but I'd take that result last night as a pinch of salt.
Yup, he saves his best form for Slams. I don't think he views the Masters as anything other than just warmup events to stay in shape at this point. There's a reason a lot of people have beaten him in Masters and other tournaments in recent years but can't touch him over 5 sets. If not for Sinner, he'd probably be the AO Champion right now.
He’s looked vulnerable in nearly all his matches this season. I know he reached the semis at AO but he was destroyed by Sinner and could have crashed out in the first round if Prizmic had been sharp in the right moments. It’s just two tournaments but there are worrying signs.
I think that's been a bit of a pattern for Djokovic over past few years, even at slams he's had an ability to win them without playing his best throughout. Given his career, you'd think he would have done it but he's never won a slam without dropping a set.
Unless he completely loses his confidence or motivation I think his way out will be due to physical problems. I think he's so good that provided he's physically fit, he'll continue to be competitive. Looking at Federer, he was still going deep at slams towards the end of his career and Nadal was winning slams a couple of years ago. Injuries came and disrupted things and I think it will be a similar case for Djokovic.
Curious about what Novak said to Nardi when shaking his hand - looked like he was having a bit of a go at him about the incident earlier in the match.
If he did, it's pathetic. Wasn't really an incident and it was laughable that Djokovic even made a big deal of it to the chair umpire.
Incident here for people that missed it.
Looks like an overreaction by Djokovic. Nardi clearly thinks it's going out and processes this late, hence the weird shot selection.
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Looks like an overreaction by Djokovic. Nardi clearly thinks it's going out and processes this late, hence the weird shot selection.
Novak does seem to have far better fitness levels than Roger and Rafa though so I think he'll be fine for another year or two. Like you said in the first line, I think loss of motivation is what will ultimately see him lose interest. Unless Sinner's revival gets him going, I'm not sure he'll have enough motivation in the tank to go longer than another year. And maybe the Olympic Gold this year.
Agreed - don't know what Djokovic was on about. Nardi clearly wasn't trying anything, but even if he was, who cares? It didn't prevent Novak playing a drop shot after the alleged stop Nardi. The fact that he appeared to bring it up at the handshake was really uncalled for, casting a pall on a great moment for a young player.
So he was essentially bitching about not playing to the whistle in football terms?
Alcaraz Zverev match suspended due to a Bee invasion situation; I am not making this up!!
Yeah, wild scenes and annoying as feck tbh.
Yeah I see it how you described it too
Djokovic has had a poor record at Indian Wells / Miami since 2016, when he won third 3rd consecutive Sunshine double and 4th in 6 years.
And he has suffered quite a few upset defeats in masters series events. I personally think he shouldn’t have even made the trip to the US. Indian Wells and Miami are useless events for him at this stage of his career, not leading up to a grand slam. Indian Wells looks to be held in such a beautiful location though (no wonder so many players love it there), though since 2019 Miami has been held in a terrible parking lot venue.
Clearly him not forcing a single break point against Sinner in Melbourne was shocking. I tend to think that he has another grand slam title win in him - though if he doesn’t win Wimbledon maybe that window will be rapidly shutting.
And he has suffered quite a few upset defeats in masters series events. I personally think he shouldn’t have even made the trip to the US. Indian Wells and Miami are useless events for him at this stage of his career, not leading up to a grand slam. Indian Wells looks to be held in such a beautiful location though (no wonder so many players love it there), though since 2019 Miami has been held in a terrible parking lot venue.
Clearly him not forcing a single break point against Sinner in Melbourne was shocking. I tend to think that he has another grand slam title win in him - though if he doesn’t win Wimbledon maybe that window will be rapidly shutting.
Looking forward to this, not fussed who wins but hoping Alcaraz can bring a good level and we get 3 sets either way.
Would love to see Tommy Paul beat Med, doubt it massively though.
Would love to see Tommy Paul beat Med, doubt it massively though.
Should be a very interesting match this. I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing it a loooooot the next decade.
Well now.