Tennis 2023

[selectivememory]

Vintage Petra performance to beat probably the best player of year so far in the Miami final. Fairly emotional seeing that tbh.

[selectivememory]

Been a bit of an underwhelming start to the season for Jabeur, but looks like she's back. Closing in on a title in Charleston, and winning ludicrous points like this:

https://twitter.com/WTA/status/1645141119548915713

Hope she gets her slam title this year.

[selectivememory]

Monte Carlo title for Rublev, which is nice to see. Just seems like one of those players born to hover around the bottom half of the top ten in the rankings and always come up a little short in major quarter-finals, so good for him that he's nabbed himself a big title before Alcaraz, Rune and Sinner start hogging them all in the next few years.

[selectivememory]

Enjoyed seeing this from Emma. Treating the press with the contempt they deserve:

[Deanjam]

That's 56 more words than the fuck you they deserve.

[Fambo Number Mive]

For a paper that complains about other people being entitled the Mail is acting very entitled there.

[BlodwynPig]

A fallen star. Inevitable of mismanagement? Doubt she'll have much of a career at this point.

[selectivememory]

I dunno. She's not had the best luck with injuries. Has just pulled out of Madrid today. She got absolutely bodied by Ostapenko in Stuttgart last week, but she was looking pretty good at Indian Wells not so long ago. The talent is obviously there IMO, she's just not quite the athlete she needs to be yet.

There's been an issue as well lately with the WTA not providing as many tournament opportunities as the ATP - the 500 in Stuttgart last week was the only WTA tour event being played, and so it was absolutely stacked with most of the best players, to the extent that it might as well have been a Masters event. So it's tough for the lower-ranked players since that even outside of the Majors and Masters, they're having to play top players right from the off. Now that they're returning to China, that should free up some more funds, and hopefully there's going to be some more lower-level events that players like Emma can use to get some match play and rebuild their rankings.

[Deanjam]

Sexy result.

[selectivememory]

Lovely stuff.

[selectivememory]

Couple of other cool stories in Madrid this week. 16-year-old Russian Andreeva beating Fernandez and two top 20 players, and Zhang Zhizhen taking out Shapovalov, Norrie and Fritz to become the first Chinese man to make the quarters of a Masters.

[Mr_Simnock]

I dunno. She's not had the best luck with injuries. Has just pulled out of Madrid today. She got absolutely bodied by Ostapenko in Stuttgart last week, but she was looking pretty good at Indian Wells not so long ago. The talent is obviously there IMO, she's just not quite the athlete she needs to be yet.

she's only 21 as well, plenty years to have more time at the top, bit of a rodney plonker thing to think it's over now

[BlodwynPig]

she's only 21 as well, plenty years to have more time at the top, bit of a rodney plonker thing to think it's over now

BBC: "Canadian-Romanian tennis player, Emma Raducanu to miss French Open and Wimbledon with yet another injury"

[centristmelt]

If Raducanu doesn't achieve anything else in her career, winning the US Open in the way she did is still outstanding ofc.

Thing is, I don't think she will achieve anything else in her career.

[selectivememory]

It's a shame she's going to be out for so long, but it's been obvious for ages that she has physical issues that need to be dealt with. Hopefully she can have a proper crack at playing on the tour full-time when she returns.

I have no idea what she will go on to achieve, but I do think she's good enough to be consistently in the top 20 (health permitting) and winning titles (not necessarily majors, but wouldn't rule that out either).

[selectivememory]

Sabalenka's just won one of the matches of the year against Swiatek in the Madrid final. Big win for her given it was on clay as well.

Feel like Aryna might make #1 at some point this year. Just keeps making finals and semifinals, while Iga's level has slightly dropped off from last year. Still think Iga probably takes both Rome and Paris, but Aryna is going to be very tough to beat at Wimbledon and the US Open.

[selectivememory]

Nadal GONE (from Roland Garros this year)

Says he's planning to retire sometime next year.

Djokovic has been looking quite rusty on the clay recently, and even Alcaraz had a bit of a dip in form in Rome. No obvious favourite IMO, so probably the most open French Open on the men's side since about 2015/16, if not pre-Rafa.

Also Swiatek pulled up with a thigh injury during her match last night against Rybakina. Not clear how serious yet, but it would suck for RG to be missing the best clay-court players on both tours.

[BlodwynPig]

Grosjean for me, if he can get past Rudeski

[Mr_Simnock]

BBC: "Canadian-Romanian tennis player, Emma Raducanu to miss French Open and Wimbledon with yet another injury"

forget rodney plonker this is trig level stupid

[BlodwynPig]

forget rodney plonker this is trig level stupid

They were not technically incorrect

[selectivememory]

Medvedev wins his first clay title in Rome. Not like he got lucky with the draw or anything; he beat Zverev, Tsitsipas and Rune along the way, all of whom would be considered better clay-court players than him. He's just having a really good year. Nice to see after he was a bit flat for most of 2022. Definitely feel like he's got another slam title or two in him yet.

[shoulders]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/65747827

Are there new lows for Djokovic? He's intent on looking for them.

"Our people", you're stoking ethnic conflict you absolute fucking prick.

All the monuments and battles for the Serbs were in Kosovo and 'our people' cared so much about that they left and now it's 90% not Serbs.

[selectivememory]

Yikes. What a bellend.

The more he reveals about himself, the more worrying the prospect of his actually going into politics post-retirement are. A while back he was pictured hanging out with some proper hard right Serbian nationalists (can't remember who specifically, I just remember seeing people on Twitter talking about it and expressing disgust). And I'm sure I remember a controversy when he was heard singing dodgy nationalistic songs after a Davis Cup victory. Not to mention all his wacky health beliefs.

[shoulders]

We'd better hope he keeps on playing another 5 years and ends up in a plane crash or something. It's not going to be good. Fuck off Serbian Buster Mottram.

[DocDaneeka]

Norrie is beating Pooey. Kind of want Pooey to win but the crowd are making me think again.

[BlodwynPig]

French Tennis continues in the doldrums. The big hope this year, Garcia, flumps again. I tried to find out why French Tennis, and French sport (generally) are not producing any world beating players/teams (apart from the Football). Seems they avoided going down the Team GB route of pumping money into a variety of sports. But it can't just be that. Allez Allnon

[selectivememory]

Garcia's had such a weird career. Couple of very brief periods of near-greatness, but mostly she's been erratic and never quite lived up to her potential.

Haven't watched him play yet, but there's a bit of hype around this youngster Fils. Did lose first round of RG, but otherwise this year has had some very promising results for a teenager.

Anyway...

Krejcikova and Medvedev are the biggest upsets so far. Krej I guess not been in form since she won Dubai, but Meddy coming in off his best ever clay season was a bit of a shocker. His half wide open now with Djokovic, Alcaraz and Tsitsipas all on the other side.

[selectivememory]

Norrie is beating Pooey. Kind of want Pooey to win but the crowd are making me think again.

Didn't know until recently that Pouille had been struggling with depression and alcoholism. Noticed he hadn't been around though. Good to see him back. Should have been a solid top 20, or maybe even top 10 talent.

[BlodwynPig]

Didn't know until recently that Pouille had been struggling with depression and alcoholism. Noticed he hadn't been around though. Good to see him back. Should have been a solid top 20, or maybe even top 10 talent.

Another French dream over before it began. FFS.

[kitsofan34]

French Tennis continues in the doldrums. The big hope this year, Garcia, flumps again. I tried to find out why French Tennis, and French sport (generally) are not producing any world beating players/teams (apart from the Football). Seems they avoided going down the Team GB route of pumping money into a variety of sports. But it can't just be that. Allez Allnon

The best rugby player in the world is French, at the mo.