SMB Tennis thread

[Session]

Did anyone (who applied) receive their Wimbledon tickets this week? Just checked my door and no post , so that's the last chance of the first batch and the best chance gone. Might go down anyway, if I'm not successful, and queue for a grounds pass, but it's a lot more hassle, effort and inconvenience especially living up here.

Nowt for me neither.

 

[The Bridge Lad]

Fantastic from Dan Evans. Defeats Isner 3-6 6-3 6-3 (not one tie break ) to make only his second ever ATP final and the first since his comeback.

He has a great chance of winning as well with Del Potro going out yesterday. Plays either McDonald or Albot in the final tomorrow. Up to around 105, circa 85 if he wins it.

6-2 second set

 

[MarcoG]

Probably a bit late to point it out since he beat del Potro last night but Mackenzie McDonald is very very veeeeeeeeeeery good at tennis. The most underrated player on the men's side right now.

He's also just lost a set 0-6 to Radu Albot so who knows really.

I agree. Obviously other things come into consideration, but watching Bencic and Osaka 3 or 4 years ago, Bencic was by far the better player.

I'd never even heard of Osaka that long ago to be honest. Beating Serena at her dominant best was insane. She's not quick, she doesn't hit hard, she's quite Martina Hingis-esque.

 

[Session]

Probably a bit late to point it out since he beat del Potro last night but Mackenzie McDonald is very very veeeeeeeeeeery good at tennis. The most underrated player on the men's side right now.

He's also just lost a set 0-6 to Radu Albot so who knows really.



I'd never even heard of Osaka that long ago to be honest. Beating Serena at her dominant best was insane. She's not quick, she doesn't hit hard, she's quite Martina Hingis-esque.

And another to boot.

There's a 17 year old Italian kid called Jannik Sinner starting to make big waves. Keep an eye on him.

Just won a Challenger. Never heard of him, but will be keeping an eye now.

 

[The Bridge Lad]

Evans time.

I when he made return as a QWC at a Glasgow Challenger with no ranking, he wouldn't think he'd be a 4/9 favourite in an ATP final just 10 months later. Really hope he can do it. It's just on Tennis TV, but full streams on betting sites.

It's a shame it completely clashes with FAA's first ATP final. The Rio 500 final against Djere is on Amazon Prime.

 

[JL1985]

Evans is flying!!

 

[The Bridge Lad]

Evans is flying!!

He's playing class. Recovered from an early break down and playing so well now.

Didn't realise this Djere lad has lost both parents to cancer recently, must be terrible that.

 

[JL1985]

He's playing class. Recovered from an early break down and playing so well now.

Didn't realise this Djere lad has lost both parents to cancer recently, must be terrible that.

That's terrible. I don't know too much about Djere but I've seen him twice come back from 5-0 down to win a set and one of those occasions was against Karlovic.

 

[The Bridge Lad]

Life in this match. In both mzyxhes the person who lost the first set is a break up in the 2nd. Dan has to dig in here.

What a point from both

 

[The Bridge Lad]

Not sure if I can bump this, but was gutted for Evans last night. He was helped by the rain delay because he was visibly knackered, but got it back on serve. Had 30-15 when Albot was serving to stay in it at both 4-5 and 5-6 and then had 3 MPs in the tie break decider and then DF'd on Albots first MP. A little bit of controversy as on one of the MPs he found the line but it was called out and he was in a great position to win it, but it had to be replayed. Still a great week for him though and her on the brink of the top 100.

Katie Boulter has her match WTA Acapulco 1st round match fairly soon and BT Sport 1 will be showing it.

 

[The Bridge Lad]

Plenty of Brits in action tonight. Dan Evans playing Istomin now in the Indian Wells Challenger and is an early break up:

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Kyle Edmund has his first match since the Aussie Open in the same tournament a little later.

Jo Konta and Katie Boulter have their 2nd round WTA Acapukco matches as does Cameron Norrie (ATP obviously), but they'll all be on around 12/1am.

 

[The Bridge Lad]

Good win for Norrie, 6-3 6-2 over McDonald to make the semi final of Acapulco 500. Plays the winner of A Zverev-ADM next and should crash the top 50 for the first time in Mondays new rankings.

Dan Evans and Kyle Edmund both through to the IW Challenger QFs and they could meet in the final. Dan currently at live rank 100.

Konta currently playing Donna Vekic in her Acapulco QF, but is a set down.

 

[Session]

Another final for Roger then. Will he get the much talked about 100th tomorrow?

 

[The Bridge Lad]

Another final for Roger then. Will he get the much talked about 100th tomorrow?

#RF100, what a man

Good to also see Tsitsipas backing up his 250 title last week with a 500 final to really cement his solid start to the year. Had it on in the background while watching GSS and it seemed seasonally comfortable with one break in each set.

Would really like to see A Zverev vs Kyrgios in the Acapulco 500 final, but it's on at 3am.

The Edmund vs Evans final is still on in Indian Wells, but they need to come through Lloyd Harris and Rublev respectively in their semi finals later today.

Sofia Kenin vs Wang Yafan in WTA Acapulco final at midnight.

 

[Session]

#RF100, what a man

Good to also see Tsitsipas backing up his 250 title last week with a 500 final to really cement his solid start to the year. Had it on in the background while watching GSS and it seemed seasonally comfortable with one break in each set.

Would really like to see A Zverev vs Kyrgios in the Acapulco 500 final, but it's on at 3am.

The Edmund vs Evans final is still on in Indian Wells, but they need to come through Lloyd Harris and Rublev respectively in their semi finals later today.

Sofia Kenin vs Wang Yafan in WTA Acapulco final at midnight.

Absolute legend.

Just put the Edmund match on and he's won the first set already.

 

[The Bridge Lad]

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Dan Evans hoping to join Edmund in tomorrows final, but has a tough match against Rublev first.

Hmm, 1-5 down, I guess 12 matches in 14 days is probably catching up to him. Assuming he loses, if Edmund beats Rublev in the final then Dan will be 100 in Monday's rankings, 101 if Rublev takes the title, but fantastic progress either way.

 

[The Bridge Lad]

Edmund beat Rublev comfortably to claim that Challenger title and will now be in the 17-24 seeds at Indian Wells instead of 25-32. That win also officially sees Dan Evans back in the top 100 (at exactly 100).

Really looking forward to proper Indian Wells starting this week, Weds for the women, Thu for the men. Katie Boulter currently in qualifying and Watson will have her first Q round match soon as well. Evans should be in qualifying tomorrow.

I'm thinking of starting a new thread for it as it is one of the biggest and best events of the year and the 7pm daily starts are obviously very convenient. Looks like Amazon are making a big deal of it as well with it being the first ATP 1000 tournament of their deal.

 

[The Bridge Lad]

What a set from Andreescu. Leads Kerber 6-4 in the women's Indian Wells final. It's on YouTube for those without BT Sport:

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@alexander - I see young Clara Tauson won a 60k event in China - she'll already be around 400 in the rankings. Final here:

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She's get a fair temper on her

 

[alexander]

What a set from Andreescu. Leads Kerber 6-4 in the women's Indian Wells final. It's on YouTube for those without BT Sport:

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@alexander - I see young Clara Tauson won a 60k event in China - she'll already be around 400 in the rankings. Final here:

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She's get a fair temper on her

She gets that from her uncle am sure.

She looks very promising but Caroline is a big set of shoes to fill. So far so good though. Should be interesting to see where it takes her in the next few years.

 

[The Bridge Lad]

It's a term that does get branded about a lot, but wow, what a couple of weeks and start to the season for Andreescu, that stadium was packed (could have come in later for Federer) and she was getting massive support and it genuinely does feel like a star has arrived. She beats Kerber 6-4 3-6 6-4 in the IW final and is now 26-3 since the start of the new season, amazing. Only 18, but such mental and physical strength, maturity and variety in her game. Osaka at 20 last year won her first ever WTA title, now Bianca has done the same 2 years younger. A real pleasure to watch.

Miami women's draw is out:

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Quals start tomorrow and Boulter, Watson and Dart are all involved there. Konta is in the main draw and starts with a qualifier.

Men's qualifying draw is also out:

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Evans and Clarke involved here with Edmund and Norrie in the main draw which is tomorrow around 4pm our time.

She gets that from her uncle am sure.

She looks very promising but Caroline is a big set of shoes to fill. So far so good though. Should be interesting to see where it takes her in the next few years.

Flings her towel down after winning . Her path surprisingly got easier as she reached the latter stages, but there were a couple of good wins in that run. Just a couple of months after her 16th birthday and her first title in her first pro tournament - not bad at all. Who knows how far she will go, but the signs are looking very good and at a minimum, you'd expect her to be a mainstay on the WTA tour top 100 and someone to keep the interest going in Denmark when Woz does call it a day.