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SMB Tennis thread

scotch said:
Tough draw for Sinner again, Djokovic could have a tough one if all the top seeds win.
Great draw for Alcaraz on paper

If bublik falters then Draper could make the final for me
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I've been a bit disappointed with Draper lately.

A few months back he looked a world beater but I can't see him going further than the QF here.
 

scotch said:
Tough draw for Sinner again, Djokovic could have a tough one if all the top seeds win.
Great draw for Alcaraz on paper

If bublik falters then Draper could make the final for me
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Alcaraz be over the moon second Slaim in a row you'd imagine with Djokovic going in Sinner's half. Not really many you'd expect him to struggle with in that bottom section, Zverev will most likely be gone before the semis with his draw. Fritz's first two matches aren't overly kind either although he's normally fine against big servers. Tiafoe better player here last year for large spells against Alcaraz but still can't see it.

There's part of me that's expecting Bublik to start Bubliking again and go out early now there's expectation on him :lol: probably still end up with the roof closed in a Friday night match against Draper so Bublik can serve bombs for three hours in perfect conditions for him.

Arkle said:
The one plus is that you'd rather meet Sinner than Alcaraz in the semis.

The draw generally isn't kind to the British players. Norrie has a tricky tie with in form Bautista Agut, Fearnley has an okay first couple of rounds and Evans if he beats Jay Clarke has Djokovic in round 2. Billy Harris has Hurkacz as well.

On the women's side, Raducanu will go to round 3 against Sabalenka at most, Boulter will struggle against Badosa and Kartal has a chance against Ostapenko, on the latter's least favourite surface, but then will meet Jabeur in round 2.
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Most Brits in a Wimbledon draw since the early 80's and not one of them has a particularly good draw :lol: main three in Draper, Boulter and Raducanu have stinkers. Done well if we get two or three in the second week.

Fearnley v Fonseca R1 is gonna have to be on the biggest court they can find for an unseeded Round 1 match. Fearnley potentially has a nice little draw there, be underdog in every match in that section but certainly has a chance in all of them.
 
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Great win for Raducanu over Osaka who's hit or miss at the minute, she's also got a good record against sakkari so let's see if she can make the semis.

Norrie lost but after a tight first set but looks well on his way back to a top 40 player.
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Never in doubt, her serve is really firing at the minute, bit of a scare in the second set when sakkari was serving for the set at 5-2 and it took a couple of break points but she got the break back in the end. Was a worry about the heat and Emma feeling faint but she powered through which is a great boost for her (detractors will have their own opinions I guess). Semi finals next, be delighted if she can progress, might be taulson though who's a tough competitor.
 
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Cecil The Lion said:
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Great win for Raducanu over Osaka who's hit or miss at the minute, she's also got a good record against sakkari so let's see if she can make the semis.

Norrie lost but after a tight first set but looks well on his way back to a top 40 player.
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Never in doubt, her serve is really firing at the minute, bit of a scare in the second set when sakkari was serving for the set at 5-2 and it took a couple of break points but she got the break back in the end. Was a worry about the heat and Emma feeling faint but she powered through which is a great boost for her (detractors will have their own opinions I guess). Semi finals next, be delighted if she can progress, might be taulson though who's a tough competitor.
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Just finished watching her match against Peyton Stearns from last night, she looked great again. Strong case to be made this is the best she's ever played over a consistent amount of time. Think she's probably the underdog tomorrow (although the bookies disagree!) but definitely got a chance, already beat Anisimova a couple times this year. Only 100 points to defend for the rest of the year so a pretty solid run in the US Open and/or a good little run over in Asia to the end the season could get her end the year in the top 20.

Pretty sure Petchey's faily have been there for Raducanu's matches this week. Definitely looked like his daughter yesterday so hopefully a good sign that the Raducanu - Petch dream team is gonna keep going for a little while yet.
 
MarcoG said:
Just finished watching her match against Peyton Stearns from last night, she looked great again. Strong case to be made this is the best she's ever played over a consistent amount of time. Think she's probably the underdog tomorrow (although the bookies disagree!) but definitely got a chance, already beat Anisimova a couple times this year. Only 100 points to defend for the rest of the year so a pretty solid run in the US Open and/or a good little run over in Asia to the end the season could get her end the year in the top 20.

Pretty sure Petchey's faily have been there for Raducanu's matches this week. Definitely looked like his daughter yesterday so hopefully a good sign that the Raducanu - Petch dream team is gonna keep going for a little while yet.
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The break to win the first set after about 10 deuce's really broke Stearns in that match. She wouldn't have made it that far a few months ago, the fitness and belief in her own game has jumped massively, dare say better than the US open win as she's much more consistent.

Also the improvements she has made to her serving since Petchey has come back in has been amazing to see. So many quick service games which is giving her more opportunities on her return game as she not as drained from those long rallies she was getting sucked into on her serve earlier in the year.

Not sure which Anisimova will turn up, but in the form Raducanu is in on hard courts she has more than enough to beat her.
 
Sinner v Alcaraz later today, first hard court meeting in 2025 between them. Excited for it! Even though he leads the H2H it still feels like a bigger match for Alcaraz than Sinner. 1/9 of their first matches was a final, last five in a row have all been finals though. Suspect that trend's gonna continue given they're gonna be #1 and #2 seed forever and ever and ever.

US Open main draw starts next week, draw should be out on Thursday but before that we've got this star studded mixed dubs draw taking place starting tomorrow. Draper/Pegula up against Alcaraz/Raducanu first round. Alcaraz, Sinner and Swiatek all have a final this evening in Cincy and matches tomorrow in New York, wonder if any of them pull out :lol: the allure of $1 mil prize winnings seems to unsurprisingly be keeping them in at the minute. Sinner just grabbing the best doubles player in the world instead of another huge name after Emma Navarro pulled out seems to indicate he wants to win it.

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Normally have no interest whatsoever in watching doubles. However, I have today been watching the new mixed doubles format at the US Open, and finding it to be a good, fun watch.
It is being played today and tomorrow before the main tournament starts on Sunday.
The top singles players have paired up, sets are first to win 4 games, no dueces, and no 3rd set (just a tiebreak to 10 if it is 1 set all).
Sometimes the winning pair have only 10 minutes before their next round match starts.
It's a bit like one of the short form cricket formats such as the hundred. I think it may catch on at the other slams.
 
Barista said:
Normally have no interest whatsoever in watching doubles. However, I have today been watching the new mixed doubles format at the US Open, and finding it to be a good, fun watch.
It is being played today and tomorrow before the main tournament starts on Sunday.
The top singles players have paired up, sets are first to win 4 games, no dueces, and no 3rd set (just a tiebreak to 10 if it is 1 set all).
Sometimes the winning pair have only 10 minutes before their next round match starts.
It's a bit like one of the short form cricket formats such as the hundred. I think it may catch on at the other slams.
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Quite enjoyable. Bit more like an exhibition tournament. Only downside is that some of the top doubles players in the world are missing out on a potential slam
 
Caught a bit of the 2nd set of Emma today made easy work of it straight through. Hoping Riog stays as coach for a while he will deffo get the best out of her.
 
Watched the first two sets of Medvedev's match last night before I went to bed so missed all the fun :lol: might watch the fifth set back in a bit but christ it looks grim reading how it played out.

It's just sad watching him play. I really hope I'm wrong but I don't think this is just a bad run of form now, I'm not sure we see him competing at the top end again unless something drastic changes. The serve's been regressing for years from what it once was and is just a complete shambles now but the more worrying thing is the athleticism that meant he could stand in a different time zone to return serve and then get back to neutral quickly isn't there these days. Can't write his epiphany yet of course, he's not even 30. But something huge needs to change there.
 
Imagine all that training, practice and hard work, to count for nowt because you've had a tantrum about someone momentarily stepping on the court. Tosser.
 
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