SMB Tennis thread (note there is a specific Wimbledon 22 thread)

MarcoG said:
Evans banned for a year, backdated so he can play from end of April next year. Wonder if he gets a Wimbledon wildcard? :lol:

That's an absolutely awful excuse :lol:

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That's pretty fortunate to be honest. Obviously not performing enhancing so a little unlucky there but it was never going to be less than a year, so to be able to get back in April is as good as he could have hoped for. With his lifestyle and reputation, had it have been 3/4 years I reckon that would have been him done.

Wimbledon wild card will be interesting. From a tennis fan POV I'd far rather he got one than a James Ward or Brydan Klein and a little run there and his ranking will massively improve - I hope he gets one.
 


Kvitova beat Wozniacki, Garcia eased past Cornet and with Svitolina beating Vesnina, Garcia is the only person who can pip Konta for 8th place and the final spot in Singapore. If Garcia loses tomorrow, Konta has qualified (if fit), if Garcia wins tomorrow but loses in the semi she is still in contention but will have work to do in the final 2 tournaments. If she loses the final she will be a few points behind but with the momentum and if she wins the event then she passes Jo and will be a huge favourite to make it.

Quarter finals:
Halep vs Kasatkina
Ostapenko vs Cirstea
Strycova vs Kvitova
Svitolina vs Garcia

Men's quarter finals:
Dimitrov vs RBA
Rublev vs Zverev
Nadal vs Isner
Kyrgios vs Darcis
 
Caroline Garcia keeps on winning, 10 in a row now after beating Kvitova in straight sets. She faces new world #1 Halep in tomorrow's Beijing final. If she beats Halep she will leapfrog Konta into 8th place in the race to the WTA Finals, if she loses she will be 150 or so points behind. Garcia has been drawn to play Sharapova in the the Tianjin 1st round which starts on Monday tomorrow's final is 9.30am UK time.

Nick Kyrgios plays Nadal in the men's final at 12.30pm UK. Goffin plays Mannarino in the ATP 500 Tokyo final, think that one is on at 8pm.

Cam Norrie is through to another Challenger final, this time at Stockton and is something like 25-4 since Wimbledon and closing in on the top 100 and automatic entry into the Aussie Open. Some run he is on.
 
Andy Murray's 2011 prediction that Caroline Garcia would be a future world number one is looking a pretty good shout at the minute. Doubt she'll ever get to number one but I can't imagine I'd have been thinking a few years ago that Halep and Pliskova would be so who knows? Always had serious game but mentally loses the plot more than anyone else. Makes no sense to me considering how many big doubles titles she's won, but she's hopefully sorted it out anyway.

Poor Jo, at least if she misses out this time it won't be as cruel as it was for her last year.
 
Tokyo final is 8am which is what i meant. 8pm would have been interesting given Tokyo is 8 hours ahead of us.

MarcoG said:
Andy Murray's 2011 prediction that Caroline Garcia would be a future world number one is looking a pretty good shout at the minute. Doubt she'll ever get to number one but I can't imagine I'd have been thinking a few years ago that Halep and Pliskova would be so who knows? Always had serious game but mentally loses the plot more than anyone else. Makes no sense to me considering how many big doubles titles she's won, but she's hopefully sorted it out anyway.

Poor Jo, at least if she misses out this time it won't be as cruel as it was for her last year.
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Yeah, she's looking really good. It would have been nice for Jo to make it, but as a tennis fan, you would rather someone go into it bang in form with a P5 and possibly a PM win rather than someone on a 5 game losing streak and relying on others to lose to make it. Been in awful form post Wimbledon and given she is defending lots of points at Brisbane, Aussie Open and Miami in the early parts of 2018, I can see her swiftly moving down the rankings unfortunately.

When Garcia is playing as she is at the moment she is very good to watch. The thigh is a bit concerning though and if she loses tomorrow then she will still have work to do to make the finals so will be playing in Tianjin and possibly Moscow (assuming she gets a wildcard for it) so might be in a poor state physically if she does make Singapore.

I'm looking forward to the WTA finals and I really hope Kyrgios makes the men's - would be a much better addition to the neutral than the likes of Carreno Busta IMO.
 
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The Bridge Lad said:
Tokyo final is 8am which is what i meant. 8pm would have been interesting given Tokyo is 8 hours ahead of us.


Yeah, she's looking really good. It would have been nice for Jo to make it, but as a tennis fan, you would rather someone go into it bang in form with a P5 and possibly a PM win rather than someone on a 5 game losing streak and relying on others to lose to make it. Been in awful form post Wimbledon and given she is defending lots of points at Brisbane, Aussie Open and Miami in the early parts of 2018, I can see her swiftly moving down the rankings unfortunately.

When Garcia is playing as she is at the moment she is very good to watch. The thigh is a bit concerning though and if she loses tomorrow then she will still have work to do to make the finals so will be playing in Tianjin and possibly Moscow (assuming she gets a wildcard for it) so might be in a poor state physically if she does make Singapore.

I'm looking forward to the WTA finals and I really hope Kyrgios makes the men's - would be a much better addition to the neutral than the likes of Carreno Busta IMO.
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I really like Garcia, I've only seen the semi and final last week and her match against Svitolina this week so can't say I've seen too much but glad to see her doing well. Jumped above Mladenovic as well to make it that bit sweeter for her.

Kyrgios has a decent chance hopefully, I've backed him tomorrow. 6/4 looks very good value to me. The courts in Shanghai are generally lightning quick and he's got a decent draw so if he's injury free he should have a decent run next week as well. His name is down for doubles next week as well so he must be alright.
 
Kind of expect Kyrgios to beat Nadal.

I don't know the whole stats but it seems whenever he's got a top challenge against the likes of Djokovic and Federer etc that he tends to play at a really high level. We saw that today against Zverev because he knows that's a rivalry that will span the next decade.

He's great in the right headspace.
 
Konta pulled out of next week's Moscow event earlier in the week to confirm Caroline Garcia as the 8th and final participant at the WTA Finals joining Halep, Muguruza, Pliskova, Svitolina, V Williams, Wozniacki and Ostapenko in Singapore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_WTA_Finals

A few finals tomorrow:

ATP Shanghai Masters
Nadal vs Federer
Sky Sports Action, 9.30am

WTA Tianjin
Sharapova vs Sabalenka
No UK TV, 7am

WTA Hong Kong
Pavyluchenkova vs Gavrilova
BT Sport 2, 9.30am

WTA Linz
Rybaikova vs Strycoba
Eurosport 1, 2pm

Next week are the final tournaments on the regular WTA calendar with events in Moscow and Luxembourg, both covered by BT Sport. There are also a few 250 men's event's in Antwerp (Eurosport) and Stockholm (FreeSports) as well as a not televised one in Moscow.
 
Naomi Broady and Heather Watson both through to the quarter finals in Luxembourg beating Lisicki and Kontaveit respectively. Broady plays Puig tomorrow and Watson has Mertens. If they both win, they will face each other in the semi finals.

Jo Konta officially pulls out as an alternate in Singapore as well as the consolation Zhuhai tournament and calls time on her season. She has also mutually split with her coach.
 
WTA finals start on Sunday, the draw ceremony was today:



RED GROUP
[1] Simona Halep (ROU)
[4] Elina Svitolina (UKR)
[6] Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
[8] Caroline Garcia (FRA)

WHITE GROUP
[2] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP)
[3] Karolina Pliskova (CZE)
[5] Venus Williams (USA)
[7] Jelena Ostapenko (LAT)


Starts on Sunday from 10am with the white group in action on the opening day. Pliskova vs Williams kicks it off with Ostapenko vs Muguruza following on. White group play Sun, Tues and Thurs and the red group play Mon, Wed, Fri with the semi finals on Saturday and the final the following Sunday.

https://sports.betway.com/en/sports/evt/1549270

Look at Betways odds, all 8 range from 4/1 to 7/1 - really hard to pick a winner, as usual with the WTA. Garcia's recent run of form certainly makes her a contender and she has beaten Halep and Svitolina in recent weeks.
 
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Pliskova comfortably beats Venus 6-2, 6-2 in the opening match. A bit Pliskova being good and Venus being awful - she'll certainly go 0-3 if she continues to play like that.
 
JL1985 said:
Just started in Moscow - another final for Damir Dzumhur. This guy is on fire this season.
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I'll record the Stockholm final between Dimitrov and Del Potro (on FreeSports) at 2pm. Really hope Delpo can win this and then have decent enough weeks in Basel and Paris to take that final spot in London - think there is too much to do and realistically it will probably come down to PCB, Anderson and Querrey.
 
The Bridge Lad said:
I'll record the Stockholm final between Dimitrov and Del Potro (on FreeSports) at 2pm. Really hope Delpo can win this and then have decent enough weeks in Basel and Paris to take that final spot in London - think there is too much to do and realistically it will probably come down to PCB, Anderson and Querrey.
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From what I've seen of Delpo, he usually wins the first set, goes to sleep and loses the 2nd and then wakes up again to take the match.

For someone who's had so many injuries, I would have thought he would concentrate fully to keep the matches short.
 
Looking forward to this one (Muguruza vs Ostapenko), 4th meeting between them and to a lot of people could be the main WTA rivalry going forward in the medium term.
 
alexander said:
Sweeeeeeeet...
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Great win for Caroline, although the match was a bit of a let down, from the neutrals POV, not yours :). Woz played very well mind. It's good how the winners play each other in the next round of games to avoid any dead rubbers in the final group matches.

The tournament has been a bit poor so far. Venus looked like she couldn't be arsed and both victories today were reasonably comfortable. All 4 matches were in straight sets and none of the 4 losers have even managed 5 games in a losing set yet. Ostapenko did show a bit of resistance in that second set yesterday.

Venus vs Ostapenko followed by Muguruza vs Pliskova tomorrow
Garcia vs Svitolina and Woz vs Halep on Wednesday (I assume they will keep the order of having the losers starting procedures).
 

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