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

I too can't see past Djokovic and don't really take too much from that RBA defeat the other day - he's still the clear favourite and shouldn't really have been a part of that article as he has been excellent these past 6 months, so it seemed a bit random to include him. I keep writing Federer off, but he's played well in the Hopman Cup and clearly enjoys playing in Australia - I'd still say he would be the most likely to stop Djoko, if anyone is to. I feel so sorry for Murray, his interview after beating Duckworth was very sad to hear and I can't see him being around too much longer - he's not someone who is going to carry on ranked 50-100+, relying on WC's and PR's to get into certain events and it's not looking too clever for Nadal either at the moment. As usual, I'm hoping one of the youngsters can make a real impact in Melbourne and I guess we'll know more when the draw is out. Berdych, Stan and even Tsonga showing a bit of form could make for some interesting 1st round matches as might Murray, even if for name value alone.

A bit more interesting on the women's side with Serena winning all 3 of her Hopman Cup singles matches, Kerber playing really well all week and Sabalenka winning her 3rd WTA title this morning in Shenzhen - she's definitely a real contender for the title. Another story was 18 year old Canadian Bianca Andreescu coming through qualifying in Auckland and beating Venus (who was looking better) and Wozniacki en route to the final where she plays Goerges tomorrow.

Absolutely love the build up to a Grand Slam - the qualifying, the draws, the 1st day - you really can't beat it :cool:.
 


Konta retired in her match earlier today, Edmund pulling out of his event this week and Murray struggling - I think it'll be another slam where British interest is over by round 2 unfortunately.
 
Born Never Asked said:
Fearsome foursome go to Australian Open aware the end could be near

Load of rubbish that article mind, Djokovic may have lost yesterday but I would be very surprised If he dosnt win the Australian. He won’t even need to be anywhere near his best. Nadal obviously not fit enough now to compete on hard courts and will probaby only win the French again this year. Federer probably won’t win another slam. Zverev still has to do something at a slam before he can be taken seriously. The rest are still miles behind.
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'The young wolves are gathering' stands out in that article as well to me as maybe a bit iffy. Interesting to see how the next gen get on this year with potentially match fit versions of Wawrinka, Nishikori, Tsonga, Berdych and Raonic to contend with for the whole year.

Zverev has got the best bloke he can possibly have in his corner now admittedly, should help a fair bit.
 
Session said:
Konta retired in her match earlier today, Edmund pulling out of his event this week and Murray struggling - I think it'll be another slam where British interest is over by round 2 unfortunately.
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Just seen that Konta has been given a Lucky Loser spot in the main draw and plays Kiki Bertens in the 1st round. I'm pleased that it looks like she is OK and she could do with a couple more matches, but I personally think that's all wrong - if you retire from an event that should be it and the LL spot should have gone to someone else IMO.
 
The Bridge Lad said:
Just seen that Konta has been given a Lucky Loser spot in the main draw and plays Kiki Bertens in the 1st round. I'm pleased that it looks like she is OK and she could do with a couple more matches, but I personally think that's all wrong - if you retire from an event that should be it and the LL spot should have gone to someone else IMO.
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It does seem strange and rather unfair - does this happen often? Tough opening round match.
 
Qualifying draws were made in the early hours.

Men's
2019 Australian Open – Men's Singles Qualifying - Wikipedia
  • Dan Evans - faces 23rd seed Dutra Silva first and potentially #4 seed Lorenzi in the third and final round.
  • James Ward - very favourable first round match up against Aussie Maverick Baines who has lost 5 AO 1st round qual matches in a row. Could face Trungelliti in the 2QR who made headlines at the French Open last year by driving Spain to Paris to take up a last minute Lucky Loser spot in the main draw.
  • Jay Clark - In very poor form and apparently has had some issues of late. He's drawn the #1 qualifying seed Lorenzo Sonego so it'll be tough for him.

Women's
2019 Australian Open – Women's Singles Qualifying - Wikipedia
  • Harriet Dart - the only seed of the 7. She's due to face Paquet first then Shilin / Serban and a potential final qualifier against Jorovic who bet Caroline Garcia last week in Shenzhen.
  • Katie Swan - Very tough start. She plays 4th seed, 18 year old Bianca Andreescu who came through qualifying in Auckland last week, beat Wozniacki and V Williams as mentioned erlier before losing the final in 3 sets to Julia Goerges. One of the worst draws she could have had, but hopefully the Canadian is still feeling it from her efforts last week.
  • Gabi Taylor - Winnable 1st round match against Ahn who has fallen 100 places in 2018, from around 100 to 200. Potential tough match against the #3 seed Golubic in QR2 and probably Nicole Gibbs if she makes it that far.
  • Naomi Broady - Naomi just snuck in due to withdrawals, so whatever happens is a bonus. She's in terrible form so not expecting much. Faces Bonaventure in QR1 and also has Lisicki in her mini section.

Qualifying starts at 11pm tonight and is on the Eurosport Player a well as the usual betting sites. Eurosport 1 has highlight in the mornings. The Aussie Open main draw will be 7am UK time on Thursday morning.
 
Majority of them seem to be in a section with seeds that favour clay court, about all you can really hope for in the pot luck of a qualifying draw. Evans is probably the favourite in his section but could be a tough final match against Tommy Paul. Ward, Dart and Taylor certainly in with a chance as well.

Outside of the Brits, would love to see Rebecca Marino qualify.
 
MarcoG said:
Majority of them seem to be in a section with seeds that favour clay court, about all you can really hope for in the pot luck of a qualifying draw. Evans is probably the favourite in his section but could be a tough final match against Tommy Paul. Ward, Dart and Taylor certainly in with a chance as well.

Outside of the Brits, would love to see Rebecca Marino qualify.
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I'd be very happy with 2 Brit's going through overall and think they'll most likely come from the first three you mention; Taylor has stalled a bit since her little Aussie run at the start of the year and has very few top 200 wins, but hopefully she'll at least win her first round match where she is a fractional favourite. I'll predict 1 and either Evans or Darts.

Gonna be some late night these next few weeks.
 
Mixed bag of results for the Brits through the night. Dart won in 3, but Broady lost as expected and Taylor was thrashed, so probably below par on the whole.

Dan Evans' first match is 11pm UK time tonight.

Safc_Number10 said:
Is the Auzzie Open on Eurosport, with possible finals/highlights on BBC?
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Eurosport has extensive coverage, both channels from 12am-8am and then one channel from 8am to cover the (Aussie time) evening session.

BBC has highlights of the second week.
 
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The Bridge Lad said:
Mixed bag of results for the Brits through the night. Dart won in 3, but Broady lost as expected and Taylor was thrashed, so probably below par on the whole.

Dan Evans' first match is 11pm UK time tonight.


Eurosport has extensive coverage, both channels from 12am-8am and then one channel from 8am to cover the (Aussie time) evening session.

BBC has highlights of the second week.
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Find it hard to believe Broady's ranking is good enough to get into qualifying. I can only see Djokovic winning the men's unless Zverev finally plays well at a grand slam.
 
The Bridge Lad said:
Mixed bag of results for the Brits through the night. Dart won in 3, but Broady lost as expected and Taylor was thrashed, so probably below par on the whole.

Dan Evans' first match is 11pm UK time tonight.


Eurosport has extensive coverage, both channels from 12am-8am and then one channel from 8am to cover the (Aussie time) evening session.

BBC has highlights of the second week.
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I don't have Eurosport. I have signed up for the Eurosport player in the past, but don't think that would have been for the Australian Open. I'll just try to follow via the website and the web highlights.
 
JL1985 said:
Find it hard to believe Broady's ranking is good enough to get into qualifying. I can only see Djokovic winning the men's unless Zverev finally plays well at a grand slam.
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Naomi was about 20 or so outside of qualifying, but just sneaked in via various withdrawals, she got a last minute plane from HK in the off chance that someone else withdrew, and they did, so she was quite fortunate to get in at all, her ranking has more than doubled since this time last year and I wouldn't be too surprised if this is her last year on tour. She's been doing a bit of commentating recently so that may be where she is headed.

JL1985 said:
Find it hard to believe Broady's ranking is good enough to get into qualifying. I can only see Djokovic winning the men's unless Zverev finally plays well at a grand slam.
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Also, there was talk of Zverev having hamstring issues yesterday and he pulled out of a warm up exhibition, hopefully he's fine because as you say, there's not too many challengers to Djokovic at the moment.

Safc_Number10 said:
I don't have Eurosport. I have signed up for the Eurosport player in the past, but don't think that would have been for the Australian Open. I'll just try to follow via the website and the web highlights.
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Betting sites like Unibet and Bet365 will cover the matches and you can zoom in to the latter to make it full screen and decent enough quality.

I got the Player for 19.99 for the year, rarely watch it outside of the slams and ES losing the US Open made it feel less value for money, but I think I do get enough value in the 2-3 weeks at both the Aussie and the French to justify it. They do have the occasional men and women's 250 events on as well.
 
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Great start for Evans. Takes the first set 6-2.

Get in. Won 6-2 6-3 in under an hour. Not sure if he faced a break point, can't be many if he did. A nice 20 ranking points in the bag and one of the seeds in his section out of the way.
 
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Despite being almost certain Djokovic will win the Australian I can’t help but think Nadal is the value bet at 8/1, even if he’s not 100% fit you would still expect him to get to the quarters/semis and if he does he will be a lot shorter than 8/1. Provided Nadal is fit then I reckon only Djokovic has the beating of him and we saw at Wimbledon last year how closely matched they are.
 
Good to see James Ward join Evans (and Dart of course) in the 2nd round, but Katie Swan retired 1-6 down with a back spasm, so 3/7 made it through the first round.

Evans and Dart are third on so that'll be roughly 2.30/3am depending on the prior matches. Ward is 5th on, so will likely still be playing when people are waking up, like he was this morning.

Born Never Asked said:
Despite being almost certain Djokovic will win the Australian I can’t help but think Nadal is the value bet at 8/1, even if he’s not 100% fit you would still expect him to get to the quarters/semis and if he does he will be a lot shorter than 8/1. Provided Nadal is fit then I reckon only Djokovic has the beating of him and we saw at Wimbledon last year how closely matched they are.
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I put a free bet on him before Christmas (before he pulled out of the UAE exho and Brisbane). I only got him at 11/2 though. Not confident though, hopefully we'll get a bunch of qualifiers, wildcards, lower ranked players to each himself into it, rather than a Berdych or Wawrinka.

Will make for an interesting draw tomorrow morning.
 
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The Bridge Lad said:
Good to see James Ward join Evans (and Dart of course) in the 2nd round, but Katie Swan retired 1-6 down with a back spasm, so 3/7 made it through the first round.

Evans and Dart are third on so that'll be roughly 2.30/3am depending on the prior matches. Ward is 5th on, so will likely still be playing when people are waking up, like he was this morning.



I put a free bet on him before Christmas (before he pulled out of the UAE exho and Brisbane). I only got him at 11/2 though. Not confident though, hopefully we'll get a bunch of qualifiers, wildcards, lower ranked players to each himself into it, rather than a Berdych or Wawrinka.

Will make for an interesting draw tomorrow morning.
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Had a boost with Paddy Power so just took Nadal at 17/2, he seems confident he will do well and says he’s fit enough, no brainer of a bet really considering Djokovic is 11/10 and I can’t see past him or Nadal.
 

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