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

The Bridge Lad said:
Indeed, makes it look so easy. Felt really sorry for Zverev earlier after beating Federer, did nothing wrong and was visibly upset with the booing. Would love to see him win it tomorrow, but obviously unlikely. He did have two break points to go 5-4 up and serve for the first set in their match a few days ago but couldn't convert and then it was one way traffic after that.

I'm just hoping for a decent match. Crazy how 13 of the 14 matches so far have been straight sets wins. In contrast, 10 of the 15 matches in the women's equivalent in Singapore went the distance.
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It was awful. One of, if not the biggest win of his career and he felt the need to apologise, for no reason. Moronic.
 


The Bridge Lad said:
Nope, it's Djokovic vs Zverev (who beat Federer today) and it's just best of 3 sets. BBC2 at 6pm.
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Nfl red zone time for me. By it’s a full sport day, England v Croatia, O’Sullivan v trump, this and red zone.

I’ll have all my different equipment lined up on the table to watch
 
The Bridge Lad said:
What's wrong with the automatic hawk eye? Bit like goal line technology, it means there won't be a bad call and saves potential home cooking line calls. I'd definitely be for that.
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Oops sorry just seen this.

Yeah nothing wrong with generally but I'm not sure they can bring it in for the whole tour. It just unfortunately doesn't work on clay. I think the best way on clay is to do it is based off human error but the umpires can look at a TV replay if they're unsure about the mark. They tested hawk eye in the Tie Break Tens last year in Madrid and on more than one occasion it was wrong by a decent inch or two. The bloke from hawk eye was saying something about how it needs to be re-calibrated every match, every set, every game on clay because the surface changes a lot when players are sliding around the baseline and chopping it up.

If it's just on hard court or that and grass then it's fine yeah, just feel like it might cause more arguments than it solves unfortunately.
 
MarcoG said:
Oops sorry just seen this.

Yeah nothing wrong with generally but I'm not sure they can bring it in for the whole tour. It just unfortunately doesn't work on clay. I think the best way on clay is to do it is based off human error but the umpires can look at a TV replay if they're unsure about the mark. They tested hawk eye in the Tie Break Tens last year in Madrid and on more than one occasion it was wrong by a decent inch or two. The bloke from hawk eye was saying something about how it needs to be re-calibrated every match, every set, every game on clay because the surface changes a lot when players are sliding around the baseline and chopping it up.

If it's just on hard court or that and grass then it's fine yeah, just feel like it might cause more arguments than it solves unfortunately.
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Yeah that's a fair point, plus they might not be able to implement it at every hard / grass court on the tour anyway, like say Court 3 at WTA Tashkent - may be too expensive to apply large scale, but I do like the idea in theory.
 
I'm about 5 mins behind so that I can fast forward the breaks, but this really is a great performance from Zverev so far, getting the early break there. Decent match so far, Djok not quite as good as he has been these past 5 months, but Zverev is playing a lot better than he has generally this year, certainly the past few months.

Mind, 2 break points here (where I am at anyway). Broken back straight away :neutral:
 
What a match point :eek:

Benjamin said:
Get in Zverev, I know it’s not a slam but that’s a brilliant result for men’s tennis.
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Twice in 14 days he's lost to someone in their early twenties in a big final. Not a slam, but it's the biggest win of Zverev's career by some distance and maybe might give him the belief in the slams.

Quite fitting that Svitolina and Zverev both won their respective tour finals. Big similarities between their position in the men and women's game.
 
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The Bridge Lad said:
What a match point :eek:



Twice in 14 days he's lost to someone in their early twenties in a big final. Not a slam, but it's the biggest win of Zverev's career by some distance and maybe might give him the belief in the slams.

Quite fitting that Svitolina and Zverev both won their respective tour finals. Big similarities between their position in the men and women's game.
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Be very surprised if Federer wins another slam, Nadal will probably win the French again but due to his injury record I doubt he will beat Djokovic in any of the others, after that it’s only really one of these young lads coming through that can possibly stop Djokovic dominating again next year, so Zverev winning tonight is a excellent result.
 
Benjamin said:
Be very surprised if Federer wins another slam, Nadal will probably win the French again but due to his injury record I doubt he will beat Djokovic in any of the others, after that it’s only really one of these young lads coming through that can possibly stop Djokovic dominating again next year, so Zverev winning tonight is a excellent result.
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Yeah, I'd agree. On paper, you'd probably say Nadal French and Djokovic the other 3 - he's as short as 11/8 to win the Aussie where he obviously has such a great record. I think Federer will still have runs in a couple of the slams, but I'd be quite surprised if he won one, especially one not named Wimbledon. Thiem will be in the mix for the French, but can't see past Nadal there and I don't think he's good enough on the other surfaces to mount a serious challenge. Cilic will make latter stages but not quite good enough or mentally strong to win one. Kyrgios will be the same story as the last couple of years. Hopefully Delpo can stay fit as he could maybe have a say, or at least produce great matches vs a Nadal or Djokovic and I'd be pleasantly surprised if Murray gets anywhere his best next year, so we really are looking at the youngsters to offer something different.

Hopefully Zverev can come of age in the slams. Khachanov will be one to keep an eye on, winning 2 of his last 3 tournaments including Paris where he beat 4 top 10 players and he has improved massively this year. I still think it'll be a year or two before Tsitsipas properly makes an impact in the slams.
 
There really are similarities between Zverev and Svitolina:
  • Junior Slam champ
  • Won Rome 2017
  • Won Canada 2017
  • Played 2018 Rome final
  • Won 2018 Year End Finals
  • End 2018 ranked #4
  • Career high of #3
  • But never past Slam QF

Session said:
Pleased for Zverev, he played great. Feels like an end of an era with no more tennis on Sky from this point.
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Massive blow for the sport. You could tell they were prioritising it less for a while by losing the US Open, firstly to Eurosport, then completely off their platform, but their coverage was still excellent and that's a lot of visibility lost now. Less chance you'll accidentally fall on Amazon's coverage and I'm still not a fan of live sport being on a streaming platform.
 
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Entry lists are starting to emerge for the Australian Open which is now less than 6 weeks ago.

Men - #101 Thomas Fabbiano last in. 3 Brits involved - Murray, Edmund, Norrie. 3 using protected ranking including Murray along with Darcis and Tipsarevic
16 qualifiers + 8 wildcards. J Ward, Evans and Clarke should be in qualifying.

Women - #102 Vandeweghe last in (really 101 as Radwanska has retired). 3 Brits involved - Konta, Watson, Boulter. 3 Using PR - Bacsinszky, Siegemund and Mattek-Sands.
16 qualifiers + 8 wildcards. Dart, Taylor and Swan will be in qualifying.

Also, the AO, like Wimbledon have, are looking to change their deciding set format. They are looking to play a super tie break (first to 10) at 6-6 and it could come into play in 2019.

So we could have

AO - deciding set tie break at 6-6, first to 10
FO - must win by 2 clear games in final set
Wimbledon - deciding set tie break at 12-12, first to 7
USO - deciding set tie break at 6-6, first to 7

#uniformity
 
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I didn't know Sky isn't showing the tennis anymore. I don't know why I bother with Sky. They've lost so much over the past 2 years.
 

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