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

Wimbledon, BBC1 - peak 9.6m at 7.05pm, average 6m

That's impressive numbers considering the other sporting events on at the same time. Mentioned on another thread that it not completely accurate, but a decent gauge - Top sporting days not involving football?

I guess it was massively helped by Federer's presence, and to a lesser extent Djokovic, it'll probably decrease by 75% when they go, unless someone popular and marketable properly steps up, ideally before the Big 3 retire.
 


Less than 3 days after Wimbledon and the US Open main draw entry lists are already out.

Men:
https://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/a...headline_2019_us_open_mens_singles_field.html
The top 98 are in, and 6 are using PR (including Berdych). Edmund, Evans and Norrie will all be in the main draw. Clarke will be in qualifying, as should James Ward. 16 qualifiers and 8 WCs will make up the 128 entrants.

Women:
https://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/a...ht_womens_singles_field_for_2019_us_open.html
The top 102 are in, 2 using PR (Bellis and Vandeweghe). Konta is in the main draw, Watson and Dart in qualifying, Boulter will be in qualifying if she is fit enough. It'll be borderline as to whether Bains sneaks in, probably unlikely, and Katie Swan will have to do very well this week and next week to improve her ranking before the qualifying cut off - she has an ITF match in the US in about 30 min.

The qualifying entry lists will be out in 2 weeks.

Also, this is pretty cool. Halep returning to Romania and having 20-30k (different reports) in the stadium to welcome her.

SimoReactions on Twitter
 
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Well, I was hoping to have a couple of weeks break from tennis until the US hard court scene, but that's not happened as I've been fully invested in WTA Bucharest on BT. It's the final today between a young Romanian (home town) mother who is returning after a 20 month break from the sport against Rybakina, another emerging young powerful talent who looks set for decent things. That's 3pm today.

Cornet and Ferro are due to meet in an all French WTA final in Lausanne starting now.

3 ATP finals today as well:
Isner vs Bublik in Newport (7pm)
Jarry vs Montero in Bastad (1pm)
Lajovic vs Balazs in Umag (7pm)
 
The Bridge Lad said:
Well, I was hoping to have a couple of weeks break from tennis until the US hard court scene, but that's not happened as I've been fully invested in WTA Bucharest on BT. It's the final today between a young Romanian (home town) mother who is returning after a 20 month break from the sport against Rybakina, another emerging young powerful talent who looks set for decent things. That's 3pm today.

Cornet and Ferro are due to meet in an all French WTA final in Lausanne starting now.

3 ATP finals today as well:
Isner vs Bublik in Newport (7pm)
Jarry vs Montero in Bastad (1pm)
Lajovic vs Balazs in Umag (7pm)
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Just watching a bit of this Rybakina match and she's been very impressive, such easy power. Had never heard of her, but will keep more of an eye on her now.
 
Session said:
Just watching a bit of this Rybakina match and she's been very impressive, such easy power. Had never heard of her, but will keep more of an eye on her now.
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Yeah, she was ranked around 180 at the start of the year, so has risen 120 or so places in little over 6 months. She could easily be well inside the top 50 heading into the US Open, but she'll still have to qualify as she was outside the top 100 at the cut off last week, which is a shame. She reached a WTA semi final on grass just before Wimbledon and is having a great few months. She seems much more composed and less erratic that other big hitters and is so good to watch. Another great addition to the main tour.
 
Jack Sock has never been known for his fitness but the size of his gut after six months off tour :eek::lol: on a positive note that's the most effort he's actually put into a match since 2017 probably, be back up the rankings before long if he keeps on like that.

Maybe a small chance Evans or Norrie could win their first tour level title this week in Atlanta. It's a very level playing field all through the draw.
 
Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen to offer largest prize money check in history of professional tennis

I'm not a particularly big fan of the WTA's fairly rapid expansion into China, but man, that's one hell of a prize fund. At least $4m if you get through the group stage (and only win 1 of your 3 group matches) and then go on to win it, and a massive $4.73m if you win all 5 matches to take the title - that's more than all the Grand Slams, and nearly double what Zverev got for winning the ATP version in London last November ($2.5m). Crazy.

Konta is currently in the 8th and final place as it stands, so it would be great for her if she could do reasonably well during the US Open Swing and the Asian Swing and secure her place.

MarcoG said:
Jack Sock has never been known for his fitness but the size of his gut after six months off tour :eek::lol: on a positive note that's the most effort he's actually put into a match since 2017 probably, be back up the rankings before long if he keeps on like that.

Maybe a small chance Evans or Norrie could win their first tour level title this week in Atlanta. It's a very level playing field all through the draw.
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It seems like he's been out for far longer than 6 months. Also strange to think (the way the rankings work) he was still in the top 20 mid-way through October last year despite barely winning a match throughout 2018. Didn't see any of the match, but generally good that he is back.

Hopefully Evans takes this. He's up against the lad today who he had match points against in the final earlier in the year. Still can't believe he lost that match from the position(s) he was in.
 
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Evans and Norrie did both win yesterday to reach the Atlanta QF and they are both favourites to win their respective QF matches tomorrow, albeit very marginal. I wish your boy Evo well @Gala

Like Dillian Whyte, it looks like WTA #99 Haddad Maia has been up to no good, and is facing a drugs ban.
 
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Another tennis lover checking in.

I love this time of the year (the US/Canadian swing). Tennis doesn't start until after I've finished work.
So you've got a whole evenings play of Tennis.
Even better with the coverage it gets now, thanks to BT Sports.
 
@The Bridge Lad What are your thoughts on tennis at the olympics?

Im looking at paying stupid money to go to the olympics and one of the packages includes tennis. How seriously do you think it will be taken? Do you know what surfaces it will be? (I should probably go and look that up on google!)
 
mogget said:
@The Bridge Lad What are your thoughts on tennis at the olympics?

Im looking at paying stupid money to go to the olympics and one of the packages includes tennis. How seriously do you think it will be taken? Do you know what surfaces it will be? (I should probably go and look that up on google!)
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It's a difficult one. It's an additional significant tennis event to look forward to in that year, so I am pleased that it got reinstated, but at the same time, like golf, football etc. it's not the absolute pinnacle, like it is for a lot of the other sports. There was also a fair few players that pulled out 4 years ago in Brazil citing the Zika virus, whereas if that was their everything, I'm sure they would have made more of an effort if you know what I mean. That said, players do really want to win and there's been a lot of players on the women's side who made sure they played enough Fed Cup matches in the past year to ensure they are eligible for it. 2020 does kind of feel significant, there's a lot of talk that Venus is potentially hoping to end her career after that, but she'll have a hard job just to qualify as it's a max of 4 players per nation. Federer has never won Olympic Gold in the single's, neither has Novak, so they will be up for it, and Naomi Osaka will obviously be a huge attraction and give an even bigger feel (and Nishikori).

It's on outside hard courts, but they do have a roof, it's the venue where the WTA Pan Pacific Open was played before it underwent the renovations.


It's this one, but it will look completely different I'd imagine - the 2018 event was moved to cater for the changes.

If you're thinking of going, then it should be really good, and the presence of home top 10 players on both sides should really add to it. Pretty sure the men's final is now just BO3 instead of BO5 - BO5 is pretty much just the men's slams these days, now that the Davis Cup has been revamped.
Roker 73 said:
Another tennis lover checking in.

I love this time of the year (the US/Canadian swing). Tennis doesn't start until after I've finished work.
So you've got a whole evenings play of Tennis.
Even better with the coverage it gets now, thanks to BT Sports.
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Good to have another big tennis fan on the board mate, the more the merrier.

Although the 2 weeks of Wimbledon will always be my favourite, this part of the season is right up there for me too. It's great getting back home from work as you say and having the option to watch live tennis right up until bed if you wanted to, all obviously leading up to the US Open, which is my 2nd favourite slam, and probably would be my favourite if I wasn't British. A couple of decent tournaments this week with a lot of big names playing on both sides, but it properly gets going next week in Canada where pretty much everyone is playing, bar a couple of notable exceptions. Great stuff :D
 
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Good battling win for Kyle Edmund against Tsonga tonight.
Came from a set down to win.

It’s a shame how much Kyle is out of form. Even the bookies had Tsonga whose hardly featured this past year as bookies favourite.
 
Roker 73 said:
Good battling win for Kyle Edmund against Tsonga tonight.
Came from a set down to win.

It’s a shame how much Kyle is out of form. Even the bookies had Tsonga whose hardly featured this past year as bookies favourite.
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Yeah, he's still hovering around the 30 mark in the rankings, but in the Race to London, so basically 2019, he was around 70 before this week, so hasn't really got going this year due to injuries and general loss of form. These next couple of week are important to try and hang on to that top 32 ranking so that he is seeded at the US Open and is guaranteed to avoid the big boys until at least R3. He plays a Lucky Loser later on, so a really good chance of getting to the semi finals, which would be a welcome boost. I reckon there's a good chance all 3 leading GB men will end the season within 10 places of each other.

I've mainly been watching the WTA stuff from San Jose and Washington this week, so haven't really seen any of the men, but it looks a fairly decent quarter final line up, and I hope we get Tsitsipas vs Kyrgios in the semi final. Shame Felix went out, but apparently, Cilic was peaking from out of nowhere - not a huge fan of Cilic's game, but if he is back on form and playing well, then it could be another dimension at the US Open, as he is a former champ.
 
The Bridge Lad said:
Disappointing defeat for Edmund. Kyrgios vs Tsitsipas at midnight on Prime should be decent. I'll watch the first set and see how it goes.
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Any good? Just seen some clips of it there. Tsitsipas needs to give over with them shoes like, Benoit Paire was quite amusing the other night when it happened against him.

Kyrgios has waited until he's injured his knee again to start playing properly :lol: looks like it could be a good final though.
 
MarcoG said:
Any good? Just seen some clips of it there. Tsitsipas needs to give over with them shoes like, Benoit Paire was quite amusing the other night when it happened against him.

Kyrgios has waited until he's injured his knee again to start playing properly :lol: looks like it could be a good final though.
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Aye, it was much watch stuff. Kyrgios was cruising and playing really well, serving fantastic and enjoying himself, until midway through the second set where he completely unravelled. Thirdset was decent quality between them and you couldn't tell which way it would go.

Final is on at 10, so I'll definitely be watching that. Hope Nick wins, but quite like both.
The Bridge Lad said:
Aye, it was much watch stuff. Kyrgios was cruising and playing really well, serving fantastic and enjoying himself, until midway through the second set where he completely unravelled. Thirdset was decent quality between them and you couldn't tell which way it would go.

Final is on at 10, so I'll definitely be watching that. Hope Nick wins, but quite like both.
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Love Krygios me. So unique and a massive breath of fresh air. Obviously frustrating and controversial, and he unfortunately probably never will have a proper stretch of constant results, but when he's on, he's fantastic. For a player of his talent to have only 2 slam QFs on his record and none for nearly 5 years is such a shame. Just this week he:

Asked random fans on MP where to serve - he did this 3 times, and won the point every time, ha.
Brought Tsitsipas' shoes over to him
Running around high fiving all the crowd

I think that should be him pretty much in the top 32 now heading into the US Open, so that's important - I really hope he can build on this.
 
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Very good win in Montreal for Evans, on the back of Norries R1 win the other day. None of them doing anything that spectacular, just chipping away with the odd good win here and there, and slowing improving their ranking. It really will be interesting to see who ends the year as British #1.

Not quite so close on the women's side, but Konta lost in R1 yesterday to Yastremska.

A couple of interesting matches tonight on Amazon Prime. Edmund vs Kyrgios, followed by Norrie vs Zverev.
 

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