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



Anyone else getting an error with their Prime?

I can't get anything on my laptop or phone, but I had this Berrettini match on the TV before the problem and it's still on, so I'm certainly not going to change the channel :lol: . Looking on Twitter, it seems a widespread problem.
 
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Matteo!!! :cool:

Chuffed for him, would have been an absolute gutter had he lost that from the position he was in throughout that 5th set. 5th match point. Well done lad!
Matteo!!! :cool:

Chuffed for him, would have been an absolute gutter had he lost that from the position he was in throughout that 5th set. 5th match point. Well done lad!

Bianca Andreescu is the best thing to happen to the WTA tour for years and years, bar nothing. Composure, charisma, drama, fiesty, variety, never say die - that's 12 times in a row she that has won the deciding set, she is just so hard to beat, and I'd go out of my way to see a big match of hers - like tomorrow when she'll start around 2am. Just turned 19 as well, so very exciting to see what the future holds.

Andreescu vs Bencic in the semi final then - sign me up please. Big fan of both, may the best woman win.
 
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Bianca Andreescu is the best thing to happen to the WTA tour for years and years, bar nothing.

Bit harsh on Osaka ;)

I agree though. Ironically enough outside of those two, the one before that was probably Andreescu's next opponent. That'll happen when you have variety in your game, always fun watching Bencic casually without much effort rip great return after great return at the Hopman Cup off 110/120mph serves from the men.

On a slightly unrelated note, I find it really weird how much Andreescu and Bencic look alike.

If nadal doesn't get injured does Matteo have any chance?

I'm not really expecting him to lose another set.
 
Bit harsh on Osaka ;)

I agree though. Ironically enough outside of those two, the one before that was probably Andreescu's next opponent. That'll happen when you have variety in your game, always fun watching Bencic casually without much effort rip great return after great return at the Hopman Cup off 110/120mph serves from the men.

On a slightly unrelated note, I find it really weird how much Andreescu and Bencic look alike.

Haha, they do look like each other - similar eyes, hair etc. Bianca slightly chubbier face. One journalist joked that it's the first time twins have met at this stage of a slam :lol:

And yeah, had a bit of a brain fart with Osaka, as back to back slams is incredible and the Serena fiasco turned her into an overnight widely known star, and she backed that up a few months later which was very impressive.


That's an incredible 11 months for her - this time last year she didn't play from the US Open qualifiers until October 15th where she was ranked 242, and she's basically done nothing but win since, from W25s to W60s then onto WTA quals, then Premier Mandatories and now slams, she's just taken everything into her stride. 4 defeats this year and one of those was a retirement which kept her out for months.

If Osaka, Andreescu and Bencic can all qualify for the WTA finals, which they should from this position considering one of the latter two will reach the final here, then they will definitely be worth tuning in for.
 
I can see Nadal becoming the joint goat by the French Open next year. Federer can only realistically win Wimbledon now so he will probably end up being overtook by both Nadal and Djokovic.
 
I can see Nadal becoming the joint goat by the French Open next year. Federer can only realistically win Wimbledon now so he will probably end up being overtook by both Nadal and Djokovic.

Just going back to our conversation a few days ago mate, just out of curiosity, would you currently rate Stan and Andy as exact equals in terms of career achievements, and had say Stan beaten Medvedev the other day and ended up taking this title, would that make his unequivocally greater than Andy in your opinion with that extra slam?

Once you've won 16-20+ slams then the final total should be the deciding matter IMO, but I was just wondering your thoughts on the prior example, and I'd agree, if Nadal wins this then I think it's highly likely he will pass Fed.
 
Just going back to our conversation a few days ago mate, just out of curiosity, would you currently rate Stan and Andy as exact equals in terms of career achievements, and had say Stan beaten Medvedev the other day and ended up taking this title, would that make his unequivocally greater than Andy in your opinion with that extra slam?

Once you've won 16-20+ slams then the final total should be the deciding matter IMO, but I was just wondering your thoughts on the prior example, and I'd agree, if Nadal wins this then I think it's highly likely he will pass Fed.

I firmly believe slam wins are what matter , I used to really rate Wawrinka and even when it was a so called " big four" I believed it was more a big three. Murray was a brilliant player and I did like him but overall he was nowhere near the level of the other three as the records will show and in ten years time nobody will class him in the same bracket as them three, I believe Murray is closer to Wawrinka ability wise than he is Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. If Wawrinka had won this slam then I would have said he had achieved more than Murray.
 
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I firmly believe slam wins are what matter , I used to really rate Wawrinka and even when it was a so called " big four" I believed it was more a big three. Murray was a brilliant player and I did like him but overall he was nowhere near the level of the other three as the records will show and in ten years time nobody will class him in the same bracket as them three, I believe Murray is closer to Wawrinka ability wise than he is Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. If Wawrinka had won this slam then I would have said he had achieved more than Murray.

It is an interesting topic for sure. I'm sure it has been discussed on here many times (and will continue to be), but I was just thinking about it again when watching Wawrinka-Medvedev the other day. I'd personally say Murray would still have achieved more with all his other accomplishments (11 slam finals, almost single handedly winning DC, 2 Olympic golds, YEC, year end #1, then Masters etc.), but then it does go back to how you see the picture.

I do personally think the more slams you win, i.e. what the Big 3 have done, then the other stuff becomes far less signifcant, as if say Nadal ended on 21 and Federer on 20, I wouldn't be saying 'ah, but Federer won this and that...' but where that line is drawn, I'm not really sure.
 
Tomorrow's men's order of play is now out and no surprise that Medvedev-Dimitrov is on first and is the one at the most convenient time for the UK aduience at 9pm. It is not before 9pm, but the men's doubles final is just BO3 here unlike BO5 at Wimbledon, and they obviously have the roof on Ashe, so I can't see any reason why that would go beyond 3.5 / 4 hours to delay the first semi final. Nadal is not before 10.30pm, but that will surely only come into play if Medvedev is injured and retires early on and there's a little bit of waiting around.

It's a shame the women's semi finals are always on so late, but I'm going to try and catch both live.

Day 11 (today)

ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM
12am

E. Svitolina (UKR) [5] vs. S. Williams (USA) [8]
B. Bencic (SUI) [13] vs. B. Andreescu (CAN) [15]


Day 12 (tomorrow)

ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM
5pm

MEN'S DOUBLES - FINAL
Not before 9pm
D. Medvedev (RUS) [5] vs. G. Dimitrov (BUL)
Not before 10.30pm
M. Berrettini (ITA) [24] vs. R. Nadal (ESP) [2]
 
It is an interesting topic for sure. I'm sure it has been discussed on here many times (and will continue to be), but I was just thinking about it again when watching Wawrinka-Medvedev the other day. I'd personally say Murray would still have achieved more with all his other accomplishments (11 slam finals, almost single handedly winning DC, 2 Olympic golds, YEC, year end #1, then Masters etc.), but then it does go back to how you see the picture.

I do personally think the more slams you win, i.e. what the Big 3 have done, then the other stuff becomes far less signifcant, as if say Nadal ended on 21 and Federer on 20, I wouldn't be saying 'ah, but Federer won this and that...' but where that line is drawn, I'm not really sure.

No doubt Murray has probably achieved more than Wawrinka when it comes to finals but he has still only win 3 slams. I just think it comes down to slams you have won at the end of the day and not finals you have lost. As it happens I hate the whole goat argument and I like Djokovic the least out the three of them, however if it came down too it and I had to pick one player to save my life in a game of tennis I would pick Djokovic.
 
No doubt Murray has probably achieved more than Wawrinka when it comes to finals but he has still only win 3 slams. I just think it comes down to slams you have won at the end of the day and not finals you have lost. As it happens I hate the whole goat argument and I like Djokovic the least out the three of them, however if it came down too it and I had to pick one player to save my life in a game of tennis I would pick Djokovic.

Murray will always have the fact he was number 1 in the world, plus 2 Olympic good medals and he destroyed Federer (who was tired admittedly) on grass at Wimbledon for the 1st gold.
  • I mostly agree on all points but not necessarily the most grand slams to determine the greatest. Nadal is greatest on clay no doubt. Federer on grass. Djokovic on hard.
Federer playing till 38 and 1 point from winning Wimbledon (it still hurts btw) unreal. If they end up close together i.e 22,21, 20 then you can make the case for any of them. You can throw in world ranking, year end ranking, masters, total titles, head2head records.
If I paid money to watch a tennis player it's Federer
If my life dependent on a player it's Djokovic (unless on clay ;) )
Greatest match up ever - Federer v Nadal (styles make matches)

Federer is tennis in its purest form
Nadal is tennis in its rawest form
Djokovic is tennis in percentages
 
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I can never get away with watching doubles, even if a latter stage match involving a Brit or two.

Yeah, I'm not a fan either. I can watch at this stage when there's no other tennis on and there's some familiar top 50 singles players teaming up, like in this Barty/Azarenka - Kuzmova/Sasnovich match, but I've very limited interest if it was just a bunch of doubles specialists. I did see the final few games of the Jamie Murray match.
 

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