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



Been a good couple of weeks of action.

Beijing on the women's side was great last week. Osaka vs Andreescu really delived in the QF, and it was nice to see Osaka back up that win with the title in a good final with Barty. It's looking like those 3 will be the stand outs in the short to medium terms. The WTA Finals field in Shenzhen is almost complete - those 3, along with Halep, Pliskova and Kvitova, were all confirmed, and Svitolina can no longer be caught, so just one spot left. Serena currently in 8th, but will be passed by either Bertens or Bencic if one of those makes the Moscow final this week, both have R1 byes, and they are due to face each other in the semi final, so both are potentially just 3 wins from securing their place. Serena will almost certainly withdraw anyway, in which case Bertens will make it, if Bencic doesn't get to the final.

A refreshing final 4 in the Shanghai Masters as well with Zverev beating Roger, and Tsitsipas beating Novak in the quarter finals. Medvedev won yet another title and is on some run these past few months. The Big 3, Medvedev, Thiem and Tsitsipas have all qualified for the London Finals, Zverev looking likely now with his final here, but all to play for with the final spot, and Berrettini is currently in 8th. There's still a couple of 500's and the Paris Masters to go, so a lot of points to play for.
 
Session said:
First WTA title for Gauff.
Click to expand...
Yep, slightly fortunate early on as she came in as a lucky loser after losing in quals, and then her R2 opponent got injured a set and a break up, which completely changed the match, and she retired not long after, but she was great from the QF onwards, and she has now secured her place in the Aussie Open. Speaking of which, so has Heather Watson after a shock run to the Tianjin final. She lost to Peterson, but a great run, out of the blue, and now back inside the top 100.
JL1985 said:
Edmund beaten again in the Antwerp qualifiers.
Click to expand...

I don't know whether he missed the entry date by mistake, or if her specifically wanted to play quals to ideally win matches and build confidence, but it didn't do much good and a 7th straight defeat, dire. He was the defending champ so will drop to around 75 when those points come off. I always thought he was ranked a bit too high when he was top 20, but should really be safely in the top 40, but has had a nightmare year.

Fortunately Andy looks like he might actually amazingly get back towards the top 10. Still early days, but since Ricci's post he has beaten Berrettini, and twice served for the match against Fognini, both in and around the top 10, so it shows that he's not too far off that level, which is crazy when you consider that 'retirement' video package at the Aussie Open just 10 months ago. He's in the Antwerp main draw, so hopefully he can continue his progress there.
 
Last edited:
Been impressed with Murray since he came back. It's not exactly at the level of Federer re-inventing his game after injuries and becoming much more attacking, but Murray looks like he's willing to come into the net a bit more often. Dunno if playing dubs earlier this year has anything to do with it.

Great to see him back anyway, not seen any of the schedules but I assume this will be his last match of the year with him having a bairn any day now. 155th in the world from five tournaments pretty much, fairly confident he'll get back to a top 32 level and beyond if he carries on as he is.
 
Chuffed for Muz. A fellow illustrious opponent in the final, and a big, enthusiastic crowd - that could quite easily have been a Masters 1000 final rather than a 250, and it really is an unbelievable contrast to the start of the year.

Also delighted for Belinda Bencic who secured her place in the lucrative WTA finals yesterday, and then rounded off a great week by winning the Moscow title today. So that's Barty, Pliskova, Osaka, Halep, Andreescu, Kvitova, Svitolina and Bencic all confirmed now.

A rare title for Ostapenko, to back up her Linz final last week, beating Goerges in Luxembourg, and that completes the consolation Zhuhai 'Elite Trophy' line up (basically the Europa League) of Bertens, Kenin, Keys, Martic, Mertens, Sabalenka, Vekic, Riske, Sakkari, Yastremska, Muchova and local wildcard Zheng, which starts on Tuesday.

250 titles for Next Geners Rublev and Shapovalov in Moscow and Stockholm, and 500 events in Vienna and Basel this coming week with the final 2 ATP Finals spots still up for grabs.
 
Saw earlier on that Cibulkova retired today, not exactly a massive surprise but still a shame nonetheless.

Seems like there was barely any big name retirements after Roddick for about five years and now since Pennetta went they've all been dropping like flies.
 
A ha, a couple of bumps :D. I've still been massively following the tennis these past few weeks, but the new forum changes aren't great. Back in the day, the last poster could post 24+ hours later and the thread would be bumped, but now, if the last poster posts again then it just runs into the old post and stays where it is within the forum, i.e a few pages back, so there's not much point.

Interesting few weeks - the WTA Finals, despite their headline making prize fund, were a bit of a disaster. Andreescu and Osaka both withdrawing in the group stage was an absolute hammer blow, as did (alternate) Bertens. Bencic then was clearly hampered in her semi final with Svitolina and retired in the third set, so 4 of the 9 either withdrew or retired. Fair play to Barty, she has been the most consistent this year and ends the year 1000+ points clear over the next person, and was the player of the year, but this title did kind of have a little bit of a feeling of beating the scraps with her not having to face Andreescu or Osaka.

Kiki Mladenovic almost single handedly won the Fed Cup final for France against Australia (in Perth), winning both singles matches (including Barty) and then the best player in the deciding doubles rubber. Sinner very impressive in winning the Next Gen finals.

Superb comeback from Nadal earlier today against Medvedev, but if Zverev beats Medvedev on Friday then Rafa can't qualify. I'm hoping Roger can win his huge match with Djokovic tomorrow evening (8pm on Prime), but I can't really see it happening. Still a match / occasion to look forward to though.
 
The fact that Nadal, Djokovic and Federer are all out shows how seriously they take these ATP finals. Can guarantee that whoever wins this tournament wont win a slam next year, in fact would be very surprised if anyone outside of them three win a slam next year.
 
Thiem vs Tsitsipas in the final.
Born Never Asked said:
The fact that Nadal, Djokovic and Federer are all out shows how seriously they take these ATP finals. Can guarantee that whoever wins this tournament wont win a slam next year, in fact would be very surprised if anyone outside of them three win a slam next year.
Click to expand...

Or, the way the reached after certain results showed how they do take it seriously. Roger absolutely buzzing after beating Novak in their all or nothing final round robin match, and Nadal still going for nearly 3 hours, coming from behind to beat Tsitsipas even after he'd already secured the year and #1, and was eliminated on sets won, despite winning 2 group matches.
*year end
 
Last edited:
That was an absolutely superb tour finals - there was pretty much a story / great match every day.

Thiem with big wins over Federer and epecially Djokovic in what was a brilliant match. Nadal losing his first match and then recovering from 1-5 final set against Medvedev. Federer eliminating Djokovic to secure the YE #1 for Rafa. Rafa and Tsitsipas going toe to toe in another epic, but wasn't quite enough for Rafa as Zverev won later on to eliminate him, and finally, another absolutely cracking match in the final with Tsitsipas triumphing over Thiem in 3 sets. I've been fortunate to be able to watch pretty much all the matches this past week (just on TV) and I've thoroughly enjoyed it - I definitely want to go to the O2 next year in the final year before they move to Turin.

So on to the new Davis Cup tomorrow in the final televised tennis event of 2019. GB play on Wednesday and Eurosport have the rights.
 
The Bridge Lad said:
That was an absolutely superb tour finals - there was pretty much a story / great match every day.

Thiem with big wins over Federer and epecially Djokovic in what was a brilliant match. Nadal losing his first match and then recovering from 1-5 final set against Medvedev. Federer eliminating Djokovic to secure the YE #1 for Rafa. Rafa and Tsitsipas going toe to toe in another epic, but wasn't quite enough for Rafa as Zverev won later on to eliminate him, and finally, another absolutely cracking match in the final with Tsitsipas triumphing over Thiem in 3 sets. I've been fortunate to be able to watch pretty much all the matches this past week (just on TV) and I've thoroughly enjoyed it - I definitely want to go to the O2 next year in the final year before they move to Turin.

So on to the new Davis Cup tomorrow in the final televised tennis event of 2019. GB play on Wednesday and Eurosport have the rights.
Click to expand...
Been there today, super stuff
 

Back
Top