Tennis 2024

Is anyone else a bit underwhelmed this year? Unless I’ve been watching the wrong matches maybe.

Alcaraz / Tiafoe was GREAT but everything else I’ve watched has been quite one sided.

I suppose the best matches come in the second week anyway. Still enjoying it and the results have been pleasantly unpredictable but not many players are having consistent form and it’s messing with the quality a bit.
 
funky said:
Is anyone else a bit underwhelmed this year? Unless I’ve been watching the wrong matches maybe.
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Sinner-Berrettini was very good, Yastremska-Vekic was great, so was Paolini-Keys until Keys got injured but the rest of CC and C1 has been a little meh.

Doesn't help that it's been an awfully wet first week and the outer courts have been so stop-start, so some of the more competitive matches (Vekic-Badosa, Wozniacki-Fernandez) had momentum halted multiple times. Fils' five set win was super cool though, plus he's hot.

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If you have 20 minutes to spare and you're into perfection watch set 1 of Rybakina-Wozniacki cause that was insane from Elena.
 
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Apoca said:
Sinner-Berrettini was very good, Yastremska-Vekic was great, so was Paolini-Keys until Keys got injured but the rest of CC and C1 has been a little meh.

Doesn't help that it's been an awfully wet first week and the outer courts have been so stop-start, so some of the more competitive matches (Vekic-Badosa, Wozniacki-Fernandez) had momentum halted multiple times. Fils' five set win was super cool though, plus he's hot.

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If you have 20 minutes to spare and you're into perfection watch set 1 of Rybakina-Wozniacki cause that insane from Elena.
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The French talent this year is off the scale, Mpetshi Perricard is doing well, especially as a lucky lose. I can see him going far in the future.
 
rhythm bandit said:
Zverev is so salty these days, he has all the weapons but doesn't utilise them enough.
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To be fair in tennis terms he’s racking up a fair few heartbreaking big losses from winning positions the last few seasons so I can understand a bit of saltiness by this stage.
 
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Honestly, an absolute joy to watch Paolini today. So much skill, hands and craft around the court and coming into the net.
 
I missed her match today but Paolini is a woman on fire. every game has been a joy to watch, the way she zooms around court, the aggression and precision on her shots. and she seems lovely as fuck too.

loving this ITALIAN TENNIS RENAISSANCE!
 
Jark said:
I missed her match today but Paolini is a woman on fire. every game has been a joy to watch, the way she zooms around court, the aggression and precision on her shots. and she seems lovely as fuck too.

loving this ITALIAN TENNIS RENAISSANCE!
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It was good to see Musetti win today, too. Hopefully the Djokovic match will be competitive, the match at the French Open in 2022 was until he lost 10 games in a row before retiring.
 
The five setter Musetti and Djokovic played a few weeks ago at the French suggest the Italian will not be too overawed by the occasion though that ended in a 6-0 final set.

Some of the on court interviews have a been a little cringe. Today they spoke to Krejcikova as if she was some random novice breaking through not an Olympic gold medalist with 11 slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed.
 
Annabel Croft is a specialist in cringe. some of her questions are more than a little... REDUCTIVE
 
Very hyped for the women's semifinals, I'd be happy with any of them winning, though Rybakina-Paolini feels like the likeliest outcome. Funnily enough Rybakina looks like the one to beat but she has a negative head 2 head against Krejcikova and level against both Paolini and Vekic (and the Vekic loss was on grass).

Truth be told, love me some Babs, wouldn't mind it it she snatched the whole tournament. :disco:
 
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Team Barbie here. Loving her second coming. She looked awful just a couple of months ago.
 
Babs hasn't lost a singles match since Garbiñe was announced as WTA Finals tournament director.

Queen Krejc surging after her dire first half of 2024 to arrive in Riyadh for "so unprofessional" reloaded :disco:

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Sorry I don’t really follow the circuit, but how has Paolini been able to climb up so drastically from never getting past a second round in any Grand Slam, to her results this year, quite relatively late in her career?

Or is this a COVID thing, with 2020-2022 being sort of wilderness years for lots of people?
 
Ellie said:
Sorry I don’t really follow the circuit, but how has Paolini been able to climb up so drastically from never getting past a second round in any Grand Slam, to her results this year, quite relatively late in her career?

Or is this a COVID thing, with 2020-2022 being sort of wilderness years for lots of people?
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She’s always been a clean striker of the ball but has been working exclusively with a good coach for the past two years rather than as part of a coaching team as before, but she’s added a bit more aggression when needed, she was much more of a defensive player before.

Self belief is much better than before too, she was always capable, for example she drew Kvitova twice in the first round of Wimbledon and took her to a deciding set both times.
 
jesus that Paolini Vekic semi was one for the ages :disco: two women who did NOT want to lose a match of tennis. I love a match with a great second set and a scrappy third set that goes right to the wire.

Vekic especially I thought was dead on her legs but somehow just hitting winners and surviving and even looking likelier for a minute to seal it... but somehow you knew Paolini would. she has to be favourite on Saturday.
 
Ellie said:
Sorry I don’t really follow the circuit, but how has Paolini been able to climb up so drastically from never getting past a second round in any Grand Slam, to her results this year, quite relatively late in her career?

Or is this a COVID thing, with 2020-2022 being sort of wilderness years for lots of people?
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You can always rely on Wimbledon to bring a potential champion out of the wilderness
 
Jark said:
jesus that Paolini Vekic semi was one for the ages :disco: two women who did NOT want to lose a match of tennis. I love a match with a great second set and a scrappy third set that goes right to the wire.

Vekic especially I thought was dead on her legs but somehow just hitting winners and surviving and even looking likelier for a minute to seal it... but somehow you knew Paolini would. she has to be favourite on Saturday.
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Vekic always looks dead on her legs after one point and after three hours, bless her soul.

Very open on Saturday, Krejc has the slight advantage of having done this (winning a slam) before and having more late-Slam experience across singles doubles and mixed. Paolini is more "reliably in form" this year. Very curious to see how they will both adjust, having played some really big hitters in the SFs and QFs and now they will have to be much more proactive rather than counter-punching and absorbing pace which especially Krejcikova did brilliantly against Penko and Rybakina.
 
All things as they have been I’d put Krejcikova as a firm favourite and I think all this Jana Novotna talk she’s been making is causing her to be very determined. However, Paolini I think will get the crowd support and she responds well to that so we’ll see.
 
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I feel like it might swing in Novak's direction this year. Carlos looked sharper last year, and Novak looked solid today.

Though Carlos has the more recent Slam wins in his pocket.
 
stunning first set from Barbora, she was almost unplayable, but Jasmine has really come into it and looks the likelier to win this now. she looks light on her feet, unburdened... by what has been. :disco:
 
^ unless you’re certain probably better just to have your 2nd serve straight away rather than lose your rhythm waiting for a challenge outcome.

Glad Barbora won and got her 2nd singles slam title, I think women’s tennis doesn’t need another one time winner just now, three or four sharing them for a season or two is better for it at this stage.
 
BoysForSeles said:
^ unless you’re certain probably better just to have your 2nd serve straight away rather than lose your rhythm waiting for a challenge outcome.

Glad Barbora won and got her 2nd singles slam title, I think women’s tennis doesn’t need another one time winner just now, three or four sharing them for a season or two is better for it at this stage.
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Agree with this. The slam winners have been slightly more consistent since 2021, and you'd probably favour most of those who have won only one slam to go on and win a few more in the years ahead (Gauffand Rybakina highly, Radacanu, Vondrousova slightly less so).

Pleased for Barbora, and I think Sabalenka's would have been there on the other side of the draw had she not pulled out with injury. She's been so consistent at the slams and in the Wimbledon semis 3 times I think?
 
Agreed. If I was at the final I’d feel kind of cheated, the crowd are a bit deflated by this being so one sided, but I’ll take it if Djokovic gets thrashed.

I expect this third set to be more competitive though.
 
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