Love, Balls and Courting: Tennis V

:cheer2: Wheee Kerber! Ostapenko annoys me, :lol:.

For all the talk of the top 10 women’s seeds losing early, I do think order was restored a bit by the semis. All four were seeded players, and three of them were former grand slam champions. Even Gorges, while perhaps a surprise, didn’t come out of nowhere. She’s finally been realizing her potential the last couple years.

Still can’t believe Fed lost. :(
 
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Lorac said:
Nadal has to get past Novak who is playing the best he has for a while. Whoever wins that semi will be the fav for the final now Federer is out - still shocked about that exit.
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I feel Nadal has played a consistent game so far. Djokovic, not so much. Del Potro is a fab player and really is second best on the circuit to Nadal, he has been too unlucky with injuries.
 
Well both ladies semis were short affairs - just over an hour for each with Angelique Kerber and Serena Williams prevailing. Serena had just improved with each round and Angie having a quieter but efficient progression. At least Kerber has won and been in GS finals before - and beating Serena in the Aussie final in 2016 - so hopefully the final will be a competitive affair as she shouldn't freeze and be in awe of Serena.

I still am gob smacked about Federer and can't see past the winner of the Novak Rafer winning it all unfortunately.
 
Awww, I wanted to see more of Roger at Wimby! :( I have to search for highlights of what happened to Fed vs Isner? Amazing win for Isner if it was him who took out Fed -- I didn't see the match. ETA: Oh, I see that Kevin Anderson will meet Isner in the semis, and it was Kevin Anderson who took out Federer! :eek:

I hate Nadal and Novak having to play each other in the semis. And now I just read that Isner said (supposedly prior to the quarterfinals) that he 'hopes Trump will come see him play.' Aaargh! Now I will be rooting against Isner! I can't deal with anyone who gives Trump any credibility. I believe the Queen is only meeting with Trump out of courtesy and respect for the office of U.S. president. I can't imagine that she has any respect whatsoever for Trump himself!!!

I'm trying to find where Isner said that (perhaps in a press conference). I see an article with a headline saying Isner said that, but in the video clip and body of the article, there's no indication that he said it. He is however from North Carolina. Anyway, I've always liked Isner and I hope he didn't actually bring it up himself but was maybe egged on by the media.

Also, Duchess of Sussex and Duchess of Cambridge will be in the royal box on Saturday for Serena's match against Angelique!
 
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aftershocks said:
Awww, I wanted to see more of Roger at Wimby! :( I have to search for highlights of what happened to Fed vs Isner? Amazing win for Isner if it was him who took out Fed -- I didn't see the match. ETA: Oh, I see that Kevin Anderson will meet Isner in the semis, and it was Kevin Anderson who took out Federer! :eek:

I hate Nadal and Novak having to play each other in the semis. And now I just read that Isner said (supposedly prior to the quarterfinals) that he 'hopes Trump will come see him play.' Aaargh! Now I will be rooting against Isner! I can't deal with anyone who gives Trump any credibility. I believe the Queen is only meeting with Trump out of courtesy and respect for the office of U.S. president. I can't imagine that she has any respect whatsoever for Trump himself!!!

I'm trying to find where Isner said that (perhaps in a press conference). I see an article with a headline saying Isner said that, but in the video clip and body of the article, there's no indication that he said it. He is however from North Carolina. Anyway, I've always liked Isner and I hope he didn't actually bring it up himself but was maybe egged on by the media.

Also, Duchess of Sussex and Duchess of Cambridge will be in the royal box on Saturday for Serena's match against Angelique!
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Maybe Trump can pull a "Clinton," finding Isner well ahead in his match, only to disrupt the vibe in the stadium turning it around for his opponent; sorta like what happened to Agassi at the FO in 2001! Andre was comfortably winning his match against Grojean, Clinton came in halfway thru, bathed in the applause for quite a while, then Agassi preceded to become an UFE machine, finishing with 52! Anyone remember? Bill was on a book tour IIRC! Andre had the nerve to say he hadn't noticed Clinton and his appearance had nothing to do with the loss! :rolleyes::COP::duh::lynch::revenge:
 
John Isner vs. Kevin Anderson SF #1 ... 12-11 Isner in the 5th with Anderson serving...
 
Currently 16-17. This is silly - maybe introducing a tie-break at 10-all in the final set!!
 
Lorac said:
Currently 16-17. This is silly - maybe introducing a tie-break at 10-all in the final set!!
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I liked the days when a TB was @ 8 all in the first 4 sets! Borg won a few 9-7's on his run to his 1st title in '76! :rolleyes::saint:
 
One of our local sports reporters had a funny tweet that since the match begun he has watched it in three different locations: on the treadmill at the gym, at Saints/Pelicans headquarters covering a news conference and now at the office.

If 60/58 comes into play, someone on the scheduling committee needs to be fired.
 
Oh boy. Even though I said I wouldn't root for Isner, I was rooting all the way. He's a nice guy, and I don't see where he said that about Trump. If he did say it, likely his comments were probably due to a pushy query from the media. I'm really astonished by people who enable Trump and make excuses for him, aside from the greedy, ignorant, grasping and deplorable Trump minions.

I can't believe that match between Anderson & Isner. It was actually boring at times, because of their style of play. But boy, neither wanted to give up. Still, to me Anderson looked like a vampire going for blood most of the way through the match, though he too was apparently feeling gassed in the latter stages. Kudos to Isner who looked tired and practically depleted for most of the fourth and all of the way too long fifth set! :eek: Obviously, Isner simply could barely lift his arms in the final game (in his post-match press conference, Isner explains that he developed blisters on his feet over the course of the match). I hope this marathon won't have any lasting debilitating impact on either Isner or Anderson. :saint: Isner did all he could on his serve, but he could never catch a break on Anderson's serve in the fifth set endless back-and-forth.

And I'm really not happy about Rafa not prevailing in that third set after he looked to be playing a bit better than Nole (who seemed tired). I guess at least they got in some tennis (with the roof covered and lights turned on). I do wonder why the British Wimby honchos feel 11:00pm is the absolute limit for playing time. They are so prim and proper. There's no way that Rafa and Nole should have had to wait for as long as they did to start play!!!

Do any of you guys think they should have halted Isner and Anderson match at a reasonable time in order to give Rafa and Nole a chance to get their full match in? Or maybe one of these semis should have been played on a different court at a slightly delayed time. It's ridiculous to go on and on in a fifth set (as Anderson said in his post-match press conference). I agree with Anderson and Isner that if a fifth set extends to 12-all (which is exceedingly rare), then it's best to institute a tiebreak at that point to help speed the end of play (and to preserve players' health and well-being).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ile_VqzopM Anderson's post-match press conf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYbditToThE Isner's post-match press conf.
Some strange international reporter asked Isner about Trump visiting the Queen and whether or not Isner thought Trump might have watched his match on tv :duh: -- What a dunce question! :rolleyes: The way Isner responded at about 16:47: "I would say, NO, but maybe. I don't know. I don't have his phone number, so I can't text him," makes me think it's been the media querying Isner with stupid questions about Trump, in an effort to try and get Isner to say something negative about Trump. In any case, Isner doesn't appear to be a huge Trump fan. So I will be mindful of jumping to conclusions based on reading an unreliable and contextually unconfirmed press headline. :drama: :shuffle:
 
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Catherine M said:
Isner still has five hours to go to break his record of the longest Wimbledon match. Hopefully it won't come to that!
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That match in 2010, lasted 11 hrs and 5 min, but it also took them 3 days to finish. :eek: It was a first round match, so that gave the organizers at least some leeway in the scheduling. But I'm sure it was still a major inconvenience. They need to make changes (i.e., at 12-all in a fifth set, institute a tiebreak). I hope Rafa and Nole will speak out about this too.
 
No way should the Anderson Isner match have been suspended to allow Nadal Djokovic to play their match out. That would smack if utter favouritism. Now as to whether they should be a final set tie break I suggested to a friend yesterday that 12-12 in the final set is a good point to do a tie break. Both Isner and Anderson have mentioned the same score which is basically an extra set. Hopefully some discussion will occur around this as 3 of the 4 Slams don't do a tie break in the 5th - just the US playing a tie break in all 5 sets.

The Nadal Djokovic match could either be done in 30 min or 2 hours. The ladies just have to wait it out.
 
@Jeschke gets his wish and Kerber prevails. Her offense matched her defense today and Serena just played pretty poorly today, didn't move well at all.
 
Aaargh, I missed the final two sets this morning of the resumed Novak vs Rafa match. I saw a few highlights of the last two sets, but that's not like seeing it live. Yesterday, it was obvious that both were playing well. Still, I think Rafa actually was playing a bit better overall, except he unfortunately didn't win some big points that made the difference. It was crucial to win the third set, especially since they stopped play immediately afterward last evening. So the edge went to Nole today. Although of course neither think like that, especially not Nadal. As Nole said in his press conference, "Rafa is probably the best fighter to ever play this game. He battles every single point like it's his last. That's something that's so impressive with Rafa. And that's what makes him so difficult to beat on any surface... And so coming into a match against him knowing you have to earn your points, is already an energy-spending moment..."

Neither Nole nor Rafa complained about the Isner vs Anderson match going on so long. As champions, they know the importance of accepting the conditions and playing through whatever happens. The media tried to make a big deal out of play resuming under the roof today (since indoor play suits Nole's game better). Apparently, the tournament likes to keep conditions the same. I would have thought they'd play with the roof open today, because it was only closed yesterday because of the late starting time. When first asked in English, Rafa declined to speak about the closed roof because he said, "If I answer that question, you're going to make the match about that." Later when questioned again about the roof by Spanish-language reporters, Rafa must have elaborated re the fact the players are asked their preference. And obviously Rafa preferred to play with the roof open, and Nole didn't. If both players had agreed on playing without the roof, the tournament organizers would have acceded to their mutual wishes.

I do think it's a shame that for a great match like this, it had to be interrupted and that they had to play under the roof the second day when the sun was shining. But both guys are experienced champions, and they realize when it comes down to it, you just have to be ready for anything. Rafa always seems fairly matter-of-fact in his responses to the media, because there's no point in agonizing or over-analyzing. Rafa has responded that he leaves those types of over-analyses to the reporters. What Rafa has come through over the years with his numerous injuries is amazing. As Rafa said about the factors surrounding this latest match, "That's the game. Nole deserved to win. We both deserved to win. He won. He's a great rival... The other day, del Potro played great. He deserved to win. We both deserved to win. I won. It can always go either way. I played my best. I have no complaints..."

I hope that the match tomorrow will be another great one. I actually would love to see Anderson pull off another upset, particularly since this is his second Grand Slam final, and it's a hella difficult to get there in an era with greats like Rafa, Federer, Novak, Murray, and del Potro playing the game. Even for guys with extraordinary talent like Monfils, Tsonga, Berdych and some of the younger up-and-comers, it's extremely difficult to breakthrough and to win slams with giants of the stature of Federer, Rafa Nadal, and Novak playing great tennis. Only a handful of guys beyond four familiar names since 2003 (the year Fed won his first Grand Slam, and the year Agassi won his last slam), have even won one Grand Slam: Stan Wawrinka (3); Gaston Gaudio (1); Andy Roddick (1); Marat Safin (1); del Potro (1); Marin Cilic (1). Even Andy Murray, who is often named along with the top three heavyweights because he's battled against them often in big slam matches, has only managed to win two Wimbledon crowns, and one U.S. Open. Murray has yet to win the Australian and French Opens. Everything else has gone to Federer, Rafa, and Novak.

Rafa has been in a ton of Australian Open finals, but he's only one once. OTOH, Rafa has won eleven French Opens, three U.S. Opens, and two Wimbledon crowns (with his 2008 final vs Roger being debatably deemed the best tennis match ever played). If not for Novak's rise, Rafa would likely have already matched and/or surpassed Federer's record 20 Grand Slam wins. Rafa is currently at 17, even with his injury ups-and-downs. Meanwhile, Federer holds 6 Australian Open titles (many won against Rafa), one French Open, 8 Wimbledon crowns, and 5 U.S. Opens. Novak has won the Australian Open 6 times, the French Open once, Wimbledon 3 times, with his 4th chance tomorrow, and the U.S. Open 2 times.

Looking at those stats, Roger Federer actually does not seem like a normal human being, and neither does Rafa with 11 French Open titles on clay, hard fought wins at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and with his record of Grand Slam final appearances. Novak Djokovic has scratched tooth and nail to grab 12 Grand Slams often from Rafa and Fed, who are his biggest rivals. Of course, Nole's 13th opportunity comes tomorrow against a hungry giant of a server in Kevin Anderson. I think Novak saw that Roger and Rafa scooped up all the Grand Slams last year, and he was eager to get back to Centre Court after being frustrated by his injuries. He surely wants to keep pace and attempt to surpass his fellow nemeses.

This era in tennis is incredible. It's a shame that it's a bit harder to follow closely in the age of no sports on regular television. I was fortunately able to locate a European livestream to watch Wimbledon. Mostly, I've had to catch highlights on Youtube in recent years.
 
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