The Gays & Tennis part 45

Ugh the paywalling is back. Pervolarakis (GRE) is bulging again and it's only the warmup. He must have one of the biggest dicks on the tour. Ass not bad either.

and Tsitsipas continues to own Zverev. 6-1 6-4 Zverev did go up 2-0 in the 2nd set but obviously that lead was short-lived

His double faulting and forehand woes let him down AGAIN

Zverev is going to have a hard time staying in the top 10 if he doesn't turn his form around. Locker rooms can smell blood in the water. The lower ranked sharks are circling around him now. I expect him to hand out a lot of free top 10 victories to random top 50 guys in the next couple months. The aura is GONE and he seems to be in a tailspin even before he's come close to winning a slam

Tsitsipas looked better today than against Shapovalov the other day but he definitely got help by his opponent's poor errors

Sissypants now leads him 5-1. And that is the last 5 wins in a row, too. I agree that he was helped a lot by Zverev's scrubbery today, but he did look really good. Some HUGE forehands on the run. Terrific behind the serve. If he brings this level throughout the season, or even rises to the level he had during the ATP finals, he could win some bigger titles. At least a Masters.

Basically he just needs to improve at Best of Five (this applies to everyone except the big 3), scheduling smarter, and certain matchups he struggles with (lefties like Nadal and Shapo, FAA too).

Muriel really hates tennis

Tsitsipas always means trouble to Zverev even when he is playing well, but unless he improves a lot he is going to suffer even more than last season.

He was winning very easily against De Miñaur, and suddenly he tanked which against someone so focuses as Alex means losing.

He has the bad luck of being in a group were everyone could defeat him, and unless he improves a lot he is going to lose again against Shapovalov.

Other one who is going to be in trouble unless he improves a lot is Felix. He has the advantage of not defending anything on the Australian Open, but an early elimination will mean a lot of pressure because he raised his level just after Australia last season.

I don't know if it was the pressure or getting distracted (every player who starts to post pics with the girlfriend on instagram take a slump really fast) but his level went down a lot after Wimbledon. And i didn't like his attitude at the US Open at all

Zverev made his father cry during the match

Paywall is back when the tennis thread is picking up traffic again. Stop with this stupid experiment. It only makes fewer people post on DL.

Honestly I think people got a bit overexcited when Felix rose up the rankings last year. Expectations are too high. Don't get me wrong, he's a VERY good player for his age. I love his game. But gunning through a few depleted draws during the B-level clay season, while every decent player is either taking time off or playing indoors in Europe, doesn't mean you're going to be a consistent force. The only quality player he beat during those runs was Fognini who can lose to anyone if he isn't in the zone.

His ranking is also HUGELY inflated by his Miami results (about 55% of his entire ranking). Where the only seeded players he beat were a slumping/injured Coric, a brainless Basilashvili, and a hopeless Fucscovics. Even his other big result like the Stuttgart Final is a bit misleading. He benefited from a massive choke from Dustin Brown in the QF (Dustin had several MPs), and in the SF he got a walkover from fellow Canadian Milos Raonic.

He'll get there eventually (especially as older players start retiring), and the potential is huge. But I think a steadier incline would have been healthier for his career trajectory and sophomore season.

Medvedev destroyed Isner 63 61

R7: People overreact this way all the time. Anyway, now the next big thing is not Felix anymore but Sinner. Fortunately Sinner has a coach with the feet on the ground and the first thing he said was that Jannik didn't win anything at all so better stay calm

What a choke from Greece in the doubles! Stef and Pervolarakis were the better players for most of the match, and even had SEVERAL match points on their serve. Eventually they limply gave it over to the RG champions with messy errors.

This means Australia will advance to the next stage (which is probably good for the future of the ATP Cup $$... which is why I was rooting for the Greek upset lol as I wish this glorified exhibition would die).

Further controversy as NO womens matches will be played on centre court until THURSDAY in Brisbane due to the ATP Cup taking preference. This is a Premier level event for the women. Angie Kerber vs Sam Stosur, with four slams between them and one of them being a local player, are playing on the outside court while South Africa and Chile have the Pat Rafter Arena (and you can see online how few tickets have been sold for that encounter....). Pliskova and Stosur have criticised this when asked by the press. World #1 and local Brisbane girl Ash Barty gave a very PC answer and said she was happy to play anywhere. When will the WTA get a backbone?

Here's a great shot from Sissypants in the doubles.

What's the point of ATP Cup when there was the Davis Cup 1 month ago?

It's difficult to have a backbone when you are pretty concious that the level of interest in women's tennis is nowhere near of the one that men's generate.

Wta has been in a slump for a decade. You need consistent top players and you need rivaldries. Now, with young players like Andreescu or Osaka you can build something interesting, but you need some personality and of course you need top players to deliver

R378 from the previous thread, I agree with you about Chris Evert. The pencil joke about Bouchard is so stale and boring. Bouchard was having a great year, although I knew after the 2014 Wimbledon final that she'd never really amount to anything. You could see the look on Bouchard's face after Kvitova destroyed her. I think that one match sank Bouchard's confidence and career. I had seen that look before, after Seles beat Capriati in a much closer and excellent US Open semi-final in 1991. Capriati had played well, but Seles dug in and came up with the shots when it counted most. Capriati had a good resurrection to her career in the early 2000s, but that match with Seles derailed her for years. I think the Bouchard-Kvitova match had a similar effect, although I do agree that Bouchard was overhyped for her actual talent level.

hoping this is the year of Isner's rapid decline

but to be fair the last couple years he's lost early in Australia

Wow Flopos verbally abused his father during the match

making your father cry during a match? cold

someone who commented on the tweet at R15 said

[quote]He is so rude to the tennis fans. Met him yesterday here in Brisbane and he dismissed every one who asked for a pic with a flatout NO. The least he couldve said was No, I'm sorry. Is that hard to do??

His father is probably responsible for creating this spoiled brat. Karma!

Doha qualifying:

DL fave Fucsovics def. Vesely in 3

M. Ymer def. Davidovich Fokina in 3

Anyone else watching Cilic play the guy who looks like a Bel Ami star? Kacper Zuk.

yeah Zuk is cute

Kuznetsova withdraws from Auckland

Hurkacz destroys Coric 6-2 6-2

omg Stosur just defeated Kerber in 2 tiebreaks in Australia

Good for Sam! Finally coming out of the closet has done wonders for her. She should have done it years ago, nobody gives a rat’s ass that she eats pussy. Well - Margaret Court but nobody else.

Auckland:

Gauff def. Kuzmova 6-3 6-`

Kastakina def. CSN 6-3 3-6 6-2

Bouchard def. Flipkens 7-5 7-5

Garcia def. Townsend 5-7 6-3 7-5

Brisbane:

Collins def. Svitolina 6-1 6-1

Kenin def. Sevastova 7-6(1) 6-4

Strycova def. Konta 6-2 3-6 6-3 Konta now 0-3 against Strycova ouch

Muguruza and Sabalenka both win

*Muguruza and Sabalenka are in Shenzhen

Call Me Coco is a nightmare opponent for impatient and slow Kuzmova. She is too steady.

Camila Giorgi def. Bonaventure in the final round of qualifying at Auckland. But unluckily she drew Serena in round 1 (replacing Kuznetsova), while Bonaventure ended up getting a LL spot anyway and will face Cornet lol. I'd rather have lost.

The Garcia / Townsend match was a very high level for two such messy players. Townsend reveals on Behind The Racquet that her mother was stealing money from her.

Mangelique Kerber got beaten by Sam Prehistosur in AUSTRALIA? Mess. Especially from 5-2 up in a tiebreak. I've seen Sam shank three balls in a row before in such a situation. Ever since she doubled down on her lezzy power, came out and hired friend Rennae Stubbs as coach, she's been in very solid form (made a final at the end of last year and narrowly lost it to Kenin).

America’s Sweetheart Danielle Collins EVISCERATED Svitolina. She was eating that puffball serve for breakfast. Reminded me of Mary Fierce back in the day. Collins defends a SF at the AO, so it was a good time to pick up form.

Damn Titsy has filled out nicely. Dude looks like a statue at the Temple of Apollo.

fuck yeah

R19: Davidovich has a trend, he wins the first set, lose the second in a tight fight and then goes on a slump in the third. I suppose he is improving because this time he fought and he was on the verge of a come back. He is a very entertaining player and he has talent, but he needs to be more consistent and reduce the number of mistakes. I suppose it's understable he wants to do hot shots, but you need to be careful or you l ose a lot of points on a silly way.

I watched Kuhn on the spanish next gen master and if he stays healthy he will break into the top 100 this year. He still makes silly mistakes, but he has a lot of talent

Serena and Woz won 6-2, 6-4

French qualifier Corentin Moutet beats Tennys Sandgren 7-6 6-4 in Doha

Tennys has a big mouth with no game to back up with

good news is he's sitting on defending 250 points next week with his attempted Auckland title defense. If he loses early he'll either be out of the top 100 or close to it.

Someone should post a link to the previous thread so people would stop posting there.

Any chance of Serena losing today?

Love Tennys or hate him, he's ripped with amazing abs.

hey guys for at least the time being, part 44 thread is open again so we can head back there and use this again when it's paywalled again

Nah, just give up on 44, otherwise, when this one gets paywalled and then 46, etc., we'll have too many open. Once it is paywalled once, it is dead to me.

Felix down to Struff 6-1 6-4

Felix was doing fine untill he started dating that slut

His GF was in the stands with his sister.

Zverev is getting destroyed. HAHA

Sloth is struggling against some unknown low ranked Ova

Sasha Zverev collapse is complete !

Shapovalov def. Zverev 6-2 6-2 ouch

so he lost all 3 matches to younger guys on his heels. 7 double faults, broken 4 times

Stephens loses in 3 to Samsonova. More of the same from Sloane. Not doing enough with the ball often enough.

Brisbane WTa has three round qualifying rounds . No wonder poor Samsonova has already ton of bondage on her right leg s

Anisimova starts her season with a win.

Serena quite sharp against Giorgi today. Clearly the doubles match yesterday helped her shake off some rust

Shenzhen:

#1 seed Bencic upset in 3 by Blinkova

the lesser Pliskova twin def. defending champ Sabalenka 6-4 6-4

Casper Ruud is such a cutie.

I was sure Giorgi would outhit and outrun Serena but I was wrong. Serena served incredibly well and rallied impressively. Camilla is serious but scrappy. Good match.

R41: On other circumstances i would say the comment was sexist, but in this case it's totally true. He was a very focused young man, very determined and he was playing well, suddenly he started to date her and the results went down the toilet and he has a very poor attitude on court.

I doubt he'll do well in the Australian Open and he will drop like a stone in the rankings after that. Maybe it's the wake up call that he needs.

Zverev is starting to remind me of Coria. Guillermo started to have trouble with his serve and all his game fell like a house of cards after that, in a very short time he went from being a top contender to being beat by everyone.

By the way, if you are a young promising player you don't do what Zverev did in the off season. That's good for grampa Roger who has nothing to prove (and i'll be surprised if Federer is a threat in Australia) but when you are an aspiring young player you need to prepare better and rest. And of course it's the new girlfriend, he is doing exactly the same he did with the last one and we all know how well that ended

R30: Felix first set was terrible, a lot of unforced errors

So pleased to see Sharapova schooled in that third-set tiebreaker. Brady is a tough little nut.

Meldonia is out. This is what they get for giving her a wildcard (and a qualifier in the first round to try make it even easier). Big thank you to Jennifer Brady for keeping tennis clean.

Zverev is truly looking a MESS in his matches. The Coria comparison upthread is very apt.

Grigor loses to Goffin but is currently in the doubles to try and save Bulgaria's ass.

The Moldovan #2 Alexander Cozbinov is really cute.

Daniel Evans looks to be in TERRIFIC form this season. I can't stand him, he's such an ugly chav but he's obviously had a great off season. Could crack the slam seeding zone if he plays this well throughout the year.

Naomi Osaka hit 15 aces today and still barely edged Maria Sakkari in the 3rd set. Work to do.

Pavlyuchenkova won the first set against Kvitova but after winning a game in the 2nd she lost 11 games in a row to flub the match lol.

KLM stewardess and top 10 player Kiki Bertens won today against Yastremska. Here she is with an early contender for shady comment of the Aussie swing (see below).

Rumours has it the air quality in Melbourne is so bad that the entire AO may be played indoors, as the three main stadium courts have roofs and there are 8 other indoor courts in Melbourne park. This is based on what Tennis Australia said on their twitter if the air quality level didn't go back below 200. Surely this favours Federer and big servers like Serena/Kvitova.

KLM Kiki is right though, it's gamesmanship

Titsy injured his father Apostolos when he smashed his racket during his match against Kyrgios

They are a bunch of spoiled brats.

But i doubt Titsi father is going to react like Zverev's, he doesn't seem to be the type who suffer fools even if he is his son

No, r59, he isn’t. I have a feeling he’s going to get a mighty tongue lashing from his mother *and* father.

I hope he at least apologize. He lost his match and deserved to lose.

Nadal never broke a raquet in his life, Roger started to be the player he is now when he decided to change his in court behaviour, but this youngsters don't udnerstand a think.

Even Nole who seems unable to repress himself at least shows remorse for his behaviour.

Did Zverev said something about what happened in his match against Tsitsipas? His father crying was not a good image or something to be proud of

His father is a pussy Crying like a woman and embarrassing his beautiful bisexual son in front of the whole world

Fog won Taylor Fridge lost

R62: Zverev is a pussy hound. Melo "i think a gay player should be respectful in the showers" seems to have a problem to talk to women, but Sascha, he is a lady's man (more or less his own words)

Domi eating a banana

Nice sweaty arms at R65.

Zverev dropping out of top 20 would be a dream come true.

What he did with his hair is a crime.

[quote]Meldonia is out. This is what they get for giving her a wildcard

Sharadopa is fairly confident she'll get an AO wildcard too

Nice two handed technique on that 🍌.

R58 you can see Tsitsipas' mother leaning over the railing to yell at him too after he did that. Hopefully they both put him in his place. I don't care how upset you get-you don't injure someone or in Zverev's case, verbally abuse your parent.

LMFAO Isner lost all 3 singles matches! I hope he's going to fall hard down the rankings this season

surprised Brady held her nerve. The last time she played Sharapova she was a very inconsistent player

Thiem's fellow Austrian Dennis Novak also has a pretty big, strong tuchus

Genie is BACK, bitches!

6-4 6-4 over Garcia to follow up her win over Flipkens the other day

Brisbane:

Collins def. Putintseva 6-1 6-0

Keys def. Stosur 7-5 6-3

Shenzhen:

Muguruza def. Rogers

Auckland:

Anisimova def. Kasatkina 6-2 6-4

Collins is in top form

Coric is awful

"Maria Sharapova will receive an Australian Open wildcard as she attempts to regain some of the form that won her the title in 2008"

These wildcards they keep giving Sharapova are an embarrassment to tennis.

Some of the form that helped her capture the 2008 title? What about some of the 'other stuff' that helped her capture it??? It's even more embarrassing because the Australian Open was the slam she [officially] got caught doping at. Pathetic. She should play qualies like everybody else.

Meanwhile, it's a little awkward that Belinda Bencic asked Zverev to join her in donating $$ per double fault, considering he basically had a mental breakdown about it in his last match lol...

Bencic is a little bitchy (but funny)

Sharapova was completely sure she would receive a wc.

She should have to play the qualification like everybody else, but she still is a big name in the sport and attracts viewers and fans

She has only won 3 matches since the Australian Open last year. And lost seven. She's been getting wildcards left and right and losing to anyone and everyone. If she doesn't get clobbered by some unknown in a tournament, she is often withdrawing from it. Currently ranked outside the top 140 despite being back for two years.

Never mind the fact that she only served 1/3rd of her initial ban, it's a bad look to have a player use PEDs and be rewarded with endless wildcards just because they are blonde and won a lot of tournaments years ago when they were doping. I understand the business side of it, but it sets a bad precedent and example to be rewarded rather than punished. Even Andre Agassi climbed back up the rankings by playing challengers until he reached the level to compete again. Why should she be any different?

In the end it's only embarrassing both her and the tournament directors who keep making this mistake (see Brisbane). Is she really worth it just for being a so called big name? There were about 30 people in the stands last night watching her double fault the match away.

[quote] Genie is BACK, bitches!

Genie is FAT, bitches!

Thiem did a very bad tournament. The same for Coric.

Canada-Serbia will be very interesting, in the rest i think Australia, Russia and Spain are clear favourites

In fact there's a good chance of Medvedev beign the 4 seed at Australia instead of Thiem, which will make things easier for the big 3, specially if Medvedev and Tsitsipas clash on quarterfinals

Danil and Thiem are journeymen and will be irrelevant in Aus Open

Where are Borna's nudes?

I hope Sharapova draws Anisimova or Collins 1st round at the AO

Sharapova will win AO again!

Borna's legs

His bros behind him are hot.

The more disturbing part of that article on gay tennis players coming out wasn’t Melo - He’s 36 and Brazilian - it was what Pierre Hughes Hubert said. He’s French and a young twink. I thought French were open. Sad that Novak from Serbia is the only non homophobe in the article.

Ps - Fuck Genie, she’s a TMZ thirst trap never a top 20 player.

What did Herbert say?

Which article, R91?

I think this is the article R91 is talking about

Thanks, R94.

I didn't necessarily get homophobia or anti-gay bias from Herbert's comments. Maybe a statement of fact (which explains why it hasn't happened). As to his joke with Mahut. Hmmm. Context matters. Has no gay man ever joked that his mixed dubs partner was his wife?

True, it could be taken out of context. Still doesn’t read well. It’s just sad all in all that Tennis doesn’t have an openly gay player in 2020. It’s not Hockey or American Football.

cori or Laura?

cori or Laura?

Would you want to be openly gay while surrounded by blockheaded jocks and regularly visiting countries that actively punish homosexuality? I don’t blame them for staying hidden.

we have to remember most of the top athletes in tennis haven't spent a ton of time in school so they could get through their lives to adulthood remaining very ignorant about society and the world in general

it shouldn't be surprising. I'm actually surprised and impressed when a tennis player is intelligent and progressive (especially if a white hetero male)

[quote] we have to remember most of the top athletes in tennis haven't spent a ton of time in school so they could get through their lives to adulthood remaining very ignorant about society and the world in general

Precisely. Look at Margaret Court.

Nobody is forced to play the Dubai Open. But if you wanna mention some other scary countries on the ATP tour go for it. Don’t say Russia as they hosted the Games the gayest event in sports.

Ohh please. Nothing to do with school. Joy Reid went to howard and still was a raging homophobe till few years ago

Cori is lucky. She is playing certified loser Laura. So another win for her

Is crackhead D.Evans going to be top 20 this year?

r105 mmkay

Raskolnikov just got himself a point penalty after a warning for having “words” with Little Schwartzman followed by hitting the umpire’s chair twice with his racquet. If he doesn’t close out the match here, there’s a default just around the corner.

Lil Diego should bite him in the ankle.

R106 What has he been doing in the off season? He's twice as fast, hitting twice as hard, and being all jittery and aggro (even more than usual) when walking around the court. It's like he visited Sharapova's old doctor. I can honestly see him having a huge run in Australia with a bit of luck in his draw (not unlike Kyle Edmund a few years back).

Today really showed why De Minaur will still continue to struggle if he continues to play defensively minded (as INCREDIBLE as he is at defence). Kyrgios really carried him through the doubles.

Call Me Coco loses to Siegemund.

Serena beats Christina McFail in 3 sets.

Julia Goerges and Wozniacki (in her second last tournament) win matches to set up a QF clash at Auckland. This is their 4th match at Auckland since 2015.

Osaka beats Kenin from a set down as well.

Muguruza wins in 3 over Diyas. This is her first time winning back to back matches since Roland Garros.

After beating Meldonia, Jennifer Brady has knocked out world #1 and local Brisbane girl Ash Barty in straights.

Did everyone see Hewitt's comments when asked about the women being shafted to the outside court so the men could take the Pat Rafter Arena in Brisbane? Here's a quote: “There’s times this week though where we certainly haven’t been able to get the practice times that we want,” he said. “I know there’s meant to be certain allocation of courts for men, the men’s teams as well, so I think it works both ways.”

Is this racist misogynistic little cunt for real? The men only got a monopoly on the whole ARENA... that pesky womens event taking up the outside court which we wanted to use for practice as well!!!!!

The problem with women's reinvidications right now it's that nobody cares about women's tennis. Unless top players start to play well with regularity and they bring some great rivaldries, they have little room to protest (even if they are totally right).

Feminist reinvidications are perfect, but you need to have people's interest in the game to back them.

Medvedev is just doing his work to make Zverev and Tsitsipas looks like very nice boys

[quote]Kyrgios really carried him through the doubles

quite literally

Do you guys think that Her Majesty Megan Markie will come to Melbourne and cheer for her best friend Serena? Her presence may inspire Serena to finally win Grand Slam no 23

Her presence didn't inspired Serena the last time

KLM Kiki beats Kontaveit at close to 1am local time, 7-5 in the third set. Very high level and tightly contested match (Kontaveit hit 12 winners and 3 errors in the first set and still lost it!), but I don't think she will have a lot left in the tank for Osaka in the QF.

The last 2 times. She was at both the Wimbledon and US Open finals. I dont really believe in superstitions but Serena should tell her to stay the fuck away.

R116 = Kate Middleton

Oh God !! Morton was 2-1 up in the first set then lost 11 straight games to Miomir and lost the match 6-2,6-0

Miomir is very low key. One of the less hyped next gen players (even if he is/was Nick Bolletieri fave). He is growing up in the shadow of others without too much pressure and his ranking is pretty good. Maybe this will be his year

It never rains in Qatar. Except only one week in whole year. when they host Qatar open Tennis

With today's win Medvedev will be the no. 4 seed at the Australian Open, instead of Thiem

Does not matter. They both are irrelevant Journeymen and will "loose" before the quarterfinals

R122: That's not true and you know it. What you don't seem to know it's the definition of journeyman. One clue, if you reach GS finals there are a lot of posibilities that you are not a journeyman

Is he journeyman?

R106 WOW. Hewitt. What’s not clicking buddy.

Auckland update:

OUT: 1 SE spot

IN: Andujar

Next: Sandgren

So those kiwis did not even bothe rto give a WC to Tenny Sandgren even though he was the defending champion ?

RAA is a fucking joke and is to the ATP what (Eu)genie Bouchar was to the WTA.

There, I've said it.

Is he clay specialist?

Brisbane:

Keys keeps up her good form and blasts Collins off the court 6-4 6-1 Collins had previously destroyed Svitolina and Putintseva

Collins just keeps on winning.

Shapo just took a set off of Djoker.

Serbian spectators being utter pigs as usual.

Denis is so cute

Are you Shapo team or Nole team?

What’s Shapo’s skin color?

team neither but it's fun watching them beat the hell out of each other

The Putin lover is a turnoff

the Serbian nationalist is a turnoff

“Nole” is an ass.

Shapo be dumb.

I'm definitely team Shapo. I just want his hairy blond legs wrapped around me.

Shapo team

Is he journeyman?

Don't like Novak but I do like his shirt today. Very flattering.

why are some of the ATP guys getting so cranky during the ATP Cup this week? I mean some of them are getting as intense as if they were playing at a slam. All this bad behavior

Maybe they’re afraid this doesn’t bode well for them at AO.

Is this where we talk about ATP Cup?

R142, it’s the nationalism of the event, the fact that they are playing for a team rather than just for themselves.

Ah, Djokovic 101: take ‘em to a tiebreak.

2 time grand slam champion and former world #1 Muguruza playing to a packed crowd in Shenzhen. This is a city with 12 million people (more than Sydney, Brisbane and Perth combined), and *two* WTA tournaments to create interest in the sport, including the biggest one on the calendar. And this is the crowd that comes.

But they'll keep selling every tournament license to China....

R147, the Chinese are short people. We just can't see them.

It is not about crowd. It is about money. White people are broke now

It is not about crowd. It is about money. White people are broke now

Brisbane

Osaka def. Bertens 6-3 3-6 6-3

Kvitova ends Brady's dream run

Shenzhen

Alexandrova def. Muguruza 6-4 6-3

Auckland:

Serena def. Siegemund in straights

Anisimova def. Bouchard 6-2 3-6 6-4

Serena will now face another teen phenom in Anisimova

Auckland update:

OUT: Medvedev, 2nd SE spot

IN: Sandgren, (Edmund)

Next: Cecchinato

Auckland update:

OUT: Medvedev, 2nd SE spot

IN: Sandgren, (Edmund)

Next: Cecchinato

Goffin def. a very sweaty Nadal 6-4 7-6(3)

A very inspired Goffin it must be said, r155. And the extra-sweaty Nadal meant that we often got a good look at his navy blue undies, too.

impressed that Goffin survived a choke in the second set. He had 4-2 with break point for 5-2 but didn't get it and it got back on serve

Shapo in flight

Dan Evans and Hubert Hurkacz will be seeded at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

They are projected to be ranked #33 and #34 on Monday but will benefit from Nishikori's and Pouille's withdrawals

FAA has lost 10 of his last 13 matches.

And of his 3 wins 1 was over No. 487 and another one via retirement.

R127: who is RAA?

It's curious how things change, last year it was all about Felix, but Felix is in a terrible slump right now and unless he change something soon his ranking is going to drop like a stone because he defends a lot of his points after the Australian Open.

On the other side, -Shapo was totally lost last season but since Youzhny started to coach him things changed and he looks like a sure shot for top 10 in a very near future.

And the year started really well for some of the underhyped next gen, Ruusuvuori is in the finals in Camberra (he defeated quite easily Sinner in the first round), and Moutet is in the semifinals in Doha

Oh, it was a mistake and it was about Felix, when i read RAA i thought it was about Roberto Bautista Agut and i didn't understand a thing because he was doing a very good tournament (even if his rivals are not exactly the most dangerous)

French twink is the boss

He took two hotties(Nando and Stan)

Moutet seems to have some kind of Eric Cantona personality, bad temper combined with his love for poetry

so next round of ATP Cup it'll be Serbia vs. Russia and Spain vs. Australia

I wonder who will behave worse in their match-Djokovic or Medvedev?

Nadal is lucky he won't be playing Kyrgios in singles. De Minaur is ranked higher so that's his opponent

I've just watched Corentin Moutet's match against Stan (not exactly in Stanimal form yet) and the way the kid uses vicious short balls (but not drop shots) and side-spin is reminiscent of fellow countryman Fabrice Santoro, a.k.a. the Magician. He's quite enjoyable to watch.

It's curious but there are several underrated next gens like Bublik or Davidovich who are very entertaining to watch.

Felix is on a slump, but to be fair he was in terrible form last year too, it was not till the southamerica clay season when he started to rise, but he should try to gain some points in the Australian Open (by the way, their website is pretty awful) to not have to endure too much pressure.

Shapo on the other hand it'll be a top 10 player very soon.

Rublev is top 20 right now, and it'll be top 20 no matter what happens in the final unless Alex de Miñaur win against Nadal, or Australia defeats Spain and Alex wins in the final. Anyway, Alex will be back in the top 20 in no time because he barely defends points after the Australian Open.

Ruusuvuori is another next gen that started the year in fashion, he is pretty near of being a new top 100 player

Rublev is playing really well, not only with his forehand but with his backhand too. There are few players who can outhit him like Berrettini did at the US Open. Kecmanovic has little chances, but he didn't have a good day anyway, when he tried different things he ended failing easy points

Who knew that Tan Mom actually got her look from John McEnroe on top of her meth mouth?

Australian Open update:

OUT: del Potro

IN: Giron (his WC goes to Mmoh)

Next: Sugita

men's Auckland draw is out

Fognini, Shapovalov, Khachanov, Isner, Paire, Hurkacz, Mannarino and Albot are the seeds. Plenty of #NextGen too Tiafoe, Sinner, Davidovich, Ruud and Humbert. defending champ Sandgren. Also DL mature hunk match between Lopez and Andujar

We’re three games in and Medvedev is already popping pills . . .

Journeyman Danil will heavy price for being greedy and playing in Qatar and ATP cup

Useless KAren can not even defeat Dusan

Adelaide update:

OUT: Djokovic

IN: Herbert

Adelaide draws out:

ATP:

De Minaur, FAA, Rublev, PCB, Fritz, Garin, Struff and Opelka are the seeds. Fritz vs. Bublik and Stuff vs. Verdasco are the standout 1st rounders

WTA:

Barty, Halep, Kvitova, Bencic, Bertens, Sabalenka, Kenin and Vondrousova are the seeds. Lots of standout 1st round matches. Kerber vs. Stephens, Pavlyuchenkova vs. Kontaveit, Bertens vs. Sakkari, Sevastova vs. Vekic, Kvitova vs. Q. Wang and Sabalenka vs. Hsieh

K. Hemsworth

[quote] Journeyman Danil will heavy price for being greedy and playing in Qatar and ATP cup

Is he really journeyman?

wow over the years Safin has really gone crazy with the arm tattoos. I never knew he had so many. He had a few when he retired.

Hobart draw out.

Much weaker than Adelaide but some top players:

Mertens, Muguruza, and Garcia. Kuznetsova is there too

Auckland:

Pegula upsets Wozniacki 3-6 6-4 6-0

Serena destroys Anisimova 6-1 6-1

Novak looks good. He's not as skeletal. He and Daniil are playing well.

R180, agree about the horrible tattoos, but Marat looks good.

so I guess Medvedev behaves himself when he's playing a HoF player. If you're going to be a pompous jerk, you should do it against everyone

reminds me of when Nadal was just becoming a top player. He was getting a lot of flak for grunting and vamos'ing so loudly after every point. When he played against his idol Moya and Agassi, he didn't yell vamos at all and when asked, he said it was out of respect. Rude to everyone else huh?

Boobs out!

Anyone know what happened to Woz in the 3rd set (bageled)? Serena meanwhile had a cakewalk.

Oof. Serbia through to the final. If only Medvedev had converted one of his break back points.

Hot! Gabashvili’s missing a front tooth.

Petra was playing well. She was 6-3,2-0 up then Kvitova took over. and then she lost six straight games

we already have a 1st time title winner the very 1st singles final of 2020!

Shenzhen:

Alexandrova def. Rybakina 6-2 6-4

Brisbane:

Keys def. Kvitova 3-6 6-2 6-3

Alexandrova will be seeded in AO

Woz will be unseeded.

R187 Huh? Wozniacki had a much bigger cakewalk than Serena. Serena had Anisimova and Wozniacki had Pegula in the SF... I know which one of them i'd rather play. Wozniacki also got local NZ Wildcard Paige Hourigan in this tournament (ranked outside the top 400) while Serena got often-dangerous Giorgi, tricky Siegemund, and Christina McHale (who she always struggles against).

The reason Wozniacki got bageled is because she's not very good any more.

I don't love Team Spain but it's nice to see them beating Australia since Tennis Australia tried to screw them over with the scheduling to favour the local team. Spain were the last team to arrive from Perth (3hrs different time zone) and had to play shortly after arriving. And they finished in the early morning yet had to be on against Australia today, about 12 hours after they would have finished their recovery at the hotel.

first massive choke of the season goes to:

Osaka

After winning a very tight first set tiebreak, she went up 6-5 in the second. She went down 0-30 but rallied to get match point. She got broken then lost the tiebreak and lost the third set going down 2 breaks to Pliskbot

so Brisbane final is Pliskbot vs. Keys

Bautista outplayed Kyrgios. I'm sure Djokovic is praying to avoid Bautista on fourth round

It's curious how things change in a couple of days. At the beginning of the week Nadal seemed the most in form player, but he is giving a lot of doubts in this last matches

And De Miñaur won the first set against Rafa

Rafa is obviously missing his wife and that's affecting his play. It's like he is missing his left arm. The warmth and companionship a wife provides her husband is new to Rafa and he can't expect to play at top flight when his other half is absent.

Rafa is my favorite player. He needs to not try too hard and save it for AO next week. Who cares if he loses this.

R197: He is with his wife more more than a decade and a half, and absolutely nothing changed since they married.

The Australian Open could be very interesting this year. Rafa and Nole are nowhere near as dominant as they were other seasons. Of course Rafa came back from an injury last year and then he had no problem till the final.

But this were the heat could be a problem, and i'm sure the big 3 will get in trouble way before the final rounds

Nadal has been thrown off by having to change cities and try to get used to the different court

that's the really stupid thing about the ATP Cup. It's held in 3 different cities until the QF when the teams move to 1 place. The team in Sydney has the advantage since they didn't have to move

and I say this as someone who's not a Nadal fan

having to change cities mid-event is dumb and unfair since not all the teams had to move

Wait. They changed cities mid tourney? WTF?

Didn't know that. That's just stupid.

Rafa's not missing anything, and I'm the dame who can prove it.

R194 the first massive choke of the season was Maddison Inglis at Brisbane. She blew a third set, 5-0 lead with 4 match points in the game (and then more match points later)… lost 7-5.

So strange that Pliskova and Keys have never played before. Not the biggest fan of either but Madison is a bit more fun to watch when she’s on.

Sad that Delpo is out of the AO but at least we get to look at Mmoh in Melbourne now. Hopefully Adidas have something that shows off his ass.

RBA when he’s in the zone is just as solid as a rock. Sad he can’t do it as often but you get the feeling he could beat anyone in that form.

Bianca Andreescu (like Delpo and Nishikori) has also pulled out of the Australian Open. She’s now missing every second slam. :/ A little worrying that these injuries persist when she is not even 20 years old yet. Although I suppose Rafa missed the first few French Opens of his young career due to injury. Serena, Osaka, Pliskova, Barty and the rest of them will be cheering that they don’t have to go through her.

Nadal won the second is winning 2 0 in the third. I suppose this is the end of Alex, but he fought really well. I expect him to do a very good Australian open

De Minaur wasted too much energy jumping around when returning serve to annoy Rafa (and try goad him into time violations), and screaming VAMOS at Nadal. If Alex can't beat him having the best serving day of his life, and playing at basically his peak level, in best of three sets, with his actual coach there advising him at every changeover, with the entire crowd behind him (and Nadal serving like hot garbage even in the sets he's winning)... he will never be able to do it in best of 5 at a slam.

He's probably the fastest guy on the tour right now but a lot of that energy is superficial. He has been outlasted by a guy 14 years older than him, who just finished playing long matches in singles AND doubles late last night, and only arrived from another city and timezone yesterday.

Tennis Australia tried to stack the cards in their favour and it still didn't work out.

Nadal is probably the worst rival Alex can have. Nadal is too good on defense and has way more offensive power than Alex, but De Miñaur is improving and getting better.

Today's match prove why it's so hard to defeat Rafa on a GS. For most players is pushing their own game to a higher level during hours, and it's very difficult to sustain that level

Not surprised by injury of Journeywoman Biance Andrescuu/ After US open she should have taken time off to the end of the season because her body had not healed fully

Instead she behave like a journeywoman and started playing useless Asian Swing and then got herself injured on that very strange court in WTA YEC

But be insured that she will not learn anything from this mistake. You can be assured that she will will try to defend her title in Indianwell and will play shunshine doubles

And then will try to play every clay court premiere eventand then bomb at Rolland Garros

It seems they have learnt nothing from injury of Vera Zvovnervea and Dinara Safina

Stef and team Greece frolicking around on the beach at about the 6:06 minute mark.

Australian Open update: OUT: Gasquet

N: Sugita

Next: Laaksonen

The 2020 season begins with two epic match-ups:

Rafael Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic

Greta Thunberg vs. Roger Federer

Please, stop using journeyman and journeywoman for players that are obviouly not that

R212, Then tell those players to stop behaving like them

Andreescu just announced shes out of the Aussie Open

R193 I wasn't referring to the draw, just looking at the score It seems she had a cakewalk of a match, which is good heading into the final not being on the court very long. I want her to win a title and hopefully get the metaphorical monkey off her back going into the AO.

I hope Djokovic destroys the OCD roided freak tomorrow.

Both seem quite vulnerable this time. Unless they have a cakewalk i doubt they reach semis without being challenged in the Australian Open.

I suppose the qualification draw will be out tomorrow

ugh not going to watch the ATP Cup final. Of course even in a team format Nadal and Djokovic still get to the final. At least Nadal suffered 1 loss to Goffin

Rublev defeated Moutet and become a top 20 player

when Rublev is consistent he's tough to deal with since he whacks the hell out of the ball. The top players at the AO won't want him in their section if he keeps up this form

Yes but Moutet has shown that Rublev second serve is a big liability, his backhand is okay-ish and was always played cross court (almost no down the line from this wing) and his forehand was utterly neutered on Moutet's low bouncing slice drives.

They mainly won't want him in their section, R220, because no one wants to have to look across the net and see THAT face.

R222 He is a tennis player not a model, and i suppose his rivals are more interested in defeating him than in fuck him so probably nobody cares how he look.

He is talented, but his tennis is a bit onedimensional and Berrettini mopped the floor with him in the US Open out hitting him (which should not be that easy).

Anyway he is focused and like De Miñaur he seems to work hard to improve

De Minaur is so fucking cute.

Mmoh lost just 5 games in qualifying through to the main draw in Auckland. A 6-0 6-1 win yesterday over #73 Dellien and 6-2 6-2 today over #145 Ito

Andreescu out of AO. A knee problem apparently

R226 that news has been posted 3 times in the last twenty posts...

Hsieh/Strycova save championship point to def. Bertens/Barty in the Brisbane final.

Who do we think is winning the ATP Cup? I think RBA def. Lajovic, and Djokovic def. Nadal (although Nadal feels more battle-hardened after this week). If it comes down to the deciding doubles, Team Spain have better options.

Matts Wilander is saying that two main courts in Melbourne( Rod Laver and MSC Arena( are very fast this year and can pose big problem for Nadal .

Having said that he also added that only two player can pose danger to Big 3 title contention (Medvedev and Stefano)

He said that Nole is clearly most favorite to win AP despite being no 2

Nole.

good. Time to speed up the courts. Enough of the grindfests.

but a faster court will bother Medvedev too since he plays kinda like Murray without the volleys. Medvedev despite his height doesn't hit super hard most of the time and is more of a counterpuncher who will change the direction of the ball almost randomly

Misery team

did not expect Pegula to give Serena such a hard time.

I suppose it helps that her coach is David Witt, the middle aged blond guy who worked with Venus for a long time so he definitely knows a lot about playing against Serena.

DeMinaur looks about 12 years old.

R227 the thread has been really bad at loading new posts (at least or me) the last few days, so maybe R226 hasn't seen the posts.

or they blocked each other lol

Auckland: Serena def. Pegula 6-3 6-4 this is her 73rd singles title, 1st since 2017 AO and 1st non-slam title since 2016 Rome

doubles: Townsend/Muhammad def. Serena/Wozniacki 6-4 6-4

Brisbane: Pliskbot def. Keys 6-4 4-6 7-5 this is her 16th title and 1st time Pliskova has ever defended a title

Keys actually out aced the ace queen, but too messy in the important moments. One day she will make the hall of fame (the MLB hall of fame that is).

Serena's Auckland title is only her 2nd at the International level lol. She also becomes first woman in the open era to win titles across four decades in singles. Donates her entire prize money (and auctions all her dresses this week) to bushfire relief. It wasn’t an easy match (and she started with another case of finalitis), she was made to work for it. I love that they brought that elderly woman out on court who beat Margaret Court 40 years ago and specifically mentioned that, hahah…

Hope Greta Thunberg continues to give Roger Federer the smackdown.

I love the whole Greta thing with Federer. I am sure that he was "WTF?, someone does not love me??????" Bautista Agut is destroying Lakovic in the second set.

Lajovic has never been made to run as much as in the first set, I felt there would be a let up after he lost it. The Spaniard is just too relentless, when you look at the hitting patterns it's like there's no way through him. To do it consistently over a long match must be tough when he's in this form.

These Serbian fans are insanely obnoxious. This is like the Israeli / Romanian Fed Cup crowds. I can see where Djokovic gets it from...

The Greta thing is hysterical, totally unexpected. I bet she has a good drive volley!

"I bet she has a good drive volley!" [r240] You should see her smash!

Great win for RBA! You can't help but feel love for the guy, especially after the year he's had. His performance against Kyrgios was Zen-like, the perfect person to take down that maniac. Nobody thought RBA, not even himself, thought he would be a top 10 player. He said his goal was to be top 30 and he made it to 9. Compare that to all t

RE: Serbian crowds- Those horn things should be illegal, but I'm loving the crowds. I have NEVER seen a match where the crowd was pro Djokovic v. ANYONE. He's never had that in his entire career and he certainly deserves it. At the same time, it's great to see Rafa crying like a little bitch because it's the first time anyone has ever cheered HIS double faults. Something Novak has had to deal with every single final.

R242: Not true, this is a team competition and he had great support everytime they were local at the Davis Cup.

Serbians still act like this is a new thing for them, in fact they have Davis Cup behaviour everytime they are in the crowd in a good number. It happens the same with the greek and it happened in the past with brazilians and Kuerten, it's soccer behaviour on a tennis court

And 16 y o Carlos Alcaraz won his second itf title after defeating 60 62 to Furness, and he'll be in the top 450 next week. It's curious that in the junior circuit there are other players of his age with better results but on pros he is doing way better than the rest

How has Mo Layhani not been banned from officiating matches? He is sooo bad at his job, and also weirdly unprofessional as well? Fire him.

Pitch perfect play by Nole. Almost made Nadal look like ordinary even when he was not

When did Dusan become such a hottie?

I wonder if RBA would have done better against Djokovic, he seems to be stronger on faster surfaces against him than Rafa is…. RBA won their last two hardcourt matches last year and took a set off him at Wimbledon - Nadal hasn’t beaten Djoko on hard since 2013.

Djokovic always seems to hit harder against Nadal than other opponents (where he plays more defensively). Also his cleaner, if less spectacular ballstriking makes Rafa’s heavy topspin technique look really shonky. Probably because Nadal is so rushed.

***

Ostapenko’s father died (following recent deaths of Sabalenka and Anisimova’s fathers). She has pulled out of all the warmup tournaments, unsure if she will be at the Aus Open.

19 consecutive hard court sets for Djokovic vs Nadal.

What an unbelievable stat.

Dusan is dreamy

R243, . Post the clips of the "insanely obnoxious" behavior along with the other big matches where Djokovic was the crowd favorite.

In his on-court interview he told Jim that 55 times he played Rafa and this was the 1st time he had crowd support.

He's still 47-0 against Roger. BTW Greeks/ Brazilians/Serbians, who else don't meet your standards of crowd behavior? Not the English, right? Re-watch Wimbledon final and see and hear the insanely obnoxious English fans cough, clap, wave fans, yell at just the right moments to distract Novak and sit in still silence for Roger, point after point.

Pick any random moment in the match below and compare it today, you dumb cunt.

Get fucked Nadal! Djokovic will win 3 GS this year!

R252, Xisca

Via @Rafael_Plaza: Rafael Nadal will not play the decisive doubles rubber.

It's López/Carreño vs Djokovic and Troicki.

Rafa can get so rattled so easily

R251: That's because he will never be a crowd favourite against Rafa unless it's a team competition. Serbians fans are known for being noisy and disruptive (Carlos Bernardes had to make them shut in their match against Canada)

R254: Let's be serious, Rafa played a lot of matches this week, and the schedule was a bit suspicious (it seemed destined to give Austrlia an advantage). He had a very tough match against De Miñaur yesterday, and he had to play the doubles match against Belgium.

And Spain has a good bunch of doubles specialists. In fact they won the doubles against Belgium thanks to Carreño and not to Rafa

R252

I'm not R243 but first of all... calm down.

Second, we're talking about Nadal v Djokovic here. The crowds have largely been evenly split between them in all their encounters. Tonight is an exception where the Serbian fans were obnoxious.

But nobody ever said the English crowds were the greatest. You're putting words in that poster's mouth because you have an axe to grind. I'm sure everyone would agree that when they get behind Murray (their home favourite) or Federer against Novak they are very obnoxious as well. Most of them don't even follow tennis seriously, they're just there to sip champagne and get some Instagram snaps. That goes for most GS spectators actually. I have friends going on a few days to the upcoming AO who couldn't even name anyone outside the big 3, Murray, and Serena/Sharapova.

However, they might be more partial to Novak if he wasn't arrogantly blowing kisses to them and telling them to shut the fuck up. He even told the crowds earlier this week to "shut the fuck up" a little after he got busted on the VAR for hitting a volley with his racquet already over the net and a call was overturned. You can't expect a player who is THAT rude to the crowd to suddenly be as beloved as home favourite Andy Murray, or 'nice guy' PR machine Roger Federer. And I say this as someone who prefers Novak to both of them.

I am the biggest Rafa fan ever. Like a total annoying stan. But he just can't beat Nole any longer unless on clay. His 2013 Open win I can watch over and over. He was brilliant back then. But Nole has cleaner shots. Rafa is a fighter, that's why I love him. But Nole has more natural talent than both Fed and Rafa. If he stays healthy, he will eclipse them both in GS.

I doubt it.

Nole (i always will be thankful for him to rose his level and don't let the last decade be a Fedal playground) is very complete, he has the perfect combination between mental strenght and technique, but he is way more vulnerable than Rafa and Roger to other players.

If he has Stan, RBA, Tistsipas or Medvedev in his draw he is going to suffer.

I think in this AO more than ever the draw will be fundamental. The big 3 need to avoid being challenged before the semifinals. If they have trouble in the early rounds i doubt they have the energy to win

Ok, I switched to decaf. Yes, we ALL know ALL the reasons why he's not the favorite. My contention is that 1, TODAY was the FIRST time he had majority crowd support in a final, that I know of and 2, Fans from all countries get out of hand sometimes. These people flew around the world to have a fun in the sun vacation and they're having it.

And i repeat, this is a team competition and there are way more serbians than spaniards in Australia.

R257 I think they'll both eclipse Federer within the next two years. Wimbledon was likely his last chance, and Djokovic gave him a LOT of gifts in that match. Novak will win the most eventually. But I don't know if he can win another Roland Garros title.

This also reflects their H2Hs with each other. Novak dominates them both, and Nadal leads the H2H over Federer. Roger's GS tally is a bit inflated by the fact that he was playing in an era where his opponents in finals were the likes of Philippoussis, Baghdatis, Gonzales, an ageing Agassi, Andy Roddick, etc.

R258 is right, Nole is a little more vulnerable against the also-rans than the other two. The stats show that Nadal actually does the best against the rest of the field (despite his embarrassing early grass losses).

People think Rafa and Nole will last till the age Federer has now, but i doubt it.

Rafa will start to tank sooner than later, his way of play is too physical and he will go the route of David Ferrer. One day he is competitive the following one he suffers to win against players he won easily in the past.

Nole will last some more, but winning 4 GS is not that easy. It's only a quesion of time the young players really believe they can defeat the big 3 on GS. I wouldn't be surprised if we have some GS were only one of the big 3 reach quarterfinals.

The problem with Nole is that he has too many enemies, there are a good bunch of players who can defeat Nole even at a GS. I think if someone can get more than 20 GS is him, but in my opinion it's not a sure shot

7 games in a row for Serbia... my god Feli Lopez is bad tonight considering he has the most doubles experience of anyone on that court. Poor PCB.

ANYONE ELSE knows baustita agut patting nadal's ass after his last 2 matches? first time was patting his ass, second time was patting and resting his hand for a moment on the top of nadal's ass.... and when not patting it, staring away at it.. know he just got married, but just saying!

his nadal's ass (and see thru shorts) enough to make the straightest man question his sexuality as the saying goes?.

#teamserbia

R260, I think I'm agreeing with you here. Demographics, Luck of the draw, Novak lucked out that he played Rafa and not Kyrgios.

It's totally possible that the big 3 will not win another major and we can start the GOAT debate. Numbers aside, the intangibles are important factors. Novak was the 3rd card and therefore received 3rd billing for TV, even when he was number 1, bad luck for him. Because he's 3rd billing, he got the worst schedule often playing in worse conditions than his opponents, bad luck. He was not the crowd favorite at every major final,until today. Isthmus be his lucky day.

BTW- I blew past the "Nuclear Alert" thread because that's how important this is to me. I could have just used my last minutes on earth to argue about tennis.

If the missiles are on their way, I just want to let you guys and some of the gals (not the ones who publish scores, though it's seems petty to mention it at this point) , know how much joy you have given me, especially during my frequent bouts of insomnia.

R264 I won't be surprised if these spaniards all fuck each other from time to time. They seem sexually fluid.

Rafa and the boys. Wouldn't you like be a hole in the wall in that room!

Cute interview in Argentina with Zabaleta, Chela and Nalbandian. It's all in Spanish but a nice moment at 2:40 when Chela kisses Nalbandian and tells him he was the best player. Nalbandian pings a little. They're telling stories about antics when they were juniors.

I love seeing Mmoh starting out the year so well. He's so very easy on the eyes.

I'm a little confused about Popsicle's schedule. He played and qualified for main draw of Aukland this week, but that conflicts, I think, with AO qualifying. He's only ranked 148, and I didn't see his name listed as a wildcard. Maybe he knows something. Sharapova clearly did.

Interesting take, R262. It is hard, though, not to see Rafa winning one or two more French Opens. No one even comes close to challenging him on that surface. Thiem has lost badly to him two years in a row. Yes, Thiem won a set in 2019, but then Rafa handed out breadsticks for the third and fourth sets to walk away with yet another Roland Garros title (ugh). The younger generation seems to have a problem with best of 5, and nowhere is that more physically and mentally demanding than at the French Open. Also, Nadal has had quite the luck the last couple years at the US Open due to the draw collapsing. If he gets more opportunities like that, my money is on him.

I never thought Federer would win another Slam after say around 2015, then he won three more. I thought Rafa was mostly done after 2015 and would continue his decline, maybe win one more French, but he's won FIVE more Sams. In contrast, I thought after Nole won the French in 2016, he might win a Calendar Year Slam and would certainly have passed Federer and Nadal in GS totals by now, but he "only" added four more since then. I think winning four more is much more difficult than it seems, especially since Nole is getting older, but the younger generation is just not challenging at the Slams.

I think this coming year will tell a lot. Can't wait to see how it all rolls out.

R238 what does this mean? Serena's Auckland title is only her 2nd at the International level lol.

R271: It's true that nobody challenged Rafa at Roland Garros (with the exception of that semifinal with Djokovic, that was a really close match), but he was very lucky this year and he had everything in his favour.

Thiem had a way more difficult draw, he started nervous and lost some sets he should have won. And then, he has to face Djokovic in semis and that match is a hell, not only because of the rival but the weather too.

He had no rest. He give Nadal a fight till he had nothing in his tank.

I wouldn't bet against Rafa at RG, he feels too well on that court, but time pass and he is not gettting younger, sooner or later someone will defeat him, and maybe that will come as a surprise on fourth round (like what happened against Soderling) and not on a big final.

I hope this year will be more competitive than in the last season. And some new players reach the final rounds

so far on clay no one has been able to consistently battle Nadal in a long grinding slam match except for Djokovic. What we're going to need to see is a player who can serve very well. The return is the weakest part of Nadal's game. He stands as far back as possible and you can see how stressed he gets.

R274: Not even Djokovic. The year he defeated Nadal was a very poor version of Rafa who has even fell in the rankings.

Djokovic was the dominant clay courter in 2011 (well, he dominated completely till the last part of the year), he defeated Nadal in the masters 1000, but he failed big time in the semifinals of RG against Federer (that year was the closer Roger was to defeat Rafa, but he failed to end a first set he completely dominated). The following year, even with Djokovic being number one, Rafa turned the tables and defeated Nole consistently on the clay season and then again in the RG final. It was in 2013 the only time Djokovic challenged an in form Rafa in RG. Nole defeated him in Montecarlo but Rafa dominated the rest of the clay season (without playing against Nole), but in the semifinals of RG it was a clash of titans, Rafa winning 97 in the fifth set. In 2014 Nole defeated Rafa in Rome but only was able to win a set in the RG final.

Even in his best clay seasons Nole had problems in RG. It's not only that Rafa is the best on clay, he is even better at RG

And i don't think the return is a problem for Rafa, in fact there are few players who are better than him (he is able to break the serve of good servers at a high rate), but when he is not confident he is simply too defensive, which is a big mistake this days, because if he really wants to get more GS he needs to be more aggressive and spend less time on court.

It seems this year AO surface is faster than in previous years, so in my opinion his chances are low. He needs to rely on other players to eliminate Nole, but in my opinion he is vulnerable to players like Medvedev, Federer or Tsitsipas on a faster surface

^Holy crap. Do you know all that from memory? That's impressive. How can you remember all that?

RE: RG , Novak "problems" at RG have been weather and scheduling and Rafa gets to decide when to water the courts. Other bad luck, one year his coach died, one year he was sick, one year his parents split up or something. Again, intangibles that were not related to form, but he was never treated as the Number One player, he was still treated as 3rd. And at RG that's a huge difference without lights and roof, year after year, it adds up. Hopefully, they'll both be in good form this year under a roof, if need be.

The Rafa/Nole head to head is 26/29. That's pretty damn close. Rafa kills Nole on clay, Nole kills Rafa on hard courts. Always fun to watch!

Prisssy Madal Nadal had a message for the Serbian crowd : "Sometimes people from some countries, they probably don't understand how the tennis goes. They think it's about football. Atmosphere in tennis is different. At some point the respect with small part of the crowd have been not there"

He is such a entitled Prima Donna . that is why I hate him

Unseeded in Melbourne:

Raonic

Cilic

Verdasco

Wozniacki

Muguruza

Goerges

+ Grand Slam champs Ostapenko, Kuznetsova, Stosur...

Kevin Anderson

Venus (if she plays)

AusOpen Men's Singles seeds:

AP Women's singles seeds:

Petra did the right and pulled out of Adelaide

Nadal and Pliskova are really due for brutal early round draws at a slam. It's beyond past time that they had to actually put in work to reach the second week for a change

Lots of good unseeded players.

Nadal interview coming up on 60 Minutes.

Rafa looks good when he's not all sweaty and combs his hair and wears regular clothes.

Just watched it. He looked good. I was disappointed, he didn't ask him about his OCD!

Agreed, R287. Very much wanted some answers about his thoughts on the OCD. It was just very nice not having to watch him serve and look like he's having a stroke and dealing with all those tics.

Jan-Michael is doing color commentary with Mary Carillo right now in Adelaide. He sort of has gay voice. Hopefully that idiot Querrey will lose quickly.

R289 J-MG's long term boyfriend is pretty gay too.

Did Wertheim ask him if he likes to ride a fat cock?

Rafa was adorable in his 60 minutes interview. He is a genuinely nice dude.

the 60 minute quote "interview" added NOTHING that any tennis fan doesn't already know... it was pointless besides the scenery of mallorca and his academy...

who else is tennis channel going to "dig up" to be a tennis expert/historian/color commentary and paid for the gig? jan-michael gambill?? justin gimbelstob? jimmy arias?..

tennis is SO SO SO nepotism and who you know! mary carillo and PATRICK MCENROE anyone?

I like JMG's color. I understand he's new to the booth, but he's picking things up quickly. Also, I like his rapport with Mary Carillo.

I, too, have been enjoying JMG's commentary. I'm hardly objective, though, because I've long had a crush on him. What a sexy stud!

JMG was top 20 he knows tennis. It's not like he was a top 100 journeyman.

And today starts the qualifications of the Australian open, a lot of veterans and a good bunch of next gens looking for a place in the sun

I hope Gulbis makes it to the main draw.

Why? There are more than enough spoiled brats in the draw already.

R299 Because his interviews are always fun to watch. And he is not obnoxious like Zverev/Kyrgios.

Late last year and a few times this year, I've watched JJ Wolf from Ohio. He's a cutie, and also serves very well. Very scrappy. I don't know if he'll crash out early during the AO qualifying, but I think he's going to make some splashes this year.

R301, Is he gay?

Felix seems to be following in Shapo's footsteps, i.e. a sharp freshman upward trajectory followed by a sophomore slump. Just a few months ago Shapo was nearly out of the top 40. Keep in mind too that DS never broke the top 20 until a couple of weeks before his 20th birthday, while Felix did so just a week after his 19th birthday. Let's hope that Felix has the same resurgence that Denis has had.

I know this thread will get payrolled soon as we've crossed the 300 post mark

here's the next one for whenever that occurs

it was raining earlier but last I looked in Auckland they were drying the courts

R301.. i noticed JJ's plump ass...

Fianlly some rain. Cn this rain shift to Bush fire area

Sloth Stephens will soon join Coco W in rankings

omg Sloane just fucking retire at this point. Losing to the LESSER Rodionova sister is beyond embarrassing. The older Rodionova was embarrassing but this one is worse

outside the top 200 just pathetic I can't

Sloane is 1 of the most mentally up-and-down players ever. I thought for sure there was no way she could lose

R309, Her name is Sloth

Bublik vs. Evans promises to be a flaky quirky shotmaker's match

Bouchard defeated X. You 4-6 7-6(4) 6-1 first round of qualifying!

shit...the air quality is affecting qualifying matches. They should really hold these all indoors at this point

Poor Jakupovic, a set up and almost closing in on the 2nd set when she had to retire due to the smoke inhalation. I'm shocked the governing bodies allowed them to play in these conditions. Tennis Australia are going to be forced to make some tough decisions over the next few days! Is it indoors or not?

Scone Stephens is absolutely pathetic. If Kyrgios and Tomic have been fined for lack of effort, I don't know why she hasn't either.

Last year's RG finalist Marketa Vondrousova won her first match in months against Tatjana Maria. Poor thing was having a dream season until that injury and surgery. She will play Rodionova (Sloth's vanquisher) in the next round.

Sabalenka def. Hsieh 7-5 in the third.

Screamona Halep def. Ajla Tomljanovic in two tight sets.

Tour besties Sakkari and Vekic win their respective matches to face off in the next round.

Ash Barty BARELY gets past Pavlyuchenkova. Not looking to be in good form before the AO.

Cici Bellis (in Hobart) also won her first match in two years, against Marie Bouzkova.

i think sloane needs BJK to light a match under her ass if nothing else...doesn't she have a shred of integrity and pride?

Late I know, but isn't it a bit fucked up that for the ATP Cup, Djokovic and Bautista Agut both won 5 matches. But Djokovic got 425 ranking points, and RBA got a measly 190.

This system seems designed to increase the 'wealth gap', and keep the hierarchy of the big stars vs the lower ranked peasants.

In no other tournament on the calendar do you win points based on the ranking of your opponent, but have no say in whether you get to play those higher ranked opponents. Never mind the players who are 3rd and 4th in their country and have to miss out on points in general despite showing up for the week (some of these scrubs are getting paid 45k just for a week to sit on a bench and pretend to be interested)... as well as the countries who were too small to make it in in the first place and miss out on both the money AND points.

Some rethinking to do...

Even the Kooyong Classic exhibition is trying to save Meldonia's ass from humiliation. The match was called off due to the smoke when she was 6-7, 5-5 down against Laura Siegemund... they couldn't have waited for her to lose the next two games? Lol.

Colombian World No1 doubles player Robert Farah has tested positive for boldenone and is suspended.

Chilean Nicolas Jarry has tested positive for ligandrol and stanozolol and is suspended.

really dumb for any of these players to still be doping. If they caught executive's favorite Sharapova and suspended her (even if it was a weak ban) what do these lower ranked and less famous players think will happen to them?

R3189: Sharapova was warned that meldoniun was in the new code of banned substances. She only was tested positive because she was dumb or prepotent enough to not stop using it

R303: I don't know. Shapo was always destined to be very irregular in his young years. His game is of high risk. When he is on he is a terrible rival, but when no he is an unforced error machine.

Felix rose on wc. He stalled close to top 100 and suddenly he had a very good couple of months (he is going to face a lot of pressure if he doesn't make a decent Australian Open). Everything was really good, he was hyped beyond belief (way more than Shapo), he was even very high on the bets at Wimbledon (which was totally absurd), and then he tanked abut Humbert (who is amost his opposite, a very underrated nextgen) and everything went down after that.

For a young player is pretty normal to have ups and downs, but Felix was getting Nadal's comparissions (for a while he was higher in the ranking that Nadal at his age) and even seemed accurate because he looked focused. And then he starts to post pics with his girlfriend and look like he couldn't care at all that Shapo was kicking his ass at the US Open.

And that was a very bad sign. I know it's good he is polite and don't smash raquets but he seemed totally indiferent.

I doubt he'll be seeded by Roland Garros but i think he'll recover in the last part of the year. In fact Shapo getting the spotlight could be very positive for him

Part of it too could be that Felix is still finding his feet. Look at the huge difference in how heavily he took his loss to Shapo at the 2018 US Open (granted, that was partly in response to the medical condition that was plaguing him) vs. how seemingly indifferent he was in his 2019 USO loss to Shapo. Almost like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I wonder how much his attitude change has been in response to some of the corruption that he's probably seen at the top of the ATP food chain.

Felix is finding something other than his his feet given all the gf pics.