Running 2020 Tennis Thread

You're Djoking, right?

Unless, in B., you meant, if she had hit a linesperson in the neck?...

 

Osaka is playing great, but so is Brady. That should be a great match.

 

As an aside, Pironkova is just adorable.

 

All that means is that winning isn't as easy as it used to be. But she still wins.

And I'd bet all the other women's players would still rather face anyone else than her.

 

This is Pironkova's first tournament in three years, and she is clearly beginning to run out of gas. You could see it happening in her match with Cornet, too, but Cornet wasn't good enough to make her pay for it.

 

I believe she has one tournament championship -- a tune-up tournament for the 2020 Australian Open in January -- since her comeback began. That was her first tourmament win since the 2017 Australian Open.

Serena is clearly one of the best players in the game today, but she is no longer the dominant force she once was. Her serve is the one thing she still has that no other player can match, and that makes her very difficult to beat.

But she wears down over the course of tournaments now, and has on several occasions been beaten or even dominated by younger, faster, more mobile players in later rounds (see Halep at Wimbledon, Andreescu at U.S. Open, Wang at Australian Open). She is not the clear-cut best player out there now, and opponents seem to be much less intimidated by her now than they used to be.

 

BTW, I'm not trying to say Serena can't win this tournament. Of course she can.

But it's going to be a struggle in a late-round match against a younger, fitter player who can match her firepower, such as Osaka or Brady, or is rock-solid steady, like Mertens.

Look, she was pushed hard by Pironkova, who's in her 30s and hasn't played high-level tennis in years. It won't get any easier in the semis or finals.

 

Frankly, a lot of very young players (Kenin, Osaka, etc.) have no reason to be intimidated by Serena because they've never faced an intimidating Serena. Her dominance ended long before they emerged themselves.

Meanwhile, finally the match I've been waiting for is ready to start. Been a fan of Rublev since watching him at the Winston-Salem tournament last year.

 

The sport isn't in great shape at this point. The money's good enough - this is true in golf, too - where the burn to win 6, 8, 10 majors isn't there. (Halep has won all of 2 majors - and made 36 million in prize money alone.) At the same time, the sport isn't deep enough that Williams loses very often in the first weekend. If it were, she'd be retired by now. If it were a little worse, she'd be retired by now having won her 25 and having nothing to prove. As it is, this could go on for several years.

 

I wouldn't put your money on him.

 

Halep's issue isn't that she lacks the desire to be a dominant player. She lacks the talent to do that.

Osaka has the talent for sure. So does Andreescu.

The only thing that can stop Osaka is her head. The only thing that can stop Andreescu is her health.

 

Andreescu's health is doing a mighty fine job of stopping her.

I haven't really found a "favorite" player since Dementieva retired. She caused me too much heartbreak (losing two ridiculously winnable major finals).