Running tennis thread 2024

Andreeva really showed something in her third-round match against Diane Parry.

Got trampled 6-1 in the first set. Roared back to win the second 6-1, but fell behind 5-1 in the third and looked like a goner. She broke serve to get to 5-2, then struggled in her service game and Parry had a match point. Andreev saved the match point, then closed out the game with a nifty little drop shot.

From that point on, she was completely in control -- played brilliant angles, changed speeds and directions, hit soft drop shots and painted the lines. Most of all, she was completely fearless, maybe the most important part for a 16-year-old. She did have a brief hiccup, failing to close the door on her own serve after taking a 6-5 lead, but she dominated the tiebreaker, which was never in doubt as she cruised to a 10-5 win.

 

Top-ranked Iga Swiatek is out after 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 third-round loss to 50th-ranked Linda Noskova

 

New bio on Osaka. Her parents did a real number on their kids. Not a new story in this sport, alas.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/01/18/naomi-osaka-biography-rothenberg-review/

 

That leaves Gauff as the clear favorite to win this thing -- yes, even over Sabalenka, who(m?) Gauff beat to win the U.S. Open in September. If the seeds hold -- a very risky assumpotion the way this tournament is going -- they'll meet in the semis.

Noskova, BTW, is a 19-year-old Czech who first appeared in the majors in 2022 and had never before made it past the second round. According to the AO website, she's the first teenager to beat a world No.1 at a major since Petra Kvitova beat Dinara Safina at the 2009 U.S. Open. Noskova gets 19th-seeded Svitolina in the quarters.

This puts three teenagers in the Round of 16 -- and Maria Timofeeva, who took out No. 10 seed Beatriz Haddad-Maia to get there, just turned 20 in November.

 

The way Sabalenka is looking so far, I’d make her the favorite. At the least, the match will be on her racket vs. Gauff, but as we’ve seen that can be problematic. Having it be a semi and not a final and not in the USA is to her advantage, too.

 

Gauff and Sabalenka both with convincing wins. They reamain on a collision course.

Some very interesting matches in the men's draw, but the most intriguing (to me) is later tonight -- No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev vs. N0. 10 Alex de Minaur. de Minaur is one of the hottest players out there, with victories over both Djokovic and Alcaraz this year (though in a best of three sets format).

 

Meanwhile, Djoker has posted a pair of bagels in the first two sets against No. 20 seed Mannarino. Yup, two sets in, he's lost zero games.

 

Men's draw is very compelling -- the final eight includes the top six seeds, plus nine and 12.

The women's draw is a mess. Gauff and Sabalenka are the only big guns left -- you can include Krejcikova if you want to stretch it a bit. The top half looks like the semis of an October 250-level tournament in Nanchang.

 

Djokovic, Alcaraz, Medvedev and Sinner are clearly the four best players on the planet right now. Rublev might have a chance to work himself into that conversation, but he's got some work to do. Beating Sinner in the quarters would be a big step in that direction, but I'm not betting on it.

 

Last night/this morning's quarters set up the two semifinal matches I most wanted to see: Gauff vs. Sabalenka and Djokovic vs. Sinner.

Gauff tried hard to give away her match against Marta Kostyuk, but managed to hold on for a three-set win. Gauff got down 5-1 in the first set but won it in a tiebreak, then was serving for the match at 5-3 in the second, but let Kostyuk off the hook and lost the set in a tiebreak. Her forehand looked very shaky and her serve was brutal -- nine double faults vs. one ace, 54% of first serves in, 59% of first serve points won, 39% on second serves.

Sabalenka, on the other hand, breezed past Krejcikova 6-2, 6-3. She hasn't dropped a set in the tournament and has lost just 16 games in her five matches combined.

 

Sinner v. Djoker is going to be nice; Sinner hits the ball so cleanly but I've got to believe that Djoker can handle that until well.... Father Time catches up.

Boy that Gauff match was brutal, they were just gifting each other double faults and totally unforced errors. I'm starting to think that Gauff's forehand is going to be as weak as Edberg's forehand (sweet backhands but the forehand...). I thought her serve was better but it seemed to me like it kept getting lower and farther out to the side leading to the slice serve, a sure sign that there's doubt in the serve. Maybe Gauff gets herself in gear and simply doesn't let Sabalenka hit any winners and instead Sabalenka becomes frustrated by having to keep hitting balls.

 

There was a women's match many years ago, Sabatini vs. Novotna, that Cliff Drysdale was broadcasting in his usual smooth style.

They combined for 105 unforced errors. At one point, after another forehand dumped into the net, Drysdale couldn't say anything beyond, "This . . . this is just dreadful."