Running tennis thread 2024

Forget the players. Here's the real star at Indian Wells this week:

How beekeeper Lance Davis saved the Indian Wells tennis QFs... barehanded | ATP Tour | Tennis

 

That said, some tasty semifinals coming up. Alcaraz survived the bees and Zverev and will face Sinner in what seems to be blossoming into the next great men's tennis rivalry. Winner gets the No. 2 spot in the world rankings -- and starts closing in on Djokovic -- the loser settles for No. 3.

Navarro played a terrific match but came up just short in losing to Sakkari in three sets tonight. Sakkari now faces Gauff, who beat Yuan in straight sets, even though her serve still isn't right. Today she went for broke, finishing with seven aces but a ridiculous 17 double faults. She won 75 percent of her first serve points but only 28 percent on the second serve. She faced 10 break points but saved seven of them. Coco seems to be riding a roller coaster, but she's still winning.

Sakkari has had issues with confidence in the recent past, but she's been very solid and playing aggressively in this event. There were several times she seemed ready to waver or collapse against the confident and assertive Navarro, but she righted the ship and pushed through. This should be a very interesting match.

 

Before this tournament is over, I expect a few of Gauff''s serves to sail into the stands; she was pathetic yesterday when serving and, overall, has looked quite mediocre in three of her four wins. I don't know what she and Brad Gilbert are practicing, but something's not getting through.

 

Brad Gilbert takes his sun protection very seriously.

 

Swiatek won the Indian Wells title with a straight-sets victory over Sakkari who got to the final after Gauff's serving issues finally caught up with her, in the semis).

Alcaraz outlasted Sinner in a three-set semi that produced some of those ridiculous highlights that have become routine for him, but still never get old -- like this one: Hot Shot: Alcaraz last man standing after Sinner's desperate dive | ATP Tour | Tennis. It was Sinner's first loss of the year, breaking his streak of 18 consecutive victories.

Today, Alcaraz took care of Medvedev in a rematch of last year's Indian Wells final, which Alcaraz also won. He needed a tiebreak to win the first set, then cruised 6-1 in the second.

Now it's on to Miami for the second "mini-major" of the early hard-court season.

 

Well, this is interesting -- Djokovic and Goran Ivanisevic, his coach for the past six years, are parting ways:

Novak Djokovic & coach Goran Ivanisevic split | ATP Tour | Tennis

Djoker withdrew from the Miami tournament after his shocking third-round loss at Indian Wells to No. 123 Luca Nardi, saying "At this stage of my career, I’m balancing my private and professional schedule."

The other top 4-ranked players -- Alcaraz, Sinner and Medvedev -- are still playing in Miami. Medvedev and Sinner will meet in the semifinals, while Alcaraz faces Grigor Dimitrov in the quarters tonight.

The women's bracket got busted early -- none of the top three seeds are in the semis. But Danielle Collins is. The former Australian Open finalist will meet No. 16 Ekaterina Alexandrova in the semis. After announcing her intention to retire at the end of 2024, she's been putting together a great year. Even so, she is not reconsidering her retirement decision, and she got a little prickly about reporters asking her that question.

"You know, I find it so interesting, because I kind of felt like when I was announcing my retirement, everyone has been so, like, congratulating me and so excited for me. But then on the other hand, I feel like I have had to justify my decision a lot. I feel like if I was a guy, I probably wouldn't have to justify it that much.

"I think it's really interesting how in a lot of different situations I have had to kind of justify the reasons behind retirement. I'm living with a chronic inflammatory disease [rheumatoid arthritis] that affects your ability to get pregnant, and so that's, like, a deeply personal situation. I've kind of explained that from time to time.

“Yeah, I think it's a good question, but I think at the end of the day ... this is my personal choice. This is so much more to do than just tennis and my career. I'm enjoying my career. I'm having a lot of fun. I love coming out here and competing. But at the end of the day, like, this is a really big life decision, and yeah, I think that that should be pretty understandable.”

No. 4 Rybakina will face Azarenka in the other semifinal.

 

Sinner inadvertently gave his physio a proverbial kick in the groin. Well, not a kick, exactly, but close enough.

 

Alcaraz ousted last night by Dimitrov, whom Carlito said "made me feel like I'm 13 years old."

"You know, it was crazy. I was talking to my team saying that I don't know what I have to do. I don't know his weakness. I don't know anything.”

 

Danielle Collins with another big win in her farewell tour -- beat No. 6 Ons Jabeur, the tournament's defending champ, in the second round of the clay court season opener in Charleston.

It wasn't surprising, really, though. Collins, coming off her championship in Miami (beating No. 4 Rybakina in the final), has been playing great, while Jabeur has had a rough year so far. This was her fifth consecutive loss and she's 2-6 in 2024.

Collins has won nine matches in a row and 20 of her past 24. She's now ranked 22 and, according to the live rankings site, is now a win away from breaking back into the top 20. She's a past finalist in the French Open and could be someone to keep an eye on at Roland Garros this year.

 

It's definitely time to watch out for Collins. She just won her second consecutive tournament title, taking out 11th-ranked Daria Kasatkina in the final of the 500-level Charleston tournament 6-2, 6-1.

In what she keeps insisting is her final year on the tour, Collins is now 26-7 and has won 13 matches in a row, beating No. 4 Rybakina, No. 6 Jabeur, No. 7 Sakkari and No. 11 Kasatkina during that streak. According to the live rankings site, she'll move up to No. 15 tomorrow.

On the men's side, Ben Shelton beat Frances Tiafoe to win the Houston tournament. The victory pushes Shelton to No. 14 in the world and past Tommy Paul as the second-ranked American -- and he's nipping at the heels of Taylor Fritz, who is ranked 13th.

BTW, remember when Tiafoe, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov were going to be the next big thing in men's tennis? None of them are in the top 20 anymore. Tiafoe will be at 23 in the new rankings, FAA will be 35th and Shapovalov has fallen all the way to 122. Oh, yeah, and Tsitsipas has dropped out of the top 10.

 

Rafa is back in the saddle. He opens the Barcelona tournament tomorrow against Flavio Cobolli — his first match since January — after withdrawing from Monte Carlo last week.

Rafa, who has won in Barcelona a record 12 times, again hinted this is last year, saying it means a lot for him to play there “one more time.”

His quotes made it pretty clear he knows it’s about over.

"I can't give you an injury update because the list is long. I can only tell you that today I feel myself, enough good to be on court tomorrow and that for me is so important.

“So I am just trying to enjoy every moment and I am excited about being on court in a professional tournament again, especially here at home.

"I was not able to spend a lot of days on tour over the last two years, so I just want to enjoy every day I am able to play with the guys on a professional level. That means a lot for me.”

We’ll see if he can make it through this tournament, and if so, what he looks like heading toward Paris.