Running tennis thread 2024

At least lip fillers are reversible. Sabalenka denies having anything done, but reportedly Svitolina and others have had it done as well.

 

Pegula put up a fight, but Sabalenka took charge late in each set the win the title, 7-5, 7-5.

 

Pegula needed a better serve. And she somehow got up 5-4, serving for 2nd set then played not to lose instead of staying aggressive and making Sabalenka move like the prior 5 games. Props to Sab; she hit out at the end and won it.

 

Crazy how the men’s final just gets swallowed up whole by NFL week 1.

 

I watched very little of the men's final. I would have watched more if Fritz had given me any indication he could win.

 

I know there’s a lot going on right now and no one but a few of us junkies pay any attention to tennis after the U.S. Open, but there was a big-time fireworks show this morning in the final of the 500-level indoor tournament in Basel, Switzerland.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, a 6-8, 21-year-old Frenchman, beat Ben Shelton 6-4, 7-6 for his second tournament title of the year and his career. While both guys were firing rockets on their serve, Mpetshi Perricard was launching Saturn Vs.

There were 32 aces in the two-set match, 22 of them by Perricard (out of 64 service points). Shelton's fastest serve was 135 mph and his first serve average speed was 122. Mpetshi Perricard's top speed was 149, his average first serve was 137 and his AVERAGE SECOND SERVE speed was an astounding 132. He actually unleashed a 145 mph second serve.

Earlier in the tournament, Mpetshi Perricard won another 22-ace match (in just 56 service points) against Felix Auger-Aliassime. The serve speed stats for that match are jacked up somehow on the ATP website -- they show his maximum speed at 149, his first-serve average as 155 and his second serve average as 137. Obviously, the average can't be higher than the max, but whatever the real numbers were, there's no doubt he was bombing.

Mpetshi Perricard averages 17.8 aces per match for the year, five more than the next-best player (Hubert Hurkacz). He began 2024 ranked 205 in the world. Today's win will lift him to No. 31, according to the live rankings.

One note about this tournament: It's the first ATP Tour event to have all four semifinalists born in the 2000s. All four -- Mpetshi Perricard, Shelton, Holger Rune and Arthur Fils -- are 22 or younger.

BTW, a blast from the past in the women's 500-level Tokyo event. 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin -- remember her? -- made it to the final before falling to top seed and world No. 7 Zheng Qinwen, 7-6, 6-3.

 

I don’t follow tennis that closely — particularly after the U.S. Open, as you noted — but it seems like tennis and golf are similar in how technology and state of the art equipment are dramatically changing the game.

Serves at nearly 150 mph, 375 yard-plus drives … it’s a different game for pros with this gear, even compared to a decade ago.