Running Tennis Thread 2022

Barty is pretty crafty. She seems to be able to play any style you want to present to her. You want to serve hard and bang out groundstrokes, she's capable. You want to play angles and get to the net, she does that too. And she doesn't make a lot of unforced errors.

Madison has to get out quick and try to overpower her. She has to take that first set because she's not great at playing from behind.

 

Potential for an All-American final with Keys and Danielle Collins both advancing to the semis.

 

Want another reason to root against him?

 

On the tennis court, that a pretty reasonable thing to ask yourself.

 

Neither is likely to make it, but it would be cool.

 

Keys looks completely overwhelmed. I think I can go to bed.

 

Good for Collins. Played at UVA.

 

I didn't watch the Barty match -- the score (and above post) suggests she played tremendous.

I did get up early to see Collins-Swiatek, and... wow. Collins was absolutely dominant. She was all power, slamming winner after winner (mostly from the backhand), but also very precise -- 27 winners to 13 unforced errors.

What really hit me, though, was how cool and impassive she was. I don't think her expression changed even once, even after she closed out the win to get to her first major final. I expected her to fall to the court with emotion or jump around in excitement or something, but she just waved and barely cracked a smile. The most animated she got the entire match was a very understated fist pump after a few points.

To me, that says a lot about Collins' ability to handle nerves and pressure. She might get overrun by Barty, who's at the top of her game right now, but I don't think she's going to be overwhelmed by the moment.

 

Patrick McEnroe said on ESPN that the last former college player to win a major was... his big brother John.

 

Nadal v. Medvedev in final. Medvedev again with some pissy moments in the semi, then tried to apologize afterwards about the outbursts. Sorry dude, go grab some "pine, meat (Krukow)" after Nadal kicks your butt tomorrow night.

 

In singles, yes. Kevin Anderson (Illinois) has come the closest when he reached the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open. Tons of former college players have won Slam doubles titles in the last few decades.

 

That will be a very interesting final both in terms of style of play and temperament. If Nadal is taking forever as he usually does, I suspect Medvedev could get pretty annoyed -- though that sometimes seems to help him.