Running tennis thread 2024

This match is

 

What a match. Djoker finally looked his age. When he finally got his serve together after two sets to make it competitive, the rest of his game never showed up. The guy proclaimed by many as the greatest returner of serve of all time won just 25% of his return points and managed to get only 51% of them in play.

Sinner was rock solid throughout and deserved to win. He's now beaten Djoker in three of their past four meetings (though all the others were best-of-three matches).

 

Oh yeah, the other hugely important stat is unforced errors. Djokovic 54, Sinner 28. And Djoker had zero break points against Sinner's serve.

 

Wow. Just watched Medvedev finish pulling another rabbit out of a hat (or is it a habit out of a rat?), coming back from a two sets to love deficit to beat Zverev. He’s been living on the edge all tournament, winning three five-setters — two of them after dropping the first two sets — and a four-setter.

That puts him into his sixth major final, this time against Sinner, who has been playing at the very top level for months and has beaten Medvedev in their past three matches. All of Medvedev’s previous finals have been against Rafa or Djoker, only one of which he’s won.

 

FYI, if Medvedev wins Sunday, he'll pass Alcaraz for No. 2 in the rankings. Sinner will remain at No. 4 regardless.

 

I sure liked it better when the women's final began at 9 p.m. ET Friday and the men's final at 10 p.m. ET Saturday.

 

This’ll be my next couple of Mondays. Thankfully, because my company’s global work day starts here in Sydney, Monday mornings are generally very quiet.

 

Sinner’s a great kid and a great player, but that was absolutely heartbreaking to watch for Medvedev.

 

Some big moves in the rankings this week.

Sinner won last week's Rotterdam tournament, pushing him into the No. 3 spot over Medvedev, who withdrew from the tournament immediately after the Australian Open to recover from his record 24-plus hours of court time during that event.

Swiatek beat Rybakina for the title in Doha, solidifying her spot at the top of the women's rankings. By making the final, Rybakina pulled within striking distance of No. 3 Gauff, who crashed and burned in her opening match of the tournament, losing to Katerina Siniakova, now ranked 39. I didn't see that match, but the struggles on her serve that hurt Gauff in her last two matches in Melbourne seem to have continued. Siniakova broke her serve six times in two sets, and had 14 break point opportunities. Gauff had only one double fault, but won just 55% of her first serve points and 30% of her second serve points.

 

Just noticed this: Medvedev also pulled out of this week's Doha tournament, citing a foot injury. He's scheduled to play in Dubai next week, but we'll see. He won both those events last year. The mini-majors of Indian Wells and Miami are coming up right after that. Last year Medvedev lost the Indian Wells final to Alcaraz and won Indian Wells.

He went into this year's Australian Open without playing a prep event because he said he wanted to be fresher down the road, but that seems to have backfired on him.