Running tennis thread for 2023

USA! USA!

 

A tremendous performance by Gauff. She looked like an overmatched teenager in the first set, but got herself together, got a break in the second and held on. Did Sabalenka give her some free points? Yes. But Coco also got to all sorts of balls it seemeed like no one should get to and did the old Djokovic trick of making her opponent have to hit the extra shot.

 

Coco and Iga are the two fastest players in the game. Coco got to some balls that were unbelievable. Good for her.

 

Who are the haters who thought she couldn't win?

 

my faith isn't so much about turning the other cheek as it is the haters sucking it

 

Ha! I said the same thing to my wife!

She’s been The Anointed One for, what, four years now? I’ve can’t think of anyone who’s tried to “throw water on her fire.”

 

Something something SOCIAL MEDIA!

 

It turns out that the Laver Cup is happening this weekend in Vancouver. I'm swamped with writing about college sports this time of year, but I'm still stunned that I had no idea this was happening until YouTube TV recommended it this afternoon. A pretty depleted Europe side is getting squashed: 2023 Results & Leaderboard | Scores & Results | Laver Cup

 

Tennis is smart to conduct 95% of its season when football is not playing.

 

This morning (our time), Ben Shelton beat Aslan Karatsev to win the Tokyo tournament, his first career tournament title. When the new rankings come out tomorrow, he'll be No. 14 in the world, in a dead heat with Frances Tiafoe and closing fast on the current top Americans, No. 10 Taylor Fritz and No. 12 Tommy Paul (who Shelton beat in Tokyo).

Since the beginning of the U.S. Open, Shelton is 14-2 with two victories over Paul and one over fourth-ranked Jannik Sinner. His only losses were to Djoker in the Open semifinals and a three-setter (in a best-of-three, with two tiebreaks) to Sebastian Korda (who BTW, has risen to No. 23 in the rankings) in the Shanghai quarters.

Next up for Shelton is the ATP 500 event in Vienna next week, where he got a crappy draw -- he'll play Sinner in the first round. That said, I'm sure Sinner is thinking he got a crappy draw as the No. 2 seed (Medvedev is the top seed). Should be a great match.

 

Well, fuck.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/12/08/chris-evert-cancer-returns-australian-open/