Running tennis thread for 2023

Here are the highlights. If nothing else, watch the point that begins at the 3:36 mark. It is nothing short of insane.

Daniil Medvedev Defeats Novak Djokovic in Dubai | ATP Tour | Tennis

 

Medvedev with a dominant 6-2, 6-2 win over Rublev for his third consecutive tournament championship. 27 winners and nine aces vs. six unforced errors and one double fault.

With a win over Djoker and Alcaraz struggling with injuries, he might be the favorite heading into the hard court season finales at Indian Wells and Miami.

 

Men's final at Indian Wells tomorrow night (Sunday) should be a great one. Alcaraz, who put away Sinner in the semis, vs. red-hot Medvedev, who outlasted Tiafoe for his 19th consecutive match victory.

 

So remember when Sofia Kenin and Bianca Andreescu looked like the future of women's tennis?

Well, today in the second round in Miami, they both took out seeded players -- Kenin beat 28th-seeded Anhelina Kalinina 6-3, 6-4, and Andreescu outlasted No. 7 Sakkari in three sets -- to set up a third-round matchup between the former top-five players.

 

Unluckiest player in tennis. Andresscu rolls her ankle (or much worse, as her screams would attest) in Miami and leaves the court in a wheelchair.

 

Oh, no, that’s horrible. When she out-Serenaed Serena as a teenager in the 2019 U.S. Open final, she looked like the Next Big Thing. And I think she could have been — or maybe even still could be — if she could just stay on the court.

 

She's really the only player I consistently root for since Dementieva retired so long ago.

 

This post from 2020 has aged pretty well...

 

So the Miami tournament seemed headed for an Alcaraz-Medvedev final (for the second tournament in a row), but Sinner derailed that tonight by outlasting Alcaraz for a three-set win.

So Sinner will face Medvedev, who has now made it to the final in his past five tournaments (winning three straight before losing to Alcaraz at Indian Wells).

 

Russian and Belarusian players can play at Wimbledon this year. Ukrainian foreign minister calls on the UK government to deny them visas.

 

Hard court season is over, and the clear winner is Daniil Medvedev -- 29-3 match record (including a win over No.1 -ranked Djokovic), four tournament championships, five consecutive tournament final appearances.

On to the clay!

 

In honor of one of the world's oldest tournaments (Monte Carlo), a couple of weeks ago Rublev and Dimitrov played a 10-point tiebreak with vintage rackets.

Tennis needs more of this kind of stuff.