Oso planning to go pro
In the Women's Doubles Semifinals, in one of the best matches of the tournament, heartbreak city for Americans Taylor Townsend and Asia Muhammad falling 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (7-9). Serena Williams advances to her 14th United States Open Semifinal and 38th Grand Slam Semifinal. Serena's 20 aces today is the most she has had in 8 years. Her serve has often been her differentiator.
Serena Williams advances to her 14th United States Open Semifinal and 38th Grand Slam Semifinal. Serena's 20 aces today is the most she has had in 8 years. Her serve has often been her differentiator.
Hoops, sounds like you're a tennis fanatic. I watch all the Majors, but that's about it.
Pironkova’s run was pretty amazing. Unlike Azarenka’s comeback when she was a former #1, she was never even a top 30 player before pregnancy.On the men’s side, Thiem is fantastic but I don’t know who stops Medvedev with Novak out. He looks like the Terminator right now. Rublev had been playing well. He dismantled Berettini, smoked Caruso...and Medvedev just handled him with ease, more or less.
The Azarenka comeback tour storms onward. She’s been remarkable the past weeks. So resilient and unflappable. She shook off that horrid first set and then absolutely handled Serena the rest of the way. Crazy that she hasn’t made a Slam final in 7 years and she’s still relatively young at 31. She had so much success at a young age. Should be a fantastic matchup with Osaka.Gotta think this may have been Serena’s last good shot at a major. Weakened field without Barty, Svitolina, Halep, Andreascu and others. The 5th seed in the field isn’t even a current top 10 player. Also a very favorable draw as Keys had to withdraw and Serena didn’t face a seed higher than 15 through the Semis. Stars had kind of aligned.Honestly, ive not been a Serena fan for quite awhile. Unquestionably the best female player of all time, and arguably the best female individual athlete ever, but as electric and amazing as she was when she was younger, since reaching the consensus top of the mountain, she’s been a rather unlikable player IMO. Bombastic and overly demonstrative when playing well; however, incessantly petulant, whiny, and looking to place blame whenever she’s not flamethrowing an opponent. I thought she was a pretty clear poor sport even before the Osaka fiasco. I doubt any of it will even come close to placing any shadow on her legacy, but I’ve had numerous chats about it with my tennis playing friends (including a pair of former high level women’s players who feel largely the same).
While I appreciate the tennis enthusiasm, I couldn't disagree more w/this post here.First, your admitted bias against Serena affects your characterization of her play last night. I see zero credit given to her in your post for how she played. You chalk it up to Azarenka played poorly in the first set. Reality is that Serena was dominant in the first set winning 6-1 playing better than she has in many years. I also disagree that this was Serena's last chance to win a major. Serena has either made the semifinals, finals or won 15 out of the last 19 majors she has played. Even if you focused on more recent majors, that would still be 5 out of her last 9. Now go find me all of the other players that can say the same. The list is small. Also I don't see any mention in your post that Serena sat out several majors while being pregnant and after giving birth. In Serena's missed opportunities while whe was playing, there were a handful where she let a great opportunity get away against an inferior opponent. In many others, her opponent played great that day.With regards to the field,11 of the past 15 Women's slams have been won by different players. Last night had a good example where Jen Brady had one poor service game away from defeating Osaka and making the final. And Osaka's play last night was among the all time best in tennis. That good. Brady spent the past 3 years outside of the top 50 prior to her monster season this year.Your comments are even more interesting considering her opponent last night, Vika Azarenka. Vika, like Serena, is popular on tour with many. But, Vika has spent her career, including last night playing with a manufactured high pitch squeal on every shot as a strategic tactic against her opponent. Ever watch Vika practice? Silence. Vika also admitted last night that her long break from top player, slam winner, had a lot to do with her attitude, which some well respected tennis people called prickly this week. She can be arrogant, cocky, brash, finger wagging, overconfident at times at her own admission. Do you see the double standard? However, Vika still has deserved popularity at other times based on her interactions with others. She is a great player that has won at the game's highest level and she has that level back right now. Good for her. It is the first time in 12 tries that she has defeated Serena at a slam.Back to Serena, if anything since teaming up with Patrick Mouratoglou, her pressers, pr, etc...have been much more consistently professional and her attitude is very positive and much more congratulatory with other players. That's been many years. Take the Djokovic example. Read the media headlines and compare it with those of Serena last year. There is clearly a double standard. In the incident that happened with Serena last year, a soft warning is very common and has been in this tournament for similar incidents. The amount of racism and mysogony that she and some others have experienced has been quite a bit over many years. These were Serena%u2019s gracious comments after losing a tough 3 set slam semifinal:Serena on Azarenka:%u201CShe's had a lot of, I would say, downs in her career. She started on a lot of highs. I don't know how she stayed positive, to be honest, so.. That's a good lesson for all of us. No matter what, you just got to keep going. Hopefully she keeps living her dream.%u201C "Vika is just the kind of person you root for, unless you are playing her obviously."
While I appreciate the tennis enthusiasm, I couldn't disagree more w/this post here.First, your admitted bias against Serena affects your characterization of her play last night. I see zero credit given to her in your post for how she played. You chalk it up to Azarenka played poorly in the first set. Reality is that Serena was dominant in the first set winning 6-1 playing better than she has in many years. Vika, to her credit, and improved serve, got off of the matt and played great as well.I also disagree that this was Serena's last chance to win a major. Serena has either made the semifinals, finals or won 15 out of the last 19 majors she has played. Even if you focused on more recent majors, that would still be 5 out of her last 9. Now go find me all of the other players that can say the same. The list is small. Also I don't see any mention in your post that Serena sat out several majors while being pregnant and after giving birth. In Serena's missed opportunities while whe was playing, there were a handful where she let a great opportunity get away against an inferior opponent. In many others, her opponent played great that day.With regards to the field, 11 of the past 15 Women's slams have been won by different players. Last night had a good example where Jen Brady had one poor service game away from defeating Osaka and making the final. And Osaka's play last night was among the all time best in tennis. That good. Brady spent the past 3 years outside of the top 50 prior to her monster season this year.Your comments are even more interesting considering her opponent last night, Vika Azarenka. Vika, like Serena, is popular on tour with many. But, Vika has spent her career, including last night playing with a manufactured high pitch squeal on every shot as a strategic tactic against her opponent. Ever watch Vika practice? Silence. Vika also admitted last night that her long break from top player, slam winner, had a lot to do with her attitude, which some well respected tennis people called prickly this week. She can be arrogant, cocky, brash, finger wagging, overconfident at times at her own admission. Do you see the double standard? However, Vika still has deserved popularity at other times based on her interactions with others. She is a great player that has won at the game's highest level and she has that level back right now. Good for her. It is the first time in 12 tries that she has defeated Serena at a slam.Back to Serena, if anything since teaming up with Patrick Mouratoglou, her pressers, pr, etc...have been much more consistently professional and her attitude is very positive and much more congratulatory with other players. That's been many years. Take the Djokovic example. Read the media headlines and compare it with those of Serena last year. There is clearly a double standard. In the incident that happened with Serena last year, a soft warning is very common and has been in this tournament for similar incidents. The amount of racism and mysogony that she and some others have experienced has been quite a bit over many years. These were Serena’s gracious comments after losing a tough 3 set slam semifinal:Serena on Azarenka:“She's had a lot of, I would say, downs in her career. She started on a lot of highs. I don't know how she stayed positive, to be honest, so.. That's a good lesson for all of us. No matter what, you just got to keep going. Hopefully she keeps living her dream.“ "Vika is just the kind of person you root for, unless you are playing her obviously."
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced that Fed Cup, which is the Women’s version of Davis Cup, will be renamed Billie Jean King Cup to honor her. Rafa Nadal makes his Pandemic debut in Rome. Nice run in Rome for 16 year old American Coco Gauff falls short in Rome to 2 time Slam winner and former World Number 1 Gabby Muguruza, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6. She had a good win over Jabeur prior. She is still in the doubles with Christina McHale.
Not sure what highly ranked player looked worse in Rome, Wawrinka or Kenin. Wawrinka vultured the Challenger Tour for awhile then looks completely noncompetitive against the young Italian Musetti. Loss looks a bit less brutal after he take down Nishikori in straight sets right after blitzing Stan.Kenin gets double bageled by Azarenka. Absolutely unreal. Second terrible performance against a highly ranked opponent after Mertens handled her without much issue at the US Open.
Five players out of French Open qualifying due to COVID-19https://sports.yahoo.com/five-players-french-open-qualifying-032158790.htmlFive players have been withdrawn from the French Open qualifying tournament after two players and a coach tested positive for COVID-19, organisers have said.The qualifiers will begin later on Monday, with the main draw set to commence on Sept. 27."The Roland Garros tournament directors can confirm that two players competing in the qualifying tournament have tested positive for COVID-19 and three others have confirmed close contact with a coach who has tested positive for COVID-19," the French Tennis Federation (FFT) said in a statement.
The French Open has wanted to have limited fans for the event. No other event has had fans.
The French continues to do its own thing. When the Pandemic began, it announced it waa moving its late May event to Sept/Oct without really chatting with anyone else in tennis. The French Open is near completion of a big long term renovation project. Going from 850 Acres to 1250 acres,(U.S. Open has 1900 acres by comparison) rebuilt main stadium after 90 years, new smaller stadium builds, retractable roof, lights for the first time this year. It is located in the hustle bustle of Paris. Recent higher end brand sponsors, partnerships with China etc....after being outdated for a very long time and least popular w/some players.Wimbledon canceled its 2020 event. It had 17 year Pandemic Insurance that paid out $141 million.