Scholarship table
Both Medvedev and Djokovic will be rested and ready to go. (Draws matter who you play, when, etc...)The surface is playing faster than it has in 15 years. This is also a neutral as both like hard courts but prefer the previous slower AO Hard Courts as opposer to the U.S. Open.Medvedev has defeated every top 10 player (except Federer who's injured) since November, and, some multiple times. He's won 20 in a row and, if he wins, he will be the first player not named Federer, Nadal, Djokovic to be ranked #2 in the World, in 16 years.Djokovic is seeking his 18th Men's Singles Grand Slam Title, and 9th Australian Open Men's Singles Title.
Of those 20 straight matches that Medvedev has won, it includes an insane 11 wins over top 10 players. One of them was Djokovic in the Paris Tours final three months ago.Medvedev has won four straight tournaments, going for 5 tomorrow.
But can he beat the Djoker on this stage? I certainly hope so.
I agree that Joker might be on a different level than everyone else.But, right now, the next guy in that order might not be Federer or Nadal but Medvedev. Restated, right now the guy with the best chance to knock off Novak in a major final is Medvedev, more so than Nadal.
Mostly a reasonable hypothesis. Medvedev probably is a better matchup in a major final for Djokovic right now ... except on clay. At the French, until proven otherwise, Nadal is a tougher task for Djokovic or any other human walking the face of the earth.
Women's Tennis Player Barbora Strycova once gave Naomi Osaka the nickname Shinkasen, (Japanese Bullet Train), and the fastest one is called Nozomi.4th Grand Slam Title Singles Title for Osaka. (all Hard Court) Neither she nor Brady played a great first.set, but jt was solid and super close...slightly too many errors for Jen and not quite good enough serving the difference. She had several opportunities. Came close.Super close 1st set, 4-5 40-15 on serve, Brady misses a backhand, then double faults. Osaka gets a defensive backhand stab off of her frame to land on the line. Amazing. Then good serve from Brady, easy put aeay at the net and misses it. Osaka was just slightly better w/serves, returns, similar errors. Brady was cruising serving well that game. Little things. Luck helps too.Each player with one poor service game each first set. Score tied 4-4 Osaka serving down 0-30, 2nd serve, and she spins one off of the back of the line that Brady returns long. Pretty good next serve but not good enough return floats long. Brady then plays a terrific point touch lob winner after great return on great wide serve.(Needed more variety like this) Osaka misses a cross court forehand heavy ball the nicks the line to get back to deuce. Then long rally and Brady hits tape inside out forehand. Backhand winner just wide on Osaka approach.One big key to Osaka's play is her team, in particular her coach, Belgian Wim Fissette, one of the better coaches on tour. It matters, and it makes a difference. They will now seek to improve Clay and Grass Results. A U.S. Open Semifinal, and an Australian Open Final in her last two Grand Slam Singles Tourneys for Jen Brady. Osaka becomes the 4th active Women's player with 4 Grand Slam Singles Titles. (Clijsters, Venus, Serena)Barbora Krejcikova and Rajeev Ram win the Mixed Doubles Title. It is the 5th Grand Slam Doubles Title for Krejcikova, her 3rd Mixed, all three in Australia, and two of those with Rajeev Ram. It is the 3rd Grand Slam Doubles Title for Rajeev, 2nd Mixed. At one point in the photo, this was the Round of 16 score for Osaka. It's a game of inches sometimes.
Well, so much for Medvedev being a great challenge for Djokovic. Novak is just too good. He didn't even look like he was sweating; there aren't too many better-conditioned athletes in the entire world.Every important (or even semi-important) point, Djokovic won. As John McEnroe said, Djokovic had an obvious game plan while Medvedev did not seem to. And when Medvedev started breaking rackets ... ugh.I don't think Rafa could have beaten Novak, either ... but I'll still do a little "what might have been" thinking. If Rafa had won the 3rd set against Tsitsipas rather than absolutely giving away the tiebreaker, he would have been nice and rested for Medvedev in the semis ... and we'll never know what would have happened. But Rafa DID blow that tiebreak, and the rest was history. Well deserved championship for the Down Under Wonder. Rafa gets to be the King of Clay soon enough.I second Muggsy about the privilege we've all had to watch the three greatest tennis players ever, all in their prime in the same era of the sport's history. I doubt we'll ever see anything like this again.I will believe that the Medvedevs, Thiems, Zverevs, etc, are ready for the passing of the torch as soon as any of them can take away the torch for more than one major in a row.
Ok, after many times of the same post, I have to politely interject here. I believe you are confusing your distaste for emotion, emotional outbursts even mild in some cases, for that being an automatic detriment to someone's play. Here is Djokovjc destroying a racket mid match at this year's AO. He then goes on to turn that set around by winning the next five games:https://twitter.com/TennisChannel/status/1361646864513175552?s=19Federer was well known for emotional outbursts, racket stuff when he was younger. Some players do it, some don't, it happens. Nadal even used to do it as a younger player until Uncle Tony said no more. Emotional outbursts can also be beneficial for certain types of players.It is utter nonsense that if someone has an emotional outburst they are automatically not going to do well after that. There are double standards of course with se players vs others.Some players are quiet players, some are not. (some even during the points as a tactic) It's quite a variety. I also believe your repeated Brady commentary is misplaced, as, that really isn't a big thing in her game compared to even the average tour player.It would appear that you prefer players to contort themselves in a certain manner. And there is nothjng wrong with that. But as in any other sport or walk of life, there are a wide variety of different personalities, different temperaments. And there is not one way to be successful from that standpoint.
It's a results business. We saw Brady falling apart, and getting demonstrably worse as a tennis player after doing so. We saw Medvedev go even further south after he smashed his racket. As for Novak ... we all saw him cost himself a potential U.S. Open title because he couldn't resist slapping at the ball in frustration; it was a "fluke," but it wouldn't have happened if he didn't do it. And Kyrgios ... he's just a punk who has won nothing.Obviously, I don't really know what was going through Brady's mind. But I do have eyes, and I saw that her expressing her frustrations so often did not help her.Watching players get upset with themselves, and even others, can be fun sometimes. But the ultimate test is does it help them or detract from what they are trying to do?Maybe it's not a coincidence that Rafa became one of the all-time greats after Uncle Tony reined him in, you know?