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2021 ATP/WTA Thread

UDontKnow

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shadow_operative2.0
shadow_operative2.0

I have TC with DirecTV & then ESPN+ for 3 of the Slams (TC covers French). This is the best site for finding just about any random match...  https://www.jokerlivestream.org/joker-tennis-live-

Napoleon
Napoleon

You’re reading too much into this.  Rafa hated everything about the September/ October 2020 RG and I am fairly certain that he didn’t drop a set. And that was after losing to Schwartzman on clay

shadow_operative2.0
shadow_operative2.0

The limp is funny.   

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8826

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1 hour ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

The rare triple breadstick for Gauff/Sakkari. 

Garbine came back to win her match for another classic WTA-special. 

Naomi continues to be awful on clay. 

Some Serena chick is on now. 

1) The Triple Breadsticks was a WTA classic. 

2) Garbiñe won something like 6 of the last 7 games to win 7-5 in the 3rd. What a choke!

3) Naomi AND Medvedev are allergic to clay. 

4) VAMOS Fucking ARGENTINA!!

756AEAD0-1F0F-4F75-B071-6ECEE02AF63A.jpeg

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8826

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7 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

1 & 4 for Krejcikova over Sofia, ouch. 


Sofia fired her dad, but may not have a new coach or a shrink lined up yet  

 

5 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Keys eats a breadstick from Swiatek to head to the bar. 


Keys was leading in the first set and then remembered who she was. I like Keys, I alike Swiatek, I like Kenin, but I do not like Serena. 
 

Match #1,000 was one to remember. 😂

20559227-4BF7-4170-BBA5-DD05FCA9A571.jpeg

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Hefeweizen

Hefeweizen 5443

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It looked bad for Halep.  Sad as she is really solid and seemed like a good bet to challenge Barty at RG.  
 

SST is absolutely unwatchable to me, so the highlights of the Giorgi match where when Camila would bend over as she is pretty hot.  She hits like Sabalenka but even more out of control.  I thought Giorgi was Italian though.  Shows what I know.

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8826

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1 hour ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Coco just sent Aryna to the bar. 


WTF!

Did not see that coming. Perhaps Coco works much better when there aren't many fans around and she has no business winning. Last week in Madrid, Sabalenka was seen midweek as the a possible favorite OVER Barty. The Tennis Podcast people were saying that when Sabalenka is on, there's nothing that anyone on the tour can really do. Her best is the best on tour.

They also mentioned at times regarding men's and women's matches that Madrid was a bit of an outlier on the clay court circuit because of the altitude (elevation 2,690ft, so barely over 1/2 mile above sea level), the ball flies much faster there than anywhere else on the clay court circuit. So that helped big hitters like Isner (ATP) and Sabalenka (WTA).

The Williams sisters have both accepted last minute wild card invites to the Parma event that starts this Sunday.

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Hefeweizen

Hefeweizen 5443

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13 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

Isner made a quarterfinal run on clay and now his successor Opelka has made a QF in Italy 

Opelka is way more likeable and besides having a gigantic serve, limited game, and being 7 feet tall what do they have in common ?

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Hefeweizen

Hefeweizen 5443

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Iga v Pliskova is not what I expected, but not unreasonable.

 

Nadal v Joker is so perfect.  Nole threw his racket this morning and just kept winning.  He is so irritating as an opponent, just fantastic coverage and efficient return.  
 

Nadal still isn’t back to form, I am picking Iga and Djoker for the finals.

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8826

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15 minutes ago, Hefeweizen said:

Fed Ruud would be a fun watch.  So would good Shapo v Fed in the final.  I just don’t see Fed doing damage at RG this year.

I think that he is using the clay season to get match fit. 

He will do Roland Garros for a final goodbye, but will lose in Week 1 and then he’s all in on grass... and then the Olympics, if they happen. 

After that he’s just giving it his best, but not expecting anything. 

His body can’t take daily Best of 3 tournaments, nor  Best of 5s with rest days on anything beyond grass. The Olympics should be Best of 3 with rest days.

He can play top level tennis, he just can’t sustain it.

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8826

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Here's the story from the WTA site. The domination was epic.

Swiatek whitewashes Pliskova to capture Rome title and break Top 10

Iga Swiatek did not drop a game against Karolina Pliskova in the final of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia for her second trophy of the year.

By WTA Staff

Swiatek-trophy.jpg?width=2880

No.15 seed Iga Swiatek was in ruthless form as she routed No.9 seed Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-0 in just 46 minutes in the Internazionali BNL d'Italia final.

Swiatek dropped just 13 points in total - four in the first set and nine in the second - and faced only four game points against her. The Pole picks up her third career title following Roland Garros last autumn and Adelaide in February, and the result ensures that she will break the Top 10 for the first time on Monday.

 

It was the first double bagel to decide the Rome title, and the most one-sided Italian Open final since 1983, when Andrea Temesvari defeated Bonnie Gadusek 6-1, 6-0. The last double bagel in a WTA final was Simona Halep's victory over Anastasija Sevastova at Bucharest 2016, and the last at 1000 level or above was Stefanie Graf's rout of Natasha Zvereva at Roland Garros 1988.

Not that Swiatek was aware, such was her focus on court.

"When my coach told me it was 6-0, 6-0, I was, like, Really? Isn't that a mistake?" she said afterwards. "When I was on the breaks, I was visualising that I'm starting that match from the beginning every time. Actually, I did that so well that I didn't even know that it was 6-0 in the first set... The key is just to not to think about it and just, you know, play. Because when you're gonna think about the score, you can actually ruin your mindset and ruin your attitude."

Today also marked the shortest completed WTA final since Istanbul 2009, when Vera Dushevina needed only 42 minutes to beat Lucie Hradecka 6-0, 6-1.

Double bagels in WTA finals since 2000
2006 Québec City, Marion Bartoli d. Olga Puchkova
2013 Sydney, Agnieszka Radwanska d. Dominika Cibulkova
2016 Bucharest, Simona Halep d. Anastasija Sevastova
2021 Rome, Iga Swiatek d. Karolina Pliskova

Swiatek had never before scored a double bagel win at pro level, though notably had defeated Pliskova's twin sister Kristyna 6-0, 6-1 to reach her first WTA final at Lugano 2019.

For Pliskova, it is just the second time in her career that she has failed to win a game in a completed match following her 6-0, 6-0 loss as a 17-year-old to Anna Korzeniak in the 2009 Latina-Nascosa ITF $10K quarterfinals. A former champion in Rome in 2019 playing her third consecutive final here, a leg injury had forced Pliskova to retire trailing Halep 6-0, 2-1 last year.

Swiatek-champ-graphic.jpg?width=2128

 

Swiatek raced out of the blocks and never let up, striking 17 winners to only five unforced errors over the course of the match. By contrast, a slow-starting Pliskova served two double faults in each of her first two service games, and did not find a winner until she was set point down after 19 minutes.

"From the beginning I felt that she may be a little bit nervous," said Swiatek. "I wanted to use that and actually play as many games with that vibe as I can. That's why it was pretty fast at the beginning.

"I saw that, because I thought her movement wasn't really good, but I also had in my mind that she's gonna start in a minute feeling better and being in a rhythm. So I wasn't really focusing on that."

Matters improved for Pliskova in the second set to the extent that she held two break points in the third game and two points to hold in the sixth. But Swiatek was not only in eviscerating form, able to take a stranglehold of rallies immediately and rarely faltering in finishing them off, but hungry for every game.

The 19-year-old swatted away every opportunity that Pliskova had to even get on the board with renewed focus, and brought up championship point with another brilliant forehand winner.

Swiatek's combination of heavy spin and pace had allowed her to exploit Pliskova's movement throughout the match, and she sealed victory as the Czech sent a forehand wide.

The 13 points Swiatek had conceded are the fewest in a 1000-level final. The previous record were the 24 points Serena Williams lost to Carla Suárez Navarro at Miami 2015.

"I think she had amazing day and I had horrible day," said Pliskova. "That's one of those combinations which I guess can happen.

"I just was feeling horrible out there today. That's one of those days. But I think she really made it extremely difficult for me to do any point and to play anything from my game. She was playing super fast. I thought she was just going for it.

"I had a couple, just a couple, of good shots, and I think she can just redirect so well and she can play even faster, and especially on clay. Because she has so much spin, I think it's super tough to do something from it. Especially today she had amazing placement of the ball. Everything was super deep and just close to the lines."

The result extends Swiatek's record in finals at all levels to an impressive 16-3 - 6-2 in juniors, 7-0 in ITF events and now 3-1 at WTA level. Swiatek also becomes the third player to win a title after saving match point en route in 2021, alongside Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open and Ashleigh Barty in Miami, having staved off two against Barbora Krejcikova in the third round.

The Krejcikova match, in which Swiatek struggled and only gradually found some form, was a turning point.

"Actually, it's a good way to call it like two phases of the tournament," Swiatek said. "At the beginning it was really, really hard. I actually wasn't thinking that it's gonna be enough - I'm not talking about winning the tournament - to even do a good result. But day after day I was feeling a little bit better and I just focused on that. I had good people around me that were telling me not to really worry and that sometimes it's the best idea not to care.

"I think playing yesterday two matches actually gave me more than it would usually, because I would get tired. But this time I was in a rhythm and I could feel that for three hours yesterday. So it gave me a lot of confidence."

[3:07 VIDEO OF HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOTH SETS]

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2145027/swiatek-whitewashes-pliskova-to-capture-rome-title-and-break-top-10

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8826

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2 hours ago, Hefeweizen said:

...That Iga match was ridiculously one sided.  Like watching a game in easy mode.


From her performances this spring and from her comments at the trophy ceremony, I think that it is a decent educated guess that her head was not in the right place this spring.

Since Adelaide, she hasn't played like a grand slam champ who confirmed her greatness with a title in Australia. She's played like a Top 40 women's player. Good in some matches, not that great in others. Usually winning one to three matches in a tournament before being knocked out.

Today she was playing like a cyborg. If she can keep this mindset, she's up there with Ash Barty & Sabalenka as one of the favorites in Paris. (Osaka & Serena are not favorites. Osaka still sucks on clay and Serena is old and fat... even when "in shape".)

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8826

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40 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Schmiedlova isn’t American, but Venus does need to just go ahead & announce the USO will be her swan song. 

Camila is serving up 4-3 in the third against McHale on TC now. 

I remembered that one American lost to another American today/yesterday  and I merged it with Venus being old and getting Wildcard invites and put them together into one post. 

Maybe Sloane beat Caty McNally. 🤷‍♂️

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8826

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4 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

Venus will need to rely on wild cards to get in pretty much every WTA tournament she wants into. The US tournaments will all give her a wildcard entry, but the longer she prolongs her retirement the fewer number of tournaments that will grant her wildcards 

The thing is that she’s good enough to beat weaker players, but she never plays lesser tournaments (except for Parma), so she rarely wins a match anymore. 

If not for the crazy ranking system, she’d be outside of the Top 200. 

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