2023 Wimbledon Championships

[nycHorn 2954]

Speeches are not these guys area of expertise.

[NAVY 6737]

Tennis needs a Kenny Powers type player. 
 

imagine Kenny accepting the trophy at  Wimbledon 

“I beat that man’s ass! Fuck you all for doubting “ 

[PittsburghTiger 6130]

That was just fantastic.

That kid was amazing. They both were. That was just fun.

The US Open will be very, very interesting this summer. Is Novak allowed to play?

[perfectchaos007 6574]

4 minutes ago, PittsburghTiger said:

That was just fantastic.

That kid was amazing. They both were. That was just fun.

The US Open will be very, very interesting this summer. Is Novak allowed to play?

Yeah. Biden ended the covid emergency in May, so foreigners can enter the country without being vaccinated 

[Napoleon 8590]

8 minutes ago, nycHorn said:

Speeches are not these guys area of expertise.

The finalists yesterday and today were all ESL players. Having stumbled through questions at times in Argentina, I know what it’s like to scramble to find a word here or there that you can use to guide your answer.

The interviewer asked Carlos about the last game, but threw out a few other words that he tried to translate and then when it came time to answer, he did NOT talk about the final game, he just started talking about turning the match around after the first set.

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, nycHorn said:

Speeches are not these guys area of expertise.

Novak’s was great. Gracious, honest about being disappointed, and had perspective about his career and close wins that could’ve been losses. Carlos is a 20-yo Spaniard without the press polish of a vet like Novak. They were both good post-match interviews and understandable from the kid’s perspective. 

[InkaUtexas 25290]

Damn fun final. Novak handled it with class. Carlos is going to be fun to watch. 20 and already kicking ass. 

[nycHorn 2954]

Novak’s was great. Gracious, honest about being disappointed, and had perspective about his career and close wins that could’ve been losses. Carlos is a 20-yo Spaniard without the press polish of a vet like Novak. They were both good post-match interviews and understandable from the kid’s perspective. 

Yeah Novaks was more funny at the end looking at his kids and saying something like “I will give you a hug and we can all love each other.” He was obviously emotional from the match and then having to endure a runner up interview I think he was ready to take the last photos and leave.

[PittsburghTiger 6130]

6 minutes ago, Porterhouse said:

Novak’s was great. Gracious, honest about being disappointed, and had perspective about his career and close wins that could’ve been losses. Carlos is a 20-yo Spaniard without the press polish of a vet like Novak. They were both good post-match interviews and understandable from the kid’s perspective. 

agreed. I don't get the hate for Novak.

[Napoleon 8590]

I paused the speeches and went to get some food. Just came back and watched Carlos’ interview with ESPN’s Chris McKendry. She did a great job of talking slowly, enunciating clearly, and keeping her questions short. She would pause before saying the important word in her statement/question. 

The British lady could have taken a lesson from McKendry. Not everyone is Roger Federer. 

[TonyTexas 10470]

13 minutes ago, PittsburghTiger said:

agreed. I don't get the hate for Novak.

Because he’s not Rafa or Roger

[ConferenceRoom 6123]

Yeah, it’s such a mystery why Joker isn’t as well liked as those two. 

[dcar00 14006]

novak certainly trends towards the mcenroe side of the scale vs. federer/nadal(even though he can be fiery) towards the borg side.  novak isn't anywhere close to mcenroe on the asshole scale.

dude is the goat and did it while having to play 2 others who are 1b, 1c goats.  he was clapping for good points from alcaraz multiple times.  I can root for him.

 

[Bullneck 18959]

Watching the women's doubles final.  Cameraman just zoomed in on Storm Hunter's ass as she was in the ready position at the net.  

The level of play in the men's final was mind blowing.  

Edited July 16, 2023 by Bullneck

[Lord Melbourne 24]

42 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

novak certainly trends towards the mcenroe side of the scale vs. federer/nadal(even though he can be fiery) towards the borg side.  novak isn't anywhere close to mcenroe on the asshole scale.

dude is the goat and did it while having to play 2 others who are 1b, 1c goats.  he was clapping for good points from alcaraz multiple times.  I can root for him.

 

I have to agree. I was always huge Federer fan. Wimbledon final loss to Rafa was one of the biggest sports disappointments I can remember. Novak has passed them both. Especially considering he probably left a slam or two and a handful of masters titles on the table due to the vaccine drama. 

[UpperWestside 6081]

4 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

Damn fun final. Novak handled it with class. Carlos is going to be fun to watch. 20 and already kicking ass. 

Seeing him last year out in Flushing was incredible to witness in person. It was a five setter in the round of 16 against former champ Maran Cilic and he looked no worse for the wear at the end of the match after 3am than he did in the beginning. I do not think there has ever been someone in tennis that corrects mistakes and changes their game faster than Alcaraz. I can’t wait to watch him again in early September. Hard to believe how far he has come since I was watching him play on some live footage on my phone from Rio in early 2022. I remember thinking this can’t be a teenager I am watching. 

Edited July 16, 2023 by UpperWestside

[LTtxfan 48824]

Nice job taking down joker... Congrats Alcaraz !!! 

[WBT 20377]

That was a great final.

The first Wimbledon winner outside of the Big 4 (although maybe Murray shouldn't really count with his 2) since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002

[ChiTownDoc 21074]

1 hour ago, WBT said:

That was a great final.

The first Wimbledon winner outside of the Big 4 (although maybe Murray shouldn't really count with his 2) since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002

Big 4 comment was funny.  I knew they were referring to Murray but it would be like the SEC saying big 4 and tossing aggy in with Bama, Georgia and LSU.  A stretch to say the least.  Was worth setting the alarm to wake up on a Sunday.  If Alcaraz stays healthy he's gonna chase the big 3's records...fucking 20 years old, unbelievable.

[Napoleon 8590]

3 hours ago, Lord Melbourne said:

I have to agree. I was always huge Federer fan. Wimbledon final loss to Rafa was one of the biggest sports disappointments I can remember. Novak has passed them both. Especially considering he probably left a slam or two and a handful of masters titles on the table due to the vaccine drama. 

If Novak weren’t such a douche, he would likely have come into this Wimbledon with at least 3, if not 4 more Grand Slams  

1) 2020 US OPEN:

Pouty bitch smacks a ball that hits a lineswoman in the throat and she goes down faster than a CONCACAF opponent playing the USMNT in their home country and Novak gets DQ’d.

Thiem vs Zverev looked like two aggies trying to duck a greased football. Neither of those guys wanted to win the US Open, but someone had too. Novak could have won that and not needed a shower afterwards.

2) 2021 US OPEN:

Novak is riding high after winning the first 3 Grand a slams of the year and his burning love of fascism and Serbian pride, along with our glorious Greek vocabulary word “hubris”, leads him to enter the Mixed Doubles in the 2021 Olympics that was held on the surface of the sun.

The interruption in his post-match treatment routine along with the extra hours on court in 100°F+ Heat Index conditions resulted in his wilting in the Men’s Singles Semifinal to Zverev and loses in the Mixed Doubles semis as well. 😂

Then, after loses in the Bronze Medal match to Carreño Busta, when he just looked gas and his will was broken, he fucks over his doubles partner and country and withdraws from the Mixed Doubles like a pouty bitch who wants to take his ball and go home.

Novak was no longer invincible. There would be no “Golden Slam”, like Steffi Graf won in 1988. And the NYC (Queens) fans chose Medvedev to cheer for only a year or two after Medvedev had played the villain. 

I believed back then and I still believe that if Novak doesn’t enter the Mixed Doubles in Tokyo and wear himself out in that brutal sun, he would have won the gold 🥇 and would have gone into the US Open with an unbreakable spirit.

3) 2022 AUSTRALIAN OPEN:

Novak tries to play coy with whether he’s been vaccinated or whether he has had the virus recently a la Aaron Rodgers and finally Australia says “Fuck you, shit boy!” and Novak doesn’t get to play and Rafa actually wins the event. 

4) 2022 US OPEN:

After hosting a Super Spreader COVID Tour of the Balkans in 2020, the new age anti-science shit for brains refused to get vaccinated, so he couldn’t come, but if he had shown up, he would have beaten Carlitos Álcaraz in whatever round they would have faced. Álcaraz in September 2022 is not as good as Álcaraz in July 2023.

 

1 hour ago, WBT said:

That was a great final.

The first Wimbledon winner outside of the Big 4 (although maybe Murray shouldn't really count with his 2) since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002

Rafael Nadal also only has 2 Wimbledon titles and I don’t think that anyone would discount Rafa’s 2. 

[msucolt45 3978]

Nice recount of tennis history. Props!

Hook’em!!!

[Lord Melbourne 24]

2 hours ago, Napoleon said:

If Novak weren’t such a douche, he would likely have come into this Wimbledon with at least 3, if not 4 more Grand Slams  

1) 2020 US OPEN:

Pouty bitch smacks a ball that hits a lineswoman in the throat and she goes down faster than a CONCACAF opponent playing the USMNT in their home country and Novak gets DQ’d.

Thiem vs Zverev looked like two aggies trying to duck a greased football. Neither of those guys wanted to win the US Open, but someone had too. Novak could have won that and not needed a shower afterwards.

2) 2021 US OPEN:

Novak is riding high after winning the first 3 Grand a slams of the year and his burning love of fascism and Serbian pride, along with our glorious Greek vocabulary word “hubris”, leads him to enter the Mixed Doubles in the 2021 Olympics that was held on the surface of the sun.

The interruption in his post-match treatment routine along with the extra hours on court in 100°F+ Heat Index conditions resulted in his wilting in the Men’s Singles Semifinal to Zverev and loses in the Mixed Doubles semis as well. 😂

Then, after loses in the Bronze Medal match to Carreño Busta, when he just looked gas and his will was broken, he fucks over his doubles partner and country and withdraws from the Mixed Doubles like a pouty bitch who wants to take his ball and go home.

Novak was no longer invincible. There would be no “Golden Slam”, like Steffi Graf won in 1988. And the NYC (Queens) fans chose Medvedev to cheer for only a year or two after Medvedev had played the villain. 

I believed back then and I still believe that if Novak doesn’t enter the Mixed Doubles in Tokyo and wear himself out in that brutal sun, he would have won the gold 🥇 and would have gone into the US Open with an unbreakable spirit.

3) 2022 AUSTRALIAN OPEN:

Novak tries to play coy with whether he’s been vaccinated or whether he has had the virus recently a la Aaron Rodgers and finally Australia says “Fuck you, shit boy!” and Novak doesn’t get to play and Rafa actually wins the event. 

4) 2022 US OPEN:

After hosting a Super Spreader COVID Tour of the Balkans in 2020, the new age anti-science shit for brains refused to get vaccinated, so he couldn’t come, but if he had shown up, he would have beaten Carlitos Álcaraz in whatever round they would have faced. Álcaraz in September 2022 is not as good as Álcaraz in July 2023.

 

Rafael Nadal also only has 2 Wimbledon titles and I don’t think that anyone would discount Rafa’s 2. 

Like I said, vaccine drama. You seem to have been caught up in it.

I view athletes similar to musicians or other artists. I don’t need to agree with them about anything outside of their field to still appreciate their greatness. And to behave otherwise is quite weird imo. 

[ConferenceRoom 6123]

9 hours ago, Lord Melbourne said:

Like I said, vaccine drama. You seem to have been caught up in it.

I view athletes similar to musicians or other artists. I don’t need to agree with them about anything outside of their field to still appreciate their greatness. And to behave otherwise is quite weird imo. 

The dude is great at tennis. I love his defense. He's an alien. He's also a world class douche nozzle and I root for the other guy when Novak is on the court. 

Edited July 17, 2023 by ConferenceRoom

[Lord Melbourne 24]

37 minutes ago, ConferenceRoom said:

The dude is great at tennis. I love his defense. He's an alien. He's also a world class douche nozzle and I root for the other guy when Novak is on the court. 

Man you must’ve struggled when Kyrgios was playing him last year. That guy is unbelievable. He came off as such a whiny douche on the Break Point series. Begging his box to cheer harder for him etc. 

[ConferenceRoom 6123]

I almost added a Kyrgios qualifier when I edited my post. 

[perfectchaos007 6574]

47 minutes ago, ConferenceRoom said:

The dude is great at tennis. I love his defense. He's an alien. He's also a world class douche nozzle and I root for the other guy when Novak is on the court. 

That’s fair, but there’s actually a good amount of tennis fans out there that deny his GOAT status due to his off the court/personality traits they don’t like. Open era singles titles have always been the #1 factor in determining the GOAT rankings. As soon as Roger Federer passed Sampras’ slam count, Fed became the GOAT and no one denied the claim. Now with Djokovic leading the slam count, the mentality among some fans have changed. “We’ll, Roger is still the GOAT, slams don’t mean everything”

it’s been surreal to see the shift in GOAT criteria among fans, but at the end of the day a lot of fans just desperately want Fed (or Nadal) to be the GOAT and they’re coping by disparaging Djokovic character as reason to deny Djokovic GOAT status. I get it, Federer is probably the best ambassador of tennis we’ve ever had, but he’s not the GOAT….hate it or not, Djokovic is.

 

 

/rant

 

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by perfectchaos007

[dcar00 14006]

14 minutes ago, Lord Melbourne said:

Man you must’ve struggled when Kyrgios was playing him last year. That guy is unbelievable. He came off as such a whiny douche on the Break Point series. Begging his box to cheer harder for him etc. 

novak can be a douche/hot head but he's pretty low on the scale. Kyrgios is definitely world class.

[Lord Melbourne 24]

17 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

That’s fair, but there’s actually a good amount of tennis fans out there that deny his GOAT status due to his off the court/personality traits they don’t like. Open era singles titles have always been the #1 factor in determining the GOAT rankings. As soon as Roger Federer passed Sampras’ slam count, Fed became the GOAT and no one denied the claim. Now with Djokovic leading the slam count, the mentality among some fans have changed. “We’ll, Roger is still the GOAT, slams don’t mean everything”

it’s been surreal to see the shift in GOAT criteria among fans, but at the end of the day a lot of fans just desperately want Fed (or Nadal) to be the GOAT and they’re coping by disparaging Djokovic character as reason to deny Djokovic GOAT status. I get it, Federer is probably the best ambassador of tennis we’ve ever had, but he’s not the GOAT….hate it or not, Djokovic is.

 

 

/rant

 

 

It’s pretty undeniable at this point. 
 

 

[dcar00 14006]

2 hours ago, Lord Melbourne said:

It’s pretty undeniable at this point. 
 

 

he's also the only one to win each slam 3 times.  he also has  head to head over both(even though it is close).

[dcar00 14006]

8 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

The numbers all close among the Big 3, but I agree they favor Novak.  And I also agree he's my least favorite among the 3.

Plus, fair or not, I can't help but consider Federer won a lot of grand slams before Novak and Nadal really came into their own.  I know he can't help his competition and to some extent you can only compare a guy to his own era rather than hypotheticals with guys who came later ... but still.  There was a lot of beating up on Andy Roddick types, and not really that many years of beating up on Nadal and Novak before the tables started to turn.  Federer kind of performed like the number 3 of the big 3 for most of the time after the other two really arrived, and he isn't THAT much older than they are where you totally attribute it to age or being past his prime.  He ceased to be the dominant player among them in 2010 when he was 29 years old and they were 23/24.

And, of course, with Nadal there's always the issue of how you interpret the French Open record.  It's the most dominant any player has ever been on a single surface, which on one hand has to count for something, but on the other you could easily say it's kind of a niche that skews the overall picture.

Alcaraz is really impressive, though.   There have been young tennis phenoms who don't end up having much longevity at the top, but he seems like the type who could be a real great.  It was pretty jarring to see he actually has better ground strokes than Novak, and that he dominated the match once he settled down and realized he could win rallies and didn't have to take so many chances.  He also seems to have extreme confidence / no conscience, but in a good way.  He's not scared of any moment or hesitant to hit any shot, and he's undeterred by mistakes.  I'm a fan.

nadal's french opens is crazy.  He has as many french open wins as Sampras has total grand slams. Sampras held the all time GS win record until Federer broke it.