Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread XIII

[Tuggy]

Denis is looking really sharp!

Nice way to close out the TB. Both players with some errors.

Nice chance for Denis and Felix to help their AO ranking in this event hopefully.

 

[Hadoop]

Nervy tie-breaker and Denis regains his nerve just in time to prevail. Both playing the quick-strike game and little to separate them so far.

 

[MsMeow]

Tsitsipas has already burned through his challenges in the first game.

 

[Hadoop]

Mohamed Lahyani is on fire today!

 

[Hadoop]

Shapo clinches it in another breaker!

Side note: I gotta say Tsistipas sure doesn't like playing these Canadian teenagers much!

 

[kihei]

Felix sure looks more relaxed and confident kibbutzing on the bench than he does on court.

 

[MsMeow]

Mohamed Lahyani is on fire today!

He is always right! It's like as soon as he overrides you feel like you have to agree with with him.

Shapo clinches it in another breaker!

Side note: I gotta say Tsistipas sure doesn't like playing these Canadian teenagers much!

I didn't see Felix's match but Denis is really sharp. Tsitsipas played well too but come on, what a weak double fault to end it. It's like he gave up.

 

[Hadoop]

He is always right! It's like as soon as he overrides you feel like you have to agree with with him

LOL yeah. Not sure if he's got the best (human hawk)-eye in the chair ump game but he's definitely up there.

 

[discostu]

Pretty big win for Denis to start the year. Is it just Felix and Denis participating for Canada? I saw they played doubles as well. They're well rested, but hate to see a situation where they're over playing early in the season.

 

[Loosie]

Nice to see the Canadian boys get a clean sweep like that. Aussie lost one set so they are in 2nd. Have a feeling this will be a big year for both Shapo and Felix. Shap got his first title last year so at least that's out of the way. Felix will hopefully join him soon.

 

[kihei]

I didn't see Felix's match but Denis is really sharp. Tsitsipas played well too but come on, what a weak double fault to end it. It's like he gave up.

Tsitsipas has caught a mild case of zverevitis. Could get worse.

 

[Tuggy]

Nice to see the Canadian boys get a clean sweep like that. Aussie lost one set so they are in 2nd. Have a feeling this will be a big year for both Shapo and Felix. Shap got his first title last year so at least that's out of the way. Felix will hopefully join him soon.

It was a very nice performance from Denis. Really solid for the first match of the season.

Physically he looks great. Turning 21 soon and you can see he's physically maturing and I think emotionally as well.

He's not far off the top 10 and I definitely see him getting there at some point in 2020.

A bigger title(s) than a 250 will be in the cards as well.

We'll see about Felix. He looked pretty fit last night but I still wonder about the mental side for him.

He has all the tools to be a great player and hopefully he can go even further this season.

 

[Loosie]

I'm hoping to get the Tennis TV package before it gets to far into the season. We moved over the summer and never got cable back so I've been without TSN and SportsNet.

 

[JetsWillFly4Ever]

Big year for Felix and Denis, and of course Bianca. Excited to see these kids continue to develop and grow.

Would love to see a major go to one of the young guys in the ATP, don't even really care who, just a sign that the Big 3 will actually not dominate majors forever lol!

 

[discostu]

It was a very nice performance from Denis. Really solid for the first match of the season.

Physically he looks great. Turning 21 soon and you can see he's physically maturing and I think emotionally as well.

He's not far off the top 10 and I definitely see him getting there at some point in 2020.

A bigger title(s) than a 250 will be in the cards as well.

We'll see about Felix. He looked pretty fit last night but I still wonder about the mental side for him.

He has all the tools to be a great player and hopefully he can go even further this season.

It certainly feels like Denis hit a big turning point. First half of last year was filled with such inconsistent play and coaching changes.

He's always seemed like a player that just needed that right coaching support to reign in his game a bit, which he seems to have found.

Felix is still figuring a lot out, and I think will gain a lot by getting regular play against the top guys. He only really made the tour less than a year ago, with large periods of injuries.

Here's hoping he can have a healthy 2020.

 

[Maestro84]

Mildly tempted to switch Ferrer and Cilic, but really I have no quibble with your men's list beside a relatively minor one. I might make a case for Tsonga at 10, though I can't complain too much about Thiem in that spot. That list seems pretty persuasive to me. The women's side is more contentious. I could see putting that list together a lot of different ways. I think I might go:

1. Serena
2. Azarenka
3. Halep
4. Kerber
5. Sharapova
6. Kvitova
7. Na
8. Clijsters
9. Wozniacki
10. Osaka

Azarenka, Halep and Kerber are especially hard to sort out.

I put Cilic ahead of Ferrer mostly based on the fact that Cilic won a slam and Ferrer didn’t - even though Ferrer was way more consistent throughout. I put Thiem ahead of Tsonga due to the b2b RG finals (both of which he would’ve won without Nadal), whereas Jo made zero GS finals this decade (his lone appearance was in 2008).

With the women, I feel like 2-10 can be put in any order lol. It’s Serena, then 10 tiers below is everyone else (like seriously no one has been able to consistently challenge her the way Henin, Venus, Clijsters, Davenport, Capriati, and Hingis did last decade).

With that said, I put Kerber ahead of the pack solely due to the extra slam, and her multi slam year in 2016, although Azarenka and Halep have a better body of work (more time at number one, more titles, more premier titles, more wins over top 10, etc.)

Kvitova and Sharapova is a tough one as well, however, I gave Kvitova the edge as she has a WTF, won an extra Premier event, plenty of Fed Cups, and even though she never reached number one, she was clearly the best player in 2011 (she won POY over Woz). Maria also kinda fell off the last 3 years or so, which I think would’ve been inevitable with or without the suspension (which imo, is often blown wayyyy outta proportion).

With Clijsters and Li (two of my fav players who many miss on tour), I gave Kim the edge as she also won 4 Premier titles, a WTF and was the POY in 2010. Although Li has 2 extra finals appearances, I ultimately gave Kimmy the edge due to the reasons I stated above.

Wozniacki and Osaka are weird cases. Woz only has one major but the rest of her resume looks very good (although she didn’t win POY in either of the years she was number one - which is often used against her). While Osaka's achievements all came within the last 2 seasons and she wasn’t even old enough to be in high school when the decade began lol, I’d still rate her over the likes of Muguruza, but behind everyone else who’s been around longer and achieved similar.

 

[kihei]

I'm hoping to get the Tennis TV package before it gets to far into the season. We moved over the summer and never got cable back so I've been without TSN and SportsNet.

If you do the 12 month subscription, it goes from, say, February to February or whenever--you don't lose out because you don't start in January. It has been definitely worth the money as far as I'm concerned, especially its library of every player's non-GS matches. For instance I'm having a friend over to watch Sinner's Next Gen win before the LSU/Clemson game on Monday night.

 

[kihei]

So a Davis Cup type tournament tacked on to the start of the calendar roughly six weeks after the Davis Cup. Why?

 

[MsMeow]

FAA lost to Millman and Denis is in a breaker vs De Minaur. Denis is down a mini break but has been playing better than Alex for most of the match. Many break points wasted by Denis.

Wow! Denis was down set point and ended up breaking back to win the first set!

Second set starts with Denis immediately going down 0-40. He kept his cool and won 4 points in a row but was broken. Immediately breaks back. I am really impressed with everything, his mental toughness especially but his quickness around the court and the way he builds a rally. Then there are the winners.

Denis breaks again with a wicked crosscourt forehand for 4-2

Bloody hell, he gets broken back immediately. 4-3

Denis is now in trouble and De Minaur is serving for the set.

Aus wins the second set 6-4.

I'm going to bed. De Minaur is rolling and Denis is struggling although is still fighting, but he's still down a break.

 

[kihei]

Felix has got to stop losing to guys like Millman.

 

[kihei]

Poor Becker just sits there; no one on the German6 team pays any attention to him or to his lame attempts to cheer them on. In his long white pants, he just looks uncomfortable and utterly irrelevent. I feel for the guy as he was one of my heroes

 

[Tuggy]

Genie managed to land herself a WC in Auckland.

Sitting #262 coming into the tournament, she got a first round win over Flipkens.

I'm not sure what the future holds for her tennis, but she's still plugging away.

 

[MsMeow]

Felix lost 6-1 and is down an early break in the second.

And it's over in straights.

Denis and Sasha are up now.

 

[Tuggy]

Not a great performance from Felix tonight.

 

[MsMeow]

Not a great performance from Felix tonight.

And not just tonight. I think he's won one match, right? The other night he also lost doubles.

Denis is looking good although is double faulting a lot. Up 6-2 and 1-0 and a break. Zverev looks lost.