Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread XIV
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Filppula
JV
- Oct 18, 2006
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There is no comparable. Mark Edmondson, ranked #212, came out of nowhere to win the Australian Open in 1973, beating Rosewall and Newcombe along the way. But, at 21 years of age, he was just starting a decent, not great career. Karatsev is 27 and nobody has ever emerged at that late date with the kind of power game that he has. I like the "sold his soul to the devil" theory, myself.
Tsitsipas with the early break. His down-the-line game has reached another level. It's like he and his opponent, even Rafa, are playing on different sized courts, 3-1.
Wow. Stefanos gets just a little complacent and, bam, Rafa breaks twice in a row to take a set that moments earlier seemed to be steadily slipping away.
Wow. Stefanos gets just a little complacent and, bam, Rafa breaks twice in a row to take a set that moments earlier seemed to be steadily slipping away.
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2nd set: Grind, grind, grind with Tsitsipas getting another early break, 2-1....Rafa just being Rafa breaks back for 3-all and Stefanos looks a little tired at the moment.
Rafa saves two set points in the breaker only to double fault at 6-all and Stefanos takes an absolutely gruelling set to even the match.
Rafa saves two set points in the breaker only to double fault at 6-all and Stefanos takes an absolutely gruelling set to even the match.
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3rd set: Rafa magic almost leads to a break but Tsitsipas toughs it out, 3-2 on serve.
Games flying by at love of 15 like both players are fast-forwarding to the deciding set breaker, 5-4 Nadal to serve to even the set.
Rafa almost blinks, saves a match point, but gets the set to 5-all.
A little two point lapse in concentration early in the game puts Tsistipas in hot water and on the fourth break point he loses serve, 6-5, Rafa serving for the match.
Rafa saves a break point but holds for the match, 7-5
INSANE MATCH!!
Games flying by at love of 15 like both players are fast-forwarding to the deciding set breaker, 5-4 Nadal to serve to even the set.
Rafa almost blinks, saves a match point, but gets the set to 5-all.
A little two point lapse in concentration early in the game puts Tsistipas in hot water and on the fourth break point he loses serve, 6-5, Rafa serving for the match.
Rafa saves a break point but holds for the match, 7-5
INSANE MATCH!!
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Hadoop
Registered User
Rafa wins by the skin of his teeth on the court bearing his name. Excellent couple of weeks from Tsistipas though despite falling short today.
So the age-old message going into Madrid remains the same from Rafa: "You have to play this hard, and you still can't beat me." Once he gets over the hurt, a lot of positives for Stefanos, though. You can't come much closer than he did.
John Price
Bet
- Sep 19, 2008
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At some point you would think age will catch up to Rafa.
He is starting to look less invincible on clay.
I still think there are only maybe three players that could possibly beat him at Roland Garros, and one of them is missing in action lately. Even at Roland Garros, I wonder how a seven match tournament is going to effect him--there are few players who can beat him, but there are other players these days who can wear him down: Rublev, Schwartzman, Sinner, maybe Fog on a good day. If he gets a tough draw, I still wouldn't pick the field, though. Not quite yet. I think he might have just one more French Open title in him. Just think, Rafa would then have the same number of French Open titles that #4 Pete Sampras has GS titles. Beyond mind boggling.
Definitely.
I do wonder if Pete could have won more. He retired at 31 and won his last GS.
Regardless, Rafa's dominance at FO is something that has never been seen before in tennis.
Alexandr Dolgopolov retired. The seemingly innocuous wrist injury that he suffered in practice in 2018 just never came around, even after two surgeries. Sorry to see him go as he was always an entertaining player to watch.
Unlikely clay court finalists in Munich: Struff vs Basilashvili, who knocked off Ruud who finally just ran out of gas after playing a ton of tennis lately.
In Esstoril final: Ramos-Vinolas versus Norrie.
In Esstoril final: Ramos-Vinolas versus Norrie.
I don't think I have ever seen before an important clay court final contested between two unabashed, one-dimensional power hitters without a scintilla of finesse between them. Basilashvili, who is making a habit this year of either getting knocked off in the firsts round or winning a championship (2), is hard to beat in that circumstance and he won Munich 4 and 6 over Struff. Crosscourt forehand exchanges were like watching Olympian gods throwing lightening bolts at one another (Disney version).
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Fun factoid: In his first ten years on the pro tour, Aslan Karatsev earned roughly $550,000, averaging out to $55,000 a year. In the first four months of 2021, he has earned $875,000.
Ramos-Vinolas, the player God made just before She got Bautista-Agut right, won Estoril against Cameron Norrie, of ugly serve, uglier forehand and non-existent backhand, in three tedious sets, 7-6 in the third.
Bublik knocks off Shapo in three. Bublik didn't have to do much in the deciding set except stay involved becaise Shapo had another lousy final set.
FAA still struggling against Ruud who I doubt Felix wanted to run into right now.
FAA still struggling against Ruud who I doubt Felix wanted to run into right now.
Broke one of Schwartzman's service games at love too.
A step away from passing Khachanov in the rankings.
2 guys heading in opposite direction.
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