Roger Federer retires

Nadal is currently in his first real test. Took the first two sets, but lost the third in a tiebreak. Fourth set going back and forth.

Nadal lost the fourth set. Looks tired. The longer this goes, the higher the odds he will lose.

Nadal lost. Fatigued the longer it went. Bad mistakes too.

Definitely the Jokers to lose.

I watched sets 1, 2, 4 & 5. Almost like 2 matches. Tsitsipas was overwhelmed by Nadal's amazing play in match 1. Nadal was overwhelmed by Tsitsipas's amazing play in match 2.

Still, this has got to be one of Nadal's toughest losses of his career. Like you said, unusually bad mistakes from him, especially on the backhand. It's only the 3rd time that he's lost a match from 2 sets to love up. This could be the end of Rafa's serious chances of winning another hard court GS.

Tsitsipas at GSs has now:
- Beaten Federer at the Aus Open in 4 sets, from a set down
- Lost to Djokovic in a tight 5-setter at the French Open, after Novak served for it in set 3
- Beaten Nadal at the Aus Open in 5 sets, from 2 sets down

Tsitsipas did well not to choke. He's had some horrors in the past (including leading 2 sets to 1 and 5-2 40-15, & 5-4 40-0, and losing in 5). This could, and should be a career-defining win for him. Major kudos to him.

The court was also playing extremely fast, spelling danger for Nadal at his age. The announcers also said his opponent was off in the quarterfinals since his opponent retired before the match, and you could tell the longer the match went on that he was much fresher.

Yeah, Berrettini had a real abdominal injury.

Serena lost 3-6 4-6 to Osaka in a terrible performance. She lead 2-0 and had 40-30* for a double break. But of course, Osaka saved it and won 5 games in a row. Then in the 2nd set Osaka hit 3 double faults in 1 game to hand Serena an easy break to level the set at 4-4. Then Serena broke herself too, and Osaka served it out with ease.

Brady won a nerve-fest 6-4 3-6 6-4 over Muchova. When serving for the match Brady had 40-15, then Muchova had break point, then Brady had match point #3, then Muchova had break point #2, then Brady had match point #4, then Muchova had break point #3, then Brady had match point #5 and got the win. Had Muchova broke, I have no doubt she would've won the set 7-5.

In the US Open Brady also made the Semi Finals, losing narrowly to an impossible to beat Osaka. But Brady isn't playing as well here as she did there.

Osaka has won the title.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Feb 18th 2021 »

I guess it's better than Serena winning. ;_;

Hoping for anyone but the Joker, but I know that's not going to happen.

Osaka won. Shocking. jk

Clearly the best in the world right now. Eww. Better than Serena I guess.

Doubt I'll be able to watch the Joker vs Giant matchup. On way too early. I'd have to think the Joker stays undefeated in Aussie Finals, but I'm rooting for the Giant. Tennis really needs a third true competitor with Federer gone (and likely done).

I've never been a Serena fan, but I want her to win 1/2 more to tie or beat Margaret Court's GS record. She won 13 of her 24 GSs in the amateur era, as well as 7 AOs (where a handful of players competed). Plus she's said some nasty stuff to many people, as well as some specific stuff.

Nevertheless, I said the same thing after her 2018 US Open final loss, and that's that Serena isn't going to win another GS. Her mentality is gone. You can rest easy xD

Osaka actually played an average match. Her 2nd serves were puffballs at around 74 MPH, but Brady did very little to them. She also got lucky at 4-4 30-40 in the 1st set when she shanked a shot and it landed on the sideline for a winner.

Novak is probably a 70-30 favourite. The betting sites are saying it's 50/50. Novak has never lost an AO final (8/8 wins), and Medvedev has won 20 consecutive matches (including 11 top 10 wins). Last time they played, Medvedev won 6-3 6-3.

My prediction is Novak in 4 sets. He'll win the 1st set, lose the 2nd, go down a break in the 3rd, Medvedev will have 2 BPs for a double break, Novak will save them & break back, and he'll cruise through. It was very similar in the Zverev match. Novak flukes/clutches his way out every time.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Feb 20th 2021 »

Joker swept. Now at 18. If Nadal doesn't start splitting on grand slams, Joker will easily finish with most.

He's still claiming that he was injured all week. There is zero way he could've played as well as he did if he was carrying an abdominal injury.

Rafa has got to rely solely on French Opens. The next gen has caught up to him on hard courts, and he's just not good enough on grass. Then he's also got to hope that people stop choking vs Novak.
Roger choked in 2019 Wimbledon (8-7 40-15)
Thiem choked in 2020 Aus Open (had 2 sets to 1 & BP in the 1st game while Novak was playing awful)
Fritz choked in the 2021 Aus Open (was playing an injured Novak & had won the last 2 sets before 2-2 in the 5th set)
Zverev choked in the 2021 Aus Open (was 1 set all & he had 4-1 in the 3rd set, and 3-0 40-15* in the 4th set)

I think the only hope is that age catches Novak. But statistically this year he served the best he ever has in any Aus Open. This year's Wimbledon & US Open are crucial.

Winning the French won't help if Novak wins three of the four each year. lol

I think Nadal has a better chance of winning Wimbledon or US rather than Aussie. Joker just dominates it (much like Nadal does the French).

Someone just has to stop being a mental midget. Heck, even Rafa is capable of being poor in the key moments these days (excluding clay). Of the other top 9:
Nadal - Cannot beat Novak outside clay
Medvedev - Cannot win matches on clay or grass
Thiem - Inconsistent as of late + cannot win matches on grass
Federer - Mental midget against Djokovic & Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas - Inconsistent
Zverev - Choker/mental midget (he served for the US Open title, and also lead 2 sets to love in that final)
Rublev - Not good enough yet
Schwartzman - Definitely not good enough
Berettini - Inflated ranking

Novak's competition in the 3 other GSs (he is not winning the French):
Aus Open - Thiem, Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas
Wimbledon - Federer, Zverev, Tsitsipas, Raonic
US Open - Nadal, Thiem, Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas

« Last edited by Matt77 on Feb 25th 2021 »

Nadal sitting next small tournament. Back issues. Apparently had them before Aussie. Lovely.

Don't read much into it. Rotterdam is an ATP 500 (3rd tier event behind Grand Slam & Masters 1000), where the tournament usually pays Rafa $500k-$1M to come and play. This is just precautionary before the Miami Masters 1000 in a few weeks time.

French still happening when it usually does?

Yep. Clay season starts in probably about a month.

Good. Rafa rest until then. Win. Then win one of the final two while someone upsets Joker in the other.

Warrior, you'll be happy to know that Naomi Osaka got destroyed 0-6 4-6 (lead 4-1 in 2nd set) in her QF match at Miami (2nd tier event behind a GS).

Zverev and Tsitsipas flopped in losses at this event, both from a set up. Tsitsipas even lead 6-2 2-0 40-15, and lost. Medvedev also got thrashed 2-6 4-6 in the QF.

Funnily enough, of the 4 semi finalists in the womens, 3 were top 10 players. In the mens, only 1 is a top 10 player.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking ahead, Novak has withdrawn from several clay tournaments, and Roger will be playing clay this year. Rafa will be fine as well.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Apr 2nd 2021 »

Rafa is all that matters. ;)