Grand Slam Tennis ( updated )

[Day@theraces]

Ri Alban and all the other Novak haters, have a nice night and sleep easy tonight.

[I P Knightley]

It's hard to dislike Daniil. 

There's something about how he looks that is just not 'top athlete'. He's like a movie character who's an office computer nerd in a tank top but he's secretly plotting to overthrow the government. 

[Day@theraces]

Medvedev is an easy guy to like and a character. 

[I P Knightley]

6 minutes ago, Rudi Skacel said:

Fair play. Literally won 83 sets of 84 for the calender year grand slam. Easily the better player tonight. 

I don't follow the numbers. 4 GSs, 7 rounds each, 3 sets to win each round comes to 84 but I can definitely think of 3 of them that he lost. 

[JudyJudyJudy]

11 minutes ago, Day@theraces said:

Ri Alban and all the other Novak haters, have a nice night and sleep easy tonight.

👍👍👍 hear hear 

[JudyJudyJudy]

11 minutes ago, I P Knightley said:

It's hard to dislike Daniil. 

There's something about how he looks that is just not 'top athlete'. He's like a movie character who's an office computer nerd in a tank top but he's secretly plotting to overthrow the government. 

Yes I really took to him this slam . 

[Ulysses]

Unless I'm mistaken, there's one  "record" Djokovic doesn't have yet, but that he surely deserves.

 

AFAIK, only Rosewall and Federer have won grand slam titles in the open era at an older age than Djokovic.  But given his phenomenal fitness and ability, he can claim that record in 2024, IMO.

[Ulysses]

^^^^

Mind you, I could be wrong with the above if any stattos want to have a look.

[I P Knightley]

4 hours ago, Ulysses said:

^^^^

Mind you, I could be wrong with the above if any stattos want to have a look.

He'd have to win next year's US Open to take the oldie record off Rosewall.

[Nookie Bear]

6 hours ago, I P Knightley said:

It's hard to dislike Daniil. 

There's something about how he looks that is just not 'top athlete'. He's like a movie character who's an office computer nerd in a tank top but he's secretly plotting to overthrow the government. 

 

 

Like Stephen Merchant with a tennis racket 

 

(By the way, thanks for the DM - I will respond “in due course” 🙄)

[Homme]

Djoko

[escobri]

Fantastic result, what a guy. 🤴

[escobri]

[JudyJudyJudy]

3 minutes ago, escobri said:

And breaking records left right and centre 

[JudyJudyJudy]

Talk about spin . Needle fans getting really desperate now 😂

 

https://www.sportskeeda.com/tennis/news-rafael-nadal-becomes-first-tennis-player-ever-reach-20-million-followers-instagram?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=SKTennisFB&key4=sktenfb&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0rjoyDKmT8dTrgmTIF5QWEsVZ7PFeS7JXmGqBz0M9TzM-Gw0j86Kyvz84_aem_ATpDsJHQXAH6Le6d-FdVg0xxWbezxg4FP6IitGsVZepXKdPt2jkP8KHfeUaDllhr1qc#Echobox=1694422218

[No Idle Talk]

He is without question my favourite tennis player ever. Watching him for the past 15 years or so has been a joy. Delighted for him to get to 24, hopefully there are one or two more to come before Alcaraz becomes the man to beat. 

[escobri]

🤣

 

[Jeffros Furios]

[escobri]

🤣🤣

 

[I P Knightley]

26 minutes ago, No Idle Talk said:

He is without question my favourite tennis player ever. Watching him for the past 15 years or so has been a joy. Delighted for him to get to 24, hopefully there are one or two more to come before Alcaraz becomes the man to beat. 

I've watched and enjoyed too many players down the years to say that I have a favourite but there's no doubt in my mind that he's the GOAT and has been for quite a few years. 

 

The fact that he's been in an era with the two other candidates for GOAT has been remarkable. Whilst the three of them have constantly raised the standards of each other, they've dragged the level of the game up - a point that Medvedev referred to in his excellent interview. Players like Murray, Stan, Delpo, Thiem, and so many more are better players than they would have been without Djoko, Rafa and Roger to aim at. 

 

I have a feeling that Alcaraz will beat the 24 record at an earlier age than Djoko - possibly getting close before he's 30. His talent is some distance above that of most of the rest of the field and his experiences playing against Djoko are just going to make him stronger. 

 

Medvedev is best of the rest by a bit of a distance, in the same way that Murray and Stan sat in a 'hole' between the field and the big 3. Rune/Ruud, Sinner, Hubie and a few others will make up the QF and SF slots for a few years to come but I really don't see that there'll be a "Big X (where X > 1)" forming with one of them in it. It'll be like having a Serena in the men's game but without the moodiness. 

[I P Knightley]

14 minutes ago, escobri said:

🤣🤣

 

That's hilarious! 

Alana Morrisette will be kicking herself. "Ray-yee-ain on your wedding day"?? That's the best I could do???

[AlimOzturk]

Can see Djokovic adding another 3-4 slams to his resume before retiring. He’s still fit, healthy, laser focused and above all the experience he has is head and shoulders above the rest. 

I think this win has made him world number 1 again as well?

 

Alacarez will eventually take the dominant spot at the top no doubt but I can’t see how he stop Novak from claiming some more Slams tbh. 

 

[I P Knightley]

1 hour ago, AlimOzturk said:

Can see Djokovic adding another 3-4 slams to his resume before retiring. He’s still fit, healthy, laser focused and above all the experience he has is head and shoulders above the rest. 

I think this win has made him world number 1 again as well?

 

Alacarez will eventually take the dominant spot at the top no doubt but I can’t see how he stop Novak from claiming some more Slams tbh. 

 

There's over 3,000 points between them. Two 1,000s events left on the calendar. Shanghai wasn't run last year so they're both starting from scratch there. Paris is the other where Djoko lost in the final whilst Carlito only made the QF, so Djoko's handing back 420 more points. 

 

IIRC, Alcaraz missed the Tour Finals in Turin, so he can make up 1500 points if Djoko weren't to compete. 

 

Long and short of it, it depends on their schedules but it's pretty likely that Novak will be the year end number 1 again, taking him well over 400 weeks in that position. Again, without looking it up, I think that Federer managed the previous highest total at 310 weeks. 

[AlimOzturk]

1 hour ago, I P Knightley said:

There's over 3,000 points between them. Two 1,000s events left on the calendar. Shanghai wasn't run last year so they're both starting from scratch there. Paris is the other where Djoko lost in the final whilst Carlito only made the QF, so Djoko's handing back 420 more points. 

 

IIRC, Alcaraz missed the Tour Finals in Turin, so he can make up 1500 points if Djoko weren't to compete. 

 

Long and short of it, it depends on their schedules but it's pretty likely that Novak will be the year end number 1 again, taking him well over 400 weeks in that position. Again, without looking it up, I think that Federer managed the previous highest total at 310 weeks. 

I watched an interview he did after the  final and Djokovic said wasn’t that interested in the rankings anymore. He is more about how he prepares himself for grand slams and that’s what he is now invested in. Also wants the olympic gold medal as well.  
 

So from that he will pick and choose the minor tournaments to get him best prepared for the big ones. Fair enough at his age and stage of his career. 

[Day@theraces]

It's ridiculous Novak still being ranked number 1 at points since COVID what with him missing 2 grand slams that he would be favourite to win and winning Wimbledon in 21 when no ranking points were on offer.

[Rudi Skacel]

 

42 minutes ago, Day@theraces said:

It's ridiculous Novak still being ranked number 1 at points since COVID what with him missing 2 grand slams that he would be favourite to win and winning Wimbledon in 21 when no ranking points were on offer.

Erm that isnt the case. 

[Day@theraces]

9 minutes ago, Rudi Skacel said:

 

Erm that isnt the case. 

How so? Novak has been ranked 1 at certain points since 21 despite missing the 22 AO and US open and weren't there no ranking points given out at Wimbledon in 2021

[Rudi Skacel]

Yeah i misread what you said. Though it was 2022 wimbledon there were no ranking points. 

[JudyJudyJudy]

8 hours ago, escobri said:

🤣🤣

 

Brilliant

7 hours ago, I P Knightley said:

That's hilarious! 

Alana Morrisette will be kicking herself. "Ray-yee-ain on your wedding day"?? That's the best I could do???

😃

7 hours ago, AlimOzturk said:

Can see Djokovic adding another 3-4 slams to his resume before retiring. He’s still fit, healthy, laser focused and above all the experience he has is head and shoulders above the rest. 

I think this win has made him world number 1 again as well?

 

Alacarez will eventually take the dominant spot at the top no doubt but I can’t see how he stop Novak from claiming some more Slams tbh. 

 

Thinking ahead to next year I think he can probably win the AO again.  Think the FO might be Alcaraz and Wimbledon either of them.  Not so sure about the US open. I certainly feel Novak has a couple more slams in him.  

[JudyJudyJudy]

Actually once Novak retires which may be in the next couple years there will probably be a crisis in the men's game if there is no serious opposition to Carlos . 

[AlimOzturk]

2 hours ago, JudyJudyJudy said:

Actually once Novak retires which may be in the next couple years there will probably be a crisis in the men's game if there is no serious opposition to Carlos . 

Quite a number of talented Americans coming through. Don’t think there will be a shortage of challengers. 👍👍

[PortyJambo]

Halep banned for 4 years, so that's her done

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/66789732

Edited September 12, 2023 by PortyJambo

[JudyJudyJudy]

18 minutes ago, PortyJambo said:

Halep banned for 4 years, so that's her done

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/66789732

Oh dear . I liked her too . Thrashed Williams In Wimbledon final 

[JudyJudyJudy]

6 minutes ago, Jim_Duncan said:

Her knockers will be buoyant at the news. 

@I P Knightley will be devastated . He was a big fan of hers, he often spoke about her knockers . 

Edited September 12, 2023 by JudyJudyJudy

[I P Knightley]

1 hour ago, Jim_Duncan said:

Her knockers will be buoyant at the news. 

 

1 hour ago, JudyJudyJudy said:

@I P Knightley will be devastated . He was a big fan of hers, he often spoke about her knockers . 

It would have been better etiquette, Jim, to drop me a quick PM, telling me that there's a Simona Halep post and letting me have a decent amount of time to post a reply before pinching my actual catchphrase.

 

I must say, getting "her knockers" and "buoyant" into such a short post is a work of art and I don't think I could have come up with that. It's like someone going in to a room 10 minutes before Bruce Forsyth and saying "nice to see you, to see you...NICE" but doing it better than Brucie. I'm devastated, to be honest!

 

If she's giving up tennis, I wonder whether she will get the old ones put back on?

[I P Knightley]

24 minutes ago, Jim_Duncan said:

Sorry, didn’t mean to tread on your toes, sir. 
 

Glad her buoyant knockers provided you with some titillation and hopefully gave you a lift. 

I've stolen it and am passing it off as my own work all over the place. 

 

Just wondering whether to tweet it to Judy Murray. 😀

[JudyJudyJudy]

Very crass and low brow from Williams 

 

talk about sour grapes 🍇 

 

 

https://www.tennis.com/baseline/articles/did-serena-williams-just-call-out-simona-halep-supreme-shade-doping-wimbledon

[JudyJudyJudy]

Novak Djokovic won the US Open today and is now tied with Margaret Court for the most grand slam singles titles (24)

Djokovic’s journey from war-torn Serbia to the top of the men's game has been nothing short of remarkable.

 

In the introduction to his autobiography, “Backhands and Bomb Shelters”, Djokovic explains how the odds were heavily stacked against him:

"A boy like me, growing up in Serbia, becoming a tennis champion? It was unlikely in even the best of circumstances. And it became ever more unlikely when the bombs started dropping.”

 

See, after World War 2,  the countries referred to as  "Balkan states", consisting of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia, became part of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. 

Years later, the revered Yugoslavia leader Josip Tito, the man who glued the union together, died. With his death, and a unifying figure gone,  the different states became eager for their autonomy. They wanted to feel a type of nationalism anchored in their respective  language and culture. 

 

In Serbia,  Slobodan Milosevic wanted Serbs to rule over other tribes; he had no time for Croats, Bosniaks et al. The conflict that followed, would see ethnic cleansing and genocide meted by Milosevic on innocent civilians. For many years, the world just stood by as the killings continued.
 
According to CNN, in March 1999 air strikes on the Serbian capital Belgrade marked the beginning of what would be a 78-day campaign by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to try and bring to an end atrocities committed by Milosevic's troops against ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo.

In the autobiography, Djokovic notes that when NATO attacked, the basement became their home. 

 

"We were waking up every single night at 2am or 3am for two and a half months because of the bombings."

In a 2011 interview, Djokovic noted:

“It was the first or second night of bombing. We were just about to fall asleep when a huge explosion happened. My mom stood up very quickly and hit her head, falling unconscious. We were crying because of the bombs, because mom was not responding. Luckily my dad managed to help my mom get back to normal.

Until that dark spring night in 1999, Djokovic had enjoyed what he called in his autobiography, a "magic childhood."

His father Srdjan was a former pro skier. The family owned a Pizza parlor in the small Serbian mountain resort of Kopaonik. 

 

Djokovic first started playing tennis at the age of four. No one in his family had played the sport before. At the age of six, he was spotted in Kopaonik by the late Serbian coach Jelena Gencic, who had worked with Serbian-born former world No. 1 and nine-time major winner Monica Seles of the US. Soon after, Gencic told his parents Djokovic was "the greatest talent I have seen since Monica Seles."

 

Tennis, ultimately, proved to be Djokovic’s escape. It got him out of Serbia and to Germany where he spent the next four years training at the Pilić tennis academy.

 

Once he got himself onto the ATP Tour and high enough in the rankings to challenge for titles, he still had two absolute giants blocking his path. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal…And he took the challenge head on. 

And the rest is history..

 

According to Sports Illustrated, Djokovic is the only man in history to be the reigning champion of all four majors at once across three different surfaces (2016), and the only to complete a triple Career Grand Slam (2023).

It’s not where you start, it about where you want to go and the work you are willing to put in. 
 

Congratulations champ! 

 

[escobri]

Brilliant scenes.

 

[JudyJudyJudy]

25 minutes ago, escobri said:

Brilliant scenes.

 

Fantastic . A modern day hero. 

[I P Knightley]

12 hours ago, JudyJudyJudy said:

Very crass and low brow from Williams 

 

talk about sour grapes 🍇 

 

 

https://www.tennis.com/baseline/articles/did-serena-williams-just-call-out-simona-halep-supreme-shade-doping-wimbledon

She was pumpded 6-2 6-2.

 

If there were any PEDs that made you so bloody good that you'd pump an on-form Serena Williams 6-2 6-2, the developer of them should get a Nobel Prize and I wouldn't mind having a supply of them. 

 

Serena was shite on the day. End OFF!! Had Simona been suspended from that tournament, Serena, playing that way, would have got pumpded off almost anyone. 

 

I know you have an impression that I'm a loyal supporter of Simona but, if she's been a naughty girl, I'm more than happy to join her fulsome gaggle of knockers. However, I read somewhere that the panel who handed down the ban switched their story once she'd gone from an 'anonymous player' to being identified. There's something fishy about it. 

[Rudi Skacel]

I really feel for her. Always like Halep aswell. Hope the CAS see’s sense and quickly. 

[Rudi Skacel]

Interestingly I was at the US Open for Sharapovas match v Halep in her first grand slam back after her drugs ban!

[JudyJudyJudy]

1 hour ago, I P Knightley said:

She was pumpded 6-2 6-2.

 

If there were any PEDs that made you so bloody good that you'd pump an on-form Serena Williams 6-2 6-2, the developer of them should get a Nobel Prize and I wouldn't mind having a supply of them. 

 

Serena was shite on the day. End OFF!! Had Simona been suspended from that tournament, Serena, playing that way, would have got pumpded off almost anyone. 

 

I know you have an impression that I'm a loyal supporter of Simona but, if she's been a naughty girl, I'm more than happy to join her fulsome gaggle of knockers. However, I read somewhere that the panel who handed down the ban switched their story once she'd gone from an 'anonymous player' to being identified. There's something fishy about it. 

Yes I recall that match well . I was hoping that Serena would get the 24 that day but she didn’t turn up . Simona did . Despite her knockers I do hope that it’s all a load of rubbish and she’s back playing again ? I feel there is something fishy about it too 

[Day@theraces]

23 hours ago, PortyJambo said:

 

[Day@theraces]

Her knockers were a sight to behold before she got the breast reduction. As mentioned previously if this the end of her career, then bring those beauties back. Always found her attractive.

[I P Knightley]

9 minutes ago, Day@theraces said:

Her knockers were a sight to behold before she got the breast reduction. As mentioned previously if this the end of her career, then bring those beauties back. Always found her attractive.

I'm sorry, but that's just the kind of sexist claptrap that holds women in sport back.

 

Poor Simona has suffered what I feel to be unfair criticism, especially in her early years on the tour. I felt that such criticism had died down and she was being accepted, hence the assertion that the voices of those people who had previously knocked her potential had grown smaller. Now, of course, she's in the limelight for adverse reasons, those selfsame detractors are out in force and enthusiastically (or buoyantly) laying into her (or knocking her) again. 

 

And all you've got to talk about is her tits??

 

 

[Day@theraces]

22 minutes ago, I P Knightley said:

I'm sorry, but that's just the kind of sexist claptrap that holds women in sport back.

 

Poor Simona has suffered what I feel to be unfair criticism, especially in her early years on the tour. I felt that such criticism had died down and she was being accepted, hence the assertion that the voices of those people who had previously knocked her potential had grown smaller. Now, of course, she's in the limelight for adverse reasons, those selfsame detractors are out in force and enthusiastically (or buoyantly) laying into her (or knocking her) again. 

 

And all you've got to talk about is her tits??

 

 

 

😂😂

[I P Knightley]

Meanwhile, we've got a Davis Cup match going on and you can watch it on the BBC Sport website. 

 

Jack Draper won his DC debut match against Kokkinakis. I only saw the last few games but he closed it out very well. 

 

Wee Dan Evans is leading De Minaur with a break in the first set. 

 

What I don't get is that Leon Smith is also planning to use Evans in the doubles. If he wanted Evans for the dubs, he could have used Norrie in the singles. He's also got Murray in the squad who's a really good, intelligent doubles player and probably more valuable for that than for singles these days. Of course, Smith could also have called up Lloyd Glasspool (a quite successful dubs specialist) or Joe Salisbury - 3 time US Open dubs champ. Salisbury may have excused himself due to recency of his US final but it all seems a bit odd. 

 

Kyle Edmund there on the team bench. Horrid to see his struggles since injury. Coulda been a contender. 

[I P Knightley]

Murray playing in Davis Cup v some young Swiss dude who looks to style himself on the younger Federer. Cruising at 4-1 up, what does he go to do? Of course, gets broken and gets taken to a tie-break. 

 

Wouldn't have happened to Jack Draper, who's not playing this afty. 

 

Next match will be Stan v Norrie.