Tennis 2023

Did they even say any words to each other? All I saw was Novak hit his racket on the net-cord before very very briefly shaking Shelton's hand.

True. Perhaps no words were said. Is there a reason why there might be animosity?
 
If I was Medo and Alcaraz I would be excited for Sunday. This is not AO form.
He doesn't need AO form to win over here though he definitely will need to vastly improve from that third set performance. I think the 7-6 actually will do have him far more good than a 6-2 third set would have. The level of players he's faced so far has largely been atrocious so you don't want to be undercooked going into a final vs a Med/Carlos who will suddenly offer significantly higher resistance.
 
It was absolutely hilarious but I also feel these kind of things give him the kind of reputation which doesn't make him as likeable as he wants to be. Loved the super cold handshake as well.
It's got to the point where it's just never going to happen. Federer retired and Nadal out the picture for a while, if there was a time for his love in to come it would be now. It's better he doesn't chase being loved by everyone.
 
True. Perhaps no words were said. Is there a reason why there might be animosity?
Maybe Novak was fed up with Shelton's OTT celebrations? The phone celebration he imitated was Shelton's post match celebration vs Tiafoe.
 
If I was Medo and Alcaraz I would be excited for Sunday. This is not AO form.
It's not but Djokovic will know he needs to raise his level and I'm sure he will. He's not been forced into playing his best yet, but when it's required, no doubt he will show up. He could still lose to either player but don't it won't be him losing comfortably in straight sets.
 
It's got to the point where it's just never going to happen. Federer retired and Nadal out the picture for a while, if there was a time for his love in to come it would be now. It's better he doesn't chase being loved by everyone.
He'll still keep trying it but then he's also going to have moments like today where he just can't be arsed. Might not have been very classy but I thoroughly enjoyed the celebration. More than just imitating Shelton but slamming the phone down, has to go down as one of the GOAT post match celebrations :lol:
 
Maybe Novak was fed up with Shelton's OTT celebrations? The phone celebration he imitated was Shelton's post match celebration vs Tiafoe.

I did notice that. He was yelling after every point he won :lol:

I thought Novak imitating the celebration was hilarious too.
 
There is a gulf of gap between Djocker and the next gen minus Alcaraz. This is not even peak Novak and yet these so called next gen superstars aren't even to trouble him.
 
There is a gulf of gap between Djocker and the next gen minus Alcaraz. This is not even peak Novak and yet these so called next gen superstars aren't even to trouble him.

Shelton's not considered a next gen superstar though, is he?

I get the point you're making though and I agree.
 
There is a gulf of gap between Djocker and the next gen minus Alcaraz. This is not even peak Novak and yet these so called next gen superstars aren't even to trouble him.
It does amuse me a fair bit to imagine how frustrated the likes of Tsitsipas, Medvedev, Zverev, and co will be with the entire situation. They've waited a long time for the Big 3 to bow out and just as it looked close to happening, another kid shows up with far superior mental strength to any of them and already winning Slams at his age. Tennis needs another Carlos to show up soon because he's going to steamroll the guys on tour right now once Novak is gone. Injuries permitting, of course.
 
It does amuse me a fair bit to imagine how frustrated the likes of Tsitsipas, Medvedev, Zverev, and co will be with the entire situation. They've waited a long time for the Big 3 to bow out and just as it looked close to happening, another kid shows up with far superior mental strength to any of them and already winning Slams at his age. Tennis needs another Carlos to show up soon because he's going to steamroll the guys on tour right now once Novak is gone. Injuries permitting, of course.
Zverev and Tsitsipas are the biggest pretenders around. Even both Novak and Alacaraz are out before final, Tsitsipas will find a way to lose the final to someone. Atleast Medvedev defeated Novak and won US open, so I will give him that.

But yes tennis needs another alcaraz if not more than one to make the game competitive. I am not a fan of Andy Murray but I would say he would feel very frustrated that he was playing his peak with the big 3. If he was upcoming in this era he would have won 10 or more Grandslams.
 
It was absolutely hilarious but I also feel these kind of things give him the kind of reputation which doesn't make him as likeable as he wants to be. Loved the super cold handshake as well.

It was funny and I’m not mad at it but Shelton has a losing record and is an inexperienced kid :lol: Just seems so petty.
 
Medvedev is returning from so far behind right now it's just so easy for Carlos to serve and volley.
 
That was just utterly out of this world from Carlos even though he lost the point. One of the best points of the year.
 
7-6 Medvedev. He's been phenomenonal since 4-4. He's so good when he can play to this level vs the top players.
 
Carlos is just extremely predictable right now with his constant serve and volleying and as the first serve proceeded, Medvedev got a read on it. He needs to change things up a bit. You surely can't just have a blanket strategy even when it stops working.
 
First serves gone and errors flowing for Carlos. And that's the break for Medvedev. Absolutely horrible and rushed game from Carlos.
 
Four love holds in a row now for Medvedev, I think. Carlos is showing his inexperience right now and really rushing at his shots vs a very good defender. This is where his coaches probably need to get him to calm down a bit and reset.
 
Huge from Carlos to save those two BPs. Double break down and he's struggling.
 
I think that's around 5 love service games in a row now for Medvedev.
 
14 straight points lost on Medvedev's serve

Carlos keeps rushing shots and going for early winners
 
14 straight points lost on Medvedev's serve

Carlos keeps rushing shots and going for early winners
That's his style. It's going to work against most but Medvedev is eating up that pace and redirecting it with ease. Carlos seems extremely frustrated and keeps shortening points and with some incredible shanks and errors.
 
7-6 6-1. Medvedev playing like someone who has a point to prove with all the Novak and Carlos hype. It's been men against boys since 4-4 in the first.
 
Regardless of Medvedev's great game, don't you get the feeling that Alcaraz wastes a lot of points throughout the games? Because of arrogance, lack of concentration, I don't know.
 
Regardless of Medvedev's great game, don't you get the feeling that Alcaraz wastes a lot of points throughout the games? Because of arrogance, lack of concentration, I don't know.
I feel it's down to his high risk high reward ultra aggressive style. While it makes him the amazing player he is, it can also be hard to sustain vs players who can defend well.
 
Is coaching officially allowed in tennis now? I think that's twice in this game now that Ferrero has told Carlos where to serve?
 
And we have a match! Carlos takes the third. His serve and rush to the net has worked a lot better in this set but ultimately one strange game from Medvedev cost him.
 
And he's done it!! Like both these guys so been a wonderful match to watch. Medvedev was just outstanding today and I think played the far far smarter game tactically.
 
IF Medvedev can maintain the level he has shown today going into the New Year, we might have a competitive Australian Open for a change with two guys to challenge Novak.
 
Really hope Medvedev can give us a great final. Think Alcaraz is the hard match up for Djokovic since he can more easily outlast Medvedevs style, but we'll see.
 
From the highlights of the second SF, it seemed like Medvedev was striking the ball so well and hitting with a lot of depth and consistency. As his best, he is formidable on hard courts. It seems to me that his serve isn't quite as good currently as it was when he won the 2021 title, but that his groundstrokes are definitely at the same level.

I did think that on the back of their Indian Wells final earlier this year, even more so than their Wimbledon SF on grass where Medvedev is far less comfortable, that Alcaraz's style made him a horrendous match-up for Medvedev (notably exposing Medvedev's return stance). However Medvedev adjusted and had other ideas yesterday, and Alcaraz (of course still a baby for modern day tennis standards especially on the men's side) struggled to hang with him from the baseline yesterday.

I don't know how to call the Djokovic-Medvedev final. 2 years ago, I thought that Djokovic's 5 set SF win against Zverev took a lot out of him, and he had the huge pressure of trying to seal the calendar grand slam. This time he doesn't have that pressure, and apart from 1 match has had a serene route to the final. If this was an Australian Open final, I'd back Djokovic to win (it's interesting to think that Medvedev was actually the bookmakers' favourite ahead of their 2021 Australian Open final match), but with this being the US Open where Djokovic has twice as many defeats in finals compared to victories, I think it's 50-50.

The US Open is the one grand slam that Djokovic has underachieved at title-wise given how amazing he has been on hard courts for such a long time - I tend to think that he simultaneously overachieved at Wimbledon and underachieved at the US Open - he could quite easily have something like 4 Wimbledon titles and 6 US Open titles instead of his actual distribution. Another US Open title before he retires would round off his career nicely IMO.
 
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Maybe a little off topic but am I the only one who thinks that Medvedev looks very unathletic? Djokovic doesn't look super athletic either, but Medvedev legitimately looks like one of those regular skinny blokes with no mucle definition who eats lots of junk food without putting on weight.

This is obviously not the case with him as his stamina must be crazy at this level, but it's fun to see someone "normal" do well in such a big and physically demanding sport.
 
From the highlights of the second SF, it seemed like Medvedev was striking the ball so well and hitting with a lot of depth and consistency. As his best, he is formidable on hard courts. It seems to me that his serve isn't quite as good currently as it was when he won the 2021 title, but that his groundstrokes are definitely at the same level.

I did think that on the back of their Indian Wells final earlier this year, even more so than their Wimbledon SF on grass where Medvedev is far less comfortable, that Alcaraz's style made him a horrendous match-up for Medvedev (notably exposing Medvedev's return stance). However Medvedev adjusted and had other ideas yesterday, and Alcaraz (of course still a baby for modern day tennis standards especially on the men's side) struggled to hang with him from the baseline yesterday.

I don't know how to call the Djokovic-Medvedev final. 2 years ago, I thought that Djokovic's 5 set SF win against Zverev took a lot out of him, and he had the huge pressure of trying to seal the calendar grand slam. This time he doesn't have that pressure, and apart from 1 match has had a serene route to the final. If this was an Australian Open final, I'd back Djokovic to win (it's interesting to think that Medvedev was actually the bookmakers' favourite ahead of their 2021 Australian Open final match), but with this being the US Open where Djokovic has twice as many defeats in finals compared to victories, I think it's 50-50.

The US Open is the one grand slam that Djokovic has underachieved at title-wise given how amazing he has been on hard courts for such a long time - I tend to think that he simultaneously overachieved at Wimbledon and underachieved at the US Open - he could quite easily have something like 4 Wimbledon titles and 6 US Open titles instead of his actual distribution. Another US Open title before he retires would round off his career nicely IMO.
He didn't have the patience to hang with him. There were moments in the third where he got a bit more patient and sliced a bit more and added some variety to his game but overall, it felt like Medvedev made the court a lot smaller for Carlos and made him really rush his shots. I also feel like Carlos has the early career Nadal problem of not having a big serve and therefore he gets almost no free points which helps ease some pressure. Nadal made that adjustment later in his career when he couldn't keep doing 20 shot rallies to win each point and I think that's possibly one aspect of his game Carlos could work on as well. Also, the strategy to rush the net aggressively can work well against Medvedev but I think Carlos was way way too predictable with it as he was doing it after almost all his serves and Medvedev started to get an easy read on it after halfway through the first serve.

I think Medvedev has been written off by a lot of people (myself included) given he's not been at his best for a while but you could feel with his interviews when commenting about all the hype about a Novak-Carlos final that it bothered him. I'm glad he's maybe used that as motivation to win today and I really think he can back it up with a win vs Novak as well who has been almost completely untested and facing nobodies for two weeks.
 
It was really annoying. After almost every point.
Yeah the constant coaching does get a bit irritating and I wasn't aware that its not illegal now.
Maybe a little off topic but am I the only one who thinks that Medvedev looks very unathletic? Djokovic doesn't look super athletic either, but Medvedev legitimately looks like one of those regular skinny blokes with no mucle definition who eats lots of junk food without putting on weight.

This is obviously not the case with him as his stamina must be crazy at this level, but it's fun to see someone "normal" do well in such a big and physically demanding sport.
This is what I'd thought of him very early in his career and expected him to be one of those typical serve bots with very little ability to rally or get around court well. I've been pleasantly surprised. :lol:
 
Genuinely, learn to edit your posts please.

But what a performance by Danlil and a really enjoyable game too, good to see him finding that sweet pre-war form again. Both played well for the most part, the better man on the day just won, reminds me a bit of Safin beating Fed. He's held own against Nadal, Djokovic and Alcaraz on the big occasions now, he's certainly no slouch, but I am always surprised he's 27, but still, that's nothing nowadays.