Tennis 2023

I get a lot of predictions wrong, but in the immediate aftermath of his defeat to Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final 2 months ago, I said that loss could boost Djokovic’s US Open title chances, as it meant that he’d go to New York without the huge pressure of trying to secure the calendar grand slam.

On the back of him losing 6 of his previous 9 US Open finals, his 2020 default and fact that he couldn’t enter the country to participate last year, it felt that he had unfinished business at this tournament, and was desperate to win it again before he retired.

So next season his big goals will be to set a cross gender record and win his 25th grand slam title (considering he has a 100% record in Australian Open semi-finals and finals he could do that very quickly), and win the only big tournament to elude him, the Olympics at Roland Garros. If he’s already got to 25 by then, I can see the Olympics being a bigger priority for him than both Wimbledon or the US Open either side of it. I want Agassi to remain the only player to win all 4 slams, the Olympic gold medal in singles and the YEC.

I wish he’d face Alcaraz in the final instead of Medvedev. But regarding Alcaraz, there were question marks at the start of the year regarding how he’d back up his stellar 2022 season, and adapt from being the ‘hunted’ instead of the ‘hunter’, especially after he missed the Australian Open threw injury. It’s safe to say that he did that extremely well.
 
Commentators still don't get it after all these years: Novak physically is a beast, I rarely saw him losing a match because of being tired. In fact it's one of his strengths and a reason why he is one of this sport GOATs: his stamina is terrific, combined with a great flexibility that allows him to generate a lot of power even when he is out of balance and probably the most accurate pinpoint player ever, it makes him an almost impossible defensive wall to break.
 
Novak claiming he'd be regarded as a sports great already if he wasnt from Serbia..

Anyway, he's the tennis goat but as a goat sportsman everybody has their favorits. Certainly among top 5.
 
Real Name said:
Novak claiming he'd be regarded as a sports great already if he wasnt from Serbia..

Anyway, he's the tennis goat but as a goat sportsman everybody has their favorits. Certainly among top 5.
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I think playing in the era when crowds cheered Federer and Rafa usually over him made him think this but everyone sees him as a true sports great, it’s got nothing to do with where he’s from in my opinion.
 
André Dominguez said:
Commentators still don't get it after all these years: Novak physically is a beast, I rarely saw him losing a match because of being tired. In fact it's one of his strengths and a reason why he is one of this sport GOATs: his stamina is terrific, combined with a great flexibility that allows him to generate a lot of power even when he is out of balance and probably the most accurate pinpoint player ever, it makes him an almost impossible defensive wall to break.
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Forget Tennis

Just in sports in general, I think Novak is the toughest most determined athlete we have ever seen…..ever.

Mentally & physically the man is a sporting anomaly, a freak of the highest kind.
 
tentan said:
Who is your top 5
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At the present I think we're finally seeing separation among the big three, which is good for fans so we can avoid endless goat debates.

1. Djokovic
2. Nadal
3. Federer
4. Borg
5. Sampras

Enjoy watching the most ? Federer
All time favorite player ? Becker
 
mu4c_20le said:
Wow, didn't see that coming.

Statement from Halep

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Lot of questions need to be answered. Why did it take them 12 months to reach a decision? Where is the actual evidence of her taking drugs? She gave evidence of her innocence by three labs, why was it overlooked?
 
Raoul said:
At the present I think we're finally seeing separation among the big three, which is good for fans so we can avoid endless goat debates.

1. Djokovic
2. Nadal
3. Federer
4. Borg
5. Sampras

Enjoy watching the most ? Federer
All time favorite player ? Becker
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Looks fine to me this top 5
 


Think the whole Davis Cup format needs reworking. I imagine having no host nation in the final 8 will make it all a bit flat.
 
If nothing goes terribly wrong or his body is miraculously near 100%, it looks like Nadal's last tournament will be at the Olympics.

 
In terms of the big 3 rankings, I do think that Federer is closer to Nadal than Nadal is to Djokovic. Federer may still have a decent argument to rank above Nadal; a lot more weeks as world no. 1, a record equalling 6 YEC titles > 0, greater peak dominance (winning 3 grand slams in 3 seasons out of 4 from 2004-2007), Nadal only winning 1 indoor title during his career etc. On the other hand there is no serious argument to rank Nadal above Djokovic IMO - I thought Djokovic had a good argument to already be ranked above Nadal before he won his 22nd grand slam in Melbourne earlier this year.
 
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brilliant. especially that Del Potro's forehand. it's funny how he covered pretty much every detail except probably the most obvious one. still, great job.
 
I really hope that Alcaraz-Sinner can develop into a prolonged, elite and exciting rivalry, with plenty of big matches at the back end of the big tournaments. Sinner now leads their h2h 4-3.

This defeat shouldn't be overly worrying from Alcaraz's perspective though. He has reached the semi-finals or better in 12 out of the 14 tournaments that he has entered so far this season, which is very impressive consistency at the at age of 19 / 20.
 
GuybrushThreepwood said:
I really hope that Alcaraz-Sinner can develop into a prolonged, elite and exciting rivalry, with plenty of big matches at the back end of the big tournaments. Sinner now leads their h2h 4-3.

This defeat shouldn't be overly worrying from Alcaraz's perspective though. He has reached the semi-finals or better in 12 out of the 14 tournaments that he has entered so far this season, which is very impressive consistency at the at age of 19 / 20.
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Yeah it's a very good H2H already, Sinner really played lights out, would love him to beat Med but I suspect he won't.
 
Duafc said:
Yeah it's a very good H2H already, Sinner really played lights out, would love him to beat Med but I suspect he won't.
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Yeah most of their matches have been very competitive as well; this latest match was probably the most comfortable win for each player.

In the past I have labelled Sinner as basically a slightly weaker version of Tomas Berdych, but hopefully he continues to improve and can become a grand slam contender.

Medvedev has the opportunity to win a 21st different tournament in a 21st different city in Beijing; the fact that he has won so many titles, but has never won any individual tournament more than once, is an interesting stat.
 
GuybrushThreepwood said:
Medvedev has the opportunity to win a 21st different tournament in a 21st different city in Beijing; the fact that he has won so many titles, but has never won any individual tournament more than once, is an interesting stat.
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Not to be!

Have to say I love that for Sinner, so much more authority in his forehand and following it to the net tonnes, amazing running and return of serve was massive too, totally dominated the tiebreaks and served out his games from behind very coolly in the second set.

Would love to see him being this game to the slams and hopefully other surfaces, feels like him and Carlos can really push one another.
 
Duafc said:
Not to be!

Have to say I love that for Sinner, so much more authority in his forehand and following it to the net tonnes, amazing running and return of serve was massive too, totally dominated the tiebreaks and served out his games from behind very coolly in the second set.

Would love to see him being this game to the slams and hopefully other surfaces, feels like him and Carlos can really push one another.
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I also assumed Medvedv would win, and am happy that I was wrong, not because I dislike Medvedev (I much prefer him over Zverev and Tsitsipas), but because I want Sinner to go from strength to strength.

Sinner definitely has weapons at his disposal and the foundations of an effective all-round game.

Beating Dmitrov, Alcaraz and Medvedev back to back to win a title is nice going. He has already won a masters series title, so the next step is definitely to become a grand slam contender.
 
This hungarian kid Marozsan is fun to watch. Drop shot master . Just beat Ruud in the Shanghai masters. Has a good win on clay against Carlito too.
 
Djokovic must be happy chilling out, and watching Alcaraz fail to capitalise on opportunities to take the world no. 1 ranking from him.

I have to admit that while I much prefer Alcaraz over Djokovic, and was delighted with the Wimbledon final result (especially given the huge disparity in the number of winners hit by the two players), I'd personally rather see Djokovic with 3 grand slam titles and a 5 set defeat in the final of the other one, finishing as the year end no. 1 this year.

Last year I didn't see an issue with Alcaraz finishing as the year end ahead of Nadal, as 2 grand slam titles vs. 1 clearly wasn't as big a disparity, plus Nadal didn't win any masters series titles last year and lost relatively early on at the US Open.
 
This whole tournament has had a lot of upsets. They'll probably end up playing in the final of the top 8 tournament at the end of the year.
 
It was great to see Shelton winning his first title in Tokyo. Hopefully there are many more to come.

During the summer of the 2022, there was talk about whether he would turn pro or return to college level tennis. Before the Australian / New Zealand swing at the start of the year, culminating in his quarter-final run in Melbourne, he had never played outside the US. Tomorrow he will ranked at no. 14 in the world. What a rise !

US men doing well, thus increasing the level of interest and ratings in the biggest market in the world, can only be a good thing.
 
My prediction is that Sinner will not have much left in the tank for the ATP Finals in Turin, but then I really hope after a good break during the off-season that he comes back rechargd and ready to make an impact at the Australian Open next January.

I would certainly expect him to win the majority of his matches against Medvedev going forward (on all surfaces), and hopefully establish himself at least as the clear 3rd best player in the world.

And in other news, Murray must be sick of the sight of Alex De Minaur, having now lost all 6 of his matches agains him. Last month he had 3 match points against him in Beijing before falling to defeat, and today in Paris he had a match point and served for the match twice, before going down in just over 3 hours.
 
Carlos has been quite poor, by his own standards, since his Wimbledon win.
 
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