Tennis 2020: There is an I in Thiem

I could be wrong, but the tourneys aren't having nearly as many lines-people to call balls/lines. So I believe the chair umpire sees automatically whether a shot was in or out. So if they need to reverse it, they do it right away. There is no need for a challenge as basically Hawkeye is calling it in or out.
Here's a good NYT article about the "Hawk-Eye Live" system being used this week and also at the US Open:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/sports/tennis/us-open-hawkeye-line-judges.html?smid=tw-share
 

shawnrbu

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Djokovic is incredible. Looked dead after losing 4 games in a row to go from 5-2 to 5-6. Hit some pinpoint return winners to take it to a breaker and blanks RBA in the tiebreaker.
 
Shame about Djokovic running away with the final-set tiebreak, but apart from that, what a wonderful match. Djokovic led 5-2 in the third, but Bautista Agut broke back twice and served for the match at 6-5 (with Djokovic looking literally sick to his stomach)...and still Djokovic found an extra gear. Superb.
 

InstaFace

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So, uh, they're playing this US Open thing.

Men:
- Sasha Zverev beats an unseeded Kevin Anderson
- Steve Johnson upsets Isner in a 5th-set tiebreak (3 sets went to tiebreaks)
- Tsitsipas, Djokovic won (but D. Novak lost!), no huge upsets

Tomorrow:
- Sam Querrey at 11:00 vs Kuznetsov
- Andy Murray (wait, what?) at 12:00 vs some scrub
- Dominic "there is an I in" Thiem at 1:00 vs some scrub
- Not a ton in primetime, maybe Tiafoe at 7:30pm, then Medvedev at 9:00pm

Women:
- (1) Pliskova, (6) Kvitova, (17) Kerber all advance in straights; (4) Naomi Osaka struggled but won 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
- Americans moving on: (13) Alison Riske, (28) Jennifer Brady, Madison Brengle, Shelby Rogers, all advance in straights; Ann Li and Jessica Pegula advance in 3.
- (16yo) Coco Gauff loses in 3 to an unseeded Sevastova.
- CiCi Bellis loses a 1st-set tiebreak 13-15 (!), then wins the next 2 sets at 3 and 2 to advance.

Tomorrow:
- Muguruza at 11:00 (also Monica Puig)
- Jo Konta - Heather Watson at 1:00, English grudge match
- Serena Williams at 2:30 vs Kristie Ahn
- (2) Sofia Kenin at 3:30
- (7) Madison Keys at 5:30 (also Azarenka)
- Sloane Stephens at 6:00
- (20) Karolina Muchova vs Venus Williams, 7:00pm
- (21) Ekaterina Alexandrova vs... Kim Clijsters ?!?! at 8:30pm
 
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InstaFace

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This Andy Murray is strange to me. He's not cursing a blue streak at himself, seems downright placid by his usual standards.

About to go to a 4th-set tiebreak, which if he wins, will send it to a 5th set.

They got the NBA-style virtual screens with fans there waving and cheering.

Serena to follow this match on Ashe.
 

Matty005

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This Andy Murray is strange to me. He's not cursing a blue streak at himself, seems downright placid by his usual standards.

About to go to a 4th-set tiebreak, which if he wins, will send it to a 5th set.

They got the NBA-style virtual screens with fans there waving and cheering.

Serena to follow this match on Ashe.
I've watched pretty much non-stop the last two days (albeit not much of Ashe). I have yet to see this. There are a lot of people in the stands (relatively speaking) for Murray's match, but it's all players/coaches/etc.

Edit: Those screens to the left and the right of the players just show the NYC skyline during play.
 

InstaFace

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I've watched pretty much non-stop the last two days (albeit not much of Ashe). I have yet to see this. There are a lot of people in the stands (relatively speaking) for Murray's match, but it's all players/coaches/etc.
No I'm not talking about anyone who's there in person. Those big video screens on either side of Ashe's court occasionally flip to a grid of tele-watchers, and I've caught glimpses between points.

...And now we're watching so that we can watch the tele-watchers.
 

jezza1918

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19 year old American Brandon Nakashima holding his own in 1st set against Zverev (Zverev about to serve 4-5). If you havent watched this kid play definitely worth streaming it on the website if you can.

edit: weak end to the set...serving at 5-5 40-0 Nakashima loses 5 straight points to drop his serve and Zverev holds to take first set.
 
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cromulence

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19 year old American Brandon Nakashima holding his own in 1st set against Zverev (Zverev about to serve 4-5). If you havent watched this kid play definitely worth streaming it on the website if you can.

edit: weak end to the set...serving at 5-5 40-0 Nakashima loses 5 straight points to drop his serve and Zverev holds to take first set.
Nakashima wins the second in a tiebreak. This kid is impressive - huge backhand.
 

InstaFace

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Looks like the wheels came off the Nakashima train after that. On the other hand, he took a set off a top-5 player in the richest tournament in the world, and could easily have taken a 2nd.

Remaining 2nd-round action today:

Men:
- Djokovic to finish vs the UK's Kyle Edmund, Edmund won 1st-set tiebreak, but now up 2 sets to 1.
- 5:30pm: (19) California's Taylor Fritz vs Gilles Simon
- 9:00pm (4) Tsitsipas vs [USA] Maxime Cressy, for the nightcap

Women:
- Ann Li has just bageled (13) Alison Riske, they're starting the 2nd now
- Shelby Rogers is taking it to (11) Rybakina and may well win the 1st set
- 7:00pm: (4) Osaka vs Camila Giorgi
- 8:00pm: Somehow Madison Brengle drew the night match again vs (19) Yastremska, no, she is NOT related to Mike or Carl
 

shawnrbu

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Rybakina, Giorgi and Yastremska are three of my WTA faves. Rybakina about to lose. Hope all 3 do not get knocked out today.

# 1 seed Pliskova down a set and a break to 50th in the world Caroline Garcia.
 

jezza1918

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Two American teens about to head to a decisive set on Armstrong: 19-year old (and 22nd seed) Amanda Anisova vs. 16 year old Katrina Scott. Scott is making her slam (and possible WTA level) debut...
 

InstaFace

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Other half of the draw today.

Men:
- Raonic is in a dogfight on Armstrong against his fellow Canadian Pospisil, down 2-1 in sets in the 4th.
- (2) Thiem blasts through to 3rd round in straights
- I just found out that the Bryan Brothers, who were set to retire following this year's US Open, in fact bailed on the US Open due to the pandemic and so have played their last tournament. We'll just have to make do with the Harrison Brothers now.

Women:
- Down goes Muguruza! In straights to Pironkova who's just come back from maternity leave
- Likewise (9) Konta dropped a disappointing 3-setter to Cirstea including a 2nd-set 7-5 tiebreak that would have won the match
- (2) Kenin advanced, as did most other seeds

To come:
- (26) Sloane Stephens on Armstrong, 5:30pm
- (7) Madison Keys on #17, 6:00pm
- Serena Williams to play the unseeded russian Gasparyan as the 7:00pm match on Ashe
- Andy Murray to play the 15-seed at 9:00pm on Ashe, following Serena
- Azarenka gets a tough draw vs fellow Belarussian (5) Sabalenka, 8:00pm on Armstrong, probably the end of the road for her comeback tour
 

InstaFace

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Pospisil closes out Raonic in 4.

Maryland's Frances Tiafoe is into the 5th set against John Millman, having won the 4th. Other than his run to the 2019 Aussie QFs, Tiafoe has never really done anything notable at a slam, and has only even reached the 3rd round once. This would be a big step forward for him.
 

InstaFace

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And that's curtains for Murray.

Hope his hip feels 100%, and the minute it doesn't, he goes back to the beach.

Serena and Sloane Stephens will meet on Sunday for a spot in the R16. They're not friends.
 
I've been watching several hours of tennis each day so far from Flushing, and my main conclusion is that Nike needs some new fashion consultants. These dystopian fluorescent nightmares *might* have made sense on Agassi during his early wild period, and I think Corentin Moutet just about pulls it off. But on most of the players it looks like a Halloween costume.
 

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Serena-Stephens at 2:30pm ET tomorrow.

The men's tournament is a glorified coronation for a healthy Djokovic. I would not be buying stock in Tsitsipas or Zverev. Maybe Them has a prayer.
 

InstaFace

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I've watched pretty much non-stop the last two days (albeit not much of Ashe). I have yet to see this. There are a lot of people in the stands (relatively speaking) for Murray's match, but it's all players/coaches/etc.

Edit: Those screens to the left and the right of the players just show the NYC skyline during play.
33989

Yeah I don't think it's during play but it's there at various points.
 

InstaFace

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Some great R16 action today.

- (1) Djokovic vs (20) Carreno Busta on Ashe starting ~2:30.
- (12) Shapovalov vs (7) Goffin, getting the 7:00pm slot.

The women have a few more exciting seed-vs-seed matches today. One just finished, with 28th-seeded American Jennifer Brady putting together a hell of a run, punching the first ticket into the QFs in either tournament, by ousting no less than Angelique Kerber. Coming up:

- unseeded American Shelby Rogers vs (6) Kvitova, ~3:30. I don't like Rogers' odds.
- (4) Naomi Osaka vs (14) Kontaveit, as the 9:30pm nightcap

Tomorrow, Serena will get a rematch vs the woman who knocked her out of the Western & Southern Open last week, (15) Maria Sakkari. Times aren't posted yet, but I'd wager she'll get prime time unless an earlier slot (on Labor Day) helps them avoid head-to-head vs the NBA.
 

Matty005

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Tomorrow, Serena will get a rematch vs the woman who knocked her out of the Western & Southern Open last week, (15) Maria Sakkari. Times aren't posted yet, but I'd wager she'll get prime time unless an earlier slot (on Labor Day) helps them avoid head-to-head vs the NBA.
I think you may be right about an earlier slot. I go to the Open every year over Labor Day weekend and they seldom have the "marque" match in prime time. It always seems to be in the day session. Of course, this year could be totally different, but I bet Serena will be during the day session tomorrow
 

jon abbey

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Djokovic in danger of being defaulted here because he hit a ball that hit a lineperson in the throat. It didn’t look angry, though, he shouldn’t be defaulted.
 

jon abbey

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It's terrible they can't look at replay here, he really didn't look like he did it out of anger, the game was over and he was getting rid of the ball.
 

jon abbey

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I think people are assuming he hit that out of anger/frustration because of the previous few games, but it really didn't look like that.

Yep, defaulted, that is crazy. The few games before it were pretty strange too, up 5-4 and 40-0 on Carreno Busto's serve, and then he couldn't win another point plus he hurt his shoulder and took an injury timeout.
 

jon abbey

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You have to be able to look at replays on something like that, they need to fix that.
 

jon abbey

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Brad Gilbert is saying even if they could look at the video, the result would likely be the same.
 

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It wasn't intentional, but it was careless, and it was frustrated.

View: https://twitter.com/barstoolbets/status/1302703107722412035


Frankly I've seen some defaults for less - I think there was a Canadian a year or two ago who tried to hit a ball in anger into the net, except he hit it with the frame and it ended up hitting the chair ump in the face with a lot of power. There was never any question that that one wasn't intentional, but when you're smacking balls around with the kind of power of pro athletes, there ought to be some level of responsibility taken. The announcers never even questioned that the guy would be defaulted, they were solely concerned with whether the chair ump was OK.

...yup it was Shapovalov, in a David Cup match no less:

View: https://twitter.com/MRisingStar18/status/828368872592044032
 

jon abbey

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So someone under 30 is finally going to win a Grand Slam on the men's side.
 

Ale Xander

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You can't infer intent, but neither can you infer lack of.Recklessness therefore needs to be punished severely when you're using a dangerous weapon (tennis racket/ball)
 

jon abbey

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I'm just saying they should be able to look at replay when making the DQ decision, even if the decision would have been the same this time. It's ridiculous that the TV audience can see it over and over from different angles and the people actually making the DQ decision have to rely on possibly seeing what happened live or even a second-hand account of that.
 

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Why would you look at replay. He hit the woman in the throat. You lose a game you don’t have a fit and smack a ball behind you without knowing where it’s going. Don’t want to be defaulted don’t hit a ball
 

djbayko

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I'm not even sure what you're seeing in the replay. No, he didn't aim at her. But he did clearly hit the ball too hard right at a person.It's his responsibility to make sure he doesn't do that. I'm sure there was probably a little extra punch on the ball because he was frustrated, but that doesn't even matter. If there aren't severe consequences for this sort of thing, then it will happen more often. Djokovic has just reminded players around the tour to pay attention.
 

thestardawg

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It’s just dangerous to hit a ball I. The air like that without knowing where it’s going. I’ve been hit in the throat with a volley before and I can tell you how unpleasant that is. The lines person was minding their own business and got a hard projectile right in the throat. That could have ended extremely poorly for all involved.

the chair umpire who got in the eye from shapapolov was also extremely lucky as was shapapolov. He should have received a lengthy suspension.
 

Ed Hillel

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Looks to me like he was trying to send a message in that direction. Was there a controversial call at any point?
 

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Djokovic's default was the right call. Others upthread have called this careless and reckless, and that's right. Assuming no ill-intent on Djokovic's part: if he saw a person there, you don't hit the ball anywhere near them. If you don't see see the person, you don't hit a ball that hard aimlessly out of frustration. That obviously wasn't a full-force strike on his part, but I'm not aware of the tennis equivalent of the brushback pitch or buzzing someone's ear. He has to know you can't do that.

Edited for clarity.
 

bosoxsue

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My buddy Stan Wawrinka must really be regretting not entering this tournament right about now, pandemic risk notwithstanding.
 
I've just caught up on the extraordinary events that led up to the incident, and not just the incident itself. Djokovic had three set points on Carreno Busta's serve at 4-5, 0-40. On the first, Carreno Busta hit a shot which was called long and reviewed: the ball just scraped the back of the line. On the second Djokovic had a stretch volley which hit the top of the tape, bounced up and landed *just* back on his side of the net. And Carreno Busta saved the third set point and held his serve, with Djokovic banging a ball into a barrier at the side of the court in clear frustration, much harder than the ball he flicked back into the line judge a game later. At 5-5, Djokovic took a tumble at the baseline and seemed to injure his shoulder on the landing - he stopped the game to bring the physio out for a consultation - before losing his serve.

Here in the UK, they had Greg Rusedski (who had been commentating on the match) and Tim Henman in the studio discussing the incident - Henman had been defaulted from a doubles match at Wimbledon back in 1995 for a similar incident in which he carelessly hit a ball girl in the ear. Very interesting to hear his perspective about how he felt during and after that incident; obviously it was horrible, but both of them were crystal clear that intent doesn't enter into it, and that the decision to default Djokovic was mandatory.

For me, this is karma writ large for the Adria Tour COVID debacle, not to mention his attempted putsch of the ATP there in Flushing. I wonder who will have the fewest nerves out of all of the men that are left - because that's who is going to win the tournament, more than the player who has the most skill (probably Thiem).
 

cromulence

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Wow. Kvitova blows four match points, the last in the third set tiebreak on a double fault, and Rogers gets the win on her first match point.