2023 Tennis

jezza1918

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In tennis news possibly no one cares about, there was a very entertaining 3rd set matchbreaker this morning between Krajicek/Dodig and Gonzelez/Roger-Vasselin - winner through to semis, loser sent home. I was torn between rooting for the American (Krajicek) and RV since he teamed up with a buddy of mine to make a quarters run at Wimby back in 2012...anyway, multiple match points saved, challenges, dives, and eventually Gonzalez/RV took it 15-13.
Djoker about to close out Hurkacz.
 

jon abbey

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I think Djokovic needs Sinner to beat Rune in a few hours for Djokovic to advance. Sinner is already through, it probably makes the most sense for him to lose this and knock Novak out but I doubt he'll approach it that way.
 

jezza1918

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I think Djokovic needs Sinner to beat Rune in a few hours for Djokovic to advance. Sinner is already through, it probably makes the most sense for him to lose this and knock Novak out but I doubt he'll approach it that way.
You are correct. If Rune wins he will win the group and Sinner will finish 2nd. Im torn between rooting for nextgen type guys to come through, or another chance at a Novak-Carlos matchup.
 

jon abbey

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One time in the NJ high school state fencing championships, I was coaching my two younger brothers and they ended up in the same semifinal pool. I got the older one to intentionally lose to the younger one to maximize their chances of both making the finals, which they did, but I think they never really forgave me for pushing them into that, heh.
 

jezza1918

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One time in the NJ high school state fencing championships, I was coaching my two younger brothers and they ended up in the same semifinal pool. I got the older one to intentionally lose to the younger one to maximize their chances of both making the finals, which they did, but I think they never really forgave me for pushing them into that, heh.
Ha - at a pretty popular local, end-of-summer tennis tournament in these parts my brother and I competed in the Mens open draw. I was 16 and he was 21 at the time...he was definitely going to win his semis and I was a slight underdog in mine. My dad point blank told me he wasnt sure he wanted me to win so he wouldnt have to watch his sons play against each other. His wish was not fulfilled. Then again neither was mine when I lost 4&0 to big bro in the finals. But hey - it was 4-4 at one point!
 

jon abbey

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Sinner, to his credit, apparently playing to win as he's up a set, on serve 2-3 in second.
Yeah I forgot that this was in Italy so there's no way Sinner wasn't giving it his all, but Rune battled hard. You reminded me to turn it on, thanks, and eventually Sinner broke at 4-4 and finished it out, so he and Novak advance and Novak owes him one.
 

jon abbey

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Ha - at a pretty popular local, end-of-summer tennis tournament in these parts my brother and I competed in the Mens open draw. I was 16 and he was 21 at the time...he was definitely going to win his semis and I was a slight underdog in mine. My dad point blank told me he wasnt sure he wanted me to win so he wouldnt have to watch his sons play against each other. His wish was not fulfilled. Then again neither was mine when I lost 4&0 to big bro in the finals. But hey - it was 4-4 at one point!
Apologies for this being even more off topic, but I have a funny story along these lines. After I graduated college, I was ranked about #20 in the US in sabre fencing, and the choices then are essentially 'keep going and try to make the Olympic team", 5 people per weapon, or 'quit'. I had beaten 3 of the 5 Olympians that year ('88) in different major tournaments but I didn't really train super seriously (I was 21!) and I couldn't string together enough wins on the same day to be a genuine top 5 Olympic contender, plus there was a lot of dubious cheating etc at that point in the sport that would have been hard to overcome without truly transcendent talent. Plus of course there's no money in it.

So I quit, didn't look back, I had done it for 10 years. My brothers were both very good collegiate fencers and as the next year progressed, they started talking shit to me. So after a bit, I said 'fine, we can all enter the Garden State Games (the NJ state championship at that point) this summer, and we'll see.' I practiced just once beforehand, the first time I had picked up a weapon in a year, and I beat my youngest brother in the quarterfinals and the middle one in the final.

But what made me think of this was your post, because my mom was there and she felt bad for my brothers, because she knew I was not going to allow myself to lose to them. So my mom was actively cheering against me! I think there is a VHS record of this somewhere, I should get it transferred sometime.
 

jezza1918

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Jul 19, 2005
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South Dartmouth, MA
Apologies for this being even more off topic, but I have a funny story along these lines. After I graduated college, I was ranked about #20 in the US in sabre fencing, and the choices then are essentially 'keep going and try to make the Olympic team", 5 people per weapon, or 'quit'. I had beaten 3 of the 5 Olympians that year ('88) in different major tournaments but I didn't really train super seriously (I was 21!) and I couldn't string together enough wins on the same day to be a genuine top 5 Olympic contender, plus there was a lot of dubious cheating etc at that point in the sport that would have been hard to overcome without truly transcendent talent. Plus of course there's no money in it.

So I quit, didn't look back, I had done it for 10 years. My brothers were both very good collegiate fencers and as the next year progressed, they started talking shit to me. So after a bit, I said 'fine, we can all enter the Garden State Games (the NJ state championship at that point) this summer, and we'll see.' I practiced just once beforehand, the first time I had picked up a weapon in a year, and I beat my youngest brother in the quarterfinals and the middle one in the final.

But what made me think of this was your post, because my mom was there and she felt bad for my brothers, because she knew I was not going to allow myself to lose to them. So my mom was actively cheering against me! I think there is a VHS record of this somewhere, I should get it transferred sometime.
That’s dynamite, your little bros should feel bad! I take comfort in that he was an all CAA conference d1 player at the time at least…
On the actual tennis, I knew sinner wouldn’t throw it given the home crowd, but I am surprised/impressed he went full out in that third set.
 

jon abbey

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Alcaraz beat Medvedev in straight sets, so we get the best four players in the world in the semis:

Alcaraz/Djokovic (career H2H 2-2, the last three all incredible classics earlier in 2023)
Sinner/Medvedev

Only the 4th time since this started in 1990 that the top 4 players have all made the semis. Fun!
 

jezza1918

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Jul 19, 2005
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South Dartmouth, MA
Alcaraz beat Medvedev in straight sets, so we get the best four players in the world in the semis:

Alcaraz/Djokovic (career H2H 2-2, the last three all incredible classics earlier in 2023)
Sinner/Medvedev

Only the 4th time since this started in 1990 that the top 4 players have all made the semis. Fun!
Yup. looking forward to that Novak/Carlos semis (3pm eastern) tomorrow quite a bit!
 

jon abbey

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What a show djokovic just put on
Alcaraz was pretty sloppy for a while, but holy cow when he tried to make a run mid-second set, Djokovic played some insane points. He was up a break at 3-2 and down 15-40 and the next few points were just remarkable. The one to bring it back to deuce I screamed three times in a row when it was over, amazing.

Sinner has to at least slightly be thinking 'hmm maybe I shouldn't have pushed so hard against Rune', hehe.
 

jezza1918

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South Dartmouth, MA
Alcaraz was pretty sloppy for a while, but holy cow when he tried to make a run mid-second set, Djokovic played some insane points. He was up a break at 3-2 and down 15-40 and the next few points were just remarkable. The one to bring it back to deuce I screamed three times in a row when it was over, amazing.

Sinner has to at least slightly be thinking 'hmm maybe I shouldn't have pushed so hard against Rune', hehe.
If he wasn’t slightly thinking that yesterday he sure as sh*t is now…
 

jon abbey

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If he wasn’t slightly thinking that yesterday he sure as sh*t is now…
Damn, I missed this, although honestly I have trouble getting into best of 3 men's tennis.

Djokovic is 36, the four guys he beat this week are 20, 26, 20 and 22 respectively. Just amazing.
 

jezza1918

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Damn, I missed this, although honestly I have trouble getting into best of 3 men's tennis.

Djokovic is 36, the four guys he beat this week are 20, 26, 20 and 22 respectively. Just amazing.
Yeah I didn’t watch a second of it either quite frankly for the same reason you mentioned. I only really cared about Djokovic Alcaraz because there’s always a chance of something historically special.
they’ll probably be going 3/5 in the finals in Melbourne in a couple months!