US OPEN 2021

raducanu cool as a cucumber out there.

77 min 1st set goes to matteo

to the surprise of no one djokovic dominates the second 6-2

yikes djokovic is not fucking around anymore

so far in the 3rd matteo has won two points

berrettinis slice backhand just isnt good enough

yeah novak has him in jail anytime they exchange backhands

roddick esque

Hate saying it but I get the feeling Zverev will beat Djoko

In a purely tennis sense, it would be about bloody time. Best option on that side of the draw was Shapo taking out both of them. Medvedev has been the outstanding player in the men's event, but I think that was true in Melbourne too, until the last day.

Think both women's semis are night session so I'll miss all of that. Least preferred end result by a long way is Sabalenka as champ, but I imagine that's what we'll get. Funny that the only previous US Open women's semifinalists ranked outside the top 100 (before Raducanu) were... Billie Jean King and Kim Clijsters. King played no singles at all Aug '78-Jun '79 and (I guess) hadn't played enough by Sept '79 to earn a ranking (even though she'd reached QF at Wimb), though she was granted a seeding. Clijsters had been away two years and took several wildcards in summer 2009 (winning at Flushing Meadow, beating Serena and Venus en route).

great job by laylah tho sabalenka melted down a bit the end of the 3rd set

love everything fernandez has accomplished and is doing

onto the grand slam final!

which is sadly in character for her

hell yeah!

that was awesome

i'm a novice at watching tennis but she is like wildly crafty. so many great/weird shots.

big shoutout to steve nash in her interview!

let's go sakkari

(sorry britishes)

Don't be sorry lol this is fantastic!!

The only time our finalists have ever played

the top quarter of the 2018 Wimbledon girls' draw, the only time Raducanu and Fernandez have played each other and a bit of an origin story to this tournament pic.twitter.com/Sx2YxWuP9I

— Alex Macpherson (@alex_macpherson) September 8, 2021

Kind of makes you wonder what happened to Whitney Osuigwe. (Still only 19, ranked in the 200s, her time may come).

Raducanu’s results are ridiculous. It’s like Evert or Graf bulldozing through a slam draw in their prime. Only stretched beyond 6-4 once, in the qualies. I still think Fernandez has the edge? But I know nothing, I didn’t see Bencic and Sakkari being brushed aside like that.

The first Brit teen genius to break everything in their path since Ronnie O'Sullivan (but that's snooker which doesn't have the international profile of tennis)?

I missed Fernandez's match but omg Raducanu was incredible to watch, an absolute steamroller

xyz... does this make Fernandez... Kirk Stevens?!

It's a real shame we can't have a Shapo-FAA final in the men's for total NextGen Canadian(-born/-citizen) domination.

Fernandez was not as in control of her match obviously, but what impressed me about her was the ability to keep coming back every time Sabalenka seemed to be about to break loose. Just the mental composure to be that inexperienced, and up against a ferocious player, and keep her cool. In that sense she may be better prepared for the final, just because she's had to deal with being down and coming back. OTOH if Raducanu never lets herself get behind, may not be an issue.

Anyway, they're both fun players to watch, I hope the final is a good match. I don't even have a rooting interest, tbh, fine with either of them winning.

"xyz... does this make Fernandez... Kirk Stevens?!"

Maybe, this is well before my time :)

(Thinking of Ronnie in the UK championship where he just came in and destroyed the field, he was 17 or so)

v high level match by both guys thus far, hope the 5th set can live up to it

sigh

im not sure medvedev can play better than zverev did

Somewhat resigned to this now. I guess if Novak beats Zverev and Medvedev (twice each), Nadal (on clay), Tsitsipas (from two sets down), Berrettini (three times, incl on grass) and Shapo en route to this, you have to say fair enough. Who else could you throw at him? Rublev in his early spring form? Carreno Busta / Karatsev / Sinner around the round of 32 would have been nice and awkward. The draws and scheduling have been moderately kind, but every top seed gets that (Fed certainly benefited). I think he got a dose of luck with the curfew in Melbourne (falling apart vs Fritz, and then a delay while the stadium was cleared) and Musetti running out of gas in Paris, but fair play.

If he beats Medvedev on Sunday he's the greatest male tennis player of all time. No ifs, no buts.

That he is a wanker is just something that people will forget in time.

Whereas, if he loses, he'll have the same 20-11 Slam final record as Federer and we can kick the argument down the road for another year :)

Fed won 12 of his first 14 Slam finals... Djokovic has won 12 of his *last* 14 (he only had a 50% record in these matches as recently as his defeat to Wawrinka at RG 2015). He's developed this big match invincibility late in his career, for Fed that was his early-mid 20s.

The one player around who you feel is almost his equal in these high-stakes contests is Thiem, and he's currently injured.

As I think I said in the non-Slam thread, the flipside of Novak's entertaining collapse in Tokyo (two likely golds turning into nothing in the space of 24 hours) is that - even if achieves the ultimate tomorrow - he may just keeping going until Paris 2024 now. Surely, *surely*, the teens and 20somethings will have his number between now and then.

In other news, looks like C4 has Raducanu-Fernandez live tonight, free-to-air.

That's great to hear.

On 10 July 2018, a modest Court 17 crowd watched a second round junior #Wimbledon match between @emmaraducanu and @leylahfernandez 🌟

Little did any of them know what was to come...#USOpen pic.twitter.com/xshJVQs4BX

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) September 11, 2021

I've watched several crowd-shot videos of that 53-stroke rally now. Classic Djokovic to lose a set point in that way, and just take the next opportunity anyway. The Federer-genius point vs him in the 2016 AO semi gets a lot of love on YT... not so celebrated is the fact that Novak routinely took the next six points to close out the match.

Good that the final is on regular UK terrestrial tonight, but where were they in 2012 when I watched Murray-Djokovic on a dodgy 320x240 stream? Typical pro-Home Counties, anti-Scots bias :)

I listened to it on Radio five live

:-(

I've watched several crowd-shot videos of that 53-stroke rally now. Classic Djokovic to lose a set point in that way, and just take the next opportunity anyway.

yea good point. unless zverev couldve mustered up an ace i was expecting him to no way win the next point

I think Djokovic does end up as the uncontested "greatest," at least until some later-generation Goliath. But his relative unpopularity vs. Nadal and Federer is not only about his prickly persona — it's also that his tennis, while consistently excellent and powerful, is rarely as much fun to watch as theirs. Federer at his peak had a balletic grace that no other player has ever matched, and Nadal has a leave-it-all-on-the-court commitment that you can see and feel, you always know he's working hard. Djokovic is certainly capable of stunning plays and shots, but a lot of what he does is just, like, really good conventional tennis, with more power and fewer errors than anyone else.

otm

novak has his core, vocal, largely serbian? fans but it almost feels shameful to root for him. part of that is just hes expected to win every match, part is his personality, part is the overall contrast to fed and rafa

3 months ago my daughter and Emma Radacanu were in the same maths class. Since collecting their A level results one has broken all records and is set to win the US open. The other has broken her wrist whilst crowdsurfing at a festival. It’s a proud parenting moment 😭

— Professor Claire Hopkins (@SnotSurgeon) September 10, 2021

"I think Djokovic does end up as the uncontested "greatest," at least until some later-generation Goliath. But his relative unpopularity vs. Nadal and Federer is not only about his prickly persona — it's also that his tennis, while consistently excellent and powerful, is rarely as much fun to watch as theirs."

Novak has a great game. The returns, athleticism and sheer bloody-mindedness. I like his game more than Nadal's game but he is a dickhead.

This game..

Raducanu breaks, terrific level so far

Another 10 min epic for break back Fernandez

Raducanu recovered from 0-30 down. On serve

Just incredible hitting from Emma to keep it on serve.

They are both great. Be amazed if we don't go the distance

^^^ 100%

2 SPs Emma

Oh dear. I’ve had a quick look at this company. “Biotech” might be a stretch. Strap in... https://t.co/Z8qzdQxP53

— Dr Darren Saunders (@whereisdaz) January 19, 2022