WIMBLEDON 2022

And Kyrg-Kokk appear to have excused themselves from the doubles (Kyrg was on fire earlier, so I assume it's Kokk).

Oh bum, I was looking forward to that, I've been looking in on 18 periodically and was going to ditch Nadal for it.

And it's Kyrgios-Tsitsipas in r3. That has to be Saturday evening on Centre, right?

or 2 again?

Nadal getting dragged around way more than he should be at this early stage.

I like Broady, gonna look out for his next game.

I was shocked to discover that Jack Sock is still playing, and was up 2 sets 0 in the second round when his match was suspended today.

Looking at the order of play today, I was wondering Michael do you have any recs? Much obliged.

tiafoe/bublik should be entertaining

Thank you!

It's a measure of how long Richard Gasquet has been around that his win over (then) world #2 Medvedev in Geneva a few weeks ago...

Veteran poster Michael J there, still pulling off effortless prosodic dropshots after two decades on the ILx circuit.

He's one of the more experienced guys on the TOUR, but he keeps showing up and showing that he has the WEAPONS to go deep here. In this thread.

It's not the strokeplay, it's making it to the court I find difficult these days.

Tiafoe-Bublik for sure, also Mertens-Kerber and Basilashvili-VanR.

I'll keep an eye on the stats for Sinner-Isner, just to see if Long John is maintaining that servebot accuracy. I think the fact that we can't have 13+ game final sets might help him. I really don't mind if one of the 2m-tall bullet boys win it this year. It used to be my worst nightmare - the triumph of anti-tennis. Anything but Novak.

Isner should probably achieve his 'number of aces' world record today, I'm sure there will be a 48" clip on the Wimbledon YT page about it this evening.

One of the best things about yesterday was the suspension of play.

I work on headphones mostly and all those different channels' worth of ambient rain and crowd sounds, exquisitely rendered with expensive BBC location mics was lovely.

Oh absolutely. Even when the glorious ambient soundscape gets interrupted by tennis, the best courts are those with no commentary. Nadal-Tsitsipas in Barcelona last year was so much more enjoyable on Prime because the commentary feed had failed. I'm generally up for a bit of Andrew Cotter plus Mac/Nav but now that "Any point will do"/"Hey it's LOU REED" is behind bars, and Barry Davies has retired, I don't get much out of the chatter.

The distant chatter of the kids tasked with covering and uncovering the court yesterday was funny too.

Underwhelming - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYCyKEorbKQ

some good quotes re isners serve:

Opelka: “Obviously he has height, but technically he has a perfect motion. He is easily the best server of all time. Even now I think John has got the majority of his aces later on in the Tour. When Ivo [Karlovic] was first playing, the courts were faster and guys weren’t returning as well. People weren’t as big. For me it is no question John is the greatest server. The past six years the courts have been slower and that is when he has played his best tennis. Against Novak and Delpo and Cilic. These big guys who return well. To have the number and record in this era says it all.

“He has another gear. If you look at his motion on a 30/0 point, the intensity is lower. You see it when you return against him because you are so locked in trying to return and find anything. At 30/0 it will come off seven or eight mph slower, he won’t bend his knees as much. But it is still a natural motion. On a bigger point it comes in nine or 10 mph quicker."

Cilic: “Considering John, even though he has great height, which helps for the serve, he has one of the best techniques on the Tour. It is not easy to create that. He is a big guy. I know myself it is not easy to put everything together. The serve is probably the toughest shot we have in tennis. It is extremely technical and hats off to him for keeping his level of serving for so long and his game so high to play long into tournaments and have such great results. It is incredible to have this kind of a guy on the Tour along with Karlovic and other incredible servers.”

Querrey: “When it comes to John Isner’s serve, I think 95 per cent of players would say that it is the greatest serve of all time. And it is not just because he is tall. His mechanics are great and he does a great job of placement. He can slide it, hit it flat and hit a kick serve. I think the most impressive thing about it is late in matches, I feel he makes a ton of first serves. I don’t know if there is a stat from 5/5 or something in tie-breaks, but it must be so high. He deserves the record. He is not only an incredible server but an incredible player. He has been around the Top 20 for 10 or 11 years. He is not just a server, but to have that record is cool.”

Man if Broady comes back to take the third set, it'd be so cool.

There are some court-level clips on YT of Isner-Federer indoors in Basel, I think. It’s a phenomenal thing to see that serve snap down in a blink of a eye, but the Fed reaction times are incredible too.

Alize Cornet working her soft serve magic again.

Kyrgios still sharing his views, I see.

It’s a race to disqualification.

john Lloyd's commentary really making me root for nick here. that and my dislike for his opponent.

your basic insane kyrgios match..stef almost surely wins this in straight sets cuz nick wouldve self destructed if he was broken @ 4-4 2nd set…..

… instead saves that break pt (only 1 hes faced so far) & prob will win now

He's a total penis today

I have just noticed that the BBC IPlayer volume slider goes up to 11, is this common knowledge and I'm late to the joke?

Living this TB.

6-6

7-7!

Lol dropshot for the match!

Another cringe interview incoming

good 4th set, shame it didnt go 5

We're on today? Wow the big courts are gonna be knackered come the finals

Rooting for Ostapenko on the women's side.

Just won the first set in her match!

Gonna be switching between Tiafoe and Watson for a bit, I reckon.

Going to a decider after Jelena had two MPs!

Remarkable scenes with Cliff Richard, Desmond Lynam, Stefan Edberg et al on Centre Court today. But no place for Tim Mayotte.

Some old guy near the floor dressed in some red military uniform, like a Yeoman Guard or Sgt Pepper :)

Ostapenko loses, from victory really. Maria took her opportunity well.

goffin/tiafoe going 5

match has clearly been & will be on tiafoes racket but these guys are so closely matched overall

Poster Maresn3st, I believe that's what is called a Chelsea Pensioner.

Sinner vs Alcaraz seemed a marvellous prospect and felt like an epic to me - must have lasted 3.5 hours? - even though it wasn't 5 sets. I was surprised, perhaps naively, by how much Sinner dominated. The levels of power and skill in this match were still going to the end. Maybe Alcaraz underperformed, though, given the quality we've seen him produce before?

Lol thanks Pinefox :)

van rijthoven has some WEAPONS

oh no nicky has been fined FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS

That's almost exactly the champion's prize money for next week's ITF M25 in Roehampton, so he should ask for a wild card, beat a few guys ranked 300-700, and donate it. I've got a day off, I could go down there and heckle.

Nicky to win Wimbledon but get 80% of his prize money fined would be my favourite outcome.

The dissonance created by the miserable, joyless sod winning Wimbledon would be a sight to behold.

He was full of joy when he won the doubles at the Aussie!

Surprised by this (Jesse) Garin (and the Desperadoes) comeback vs De Minaur.

Kyrgios is going to punch Sue Barker in the post match interview.

Roger Federer...is the 3rd best player of all time. Sigh.

Kyrgios actually looking relieved

I want Kyrgios to scream at Prince George

— Labour Accelerationists (@LabourAccel) July 10, 2022

It's always sad, welp, I wonder how long they leave the whole shebang up on Iplayer? I fancy going back and watching some missed matches in a day or two.

I've posted about this before, but the most extraordinary (and, for me, distressing) aspect of Djokovic's career is his third-act near-invincibility when it matters. His first 16 Slam finals, up to age 28 (when he'd been #1 or #2 for four years, generally considered peak or near-peak Novak): 8-8. His last 16 Slam finals: 13-3. This includes a two-year period when he was injured / refusing surgery / off-form and not winning anything. Everything since summer 2018 has been a nightmare!

Keep hearing how he's not quite the player he was, and how much more vulnerable he is in early rounds, but I can't remember the last time he faced a real threat in the first week (Tiafoe, Melbourne 2021?). If Kyrgios had been in his segment of the draw, might have been a different story. Doesn't matter how wretched his form might be for an hour, he'll find a way back in, and it's over. As soon as he broke Sinner early in the third set on Tuesday - that was it. From my perspective, it's the equivalent of the Liverpool injury-time winner. You know it's coming. Never in Djoubt.

Nostalgic for the days when players you didn't like just faded away in their 30s. Imagining a timeline where a newly-focused Becker beat Sampras, Hewitt and Federer to collect early-'00s majors. Ugh. Might have kept him out of trouble.

Older players in tennis (men and women's), men's golf are doing better and winning big things later. Look at Ronnie in the snooker as well, who is much more solid now than when he was younger.

The work that has been done on fitness, diet, sports psychology, surgeries (the work on Andy's hope, or Nadal at the French). Throw in the vast experience you accrue at that age, which is the usual plus people used to talk about. That can be an explosive combination.

*Andy's hip

Someone like Nick is an old style sportsman. No coaches, berating the umpire for old style disruption, not much work with a psychologist(?)

Not playing a full schedule and talking about his mental health aside is at least some evidence of self-care. But would anyone be surprised if he never made another slam final again?

Borg quit at 26, Carousel for everyone. (Kidding, Federer exempt anyway).

On the bright side, Novak now down to #7 in the rankings and, for as long as he's barred from entering Aus/N America, that's not going to improve.
(If Wimbledon had been carrying points, I think he'd be #4 (Rafa up to #2), with Norrie at #8 and Kyrgios up to #16. As it is, Nicky K stays in the 40s. Federer now has no ranking for the first time since Sept 1997).

Older players in tennis (men and women's), men's golf are doing better and winning big things later. Look at Ronnie in the snooker as well, who is much more solid now than when he was younger.

... and football.

Ugh, 2023 doesn't start until the 3rd of July, I'm itching already.

I thought it started January 1st

Lol, I need previews, run ups, I want to get into it.