Wimbledon 2019

First topic message reminder :

Fair weather, at least for the first few days, beckons at Wimbledon. There's a roof on number one court, which is excellent news for those with tickets for that court and for the organisers if the rain arrives.

Djoko is my favourite for the title followed by Federer. Rafa has a difficult draw but how often have we seen tricky draws work out simply due to the fact that projected opponents fall by the wayside.

Difficult to make a case out for anyone outside the top three having a good run. Last year Anderson and Isner made the semis but have not played much this season. Not sure Tsitsipas or Thiem really have the game for grass.

Predicting a women's champion is far from straightforward. Barty is the new number one and with that terrific BH slice could do extremely well. Kerber looked very good in beating Halep at Eastbourne and Pliskova has a chance, although her Wimbledon record is woeful.

You can never rule out Serena and, as I said before the French, practically all the top players have a chance. Intriguing first-round match between Coco Gauff (aged 15) and Venus (aged 39).

This year sees a tiebreak kick in at 12-12 in the final set. It just remains to be seen just how much talk the BBC come up with before showing any action when they start the programmes. Thank God for the red button.

Don't think it's mind games - Kyrgios is a pretty straight talker. Not everyone can like everyone else, but most people don't openly talk about it.

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:Anyone care to explain to me what Kyrgios’ issue is with Nadal? Seems odd to me that the Aussie wants to play mind games with a player whom often achieves more in one season than the Aussie has in his entire career

NJ - Who knows what goes on inside Kyrgios' head? And what can one make of Tomic who put on another eccentric display yesterday?

I think we can expect Kyrgios to chuck in some underarm serves in his match against Rafa. Personally, I think if guys are going to disappear miles behind the baseline to receive, an underarm serve is a good tactic.

Did anyone see any of Tomic match yesterday against Tsonga? It was a disgrace to watch a player at Wimbledon put in so little effort and didn't seem to give a crap about his performance. Something surely has to be done about Tomic. It was a waste of a slot in the draw.

On a lighter note, Brengle should get thru today as she's up against not Muchova player....

CaledonianCraig wrote:Did anyone see any of Tomic match yesterday against Tsonga? It was a disgrace to watch a player at Wimbledon put in so little effort and didn't seem to give a crap about his performance. Something surely has to be done about Tomic. It was a waste of a slot in the draw.

Fully agree with your sentiment here. It’s a disgrace to the history and status of Wimbledon, and also to the proud tradition & performance of Australian tennis players from previous eras.

Places in the main Wimbledon draw are indeed hugely valuable - not just from a monetary perspective, but more because of the springboard it can provide for ‘new’  players ready & willing to put in all the effort & dedication required to develop a professional tennis career.

Not sure what exactly can ‘be done’ .... ? The ATP system is itself already putting him to the sword because he has to qualify for all the glamour tour events now (ie Masters) - and this season he has mostly failed to get through. His ranking will probably soon fall to the point where he will be denied direct entry even to the large field of the Slams, so one can only hope that he will gradually become the architect of his own destruction - and disappearance from the sport.

@Lags, agree, that Tomic (and to lesser extent, Kyrgios) is a disgrace to tennis and a nation that's provided some of the best tennis competitors in all time.  All the more frustrating when Tomic on his day is a pretty decent grasscourt player.

I've finally had a proper look at the draw - here's my thoughts on each quarter:

Djokovic has v straightforward looking route to the quarters (Felix A A may play him but I feel its bit too early in the Canadian youngster's career to really test Djoko on grass) - then could play either Wawrinka or Raonic.  I'm currently watching the former play his way into an entertaining match with old-school big serve/volleyer Opelka.  For the sake of the tournament I hope Wawrinka gets through to play Djokovic in quarters as that match-up always leads to good contests.

Moving further down the draw I'd expect either Querrey or Simon to come through their quarter.  Nadal's quarter looks open - its between him, Cilic, Tsonga, and who knows maybe even Kyrgios!

Next we've got Isner's quarter - despite his run last year and his infamous match with Mahut all those years ago he's not got a brilliant record at Wimbledon, so Nishikori, Fritz or Johnson may come through instead where they are likely to face Federer unless Schwartzman can spring a surprise.

Looks like a Djokovic v Federer final to me.

The following articles explain why Kyrgios doesn't particularly like Rafael Nadal.  Basically he doesn't click with Nadal in the locker roon - apparently Nadal is self-focussed and keeps to himself - but that's not the reason why he dislikes Nadal.  

He is angered by public comments his uncle Toni Nadal made of him about needing an education and public comments Rafael Nadal made about him after losing to him in Acapulco - saying Kyrgios disrepected him, the spectators and himself.    Kyrgios felt it was the reverse as during the game he showed open frustration at Nadal slowing the game down.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/tennis/113950110/tennis-im-never-going-to-change-kyrgios-addresses-nadal-spat-as-wimbledon-grudge-match-awaits

https://au.sports.yahoo.com/nadals-frosty-response-kyrgios-upset-stuns-tennis-world-055818979.html

ps and now the journalists know this some will try to needle him over it to see if they can get any new schlock to write about.

Could we be on for our first ever 12-12 final set tie-break?  Wawrinka and Opelka are at 6-6 in the 5th set and both looking tough to break currently (Edit: seconds after typing that Wawrinka plays a poor game to get broken to lose the match - whilst Stan's never been at his best on grass Djoko will be pleased to see him out of his half of draw).  Elsewhere, Goffin is closing in on straight sets victory against Chardy - after a fall down the rankings over last year or so, the Belgian finally appears to have woken up and rediscovered some form.

Edmund on against Verdasco now - this is going to be an awkward match for Kyle - I fear he might lose this.

No.  Wawrinka out losing 8-6 in the fifth set to New Gen. Opelka - 21 years old and 6 foot 11 inches tall.

Wawrinka got to two QF at Wimbledon in 2014 and 2015, but since then his record has been 2R (2016), 1R (2017), 2R (2018) and now 2R (2019).

MrInvisible wrote:.................  Elsewhere, Goffin is closing in on straight sets victory against Chardy - after a fall down the rankings over last year or so, the Belgian finally appears to have woken up and rediscovered some form.

I honestly don’t think it’s a case of Goffin having “woken up”. The guy had a severe elbow injury which plagued him for much of 2018, forcing him to cut his season short. And in the early part of this season he has needed some time to get back to form. You might need to cut him some slack ......

Jiri Vesely gets another good win this time over Cuevas in four sets to reach round three.  

23 year old Medvedev two sets to one up against 19 year old Alexei Popyrin.

Fair enough Lags, I'd not realised about the injury - just recall him having big dip in form early 2018 shortly after his heroics in late 2017 at London ATP Masters Finals and in Davis Cup. Always liked watching him so good to see he's fully recovered - love the way he constructs points - doesn't have big weapon like some other players but is v good at developing opportunities in the rallies.

Yes .... and Goffin put in some impressive performances the other week at Halle, so came to Wimbledon with a measure of confidence. He was the better player for most of that first set in the Halle Final but an inspired Federer then ran away with the TB and second set.

It is worth noting that Edmund has played Verdasco twice before and lost both times:
2019   ATP Masters 1000 Rome Outdoor Clay  6-4 4-6 2-6  
2018   Vienna  Austria    Indoor Hard   4-6 6-3 3-6

Edmund (24) has youth on his side - Verdasco (35) is eleven years older.

ps: Edmund took the first set and leads 6-4

Khachanov overcomes Feliciano Lopez in four sets

Karen Khachanov (23) beats Feliciano Lopez (37).  The age difference between them is 14 years and 8 months.

Meanwhile Edmund's is two sets to one up against Verdasco: 6-4 6-4 6-7 3-4 (on serve in the 4th).

laverfan wrote:

LKII wrote:Greetings all. Old LK dropping in. I hope you are all well and hope you enjoy the tennis.

Good to see ya, LK!

LKII wrote:Will make more of an effort to get debate going on here again

As long as the tired GOAT and PEDs are destined for the trash can, it would be good to have more civilized discussions.

He LF

Those discussions are confined to the bin. It was far easier to say everyone was doing PED's and everyone is the GOAT.

If anything the subject interesting me is whether interest in tennis is declining and also I wonder how everyone else catches their fix of tennis. I went from being able to catch all the Slams, Masters, WTF on TV and the odd ATP Tour event to just the AO and warm events, the FO and Wimbledon and warm up events. Tried Amazon Prime for the US Open last year and that was atrocious.

So I am intrigued to hear what the forum thinks of the current state of the game and whether being on Amazon will hamper it's interest.

Edmund, hampered by injury, went down in five. Some terrific play towards the end of the Lopez-Khach match before the Spaniard succumbed. His last Wimbledon?

Caught some of the Halep-Boozy match. Wonderful rallies but just too many UEs by Boozy for her to come out on top.

Coco Gauff still waiting to come on. Anderson two sets to one up on Tipsy.

Gauff won in straight sets with another very impressive performance. It's a little frightening to think just how good and composed she is at 15.

Next up for Gauff is Polona Hercog who bt Keys today.

LKII wrote:

laverfan wrote:

LKII wrote:Greetings all. Old LK dropping in. I hope you are all well and hope you enjoy the tennis.

Good to see ya, LK!

LKII wrote:Will make more of an effort to get debate going on here again

As long as the tired GOAT and PEDs are destined for the trash can, it would be good to have more civilized discussions.

He LF

Those discussions are confined to the bin. It was far easier to say everyone was doing PED's and everyone is the GOAT.

If anything the subject interesting me is whether interest in tennis is declining and also I wonder how everyone else catches their fix of tennis. I went from being able to catch all the Slams, Masters, WTF on TV and the odd ATP Tour event to just the AO and warm events, the FO and Wimbledon and warm up events. Tried Amazon Prime for the US Open last year and that was atrocious.

So I am intrigued to hear what the forum thinks of the current state of the game and whether being on Amazon will hamper it's interest.

I already pay for Sky Sports and Netflix, so I'm not forking out for Amazon Prime as well (or any other subscription channel). As such I only see the slams and some WTA events, plus whatever the BBC may show, and have lost a lot of interest in the mens game.

Second round matches today. Great for Clarke that he gets to play Fed on court one. Nishi will probably have a little too much for Norrie and Evans, taking on Basilashvili, is also up against it .

Nadal v Kyrgios could be interesting, to say the least. The Aussie is talented enough to win if he plays properly. Alas, he's likely to want to show off in which case he'll have no chance.

LKII wrote: If anything the subject interesting me is whether interest in tennis is declining and also I wonder how everyone else catches their fix of tennis. I went from being able to catch all the Slams, Masters, WTF on TV and the odd ATP Tour event to just the AO and warm events, the FO and Wimbledon and warm up events. Tried Amazon Prime for the US Open last year and that was atrocious.

So I am intrigued to hear what the forum thinks of the current state of the game and whether being on Amazon will hamper it's interest.

Tennis like any other professional sport now exists in a globalised economy with many different broadcasters and platforms competing for sports broadcasting rights - obtaining contracts with differing formulae and market zones. Whether interest in tennis is declining or not - once again one has to look at the globalised market + the increasing population which has access to it / is part of it. In general nowadays I don't watch tennis - I may catch a game on radio - or take note of the progression of matches + stats on live scores and maybe later watch highlights when they come available.

Am just hearing that a fine of £45,000 has been given to Bernard Tomic for a failure to meet professional standards in his R1 match at Wimbledon.

This figure is apparently equal to that paid to successful qualifiers, so he has effectively forfeited his entire Wimbledon earnings.

lags72 wrote:Am just hearing that a fine of £45,000 has been given to Bernard Tomic for a failure to meet professional standards in his R1 match at Wimbledon ...

I don't see the point of this - unless the money goes to compensating the spectators.  

In the past they would have stuck Tomic in a pillory in front of the spectators.  Then those disaffected by Tomic's failure to meet professional standards could throw overpriced strawberries at him.  

Professional standards were long ago thrown away when they allowed the Williams sisters and co to wear negligees from their personal clothes collection instead of the usual demure garb, and allowed high pitch shrieking and screams.

Barty 5-0 up in her match today - showing Osaka how to play as a GS champion and number one.

Yes, the fine for Tomic is very much a drop in the ocean.

The fine could indeed be considered ‘a drop in the ocean’, agreed. But it does at least mean that he will need to dip into his savings - again - to cover travel & related expenses for himself and any hangers-on. And if his spending continues to be as chaotic as his tennis (with no consistent income), then there is a real possibility that he could gradually exhaust his cash reserves.

The only effective punishment is, of course, a ban.

Think it's good that Tomic has been fined all of his Wimbledon 'earnings'. His attitude of come to London, have a nice time, don't try. pick up £45,000 (less tax) sends the wrong message. If he doesn't want to put the effort in don't turn up and let someone who will get into the draw.

Yes, considering his current wealth it may not seem much but as per the previous post that wealth could disappear reasonably quickly.

Dan Evans takes the first set against Basilashvili 6-3. The Georgian is a big hitter, but a little erratic. This could be a long match, though.

Basilashvili had long 5 set match against James Ward, and may be feeling that. V good work by Dan Evans though, closing in on a 2 set lead.

Sorry to see the Edmund injury towards end of his match - presume he needs some form or surgery? Edmund also needs to add bit more variety to his game to prosper on grass.

Re Nadal v Kyrgios - from highlights of the young Aussie's match the other day I thought his movement didn't look great at times, and that might perhaps be more of a factor than the motivation/show-boating side - expect Nadal to bring his A game.

Verdasco provided advice and critique to Edmund post match saying that all top players have to play through various ailments and pain - and then went on to infer he himself almost passed out during the match due to a stomach problem / pain (for which he called a doctor during the game).

Thinking about this - Nadal often played through the pain barrier but you would hardly have noticed because he was good at disguising it. Maybe there is something about Edmund's movement on the court that causes his knees to give him discomfort (previously it was the left knee, this time it was the right knee). I am surprised when the trainer came on he didn't apply strapping to Edmund's knee.

No name Bertie wrote:

lags72 wrote:Am just hearing that a fine of £45,000 has been given to Bernard Tomic for a failure to meet professional standards in his R1 match at Wimbledon ...

I don't see the point of this - unless the money goes to compensating the spectators.  

In the past they would have stuck Tomic in a pillory in front of the spectators.  Then those disaffected by Tomic's failure to meet professional standards could throw overpriced strawberries at him.  

Professional standards were long ago thrown away when they allowed the Williams sisters and co to wear negligees from their personal clothes collection instead of the usual demure garb, and allowed high pitch shrieking and screams.

Before the Williams sisters, Agassi wore denim shorts. Goodness Gracious!

Dan Evans pegged back to 5-5 in the third after squandering MPs. You can see this one going to five.

Kvitova was on the brink of going a set down to Kiki but the French girl chucked in a number of DFs and is now facing defeat.

Later: Kvitova won 7-5, 6-2

lags72 wrote:The fine could indeed be considered ‘a drop in the ocean’, agreed. But it does at least mean that he will need to dip into his savings - again - to cover travel & related expenses for himself and any hangers-on. And if his spending continues to be as chaotic as his tennis (with no consistent income), then there is a real possibility that he could gradually exhaust his cash reserves.

The only effective punishment is, of course, a ban.

Having now seen the highlights of Tomic vs Tsonga I have the following two points:
a) Tsonga seems to have slimmed down.
b) I think a one year ban (for Wimbledon 2020) on top of the fine plus a warning of future conduct would be in order.  I assume payment is made following defeat - so this would be just with-holding any payments due him for his participation at Wimbledon.

Evans through to the third round with a 6-4 6-4 7-6 win over Basilashvili.
Cameron Norrie is bagelled in the third set to lose 4-6 4-6 0-6 to Nishikori in 1 hr and 48 mins. So that is disappointing - maybe he lacks a touch of the cajones.
Taylor Fritz loses to Struff in four sets.
Querrey steam rollers Rublev in 1hr and 36 mins.
Cilic is a set down and a break down in the second set against Sousa.

Dan Evans plays the winner of Cilic vs Sousa in the third round.

Good wins for Evans, who has had an excellent last few weeks on grass*, and Harriet Dart to get through to R3.

Norrie probably a bit disappointed at not being more competitive against Nishikori.

Jay Clarke has at least got a game on the board and even had a couple of break points against Federer, but generally finding life difficult against the best Wimbledon has ever seen

Evans is such a good tennis player, just a pity that he isn't physically a bit more imposing and mentally more focussed.

* Having come off the hard drugs .

Federer - despite a whole host of uncharacteristic UE’s - takes first set against the talented young Brit 6-1.

Let’s hope, for Jay Clarke’s sake, that Fed doesn’t start hitting peak form.

And what an impressive win for Dan Evans !

Good win for Evans, and a real opportunity for him to go further. Cilic is out of sorts whilst Sousa is not a renowned grasscourter. Evans is one of the form players on grass this season with 2 titles (admittedly 1 at Challenger level) on the surface heading to Wimbledon. Would have thought there's a chance of Evans overtaking Edmund as GB number 1 over the summer perhaps?

Regarding Norrie, I wouldn't be too harsh - grass is not his best surface, he had a good win in 1st round and there's no disgrace in losing to Nishikori (though a bagel isn't good!).

Good to see Harriet Dent reaching 3rd round - nice to see bit of strength in depth amongst the GB women.

Today I'm going for a straight sets win for Nadal over Kyrgios (including 2 tie-breaks) - thought that Nick looked to be carrying an injury.

Kyrgios’ comments in the presser after his R1 win gave no hint of (significant) injury concerns ahead of his upcoming Nadal clash. Hope it proves to be a full-on competitive match ..... IIRC their h2h is actually all-square. But almost certainly a comfortable win for Rafa today.

Meanwhile on Court 1 Jay Clarke is playing extremely well. Federer is waaay below best and has hit around a dozen or more shots that I would be perfectly capable of hitting myself (along with countless others that I would not ..... )

Would love to see the official stat for Federer backhand errors so far ..... must be incredibly high. And he has just missed the simplest of bread & butter net volleys.

Such a bitter blow to Clarke that he was still unable to capitalise and sneak that second set TB. But I guess the constant pressure inevitably tells ......

Cilic goes down in straights to Sousa ....... who will now meet Dan Evans (“Hello Dan, nice to meet you”)

Taylor Fritz may have gotten Struff-ed but Taylor Townsend is still out there fighting for all the Taylors of the world - hoping to make a Dent in Kiki Bertens title challenge.

The puns are back, yeah .....

Clarke continues to play well against some old geezer almost twice his age.

On this showing - and from my expert (ho ho) standpoint - I’d say that the young Brit has a very good tennis career ahead of him.

Fed thru in straight sets. Konta is also thru but defending champ Kerber OUT.

Isner's defeat means he's going to lose a shedload of points. We may not see him as highly ranked ever again. Nadal a break up against Kyrgios in the first set. Winner plays JWT.

First underarm serve of the match from Kyrgios. Despite having been warned in advance that it would happen at some stage, it took Rafa totally by surprise as he stood half a mile behind the baseline.

Nick’s now telling the umpire all the things he doesn’t approve of. And Rafa has left the court .... for whatever reason.

A smiling Genie Bouchard is watching with enthusiasm from the stands.

Kyrgios breaks Rafa early in set two. Hot stuff on Centre.

Kyrgios looking totally motivated.

Kyrgios is always capable of great performances, but keeping it going for five sets or across a tournament he slips up.  That's why he is frustrating for those who support him, and gives support to Nadal's criticism of Kyrgios of having an inappropriate temperament for success at the highest level - even though Nadal rates him highly as someone who could have / should have been winning slams or at least competing in semi-finals and finals.

And now Kyrgios loses his break advantage. Will this drain his mental energy and focus .... ?

He’s having a serious rant at the umpire about Rafa’s timekeeping.

Kyrgios levels the match in dramatic fashion.

Rafa is in excellent form himself, but Kyrgios has hit a number of magical shots today that would match - or even surpass - anything we see from Fed.

Wish they’d just ban Kyrgios, this behaviour got boring years ago. Turning this match into a farse, and this constant abuse of the umpire is ridiculous