The Official Tennis Thread (Vol. 2024 US Open)

[aepps20]

At least she got 22 already. Everything else is gravy.

 

[shogun]

Nice to see another player with a strong serve.

 

[second2nonee]

Credit to Pliskova. She has been on an absolute tear since winning Cincy. This is her 5th top 10 win that span. Kuznetsova, Muguruza, Kerber, Venus, and now Serena. She did the rare feat by beating both sisters in the same tournament. Serena had no answer for her. Crazy seeing Serena flop at the US Open two years in a row now after dominating for so long. 2 DF in the tiebreak after up a minibreak :x Her mental and fitness is no longer the same as it was

Kerber is now #1. Woz has a good chance for her first slam now though.

 

[shogun]

wozniacki playing like trash.

 

[thadangerousmind]

Are Serena and Caro still friends? A real friend would tell her to leave the moon balls in space.....

 

[Sinner]

Credit to Pliskova. She has been on an absolute tear since winning Cincy. This is her 5th top 10 win that span. Kuznetsova, Muguruza, Kerber, Venus, and now Serena. She did the rare feat by beating both sisters in the same tournament. Serena had no answer for her. Crazy seeing Serena flop at the US Open two years in a row now after dominating for so long. 2 DF in the tiebreak after up a minibreak :x Her mental and fitness is no longer the same as it was

Kerber is now #1. Woz has a good chance for her first slam now though.

I didn't get to watch both matches, but that was surely a surprising result by Plish. I got to see them (her and her twin sis) play when they were in town a couple of years ago, but the amount of improvement has been very impressive.

As for the match, I haven't seen one point, but from reading some of the recaps, it seems like all the journos wanted to do was look for excuses... injuries and fatigue. I haven't read Serena's presser yet, so I have no idea what she said, but was it a case of Serena throwing the match to Karolina? Cuz from the articles, it certainly seemed like that. And some article mentioned fatigue, which was surprising, since all the matches in WTA/ITF tournaments are played on back-to-back days. Surely both ladies have played 2 consecutive matches with less rest in previous tournaments? Anyway, I'll need to watch some highlights to see how it unfolded.

Looked like a routine scoreline for Kerber, but it's still a great result for Caro given her injuries this year.

 

[aepps20]

Plish continued her great play but Serena's footwork was very poor and I don't know why. However,Second2Nonee put it best, mental fitness is where things went south. I've seen Serena battle through adversity, injuries and other issues her entire career just on mental toughness and strength alone. Serena was mentally soft last night and she has no one to blame but herself. Father time is undefeated and Serena's mental toughness is clearly on the slide. I suspect that with Serena her mental toughness is where you will see age catching up to her as well as nagging injuries here or there whereas Venus can attribute her decline to age and illness.

Plish played great tennis in the first set but her level dipped a great deal in the second set. I don't think that she'll beat Kerber again on Saturday but if she can play like she did in the first set then she has a shot.

 

[Sinner]

To call this match bizarre  would be an understatement. 

 

[slighted]

Nole is playing with an injury? He seemed pretty comfortable washing Monfails

Wawa has no answers to Nishi now. I'm not entirely sure Nishi can beat Nole

 

[aepps20]

Tennis player from France started clowning when the stakes were highest. [emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji]

 

[slighted]

Nishi looks gassed.

Wawa is the better opponent for Nole though

 

[Sinner]

 
Nole is playing with an injury? He seemed pretty comfortable washing Monfails

He's had that left-wrist issue since the lead-up to the Olympics... The other parts of his body tried to compensate and naturally he's starting to feel the effects of that.  

Still, a very fortunate path to the finals... and very strange... never seen anything like it.

Tennis player from France started clowning when the stakes were highest. [emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji]

It was just so weird.  Looked really tight at the beginning... then started giving no $#!%'s towards the end of the 1st... which actually earned him one of the breaks back cuz he was just looping everything back to Nole, which he hates.  Then down 2 sets and a break, Monf started slapping the hell out of the ball and took the 3rd.  It was such a strange, in a bad way, match.  

Not sure what to expect from Stan, but if he does win, he'd be a Wimbledon away from the career Grand Slam! 

 

[shogun]

Good match so far.

Since Dementieva and Li Na are both retired, Angie's tanned thighs and legs are what i've been mirin'.

 

[Sinner]

Karolina's showed moments of brilliance... strikes the ball so cleanly and with so much depth... but Angie's just been rock-solid.  

 

[aepps20]

Where was this Thursday night? I'm sick of these players not stepping up after beating Serena.

 

[Sinner]

Different type of opponent though... Kerber is getting everything back... making Karo hit several great shots to win a point. 

EDIT

Karo's feeling it now! 

 

[aepps20]

Karo destroyed her a few weeks back.

 

[Sinner]

What a way to break!  Rare to see that sort of emotion from her! 

EDIT

We goin' 3!  Impressive stuff from both.

 

[AIR J XIII]

Big weapon...

only 24...

good under pressure...

6'1''...

If Pliskova can be consistent like she's been the last couple of months, man look out...

 

[thadangerousmind]

Somewhere Serena is watching this match wishing that she wasn't using the 1st week of a slam to play her way in to shape or taking the Coco Vandeweigh approach to scouting.

 

[shogun]

Doesn't her height sort of limit her as a player though? They talk about it all the time that getting low and movement are things she needs to work on. The examples of other players around her height in recent memory to win multiple majors are Kvitova bae and banned sharapova. They also compare her a little to davenport.

Weird that the top players in the men's game are around the 6'1-6'4 range. For women a height at 6'0 or above limits their movement in comparison to the shorter females.

 

[AIR J XIII]

Doesn't her height sort of limit her as a player though? They talk about it all the time that getting low and movement are things she needs to work on. The examples of other players around her height in recent memory to win multiple majors are Kvitova bae and banned sharapova. They also compare her a little to davenport.

Weird that the top players in the men's game are around the 6'1-6'4 range. For women a height at 6'0 or above limits their movement in comparison to the shorter females.

Yes, her movement is her glaring weakness, but as you noted, there are others who have found a way to be successful.

 

[Sinner]

Height give you the obvs adv on serves and with a bigger wingspan, probably bit more power on the groundstrokes... but it's offset by a higher center-of-gravity, which will hurt her movement.  Karo, relatively speaking, does not move well, but offsets it with her tremendous shot-making. 

Anyway... she's on a roll now! 

 

[thadangerousmind]

View media item 2161792
Evian's 2016 US Open bottle.

 

[Sinner]

Wow Karo.