Tennis
- Thread starter backstreetjoe
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I take no pleasure in being right about this, because to my mind, a place in the final is now Ashleigh's to lose.
ICONS!
I'll stay up until 2AM local time for Sorana tonight so she'd better not let me down.
I'll stay up until 2AM local time for Sorana tonight so she'd better not let me down.
Naomi is on John Cain also.
Potapova plays some insane tennis in this first set, gets two set points at 5-3... and hits five double faults in one game to be broken back. Hmmm.
4th round matches coming up:
Serena vs Sabalenka
Naomi vs Garbine
Both are final worthy.
Serena vs Sabalenka
Naomi vs Garbine
Both are final worthy.
Disappointed but not surprised.
Vondrousova got swatted aside like a fly in her Roland Garros final and hasn't done anything since, so I'm glad she's finally making some inroads. The last thing the women's tour needs is another player who reaches a slam final and is never heard from again.
The bottom half looks a hugely exciting contest, especially if Halep and Swiatek make it through today (Simona is about to serve for the match as I'm writing this). Top half feels like they might as well dispense with the charade of playing the remaining matches and just give Barty a pass to the final.
The bottom half looks a hugely exciting contest, especially if Halep and Swiatek make it through today (Simona is about to serve for the match as I'm writing this). Top half feels like they might as well dispense with the charade of playing the remaining matches and just give Barty a pass to the final.
A Halep - Swiatek rematch is all I wish for. Simona looked terrific today from what I could see.
Don't fuck up, Iga.
Don't fuck up, Iga.
Thiem didn't look up for this at all when he lost the second set. Against any other player I wouldn't have bet on him to come back...but when Nick started his child-denied-sweets routine the second anything didn't go his way, you could see the writing on the wall.
Great result too for Auger-Aliassime, who now has a golden opportunity to get to his first quarter-final.
Great result too for Auger-Aliassime, who now has a golden opportunity to get to his first quarter-final.
Scream at Novak actually about to pull this out of the bag. All credit to him, but you know Fritz will be cursing the crowd having to be evacuated and giving Djokovic 10 minutes of extra recovery.
Some interesting and not so interesting results on the top half of the women's draw. Muchova upsetting Pliskova from 0-5 in the second to take it in straights... that's quite the choke! Also to me Vekic moving past Kanepi kinda counts as an upset there. Bencic losing to Mertens was rather expected.
That being said we have all the fourth round matches now and this is the draw. Place your bets...
(1) Ash Barty - Shelby Rogers
(18) Elise Mertens - (25) Karolina Muchova
(28) Donna Vekic - (22) Jennifer Brady
Jessica Pegula - (5) Elina Svitolina
Su-Wei Hsieh - (19) Marketa Vondrousova
(14) Garbine Muguruza - (3) Naomi Osaka
(7) Aryna Sabalenka - (10) Serena Williams
(2) Simona Halep - (15) Iga Swiatek
That being said we have all the fourth round matches now and this is the draw. Place your bets...
(1) Ash Barty - Shelby Rogers
(18) Elise Mertens - (25) Karolina Muchova
(28) Donna Vekic - (22) Jennifer Brady
Jessica Pegula - (5) Elina Svitolina
Su-Wei Hsieh - (19) Marketa Vondrousova
(14) Garbine Muguruza - (3) Naomi Osaka
(7) Aryna Sabalenka - (10) Serena Williams
(2) Simona Halep - (15) Iga Swiatek
As @Trousers suggested earlier in the thread, it's looking a lot like Pliskova's moment has passed, and her on-court behaviour suggests that she's realising as much herself. Svitolina, meanwhile, may be facing one of the best opportunities she will ever have to make a semi-final (or better) here; then again you could have said the same in 2018. Let's not even mention what happened on the two occasions she did reach a major semi.
Some of those matches are very difficult to call, but I'll say Barty-Mertens, Brady-Svitolina, Vondrousova-Osaka and Williams-Swiatek for the quarters.
Some of those matches are very difficult to call, but I'll say Barty-Mertens, Brady-Svitolina, Vondrousova-Osaka and Williams-Swiatek for the quarters.
Barty - Mertens
Brady - Svitolina
Hsieh - Osaka
Williams - Halep
But yes, the second half of the draw is so strong any of those 8 players could reach the QFs and no one would blink an eye and say or think it's unwarranted. Really anything could happen there. Hsieh would have to peak to move past Marketa, having watched Marketa's third round match, she wasn't exactly kryptonite and Cirstea rather beat herself, Hsieh isn't the kind of player to self implode like that... rather the opposite, she gets the opponent to do so. And a Hsieh - Osaka QF has the potential to be legendary given their past encounter but then again Muguruza isn't exactly a scrub either and Naomi will have to work a lot for her place in the next round. Sabalenka - Williams and Halep - Swiatek are absolutely unpredictable. I have no idea how these matches will go. I chose Williams against Sabalenka based rather on their peaks and Halep because she is my fave ddd.
Svitolina does have a decent path to semis but Pegula will not bow out easily and then she could meet Brady in the quarterfinals, Brady has been long overdue a slam breakthrough so I don't see why she wouldn't finally have it here. Barty - Mertens is the easiest QF to predict on paper but Muchova could be tricky for Elise and a peaking Rogers could also get the job done against Ash.
Ugh this draw is exciting!
Edit: Brady did have her slam breakthrough at the US Open but alas, I forgot about it.
Brady - Svitolina
Hsieh - Osaka
Williams - Halep
But yes, the second half of the draw is so strong any of those 8 players could reach the QFs and no one would blink an eye and say or think it's unwarranted. Really anything could happen there. Hsieh would have to peak to move past Marketa, having watched Marketa's third round match, she wasn't exactly kryptonite and Cirstea rather beat herself, Hsieh isn't the kind of player to self implode like that... rather the opposite, she gets the opponent to do so. And a Hsieh - Osaka QF has the potential to be legendary given their past encounter but then again Muguruza isn't exactly a scrub either and Naomi will have to work a lot for her place in the next round. Sabalenka - Williams and Halep - Swiatek are absolutely unpredictable. I have no idea how these matches will go. I chose Williams against Sabalenka based rather on their peaks and Halep because she is my fave ddd.
Svitolina does have a decent path to semis but Pegula will not bow out easily and then she could meet Brady in the quarterfinals, Brady has been long overdue a slam breakthrough so I don't see why she wouldn't finally have it here. Barty - Mertens is the easiest QF to predict on paper but Muchova could be tricky for Elise and a peaking Rogers could also get the job done against Ash.
Ugh this draw is exciting!
Edit: Brady did have her slam breakthrough at the US Open but alas, I forgot about it.
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That set just sort of slipped away from Naomi, I think the lack of a crowd must make it hard to dial in properly. Some fantastic shots, but wayyyy too many errors from her. Garbine looks very consistent at the moment. The fact that this isn't the semis or even quarters just feels weird.
Naomi did so well to come from 2 match points down to win that match.
Garbine played so well - was superior when any rallies got going. Naomi just peaked at the right time at the end of match to pull it out of the bag. Didn't hit a single unforced error in the last 22 points.
Garbine played so well - was superior when any rallies got going. Naomi just peaked at the right time at the end of match to pull it out of the bag. Didn't hit a single unforced error in the last 22 points.