ATP/WTA 2?: Unchained Meldonium

[misplaced validity]

Well this Aussie Open has been interesting, especially on the women's side. The top half is wide damn open. It's funny how Rybakina and Ostapenko won warm-up events and are out, and Swiatek went undefeated at United Cup and is out.

Djokovic looked shaky early, but the guys didn't capitalize and he was better in his third match blah. The potential SF between him and Sinner could be a classic, though.

[misplaced validity]

Rublev is now 0-10 in major QFs, kind of wild.

I hope Sinner can hold it together and knock off Novaxx.

[venom1976]

Yes please.

[misplaced validity]

It's great to see Qinwen Zheng make her first major final.

I know Iga Swiatek won the WTA Championships, but it's wild to me that if Aryna Sabalenka defends her title she will still be 800 points behind Swiatek in the rankings. Sabalenka will have 1 major, 1 final, and 2 semis in her past year, while Swiatek will have 1 win, 0 finals, and 0 SFs.

[NUguy514]

[venom1976]

Haha. I figure ciski might be the happiest of all?

[misplaced validity]

Medvedev has played two 5-set matches in a row, and he had two 4-set matches in this tournament as well. I can't imagine he has a lot left in the tank, so barring a true choke job by Sinner I think Sinner is likely to win in no more than 4 sets.

[misplaced validity]

The final took longer than I thought as Sinner came out tight, but he did it. Sinner won 2 titles in October of last year, went 4-1 in the ATP Finals, went undefeated in Davis Cup I believe, and now went 7-0 at the AO. He's now the player that guys are gonna have to figure out how to beat (at least on hard court).

When the ESPN graphic showed that only 3 Italian men have reached the final of a major and they showed Berretini, I realized I forgot he existed. Yikes. I looked and he had to withdraw with yet another injury. He's really been cursed with injuries and that time he got Covid right after winning the 2 warmup events for Wimbledon.

Medvedev is now 1-5 in major finals. Tbh he really only won the one because Novaxx was so tight about winning the calendar Slam.

Darren Cahill coached Simona Halep to her first major and Sinner to his first major. He coached Lleyton Hewitt as well, I think when he won 1 if not both of his majors. He also coached Agassi for awhile, though I don't remember when in his career. He has to be a GOAT coach.

[Dr.ciski77]

(01-27-2024 10:00 AM)venom1976 Wrote:  Haha. I figure ciski might be the happiest of all?

This hadn't happened in my lifetime (on the men's tour, that is) so it's definitely special. Also to be clear I'm a dual US/Italian citizen but I wasn't yet the last time a US player won a Slam on the men's tour so yeah, I had not experienced something like this ever. Hope Sinner keeps it going and I hope Shelton gets there, too!

[misplaced validity]

Kim Clijsters was on Andy Roddick's podcast this week, and they talked about drug testing in tennis. It was very interesting to me when Kim told a story about how she'd just peed and then people showed up at her front door to test her, and she had to just wait there in her home until she had to pee again so she could take a pee test. She said they just sit there, and she can't do anything and they can't accept anything from her (coffee, etc) so she just had to sit there awkwardly with them until she could pee again. Tennis really is very stringent with testing.

She also mentioned a WTA player who recently tested positive and had to prove that meat she had in South America has larger levels of a certain hormone.