Wimbledon 2021

[+ E.T.Bass]

They are into the Round of 16 at Wimbledon.  Who is your favorite?

Zverev?

Djokovic?

Federer?

How about Shapovalov?   

 

I watched him beat Andy Murray yesterday in straight sets.  He looks impressive.  

Still young.  Maybe destined to become a fan favorite.    😍

 

[+ Charlie]

I don't think Shapovalov is ready yet for a Wimbledon title, or even a semi-final, although I enjoy watching him. I would like to see Federer win one more time, but he has been lucky to get this far, and I don't think he will go much farther, unless something surprising up-ends Djokovic. Medvedev impressed me with the way he turned around his match with Cilic, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the final, where I expect his opponent will be Djokovic, who I believe will join Federer and Nadal in the 20-slam club. My dark horse candidate for the final is Berretini.

[+ WilliamM]

2 hours ago, Charlie said:

I don't think Shapovalov is ready yet for a Wimbledon title, or even a semi-final, although I enjoy watching him. I would like to see Federer win one more time, but he has been lucky to get this far, and I don't think he will go much farther, unless something surprising up-ends Djokovic. Medvedev impressed me with the way he turned around his match with Cilic, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the final, where I expect his opponent will be Djokovic, who I believe will join Federer and Nadal in the 20-slam club. My dark horse candidate for the final is Berretini.

Hasn't Federer approaching age 40 won evough Wimbledon titles?  Yes, he almost won two years ago. Perhaps time for younger player to step forward. Hahaha, I am repeating something I have been saying for years.

 

 

[BSR]

On men's tennis forum, the Roger & Rafa fans are going berserk over Novak's easy draw. Even as a die-hard Novak fan, gotta admit, this draw almost looks like Novak hand-picked his opponents.  Since the 4 most dangerous players for Novak (Berretini, Zverev, Federer, Medvedev) all landed in the other half of the draw, Novak will have to face only one of them in the final to win the title.  In the more mathematically likely scenario where 2 of those 4 ended up in Novak's half, he would have had to beat 3 of the 4 to win the title.

I'm afraid that Novak's draw might actually be too easy because a player needs some challenges before the final to get match-sharp.  Shapovalov looks like he's improved a lot under coach Youzhny's guidance, but I don't know if he's mentally strong enough to handle the pressure of the projected semifinal against Novak.  None of the other players in Novak's half (Garín, Fucsovics, Rublev, Khachanov, Korda, Bautista-Agut) pose much of a threat.

I think something kinda crazy has to happen for anyone other than Novak to win the title next Sunday.  Who makes the final from the other half?  The romantic pick is Federer, of course.  As much as Fed has improved over his first 3 matches, he's not the player he was 2 years ago, when he outplayed Novak for 5 sets yet still somehow lost.  I don't think the 2 supertall Russians Medvedev & Zverev (yes, I know Zverev was born & raised in Germany, but his family is Russian & he grew up speaking Russian at home) have quite mastered grass enough to challenge Novak.  Novak's biggest threat, imho, is Berrettini because his serve is such a monster weapon, but serve alone won't be enough to beat Novak.

[mike carey]

Kyrgios started out well, having missed so much tennis over the pandemic. He was always a love-him-or-hate-him guy in this country and he's moving very much in a positive direction. He is clearly enjoying himself, and was having a lot of fun in the mixed doubles with Venus Williams.

My favourite moment of the Championship so far was not tennis related, but was on the first day when they announced the lead of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine development effort and her team were in the Royal Box and they received a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd. She looked decidedly non-plussed.

But the thought I have tonight is whether to dare to hope that it could be the Barty Party on Saturday. She seems to be growing as the Championship progresses and tonight's performance against the French Open champion, Barbora Krajcikova, was determined, despite being broken in the third game.

[mike carey]

I was unimpressed by his couple of sets against Kyrgios, but he stepped up tonight, Félix Auger-Aliassime beating Zverev. The Togolese-Canadian from Montréal.

Les deux jeunes Canadiens ont bien fait aujourd'hui.

[+ Charlie]

I was surprised by Felix today--his history of crumbling has caused me to usually bet against him at crunchtime. But I still don't see him getting to the final, much less winning. I'm still keeping my eye on Berretini (who is very easy on the eyes, anyway).

[+ E.T.Bass]

On 7/4/2021 at 4:42 PM, Charlie said:

I don't think Shapovalov is ready yet for a Wimbledon title, or even a semi-final, although I enjoy watching him. I would like to see Federer win one more time, but he has been lucky to get this far, and I don't think he will go much farther, unless something surprising up-ends Djokovic. Medvedev impressed me with the way he turned around his match with Cilic, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the final, where I expect his opponent will be Djokovic, who I believe will join Federer and Nadal in the 20-slam club. My dark horse candidate for the final is Berretini.

I can't find any video of Shapovalov's straight sets win today.  It wasn't on the tennis feed here. 

I did watch the Kochanov 5-set match win against Korda today.  Kochanov will play Shapovalov in the quarter finals.  Looking forward to some great grass court tennis between those two, plus they are both easy on the eyes, IMO.

Federer is through to the quarters also.

 

 

[+ WilliamM]

Enjoyed the match between the Russian and the Canadian. Very interesting.

[BSR]

A very interesting foursome of semifinalists: Novak is playing his umpteenth Grand Slam semi (too lazy to look it up - 41st?), Berrettini in his 2nd, and Hurkacz & Shapovalov in their 1st ever.  I haven't watched the DVRs of the matches yet, but I'm a bit stunned by the bagel in the 3rd set between Hurkacz & Roger.

[+ E.T.Bass]

This link should bring up the highlights of the Shapovalov match.

 

 

 

Berrettini is also in the semi's.

 

 

 

[+ Charlie]

The only one of these semi-finalists I would have predicted before the tournament started is Djokovic. It would be a hoot if Hurkacz managed to defeat both Federer and Djokovic in the same Wimbledon. 

[+ E.T.Bass]

Federer won the French Open and then won Wimbledon in the same year, 2009.  Nadal has also won both the same year.   It is a rare thing to do.

This year may be Djokovic's chance.

 

 

But....................I will be rooting for Shapovalov tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2021 by E.T.Bass
sp.

[+ Charlie]

Did I not tell you last Sunday that my dark horse pick for the final was Matteo Berrettini?!

[mike carey]

2 hours ago, Charlie said:

Did I not tell you last Sunday that my dark horse pick for the final was Matteo Berrettini?!

I wasn't paying attention, but if so your prediction was prescient given tonight's play. The Canadian is doing well, even if two sets down right now.

[+ WilliamM]

Wish I had been there to shake hands with Matteo. Will try at the US Open though!  

[+ E.T.Bass]

Early on Shapovalov twice hit shots out that should have been open court winners.  And his ball toss.  The announcers thought it was nerves.  Disappointing to watch.  

The final will be interesting.

All of Italy will be watching I expect.

[sydneyboy]

Australian Ash Barty has won the the women's singles. Congratulations Ash!

 

[+ WilliamM]

7 hours ago, E.T.Bass said:

Early on Shapovalov twice hit shots out that should have been open court winners.  And his ball toss.  The announcers thought it was nerves.  Disappointing to watch.  

The final will be interesting.

All of Italy will be watching I expect.

Matteo for the win

[sydneyboy]

10 hours ago, sydneyboy said:

Australian Ash Barty has won the the women's singles. Congratulations Ash!

 

She is the major talking point in Australia (apart from the wretched COVID). A pleasant distraction. The first Australian in 41 years to win the women’s singles.

[CatDaddy]

Wimbledon is delivering this morning! The crowd is enjoying the match as well. I'm loving Berrettini's serve.

Edited July 11, 2021 by CatDaddy

[+ Charlie]

Damn! I should have put some money down a week ago when I predicted that the final would be Djokovic over Berrettini.

[+ WilliamM]

I am loving Matteo"s ass.

[BSR]

On 7/10/2021 at 8:51 AM, E.T.Bass said:

Early on Shapovalov twice hit shots out that should have been open court winners.  And his ball toss.  The announcers thought it was nerves.  Disappointing to watch.  

The final will be interesting.

All of Italy will be watching I expect.

Shapovalov played far better than Novak for 90% of the match, but unfortunately played like **** in the most important points.  Although Denis's physical game is top-notch, his mentality is Challenger-level.  Novak wasn't playing great, but he didn't have to because Shapo totally gave away the match.

[BSR]

On 7/11/2021 at 9:36 AM, Charlie said:

Damn! I should have put some money down a week ago when I predicted that the final would be Djokovic over Berrettini.

On the subject of betting, the odds for some of Novak's matches were a bit nutty.  For example, against Kevin Anderson in R2, Novak was at -7000.  That means in order to win $100, you would have to bet $7000!  What I hear around Las Vegas is the cardinal rule of sports betting is never risk a lot to win a little, yet apparently Europeans do it all the time.

Against Berrettini in the final, Novak was just -450 (to win $100 you have to bet $450), which actually aren't bad odds because I was so sure that Novak would win.  Still, I'm glad I didn't make the bet because I would have had a heart attack after the first set.

I didn't pick Berrettini as early as you did, but once Zverev & Medvedev lost, I expected Matteo to make the final.  Roger didn't have nearly enough matches under his belt to make the final (a bagel against Hurkacz, first time Roger's ever been bageled at Wimbledon!).

Edited July 13, 2021 by BSR