Originally Posted by alpha_omega:
Bump for '21...strange having the start after the Super Bowl.
Enjoy the tennis!
I needed it after last night's game.
Expecting Djokovic/Thiem and Medvedev/Nadal SFs. Still amazing that Djokovic/Nadal are still at this level this late in their careers. Both will have a legit GOAT case in the end. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
I needed it after last night's game.
Expecting Djokovic/Thiem and Medvedev/Nadal SFs. Still amazing that Djokovic/Nadal are still at this level this late in their careers. Both will have a legit GOAT case in the end.
Same here...i'm ready to move away from football for a while and AO is the perfect distraction.
Originally Posted by alpha_omega:
Same here...i'm ready to move away from football for a while and AO is the perfect distraction.
Agreed on your point about Dj and Rafa.
No. Fed is tied with them both. No matter what happens. Personally I think he will always be a tic above either. But at worst Fed is their equal. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Prison Bitch:
No. Fed is tied with them both. No matter what happens. Personally I think he will always be a tic above either. But at worst Fed is their equal.
Why though? Federer racked up most of his slams in an easier era when Nadal and Djokovic either weren’t around or at their peaks. Nadal and Djokovic had to do it against each other and against age 26-36 Federer, clearly much tougher competition than Roddick, Hewitt, Safin, Nalbandian, etc.
If both of them pass Federer in slams (which Nadal is a virtual certainty to do considering he’s already tied), they have legit claims at it. [Reply]
On Monday, there were no signs of the back injury that had caused Nadal discomfort in his third-round win over Cameron Norrie.
The Spaniard was largely untroubled by his opponent on Monday, either, as he cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 6-2 win, which also marked his 43rd trip to a Grand Slam quarterfinal.
The last time Rafael Nadal and Fabio Fognini was in the Round of 32 at the US Open 2015. There, the Italian lost the first two sets 3-6, 4-6, but went on to win the match in five sets. The first two sets today: 6-3, 6-4 Nadal. #AusOpen
The win came on a day when competitive matches were not in the cards for the men's singles.
Daniil Medvedev needed just 89 minutes to defeat Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 and earn his passage to the last eight.
Meanwhile, Rublev was leading 6-2, 7-6(3) when his opponent, Casper Ruud, was forced to retire with an abdominal injury, while Stefanos Tsitsipas progressed to the quarterfinals after Matteo Berrettini withdrew due to a similar ailment.
Rublev's win was notable as it continued the Russian's run as the only player to make the quarterfinals of every tournament during the coronavirus pandemic, per Jose Morgado of Record.
Furthermore, the presence of Rublev, Medvedev and Aslan Karatsev in the next round marks the first time three Russians have competed in the quarterfinals of the same Grand Slam, per the official ATP Tour website.
Rublev and Medvedev will do battle in the next round, while Nadal and Tsitsipas go head-to-head as they look to cash their ticket to the semifinals.
Nadal remains one of the favorites to win the tournament, particularly with Novak Djokovic being hampered by an oblique muscle injury.
Women's Scores
Jessica Pegula def. No. 5 Elina Svitolina, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
No. 22 Jennifer Brady def. No. 28 Donna Vekic, 6-1, 7-5
Unseeded American Jessica Pegula continued her shock run at the Australian Open Monday, when she upset world No. 5 Elina Svitolina in three sets.
Jessie Pegula with the “Go Sabres” + “Go Bills” after her second round victory at the Australian Open is as Buffalo as it gets pic.twitter.com/fPa1HJOwwi
The 26-year-old, who is the daughter of Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula, stunned the Ukrainian with her 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win, which set up a quarterfinal match with fellow American, Jennifer Brady.
Monday's match against Donna Vekic marked the first time the 2020 U.S. Open semifinalist had surrendered more than three games in a set during the tournament, but the 25-year-old still won in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5.
Ashleigh Barty continued her steady march toward a home Grand Slam triumph with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Shelby Rogers.
The No. 1 seed has yet to drop a set in this year's tournament, and she faces No. 25 seed Karolina Muchova, who defeated Elise Mertens 7-6(5), 7-5 in the fourth round.
Barty's side of the draw looks favorable to her progress, as Simona Halep, Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka are on the other side of the bracket.
Australian Open 2021: Rafael Nadal upset by Stefanos Tsitsipas in quarterfinals
Rafael Nadal is nearly as automatic as they come when holding a significant lead, but that wasn't the case in Wednesday's Australian Open quarterfinals. Despite having a two-set lead, Nadal was upset by No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas in a five-set affair that ended 3-6, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, 7-5. It is just the second time in 225 major matches that Nadal lost when holding a two-set lead.
Fabio Fognini overcame a two-set deficit to defeat Nadal at the U.S. Open back in 2015. Tsitsipas ended up winning the final three sets of the match to advance to the semifinals where he'll face Daniil Medvedev on Friday.
"I have no words to describe what has just happened on the court, my tennis speaks for itself," Tsitsipas said after the match. "It's an unbelievable feeling to fight at such a high level and leave it out on the court. I started very nervously. I don't know what happened after the third set. I flew like a bird and everything worked for me."
In the process, Nadal missed out on a chance at history. The Spaniard had a chance to win his 21st Grand Slam tournament, which would've broken the tie between Roger Federer and himself for the most ever.
Prior to Wednesday, Nadal hadn't lost a set throughout his road to the quarterfinals in Melbourne. That all changed in the third set when Tsitsipas really found his groove. In the fourth set, Tsitsipas continued to find his composure and forced Nadal to defend several break points.
Tsitsipas will now face Medvedev in the semifinals while Novak Djokovic will take on Asian Karatsev in the other semifinal matchup.
Please, please can we see Nadal get some Andy Murray type of debilitating injury. Such injustice if this roid freak gets the record. 34 and he's still a RPM, baseline tennis monster. Meanwhile, Federer has played his old man style for nearly a decade - with plenty of lapses you just don't see with Nadal - and Djokovic keeps his weight at 115 pounds to maintain his movement. [Reply]
What next for Serena Williams after her tearful Australian Open exit?
A few hours after Serena Williams walked out of Rod Laver Arena, beaten in the late stages of a grand slam tournament once more, the Eurosport team had converged in front of the cameras to discuss the day’s play. There stood Barbara Schett, last active 15 years ago, who played against Williams three times, and via video link, Williams’s former rival Justine Henin, who retired in Melbourne 10 years ago. Henin is a year younger than Williams, now a mother of two, and when she was asked if she saw herself competing like Williams again, her response was simple: “No way, no chance.”
While Williams competes against players such as Naomi Osaka, it is easy to forget that her real contemporaries are women such as Schett and Henin. They are almost all long retired, living full lives, enjoying the fruits of their on-court labour in peace. Meanwhile, Williams has just competed in her 77th grand slam tournament, which puts her second on the all-time list to her sister, Venus, who played in her 88th last week.
Such longevity is clearly no consolation for Williams. The last image of her at the tournament was of her abruptly leaving her press conference in tears. There are already discussions of her future, about the precise meaning of her wave as she left the court, but she is allowed, also, just to be frustrated at how things continue to pan out. Since returning from pregnancy she has constantly put herself in a position to win. When her performances in four grand slam finals were not enough, she went away and worked harder.
Over the past month in Australia Williams has been moving better than at any point in the past four years. While opponents such as Simona Halep immediately pointed out the difference between then and now, she was also clearly happy and hopeful about her progress. Asked before her semi-final when she last moved as well as she is, she responded: “It’s definitely been a minute. It’s been a long minute,” she said. “I think 19 ... 1926, the summer of 1926 I think was the last time I felt that.”
Yet none of it worked. Williams’s biggest problem isn’t her game, but how she has come to lose the killer instinct that defined her for so long. Consider some of her feats on Rod Laver Arena alone: in 2003, she recovered from 2-5 down against Kim Clijsters to win her Serena Slam. In the 2005 semi-final she saved three match points in the semi-final to beat Maria Sharapova. Two years later she won the whole thing while ranked 81st. In 2017 she was pregnant and easily fatigued, so she conserved energy by beating everyone in straight sets.
By 2015 Williams’s record in grand slam finals was 21-4. She was the great closer. Her ability to excel in the toughest moments was so common that it was easy for people to forget how difficult just winning even one title is. Now we know. Since Williams fell to Roberta Vinci at the 2015 US Open as she chased the grand slam, her major final record is 2-6, and she has lost in more semi-finals (4) since then than in the rest of her career.
She has reached the part of her career where experience can be detrimental. She knows too much: she understands exactly what it means to win a grand slam title, that this will all soon be over and that every failure is a wasted opportunity. Winning is so difficult under these circumstances.
Meanwhile, Osaka represents some of the freedom and fortitude that she has lost. First she refused to make a single unforced error in the final 22 points of her fourth-round comeback to Garbiñe Muguruza from a 3-5 15-40 deficit, then she responded to losing serve with three double faults for 6-3 4-4 against Williams by winning the final eight points and the match. Now she is chasing a 4-0 record in grand slam finals.
It remains to be seen if Williams will be able to play freely enough to even contend for her 24th grand slam title. Whether or not she does, instead of a failure, this period is rather context for what it really took to achieve all that she has.
