After all the talk about people retiring early on in the tournament, it’s a shame to have these two exit due to injury.
I know there have been a lot of complaints about the playing surface, but how much of it is real? And how much of it has been attributed to the injuries suffered in the tournament?
Federer must be thrilled. His chances just tripled or quadrupled.
Final 4: Querrey Berdych Federer Cilic.
Who’d have seen that one coming?
:eek:
All I can say is Goooooo Querrey!
What do odd-makers have it at, I wonder?
If Raonic had beat Federer, all the semi-finalists would have been 6’5" or taller.
Cilic and Querrey are listed at 6’6" and Berdych (and Raonic) are listed 6’5".
Hoping for a Querrey/Fed final.
And if Querrey wins that final, he deserves national attention. We haven’t had an American male tennis player do well in forever, now. Is Andy Roddick in 2003 the last US male grand slam winner? Not including the Bryan Brothers in doubles.
Shame for Djokovic and Murray, Clearly Murray was never fit right the way through the tournament and he’s probably over-achieved getting this far.
Can’t get too over excited about any of the other three whilst Roger is still in the mix. His game against Raonic was a thrashing of a very, very good player and he looks on top form. His decision to miss Roland Garros looks like a sensible one.
Of course we know he holds a load of records but one that caught my attention yesterday was that he has reached 42 semi finals in 14 years, an almost ridiculous average of 3 per year for the entirety of his title winning career. it equates to a stretch of over ten years of at least reaching the semis at every major.
That’s consistency.
Since his defeat to Nadal in 2008 Wimbledon Final, generally considered the end of him being the dominant player he has
Roger’s decline is a fucking Hall of Fame Career.
This is the furtherest any American male has gone in singles since Roddick in 2009.
To be specific: Boris Becker won 6 Grand Slams by making it to 10 Grand Slam finals, and Stefan Edberg won 6 Grand Slams by making it to 11 Grand Slam finals – and the two of them put together were World No #1 for less than 85 weeks.
(If he does manage to pull out a 7th Grand Slam win at a 12th Grand Slam final, figure the comparison would be to John McEnroe and Mats Wilander going 7-for-11.)
Odd Phenomena happening in the Women’s Tennis Rankings. Going into Wimbledon, Kerber, Halep, and Pliskova were #1, #2, #3 respectively.
Kerber lost in Round 4
Halep lost in Quarters
Pliskova lost in the 2nd Round
Despite being #3 and losing earlier than either Kerber or Halep, she will be #1 next week when the rankings are released. Halep will keep the #2 ranking and Kerber falls to #3.
Checking the figures, I think you got that wrong: after the '08 Wimbledon Final, he won the '08 US Open; he then made it back to the Wimbledon Finals in '09 and and '12 and '14 and '15 – and returned to the US Open Finals in '09 and '15 – and likewise made it to the Australian Open Finals in '09 and '10 and '17, and made it to the French Open Finals in '09 and '11; and so that’s 6 wins out of 12 Grand Slam Finals.
True.
And Venus is now in the final with Mugaruza. She’s a Cinderella story herself.
What a crazy fortnight of tennis.
Sam Querrey is out. Cilic to the final. .
Federer really battling it out right now.
What are the odds Federer wins this thing on Sunday?
Venus really got killed in the second set.
Given I was growing up when Sampras and Agassi dominated Men’s tennis (and there were other strong players such as Chang), I find the stats about the US decline astonishing. What is being done about it by the US tennis authorities? The LTA must have done something right over the last 20 years to get British tennis from where it was then to where it is now (alleged lack of support for Murray notwithstanding).
My thoughts, although I could very well be wrong:
To quote Fareed Zakaria, it’s not about the fall of America. It’s about the rise of the world. Training programs and athletic funding has improved around the world. We would have never had a guy from Serbia like Djokovic in 1990.
Bad luck?? We had Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, and Andy Murray. We now have Isner, Querrey, Donald Young(what a bomb he ended up being), and a few others. Is it just bad luck finding great players?
Foreign players are coming to the US to train? I don’t know if this is true, but I thought it was true for a player like Maria Sharapova.
How are the women doing? Outside the Williams, what top female talent does the US have now?
In fairness, the Bryan Brothers have set an insane amount of records.
(Incidentally, you meant Andy Roddick there, right?)
Yes. :smack: