There was a match where a player played the ball between the post and the net. The net was set up like this. This was an ATP match in the 1980s. Can’t find either video of this or a news report. But I remember it was very controversial because the umpire called it good and shouldn’t have. The ball must travel “over or around the net AND supports” was the rule at the time.
Here’s a picture of the type of setup that allowed this to happen.
You definitely do not have to go over the net to score the point. You can go around the net as long as it goes back into the court. I hadn’t thought about singles vs doubles nets.
Here is Roger going around the net.
I may be checking out on women’s tennis. I think the loss of Serena and a few others may mark the point where I’m realizing I don’t know any of the players. I do know a few, but so few it is getting hard for me to follow.
I still know most of the competitive men, but I’ve lost what is happening with female tennis.
Semifinals are almost set.
For the women, it’s Iga Świątek (1, Poland) vs Beatriz Haddad Maia (14, Brazil), and Karolína Muchová (unseeded, Czech) vs Aryna Sabalenka (2, unflagged). Iga hasn’t lost a set this tournament. While she’s not a dominating player like the Williams were, she is an all-around great player. I expect her to win the championship. Aryna is a power-server, baseline player, but not strong enough to usually beat Iga.
For the men, there is Carlos Alcaraz (1, Spain) vs Novak Djokovic (3, Serbia). The winner of this match is expected to win the championship. Carlos is an athletic, position player–he will return your shot (even when you think you hit a winner) and put it where you can’t get. Novak is similar and probably more consistent. I’ll be cheering for Carlos, but either could win.
The other mens semi-final is Alexander Zverev (22, Germany) vs one of Holger Rune (6, Denmark) vs Casper Ruud (4, Norway) in the “Viking” quarter-final. Matches worth watching, but no one sees them beating the winner of the other semi-final.
It’s hard to keep up. I watch tennis often, but looking over the 20 players, I really only know 14 of the women, and 17 of the men.
Yeah, I may be losing my ability to keep up once the other big guys(Nadal and Djokovic) go. I do know many other men, but I feel like the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era is so terrific, my interest may wane unless other equal talent shows up.
I just watched the Alcaraz vs Djokovic semi-final. First two sets were incredible tennis. They split the sets and Djokovic took a bathroom break and changed shirts, while Alcaraz stayed on court. In the third set, that seemed to have made a difference. Alcaraz cramped up and never recovered. His conditioning and pre-game routine did not carry him through. Too bad, but that’s the way of tennis.
The semi-final of Muchova vs Sabalenka was great tennis. The first two sets went to tiebreak and were split. The third set went 7-5 in favor Muchova, the unseeded Czech! An exciting upset. But Świątek has not lost a set this tournament and has handed out four bagels (6-0). I’ll be shocked if she doesn’t win the championship.
Yes, the Novak-Carlos match was looking to be an epic battle after two sets. Instant Classic. Then the leg-Cramps Buzzkill.
Rooting for Novak to get #23 and the first man to win each of the Grand Slam events 3x apieace.
Both Tiger and Jack Nicklaus have won the 4 different golf majors 3x apiece.
A shot so good even Novak had to acknowledge it:
https://old.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/1456iz9/alcaraz_with_a_contender_for_shot_of_the_year/
Novak looks like he is going to win the French Open. I believe this means he has won each Grand Slam not once, not twice, but at least three times each.
Very nice post-match comments from both athletes, and I especially like that Novak spoke French first. I used to think Novak’s French was better than his English. I was wrong. Can’t wait for Wimbledon and the US Open!
I have been watching Wimbledon since it is included in ESPN+, which I get with Disney and Hulu.
Anyway, nothing hugely shocking so far, though a great match playing out now between Murray and Tsitipas. Tie break for the fourth set.
Does anyone know the difference between ESPN3 and ESPN+. I sometimes get the streams fine, sometimes it asks me to log-in with my cable provider, which I don’t have(I am internet only, which is what I thought ESPN+ was). Still, that ESPN3 does work most of the time…
I don’t get what all the differences are.
I haven’t had time to watch this Wimbledon so far. Oh, not quite, I did watch the first day of Taylor Fritz’s match. Great moment when for one service point he had four lets in a row, then a fault, and then got the point with an ace. Must’ve been frustrating for the opponent.
I’m not sure what the difference is. I’ve heard it’s worth trying the Spanish-language ESPN3 if the English-language one is blocked.
Anyone know why the Wimbledon scoreboards give the Serve speeds in miles per hour rather than Kilometers/hr?
I thought the UK was all metric.
They use miles for distance. It’s a bit of a mix over there.
The men’s final features exactly who everyone expected, the women’s final not so much.
It was a strange year for me tennis-wise - I might have been 11 the last time I didn’t follow the French Open and Wimbledon, and hoping it’s not because of any residual, subconcsious Really? No more Roger? thing going on. (I have to learn to “let it goooooo…!”)
And then to hear about this unseeded Czech women’s player winning the Wimbledon singles championship.
Quite confounded, though, how I’ve so completely gapped out on the game, yet also that this’ll be maybe my third time in as any decades that I’ll actually be out hitting the ball around. (Tomorrow! On grass!) (the surface, that is)
I’m not the slightest bit convinced with Tsitsipas. Alexander Zverev is another player I had hopes for a couple years back. Sure, they’re still young, but someone like Alcaraz is even younger, and showing way more dominant promise than the other two.
To his credit ND has often clapped his racket, definitely more so than most other players.
I’ve more or less lost women’s tennis at this point. The past 5 Wimbledon winners are:
Vondroušová
Ryabinka
Barty
Halep
Kerber
Now, I have sort of heard of some of them, but I don’t know what they look like and am not really following or cheering for any of them.
She really could’ve kept on going. (more so than Halep currently is) Apparently an elite cricketer, she just figured…actually I honestly don’t really know why she decided to stop playing professionally. She struck me as the quiet, keep-cards-close-to-the-vest type, inscrutable as all get-out, especially on court, almost too composed to a fault, with that funny, slightly upturned smirk/pout that she stoically had about 99.9999% of the time. Is she pissed? Is she happy? Is she…anything?
Does anyone ever recall a single outburst from her? (this doesn’t include championship-winning points)
I still just simply miss the horrific double-grunts of a shot-making Francesa Schiavone.