Tennis!

[Szumi]

Predictably, but sadly, Andy Murray lost this morning. 4 sets at least, to 24 seed Batista Agut. Cam Norrie and my boy Tiafoe also went out. 

Top half of the men's bracket looks wide open, but I think the Tsitsipas/Sinner winner could easily make the final. Novak will have either Rune or Rublev in the QF, which seems his only test to the Finals.

 

Swiatek is still the favorite in the women's side, but her half of the bracket is still stacked. Ostapenko/Gauff in the QF; Pegula, Krejcikova, or even Azarenko in the SF. Sabalenko or Garcia in the Finals in the bottom half seems likely 

[Bobfoc]

Swiatek and Gauff are both out.

[Bobfoc]

Sabalenka/Rybakina and Djokovic/Tsitsipas will contest the two singles finals.

[Bobfoc]

10 Australian Opens and 22 Grand Slams. Sadly, Djokovic is a brilliant player.

[Lineker]

Russian and Belarussian athletes will be allowed to compete at Wimbledon as neutral competitors this summer, it has just been announced.

[Lineker]

Emma Raducanu is to miss Wimbledon after hand and ankle surgery. What a terrible year she's had.

[Bobfoc]

I hope that surgery can help her in the long term. I'm getting bad memories of Laura Robson's career, which was derailed by wrist injuries.

[FLiam]

Apparently Saudi Arabia could be purchasing the ATP Tour.

[Bobfoc]

Wimbledon starts tomorrow. Djokovic could equal both Federer's record of eight singles titles and the record of five consecutive men's titles, jointly held by Borg and Federer. In the women's singles, Swiatek is probably the one to beat, although Sabalenka and Rybakina are big contenders too.

This year marks several anniversaries too. It's been ten years since Murray won his first title, twenty since Federer won his first title and thirty since Sampras won his first title.

[Szumi]

Yeah I'm excited to have this on as much as possible during work. I don't see how anyone beats Novak here. He's just such a big game player, and there's no other top player that really excels on grass enough. Alcarez just isn't experienced enough on grass to beat him. The women's side is again the fun unpredictable one for me. Swiatek isn't a great grass player and is coming in off food poisoning. Sabalenka has been inconsistent, Rybakina may not be 100% after struggling with a virus since Roland Garros, and Jabeur hasn't been great since her injury earlier.

 

Definitely going with Novak and Sabalenka as a betting man though.

[The Lusophone]

Venus Williams going out on her shield at Wimbledon right now. Just been completely outclassed. Injury doesn't help but it's hard not to think that the result wouldn't be any different otherwise.

[Bobfoc]

Gauff is out in the first round. Facing Kenin was a nasty draw, though.

[The Lusophone]

Liam Broady just knocked out the fourth seed Casper Ruud, winning the fifth set 6-0. Phenomenal final set from Broady.

[Bobfoc]

Ruud really doesn't like grass courts, but it's still a massive win for Broady. It's the second year in a row he's reached the third round, but, crucially, he will get ranking points this time round.

We sometimes see British players get impressive wins at Wimbledon, but then they seem to do nothing of note for the rest of the season. It's a bit of concern because some of them probably have the ability to work their way up the rankings a little bit.

[FLiam]

That session ending came at a bad time for Murray. He looked to really hurt his groin/hip shortly before the umpire called time.

You could see he wasn’t moving at 100% but I think he could have played through it, whereas I wonder how much he’ll be hurting by the time they resume play tomorrow. 

[Bobfoc]

Hearing him scream as he fell was very worrying. For a moment, I thought he'd done serious damage to his artificial hip, which would surely have meant an end to his career. I suppose we'll see how he gets on later today, but at least he was able to walk off court by himself.

[Baddar]

Many of you been following along? I've dropped in to as much of it as I can. I was going to have a few quid on Jabeur at the start of the tournament as she wasn't badly priced, but watched her lose out in the final again yesterday.

Really hope Alcaraz wins today. Can't stand Djokovic. Think Djok will win in 4 though.

[gunnar hendershow]

I've been following but as with every Grand Slam that isn't the US Open, the matches are at such an inconvenient time for me to do more than follow the scores.

I thought it would finally be Jabeur's time, but Vondrousova is finally healthy so good for her. Felt like I hadn't heard her name since before the pandemic.

I agree about Djokovic in 4 today. Suspect Alcaraz takes set 1 and then Djokovic goes to do what he usually does and cements himself as the greatest men's player ever.

[Baddar]

Last centre court loss for Djokovic was back in 2013 when Andy Murray won his first Slam. Going to take something very special from Alcaraz today.

[gunnar hendershow]

1 hour ago, damhausen said:

I agree about Djokovic in 4 today. Suspect Alcaraz takes set 1 and then Djokovic goes to do what he usually does and cements himself as the greatest men's player ever.

I meant to say suspect Alcaraz takes one game all match...