OT: Australian Open

[wire chief]

From 1/14-1/28, coverage among espn, espn2 and tennis channel

The women:
It is reported yesterday that Serena, last year's champ, will not compete. She's healthy but not in championship form, so she will hold off on her return to the WTA.
Simona Halep, though never a Major winner, comes in at #1.
Following are Garbine Muguruza, Caroline Wozniacki and Katerina Pliskova.

Venus, at 37 1/2, is #5, on the strength of an extraordinary year, with the finals at the Aussie, Wimbledon, and the WTA championships, as well as the semis in Flushing Meadows. No one has been more consistent than our old lady.
The other prominent Americans are Coco Vandeweghe #10, Sloane Stephens #13 and Madison Keys at #19.

Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka are wild cards, who could very well play havoc with top seeds.

The match-ups are yet to come.

I'll do the men at another time.

 

[Hope]

I was buying new tires and found this magazine in the waiting room. (December 2017) Venus looks like a corporate lawyer.

 

[wire chief]

About the men...
Rafa and Roger are the 0ne-two punch. Roger seems healthy; Rafa has a worrisome knee.
Then come the young guns, Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem, the later strong on clay but not so much on hard courts.
Marin Cilic and Stan Warwrinka are in the top ten and have Major wins.

Our countrymen Jack Sock is #8, Sam Querry #13, John Isner at #17

The German Tommy Haas has that Venus-like I-love-the-game chutzpah and he's even older.
But where Venus is given a shot, Tommy is ranked #248 in the world.

Novak, with an elbow-caused short 2017, comes in at #12.
Andy Murray is the only "questionable" among the heavies, for coping with hip and groin problems.
Kei Nishakori has no questions; he's definitely a scratch.

 

[bags27]

Thanks, wire chief: can always count on you to get us ready.

Sad to say that with the injuries and aging, grand slam tennis right now is a bit dreary. Biggest interest is seeing if Roger can squeak out a couple more wins or whether Rafa can be pieced back together enough times to finally pass him. Two old sluggers, punching each other until one falls down (except that they are also collecting 7 figure checks will doing it).

 

[VAUConnFan]

It is incredible how tennis players are rated. Vandeweghe is nine slots higher than Keys, yet has not beaten Keys and was thoroughly routed at the US Open. Obviously, head to head is not the only factor, but how is anyone to believe that Vandeweghe is deserving of the higher rating?

Venus is the sentimental favorite, Sloane Stephens my favorite throughout in the absence of Serena. It will be all but impossible to see a match as thrilling as the third set of the US Open between Venus and Sloane. That match turned on one point with the score tied at 30 when Sloane hit that backhand winner down the line with Venus at the net up 5-4 in that third set. it was Sloane from then on. And she totally destroyed Madison Keys in the final. It will be interesting to see how Keys rebounds from that whupping.

 

[DALTX]

It is a ranking, not a rating. Players earn ranking points by wins on a rolling one year cycle. Opponents played does not matter.

 

[huskyrob1]

From 1/14-1/28, coverage among espn, espn2 and tennis channel

The women:
It is reported yesterday that Serena, last year's champ, will not compete. She's healthy but not in championship form, so she will hold off on her return to the WTA.
Simona Halep, though never a Major winner, comes in at #1.
Following are Garbine Muguruza, Caroline Wozniacki and Katerina Pliskova.

Venus, at 37 1/2, is #5, on the strength of an extraordinary year, with the finals at the Aussie, Wimbledon, and the WTA championships, as well as the semis in Flushing Meadows. No one has been more consistent than our old lady.
The other prominent Americans are Coco Vandeweghe #10, Sloane Stephens #13 and Madison Keys at #19.

Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka are wild cards, who could very well play havoc with top seeds.

The match-ups are yet to come.

I'll do the men at another time.

Looking forward to it. Thanks

 

[wire chief]

Andy Murray has elected to undergo surgery, so is a scratch. Victoria Azaranka, because of current child custody dispute, is also withdrawing.

 

[wire chief]

Here's the 1st round match-ups. At top of page it read's "Men". Click on it to change to women.

Draws | Australian Open 2018

I'm nervous about Venus' foe Belinda Bencic. The Swiss was off the tour for 6 months, so her ranking plummeted. However she is
a strong player who recovered her form in the latter 2017 contests. Damn.

 

[wire chief]

Note that the Open is 16 hours ahead of us. TV schedule starts at 7 pm Sunday EST on ESPN2.
Then 3 am Monday. Tennis Channel picks up at 7am.

And here are a bunch of lead-up articles from ESPN.

Tennis News, Videos, Players, and Results - ATP, WTA, US Open, Grand Slam - ESPN

 

[Checkmate]

Sloane Stephens out in the first round

 

[calpedaler]

Williams and Townsend out. Vandeweghe and Bellis on the ropes. 8 American women out on day 1.

 

[DaddyChoc]

welp no reason to watch the Aussie 2018 now

 

[eebmg]

welp no reason to watch the Aussie 2018 now

Agreed. I can get more sleep.

 

[wire chief]

I will be your point guard for the Majors. However, like some of you who just posted, the air goes out of me whenever Venus loses. Coach knows this and has benched me (at least until the second week). So it's now up to you to give assists to one another.

 

[wire chief]

As Americans fall into extinction, there is on member of the species still foraging; Madison Keys has eliminated 3 opponents in straight sets. You can see her in the round of 16 at 3 am.

 

[Hope]

welp no reason to watch the Aussie 2018 now

Darn, Rafa is almost bald, I follow Camila Giorgi, but Caroline looks pretty good.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Caroline is nice (gotta google Giorgi)

 

[DaddyChoc]

Google gets straight to the point smh

 

[eebmg]

Big upset on the mens side. Last American Tennys Sandgren (#98) in the world takes out 5th seed Thiem in 5 brilliant sets to get to the quarters. He never had a match in a major and only 2 ATF wins prior. Down side. He is a "Honky Tonk" 2 years at UTenn. I guess we can overlook that.

 

[wire chief]

As eeb writes, the coming out of nowhere Tennys plays at 9pm our time.
Also tonight is Madison vs. Angelique Kerber, lower ranked but a favorite, given her recent strong results and the experience of a multi- slam winner.
As I write, the Woz is leading Carla Suarez Navarro in the 1st set.
Novak and Rafa are gone. Elbow and hip problems respectively.

 

[eebmg]

As eeb writes, the coming out of nowhere Tennys plays at 9pm our time.
Also tonight is Madison vs. Angelique Kerber, lower ranked but a favorite, given her recent strong results and the experience of a multi- slam winner.
As I write, the Woz is leading Carla Suarez Navarro in the 1st set.
Novak and Rafa are gone. Elbow and hip problems respectively.

Thanks for keeping the BY up to date. I was watching both mens matches. I do not think the Novak injury really affected the decision much. His opponent Cheung won by outplaying Novak in the biggest points taking 2 tie breakers. His story is also cool being the first Korean to reach this level in a Grand Slam. Looking forward to the Tennys - Cheung match. The Rafa / Cilic match was far different. Major hip problem in 4th set when he led 2 sets to 1 although I think Cilic was playing better than rafa before the injury. What really got my attention was the effort by Rafa to continue the match. He lost the 4th set basically on one leg and went 0-2 in the 5th set before retiring.
Many would view this as courageous but I think it was stupid to continue playing under these conditions. When you can't compete at anything near full capacity and risk further injury, you should retire. I do not think the fans really want to see a player in that condition playing. They would understand. Be smart.

 

[wire chief]

Eeb. the mentality of an ironman or woman in a Major needs to be full steam ahead and deal with the aftermath after.
There's no replacement as would be when Gabby descends from a monster leap and gets hip pain.

 

[eebmg]

Eeb. the mentality of an ironman or woman in a Major needs to be full steam ahead and deal with the aftermath after.
There's no replacement as would be when Gabby descends from a monster leap and gets hip pain.

If you are physically not able to play at a competitive level, there is no reason to continue. Yes, you are an adult and can consider consequences later but
from the fan's perspective, it is brutal to watch. I turned off the Nadal match.

 

[wire chief]

So the Woz came through, albeit in 3 sets. Both she and Halep have spent a lot of time at #1 without winning a Major.
After fading for awhile, the Woz has been very strong lately, especially in winning the year-end championship.
While not a major, it is the next best thing in a non Olympics year, when you figure you must bear at least 4 of the 5 players
in the top 8 in the world.
What do you fans think? Can she finally break through?