2015 Tennis Thread

[dash_pinched]

Joker takes Paris and makes history becoming the first to win six ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in a single season.

[Mango]

A rebuttal from the USTA on Genie's lawsuit:

The USTA dismissed Bouchard’s claims of lost earnings resulting from her fall as “entirely speculative and uncertain.” The USTA’s response said Bouchard refused offers of medical attention on the night of her fall, and cited her recent social media activity as inconsistent with her claims of continuing impairment from the fall.

The USTA denied that it had a duty to provide any warning to Bouchard and said that she “knowingly and voluntarily assumed all risks of injury inherent in and associated with the actions involved.”

http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/...ry-at-u-s-open

The fallout (no pun intend) will be interesting.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I hope Genie looks forward to getting awful draws and being put on the outer courts from now on at the US Open.

Also Roger ends Novak's winning streak at 23 straight matches at the World Finals.

[polak]

Woo Roger!

[adc]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I hope Genie looks forward to getting awful draws and being put on the outer courts from now on at the US Open.

Also Roger ends Novak's winning streak at 23 straight matches at the World Finals.

At this point in her career she should be happy if she qualifies for those horrible draws and court assignments.

[dash_pinched]

Rafa is 3-0 in London and takes on Joker in the semi-finals.

[Inglewood Jack]

likely going to be good old Big 4 in the semis tomorrow? it's been this way for so long I often lose track of what year (or decade) it is.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Ivan Lendl career earnings (1978-1994) - $21.2 million
Novak Djokovic 2015 earnings - $21.6 million

Fair to say Novak probably just had the best year ever. Barring a big downturn in his play, or a huge rise from someone else, I'd have him no worse than 4-1 odds to win the Calendar Slam next year. Only Roger appears to be consistently close and even then he can't beat him 5 sets. 2016 could be the year Novak passes Roger as the greatest.

[Mango]

Milos and Ivan Ljubicic are parting ways. It'll be interesting to see who his next coach is.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Mango

Milos and Ivan Ljubicic are parting ways. It'll be interesting to see who his next coach is.

It seemed to be a pretty good relationship, but maybe the message from coach to player was getting stale. Obviously, injuries derailed Raonic's aspirations last season, but I saw some positive strides in his game last season. Here's hoping for continued success and an injury-free 2016 season for Milos.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Ivan Lendl career earnings (1978-1994) - $21.2 million
Novak Djokovic 2015 earnings - $21.6 million

Fair to say Novak probably just had the best year ever. Barring a big downturn in his play, or a huge rise from someone else, I'd have him no worse than 4-1 odds to win the Calendar Slam next year. Only Roger appears to be consistently close and even then he can't beat him 5 sets. 2016 could be the year Novak passes Roger as the greatest.

a Nole grand slam next year puts his total at 14, tied with Rafa and 3 behind Roger. I know slam count isn't absolutely everything, but generally I think it's given the biggest weight. I'd say in order to claim GOAT using various completely arbitrary and biased measures, he'd have to get to at least 15, plus hold a bunch of other records that Roger does not have, because there are many in the Fed list that are Gretzky-like in their untouchability.

my only condition is that winning percentage not be used because just like hockey GPG (hello Ovie debate), the longer your career is, the worse that gets. longevity should always count as a positive factor in your standing. if % is ever to be used, it should only be taken for a player's peak years, to establish relative dominance over the field.

anyhow, I'd say by 2017 if Nole keeps it up he'll have his face carved over top an existing member of Tennis Mt. Rushmore.

[polak]

I don't see any way of arguing that someone can be GOAT without at least taking over the top spot in slam wins in their career unless it's something like Nadal where the vast majority of the Slams come from one tournament.

That said, Djokovic has a good shot.

[adc]

Two questions about Djokovic and him potentially being the GOAT:

1. Does it hurt him that it took Nadal and Federer getting old/injured for him to take over? i.e. when they were all close to their prime he was clearly number 3.

Or was he young enough to not be considered in his prime yet?

And two in regard to this comment:

Originally Posted by polak

I don't see any way of arguing that someone can be GOAT without at least taking over the top spot in slam wins in their career unless it's something like Nadal where the vast majority of the Slams come from one tournament.

Is that much different from Djokovic and hard court? Or is he getting future credit from expectations that he will win more at the French and Wimbledon?

[polak]

Future credit since people are assuming he completes the year grand slam.

Him and Federer are pretty similar though. Clay is the only issue.

[dash_pinched]

PARIS - France will play its Davis Cup first-round tie against Canada in the overseas department of Guadeloupe in March, the French Tennis Federation said on Friday.

New captain Yannick Noah — the last Frenchman to win a Grand Slam when he won the French Open in 1983 — will lead the team for the first time in the town of Baie-Mahault from March 4-6.

http://www.tsn.ca/france-to-host-dav...loupe-1.404119

[Senator Clay Davis]

The great Canadian hope continues to drive up the hype train. Cannot wait to see where he is in 2-3 years

Félix Auger-Aliassime's preparation for the Eddie Herr Championships, a top-level junior tournament played on artificial clay (Har-Tru) at the IMG Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Fla. this week, was a pair of low-level $10,000 professional tournaments on real red clay in Peru.

Whatever it was, it worked as Auger-Aliassime, who turned 15 in August, became what the tournament says is youngest-ever winner of the 18-and-under division after a 6-3, 6-7 (6) 7-6 (3) victory over 16-year-old Alex De Minaur of Australia in Sunday's final.

(We went back over the list of champions as far back as 1993, and he is by far the youngest at least in the last 23 editions; the tournament has been played since 1987)

De Minaur led 6-3, 5-4 and 40-love in the third set before Auger-Aliassime saved those three match points and went on to take the match in the tiebreak.

Auger-Aliassime also saved three match points in the third round when he defeated Alexandar Lazarov of Bulgaria 2-6, 7-6 (8), 7-6 (2).

It's the Quebecer's fourth junior title of the season.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh...012344064.html

[Mango]

Ivan Ljubicic wasn't out of coaching for long. He part of Roger Federer's team after Roger split from Stefan Edberg earlier this week. Roger says Severin Luthi will continue to do the bulk of the coaching.

[Inglewood Jack]

so that's going to be a bit of a change. first of all how is it going to be switching gears from trying to push a young-ish Canadian serve bomber past 2nd/3rd gear, to putting the finishing touches on the god of tennis's career (especially going into an Olympic year).

that and Ljub is basically the same age as Roger and therefore probably spent most of his career getting curb stomped by his new student?

oh wait it seems like they've only played each other twice before. that's bizarre.

[Mango]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

that and Ljub is basically the same age as Roger and therefore probably spent most of his career getting curb stomped by his new student?

Nice article on Ljubicic I think you'll enjoy:

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id...able-tale-tell

[Senator Clay Davis]

So Serena was named Sportsman of the Year. Any doubt Novak wins if he was American? No offense to Serena, but Novak clearly and by far had a greater season than Serena. Basically comes down to she blew the Calendar Slam in September and he did May, even though he technically came closer to winning it.