The Tennis Thread 2014

[OILFAN #81]

Congrats to Wawrinka on his 1st career grand slam title! Moves to #3 in the world as well behind Nadal and Djokovic.

[Inglewood Jack]

Even if people want to put an asterisk on this final result, Stan did have to take down Nole on Aussie blue to get here....that by itself is enough to validate his name on the trophy.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I don't know how you can put an asterisk on this. Stan was the better player before the injury and strangely the worse player after it. He started spraying it like crazy in that third set but he pulled it together in the 4th to seal the deal. Beating #1 and 2 is a rare occurence.

[GirlySports]

There is no asterisk. Conditioning and not being injured is part of the game.

This will be a fun year. The big four aren't quite the big 4 anymore.

[Mango]

Wawrinka was absolutely in the zone all tournament. The title is well deserved.

Also forgot to add: congrats to the ageless wonder, Daniel Nestor, for capturing his third mixed doubles victory at the Aussie Open.

[killer_carlson]

Yaaaaaa for Nestor.

Where does he rank in all times doubles players?

[Zach]

Buddy of mine went all in for 1.3k on Wawrinka +470 last night vs Nadal. I guess his lotto pick paid off.

[Mango]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

Yaaaaaa for Nestor.

Where does he rank in all times doubles players?

I just took a quick peek on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_...les_since_1968

He's fourth, after the Bryan Brothers and Todd Woodbridge. Although that chart says it hasn't been updated since late November, so that would actually make Nestor move up to third overall, surpassing Woodbridge.

Here's his full titles throughout this career:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/P...stor.aspx?t=tf

Amazing!

[$ven27]

Awh Rafa such a disappointing match, a healthy Nadal would've taken this.

[spiteface]

it was not meant to be…

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by Zach

Buddy of mine went all in for 1.3k on Wawrinka +470 last night vs Nadal. I guess his lotto pick paid off.

Wow, where does your friend shop for pants that have enough room for such giant balls?

[GirlySports]

The Davis Cup schedules are out. I think we will be interested in these matchups

Japan
Nishikori
Soeda
Sugita
Uchiyama

Canada
Raonic
Pospisil
Dancevic
Nestor

• Date: 31 Jan - 02 Feb 2014
• Venue: Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan
• Start times:
  Day 1: 1300 hrs (9pm Calgary)
  Day 2: 1300 hrs (9pm Calgary)
  Day 3: 1300 hrs (9pm Calgary)
• Surface: Hard (Decoturf), Indoor
• Ball: Srixon

USA
Isner
Querrey
Bryan
Bryan

GB
Murray
Ward
Edmund
Fleming

• Date: 31 Jan - 02 Feb 2014
• Venue: Petco Park, San Diego, CA, USA
• Start times:
  Day 1: 1100 hrs
  Day 2: 1200 hrs
  Day 3: 1100 hrs
  
• Surface: Clay (Red Clay), Outdoor
• Ball: Dunlop Fort Clay Court

[GirlySports]

Genie Bouchard to promote new year-ending tournament for WTA

http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/bouch...-to-singapore/

That's a lot of pressure. She's got a good head start with the SF in Melbourne. Can she keep it up to make the top 8 point getters of the season?

She is currently ranked #3

http://www.wtachampionships.com/

[$ven27]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Genie Bouchard to promote new year-ending tournament for WTA

http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/bouch...-to-singapore/

That's a lot of pressure. She's got a good head start with the SF in Melbourne. Can she keep it up to make the top 8 point getters of the season?

She is currently ranked #3

http://www.wtachampionships.com/

She went from #30 to #3? Wow.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by $ven27

She went from #30 to #3? Wow.

Not quite

She went from #30 to #19 in the real rolling 52-week rankings.

BUT she is #3 in the RACE TO SINGAPORE which is the calendar year race that puts the top 8 2014 point getters into the year-end tournament (the men have the same thing)

So Bouchard is #3 in the rankings that are only 3 weeks old.

[Mango]

Brutal Davis Cup news: Raonic out with ankle injury. Pospisil is playing, but only doubles. Polansky gets the nod. Any idea why Levine can't play yet? I figured he be next in line.

[GirlySports]

ouch. well Rubber #2 will decide this entire tie. Nishikori is by far the best player, we'll give him two wins. Japan are horrible at doubles so that's a win for Canada. If there is a 5th and deciding rubber, for sure Pospisil will play and kick Soeda's ass.

So it will be decided by Rubber #2, Dancevic vs Soeda. Dancevic is ranked slightly higher.

Canada's always been quite deep and while Milos and Vasek get all the headlines, it's these guys that have carried Canada for years. Never forget Philip Bester's final rubber win in Ecuador that got Canada to Israel which started it all.

[GirlySports]

meanwhile the following weekend, Canada has named it's Fed Cup team for it's World Group II first Round tie against Serbia. Serbia leaving the big guns at home.

CANADA v SERBIA (Feb 8-9)
Venue: Complexe Sportif Claude Robillard, Montreal (hard – indoors)
Canada
Eugenie Bouchard
Sharon Fichman
Gabriela Dabrowski
Aleksandra Wozniak
Captain: Sylvain Bruneau
Serbia
Bojana Jovanovski
Vesna Dolonc
Jovana Jaksic
Aleksandra Krunic
Captain: Dejan Vranes

[Inglewood Jack]

Davis cup team needs help...Genie to get a haircut, wear a ballcap and save the day?

speaking of ongoing Geniemania, miscellaneous tennis article roundup:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25857304

After an Australian Open in which the 19-year-old Canadian unexpectedly reached the semi-final, there is as much debate about her career off the court as on it.

Her appearance and composure, not to forget tennis talent, have seen her touted as the next Maria Sharapova, the world's highest-paid female athlete, and four times Grand Slam winner.

The teenager's agent, Sam Duvall, says the player known as "Genie" has the personality, game and looks to surpass the Russian's commercial success.

better than Maria? another lofty order, but we can always hope.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...n-open-gambler

A gambler in Australia won $196,000 by correctly predicting that Stanislas Wawrinka and Li Na would win the singles titles at the Australian Open.

The person laid a $435 bet on the pair to become the men’s and women’s champions at the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year, Nicholas Tzaferis, a spokesman for Australia’s biggest bookmaker TAB Corp., said in an e-mail today.

honestly I can't believe the odds were 451-1 for a Stan/Li championship. I would have happily sacrificed 50 bucks or more on those odds myself.

http://regressing.deadspin.com/which...maj-1507503924

Obviously, sports are always about winning and losing, and within individual sports, victories are much less external than they are in, say, a Super Bowl victory. But it's still idiotic to only credit a player for winning it all, with any other result not counting whatsoever in the final tally. Reflexively coming back to titles and only titles ignores incredible feats like Federer's insane 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals, rendering them some arcane stat to bring up during a match and forget, unremembered in the way that team sports remember their impressive runners up fondly, like the Bills' four straight Super Bowl appearances or the Atlanta Braves' 14 consecutive division titles.

So rather than only counting championships won, here's a look at each player's performance in majors based on the ATP points accumulated in each tournament.

wasn't sure if I wanted to put this one up since it's Federer-slanted and is more ammo that I'm clouded by bias, but what I take out of it is that you can really cherry pick stats and spin them however you like to support your position, even in something as murky and unresolvable as the endless GOAT debate.

[Arsenal14]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

honestly I can't believe the odds were 451-1 for a Stan/Li championship. I would have happily sacrificed 50 bucks or more on those odds myself.

I believe it. Basically puts each of them around 20-1 which seems about right. For comparison I just tried the French Open with Del Potro (14-1, the fourth highest on the men's side) and Radwanska (20-1, fifth on the women's) and can get 314-1 on the parlay. I seem to remember Nadal/Djokovic and Williams were pretty strong favorites for Australia so 20-1 on the four seed is pretty likely.