2018 Tennis Thread

[dash_pinched]

This rain delay (hopefully it won't be long) might be exactly the tonic that Rafa needs, Zverev was on a roll of hot tennis.

[Nadal Fan]

Zverev has always done very well in best of 3, I wonder if this year at Roland Garros he breaks through at a major. Certainly not how I thought this final was going to go after the first set.

[dash_pinched]

Back on court after a 45 minute rain delay.

[dash_pinched]

Rafa was down 3-1 in the third set, but wins five straight games to take the match and the Italian Open title.

[Nadal Fan]

I can't believe what I just saw, what a turn around. The King takes care of the next great player, with a huge assist from God and the rain

[Nadal Fan]

No rest for tennis fans as tomorrow qualifying begins for the French Open including F.A.A and Peliwa playing tomorrow.

[dash_pinched]

FAA has won his first French Open qualifying match (6-4 6-3)

[Karl]

Peter Polansky won his 1st round match at French Open qualifying defeating Norbert Gombos 2-6, 7-6, 6-2.

[dash_pinched]

Rain has halted qualifying matches in France, but not before Francoise Abanda lost her opening qualifying match. Not the greatest way to follow up last week's tweet.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

Rain has halted qualifying matches in France, but not before Francoise Abanda lost her opening qualifying match. Not the greatest way to follow up last week's tweet.

Worse is that she made those comments 3 days after surpassing Bouchard as the #1 Canadian player.

In Fact Carol Zhao is now #2 and with a couple of wins in French Open qualifying could take the #1 spot now. Bouchard is also in qualies.

[Nadal Fan]

I think we as Canadian tennis fans are in a unique spot to see if race does in fact play a part in a players media coverage as Abanda suggested. With F.A.A on the cusp of breaking out like Shapo did last year it will be interesting to see how the media coverage for his breakout is compared to what Shapo got. Being a Canadian I really hope there is no difference and I suspect there won't be. For example if Felix defeats say Federer at the Rogers Cup I don't see the media not making a big deal of it, like they did for Shapo after he beat Nadal.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I don't think that makes sense. Denis did it first, and so already has the hype behind him - being the second version of the story is never going to get you as much attention. Moreover, Denis's story is still going on, and he had the spotlight all to himself last year - this time, if Felix does well, they'll share it to some extent.

But also, it's pretty damned unlikely that Felix gets to where Denis got to in his first year. He's ranked 178. Getting into the top 100 would be an awesome accomplishment right now. Denis, meanwhile, is aiming at R16 in slams. They're in different conversations.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

I can't believe what I just saw, what a turn around. The King takes care of the next great player, with a huge assist from God and the rain

Call me skeptical, but I'm not convinced Zverev is going to be as good as i'm hearing he's going to be. He's awful at the net and far too predictable camping out on the baseline to win a series of 5 set matches at this point. He's never even made it past the 4th round of a major at this point, which is pretty odd for a number 3 seed in the world.

He needs to add a more well rounded shot arsenal and vary his tactics more to win the bigger matches. Time will tell if he can evolve, but right now there is no way he beats guys like Nadal, Cilic, Del Potro, Federer or Thiem in a 5 setter.

With that said, he'll probably go out and clean up at the French Open next week now that I've said it.

[dash_pinched]

Bianca Andreescu moves on in French Open qualifying with a nice straight sets win (6-4 7-5) over Vera Lapko of Belarus. Lapko is ranked #77 on the WTA tour and was the top seed on the women's side for French Open qualifying.

/No such luck for Genie Bouchard or Carol Zhao

[Hot_Flatus]

Felix getting his lunch handed to him in the second round of qualies today. Now down 3-6, 2-5 with a flurry of double faults and unforced errors likely doing him in today.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

Felix getting his lunch handed to him in the second round of qualies today. Now down 3-6, 2-5 with a flurry of double faults and unforced errors likely doing him in today.

Felix does indeed end up losing by identical 6-3 6-3 set scores. Too bad, but he was playing a Spanish kid who likely loves the clay (I read a little of his bio and he lost the 2014 French Open junior final to Andrey Rublev).

Edit: Of course, Felix made the French Open junior final in 2016, so he's not exactly a slouch on clay either.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

Felix does indeed end up losing by identical 6-3 6-3 set scores. Too bad, but he was playing a Spanish kid who likely loves the clay (I read a little of his bio and he lost the 2014 French Open junior final to Andrey Rublev).

Edit: Of course, Felix made the French Open junior final in 2016, so he's not exactly a slouch on clay either.

I'm excited to see what Felix can do on grass this year. As you say, he's definitely less suited for clay than many players at this point.

Hopefully someone gives him a wild card into one of the 500 events and he's also able to qualify for Wimbledon. This could be a springboard for his atp level career much like Denis experienced last year.

[dash_pinched]

The nice thing about being a top 24 seed is that you avoid a top 8 player in the first week of the tournament.

https://twitter.com/user/status/999352748003942401

[dash_pinched]

Well, it took almost a year and a half, but they nabbed the dude who attacked Petra Kvitova.

https://twitter.com/user/status/999397384130936832

[dash_pinched]

Bianca Andreescu advances to the final round of qualification with a 6-1 6-3 win over Tomova of Bulgaria. That's two fine wins over players ranked much higher than her, I hope she makes the main draw.

Edit: Also, go Peter go!

https://twitter.com/user/status/999594283295432705