Tennis Anyone?

Thanks - that the sport administrator side of me coming out. I ran the high performance section of the national sport governing body for archery in Canada for a few years (setting up criteria for team selection for things like the Olympics, athlete developments plans, and deciding tournament formats for things like Olympic trials), so this sort of organizational and format challenge is not new to me in some ways.

The thing that bothers me a lot about this is that you penalize the lowest paid "top" players from doubles, to enrich the top singles players who already make much more. There has been progress in giving the lower placing groups on tour more of the prize money increases each year, but that applies mostly to singles it seems, and hasn't rolled out to doubles as much, and mixed even less.

If something good comes out of this, it's that maybe people who don't watch a lot of doubles learn that the doubles specialist players are actually very good, so it might encourage them to watch it more.

One quick statement by one of the commentators was that with this unusual format, where you are playing more than one match in a day, the team that just finished their match seemed to be the one that had better outcomes, compared to the team that won earlier and had to sit and wait. If that sort of trend continues, they may have to address that as well for this sort of modified event, should they stick with it.

Speaking of experimental events, my club had a "team tennis" day yesterday. 6 teams of 4 people, split into 2 groups for round robin, then the winners of the groups play the final. Each tie against another team consisted of men's and women's doubles, men's and women's singles, and mixed doubles. So 5 matches, and you had to do that twice, and a third time if you make the final. Each match was just one set that was a best of 5 with a tiebreak at 4 all, no ad scoring (I personally hate that), and we had to play lets, which was nonsensical. They scheduled 4 hours for the whole thig including finals, and after 5 hours they hadn't finished the round robins yet - woops! People had other commitments so they are completing the finals on another day now.

Odd format in that you win not by winning the most matches against the opposing team, but by who wins the most games total. Teams were picked by the organizers and there were some lopsided results in individual matches, and the result of that was that although we won 3 of 5 matches in the first tie, with me and my partner winning the mixed in a tie break to take the victory, we lost on games. So there were a number of issues with the way this was done, and this was a sort of a test event, so hopefully they make some changes.

The playing the lets rule was insane - 3 serves hit to me clipped the tape and dribbled over for an ace - soft nets! The same thing happened at least 2 times in other matches I was in to others on my team, and to other teams as well - even the people who benefitted from it said they didn't want to win points this way. I'm a decent returner so it's totally disheartening to see that happen and not even have a chance at it, so that is one rule that I'm sure they put in to keep the matches short, that needs to go. It's the sort of fundamental tinkering of the game in order to achieve some organizational goal, that takes away the spirit of the sport - it's a good parallel for what the US Open did here for the mixed. You shouldn't be throwing away the heart of the game when you make changes.

We have 5 seeds in singles from Canada in the US Open, which is the first time in history that has happened apparently. So I am cautiously optimistic about someone going deep. As the media does, the pressure is building on Mboko, because of course they have noted that the last Canadian who won the Canadian Open, went on to win the US Open - Bianca Andreescu. There's always a lot of pressure put on these young players, and I often feel it does them no good at all. But so far at least it appears that Mboko has a strong mental game, so hopefully she can work past all the attention and focus on the tennis.

What an absolute disgrace last night...Medvedev v Bonzi, first round match.

Bonzi is up 2 sets to love, up 5-4 in the third, and has the advantage, so it's match point. His first serve goes into the net, and as he's setting up to hit his second, a photographer runs out from one end of the court, and is going down the side of the court. The umpire, Greg Allensworth who is somewhat notorious for his bad calls, stops play and tells the photographer to get off the court. The photographer was on court for just a few seconds before being told to get off. In total he wasn't on court for more than maybe 8 seconds I would guess. There's no serve clock since it's between first and second, so Bonzi could take all the time he wanted to reset himself.

The umpire gives Bonzi a first serve, and announces that this is due to the "delay" from the photographer coming on court between his first and second serve. Although one could debate if a first serve is warranted, I really don't think it was. I have seen umpires stop the server plenty of times for small disruptions like someone in the crowd not sitting down quick enough, or a ball boy has to go get a stray ball, etc. and a first serve is really never given for something just a few seconds long.

So this decision set Medvedev off big time. He came running up to the umpire...

“Are you a man? Are you a man? Why are you shaking?”

He then turns to the camera that is next to the umpire's chair and says:

“He wants to go home, guys, he doesn’t like it here. He gets paid by the match, not by the hour.”

He then makes a reference to Reilly Opelka, who has said this umpire should be suspended after he was yet another victim of his bad umpiring decisions (there have been plenty by this guy).

The crowd is going wild, and Medvedev is egging them on. After arguing with the umpire he returns to the baseline to receive the serve, but the crowd will not stop and Medvedev keeps on encouraging their behaviour. Minutes go by, and it took way too long for the umpire to even start trying to get the crowd calmed down, but by that time they were having none of it. At one point even Medvedev realized this was going too far, and tried to tell the crowd to stop, but they wouldn't. Bonzi tried to step up to serve a few times, but each time the crowd got louder.

As the cameras were panning around the crowd, you didn't see a bunch of angry tennis fans upset at a call. What you saw was mostly young guys, "bros" who were likely drunk, whooping it up and smiling and laughing - they now had control over this event, and were reveling in that control.

Finally Bonzi serves with people yelling as he's tossing the ball up, he gets broken, they end up going to the tie break and Medvedev wins the set - he makes a heart signs with his hands to the crowd. Bonzi is clearly upset by the whole thing, and the 4th set is won by Medvedev 6-0. The 5th set Bonzi gets broken first game, but breaks right back, and after a series of back and forth breaks eventually Bonzi prevails, thankfully. Medvedev does what he does, and breaks racquets.

I really hope the US Open or ATP do a few things...

1 - Fine Medvedev or suspend him, or something to send a message that he cannot pull this crap. I know he's having a bad year, and Bonzi has beaten him every time they play, but this was ridiculous.

2 - Suspend the umpire, or send him for some sort of retraining. I'm not sure you can retrain this kind of bad judgement though...

3 - Put in place a more rigid code of conduct for spectators and enforce it. Crowds have gotten increasingly more rowdy and disrespectful over time, and it doesn't seem to matter what country you are in. While we were at the Australian Open this year, they were very bad at times, and I see it on matches on TV all the time. Even here in "polite" Canada we had people cheering double faults - I cringe every time this happens.

It's only going to get worse unless there's something done to educate and enforce the crowds.

It was one of the weirdest things I've seen watching tennis. Here is a link for those who missed it. A circus.

Canada had a good start to this US Open - in fact a record start:



I had high hopes for Mboko, but it was clear her wrist was still injured. Everyone else made it out of the first round, and although most have bowed out now there was a standout performance from Shapo against Sinner. I saw an interesting analysis of this match from Florian Meier, who I follow for tennis coaching tips:

"What was fascinating is that Shapovalov clearly had a strategy to expose what I think is the only slight weakness that Jannick Sinner has.

That slight weakness is his forehand under pressure. When players put a lot of pressure on Sinner’s forehand, he often starts to shank balls and that then results in a lack of confidence in his forehand in general.

Of course, most players never even get to the point where they can put pressure on his forehand. Dennis, however, managed to do so, and the strategy worked extremely well for quite a while.

How did he manage to put pressure on Sinner’s forehand without making too many errors? He hit to what we call high percentage targets. This allows you to go for your shots.

Shapovalov was up 3:1 in the third set after they split the first 2 sets. At that point, the match changed dramatically because suddenly Shapovalov started to make a lot of unforced errors and his level dropped dramatically. Having followed him for many years this did not surprise me. He is someone who has struggled to play up to his potential and is not known to play his best under pressure.

He often seems to struggle with focus, and it is my guess that he is a more extroverted individual. These individuals tend to have a harder time trying to focus on one thing for a long period of time. That is probably part of the explanation why he has struggled with making so many unforced errors over so many years.

In my experience, most professional tennis players are naturally more introverted, which makes it easier for them to stay focused on that yellow tennis ball and on doing the same thing over and over while chasing perfection.

Of course, all tennis players choke from time to time, and it is something every player should work on."

It's interesting to see that he thinks the forehand is the one to break down on Sinner - I'll be watching for that in subsequent matches, in particular if Alcaraz and Sinner meet in the final.

Before I get to the last Canadian left in singles, I have to give a shout out to Venus and Leyla Fernendez in doubles. Some pretty good come from behind wins in sets, and they look like they are having fun out there. If anything I hope this gives Leyla some confidence moving forward. I have more hope for a deep run from Gabby Dabrowski and here Canadian/NZ partner Erin Routliffe.

Now to FAA - when I watched his first match here, I turned to my wife and said "Felix is really hitting the ball cleanly." He often has a lot of what sound like mishits, some that go way out of the court, and some that stay in but don't sound clean. I can relate to those on some level...

Anyway, the win against Zverev was top notch, and he just beat Rublev in straights - these are two guys that he has very lopsided losing records against. These are huge wins for him against top ranked players (even though Rublev has struggled a bit this year, he was still favoured in this match) and next up is Little Rat Man, as my wife calls him, Alex de Minaur. He will be hard to beat as he gets nearly everything back.

I lived that a bit on the weekend - last singles tournament of the year. I ended up in the consolation final (hey I'll take it!), and played a guy about half my age who ran like the wind. Early in the first set I hit one serve out wide on the deuce court, drew him out wide, he hit the short return I was looking for, and I hit a forehand straight down the ad court that landed right on the baseline. There was no way he was coming from outside the alley to get that ball, but I was ready for a volley just in case. Not only did he get there, he hit a perfect lob for a winner...I knew I was in big trouble. Lost 1 and 1 - it wasn't pretty and I told him next time we play he has to wear 5 pound weights on both feet to make it fair... 😀

Fined $42,500 I think - it was less than what I expected. I thought he should have lost all his first round $110k earnings, plus points.

I see he has now fired his long time coach, so I guess we'll see who wants to step up to handle the madman...

Had to post this - great photo...

I think Rublev is actually working on his issues with anger - Medvedev is just a clown.

Oh, another thing - this was an amazing match...saved 8 match points to win it!

I think in general she is a greatly underrated player. All the talk of others who might contend in various events, but she is the type that can always pop up and win something when you least expect it. With 2 singles and many doubles GS titles (so far), she is a future hall of famer who is very dangerous in the draw. She played her way into that match after a brutal first set, showing huge resilience. Hoping she takes out Pegula next!

I didn't see that match, but watching a few highlights and looking at the stats, it looks like Osaka didn't have to work too hard to beat Gauff. Not sure how much Gauff's new coach is changing, so maybe it's about the new technique? Trying to be generous...but Osaka made it to the final of a 1000 so she is definitely back in good form, aside from that final. This is actually a pretty good come back for her after what I'm sure was an upsetting loss in Montreal.

While searching for highlights of that match, I stumbled across a story about Raducanu. She got stomped hard by Rybakina and in a press conference when asked about how top players play against her, she said that they really seem to raise their game against her to prove some point that was never really explained, and that she will take that as a compliment. 🤣🤣🤣 That is one way to rationalize your way out of a beat down I guess...

Yep - don't disagree with anything there.

Although Pegula lost the last 2 meetings, I think she will take this one...but I'll be hoping for the opposite result. Krejcikova is coming off injury so not sure how fit she is for a really deep run here.

8 winners and 33 unforced - yeah not a good day, and other than the win in the previous round Coco hasn't been playing really all that well.

Osaka is a bit of a wild card in this one, but Iga seems to be on it right now. We'll see if Anisimova can actually win a game this time. Iga booking a practice court in the middle of an interview should be the thing that puts fear into the other top players...she is clearly there to win this.

One thing that just sort of occurred to me - Iga has flattened our her shots on surfaces like grass and hardcourts, and this is allowing her to compete with the bigger hitters that she previously struggled against. I actually think Felix has done a bit of the same - he's putting less topspin on his forehand and is hitting through the ball more - a good thing to see. I've been saying to my wife for years that you need to take a little bit of Shapo's aggressiveness and give that to Felix, to balance them both out a bit.

Every time? Even when it happens to Djokovic? 😉

Whenever I see Alcaraz vs Sinner, I squint a little and think of Söderling vs Nadal. That's how good the next few years are going to be for us fans!

Yes.

Agreed. Third set was good, but in the end he didn't get the job done, unfortunately.

Sad to see Vondrousova having to drop out as I was looking forward to that match with Sabalenka.

Venus and Leyla get booted easily by a top team - not surprising at all. Gabby and Erin in the semi's, so that's good.

Looking forward to Felix and the Demon today! Felix is going to have to hit through the court big time to get the ball past the rat man...