29-year-old, unseeded American, Alison Riske, just dumped top-seeded Ashleigh Barty from the tournament.
29-year-old, unseeded American, Alison Riske, just dumped top-seeded Ashleigh Barty from the tournament.
Redsfaithful (07-08-2019)
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
Nice that Federer and Nadal both basically got walkovers in the Round of 16 (and Novak, too). Should improve the level of tennis later in the week.
The top-seeded woman left is Simona Halep, the 7th seed.
On the men's side, the Indomitable Three - Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, march ever onward towards the semis.
One side of the men's draw has Djokovic (1) and three others seeded in the 20s.
The other side of the draw has Nadal (3), Federer (2), Nishikori (8) and an unseeded Sam Querrey.
Federer will likely have to run a Nishikori, Nadal, Djokovic gauntlet to win the Cup. Good luck, Roger. If you do that, you have earned it.
Nishikori takes the first set. Djokovic just runs so many balls down, that I think he breaks his opponents' spirit at times.
I think Federer getting the early break in the second was huge. Prevented Nishikori's momentum from continuing to roll downhill and snowball on him.
Another ho hum day for the Big 3...at least once Federer got rolling in the second set.
As much as I've loved this era of tennis, I think I finally hit the point where I'm bored with it. I'm ready for these 3 to be done and the next guys to come along. I'm not all that excited about the next 3 days.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
It'll mostly be over very, very soon, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts. I think tennis is likely to hit a boring stretch next - imagine if guys like Goffin and Bautista Agut were winning majors. I don't have anything against them, but they're not really exciting. (And I realize they aren't young, but it's just as likely going to be guys like them stepping in next as it is players in their early 20s.)
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
With Rafa, I feel like we've already had the false alarm. His style of play is so violent, you just never know.
I think it's about the want to as much as the physical decline, which is part of what makes Fed unique. Tennis has to be such a grind getting deep into your 30s, if nothing else the travel is brutal.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Rafa's press conference was painful to watch. I don't understand who trains these reporters on questions to ask at these things, but across all sports, the majority of questions that are asked in these press conferences are just dumb.
Most of the questions were about Federer, which was clearly very annoying. And they'd ask the same questions he's answered constantly for years. One guy asked him to "reflect on the rivalry between you and Federer" to which he appropriately responded, "Come on guys, we've talked about this a thousand times."
I'm guessing had Federer lost, he may have been asked about the rivalry, but it wouldn't have been a barrage of questions about Rafa.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
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