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Post by suedehead on Sept 11, 2021 13:12:18 GMT 1
Hope Djokovic can win the final. Oh, is there a men's tournament as well?
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Sept 11, 2021 20:35:19 GMT 1
My slight concern about the final is that she's playing another teenager who she may have come across in juniors and so is someone who may know her game well. The player she lost to in the challenger final just before qualifying was someone who had beaten her in juniors before. There's a match posted on the LTA / Wimbledon social media pages where they did play each other back in 2018 at Wimbledon in the juniors. Emma won it 6-4 6-2.
Leylah was beaten by Heather Watson in Feb last year at the Mexican Open. (perhaps a cheeky message from Emma to her asking for some hints once she's recovered from the steel chair? ).
On reflection since the semi finals - On paper, I would put Fernandez as favourite but it should be an entertaining final tonight.
That's very interesting as I wondered whether I'd come across Fernandez in the juniors and after being reminded during Wimbledon that Raducanu played in the juniors in 2018 I thought about having a look back at that run. Probably will at some point. I've also just realised I looked up Fernandez on her WTA page recently and that was because she played Harriet Dart in Montreal with Dart winning in straight sets. I also think Fernandez is favourite, mainly because she's had bigger scalps to get to the final, but then apart from Raducanu's first match in the main draw, which for me was the easiest opening match for any of the Brits given how both players had done in the qualifying, I've taken every win as a bonus and I'm not going to change now! Looking forward to being able to see her for the first time in the tournament, which in itself is probably a bad omen!
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Post by suedehead on Sept 11, 2021 23:11:53 GMT 1
Including the qualifying rounds, that's 20 sets played and 20 sets won.
Bad luck, Tom. Looks like you won't be winning SPOTY after all.
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Robbie
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Post by Robbie on Sept 11, 2021 23:14:30 GMT 1
YES!!!
What a result 🎾🎾
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Post by Panda on Sept 11, 2021 23:17:11 GMT 1
Holy mother of f***!
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rewardman
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Post by rewardman on Sept 11, 2021 23:19:26 GMT 1
Fabulous news.
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Post by suedehead on Sept 11, 2021 23:28:11 GMT 1
It makes me feel very old that the Sep 11 attacks are a historic event that happened before they were born for both players.
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Post by suedehead on Sept 11, 2021 23:30:31 GMT 1
Good to see that Fernandez soon got over her teenage strop. That break so near the end of the match must have been hard for her, but her initial response was not good. It looks like she realises that now.
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Post by Panda on Sept 11, 2021 23:35:39 GMT 1
Raducanu now a best price 1/8 to win SPOTY.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 12, 2021 3:05:37 GMT 1
It makes me feel very old that the Sep 11 attacks are a historic event that happened before they were born for both players. Scary thought - also scary that September 11th in New York will be remembered for different reasons too for both these players, especially to Emma.
Speaking of which - what a result for Emma Raducanu! A huge congratulations to her and her team. I agree with Tim Henman and thought the scoreline didn't reflect what we saw in the match, as both played with the same aggression and intensity but it was Emma who took her chances. It was a wonderful and one of the better women's final to watch.
As a Brit, I'm hugely delighted for her but I hope for her sake, her new found fame and endorsements/sponsors etc. doesn't affect her performance on court.
As a tennis fan, Emma and Leylah could be the new Federer/Nadal rivalry the women's game needs. It's scary to think if they can play like that as teenagers, who knows how they can play as they develop in the next few years. That's before you throw in Coco Gauff and even Bianca Andreescu in the mix too.
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Post by rubcale on Sept 12, 2021 11:25:11 GMT 1
As a Brit, I'm hugely delighted for her but I hope for her sake, her new found fame and endorsements/sponsors etc. doesn't affect her performance on court.
That's the worry.
She needs careful handling and guidance now - it's happened so quickly
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Post by rubcale on Sept 12, 2021 11:32:31 GMT 1
In all the excitement let's not forget that Joe Salisbury won the mixed doubles with Desirae Krawczyk 7-5 6-2 to add to his mens doubles title with Rajeev Ram.
Heady times for British tennis.
Not that long ago it was an achievement to get anyone through to the second week of a Slam!
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Post by rubcale on Sept 12, 2021 11:42:09 GMT 1
This is just surreal - I don't really think I've taken it all in yet.
It was an excellent match and what really surprised was the quality of the tennis - it was top notch.
The second set was scary.
Whenever Fernandex broke to take a 2-1 lead I was expecting Raducanu's game to maybe crumble and then again when she lost 2 match points at 5-2.
And what a last game - had Fernandez had more experience she could have handled the break differently - she more or less handed the next point away.
What was so impressive was Raduancu hanging tough and playing aggressively on the big points.
Let's just hope it's not a flash in the pan but both players do look the real deal.
Channel 4 got peak viewing figures of close to 10m.
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 12, 2021 12:21:51 GMT 1
I watched the final on Channel 4 last night.
The quality of that match was sky high, as both teenagers played brilliantly. It was like watching peak Graff v Seles.
With the Men's side of the game seemingly falling into a fallow period with Djorkovic in the autumn of his career; & Federer; Nadal; Murray; Wawrinka; del Potro in the winter of theirs with the new breed coming through not being of the same high calibre; then all of a sudden the Woman's game looks really bright irrespective of whether Osaka continues to play or not.
The BBC might as well give Emma Raducanu the SPOTY award right now rather than wait until December.
The manner of her surprise victory is on a par with teenage Boris Becker wins Wimbledon, 1985; Leicester City winning the Premier League in 2016; John Daly wins the USPGA, 1991; Muhammad Ali's "rope-a-dope" tactics in the "Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire to defeat George Foreman in Zaire in 1974; Keith Deller winning the World Darts Championship in 1983; etc.
Brilliant, just brilliant.
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Post by suedehead on Sept 12, 2021 13:00:29 GMT 1
When Becker won Wimbledon, it was nowhere near as big a surprise as yesterday. Before the tournament started, he was being talked about as likely to get into the later stages.
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Post by rubcale on Sept 12, 2021 15:15:44 GMT 1
Becker had won the Queens event just before Wimby
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 12, 2021 17:17:00 GMT 1
In all the excitement let's not forget that Joe Salisbury won the mixed doubles with Desirae Krawczyk 7-5 6-2 to add to his mens doubles title with Rajeev Ram. Heady times for British tennis. Not that long ago it was an achievement to get anyone through to the second week of a Slam! I was meaning to post this last night but got caught up in the reaction to Emma's win.
It's a brilliant result again for Joe Salisbury, which caps off a terrific season for him.
Not that long ago, we were also struggling to even put out a doubles pairing for the Davis Cup - it was always Jamie Murray (mostly) + someone else. The depth and quality of doubles specialists we have now is frightening and it's good to see Joe winning the slams.
Hopefully we'll see him at the Davis Cup later on in the year. It'll be interesting if he does partner Jamie in the Davis Cup but they have played with each other once before.
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Post by Panda on Sept 12, 2021 17:37:31 GMT 1
And Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett won the men's wheelchair doubles last night to complete the career grand slam. Hewett is in the singles final tonight as well.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Sept 12, 2021 18:09:37 GMT 1
Emma now has a good chance to qualify for the WTA finals, which is due to be held in Shenzhen, China but is still TBC due to China's COVID restrictions.
Presuming she's playing at Indian Wells next month, she'll need another good result. Naomi Osaka place likely to be the one in jeopardy after her announcement of an indefinite break from the game due to her ongoing mental struggles.
As of Monday, she's ranked 14th in the race. Top 8 to qualify with 4 already qualified. Rank | Name | Points | Qualified? | 1
| Ashleigh Barty
| 6411 | Q
| 2
| Aryna Sabalenka
| 4689
| Q
| 3
| Barbora Krejcikova
| 4398
| Q
| 4
| Karolina Pliskova
| 3972
| Q
| 5
| Iga Swiatek
| 2921
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| 6
| Maria Sakkari
| 2842
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| 7
| Naomi Osaka
| 2771
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| 8
| Garbine Muguruza
| 2671
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| 9
| Ons Jabeur
| 2435
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| 10
| Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
| 2329 |
| 11
| Coco Gauff Elise Mertens
| 2325
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| 13
| Elena Svitolina
| 2283
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| 14
| Emma Raducanu
| 2282
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* Taken from Wikipedia
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Sept 13, 2021 13:46:00 GMT 1
In all the excitement let's not forget that Joe Salisbury won the mixed doubles with Desirae Krawczyk 7-5 6-2 to add to his mens doubles title with Rajeev Ram. Heady times for British tennis. Not that long ago it was an achievement to get anyone through to the second week of a Slam! I thought during Wimbledon that Joe Salisbury would end up in the top 5 in the world at some point, he must be younger than most of the top doubles players, and he's now gone up to no 4. What he's achieved in the last few years from practically nothing is amazing really. Ram had never won a slam title with anyone else before and he's not exactly young! Salisbury and Krawczyk make a great team too. I was wondering whether Raducanu's win might inspire the women like Murray has inspired Edmund, Evans and Broady. Its too late for Konta, and probably is for Watson sadly, but there's other players like Boulter, Dart, Fran Jones and Katie Swan who may get a boost from it. But there aren't many beyond that, we've got no girls coming through in the juniors atm, but the pandemic definitely hasn't helped there.
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