2021 WIMBLEDON

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b9/Wimbledon.svg/800px-Wimbledon.svg.png

first set jack draper !

Next three went as you'd expect. But... there's actually play on more than just two courts now! My weather app suggests a decent three-hour window, so they'll clear a bit of the backlog.

Tiafoe first set vs Stef. Nice to see a bit of Niculescu earlier; barely missed a first serve, but that was cos she was kicking them in at 70mph. Slicing and dicing, but to little avail.

tiafoe is a brutal 1st round draw for steph but huge kudos to 'foe, esp getting thru him in straights

Francis MUTHRFUKKIN Tiafoe! I'm fucking PSYCHED

Didn't see much, but did catch Tiafoe save one of a bunch of BPs in the second set with a kicker second serve to the ad, and a fading low volley on to the line. Sweet as you like. I think he knows how to play on this stuff. Stef not so much.

doubt kevin anderson at this pt in his career is up to give djoko a true test but he hit 41 (!) aces today so that is a decent sign

in what had to be heavy/slow conditions

Murray collapsing against Basilashvilli, painful to watch, hoping he can turn it around.

to be fair, he shouldnt have as easily been breezing thru basil ~ should be an interesting 4th set

I'm somewhat bemused by "Stephens beats Kvitova in shock upset" as if Stephens isn't considered to be a good player. I know she's been on a downward trajectory but I'd think her French results would have signaled that she's dangerous again.

nice to see venus get a win

korda/deminaur is a good battle rn

I am very happy to be on the Tiafoe bandwagon:

Tiafoe acknowledged that Tsitsipas has a bright future ahead of him, even if it wasn't fully on display Monday.

"That guy is special. He's going to do a lot of great things. Win a ton of Grand Slams," Tiafoe said before breaking into a smile. "But not today."

Suarez Navarro played a perfect breaker just now vs Barty on Centre.

this is brutal for mannarino

Yeah, felt Fed was slight favourite at that point but definitely an escape. Gauff being given a test by the extraordinary Fran Jones.

maybe i'm projecting, but i thought it was sporting for mannarino to attempt to serve knowing full well it would mean fed takes set and evens things up thus taking the walk-over on a bit of a momentum high note. OR maybe he just really thought he could continue through the injury. maybe bit of both.

even more brutal now w serena wow

commentators now second-guess saying the tournament should have been pushed back due to the french being pushed back a week and the "wet spring" in london ~

having kyrgios back playing is all i truly need tbh

yes, totally rooting for a good long entertaining run for him.

love alize cornet. her guile, her complaining, her upturned nose. didn't realise she has the 3rd longest consecutive majors streak going at 58 and counting.

Bianca unforced erroring her way to defeat against her at the moment.

hooray! we don't have to watch isner lumber around the baseline for the rest of the tournament! and nishioka gets his first trip to the 2nd round. win-win.

around the court, i should say. he gets to the net.

good fight put up by boulter, good grit by sabalenka to get thru

i thought tiafoe would get tested by pospisil but wow @ not facing a break pt and 41 winners / 13 unforced errors

kept trying to figure out who otte reminded me of, then it hit me...

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/da/c9/e0/dac9e06a7723ec52a20c6fabb42cb120.jpg

--andrew m.

impressive you can play and post @ the same time!

lol that actually took me a second as i've never gone by andy

truly #onethread

first set of kerber vs tormo absolutely astonishing stuff. 70 mins 7-5 angie.

Italian bartender at the pub the other night (SUI 3-3 FRA, place to ourselves) had tickets for #2 Court today, glad he's getting to see a contest (though I'm guessing Svitolina's exit wasn't without its moments).

Sad to see Monfils go. Lockdown really snapped his late-career surge - he was in great form early 2020.

impressive by kenin

At the Slam, she defeated Wang Xinyu in the first round, before being defeated by Madison Brengle in the second round. In this match, Kenin set a new Wimbledon record, as she committed 41 unforced errors in just 45 minutes; this was equivalent to 0.91 unforced errors per minute.[67]

Kerber-Tormo now immense.

DF for three match points Kerber

Done at the first.

Federer looking better than Tuesday, but Gasquet is practically his ideal opponent. 10 years since he dropped a set to him.

khachanov/korda 5th set break fest

1 hold each / 5 breaks each lol

we're @ 6-6

make that 7-7 and 6 breaks each

Jabeur/Swiatek had some fantastic shotmaking. Happy for Ons - played smart, dialled down the errors after losing the first set, and ran away with it

Frustratingly easy ride for Djokovic. Wish Berrettini was in his quarter. Fucsovics has now taken out Rublev, so he's next.

fed has played himself into form & kept his time on court quite low..meds and then either felix or berrettini isnt exactly easy but i also am increasingly finding it hard to envision him losing on ctr court to someone other than novak

make that hubie hurkacz instead of medvedev wow

novak/shapo top half semis

Fed is not looking good here

Tie break at the 2nd

Fuck me that slip..

wow hubie!

little of everything in that tiebreak, tough now for rog to dig out

Hurkacsz is 2 sets up, he has an excellent serve and great temperament

fed was 2 pts away from being up 5-1 and serving to close out that set btw

it’s like watching Serena being deconstructed by one of those next-gen players who are not in awe of her

fed at least wont crumble emotionally like serena usu does

hurkacz has only hit 12 unforced errors

straight sets, bagel last set - my word~

could this finally be the young male player to break through the Big 3 ceiling straight away and just go for that slam title (and Djoko’s throat), the way it’s so common on the women’s side these days?
getting ahead of myself probably, but it would be exhilirating

*exhilarating

Would love Shapovalov to win this. Be pretty happy with Berrettini. FAA would be amazing (to lose eight ATP finals in straight sets and then... just win a Slam). Hurkacz too... I mean, you can see where I'm going with this.

Also... re: getting wiped out in a Slam qf like that and it possibly being the end of yr career. Why oh why couldn't Thiem 76 63 60 Djokovic at RG 2017 have been similarly career-ending?

At the end of the 2nd set, felt it was over so I switched off. I didn't want to see it.

I mean, you can see where I'm going with this.

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 7 July 2021 bookmarkflaglink

Yeah lol. Frankly if Djoko loses a set I'll be surprised.

Prove me wrong kids!

standard in this berrettini/felix a-a match p dire tbh

can’t see Shapovalov or Berrettini (or FAA) beating Djoko, but Hurkacz has that meteoric quality. it’s got to happen one day, might as well be him, now. please, I need this dream!

Hurkacz quality of play against Fed was incredible. Great winners, low on UE, amazing sublte touch at times (that lob from just behind the net in the second set (iirc), wow). If he keeps this up he could win this

Barty Kerber looks excellent from what I've seen

Kerber hanging on..

Can't see Barty not winning the breaker

DF for 4-0 Barty

Ruthless

6-0 to 6-3..

Barty does it

What coverage by both Sab and Pli in that rally!

Sabalenka just having a bit more here

Sorry Pliskova, has a break in the 2nd

Three aces at the next to hold

These two have shared about 25 aces btw

Pliskova SP after being 30 down

Beautiful FH, onto the final set

Pliskova playing a smarter bunch of points here. Breaks.

It's been solid since. Pliskova to serve for the final spot

With an ace!

I don't have anything against Sabalenka per se but I almost always find myself rooting against her and I haven't really interrogated why

Sort of hard to cheer for someone who has taken an apolitical stance on her country's authoritarian crackdowns. I know it's not her fault she's from Belarus, but it's hard not to be compromised to some degree by a system like that.

She's a good player, tho.

it's still pretty cool shapovalov made it this far

v old man yelling at clouds take but i'm v much enjoying the post pandemic practice of back of the court towel racks rather than having some poor ballboy/girl having to deal with it. amazing how many less times per game players need a towel now that they don't have some minion scurrying over to them whenever they ask.

Berrettini dominating the first semi

63 60, Jesus :/

This might've been nerves. He won the next on a breaker then lost 6-4.

Berrettini in the final and it's a big day for Italy across sports this Sunday

Shapo serving for the set, predictably screwed it up

Embarrassing drop from Shapo in the TB

no margin for error vs novak, that 5-4, 30-30 error by shapo was dire

Shapo has two more bps

5 bps gone in this set

Djoko wall

Terrific touch at the net from novak

Sees it out again

Shapo playing better. On course for losing in straights tho'

Incredible defensive lob by Djoko, 30-30 on shapo's serve

Bp

DF, weak

Commentator mentioned Shapo had won more points, something like 63-54.

He is two sets down.

This is horribly predictable. Shap is just too wild, goes for too much, and everything is exactly as I feared. Pointless rant to the ump about the last point. He's thrown this away.

(Djokovic is ahead on pts now, btw: 72-70)

same story of their recent non-slam matches

i actually think shapo has been slightly better than those meetings today he just has to convert some g-damn break pts

That's Sunday ruined.

shapo less of a spazz these days but still a spazz. fun to watch when he's not completely frustrating to watch. etc.

spazmo, for young ones fans.

I remember The Lex asking me a year or so back on Twitter why I had a burgeoning fan thing for FAA and not Shapo, seeing as the latter was stylistically much my kind of player, but it's the box of fireworks approach that I just can't invest in. Still, I expect the next time they meet, in some ATP500 qf, Shapo will put it all together and win two and two. But it won't matter.

That's Sunday ruined.

― Michael Jones, Friday, 9 July 2021 bookmarkflaglink

No chance for Berrettini? I've not seen him really

Oh he’s got a chance, I just have to endure it. I’m not especially invested in the Other Thing (happy either way), and was hoping for a Wimb men’s final where I could be fairly neutral too.

Barty with a wonderful lob. Pliskova in trouble

Hasn't won a point in three games. Disaster

Wins at the 16th point

Pliskova gets one break back, mostly UEs. 4-1

Has some UEs of her own. This could be a short final

Beautiful return from Pliskova.

She needs to hold a serve here, even if Barry wins the set we could still have a final

Pliskova finally in the final. Wins without dropping a point

The slicing from Barty there

Terrific serving, 3 sps

1st set Barty

At the 2nd Pliskova hits an ace

Wins that game, hopefully we will get more of that

Break Barty and now keeps her serve, 3-1. This final will be over in 15 mins at this rate

0-40 Pliskova, not over yet

Breaks, 3-3

Pliskova now getting hold of things here..

This has turned into a beautiful set of tennis

Barty to serve to stay in the set

40-0 to 40-40 on Pliskova's serve

3 epic rallies, Barty wins them all

Bp

Shocker from Pliskova.

Barty to serve for the title. She really won that break xp

DF amongst that serve, 2 bps

Terrible game, tie break

Looking good, Pliskova, 4-2

Fuck what a point Pliskova!!

For SPS now

And to a decider we go..

Barty gifted a break. DF, and terrible at the net but I don't think she is good at the net

Still that one break. 4-2

Barty was solid. Pli will hopefully make her serve for it

Pli has come up with the goods at the net

Barty serving great stretch at the net. Then weak error at the next 15 all

Fuck what a miss at the net Barty, bp

Wow, deuce..lost opportunity, one more shot

Ace for CP

Barty does it!

well fought-for

Feared the worst when it started but once Pliskova got her head sorted it was a good match.

Berrettini got a ton of butterflies. Not a lot to see.

Was about to post, "Nothing to see here".

If this goes the way it seems to be, this will be the worst men’s singles event I can remember. Top seed wins title for loss of one set on opening day, without ever playing that well. FAA beating Zverev was cheering but not the greatest quality. Can’t think of much else. Murray-Otte was dramatic but also kinda sad.

Berrettini took about 15 mins to save his game. In that he played a couple of great fhs.

Just had a break back point there

What a break back!!

OK, it's back on.

Berrettini to serve to take this to a TB

Deuce here..

Terrific FH down the line there.

TB

3-3. That FH...not so good

2 SPS..

I didn't see that coming half an hour go.

It’s best to get the pessimistic posts in early. ;)

Terrific how he put some embarrassing shots out of his mind

Earlier in the set

Djokovic earning that early break

Djoko has a double break. Just throttling Berrettini, like a switch has been turned

berrettini's dad ripping a huge box vape in the stands is the content I tune in for

Couple of UEs and an unexpected break back

Djoko straight into it, playing like a dream. 3 sps

Lol saved all three

Strong serving, and Djoko is made to serve for the set

Does it, 1-1

Brilliantly broken...

Berrettini fighting but 3-1 Djoko

If they mention Tom Cruise one more time..

Predictably awesome hold by Djoko

Nah not feeling it at all

i was so sad for pliskova yesterday.

also, watching the men's championship and hoping the underdog wins this

UE for the 3rd. Just plays with a little bit more composure in the tense points

On serve so far..

Novak is unbelievable

So good, makes it - BP..

DF, breaks, ofc

Reconciled to this. At least the first 30min of garbage has has no bearing on the result, Matteo has acquitted himself reasonably well and Novak has really had to play.

CP

wow, djokovic wants england to win tonight

okay, i misread that. he has said he supports italy

When did he say that?

No he said he loved football and wanted IT to win !

(It being football, no italy !)

https://football-italia.net/djokovic-i-hope-italy-win-but-only-in-the-evening/

he's a fan of ac milan, speaks italian, and spends a lot of time in italy, apparently

I knew he'd probably want Italy to win, stupid question to ask him after he'd just won Wimbledon though.