Anyone like Tennis?

that was quite a comeback...

As a kid, at one point I caught a great tennis teaser. I followed my parents and forced them to sign me up for classes. My neighbor had been studying for some time, so she showed me the basics in her backyard and somehow turned me on. After some time my parents agreed and signed me up for my dream tennis lessons .... What was my surprise and despair when I wanted to hit the ball flying in my direction during the first class, I missed and the ball hit my eye. It wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the sand that got into my eye and for the rest of the lessons I couldn't open my eye. This is how my adventure with being a tennis player ended

Zverev takes down Djokovic, will advance to the Gold medal round at the Olympics. No golden slam but the grand slam is still in play.

Top star Novak Djoković is leaving the Tokyo Olympics without a singles medal.
One day after his semi-final defeat against Alexander Zverev, the world number one surprisingly also lost the bronze medal match against Spaniard Pablo Carreño Busta 4:6, 7:6 (8:6), 3:6 today.
Afterwards, the 20-time Grand Slam tournament winner gave up the bronze match together with Nina Stojanovic in the mixed competition.
The bronze medal from 2008 in Beijing thus remains his only singles success at the Olympics.

I was on the tennis team in HS

Do you still play?

Wasnt quite good enough for college tennis. I play when i get the chance. Still pretty good.

In a stunning match from both players Alexander Zverev became an Olympic champion.

Congrats to him

Lots of really great stories coming out of the US Open. A few years ago, there was a lot of concern about what tennis would look like without Serena and the Big Three. Now we know and it looks great.

- On the women's side, Canada's Leylah Fernandez has been playing some amazing, fearless tennis. I watched her take out Osaka and it was great tennis. Emma Raducanu from the UK has been chalking up impressive wins as well. They are both teenagers.
- Add to the teenager movement, Spain's Carlos Alcaraz. 18 years old, playing like a future number one.
- Djokovic is going for the calendar slam. Pretty much the last standing member of the Big 3 and the greatest of all time, I watched his match last night vs Brooksby and he started a little flat but played into it. There are definitely a couple of next generation guys who can stop him but he's the guy to beat right now.
- American tennis: no players in the quarters for the first time, but several players making good runs, especially Brooksby. That guy is for real. If he can stay healthy (and improve his serve) he'll be top five. Shelby Rogers looked great in beating #1 Barty. The women have looked great for years, but I'm a lot more optimistic on the men's side than I've been since Sampras and Agassi retired.

Dream matches for the US Open finals. On the women's side, two teenagers playing phenomenal tennis, both looking like the new face of the women's game. On the men's side greatest player of all time going for the calendar year slam against one of his strongest young rivals.

It’s the major news story over here. It’s the first major tennis trophy won by a British woman since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977, during the Queen’s silver jubilee.

what's also unique about it is both women are from Canada and both are only nineteen...

Medvedev beat Djokovic in straight sets...

So there's been a smoldering debate about the Underhand Serve going on for a while. Some claim it is unsporting and unprofessional, others that it is completely legal and a way to counter players like Nadal and Medvedev who stand in another zip code to return. Nick Kyrgios has used it recently. In a legendary French Open match, Michael Chang used it to unhinge Ivan Lendl (but was forever referred to by the French crowds as "the trickster"). So here's an analysis of the pro results of the underhand serve. More aces, more winners!

Great interview with Serena Williams in the run up to the King Richard movie coming out.

King Richard movie trailer

Not sure how many are following the Djokovic saga in Australia. Background for non-tennis folks. Djokovic is by any objective metric the best men's tennis player of all time. This doesn't make him popular with fans of the second and third best players who were being hailed as the best just a few years ago and are still playing. Djokovic is also a very "complex" character.

- He is emotional on court, showing frustration when things aren't going well and was DQ'd from the US Open for accidentally hitting a linesperson with a ball hit in anger.
+ He was the first person to show support for Naomi Osaka when she was having difficulties last year, way vocal in supporting the WTA when it pulled out of China due the Peng Shuai situation and is well known for reaching out to other players in times of difficulty.
- He's completely tone deaf and routinely does stupid things especially in regards to Covid. He sponsored a tennis tournament last year with no Covid protocols which ended up being a super spreader event. He is an anti-vaxxer (more towards he has concerns about what he puts in his body) although he's not an ass about it.
+ He has been a vocal champion for the journeyman player, driving for a more equitable distribution of prize money so that people outside of the top 100 can make a living. His aggressive activism has upset the cozy relationship between the top players and the tournaments.
- He surrounds himself with people telling him he's great and shielding him from the impact of his less savory decisions. He's considered a national hero in Serbia.
+ He's generally very thoughtful in press conferences and doesn't engage in off court beefs.

All this creates a perfect storm in Australia. Djokovic has won down under nine times including the last three making him almost as dominant there as Nadal is at the French. Tennis Australia really wants him to play. Australia has been very aggressive about their Covid protocols even to the point of refusing to let citizens back into the country and the country is 95% vaccinated, unlike Djokovic. So Djokovic applies for an exemption to get into the country to play and receives one. This causes an uproar in Australia and smells of favoritism but Tennis Australia says he went through an anonymous process and was approved by the government. He shows up in Australia at 3am and is detained by Australian authorities who take his phone and demand he show proof of why he got an exemption. He replies that he would be happy to do so but he needs to call his team and it's 3am. Government officials say screw that and revoke his VISA before 8am and detain him in an immigrant hotel. There is a huge outcry in Serbia with Djokovic's mother saying his is being tortured and his father comparing it to the crucifixion of Jesus. (Djokovic is pretty collected and calm though.) Djokovic pulls in his team and files an appeal. The court agrees to hear the case in an expedited manner (against the government's wishes) after Tennis Australia says they need to know if Djokovic is playing. In the hearing, the judge makes the government show a timeline and they look pretty bad. The key points are Djokovic tested positive for Covid mid-December and claimed exemption from that. (Of course being Djokovic he was seen without a mask in public events the day after he tested positive.) The government was pretty draconian in ensuring Djokovic had no opportunity to provide proof of his medical exemption or challenge the government story. The judge was exceptionally critical of the government and ordered Djokovic released. Djokovic fans were pepper sprayed outside the courthouse after approaching a car they thought was carrying Djokovic. But the government can still make an example of Djokovic and administratively rescind his VISA which will result in a three year ban from entering the country. (Given his age, this would result in what would effectively be a lifetime ban from the Australian Open.) There is an election coming up and trashing Djokovic might play well with a population that has endured some of the most stringent Covid controls in the world. We await their decision while Djokovic hits the practice courts at the Open.

Djoković claims to have tested positive for corona on 16 December. But the digital test result says otherwise. This and a suspected false statement could now become a turning point.

Where we sit today, Djokovic is the top seeded player in the draw, his visa has been revoked because it supposedly threatens to inflame “anti-vaccination sentiment” and he is in detention awaiting a court hearing on his appeal. Two clear observations come to me: Djokovic is an idiot and the Australian government is clearly trying to scapegoat him after approving his paperwork before arrival.