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Asterisks and the Grand Slam: US Open 2020

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    Asterisks and the Grand Slam: US Open 2020

    Well, the tourney starts today and nobody else has claimed thread starting rights, so here goes.

    Remember back in the day, last Grand Slam event, when the only distraction was choking clouds of wildfire smoke billowing over Melbourne and damaging the health and the performance of the competitors? Those were the days. Now, the wildfires are mainly on the other side of the continent from the tourney, and all the organisers have to worry about is a global pandemic.

    No spectators, no qualifying rounds.... all very far from business as usual. And whilst there aren't that many no-shows over the tour-level professional ranks as a whole, there are by strange co-incidence six of the top ten women (by current ranking) missing. The most depleted women's singles slam field since Sue Barker won in Paris amidst some kind of prize money related boycott?

    And of course neither defending singles champion is participating.

    Paire has already had to drop out with COVID-19.

    Any thoughts?

    #2
    The Australian and French still had major absentees in the women as late as 1980.

    Novak is red hot favourite in the men's but there are still many women in this who could beat Serena. What we don't know is how relative lack of warm-up tournaments will affect players. Could be lots of injury withdrawals.

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      #3
      Andy Murray has come back from two sets down to take the third and fourth sets on tie-breaks against Yoshihito Nishioka. And has just won the fifth set 6-4.

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        #4
        Originally posted by Vicarious Thrillseeker View Post
        Andy Murray has come back from two sets down to take the third and fourth sets on tie-breaks against Yoshihito Nishioka. And has just won the fifth set 6-4.
        Wow. Absolutely wow. That was just astonishing from Murray. He was also a service break down in the third and a service break down in the fifth and still managed to win both sets. 4 hours 38 minutes. The hips will be sore tomorrow.

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          #5
          Wow indeed!

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            #6
            Ka Pliskova's early exit combined with the missing 5 of the top 7 players means there's now only one player left in the women's singles draw (Kenin) who is currently ranked higher than Serena. Not that many players left ranked higher than Konta either, could be interesting.

            Norrie makes his first ever third round of a slam and must fancy his chances of making it at least to the 4th round.

            Murray takes on Felix A-A today in R2.

            V annoying that it's no longer available on Eurosport.

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              #7
              Yesterday was not great for UK singles players. Konta out to the much lower ranked Cirstea, Murray nowhere near equal to Felix A-A. Evans a set all and 5-6 down at suspension of play, fingers crossed the delay suits him.

              Murray is a driven man, isn't he, to keep trying so hard in his circumstances.

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                #8
                Do commentators call him Sir Andy Murray while he's playing or is that an off-court thing?

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                  #9
                  All British players out now, apparently. I've not really been following the tournament much, which is unusual. Doesn't feel quite like the real thing to me. When you've got players refusing to play because of health concerns, it doesn't sit quite right with me.

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                    #10
                    Agreed. Of course, the COVID thing comes on top of the matches no longer being availalbe on Eurosport, which hardly helps either.

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                      #11
                      It's a shame the winners will get asterisks because they may well have won it anyway in a normal year. I don't think winning it devalues Novak's eventual career Slam total, for example. Serena would be less certain but she'd have still have done well just to be the best American in it.

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                        #12
                        Tiafoe beats the improving Fucsovics with surprising ease to move into the last 16. There are very few heartwarming stories to be found anywhere in elite sport but Tiafoe's progress is certainly one. I see washed out old doubles player Pospisil continues his comeback with another great win.

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                          #13
                          Djokovic defaulted for hitting a lineswoman with a ball after being broken.

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                            #14
                            Wow. Moment of madness.

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                              #15
                              Not sure what room there was for debate there (apparently there was a lengthy discussion before he walked?). I'd say "he couldn't do that again if he tried", but to be fair he probably could.

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                                #16
                                The commentators on the BBC all agree there was no room for debate.

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                                  #17
                                  These will be the first grand slam semi-finals without one of Djokovic, Nadal or Federer since Roland Garros 2004, which is a long time ago. To save you looking it up, those semi-finalists were Gaudio, Coria, Nalbandian and Henman. I've forgotten about/never heard of Coria and eventual champion Gaudio.

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                                    #18
                                    There will be a new men's slam singles champion of course. But also there will be at least one new slam singles finalist: the only two men left in the draw who have previously made a Slam final, Thiem and Medvedev, are in the same half of the draw.

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                                      #19
                                      From the BBC rolling report:

                                      Ben Rothenberg, who covers tennis for the New York Times, reports that Djokovic said when he was pleading his case: "She doesn't have to go to the hospital for this." He added: "You're going to choose a default in this situation? My career, Grand Slam, centre stage."

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                                        #20
                                        It's a bad year for Novak's public image: this* added to the COVID case.

                                        *Not just the hitting of the line judge (which was unlucky but reckless and avoidable) but the strop about being defaulted and apparently now skipping the press conference.

                                        According to The Guardian:

                                        Your 2020 US Open men’s singles champion will be one of these players:
                                        • Pablo Carreno Busta
                                        • Denis Shapovalov
                                        • David Goffin
                                        • Borna Coric
                                        • Jordan Thompson
                                        • Alexander Zverev
                                        • Matteo Berrettini
                                        • Andrey Rublev
                                        • Frances Tiafoe
                                        • Daniil Medvedev
                                        • Vasek Pospisil
                                        • Alex de Minaur
                                        • Felix Auger-Aliassime
                                        • Dominic Thiem
                                        Huge asterisk obviously against whomever gets there, especially if it proves to be the only Slam he ever wins.
                                        Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 06-09-2020, 21:08.

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                                          #21
                                          I won't put a "huge asterisk obviously" against the winner of this. Nadal could have turned up injured and Federer hasn't got past the quarter finals at Flushing Meadow in six years. It's not like Wimbledon 1973 or the Australian Opens of the 70s and 80s.

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                                            #22
                                            Really poor of Djokovic to skip the press conference. He really needed to come out and apologise, and accept the result with good grace.

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                                              #23
                                              Default is meant to be automatic when you hit an official with a ball or racquet. It doesn't always happen because sometimes umpires bottle it.* The good ones don't and follow the rules as they are meant to apply to all, cf. the Carlos Ramos applying equally automatic penalties against Serena in the 2018 Women's final... and then being told by some quarters he was a racist for doing so.

                                              * - the highest profile example of a bottle job I can remember was Guillermo Coria, he who passed jwdd27 by. Coria was a clay court specialist, so this was the French Open again in about 2003. He was up against Martin Verkerk, the out-of-nowhere kid (and quickly back into it); Coria totally expected to win, just as everyone else thought he should, but Verkerk was staying with him and then took the first set on a tie-break. Coria reacted by absolutely hurling his racquet in frustration ("plus fort" to quote the commentators). And it clipped a ball kid who was scrambling rapidly to get out of the way, but just wasn't quick enough. It absolutely had to be a default, but (to be fair to the Umpire) the tournament referee let him off with just a warning. A terrible decision. But the incident completely broke Coria's focus, and he played like a drain for the next two sets to lose in three.

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                                                #24
                                                Oh, and no-one ever thought this is what it was going to take to produce the next Men's Slam champion.

                                                In decreasing order of likeliness we have:-
                                                Just plain defeat (Cilic)
                                                Injury (del Potro, Federer, Wawrinka)
                                                Incomplete recovery from surgery (Murray)
                                                A default (Djokovic)
                                                A pandemic (Nadal)

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                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                                  It's a bad year for Novak's public image: this* added to the COVID case.

                                                  *Not just the hitting of the line judge (which was unlucky but reckless and avoidable) but the strop about being defaulted and apparently now skipping the press conference.

                                                  According to The Guardian:

                                                  Your 2020 US Open men’s singles champion will be one of these players:
                                                  • Pablo Carreno Busta
                                                  • Denis Shapovalov
                                                  • David Goffin
                                                  • Borna Coric
                                                  • Jordan Thompson
                                                  • Alexander Zverev
                                                  • Matteo Berrettini
                                                  • Andrey Rublev
                                                  • Frances Tiafoe
                                                  • Daniil Medvedev
                                                  • Vasek Pospisil
                                                  • Alex de Minaur
                                                  • Felix Auger-Aliassime
                                                  • Dominic Thiem
                                                  Huge asterisk obviously against whomever gets there, especially if it proves to be the only Slam he ever wins.
                                                  Medvedev now the favourite? Probably. Shapovalov would be ironic, given his own beaning an Umpire experience.

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