2021 tennis (general, not an Aussie Open thread)

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Like most people I suspect, I'm struggling to care as much as usual about sport these days, what with a dangerous crisis in the US and a lethal global pandemic raging, but what the hell.

I was surpised, on looking back at the brief and sparsely attended 2020 Aussie Open thread (currently on page 4 of the Sport forum) to see that there was no mention on that of the Australian bush fire situation. To be fair, I think it was only the first day of qualifying, rather than any day of main draw play, where the tournament itself was affected. Nasty though, forced a few retirements in the first qualie round and no doubt did a lot of players a fair bit of no good, health-wise.

A bigger health issue stalks us all now of course, and we face a very odd timetable for the Aussie Open due to COVID restrictions including isolation periods etc. Main tourney not until Feb, but women's qualies already under way. Wiki doesn't even have a page yet for the men's singles.

I'll leave it to Janik to start the Slam thread as usual, which I think he normally doesn't do until the main event is imminent. But one thing worth noting from the women's qualies (in Doha!) [Edit: no, sorry, in Dubai actually.] is that British 20 year old Francesca Jones has won her Q1 match. As recently profiled on the BBC, she has fewer fingers and toes than most of us, so has done brilliantly against the odds to get to this level.

[ad hoc]

I'd just like to add here, some words for Ion Tiriac: Du-te dracu!

[Satchmo Distel]

How is the Australian Open still going ahead? I think there's a minimum quarantine period, which is why Kohli couln't get back to play for India even if his wife gave birth early.

[ad hoc]

This is ridiculous. Players getting the (positive) result of their test while they're in the middle of the match https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...positive-covid

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Ridiculous indeed. Something needs to change very quickly.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Francesca Jones has qualified for the Aussie Open main draw. The draw for which is still a few weeks off of course, in this strange world.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Andy Murray tests positive for COVID. Gutted for him, especially as he seems to be one of the most cautious players on the Tour.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Andy Murray tests positive, but said to be hopeful of making it to Australia.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

snap!

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Fair to say the run up to the event is not ideal. I wonder if a significant number out of the 72 players now having to isolate due to positive cases on their flights will withdraw from the tournament due to not feeling physically prepared.

Chaos hits Australian Open with dozens of competitors confined to hotel rooms | Sport | The Guardian

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Novak Djokovic has been branded a "tool" by Nick Kygrios after writing to the Aussie Open organisers making suggestions about training facilities and covid. When do they do the draw?

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Yes, I mentioned that a day or two ago on the Coronavirus and Sport thread - did wonder about putting it here instead. Haven't looked into the detail, but I instinctively side with Nick K on this one.

[ad hoc]

Djokovic wrote a letter complaining about the self isolation conditions and asking for exercise equipment etc. He claims that this was on behalf of everyone, and that he consulted with loads of others and did it in his name because he's the name that the authorities might listen to. The V.I.Players are however staying in Adelaide in nicer hotels than the hoi polloi so others feel like Djokovic has nothing to moan about. Meanwhile one of the women players posted videos of mice in her hotel room in Melbourne.

[fatbear]

Djokovic wrote a letter complaining about the self isolation conditions and asking for exercise equipment etc. He claims that this was on behalf of everyone, and that he consulted with loads of others and did it in his name because he's the name that the authorities might listen to. The V.I.Players are however staying in Adelaide in nicer hotels than the hoi polloi so others feel like Djokovic has nothing to moan about. Meanwhile one of the women players posted videos of mice in her hotel room in Melbourne.

and was instructed not to feed the mice !

[San Bernardhinault]

Djokovic might not be the best person to talk about quarantine and covid, given that he actually ran his own super-spreader event. He might have thought to keep his mouth shut and let someone else do the talking instead.

[Satchmo Distel]

I can't recall if Djokovic was known to be a dickhead before 2020 but the last 12 months have certainly cemented that status. When we rate his greatness (post-retirement) we'll have to separate the man and his talent (like various musicians).

[Janik]

When you are consistently able to make Nick Kyrgios the voice of sanity and reason, that ought to give pause for thought (and yes, Kyrgios has been calling it accurately on Djokovic for good long while now).

Meanwhile a player who would probably love to be stuck in a hotel room in Australia, because it would mean she was about to play again in her home-from-home slam, is instead wandering around a park on crutches. Again. Where is her career at? The same place it has been for five years or more - dead in the water. The transition to TV commentator/presenter (which Robson appears to be fairly natural at) is surely the next step.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

30.000 fans per day to be at Aussie Open, in the news today - see Coronavirus and Sport thread, which I suggest is the more appropriate one for this topic.

[fatbear]

Listening to my step-son who lives in Sydney, I get the impression that many Aussie's think there have now beaten the virus and they are now behaving with very few restrictions

Having seen the crowds at today's A-League fixtures I suspect a major outbreak is just around the corner.....

I hope I am wrong..............

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Good week so far for the British women in Melbourne: in the Gippsland trophy, Katie Boulter (entering with a protected ranking status) has followed up a one-sided R1 win with a R2 win over none other than Coco Gauff. Konta is also through to R3, as she should be given her rankiing/seeding. Boulter faces Osaka in R3.

I can't find any useful info on this point from a quick search on the bloody awful WTA website - maybe with half an hour to spare I might be able to dig something out of there - but from the relevant Wiki pages (WTA Tour 2021 page and WTA rankings page) there's a hint that what used to be called Premier-level events such as the new (or one-off?) Gippsland event have been rebranded as "WTA 500", without actually changing the bizarrely irregular points system which sees the winner get 470, rather than 500, points.

[Satchmo Distel]

More chaos in Australia. This tournament is clearly unfeasible:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/03/world...ntl/index.html

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

My guess would be it will still go ahead, but probably they will revisit their plans to have up to 30k fans a day in attendance.

[fatbear]

My guess would be it will still go ahead, but probably they will revisit their plans to have up to 30k fans a day in attendance.

50K a day ?!

[Janik]

Having brought the players to Oz from around the globe, both the organisers and competitors are going to be desperate to go ahead with the event.

Good week so far for the British women in Melbourne: in the Gippsland trophy, Katie Boulter (entering with a protected ranking status) has followed up a one-sided R1 win with a R2 win over none other than Coco Gauff. Konta is also through to R3, as she should be given her rankiing/seeding. Boulter faces Osaka in R3.

I can't find any useful info on this point from a quick search on the bloody awful WTA website - maybe with half an hour to spare I might be able to dig something out of there - but from the relevant Wiki pages (WTA Tour 2021 page and WTA rankings page) there's a hint that what used to be called Premier-level events such as the new (or one-off?) Gippsland event have been rebranded as "WTA 500", without actually changing the bizarrely irregular points system which sees the winner get 470, rather than 500, points.

Konta and Boulter both fell in R3. If they had made it through they would have been against each other. Ah well. Looking at Konta's score, (won the first set, lost the second and third in tie-breaks), she almost certainly will have had multiple match points along the way. In which case, painful. Boulter also won her opening set against Osaka, which means that despite defeat she can be very happy with her form (Kalinskaya and Gauff are notable wins). Oh, and Francesca Jones also made her tour debut in the Yarra Valley event, but was well beaten in R1 by a seed.

That means the only Brit still standing this week is Dan Evans, who was through to R3 of the Murray River Open (such nominal names for these things! Just call them Warm-Up Event A, for pity's sake). 'Was' because see above, which puts everything into question. Cameron Norrie went out in R1 of this, and Kyle Edmund wasn't playing at all (I haven't looked, is he even in Australia?).

[ad hoc]

Konta had 2 match points in the second set. On the flip side she saved 7 set points in that set before succumbing to the 8th, and then saved 8 match points in the third