2022 Tennis (new balls please - grand slam threads are waiting to take their seats)

[Toby Gymshorts]

97 out of top 100 of the men have been vaccinated, that's a really high rate. I wonder who the other two are?

As for Djokovic this situation was entirely avoidable as it appears he's consistently lied and told half truths.

I'm expecting him to find it difficult to compete in the French Open now.

Good, frankly. He appears to be a lying bellend at best and at worst an anti-vaxx crank who's now undoubtedly going to be some kind of hero figure to the kind of people who can't walk and chew gum.

[Antepli Ejderha]

France have announced new rules for sporting events meaning he'll not be playing there either.

[Sits]

Allez la France!

[ad hoc]

France have announced new rules for sporting events meaning he'll not be playing there either.

Well, of course, he could play there, quite easily.

[ursus arctos]

His people in Beograd are threatening to sue the Australian authorities for 5 million euro in "damages" from his "imprisonment"

[Toby Gymshorts]

I wish them every ounce of luck in that endeavour. They're going to need it.

[Janik]

Well, of course, he could play there, quite easily.

Just as he could have done in Australia. He doesn't even have to get vaccinated - travel for the unvaccinated to Australia is not banned, it is just inconvenient. Two weeks of quarantine was all it would have taken for him to play the event without being jabbed.

But that doesn't appear to be an option he would take. Having cake and eating it is where he seems to be.

Darren Cahill surely made the key point: it should have been "no vaccination, no entry" for something as trivial as a tennis tournament.

Cahill's point is simple to the point of actually being absurd. It is so lacking nuance that it has sod all to do with the real world.

These immigration rules are general ones, not Tennis specific. As such they would be breaching basic anti-discrimination legislation if they didn't include exemptions for medical reasons. Because there are some people out there with genuine medical reasons why they can't be jabbed, and some of these will need to travel to Australia for work reasons. Now it is unlikely (though not impossible) that anyone whose job is a pro Tennis player will have such a medical condition... but to repeat these are not rules for the Aussie Open, they are rules for everyone who wants to travel to the country to pursue their profession. Which is what a Tennis pro playing one of the years major Tennis events is doing. Tennis players have a clear right not to have stricter rules than the general ones arbitrarily applied to their work.

Once you have exemptions, someone who doesn't want to meet the requirements is going to try to bend the situation to make that exemption apply to them. What needed to happen was the government being much more clear and decisive with Tennis Australia and others that Djokovic absolutely didn't merit that and wouldn't be let in, and if he wanted to play in Melbourne he had to go down the other route of entry, i.e. sit on his arse in a hotel room for two weeks.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Hope this isn't too facetious in the middle of a serious discussion, but I did giggle at the HIGNFY tweet a few days ago "Not all gloom and doom for Novak Djokovic as he bags a window seat".

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Zverev ejected from Acapulco tournament (singles and doubles) for "unsportsmanlike behaviour", to wit angrily striking the umpire's chair four times with his racket (damn close to the umpire's foot in one case), along with a volley of abusive insutls.

He really is a loathsome tosser. Hardly the kind of behaviour which inclines one to take his word over his ex-gf's with regard to her allegations of abuse. What with the dickheadish anti-vaxxer Djokovic, and slippery gamesmanship arsehole Tsitsipas, the top four or five of the men's game at present has possibly the highest concentration of hugely dislikeable players ever. I mean Medvedev is hardly likeable, but he's the best of that quartet personality-wise.

[ursus arctos]

I wonder if the fact that his last singles match ended at 4:54 am had anything to do with that

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

A pity really that Kyrgios isn't really any good (in singles at least) or the next generation could be quite a bunch.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I wonder if the fact that his last singles match ended at 4:54 am had anything to do with that

I dare say that may have tipped him over the edge, and count for a (very small) bit of mitigation. But his obnoxious behaviour was very much in character, based on his record over the last 5 years or so.

[ursus arctos]

Having now seen the clip, his first strike is much closer to the umpire's feet than I had expected. He seemed untroubled by the chance that he may have hit the person rather than the chair.

[Ray de Galles]

Footage here :

https://twitter.com/eurosport/status/1496508873259237376?s=21

[Janik]

Yeah, that is a degree worse than Pliskova's similar in description offence. Her actions were pretty horrid (see here), but what Zverev did is deliberate violent intimidation. The ATP needs to suspend him for that... and if they don't Umpires need to refuse to officiate any of his games. But then he should already be suspended for other reasons. And isn't.

[Jimski]

Vesely is one tie-break away from ensuring Djokovic loses the number one spot. (I wouldn't put any money on Vesely though...)

[Jimski]

Vesely does it! Medvedev will be number one from Monday.

First time someone outside the big four has been number one since 2004.

[Janik]

I wouldn't put any money on Vesely though...

Jiri had never lost to Djokovic before... and still hasn't. OK, it was only one previous meeting, but winning records against Novak are pretty thin on the ground.

Vesely's best hope for maintaining this until one of their careers ends is to play Djokovic on no more than one further occasion.

[ad hoc]

If we're looking for positive men's tennis players, apparently after his semi final win in Dubai yesterday, Rublev was handed the pen to write on the camera lens as seems to be the thing these days, but rather than signing it wrote "No war"

It may not be much but I suspect it takes some courage for a Russian in the public eye to stand again Putin in any way

[delicatemoth]

Andrei Rublev, icon(ic camera) painter.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Very good, dm. On the topic of Russian tennis players, I was wondering, given Medvedev's profile as new ATP #1, whether he might already be receiving threatening messages from some malevolent Russian state agency warning him not to make any public anti-invasion comment. (I know nothing of his record, if any, on Russian political matters.)

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I presume Norrie gets into the top ten on the back of reaching the final in Mexico?

[Janik]

No, still 12th in the live rankings. He will climb to 10 if he beats, um, some fella called Nadal in the title match.

And to save you the trouble of future questions like that, here is your go to resource:- https://live-tennis.eu/en/atp-live-ranking
For completeness, the same site also has the WTA one (and race standings, doubles, with age cut-offs and plenty more):- https://live-tennis.eu/en/wta-live-ranking

[Janik]

Oh, and Medvedev sort of, nearly, criticised the invasion. Ish. If you look at what he said kindly. Which there isn't really any reason to do.
"In this moment, you understand that tennis sometimes is not that important," he said.
He continued, "By being a tennis player, I want to promote peace all over the world. We play in so many different countries. I've been in so many countries as a junior and as a pro. It's just not easy to hear all this news."

Which isn't that different in substance from some quotes from Rublev earlier in the week... but is somehow more mealy-mouthed in it's tone and Rublev's essentially similar sentiments are more direct and cutting. "In these moments you realize that my match is not important. It's not about my match, how it affects me. Because what's happening is much more terrible," Rublev said. "You realize how important it is to have peace in the world and to respect each other no matter what and to be united.... We should take care of our earth and of each other. This is the most important thing."

[Jimski]

Nadal won the 3rd ATP title of his career in this tournament at Acapulco (back in its clay days) way back in 2005. Now he's won his 91st title there 17 years later. Amazing really, as back when he was in his late 20s it didn't look like he'd last much longer due to the toll his playing style seemed to be taking on his body. Instead here he is on 857 consecutive weeks in the top 10 and counting - that stat is *way* ahead of anyone else. (Connors is second if you're wondering, on 788.)