Faulkner

That Tsitsipas/Zverev match certainly took a turn... BTW Sharapova out of Cincy. Buzarnescu out of Cincy and USO, understandably.

Yikes indeed.

That’s why the idea of regeneration on Doctor Who was so ingenious. Even though there’s continuity and the Doctor is technically the same character, they essentially reboot the show every few years with a brand-new actor/actress in the lead with a new cast and often a new feel/vision/tone. Not that the changes don’t rankle fans and traditionalists (oh boy, they do), but change is built into the show in a way that keeps things fresh and giving fans something to look forward to and get excited about. I’m also thinking about shows like Degrassi that reboot with new generations and manage to resonate with new fans. 90210, Melrose, Dallas, they could have worked a lot better.

Yeah, and who knows? It might be good. It’s a unique opportunity to explore familiar characters in new situations. How do they adjust to old age, children, societal shifts, etc? And if people don’t want to see the revivals/reboots, there is so much TV/streaming content being produced right now that there’s no way to keep up with it. The reason why we mostly hear about the reboots/revivals is the very reason why networks do them: they already have great brand recognition when everyone’s fighting for market share.

Venus is clearly in distress with her injured knee, but, man, does she compete.

Caroline Garcia trounced Sharapova, Khachanov beat Isner in straights after Isner suffered a point penalty after smashing a racquet, Svitolina sent Konta packing, Sabalenka pushed past Wozniacki, and Haase humbled Shapovalov. With Djokerson beating Herbert/Mahut in dubs, it makes up for Novak losing early.

Shapovalov follows up Fognini with another hothead in Haase. That should be fun. Sucks that we can’t watch any of the other women’s matches tonight. But...

Novak did play well at Wimbledon. People can hate on him all they want. He still won his 13th slam. I wonder if Tsitsipas learned anything from that match with Sascha in D.C. I haven’t seen any Sabalenka matches recently so I was surprised to see a wild-haired (but still hot) Dmitry Tursunov as her coach.

The show needed another conservative, but not that familiar with her.

Nice turnarounds for Venus and Simona. This.

I see Novak is back to his early 2018 form. Oy. No bueno. I guess if he loses it gives him more time to prepare for Cincy. Venus and Cirstea have very similar grunts at times.

Tiafoe played pretty well, except those two shocking TBs that cost him the match. Shot selection still can be iffy with him. Chanda Rubin has such a pleasant voice. Venus and her knee.

Oh god yes. Chelsea just makes me itch. I never liked Friends much, but when it started Schwimmer/Ross was my favorite. By the end, I despised him and felt he was easily the worst character and actor in that cast. I’m cringing at the thought of him and Messing together, but most of Grace’s love interests are terrible. Quick addendum: Schwimmer came into our work office one day maybe five or six years ago to do a reading of some script he was producing, and I was surprised at how attractive he was. It doesn’t come across for me onscreen.

Oh noes.

After that appalling loss to Baghdatis in which he looked like he didn’t GAF and that really bad match against Goffin in DC, this was a great turnaround. He didn’t fall off a cliff like some of his compatriots (Sock, Fritz).

It’s not that difficult to get the facts right about a player’s history. (His ATP profile has the info. Wikipedia isn’t always correct, but it’s right there in the first paragraph of Frances’s entry.) In all likelihood, the announcer himself didn’t do the research, but still it’s unprofessional that it wasn’t caught. That was Frances’s first ATP title, so I can imagine he was touchy about it. Obviously, Frances didn’t sweat it, as he came out and won his match. Meanwhile, Fognini and Shapovalov are battling verbally on the changeover. Wow.

Just saw that. Not sure the extent of the injury, but her screams brought back memories of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Mary Pierce. Hope it wasn’t that bad. In other news, this is so disrespectful from the announcer:

Wow, Cornet knocked out Kerber.