Faulkner

Anthony Herrera was SO handsome. Just a knockout.

Robert Gant STILL looks amazing.

Whoever does Wendy’s social media...wow.

Interesting how they start in with the drama instead of the funny, happy stuff in typical RH trailer fashion.

Yeah, there are a lot of things about Sharapova’s situation that don’t wash. It just makes her insolent attitude that much harder to take now. Not to mention the willful amnesia of the tennis media, who have never truly held her accountable.

Tennis players are tested a lot and are usually hyperviligant about what they consume, and if a massive star like Sharapova can get caught flat-footed and outed, I imagine anyone can. There are always TUEs (therapeutic use exemptions), of course.

That’s funny, but her body looks great actually if you like an athletic figure.

Tel Aviv pride.

He certainly would have been more physically appealing than Wally, but again smug Matt Reardon taints him in my memory. Maybe if I’d seen him as Ned, I’d think differently?

Some of it is it personal preference, of course. I like Novak and Serena, so I don’t mind as much seeing them dominate. (And both of them are fiery personalities who quite often got themselves into tough situations and had to Houdini their way out of them, which for me was nerve-racking but entertaining, and they weren’t crowd favorites for much of their runs, so they appealed to my Aquarian rebelliousness lol. Serena has only *really* been embraced recently, and I’ve just accepted Novak will always have legions of haters, even though his behavior has improved markedly since his childish early days.) Steffi and Federer always seemed cold IMO and yet had these worldwide cults supporting them. But aside from that, I started really following tennis 1995-96, and Steffi was winning pretty much everything but the Australian those years, just as Roger hoovered up nearly everything 2004-07, leaving Rafa content with Roland Garros. Steffi still had some great matches, especially with ASV, but tennis never really captivated me until there were multiple *real* contenders for Slams like Serena, Venus, the evil Hingis, Davenport, and then the floodgates opened in the early 2000s with the resurgent Capriati, the Belgians, et al. And I liked the stories of the Big 4 men, later on, all pushing each other. I never felt like the men’s tour really had that during the Sampras/Agassi years, and Pete was, to me, a not particularly compelling servebot who rained aces to win matches. More power to him, and he was clearly a more complete player than someone like Isner or Karlovic, but I just didn’t find that rootable. Speaking of Arantxa, she is living her BEST life:

I found Wally Kurth so charmless and snide as Ned Ashton that it’s hard to imagine him as Tad (even though WK certainly aged more gracefully than MEK, who just looked uncomfortable and tetchy in those later years on AMC). The young MEK was just a star and dead sexy.

More power to Nadal, but it’s the same as the Patriots or the Warriors or Manchester United back in the day winning every year. Why follow a story when you know the ending? There’s nothing anyone can do about it. The other players just have to get better or wait for Nadal to get worse.

Andy will get WCs wherever he wants, but he has a steep hill to climb. We will see. There’s more time to play yourself into some kind of form during the summer hardcourt season, but he has to be careful. Obviously, Wawrinka’s recovery from knee surgery has been quite protracted. I always thought the men’s tournaments from 2008-14 were fantastic because there was a real tussle between the Big 4, all of them pushing each other to be better on the various surfaces. But the women’s game from 2000-2010 was fabulous with Serena and Venus, Capriati, Mauresmo, Henin and Clijsters, Davenport, and a few others all vying for titles and creating classic matches. Much more interesting than seeing Steffi steamroll everyone, especially after Seles got stabbed.

Ouch at Ken Rosewall calling Thiem’s performance “disappointing” in front of tout le monde. Hey, I don’t think anyone is claiming Cecchinato is going to contending for Grand Slams yet, but it is impressive for someone who’d never won a match at a major to make a run to a semi and beat three straight seeded players (PCB, Goffin, Djokovic—all very good on clay) to do it. And he didn’t embarrass himself against Thiem, even if it was a straight set loss. Cecchinato isn’t the most savory character with the match-fixing allegation hanging over him, but he put together a good couple weeks. It’s more than most of the ATP will ever do.

Aside from the surprise Cecchinato run, the men’s tournament has been far less interesting than the women’s. I think that’s been the case since last year’s French. Still, Rafa’s defense skills are otherworldly. At one of the deuce points in the final game, Thiem hit about four balls that would have been stone-cold winners against anyone else, and Nadal retrieved them all.

Interesting.

Petko coming in with the snaps.

Ha, Simona dropped the first set in the first round to Ali Riske 1-6 but came back to win in three. This is what Ali just tweeted:

So who’s the best active WTA veteran player to not win a Slam at this point (now that Wozniacki and Halep have gotten over the hump)? Pliskova? Madison? I suppose Jankovic is a former No. 1 and GS finalist, but that ship has saaaaailed. Probably the same for former No. 2 and Wimbledon finalist Radwanska. Cibulkova and Bouchard have both made finals, but... no. At least not at this point, barring a huge Agassi-like turnaround. Errani, no. Safarova could eventually play herself back into a better position and have a Pennetta-like surprise title.

And Halep showed great focus and resilience. She has really improved incrementally over time.