12 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

Patrick McEnroe is just awful. He was a horrible player, coach and announcer.

I'm sure the bias Hall of Fame will put him in. They are already pimping to get in Brad Gilbert who never should be in it!

John Isner will be next! Watch!!

Whoa, if they do that, the HOF will be diminished. The only way Brad Gilbert could realistically make a bid for the HOF is as a coach i.e. contributor. It certainly won’t be for his commentary or interviews.

6 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Whoa, if they do that, the HOF will be diminished. The only way Brad Gilbert could realistically make a bid for the HOF is as a coach i.e. contributor. It certainly won’t be for his commentary or interviews.

It's for coaching for Brad but I still feel he shouldn't get in.

Edited July 18, 20241 yr by Soapsuds

7 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

It's for coaching for Brad but I still feel he shouldn't get in.

Unfortunately, just off the strength of seeing two American players (Roddick, Gauff) each to a major title, he’ll likely get in.

8 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

This, on top of Emma Navarro’s statement that she doesn’t respect Wen Qinwen makes the off court drama far and away more interesting than the dull on court matches.

This is the most dull Olympic Games for tennis since I first saw tennis at the Olympic Games in 1988.

Tokyo 2020 wasn’t great either but I ran out of f*cks to give about this competition days ago.

Apparently, Shapovalov has been defaulted in another match. This time for swearing at a spectator, according to a report I read.

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Apparently, Shapovalov has been defaulted in another match. This time for swearing at a spectator, according to a report I read.

He told the spectator the f word with some others. The spectator had been hassling him but he didn't let the umpire know. The umpire defaulted him for it. Even though his opponent told the umpire that the spectator was harassing Shapo.

Shapo even asked for just a warning to point penalty but the umpire refused and called the tournament supervisor.

The default caused Shapo to lose all the points and money he had gotten for winning the previous rounds.

And Shapo is out of wildcards/exemptions from his injury. 

Edited August 3, 20241 yr by Soapsuds

5 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

He told the spectator the f word with some others. The spectator had been hassling him but he didn't let the umpire know. The umpire defaulted him for it. Even though his opponent told the umpire that the spectator was harassing Shapo.

Shapo even asked for just a warning to point penalty but the umpire refused and called the tournament supervisor.

The default caused Shapo to lose all the points and money he had gotten for winning the previous rounds.

And Shapo is out of wildcards/exemptions from his injury. 

Did the tournament officials ever deal with the unruly fan? Shapovalov really should have insisted that the tournament official or director come out and deal with the situation.
I remember years ago, before it was called The Miami Open,(maybe it was still the Sony Open? I don’t remember) some drunk racist guy in the crowd kept harassing Serena Williams and calling her a “lazy Black” or something and she refused to keep playing until the guy was removed. The tournament supervisor radioed security, security arrived and the guy was removed. Serena went right back to the match.

In that case, I think the tournament supervisor talked to Serena and there were one or two people in the crowd that pointed the guy out but it did take time for them to remove the guy because in tennis it seems to need to go through three chains of command before anyone can seemingly make a decision.

Damn.  I missed most of the Djokovic/Alcaraz match and apparently is was really good.  I just caught the last tie-break.  Novak finally gets the gold medal that was the only thing he was missing from his unbelievable career. 

US Open Wildcards

Wildcard News

Practicing for their doubles match at the US Open.

 

Jannik Sinner doping!?🤔

Edited August 20, 20241 yr by Soapsuds

No, he's been cleared.

Sinner cleared after testing positive twice for banned substance

So, Sinner will lose points and prize money from Cincinnati. Hm. How does a physiotherapist not know that anabolic steroids are banned? They’ve been banned since the 80s, at minimum. Also, as an athlete, shouldn’t you be asking questions about what someone else is putting on your body? The excuses of tainted beef and pasta and cocaine kisses…it’s all a bit ridiculous now.

11 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

So, Sinner will lose points and prize money from Cincinnati. Hm. How does a physiotherapist not know that anabolic steroids are banned? They’ve been banned since the 80s, at minimum. Also, as an athlete, shouldn’t you be asking questions about what someone else is putting on your body? The excuses of tainted beef and pasta and cocaine kisses…it’s all a bit ridiculous now.

One article said the points were coming from IW? Hm, I guess the reference to Cincinnati is indicating that points are coming off now, rather than next year at IW? 
Also, the physio massaged this “mystery” gel without the use of gloves. Hm.

Some players are also grumbling that the length of time that the investigation took place seemed very brief. The turnaround time in days/weeks rather than the standard time of months, suggesting a lack of thoroughness. Also some players hinting that Sinner’s ranking spared him. We know that this has been known to happen with high ranked players, specifically on the ATP side (see: Andre Agassi) when a player fails a doping test and it is concealed and/or consequences are muted or eliminated altogether.