Cincinatti Open

[jimlosaltos]

Wow, woke up to find this late night result: Big Foe through in 3 tough sets over aggressive hitting Lechecka.

ATP: "Frances Tiafoe survived a late-night scare from Jiri Lehecka at the Cincinnati Open, where the American prevailed 6-4, 6-7(10), 7-6(5) after converting his sixth match point on Friday.

The home favourite let slip three match points in the second-set tie-break and then held a 5-2 lead in the final set. But Lehecka, who was competing this week for the first time since retiring in the Madrid semi-finals due to a back injury, won three consecutive games and eventually forced a deciding-set tie-break.

Tiafoe, who trailed by a mini-break at 2/4 in the third-set tie-break, let out a sigh of relief after clinching the match and wrote, 'Whatever it takes' on the camera lens. He improved to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Lehecka and advanced to the quarter-finals after two hours, 52 minutes.

[jimlosaltos]

Women's Quarters.

[1] Iga Swiatek vs. Mirra Andreeva

Of course, Iga is a heavy favorite but I'd pay for a front row seat to this one. 17 yo no flag is growing like a plant sprouting a new leaf every hour.

3] Aryna Sabalenka vs. [10] Liudmila Samsonova

Is Saby's shoulder fully recovered?

[6] Jessica Pegula vs. Leylah Fernandez

Buffalo billionaihes$ defended her Rogers title.

(No Seeds) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Paula Badosa

WTA says "Paula has her swagger back" which is bad news for the aging Russian. How many cortisone shots can one shoulder take?

[jimlosaltos]

Jannik Sinner avenges Toronto over Andrey Rublev

You've got to see this point. Let's see if I can embed the vid from ATP. Wind must have been wicked, ball just dies mid-swing. Somehow Sinner adjusts but falls down and gets up for the next shot. Variety of shots in the rally is amazing.

Vid: Hot Shot: Sinner is down but not out! Italian falls but wins point in Cincinnati 2024

https://www.atptour.com/en/video/hot-shot-sinner-is-down-but-not-out-italian-falls-but-wins-point-in-cincinnati-2024

[jimlosaltos]

Iga over Andreeva in 3 sets but man, this kid is 17 years old!

Mirra had 12 aces vs Iga. While Iga is feeding bagels and breadsticks to top 20 players, Mirra takes her to 3, tough sets.

[jimlosaltos]

Ben Shelton v Sasha Zverev on serve at 4-3 Ben in the third -- despite Ben having saves all 7 BPs he's faced and converted 2/3 he had on Zverev. German got the tiebreak.

Dead even at 85 points won each.

So far, Ben has 13 aces to Zverev's 9, but the German has a slight edge on the first serve with 80% won vs 7%

Stay tuned, as they say/

[jeffreycounts]

I didn’t realize Leylah Fernandez got so far. She almost took out Pegula.

[jimlosaltos]

I didn’t realize Leylah Fernandez got so far. She almost took out Pegula.

Playing well and had a good run at Rogers Cup doubles with what looked like her sister? Strong resemblance.

[jimlosaltos]

Sabalenka takes out Iga 3 and 3. Makes US Open interesting?

Saby won 5 of 15 BPs and saved 4 of 6, so that was good enough. 5 aces. H2H now 3-8 with Iga on the positive right.

Paula Badosa won her quarter and has to play two matches back-to-back ..... but her semi with Pegula was just suspended, Pegual up 6-4, 3-4.

So ... it looks as if the two men's semifinals haven't even started yet, with play suspended. The two winners will have to play the semis and final, after the rain, after the women's final. At some point, I think they should just call it a tie, put both names on the trophy and let the players go to the next event.

These rain delays are getting to be a bit much. I think all Masters 1000s should be required to have a movable roof on one court.

[jimlosaltos]

From Randy Walker/ TennisPublisher:

"Mackie McDonald is playing the Cincinnati doubles final at 1 pm and is scheduled to play his first round singles match tonight not before 8:30 pm in Winston-Salem… will he get there in time?

[jimlosaltos]

From Randy Walker/ TennisPublisher:

"Mackie McDonald is playing the Cincinnati doubles final at 1 pm and is scheduled to play his first round singles match tonight not before 8:30 pm in Winston-Salem… will he get there in time?

[jimlosaltos]

Sabalenka sure looks ready for the US Open ! Wins WTA 1000 Cinci over Pegula.

WTA: "Sabalenka responded by breaking Pegula for a third and final time, closing out the 75-minute win with a clean service hold. She finished the match with 29 winners, including 10 aces, to 23 unforced errors.

Sabalenka's victory sealed a perfect week for the 26-year-old. She did not lose a set across her five victories, which included her first straight-set victory over No.1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. With wins over Swiatek and Pegula, she improved to 5-4 against Top 10 opposition this season.

[jimlosaltos]

Sinner wins Cinci title over Tiafoe TB and 2. Points for determination in tough conditions, and coming up with clutch shots.
Not so good going into USO: Hip still appears to bother him. That's a long time.

ATP: "This week was the perfect example of a champion finding a way to win despite not being at his absolute sharpest. The Italian was seemingly hampered by his hip, at times favouring it and limping between points.

But when Sinner needed to, he produced jaw-dropping ball-striking to knock down every challenge in front of him. He played a tie-break fitting of his top seed to take the lead against a resurgent Tiafoe, who also persevered to reach the final, saving two match points in his semi-final against Holger Rune.

[jimlosaltos]

ATP: Did You Know?
The 2024 Cincinnati Open attracted a record attendance of 205,068, marking the first time the tournament drew more than 200,000 fans as a single-week event.

[stotty]

ATP: Did You Know?
The 2024 Cincinnati Open attracted a record attendance of 205,068, marking the first time the tournament drew more than 200,000 fans as a single-week event.

That's amazing considering when I watched some of the matches there were plenty of empty seats. What's the cost of a seat?

Sinner's hip injury is a little worrying despite his lights out serving in the final. Do we know what type of injury it is? Not a Murray type issue I hope?

[stroke]

Sinner really played well in the final. Tiafoe played a great 1st set, but Sinner was just too good, taking the ball on so early on both sides and hitting such a big ball. The 2nd set, Sinner was pretty much unplayable. Ping pong video game tennis at its best.