US Open

[jimlosaltos]

On the radio the drama is unbelievable. Sinner has snapped his wrist while Draper can hardly stand up and is vomiting all over the place. It's like a bad night at A&E.

Is this actually true? Radio commentators do like to dramatise, especially the ones I'm listening to.

In the end Draper threw up four times -- and not one of those made the USO highlight clip <g>. I presume it was from the high humidity.
Draper was definitely not well. Could barely move by the end.

While Draper will get over his malady soon, Sinner's fall on his wrist is problematic. Much like when Sinner fell at Indian Wells then lost vs Carlos, This time, Sinner made a sharp stop near the wall, his rear leg slipped out, and he stopped his fall with his left hand. Actually ended up winning the point after a great get on the fall. Needs to learn to tuck and roll?

But his left wrist clearly bothered him a lot through the next set, although he seemed to recover ability to hit his backhand in the final set.

What it will be like Sunday is someone else's guess. It's potentially serious. I'm sure they'll shoot him up and tape it up. But wrists are complex delicate things.

[stroke]

Sinner with a betting implied probability of 80% winning vs Fritz.

[stroke]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/v7Qf5j5cMUsGeBh87

I pretty much agree with Intuitive except for the serve checkbox. I would give Fritz the edge there.

[stotty]

In the end Draper threw up four times -- and not one of those made the USO highlight clip <g>. I presume it was from the high humidity.
Draper was definitely not well. Could barely move by the end.

While Draper will get over his malady soon, Sinner's fall on his wrist is problematic. Much like when Sinner fell at Indian Wells then lost vs Carlos, This time, Sinner made a sharp stop near the wall, his rear leg slipped out, and he stopped his fall with his left hand. Actually ended up winning the point after a great get on the fall. Needs to learn to tuck and roll?

But his left wrist clearly bothered him a lot through the next set, although he seemed to recover ability to hit his backhand in the final set.

What it will be like Sunday is someone else's guess. It's potentially serious. I'm sure they'll shoot him up and tape it up. But wrists are complex delicate things.

Well I'm hoping he'll be okay. He's been unlucky this season. He's about the best player on tour when he's fully fit. Fritz will have to serve lights out if Sinner turns out to be fully fit.

[jimlosaltos]

USO Write up

Frances Tiafoe: “I thought I was the better player for sure tonight,” Tiafoe said toward the beginning of his post-match press conference.

“In the fourth, I don't know, just had some in-and-out cramps. I just felt like my body just kind of shut down on me,” Tiafoe said, later adding, “I kind of felt there out of nowhere, just cramps out of nowhere. I felt fine. It wasn't even really warm or humid tonight.”

“Obviously this is gonna hurt and stuff. I'm going to turn the page, I'm going to try to end the year strong,” Tiafoe said. “I'm going to go to Asia, do the whole thing, do it the right way and not half-ass it. I'm going to go to the Laver Cup and compete.

[jimlosaltos]

USO write up:

"With the title, Sabalenka can also be crowned the queen of hard courts. Her prior two major titles were won on Australian Open cement, in January of this year and in 2023. Outside the majors, 11 of 13 of Sabalenka’s titles have been won on hard courts. And the No. 2 seed is on a 12-match hard-court winning streak, having taken the Cincinnati Open two weeks ago—beating Pegula in the final there, not incidentally.

MATCH POINT: With the win, Sabalenka became the first woman to claim both hard-court majors in a single season since 2016, when Germany’s Angelique Kerber took both the Australian Open and US Open titles.

[stroke]

Sinner's ping pong video game tennis has Fritz on the ropes, down 2 set to 0. Fritz is actually playing ok but Sinner at his best just too much.

[johnyandell]

Emma really looked good out there taking out a somewhat mentally frail Bedosa. Emma is certainly a better tennis player than Bedosa or Coco. But more obvious, her mental game is just so much stronger than 99% of the other players in the WTA.

Incredible run for her. Sadly she would have to beat Sabalenka and then Swiatek to win the whole thing. When Raducanu won she had to beat Sakkari and Leylah Fernandez in the semis and finals. Night and day.

[stotty]

Good win for Sinner. Not that I saw it. It's certainly been a changing of the guard this year in the slams and the ATP 1000 events. Not that I think it's all over for Novak. I still think he has a slam in him or possibly two. I think Sinner and Carlos are going to have an amazing rivalry. Will Rune develop to be good enough to match them? Who else is on the horizon?

[jimlosaltos]

Good win for Sinner. Not that I saw it. It's certainly been a changing of the guard this year in the slams and the ATP 1000 events. Not that I think it's all over for Novak. I still think he has a slam in him or possibly two. I think Sinner and Carlos are going to have an amazing rivalry. Will Rune develop to be good enough to match them? Who else is on the horizon?

Rune has regressed since vaping mother Anke canned his "super team" of Boris Becker and Severin Luthe. Shame.

Good question on who would be the third. Ben Shelton is exciting but ... can he improve his return game to get to that level?

Back to Sinner-Fritz, Jannik neutralized his big serve/ forehand game and Sinner had no plan B. Shame.

BUT returning to my earlier comment on never having seen so many players have so much trouble getting serves in, Fritz only got 36% of his first serves in for the first set. Got over it, but that put him in a hole. Yet another of this strange contagion. I don't believe in coincidences (not often) but this streak is weird. All kinds of players in all conditions from Rune to Sinner to Fritz in the 30s -- some winning that way.

[stroke]

Good win for Sinner. Not that I saw it. It's certainly been a changing of the guard this year in the slams and the ATP 1000 events. Not that I think it's all over for Novak. I still think he has a slam in him or possibly two. I think Sinner and Carlos are going to have an amazing rivalry. Will Rune develop to be good enough to match them? Who else is on the horizon?

Who knows, I do not bet, but if I did, my pick would be Mensik.

[jimlosaltos]

Who knows, I do not bet, but if I did, my pick would be Mensik.

What little I've seen of him has been very impressive. Only 19 yo and a big hitter. 6 ft 4 in
Beaten Shapo, Fokina, and at this year's US Open beat FAA.

Wiki bio here

[jimlosaltos]

Craig O'Shannessy on ATP has some interesting numbers of Sinner's dominance from the baseline.

While the average men's player won 46.9% of their baseline points at the US Open, Sinner won 62% of his baseline points Sunday, which was almost TWICE Fritz's total.
In fact, Fritz did worse against Sinner than any of his other opponents. { The best was young Alex Michelson, who won 44.6% was Jannik}


Baseline Points Won By Sinner’s Opponents

• Taylor Fritz = 34%
• Jack Draper = 37.6%
• Daniil Medvedev = 40%
• Tommy Paul = 38.6%
• Christopher O’Connell = 35.8%
• Alex Michelsen = 44.6%
• Mackenzie McDonald 39.8%
• AVERAGE = 38.6%

Craig wrote that Sinner did this not with a lot of winners but by making far fewer errors than Fritz.

Forehand Performance

• Sinner: 12 winners / 26 errors = -14
• Fritz: 10 winners / 39 errors = -29

Backhand Performance

• Sinner: 2 winners / 16 errors = -14
• Fritz: 3 winners / 27 errors = -24

[stotty]

Great research on the stats, Jim. I had Sinner down as favourite before the tournament started despite all the shenanigans leading up to it. The boy plays so well and is the next Novak for me. He may even turn out to be better but only time will tell. Me, I'm more a Carlos fan because he's just so extraordinary and such a wonderful shot maker.

What's the year end top 8 looking like? I imagine Novak dumped a lot of points through his early exit. Is there a glimmer he won't make the line up?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/articles/clyl02pwvj8o

[jimlosaltos]

Great research on the stats, Jim. I had Sinner down as favourite before the tournament started despite all the shenanigans leading up to it. The boy plays so well and is the next Novak for me. He may even turn out to be better but only time will tell. Me, I'm more a Carlos fan because he's just so extraordinary and such a wonderful shot maker.

What's the year end top 8 looking like? I imagine Novak dumped a lot of points through his early exit. Is there a glimmer he won't make the line up?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/a...s/clyl02pwvj8o

Thanks!

Good question.

As of this Tuesday AM, Novak wouldn't make it. These are the "live" aka this calendar year only or "Race to Turin" rankings.
I have no idea how aggressively he'll pursue the "Asian swing", then there's Paris/Bercy where he's always done well indoors.


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