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2021 U. S. Open Tennis Championships...ATP 2000...New York, New York

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  • 2021 U. S. Open Tennis Championships...ATP 2000...New York, New York

    The draw has yet to be made. The qualifying rounds are being fought out as a prelim to the real thing. We know a couple of things as well. Like who is not going to be there. Number one is Roger Federer. Roger has been out of sight for much of the last two years yet he lingers in our memory as a wistful thought of the way things used to be. The Living Proof will always live on as will the memory of the game of tennis that was...the way it used to be. Rafael Nadal is absent as well and he will be missed in as sense as one of the only possible roadblocks to a Novak Djokovic Grand Slam. Serena and Venus Williams are not going to make it either and you can decide for yourself is that is a factor or not.

    Things have changed over the past two "COVID" years as the authorities at large take massive steps in controlling the behaviour of the minions. First it was masks and when they found that people would wear masks without really knowing whether or not it protected them from the boogey man "COVID" they ramped it up to vaccines. They hit the motherlode of motherlode here with it now being possible to control a population of sheep to meekly roll up their sleeves to take the hit...not even knowing what they are being injected with.

    On and on it goes. Evolving into something entirely different than what it was only a couple of years ago. Tennis too, is evolving in the same apparently controlled manner. Not evolving...more like engineering. Behaviour can be engineered...they actually have scientists that work on that sort of thing. It's a bit ironic that the morons go around saying "trust the science" when they have no idea what that means. Fyodor Dostoyevsky knew...way back in 1871.



    "The Devils"...Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1871

    "Not one people, he began, as though readng it line by line and at the same time continuing to look menacingly at Stavrogin-not one people has yet ordered its life in accordance with the principles of science and reason. There has never been one instance of it, except only for a moment, out of folly. Socialism is by its very nature bound to be atheistic because it has proclaimed from the very first that it is an atheistic institution and that it intends to organize itself exclusively on the principles of science and reason. Reason and science have always, today and from the very beginning of time, played a secondary and a subordinate part; and so they will to the end of time. Peoples are formed and moved by quite a different force, a force that dominates and exercises its authority over them, the origin of which, however, is unknown and inexplicable. That force is the force of an unquenchable desire to go on to the end and, at the same time, to deny the existence of an end. It is the force of an incessant and persistent affirmation of its existence and a denial of death. It is the spirit of life, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water, the running dry of which is threatened in Revelation. It is the aesthetic principle, as the philosophers call it, an ethical principle, with which they identify it, the seeking of God, as I call it much more simply. The purpose of the whole evolution of a nation, in every people and at every period of its existence, is solely the pursuit of God, their God, their very own God, and faith in Him as in the only true one. God is the synthetic personality of the whole people, taken from its beginning to its end. It has never happened that all of many peoples should have one common God, but every people has always had its own special one. The first sign of the decay of nations is when they begin to have common gods. When gods begin to be common gods, the gods die as well as the faith in them, together with the peoples themselves. The more powerful a nation, the more individual its god. There has never yet been a nation without a religion, that is to say, without the conception of good and evil and its own good and evil. When the conceptions of good and evil become general among many nations, then these nations begin to die out, and the very distinction between good and evil begins to get blurred and to vanish. Reason has never been able to define good and evil, or even to separate good from evil, not even approximately; on the contrary, it had always mixed them up in a most pitiful and disgraceful fashion; as for science, its solutions have always been based on brute force. This was particularly true of the half-science, that most terrible scourge of mankind, worse than pestilence, famine, or war, and quite unknown till our present century. Half-science is a depot such as has never been known before. A despot that has its own priests and slaves, a despot before whom everybody prostrates himself with love and superstitious dread, such as has been quite inconceivable till now, before whom science itself trembles and surrenders in a shameful way."

    This is where we are at folks. Bowing to a half-science. The most terrible scourge of mankind. Read 'em and weep said the dealer to the players. Sure we have a U. S. Open this year...but the terrain is changing. Not so imperceptibly any longer. It is full on in your face...if you would only open your eyes.




    don_budge
    Performance Analysthttps://www.tennisplayer.net/bulleti...ilies/cool.png

  • #2


    Yes...mental health. No surprise here. For a couple of years I have been recommending to talented and aspiring young people looking to fill a niche in society to go into counceling or psychiatric practices. There will no shortage of patients in the coming years. What did you expect? Give 'em a phone as soon as they can talk. Fill the news cycles with as much fake news as it will hold without bursting at the seams. Beam in the EMR...electro magnetic radiation from a variety of sources. We are all being fried! But of course...the tour is a grind. You have to be somewhat nuts to try it in the first place.
    don_budge
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    • #3
      Yes, a counselor is a very good friend of the family. Business is booming. Waiting lists everywhere. People are suffering from all kinds of issues. You would think that in a country as rich as the US, people would be happy.

      A lot people are miserable and many of these are those who are objectively very well off. Well above the mean in income.

      As the Beatles once sung, Money can't buy you love.

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      • #4
        Notable 1st round matchups after the counseling sessions: Nick vs RBA, Stef vs Murray(I suppose notable), Fritz vs the demon, Norrie vs Alcaraz(who is coming on fast), Gasquet vs Medvedev.

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        • #5
          When was the last time that a defending champion at the U. S. Open did not defend their title?
          don_budge
          Performance Analysthttps://www.tennisplayer.net/bulleti...ilies/cool.png

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          • #6
            The Draw Sheet...

            Official singles, doubles and qualifying draw from the tournament archive in men's professional tennis on the ATP Tour.
            don_budge
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            • #7
              Originally posted by don_budge View Post
              When was the last time that a defending champion at the U. S. Open did not defend their title?
              Only 1 year ago, I believe. Rafa was the defending champ from 2019 and he decided to stay home in 2020 during the various quarantines.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by jimlosaltos View Post

                Only 1 year ago, I believe. Rafa was the defending champ from 2019 and he decided to stay home in 2020 during the various quarantines.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...mpions#US_Open
                Incidentally, Rafa has the odd distinction of not defending titles at both Wimbledon (the only one since Stan Smith in the strike year) and the US Open.

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                • #9
                  Meanwhile...back at the ranch. Mikael Ymer...the younger of two Ymer brothers, is into the finals of the Winston-Salem event. He has beaten Stefano Travaglia (ranked #100), Max Purcell (ranked #205), Francis Tiafoe (ranked #50) and up and coming Carlos Alcaraz (ranked #51). He will meet Ilya Ivashka (ranked #63) in the finals. Mikael is the first Swede to make the finals of an ATP event in ten years. Not since Robin S?derling ten years ago has a Swede made the final round.
                  don_budge
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                  • #10
                    Yes, that Alcaraz vs Ymer semi was weird. Alcaraz was absolutely cruising, serving for the first set at 5-4, but inexplicably fell apart. Up until that point he had been totally sound on his own serve and was dominating Ymer's second serve. All of a sudden he couldn't serve and couldn't hit a forehand. I was watching a replay on Amazon, where you can tell from the length of the recording if it's going to be straight sets or not, so I knew the winner of the first set won the match, but even as Alcaraz stood at set point down I thought he should snap out of it and win the match. But he didn't.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by glacierguy View Post
                      Yes, that Alcaraz vs Ymer semi was weird. Alcaraz was absolutely cruising, serving for the first set at 5-4, but inexplicably fell apart. Up until that point he had been totally sound on his own serve and was dominating Ymer's second serve. All of a sudden he couldn't serve and couldn't hit a forehand. I was watching a replay on Amazon, where you can tell from the length of the recording if it's going to be straight sets or not, so I knew the winner of the first set won the match, but even as Alcaraz stood at set point down I thought he should snap out of it and win the match. But he didn't.
                      I always wonder about these tune up tournaments right before a major. Match practice is good and all but I remember a few years where the winner of the tuneup would lose in the first round of the major.

                      I am not saying he tanked but the motivation is lower if in your mind you think the US Open is the real goal. Winning Winston Salem is worth something.

                      But in Alacaraz's mind winning three or four rounds at the US Open is probably worth more.

                      Just saying...

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                      • #12
                        Looks like Don Budge is the topic of discussion right before the US Open. See the second story from the top. No wonder he has such admiration for Djokovic. According to the story he is the pre-Djokovic or Djokovic is the next Budge.


                        Time was when age 30 was considered the midnight hour for world-class athletes. That's no longer the case, thanks to the game-changing efforts of champions like Djokovic.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by arturohernandez View Post
                          Looks like Don Budge is the topic of discussion right before the US Open. See the second story from the top. No wonder he has such admiration for Djokovic. According to the story he is the pre-Djokovic or Djokovic is the next Budge.


                          https://www.tennis.com/news/articles...etter-with-age
                          Don Budge. That is a word as much as it is a name. A true icon. Perhaps the GOAT...if there ever was one. You had to know him to understand what a class individual he was. A hero even.

                          But that was when tennis was tennis. One should never use "Novak Djokovic" and Don Budge in the same sentence. Shame on Joel Drucker in an otherwise interesting remembrance of The Great One. The greatest tennis player I have ever met. Do you sense any reverence in my words? How was I so fortunate to be so close to such an epic character in the history of the game? Luck? Blessed?

                          Here is when tennis was tennis. A thread that I wrote along with a couple of assists from various forum contributors. A great thread in hindsight. A refresher course for any newbie to the game and sport of tennis. The classic era is coming to a close with the finest rivalry of all time. Two polar opposites. Read it and weep. Or don't. At least take a look at the tennis in the video. Compare it to these wannabes with their HUGE graphite racquets. John McEnroe graduated to the Dunlop Maxply Fort when the rest of the class was selling out to the Prince Graphite. John was a hero in a truly American sense. He has become a sellout too. It's inevitable.

                          don_budge
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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by don_budge View Post

                            Don Budge. That is a word as much as it is a name. A true icon. Perhaps the GOAT...if there ever was one. You had to know him to understand what a class individual he was. A hero even.

                            But that was when tennis was tennis. One should never use "Novak Djokovic" and Don Budge in the same sentence. Shame on Joel Drucker in an otherwise interesting remembrance of The Great One. The greatest tennis player I have ever met. Do you sense any reverence in my words? How was I so fortunate to be so close to such an epic character in the history of the game? Luck? Blessed?

                            Here is when tennis was tennis. A thread that I wrote along with a couple of assists from various forum contributors. A great thread in hindsight. A refresher course for any newbie to the game and sport of tennis. The classic era is coming to a close with the finest rivalry of all time. Two polar opposites. Read it and weep. Or don't. At least take a look at the tennis in the video. Compare it to these wannabes with their HUGE graphite racquets. John McEnroe graduated to the Dunlop Maxply Fort when the rest of the class was selling out to the Prince Graphite. John was a hero in a truly American sense. He has become a sellout too. It's inevitable.

                            https://www.tennisplayer.net/bulleti...-s-open-finals
                            Times change. Equipment changes. Technology does a number on us time and time again. Baseball suffered through multiple crises, including a WS champion that was banging on drums to transmit pitching signs. A steroid crises that took regularly shaped guys and made them all look like the Hulk.

                            But they never gave in to aluminum. Had tennis put some breaks on the rackets and strings. We would still have something resembling classic tennis. A contrast in styles and an all court game would still be around.

                            Baseball is still as exciting as ever. People still go watch the games.

                            Borg was playing the modern game back then. Standing way back and hitting with lots of topspin. There are plenty of Borgs today.

                            The McEnroe's are all gone. Destroyed by the wave of poly/graphite saturated tennis...

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                            • #15
                              Stef is in a real battle vs Murray. I sure did not see this one coming.

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