Olympic Tennis 7/24 - 7/30 2021

[Suliso]

I agree they appear to be a strong team and I'm not saying they don't have a good shot at a medal here, I can see it happening. But I think you're looking at this in terms of being a strong duo of singles players, right? But this is Mixed Doubles. I can't see the argument for any other team being stronger than France's Mladenovic/Mahut pairing, on paper or otherwise.

Correct, but quite often in Olympics singles players dominate doubles draws. Remember both Federer and Nadal have won gold in doubles and neither is particularly accomplished in doubles elsewhere.

[Suliso]

Muguruza is the best player left, Bencic is the best on hard courts. neither of which means much! i would love to see Giorgi win, but she has broken my heart (and others, too, I am sure) so many times, I dont dare to hope..my gut says Badosa will win. Let us see how that goes!

Very subjective to call Bencic left on hard courts. Svitolina is the most accomplished hard court player remaining in the draw.

I wouldn't single out Bencic either, but to me Svitolina is always suspect. She doesn't have A+ level at all and someone might bring that to the final rounds. No idea who...

[JazzNU]

I wouldn't single out Bencic either, but to me Svitolina is always suspect. She doesn't have A+ level at all and someone might bring that to the final rounds. No idea who...

Yeah, I thought she'd lose to Sakkari. And that's fine, I'm not talking about that. But for whatever reason, people on this forum like to pretend Svitolina is like a 30th ranked player hanging around for reasons unknown the way she is constantly dismissed from every conversation about winning something. Outside of maybe Kenin, it feels like y'all are willing to choose anyone else to win something over Elina. I'm not the biggest believer of Elina either, but I'm not pretending like she hasn't done a lot of winning in recent years, including some very big titles.

[JTContinental]

Maybe Camila Giorgi will like tennis more when she wins the gold medal

[skatingfan]

Guess I just had to wait until this morning. She is paired with Kubot.

admit I am surprised to see Djokovic playing - but at most it's 4 matches, so...?

Novak usually plays men's doubles at the Olympics, but all his usual doubles partners have now retired.

[ashkor87]

I wouldn't single out Bencic either, but to me Svitolina is always suspect. She doesn't have A+ level at all and someone might bring that to the final rounds. No idea who...

Yeah, I thought she'd lose to Sakkari. And that's fine, I'm not talking about that. But for whatever reason, people on this forum like to pretend Svitolina is like a 30th ranked player hanging around for reasons unknown the way she is constantly dismissed from every conversation about winning something. Outside of maybe Kenin, it feels like y'all are willing to choose anyone else to win something over Elina. I'm not the biggest believer of Elina either, but I'm not pretending like she hasn't done a lot of winning in recent years, including some very big titles.

yes, of course, Svitolina has won some big ones, including the one in Singapore on a court and conditions very similar to Tokyo.. she has as good a chance as anyone but I would still bet on Bencic..

[Deuce]

Fognini - Medvedev was an interesting match, which is really no surprise.
Both looked completely exhausted at various stages - sometimes at the same time.
I was confident that Medvedev would win it (which he did), because, much like Djokovic, no matter how exhausted or injured he may (appear to) be, he has those extra gears he can engage when he needs to... and because I figured that it was inevitable that Fognini would fold and give up at some point.

[Suliso]

Belinda Bencic still in a position to be a double Olympic champion.

[the Moz]

C'mon BB

[ashkor87]

i am very interested to see what happens in the mixed doubles.. one school of thought has it that the team with the stronger player (read male) will win, theory of constraints says the team with the better weak link (read female) will win..! very few opportunities to test these theories of course because mixed is so rare - it is tactically so different from doubles, too - male or female.. very sorry to see Hopman cup die out..

[JazzNU]

[JazzNU]

[ponchi101]

Why was it so important to play tennis at NOON, in an empty stadium? They have enough courts to play at night, and by now it was the QF's, so even fewer matches.
On other news, Garbie did not disappoint in disappointing 5 & 1, after cruising in her first three matches.

[JazzNU]

It seems they set the time ahead of this heat wave and didn't see fit to change it despite criticism since the beginning. Are there lights at the tennis center? Because it makes even less sense to not change it if they can play into the night.

I think it was Nastia who also said their ice packs were insufficient. Doesn't sound like they rival the Aussie ones, for instance, in terms of helping with cooling down quickly.

[ponchi101]

The tennis center not only has lights, it has a retractable roof.
This time, it really looks like this was a case of "the timetable has been set and that is it". Somebody was truly stubborn, and athletes were not considered.
Time to make the Olympics the "Fall Games"? Paris in summer is pretty hot too. No need to run that show in a burning hell. The purpose of the games is not to see who can withstand the heat better.