'22 WTA ATP GS USOpen 8/29 - 9/11

[AcesAnnie]

No more news coming about Xisca's condition, which is good news. So maybe Rafa will stay and play.

No matter what Rafa decides, this has to be a trying time for him. Yes, his job is to prepare for this tennis tournament, but his life is to be with his wife during this critical time of her pregnancy. I have no doubt in my mind that if his wife needs this surgery, that Rafa will NOT play in the USO and be with his wife during this time.

[meganfernandez]

Yikes. Something hurting? Caption says Serena finished her practice unexpectedly and angrily.

[AcesAnnie]

Yikes. Something hurting? Caption says Serena finished her practice unexpectedly and angrily.

I imagine a lot is going through Serena's head going into this USO tournament. It has to be tough going in knowing this is going to be your Swan Song and everyone is going to have their eye on you and hoping for a fantastic performance. I know she has been in a lot of pressure situations before, but this one is a bit different and one she has never really faced before, and I think it is going to be very difficult on her.

[ponchi101]

Photos can be tricky; they capture split second images that may misconstrue reality.
But nobody on that shot looks positive, at that moment.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[AcesAnnie]

Wouldn't that be shocking if he did an Emma Raducanu?

[JazzNU]

Wouldn't that be shocking if he did an Emma Raducanu?

Very shocking since I was less than impressed. Way, way more shocking than Emma winning it to me.

[AcesAnnie]

Wouldn't that be shocking if he did an Emma Raducanu?

Very shocking since I was less than impressed. Way, way more shocking than Emma winning it to me.

I am in no way saying that this is going to happen, but did you know who Emma Raducanu was before her run at the USO last year? Probably not. If you did know of her, you probably didn't pay much attention to her and I know you didn't give her a chance in hell to win the USO title.

[JazzNU]

Wouldn't that be shocking if he did an Emma Raducanu?

Very shocking since I was less than impressed. Way, way more shocking than Emma winning it to me.

I am in no way saying that this is going to happen, but did you know who Emma Raducanu was before her run at the USO last year? Probably not.

That's a strange take. Of course I knew about her before the US Open. Doubtful anyone who frequents this forum didn't know about her by that time.

[AcesAnnie]

Very shocking since I was less than impressed. Way, way more shocking than Emma winning it to me.

I am in no way saying that this is going to happen, but did you know who Emma Raducanu was before her run at the USO last year? Probably not.

That's a strange take. Of course I knew about her before the US Open. Doubtful anyone who frequents this forum didn't know about her by that time.

I guess what I meant by that is were you really following her as a serious contender at any major event?

[JazzNU]

I am in no way saying that this is going to happen, but did you know who Emma Raducanu was before her run at the USO last year? Probably not.

That's a strange take. Of course I knew about her before the US Open. Doubtful anyone who frequents this forum didn't know about her by that time.

I guess what I meant by that is were you really following her as a serious contender at any major event?

That's not what you said though. She was unknown to the world at large when she won the US Open, but she was known by the grand majority of devoted tennis fans since at Wimbledon at the latest. We literally got a blow by blow of her activity from that point on. She got a wild card to San Jose and was promoted as if she was a top 10 player returning from injury and had a very good run at one of the lead up 125k tournaments. Was I putting money down on her to win the US Open? No, but she was on most tennis fan's radars at that time as an up and coming talent.

You've been talking about Linda Noskova and seem high on her. Emma's run is closer to her going on a run thru qualifying and winning the US Open this year. Or Linda Fruhvirtova doing it. But instead of junior success putting her on our radar, it's some recent ITF success followed by a good run at the prior GS that did it.

[jazzyg]

I posted during Wimbledon last year that Raducanu looked like she could win that tournament, or something to that effect. She got a ton of hype then, and John McEnroe got unfairly criticized (in my view) for being insensitive when he actually said something supportive of her after she retired from her match against Tomljanovic, creating another wave of attention.

Of course no one thought a qualifier could win the U.S. Open when it started, but when she clobbered Shelby Rogers (after Rogers beat Barty) and no top player looked sharp, I certainly thought she had a chance at that point. A qualifier winning a slam probably will not happen again for 50 years, but Raducanu was one of the most qualified qualifiers to make a run I can remember.