Talk About Tennis 2.0

Rinky!!!!!
He and Jason went all the way!
He's got to be the first 'Rinky' to win a Major title.

Straight sets - the 2nd in a tiebreak.
The post match on-court 'speeches' by all 4 players were really nice and respectful.

Match point was rather spectacular (at the 2 minute mark of the automatically opening video in the link)...

https://ausopen.com/match/2023-rinky-hi ... 9418941112

.

Wow. I didn't manage to stay awake to watch live, but just finished watching the encore. That was a very very good match. Very high quality and given their styles of play, not nearly as error filled as it could have been. I haven't watched a lot of Sabalenka's matches, but this was an excellent performance. Great final.

Why isn't anyone talking about Djokovic? I know he didn't play, but he's injured, his family is misunderstood, and Serbia is a small country!!!!

The ladies put on a good show, neither is who I wanted to win, but I'm happy they both stepped up to the moment.

It was very high quality, and I was very pleased that Sabalenka's DGFG count went DOWN through the match: 5, 1 and 1.
As Suliso says, I would say that the chances that either of these two end up as one slam wonders are very slim. They do pack a lot of great strokes. Maybe they will never win at RG; that could be a caveat. But Rybakina has proven that she is good on any court other than clay (I don't know if she has clay court titles) and Sabalenka by now has reached at least the semis in all other three.

Sabalenka now has the inside track for year end #1. Iga has to defend a lot of titles, and starting this well will help. And Rybakina is in the top ten, so another good challenger to the mix. It might be a fun race this year.

Owendonovan wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 6:40 pm Why isn't anyone talking about Djokovic? I know he didn't play, but he's injured, his family is misunderstood, and Serbia is a small country!!!!

The ladies put on a good show, neither is who I wanted to win, but I'm happy they both stepped up to the moment.

We will leave that for today.
The tribulations! The tribulations!

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 6:47 pm
Sabalenka now has the inside track for year end #1. Iga has to defend a lot of titles, and starting this well will help. And Rybakina is in the top ten, so another good challenger to the mix. It might be a fun race this year.

Whoever wins AO always have an inside track, but as of now I still consider Iga a favorite for that.

We didn't set up PREDICTIONS for the year. But who are the candidates for #1 by year's end? What does that list look like?
Iga
Sabalenka
Rybakina
Garcia
Ons

Who else?
(and no, please, don't say OTHER Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease! )

Really hard to see a true "other" claim this one. It's not one hot streak we're talking about here anymore. Maybe one could add 2-4 more names to your list, but that's about it.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:20 pm We didn't set up PREDICTIONS for the year. But who are the candidates for #1 by year's end? What does that list look like?
Iga
Sabalenka
Rybakina
Garcia
Ons

Who else?
(and no, please, don't say OTHER Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease! )

But I mean, realistically, there has to be an OTHER category if you make those the only choices.

As for Swiatek, she doesn't just have title points to defend, but good results as well. She lost 500 points here, for instance.

Very happy for Sabalenka, I knew she could do it. So happy she got this one and silenced all the haters.

I think some of you are making a fundamental mistake here. A year end #1 has nothing to do with defending anything.

I say still Iga because I think she'll win RG again.

Suliso wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 8:17 pm I think some of you are making a fundamental mistake here. A year end #1 has nothing to do with defending anything.

I say still Iga because I think she'll win RG again.

Depends on your definition. I've seen the phrase "year end #1" used to describe both being ranked #1 at the end of year and being ranked first in the yearly points race.

Suliso wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 8:17 pm I think some of you are making a fundamental mistake here. A year end #1 has nothing to do with defending anything.

I say still Iga because I think she'll win RG again.

You are right.
I say Iga can win RG, but repeating there has been historically very difficult (unless you are Rafa).

I fell asleep after the first set and woke up to see Aryna won. I'm happy for her. She has struggled with staying focused but not this time it seems.

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 8:52 pm

Suliso wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 8:17 pm I think some of you are making a fundamental mistake here. A year end #1 has nothing to do with defending anything.

I say still Iga because I think she'll win RG again.

Depends on your definition. I've seen the phrase "year end #1" used to describe both being ranked #1 at the end of year and being ranked first in the yearly points race.

That's also the same thing, isn't it? At the end of the year of course.