Talk About Tennis 2.0

The more time passes, the more it seems that Eala's defeat of Swiatek at Miami was more telling of Iga's tennis than Eala's potential.
She played a good 1st set today, but the 2nd and 3rd were a display of meek tennis. Her serve, especially, is very vulnerable.
Let's see if when she returns to hard courts she will start getting better.

In an age-old story, a woman getting to the final the week before a slam did not pay off.

Pegula suffered an ugly loss. Joint suffered a lopsided loss. Eala faded down the stretch. Swiatek, who has the easiest matchup of the four, just survived a close first set against the younger Kudermetova.

But the story has a bit of a twist, this time.
In the past, the players winning the week before a slam did not fare well at said slam because they were, usually, lower ranked players. This time, two of the players are top players, solidly in the top 10.
Eala and Joint are old story, reddux. Pegula/Swiatek are a bit of a new spin.

It really is a curse to do too well the week or two before a major..

Yeah usually it's more non contenders, so not really too much of a surprise when they lose. But Swiatek/Pegula definitely don't fit the usual narrative.

All 1H BH that have played so far, in the ATP top 50, have lost.
Musetti, Shapovalov, Perricard and Tsitsipas. Only Dimitrov, yet to play, has not lost.

Add Bublik to the "Did well the week before" losers' list.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 2:16 pm Musetti's lovely game did not translate well to grass. Out to Bashilashvili. This tournament is becoming nuts.

a semi-finalist last year!

did I expect him to repeat that? no.

but first round?

ouch.

jazzyg wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 3:12 pm In an age-old story, a woman getting to the final the week before a slam did not pay off.

Pegula suffered an ugly lose. Joint suffered a lopsided loss. Eala faded down the stretch. Swiatek, who has the easiest matchup of the four, just survived a close first set against the younger Kudermetova.

Madison Keys at the AO this year is the outlier, we've returned to the norm here.

Swiatek seems to be playing just fine. Getting pushed for one set that you eventually win isn't indicative of anything.

Fritz through. Perricard would blow himself away if he could serve to himself.

Halle curse makes a comeback ((

And another one bites the dust...

So to sum up so far...Zverev out; Pegula out; Musetti out; Zheng out. I think we would agree that Zheng is not a shock given her poor grass history and opponent, Siniakova. The other 3...I would argue are definitely first round surprises. There losses wouldn't necessarily be 3rd or 4th round surprises...but first round?

Musetti is injured and did not play since Roland Garros until today, so I'm pretty sure his loss can be explained by that factor. He is just not match tough. Last year he entered with the confidence of having done very well in the lead-ups.