Talk About Tennis 2.0

Djokovic will take about 1/2 set to neutralize Rublev's bullets. A close first set, then two routine ones.
Djokovic-Tsitsipas. That RG final indeed will be in the back of their minds. Like this:
"I gave you two sets and a break last time, and you couldn't. So, no..."
"I had two sets and a break last time, and I couldn't. So... DAD!!!!!!!!!! "

(Needless to say, I so hope to have to eat my words)

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 4:01 pm Djokovic will take about 1/2 set to neutralize Rublev's bullets. A close first set, then two routine ones.

Nah, it'll be harder than that for Novak. You know, his hamstring is injured. /s

In the last major of her illustrious career, Sania has reached the finals of the mixed, with Bopanna.
..so happy for her..

I thought about picking her for that reason in predictions, but alas did not.

JazzNU wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 5:51 am

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 4:01 pm Djokovic will take about 1/2 set to neutralize Rublev's bullets. A close first set, then two routine ones.

Nah, it'll be harder than that for Novak. You know, his hamstring is injured. /s

I got it exactly backwards.
Whatever we say about the man: he plays tennis at another level than the rest of the field, at least here in Australia. That he went like that against a top 5 seed shows how far the Next Gen, and the previous Next Gen, and the any Gen have to go.
They will never beat him. Age will beat him.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 9:52 pm

This comment x 1000. Hamstring injury my ass. What Djokocic looked like last night:

Why doesn't he talk to a PR person? Injured people don't beat other top players by the scores he has been beating them. Plus, I am sure that somebody in Madison Avenue has a metric of how people see him. And, fair or not, he has a public profile, some of which came from the years in which he retired with frequency from tournaments. So, lay low. Say nothing about the injury, play your matches. But it will never look good when somebody claims they are facing a disadvantage and then they plaster a fellow player |1,2 & 4.
And, a hamstring? He should not be able to run, at all.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 10:08 pm Why doesn't he talk to a PR person? Injured people don't beat other top players by the scores he has been beating them. Plus, I am sure that somebody in Madison Avenue has a metric of how people see him. And, fair or not, he has a public profile, some of which came from the years in which he retired with frequency from tournaments. So, lay low. Say nothing about the injury, play your matches. But it will never look good when somebody claims they are facing a disadvantage and then they plaster a fellow player |1,2 & 4.
And, a hamstring? He should not be able to run, at all.

I barely watched the match, but when I turned it on, there was a point that Rublev should've won, but Djokovic was running down every single ball that would've been winners against almost anyone else, outstretched damn near in a spread eagle split, low to the ground, and I was just like, Novak, really, a hamstring injury? You can't get into splits like that pop up, do it again, do it again, and then keep playing the rest of the match, walk normally, and be ready for the next match and still claim a damn hamstring injury.

I don't care even a little bit that he's going to win this tournament with little resistance in a few days. I doubt many tennis fans do either whether they like him or not, we're used to it, we know he's a great player and he's at his best in Australia. Nothing about this is surprising. I just see no reason whatsoever that he needs to act like he's injured AND keep talking about said injury with the press as if it is an active issue that is hampering him.

It has been absolutely shocking for years that he hasn't gotten a legitimate PR consultant to work on his public image. He wants to be so beloved, it is baffling that he hasn't enlisted outside expert help with it. He wouldn't be great, too much has happened that many can't forget, but he'd definitely improved his image with some fans by now. And we know he hasn't, because he just never gets it right and he would've had some hits alongside the misses if he had bothered to get that help.

Personally, I much prefer seeing a person be raw and genuine and sincere - whether the person behaves like an ass or behaves like a wonderful person - than to see a him/her be 'trained' by a 'P.R. person' to create an artificial and phony 'public image' that is far removed from the real person.

Maybe being misunderstood and vilified is his 'script' ..very hard to break those..

Novak’s team had to be reminded about its policy with flags, etc after his dad was photographed expressing support for Russia with fans wearing the Z symbol

JTContinental wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 8:30 pm Novak’s team had to be reminded about its policy with flags, etc after his dad was photographed expressing support for Russia with fans wearing the Z symbol

I wish I thought there was even a slight chance you might be mistaken. Good lord.

Link to the CNN article

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/tennis/d ... index.html

I found a tweet with the video, I'll post it in Serious Tennis thread as well. Sheesh.