*The Official Tennis Thread*

[whodat]

Originally Posted by bartender_man

Down to the top 16. Going to real interesting to see how it plays out. Most big names still in it.

second week of a major is where the real tournament starts. All the brackets start to weed out the players and the cream rises to the top.

[whodat]

Originally Posted by bartender_man

Stan the man in trouble.....


Going to be some awesome matches in the top 8:

-Novac/Nishakori
-Fed/Berdych
-Sharapova/Williams


At this point I got Novac and Azarenka as the winners.

Stan the man in out, as is Keys. Agree with your winners, but Novak better figure out his sh*t quick, another 100 unforced error match and he is done.

[bartender_man]

100 unforced errors is insane. Yet he still wins

[whodat]

Fed v. Novak in the semis. Have to think Raonic v Murray in the other semi. Women's is a going to be Serena v Vika in the final.

[whodat]

well there goes my women's final prediction.

[K3nTaKa0s]

My man Ferrer with the early break in the second set.

[K3nTaKa0s]

Murray breaks right back. Ugh. Knew I shouldn't have posted anything about it.

[bartender_man]

Stunned Vika is out. Serena should win easily now. Would love for Fed to beat Djoker but it won't happen. He'll beat Murray in the Final.

[whodat]

Originally Posted by bartender_man

Stunned Vika is out. Serena should win easily now. Would love for Fed to beat Djoker but it won't happen. He'll beat Murray in the Final.

Agree about Serena, as much as that pain me. Pulling for Kerber all the way, but it will be an upset of Divinci-esque proportions to make it happen. I am just amazed that Serena is still playing at this high level at 34, with really no one on the women's side even coming close to her level. Graf walked away at 30 in 1999, beat up with injuries and her game well off its peak of the middle 90's.

Novak with a statement win today. He is showing the same dominance that Roger showed for so many years.

[bartender_man]

Murray vs Raonic first 4 sets were some incredible tennis. Wow....

[whodat]

Yeah, too bad Raonic took an injury late, but Murray was rolling by that point. Hopefully the men's final holds a little more drama then the women's.

[whodat]

Woke up early this morning, fully expecting to see that Serena had won the Aussie. To my surprise the match was still on so I got to see Kerber pull off the win. Have to say Serena was pretty gracious, and genuine, in the lose. Just wish the announcers would stop saying that to beat Serena she has to have an off day. Kerber played her ass off, took her chances and went for it.

[bartender_man]

watched the match and Kerber played out of her mind. Absolutely stunning performance. She deserved it.

[SmoothD41]

Joker just too good.

[DMBluedevils]

Yup best player by far right now. Unless Nadal can turn things around quickly I think Djokovic dominates this year as well.

[bartender_man]

Djoker gonna get all 4 this year

[whodat]

Not sure about that one. The French is missing from Novak's resume but clay is always tricky. Roger, as of the pre-release of his schedule, is not playing any clay up to the French. Rafa loves the red clay and Monfils has the home crowd backing him. Stan the Man proved last year that anything can happen on that damn surface. Thinking Murray will be aiming for Wimbledon, then the Olympics are the huge curveball this year falling between Wimbledon and the US Open. Thinking there is gonna be a lot of tired players when they arrive in NYC in late August. I could see a Celic-type champion at the US this year if all the big names go deep at the Olympics.

[SmoothD41]

Almost feel bad for Murray. He's an absolutely brilliant player, but he's going to be an afterthought when discussing the best ever because of the utter dominance of Djokovic, Federer, Nadal.

[bartender_man]

Originally Posted by SmoothD41

Almost feel bad for Murray. He's an absolutely brilliant player, but he's going to be an afterthought when discussing the best ever because of the utter dominance of Djokovic, Federer, Nadal.

Murray's ability is amazing and it's crazy he only two majors. (none since 2013 I think...) One major problem is that his anger issues have always affected him in a negative way. He should have 5 or 6 titles by now.

[whodat]

Originally Posted by SmoothD41

Almost feel bad for Murray. He's an absolutely brilliant player, but he's going to be an afterthought when discussing the best ever because of the utter dominance of Djokovic, Federer, Nadal.

Originally Posted by bartender_man

Murray's ability is amazing and it's crazy he only two majors. (none since 2013 I think...) One major problem is that his anger issues have always affected him in a negative way. He should have 5 or 6 titles by now.

Was trying to see if you could compare Murray's struggles to the likes of a Rafter, Courier, Roddick... but you really can't. He is arguably better then those three players and probably would have been a dominate player during that time. He just happens to be playing in what could be looked back upon as one of the most dynamic in men's tennis history.

[bartender_man]

Originally Posted by whodat

Was trying to see if you could compare Murray's struggles to the likes of a Rafter, Courier, Roddick... but you really can't. He is arguably better then those three players and probably would have been a dominate player during that time. He just happens to be playing in what could be looked back upon as one of the most dynamic in men's tennis history.

I think he's better than those 3

[whodat]

Originally Posted by bartender_man

I think he's better than those 3

Agree. I look at what Stefan Edberg achieved and think that Murray should be at that level. But I think people will end up comparing Murray's career to Lendl's, in terms of what if's with how many finals and semi-finals they each achieved compared to GS wins. Just look at Lendl's GS record and you see a player the was on the cusp of being one of the greatest ever if he could have turned half of his GS final loses into wins. Sounds a lot like Murray right now.

[whodat]

Solid weekend in tennis, US beats Australia 3-2 in the Davis Cup and Sharapova's agent released that she will be making 'a major announcement' today. Rumors swirling that she will announce her retirement. Would be a tough way to go out but she has been beat up for the better part of year.

Whatever the announcement is it will be over shadowed by Payton Manning's retirement. I guess Maria needed to step up her HGH and showing her genital game to get front page news.

[whodat]

Wow, failed drug test for Maria! Did not seeing that coming. From the presser, sounds like she didn't keep up on the ever-changing banned substance list that is put out by WADA and the ITF and tasted positive at the Aussie Open. Wonder what the ultimate ban will be for her, as well was this drug performance-enhancing or performance-enabling. Not like you need a ton of strength in tennis as much as you need endurance and quick recovery between matches and tournaments.

[DMBstandUP1984]

just in time for Anna K to make a comeback

[bartender_man]

Originally Posted by whodat

Wow, failed drug test for Maria! Did not seeing that coming. From the presser, sounds like she didn't keep up on the ever-changing banned substance list that is put out by WADA and the ITF and tasted positive at the Aussie Open. Wonder what the ultimate ban will be for her, as well was this drug performance-enhancing or performance-enabling. Not like you need a ton of strength in tennis as much as you need endurance and quick recovery between matches and tournaments.

I can't believe it either....

[Rodey]

My girl Maria is innocent.

[bartender_man]

Originally Posted by Rodey

My girl Maria is innocent.

No She did take it. But she says she did know it was banned (only became so in January) I believe her.

[SmoothG]

Say it aint so maria!

I understand the list of banned substances is continually changing and hard to know about every single banned substance and it very well could have been an innocent mistake..but I find that so difficult to believe for someone who has been around for so long and who i imagine has a team of experts, doctors, trainers and chefs and nutritionists on call. At that level, how do you put something in your body without knowing what it is and if it's allowed.

Will we ever find out what the substance she tested positive for is?

[whodat]

Originally Posted by SmoothG

Say it aint so maria!

I understand the list of banned substances is continually changing and hard to know about every single banned substance and it very well could have been an innocent mistake..but I find that so difficult to believe for someone who has been around for so long and who i imagine has a team of experts, doctors, trainers and chefs and nutritionists on call. At that level, how do you put something in your body without knowing what it is and if it's allowed.

Will we ever find out what the substance she tested positive for is?

Maria's postive test was for meldonium. It is not FDA approved so you can't even get in the US. She has been taking it for something like 10 years for a history or family related ailments 'including regular sicknesses, early signs of diabetes and "irregular" results from echocardiography exams.'

What has come to light in the recent days is that when this is taken at high doses it can help athletes recover faster for high endurance activities. Plus the drug was showing up in urine samples more and more over the years so WADA started to look at what the effects and how it could improve performance.

Meldonium is a blood-flow-promoting heart medicine that was banned because it helps oxygen uptake and endurance.

The drug ended up on the banned list in Sept 2015, so as you pointed out, how could no one on her team have not seen this for 120 days and said something. Now she has lost 3 sponsors, looking at the minimum 6 months to up to 4 years suspension. There have also been a few other cases of positive tests for this drug by other athletes, some Russian, some not.