Wimbledon 2018

[pfrduke]

Already been a bit of a bloodbath on both draws - the first two rounds saw the exit of top 10 seeds Cilic, Dmitrov, Thiem, and Goffin on the men's side of the draw (with Zverev in a bit of a fight in his 2nd round match) and Kvitova, Stephens, Wozniacki, Garcia, and Svitolina on the women's side (with Muguruza in a bit of a fight in her 2nd round match).

All told, depending on the last couple of matches today, either 13 or 14 seeded women and 16 or 17 seeded men will not have made the third round.

[Blue in the Face]

Already been a bit of a bloodbath on both draws - the first two rounds saw the exit of top 10 seeds Cilic, Dmitrov, Thiem, and Goffin on the men's side of the draw (with Zverev in a bit of a fight in his 2nd round match) and Kvitova, Stephens, Wozniacki, Garcia, and Svitolina on the women's side (with Muguruza in a bit of a fight in her 2nd round match).

All told, depending on the last couple of matches today, either 13 or 14 seeded women and 16 or 17 seeded men will not have made the third round.

The carnage continues - Muguruza did lose that match, and now Madison Keys goes out. Plus Venus is down two breaks in the 1st set, and Querrey (11th seed) is down 2 sets to 1.

[CDu]

The paths are paving their way nicely for another Federer/Nadal battle. Of course, given how many other top players have struggled, there is always the chance that either of them falls too.

[Green Wave Dukie]

American (& North Carolinian) John Isner has a very winnable match next. I believe he has already won one more match than he ever has at Wimbledon before. One more win and he is in the quarters.

And on the Women's side, of the 16 remaining players, Karolina Pliskova is the highest seed at #7. Can't imagine that happens very often at a major, if at all. If Serena is going to win another one, she sure has a golden opportunity. Her next opponent is ranked 120. Then she would play the winner of a match between #s 35 & 52.

[Troublemaker]

I LOVE Wimbledon's Manic Monday. 16 tennis matches tomorrow to decide the 8 quarterfinalists in each of the men's and women's brackets.

CDu, not sure I see that Rafa's path has been paved nicely to the final. The potential QF with Del Potro and SF with Djokovic should be really tough matches. (I know Nadal dominated Delpo at the French and US Open in recent months, but on grass, I see that being almost a tossup.) WRT Federer's path, I definitely agree, though. It would take a major upset for him to not reach the final

[Troublemaker]

Djoker through to his first semifinals at a slam since 2016.

The Fed match just got interesting. He was up 2 sets to 0, lost the third set and is now down a break in the fourth.

[Green Wave Dukie]

As decimated as the women's draw is, men's quarters today have 8 pretty highly known names. Biggest surprise to me is I saw somewhere on the Interwebbs that Isner has a 52% chance of beating Raonic. Hey, I live in the Triad and would love to see John Isner in the Wimbledon Semi-finals, but I would bet a pie on Raonic today. Trouble - what does your intel say the odds are on that match really are?

And I'm at work and not watching, but Anderson is serving up a break at 4-3 in the 4th set, trying to even the match and send it to a 5th set. Oh, boy. Come on Rog!!

And Joker taking down Kei Nishikori in 4 sets, not losing more than 3 games in each of the 3 sets he won. He must be playing really, really well. Feel like Trouble has been saying for a while the tennis world is just waiting for him to come back to form. The semis and finals are already guaranteed to have some match-ups we will really be looking forward to.

[curtis325]

As decimated as the women's draw is, men's quarters today have 8 pretty highly known names. Biggest surprise to me is I saw somewhere on the Interwebbs that Isner has a 52% chance of beating Raonic. Hey, I live in the Triad and would love to see John Isner in the Wimbledon Semi-finals, but I would bet a pie on Raonic today. Trouble - what does your intel say the odds are on that match really are?

And I'm at work and not watching, but Anderson is serving up a break at 4-3 in the 4th set, trying to even the match and send it to a 5th set. Oh, boy. Come on Rog!!

And Joker taking down Kei Nishikori in 4 sets, not losing more than 3 games in each of the 3 sets he won. He must be playing really, really well. Feel like Trouble has been saying for a while the tennis world is just waiting for him to come back to form. The semis and finals are already guaranteed to have some match-ups we will really be looking forward to.

Roger is in a battle 4-4 in the fifth set and there will be no tiebreaker.

[Blue in the Face]

Big if, but if John Isner wins later today, there would be some justice in him playing his deepest ever Slam match, to advance to his first final, against someone coming off an unusually long match.

[pfrduke]

13-11 Anderson in the 5th. Wow. Federer wins 34 straight sets at Wimbledon then loses 3 in a row after a 2-0 lead and he's out.

[Bluedog]

Del Potro-Nadal in a battle. Rafa won the first 7-5 and now in a breaker in the second. This is a ridiculously high quality quarterfinal matchup that I'm sure both players weren't happy about when they saw the draw... But thems the breaks sometimes.

While I was cheering for Fed, at least Anderson has a "local" (for me) connection as he played collegiate tennis at University of Illinois. It's very rare to see any college players go on to professional success in tennis so it's cool to see.

[Troublemaker]

And I'm at work and not watching, but Anderson is serving up a break at 4-3 in the 4th set, trying to even the match and send it to a 5th set. Oh, boy. Come on Rog!!

13-11 Anderson in the 5th. Wow. Federer wins 34 straight sets at Wimbledon then loses 3 in a row after a 2-0 lead and he's out.

The following comparison is probably going to get worn out by tennis analysts, but that match reminded me of Tsonga's 2-sets-down comeback against Fed at Wimbledon in 2011. Anderson played like a top-3 player today during the comeback just like Tsonga did when he won, and tennis is an interesting sport where players can play way above their heads on certain days as things click into place for them for whatever reason. Anderson was just roping two-handed backhands and vicious forehands, putting Roger on the defensive. Oh well. I was really looking forward to a Fed-Djoker final.

As decimated as the women's draw is, men's quarters today have 8 pretty highly known names. Biggest surprise to me is I saw somewhere on the Interwebbs that Isner has a 52% chance of beating Raonic. Hey, I live in the Triad and would love to see John Isner in the Wimbledon Semi-finals, but I would bet a pie on Raonic today. Trouble - what does your intel say the odds are on that match really are?

The odds I saw at sportsbooks had Raonic as a slight favorite (58% chance) over Big John. I can't quibble with either number. It'll be roughly 50/50 with these two giant servers.

[CDu]

This Nadal/Delpo match has been crazy. Nadal was absolutely dominating the match play, but Delpo was just hanging around. Nadal has faced just two break points in the match, losing both. He has broken Del Potro twice as well. He has won more points than Del Potro. Yet he's down 2 sets to 1.

The big Argentine is now in a groove too, and playing some of his best tennis. It will be a real fight from here on out. Nadal blew a golden opportunity to go up 2 sets to 0, and must be really kicking himself right now.

If it gets to a fifth set, Nadal would seem the heavy favorite given his stamina compared with Delpo's, but he has a lot of work to do to get there.

[CDu]

Uggh, and having just typed that, Delpo had a hard fall on his left wrist while on serve in the fourth, and has now been broken at love. Suddenly, the injury history becomes relevant unfortunately. Hopefully that was just a glitch and he's able to play at full strength again. I would hate to see him suffer another injury - he's so fun to watch when he's healthy.

[CDu]

Nadal looking strong now and Delpo looking gassed and perhaps/probably banged up. Heading into the 5th set now, it seems like a strong Nadal lean at this point.

Still, Delpo's serve and forehand are dangerous enough to make this interesting.

[CDu]

Good god this Nadal/Delpo match is fantastic. Both guys throwing their bodies around the court like crazy.

[Green Wave Dukie]

Good god this Nadal/Delpo match is fantastic. Both guys throwing their bodies around the court like crazy.

Just saw the highlight of a long, long point with Del Po lunging to hit a diving volley winner. THAT was an incredible point (and then Nadal winds up in the front row on the far side). It is amazing tennis.

And Isner up 2 sets to 1.

[CDu]

Just saw the highlight of a long, long point with Del Po lunging to hit a diving volley winner. THAT was an incredible point (and then Nadal winds up in the front row on the far side). It is amazing tennis.

And Isner up 2 sets to 1.

It's funny - I haven't watched any of the Isner/Raonic match, but I can't imagine it is going anything like the Nadal/Delpo match. It's been incredibly fun watching two guys smashing groundstrokes, trading strategy, and throwing themselves for shots (quite literally) like Nadal/Delpo have been doing it. Especially fun to see on grass.

Nadal now up a break in the 5th, but this thing is far from over.

[CDu]

[From a post I overexcitedly put in the World Cup thread by mistake]

Man, I could watch this match forever. Both guys just throwing everything at it. Some of the best groundstrokes you can imagine. So much fight from both guys. It's amazing tennis.

[Troublemaker]

It's funny - I haven't watched any of the Isner/Raonic match, but I can't imagine it is going anything like the Nadal/Delpo match. It's been incredibly fun watching two guys smashing groundstrokes, trading strategy, and throwing themselves for shots (quite literally) like Nadal/Delpo have been doing it. Especially fun to see on grass.

Nadal now up a break in the 5th, but this thing is far from over.

Yeah, that matched started much later than Rafa/Delpo and finished much sooner despite going 4 sets with two tiebreaks. I'm guessing it was just a bunch of bombed serves.

[From a post I overexcitedly put in the World Cup thread by mistake]

Man, I could watch this match forever. Both guys just throwing everything at it. Some of the best groundstrokes you can imagine. So much fight from both guys. It's amazing tennis.

Indeed, this set has been fantastic tennis from both. Shame there has to be a loser. Djoker is licking his chops since both has expended so much energy.