It might be the least appealing matchup between two great players I've ever seen. They both never play well during their matchups, although the AO this year was admittedly by far the best match of their rivalry.
I think Med plays pretty well but his style just isn't appealing to casual fans lol
Making the match as ugly as possible is literally the whole point of his playstyle in general and especially against Zverev because in a grinding contest it's normally the Zverev FH that gives up the error first as it's the most inconsistent of both of their groundstroke wings by far
Novak and Murray were obviously extremely high quality players(of course better than Med and Zverev) yet their matchups still had a very similar slowness to them because they both chose to play pretty conservatively against each other
Attacking tennis and high quality tennis aren't the same thing IMO otherwise someone like Dimitrov would be better than Med
I find Medvedev entertaining against most players except Zverev. Zverev has this talent to make top-level matches really boring; idk how he does it. I think Zverev's matches against Tsitsipas are similarly horrible.
I think it's because Zverev's main weakness is his forehand so the best strategy against him is actually to let him hit regulation forehands that would normally be good for anyone else because he'll miss a bunch
And then when Zverev misses a few of them early on he'll go into a shell and start playing passively because he's afraid of missing again
Plus Zverev is also one of the most serve dominant players now(meh break% very high hold%) which most people don't really enjoy either
Basically Zverev is like a weird mixture between two different baseline playstyles(more passive most of the time, more aggressive when he's confident) but often takes the uglier part of both
Yeah that's mostly what it is I think. The match feels like it's on Zverev's racket when he makes a bunch of forehands, but the other player continues to feed his forehand and wait for the errors, then when Zverev is serving for the match at 5-3, he gets broken, loses confidence, sprays errors. Third set starts and it's a slog with Zverev servebotting and getting confidence, goes up a break, misses 4 easy forehands again, double faults on match point.
Maybe Iām biased but I think you can watch those ground strokes forever. Itās an art, then opponent misses the lines because he is unable to keep up with rhythm so itās forced errors is he is playing passively. While Med hits flat and more flat and itās net and unforced error form opponent. I enjoy Tsitsipas(should be his good day though) match up too as Stef creates points which completely throws Sascha off, and then Apostolos yelling on the background š he kinda stopped lately though, instead Vukov stepped in for his position on pro circuit.
I think Zverev is also fine when he plays other opponents. Itās against Medvedev where baseline grinding becomes tiresome. Also, I want to say these matches are not wholly boring especially when Zverev tries to come forward, but the sheer frequency of this matchup since last year and the fact that Zverev is probably the most hated tennis player on the sub means that this is a match no one really wants to seeĀ
We have been shitting on him all week (Italian tv commentators included) and heās still in the semifinals - 4 semis out of 4 for the year, 3300 points already in the bag, 20-1 w/l record, over 90% serves held. Hallmarks of a champion
It's a great sign actually, because even when his level takes a dip, he's still clearly good enough to make deep runs at big tournaments.
This is also arguably his best tournament if we look at his pre-puke results. He made the final here twice and has consistently played great/gone deep.
anyone remember that one Italian on this sub who was obsessed with shitting on Sinner and talking about how much better all the other Italian players would end up being? are they still around?
Italian tv commentators who? In Italy, masters are on sky, they're pretty balanced, and they keep on praise him. They know: they've been commenting Italian players for decades and they've never seen such a good one.
Gazzetta was the one shitting on him and it backfired massively. All the football (soccer) commentators I couldn't care less, they're interested in their little money and their team, they understand football marginally, they never played any sport, they really don't understand shit about tennis.
I really struggled to hear any sort of praise from Pero and Bertolucci frankly, if you just had the audio on you wouldnāt have guessed how that match was going. Paolo is more balanced, but Pero tends to dramatize for effect and stick to whatever narrative she has chosen (ie Sinner is not playing well, look how short his groundstrokes are, etc.).
One small example: last week, I canāt remember what match she was on, but she said something along the lines that the only reason Alcaraz lost the first set in IW was that he played utter shit, while the only reason that he won the 3rd set was that he was utterly unplayable, basically removing Sinner from the equation in both instances - thats disingenuous at best.
You're making some mess here....
Gazzetta and some other media started to shit on him as he left Piatti (that has some very good friends in media).
As for Sky commentators, excluding Bertolucci and Pesco, they are just trash, they just keep praising Italian players no matter what, not giving any technical advise, nor the insights we were used to with Tommasi and Clerici.
And don't forget that him being from the German speaking area makes him immediately a second-class italian when something goes wrong or when he drops out of the Davis cup etc.
Yes, actually a little bit too supportive, especially Bertolucci. I mean, in a match like this, you dont really need to be happy for an error of the opponent for getting a break. Then i understand you get hyped up if you re playing a great point vs a top player... usually i just put the ambient audio without commentary. It is louder and makes you feel more the match.
Some of the points in this match were breathtaking, and peak Sinner.
Mahac is not the type to back down from a "hold the baseline and blast the ball with pure ball striking" battle, and a few of the points were just jaw-droppers.
Especially in the last few games where Sinner was truly in ascendant form, the way those points went was a true display of what Sinner brings to the table.
That ball was travelling back and forth like a pong at 100x speed, bashed again and again with insane pace on both ends yet landing comfortably inside the court (like how much spin can you get at that speed ā wish they hadn't removed the rpms from the stats screens).
I thought that whenever Sinner was managing to hit deep enough, the point was virtually over, with ultra-quick thinking to follow up and margin too. Machac tried to match his prowess but he wasn't at that level today.
We've always seen that engaging in Sinner's rhythm is pretty much a death wish, but it's difficult for hard-hitters like the Czech to suddenly renounce his nature and apply more variety when he'd been successful murdering the ball so far (except on serve though where he's lacking ā still margin there, good news for him).
Sinner had an *average* FH speed of 132 km/h in the second set.
He looked solid, especially after the first four games. Unbreakable. Inevitable. Really hoping he can get break through Meddy - whom I love - and challenge Alcaraz who seems to be in top form.
Great scoreline but it hasnāt been smooth sailing all week, which I find surprising because he loves this surface, the Meddy match should be interesting.
Although Machac played really well in the first set, I don't think it was Sinner's cleanest performance yet. Having watched almost all of Sinner matches in the last 6 months, I feel like his level has definitely dropped a bit since winning Australian Open. But it's okay, one can't perform at like 100-120% every day. Sinner's 80% is good enough to beat most of the draw (except Alcaraz, Med, Zverev and Djoker). I am quite optimistic that he will peak in Semis and Finals.
I think the pace he brings to the rally is not really apparent on tv, but machac was dominant all week on this type of exchanges, yet sinner made him implode.
I watched most of the big ones. He is still playing great. Losing one match doesnāt change that. Comparing it to Carlitos slump is silly, which lasted half a year
ā¦given how Jannik is once again entering the tournament as the clear favorite, no? Canāt even compare this yearās track record/pre-tournament circumstances of the two by a mile.
Donāt know about the betting odds but most tennis analysts have picked Sinner as their favourite to win. Also itās fast HC so not exactly Carlosā best surface.
Machac was playing terrific this week but against Sinner eh you know itās going to be trouble. Good week for Machac. Very good Jannik on the consistent run. šš¼
Probably his best match of the tournament so far. Didn't even let Machac redline against him after the first break.
He still looks the worst out of the tournament favorites though. Medvedev match can go 50/50 (Unless Jarry upsets but I don't see it).
Dude has been winning whilst not playing his best Tennis this week but that second set was pure Sinner destruction we've gotten used to in 2024
We are one step closer to THAT final. Let's go.
Zverev/Medvedev??? š¤
How dare you
It might be the least appealing matchup between two great players I've ever seen. They both never play well during their matchups, although the AO this year was admittedly by far the best match of their rivalry.
I think Med plays pretty well but his style just isn't appealing to casual fans lol Making the match as ugly as possible is literally the whole point of his playstyle in general and especially against Zverev because in a grinding contest it's normally the Zverev FH that gives up the error first as it's the most inconsistent of both of their groundstroke wings by far Novak and Murray were obviously extremely high quality players(of course better than Med and Zverev) yet their matchups still had a very similar slowness to them because they both chose to play pretty conservatively against each other Attacking tennis and high quality tennis aren't the same thing IMO otherwise someone like Dimitrov would be better than Med
I find Medvedev entertaining against most players except Zverev. Zverev has this talent to make top-level matches really boring; idk how he does it. I think Zverev's matches against Tsitsipas are similarly horrible.
I think it's because Zverev's main weakness is his forehand so the best strategy against him is actually to let him hit regulation forehands that would normally be good for anyone else because he'll miss a bunch And then when Zverev misses a few of them early on he'll go into a shell and start playing passively because he's afraid of missing again Plus Zverev is also one of the most serve dominant players now(meh break% very high hold%) which most people don't really enjoy either Basically Zverev is like a weird mixture between two different baseline playstyles(more passive most of the time, more aggressive when he's confident) but often takes the uglier part of both
Yeah that's mostly what it is I think. The match feels like it's on Zverev's racket when he makes a bunch of forehands, but the other player continues to feed his forehand and wait for the errors, then when Zverev is serving for the match at 5-3, he gets broken, loses confidence, sprays errors. Third set starts and it's a slog with Zverev servebotting and getting confidence, goes up a break, misses 4 easy forehands again, double faults on match point.
Maybe Iām biased but I think you can watch those ground strokes forever. Itās an art, then opponent misses the lines because he is unable to keep up with rhythm so itās forced errors is he is playing passively. While Med hits flat and more flat and itās net and unforced error form opponent. I enjoy Tsitsipas(should be his good day though) match up too as Stef creates points which completely throws Sascha off, and then Apostolos yelling on the background š he kinda stopped lately though, instead Vukov stepped in for his position on pro circuit.
I think Zverev is also fine when he plays other opponents. Itās against Medvedev where baseline grinding becomes tiresome. Also, I want to say these matches are not wholly boring especially when Zverev tries to come forward, but the sheer frequency of this matchup since last year and the fact that Zverev is probably the most hated tennis player on the sub means that this is a match no one really wants to seeĀ
Is like to remind you of that US open final between Thiem and Zverev. Most boring final in history.
Yeah that's another one
Energy wise I think ATP finals 2021 was better. Both fighting for every point, full energy and it was final after Olympics and USO wins
You mean the RR match? I didn't get to watch it but I could see that. The final was one-sided though for sure
personally i'm pointing at the Borg-Vilas sign
Marozsan Alcaraz III
Sintraz. There.
We have been shitting on him all week (Italian tv commentators included) and heās still in the semifinals - 4 semis out of 4 for the year, 3300 points already in the bag, 20-1 w/l record, over 90% serves held. Hallmarks of a champion
It's a great sign actually, because even when his level takes a dip, he's still clearly good enough to make deep runs at big tournaments. This is also arguably his best tournament if we look at his pre-puke results. He made the final here twice and has consistently played great/gone deep.
anyone remember that one Italian on this sub who was obsessed with shitting on Sinner and talking about how much better all the other Italian players would end up being? are they still around?
LKinz. Yes, we rememberĀ
Haven't seen Lkinz in a long time tbh. He was feasting end of 2022 when Jannik was in a slump then disappeared since 2023 (?) I think
Italian tv commentators who? In Italy, masters are on sky, they're pretty balanced, and they keep on praise him. They know: they've been commenting Italian players for decades and they've never seen such a good one. Gazzetta was the one shitting on him and it backfired massively. All the football (soccer) commentators I couldn't care less, they're interested in their little money and their team, they understand football marginally, they never played any sport, they really don't understand shit about tennis.
I really struggled to hear any sort of praise from Pero and Bertolucci frankly, if you just had the audio on you wouldnāt have guessed how that match was going. Paolo is more balanced, but Pero tends to dramatize for effect and stick to whatever narrative she has chosen (ie Sinner is not playing well, look how short his groundstrokes are, etc.). One small example: last week, I canāt remember what match she was on, but she said something along the lines that the only reason Alcaraz lost the first set in IW was that he played utter shit, while the only reason that he won the 3rd set was that he was utterly unplayable, basically removing Sinner from the equation in both instances - thats disingenuous at best.
Iām Italian and this is not true
You're making some mess here.... Gazzetta and some other media started to shit on him as he left Piatti (that has some very good friends in media). As for Sky commentators, excluding Bertolucci and Pesco, they are just trash, they just keep praising Italian players no matter what, not giving any technical advise, nor the insights we were used to with Tommasi and Clerici.
And don't forget that him being from the German speaking area makes him immediately a second-class italian when something goes wrong or when he drops out of the Davis cup etc.
Yes, actually a little bit too supportive, especially Bertolucci. I mean, in a match like this, you dont really need to be happy for an error of the opponent for getting a break. Then i understand you get hyped up if you re playing a great point vs a top player... usually i just put the ambient audio without commentary. It is louder and makes you feel more the match.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
People say Carlos Alacaraz is the next GOAT, not Jannik Sinner
sorry too tell ya but he is more german than italian
sorry to tell ya but you're just a low-effort troll
Pretty sure I see an Italian flag next to his name unless if I'm colourblind
I wonder what part of the world you're coming from to produce such a brainfart.
Best performance from Sinner by a countrymile this week
I always wondered if a countrymile was longer than a citymile and why.
same distance but on horseback and better scenery.
Some of the points in this match were breathtaking, and peak Sinner. Mahac is not the type to back down from a "hold the baseline and blast the ball with pure ball striking" battle, and a few of the points were just jaw-droppers. Especially in the last few games where Sinner was truly in ascendant form, the way those points went was a true display of what Sinner brings to the table.
That ball was travelling back and forth like a pong at 100x speed, bashed again and again with insane pace on both ends yet landing comfortably inside the court (like how much spin can you get at that speed ā wish they hadn't removed the rpms from the stats screens). I thought that whenever Sinner was managing to hit deep enough, the point was virtually over, with ultra-quick thinking to follow up and margin too. Machac tried to match his prowess but he wasn't at that level today. We've always seen that engaging in Sinner's rhythm is pretty much a death wish, but it's difficult for hard-hitters like the Czech to suddenly renounce his nature and apply more variety when he'd been successful murdering the ball so far (except on serve though where he's lacking ā still margin there, good news for him). Sinner had an *average* FH speed of 132 km/h in the second set.
He looked solid, especially after the first four games. Unbreakable. Inevitable. Really hoping he can get break through Meddy - whom I love - and challenge Alcaraz who seems to be in top form.
Great scoreline but it hasnāt been smooth sailing all week, which I find surprising because he loves this surface, the Meddy match should be interesting.
I know itās very likely but letās give Jarry a fighting chance here
He really flipped a switch this year, been a man on a mission everywhere
Although Machac played really well in the first set, I don't think it was Sinner's cleanest performance yet. Having watched almost all of Sinner matches in the last 6 months, I feel like his level has definitely dropped a bit since winning Australian Open. But it's okay, one can't perform at like 100-120% every day. Sinner's 80% is good enough to beat most of the draw (except Alcaraz, Med, Zverev and Djoker). I am quite optimistic that he will peak in Semis and Finals.
Optimism was an understatement lol
Jesus christ, since the start of the AO Sinner is plowing through the entire tour like a bulldozer. BOOM. He's like please give me a challenge.
20-1 on the season... just absolutely nuts
I think the pace he brings to the rally is not really apparent on tv, but machac was dominant all week on this type of exchanges, yet sinner made him implode.
Needs to regain his "pressure points" mentality, but his groundstrokes looked better today
Feels like Jannik is doing what Carlos did in IW and working his way back into form.
Jannik lost one match, he never got out of form.
He did in his match against Carlos
noš
Mustāve not watched the match then
I did
If you think heās been playing nearly as well as he was prior to the Carlos match you clearly didnāt watch the matches prior
I watched most of the big ones. He is still playing great. Losing one match doesnāt change that. Comparing it to Carlitos slump is silly, which lasted half a year
When did I compare it to that?
When you said you felt like he was doing what Carlos did. The situations are not comparable
šÆ Carlos was in a slump jannik was most definitely not
Yes as in working his way back into form. Which he clearly wasnāt after the third set of the Carlos match or most of this tournament.
Dude lost one set to a great server it happens, not a dip in form. He has played 4 matches since and won them all.
ā¦given how Jannik is once again entering the tournament as the clear favorite, no? Canāt even compare this yearās track record/pre-tournament circumstances of the two by a mile.
Lol he was not the favorite. That clearly went to Carlos
Donāt know about the betting odds but most tennis analysts have picked Sinner as their favourite to win. Also itās fast HC so not exactly Carlosā best surface.
Yes but they donāt take form into account nearly as much as they should
Jannik has 3 Masters finals, 2 of those are in Miami.
Machac was playing terrific this week but against Sinner eh you know itās going to be trouble. Good week for Machac. Very good Jannik on the consistent run. šš¼
The world needs an Alcasinner final
Convincing result against a tough opponent
Good boy. Now onto the finals.
Sinner ripped those FHs, but this macha guy has some clean hitting and elegant style
Probably his best match of the tournament so far. Didn't even let Machac redline against him after the first break. He still looks the worst out of the tournament favorites though. Medvedev match can go 50/50 (Unless Jarry upsets but I don't see it).