Tennis Talk 2021: Vol 35 (WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Linz, Stockholm, Next Gen in Milan)

Don't watch Carlos on a big screen if you don't like seeing a bit of acne.

everybody has bad acne when they're 18.

I never had acne.

A pimple here and there, sure, but never acne.

ah ok. same for me. thought was still considered acne.

I am sometimes surprised by the faces of some players in video. ITF and challengers streams are usually just a camera without any real production value in terms of close-ups and such. After having had watched quite a few matches by Anna Bondar already, I only last week noticed on a produced Buenos Aires stream that she has quite an eye-catching beauty spot on her face.

did it make you vomit?

no

Was Cindy Crawford famous where you grew up?

edy were you impressed with Anett earlier?

knew the name but don't know much about Cindy Crawford

BK bullying Garbinje

She was considered the number 1 model in the world in the early 90's and she had a very significant beauty spot.

I like this part where the season is winding down. Gonna be very relaxed next week and then semi-busy during Davis Cup and then off-season here we come!

looks like BK vs KaPlis will decide who goes through. If Garbine turns this around, it's gonna be very open on Sunday.

I see Anne K got an MBE

is it 1st group A against 2nd group B in the semi finals yeah?

yeah

I think the final will involve Badosa. hopefully against Anett

Sakkari def Anett in the final.

Anett def Badosa in the final

At least it's full timers only in these WTA finals
Hopefully they will also have success in Melbourne and it's not back to Barty and Osaka, even if Laura would like to see them play each other when they both play weally well.

When Barty plays and wins everything you complain. When Barty doesn't to prepare better for Covid-AO you suggest she is a part-timer.

Nov 13, 2021 -- 2:24AM, SamuelMertensBertens wrote:

I see Anne K got an MBE

Nov 13, 2021 -- 2:36AM, edy wrote:

When Barty plays and wins everything you complain. When Barty doesn't to prepare better for Covid-AO you suggest she is a part-timer.

Yeah, so?

I'm glad to see you're also plainfacing Anne K getting an MBE.

If Anne gets one, I should get one too really.

They should have at least waited until Raducanu runs hot during BJK Cup one year and Keothavong can claim that she brilliantly coached the UK team to its first title in nobody even remembers how many years it has been.

It would indeed be Great Britain's first ever title.

Nov 13, 2021 -- 2:48AM, edy wrote:

If Anne gets one, I should get one too really.

you're more deserving indeed, you never ruined Katie Boulter's career.

Did James get an MBE too?

no

poor Garbine.

JUSTICE. Watch her give this game away with 4 UE's now.

Or not.

According to Aldin Setkic, a player on the ITF panel, next year the points at 25K tournaments will be bumped up to 25 for a win, and 15 for a 15k title. Furthermore, challenger qualifying draws will increase from 16 to 24 players pending the panels approval. Some big changes to next year in light of the difficulties suffered by lower ranked players the past couple of years.

https://www.menstennisforums.com/threads/several-itf-and-challenger-rule-changes.1002316/

The challenger qualies change in particular is an interesting move as tennis continues to try to go back to normal. I'm not entirely sure if it was 2019 or 2020, but they had just reformed qualies at challenger tournaments into a total non-event before covid hit.

It was two matches total in qualies for two Q spots in the main draw. Usually two decently ranked, seeded players against two total no-hopers. Was also problematic when you had lucky loser spots. After the tour restarted from its covid break the challengers quietly changed formats along with it. Main draws were reduced to 32 (the previous reform had made them 64 player draws), qualies expanded greatly. Will be interesting to see if the increase to 24 players in qualies will change the main draws or if it only adds an additional round that the low ranked players will have to battle through without much reward.

Or if, as I just saw suggested, the number of direct entries will simply be reduced. I.e instead of the current 28 direct entries that are joined by 4 qualifiers, there will be 24 direct entries with 8 qualifiers going forward.

26 and 6 going forward

https://twitter.com/tennis_gifs/status/1459520779486314497

Classic Big Foe

I requested that gif and another one, but it wasn't met. Now I see I wrote to the wrong tennisgifs. Good someone else had that good taste to also request it and send it to the right address.

Did he get a warning for it or did the umpire have the good sense to acknowledge that Big Foe does such things in good spirit?

ATP500 Hamburg and WTAForgotTheCategory Hamburg could be a joint tournament next year.

Nov 13, 2021 -- 4:21PM, edy wrote:

Did he get a warning for it or did the umpire have the good sense to acknowledge that Big Foe does such things in good spirit?

Mo was umpiring.

Can anyone stop Badosa?

Alize Cornet @alizecornet
· 8m
Let's not remain silent
#WhereIsPengShuai Face with open mouth and cold sweatFace with open mouth and cold sweatFace with open mouth and cold sweat

There not having been a single peep from the WTA itself is shameful, but not surprising.

Nov 13, 2021 -- 8:41PM, SamuelMertensBertens wrote:

Nov 13, 2021 --  4:21PM, edy wrote:Did he get a warning for it or did the umpire have the good sense to acknowledge that Big Foe does such things in good spirit?Mo was umpiring.

So.....no?

Most likely not because even tennistv celebrated it on their instagram account.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWLOQ4JgpN7/

New moisturiser for Monfils?

Yes, I thought that was understood, regarding Mo.

Nov 13, 2021 -- 9:01PM, edy wrote:

Most likely not because even tennistv celebrated it on their instagram account.

tennistv celebrated Medvedev bullying Aurelie Tourte

If WTA shut up in public but not behind the scenes that would be one thing, but I don't see them even doing that.

Trenton Jocz @TrentonJocz
·7m
Oh god Tennis Channel just listed Hyeon Chung as "Hong Chung"

Apparently there is a youngish inactive Korean ATP player named Hong Chung but still...yikes

Curious what anyone would even list Chung in 2021 in.

Hardcore Slam semifinalists we haven't seen in a while?

Saw Duck on the scoreboard of a futures this week. He lost and generally has been struggling a lot this year after he kinda looked like he was going to make the top100 before covid came around.

Chung last instagrammed in January!

https://twitter.com/RamonaToderas/status/1459633572369907713
,

Damian Kust @damiankust
· 2m
Daniel Altmaier beats Michael Mmoh 3-6 6-3 6-4 in Knoxville CH SFs, securing himself a top 100 debut. Took a huge effort, he skipped the US Open to play clay in Europe and had a brief lull in his form, going back and forth between the States and South America with decent success


Vulturing paid off. Although tbf he probably should have been there already if not for frozen rankings.

I'm rather impressed by her boyfriend's arm development.

Carlos 2 pts from title.

Is Carlos the GOAT free for AO?

Can't really call it vulturing if yu are outside the top100 and haven't even won a tournament since August. The "going back and forth between the States and South America with decent success" was:

Lima challenger 2R lost to Kicker
Indian Wells 2R lost to Dimitrov
Bogota challenger 2R lost to Galarneau
Las Vegas challenger 2R lost to Kovaceciv
Knoxville is his first good tournament in that supposed decent success stretch.

Nov 13, 2021 -- 9:21PM, edy wrote:

Curious what anyone would even list Chung in 2021 in.

Next Gen Winners innit.

Ah! That would make sense. I never pay attention to that tournament so don't really know who wins.

He won the first edition. Guys like Rublev and Medvedev were in that I think.

Chung is better at playing tennis than Rublev. If only his body would allow him to show it.

Nov 13, 2021 -- 9:33PM, edy wrote:

Can't really call it vulturing if yu are outside the top100 and haven't even won a tournament since August. The "going back and forth between the States and South America with decent success" was:Lima challenger 2R lost to KickerIndian Wells 2R lost to DimitrovBogota challenger 2R lost to Galarneau Las Vegas challenger 2R lost to KovacecivKnoxville is his first good tournament in that supposed decent success stretch.

haha fair enough.

The fella who has been rising in recent weeks on the challenger circuit has been Kozlov after he had previously fallen out of the top300 I think.

Won Columbus
qualies 2R IW
Final Las Vegas
Won Charlottesville
2R Knoxville

are his past five tournaments.

I think he earned himself the USTA wild card for the AO with that.

ah, arrong's old flag Kozlov.

In Europe Tallon Griekspoor is unbeatable in challengers, in SA Baez (who you maybe saw in Torino) more or less cleaned up.

yeah, flagged for winning a few games on grass at the age of ~15 against Polish Federer.

Baez was Milan, not good enough for Turin yet.

Speaking of Griekspoor: Made the final again this week, meaning his streak is at 24 now.

Nov 13, 2021 -- 9:43PM, SamuelMertensBertens wrote:

Baez was Milan, not good enough for Turin yet.

Madrid oder Mailand, Hauptsache Italien!

You say B00

I say Sab00lenkaaaaah

This isn't clay Iga it Sab00lenkaaah time in this 2nd set

Iga 1.23 taken into a third set....

Bad0sa qualifies

Be careful so you don't hurt arm your arms with all that waving, Aryna!

Bo0

Bab00sh...

Jamie Hampton on Shuai Peng and WTA.
https://twitter.com/Jamie_Hampton/status/1459716892705370112
(it's a whole discussion, so too much to post here).

see you for start of ATP Tour Finals in 8 hrs 30 mins.

Interesting choice at both Paris Bercy and the WTF to have hawkeye, but not hawkeye live.

more and more people in tennis finding out about and speaking on the Peng situation. It's being said news travel fast these days, but it was weeks since this was first mentioned and only now is it getting more attention.

it was also in Aftonbladet today.

You worked at Aftonbladet. Is my assumption true that a lot of their stories are just based on what they read in the Daily Mail?

I never worked there! I went to a job interview there once, but it didn't go well and instead I became an arber.
They do a lot of their own stuff, but for something like tennis much of it is rewrites from other publications. Daily Mail might be one of those, for this one they cite Le Monde, Swedish TV where this was discussed and had a brief talk with Sofia Andersson. So to answer your question, sometimes yes (not only DM, also publications like Bild and TMZ).

*Arvidsson

Ben is on it now.

Sofia Andersson

If there was ever a year when there needed to be a Challengers Finals, this was that year.

where's the periodical data thread?
https://twitter.com/Musab_Abid/status/1459823144605159424/photo/1

What a mug Berrettini.