Tennis (Iga Swiatek Appreciation Thread)

Right. Earlier I said there’s no way the ATP would ban him from competing, because he’s the president of the players’ council and the ATP number one ranked player. But a Grand Slam event isn’t an ATP event, with the USTA in charge in New York.

But Djokovic already said he wasn’t happy with the restrictions planned for the US Open, due to not being able to bring a huge entourage and having to stay in sanctioned hotels rather than organising his own accommodation.

So the combination of him being critical of official measures, and then fucking up this badly, might push either him or the USTA, or both, to decide he shouldn’t make an appearance.

It’ll be a huge story, probably one of the biggest news stories in sport this year if he is uninvited, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t go to New York.

It’s extra crazy considering how easy a socially-distanced Tennis match is logistically compared to almost any other sport -_-

I know!

I’m currently watching the Battle of the Brits, which is just the top 8 singles players and to 6 doubles teams.

There’s no audience, no ball crew (players are handling the balls themselves), no line judges (hawkeye is making all the calls), four camera operators, two coaches, one umpire. All spread out in a tennis venue, nobody is coming close to anyone!

At the net they are tapping rackets instead of shaking hands. It’s all super obvious! On top of that they are all being tested every day. I’d be happy to take part in such an event.

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I noticed that tennis with no audience is actually pretty natural. It’s weird, but I can still get into it. A tennis nerd like me often watches live streams of Challenger events, where there’s hardly any audience in the early rounds of those events, or on the second courts. It feels pretty similar to that. It actually feels more like watching a snooker match, where there are loooong stretches of silence from the audience.

The whole “Cincinnati” tournament was played without line judges, with Hawkeye doing all the line calling. It’s just better in EVERY way.

Now I’m watching some US Open, and for the two main show courts they’re using line judges again. It’s just so much bullshit for the players to deal with!

The high speed cameras and the computers do the job perfectly, without any noticeable errors, and the calls are final. The players just keep playing until they hear the call, and then take the computer at its word. All ambiguity is removed.

Now Guaff and Sevastova are having to stop play to make challenges, and of course the human line judges are making mistakes.

Guaff rightly challenge an out call on her serve, and it was clearly in. But due to the timing of the call, she doesn’t get to keep the point she would otherwise have earned on that unreturned serve. She has to start again with the whole point, just because the line judge fucked up.

It’s now a much worse experience to play on the two main show courts, because the mental load of playing the match is way higher due to constantly second-guessing any call or lack of call.

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Before they got the “piped in fake crowd noise” right, the early hockey games without spectators were super weird. It really made it hard to follow the flow of the game despite the commentary and the ice action being completely the same. It hit this sort of uncanny valley where the game would enter a certain state, but the crowd wouldn’t react to that state.

It’s much better now. If there’s a consistent offensive zone push, the crowd noise starts to get more and more rowdy. It’s sound more natural, and follows the flow of the game better.

I also just want to add that this is an excellent example of why it matters what we name things. It matters who we name things after, if we name them after people at all. And if we have statues of people, it matters which people we build up and which we tear down. It matters that we play the US Open in Arthur Ashe stadium, and not a place named after a corporate sponsorship or an old rich white guy.

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Djokovic is out after hitting a line judge with a ball??!!! LOL!

Djokovic, undefeated in 2020, until:

Yup! Hitting a ball in anger, and that ball hitting someone, is automatic disqualification.

Previous examples:

Shapavalov hitting the umpire in the face and fracturing his eye socket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_Cvfx9Jl0E

Henman hitting a ball into the net, just as one of the ball crew ran across the court:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK0m6UPWmh0

Similar is Nalbandian kicking an advert that hit a line judge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXrI0EUw34Q

When Tennis enforces its rules and the government doesn’t.

Yup, it’s all covered in the rules:

In accordance with the Grand Slam rulebook, following his actions of intentionally hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences, the US Open tournament referee defaulted Novak Djokovic from the 2020 US Open. Because he was defaulted, Djokovic will lose all ranking points earned at the US Open and will be fined the prize money won at the tournament in addition to any or all fines levied with respect to the offending incident.

https://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articles/2020-09-06/2020-09-06_pironkova_surprised_by_her_us_open_run_to_round_4.html

Sam Querrey might be banned from professional tennis for three years:

Daaaang, that’s a lot of years. Maybe not enough considering that Muhammad Ali got three years for dodging the draft. Dodging the quarantine is actually a bad thing that deserves punishment. I can’t even think of any other suspensions that long that weren’t just perma-bans for cheating.

Felix Auger-Aliassime played in his 7th final today. And lost. Just as he’s lost the previous 6 finals.

He’s closing in on the record for most finals appearances without ever winning, which stands at 10. This isn’t a great record!

Improvements to tennis due to covid:

  1. Automated line calls. Hawkeye is just better than humans! It was always the “source of truth” when the players didn’t trust the humans, and now it’s fast enough to call every point. It speeds up the game, and removes unnecessary fake drama.

  2. The ball crew no longer hand the players their towels between points, a practice that never get like it should be part of their job. Now they concern entirely on the balls and the smooth running of the match, and the players walk 4m further between points and deal with their own fucking towels.

  3. Racquet salutes to the chair umpire post match. The handshake was always clumsy and awkward, as the umpire had to lean over from their chair. The racquet salute is way cooler for everyone involved.

One thing I don’t want to change long term:

  1. Please return to the post-match-cross-net handshake at the net. Tapping racquets together has removed too much of the emotional full-stop at the end of event. A handshake can turn into an embrace, or be as uncomfortable as either player wants to make it.
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Picturing a Jojo’s style confrontation completely made up of awkward hand/body language during a handshake.

No surprise. Easily going to be the best sporting event we have seen in quite awhile.

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