The tv here key showing Henrik Lundqvist and Brad Pitt in the crowd. Glad to see Novak lose. Didn’t like the crowd that seemed to be cheering for him to come back.
GOOD
Tennis thread or China thread?
Here’s the summary of what’s going on as far as I can tell.
Professional Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai accused Vice Premier Zhang Gaol of sexual assault. As China often does to celebrities, or really anyone that steps out of line in opposition to the government, she “disappeared.” This is a big deal. Peng is a very famous athlete in China.
However, this time, unlike previous “disappearances” there’s actually some strong action being taken. The WTA is having the guts to not let China get away with it. Or at least, not get away with it without being removed from the WTA.
Of course, to absolutely no surprise, the cowardly corrupt Olympics haven’t done jack shit. Sad really because this is the perfect opportunity for them with the Beijing Olympics so close at hand, they actually have a lot of leverage. China probably isn’t too scared o the WTA’s threats, as they’ll be happy to just roll their own tennis, just like they aren’t afraid to lose the NBA and just stick to their own basketball. But if the IOC had guts or a conscience they could threaten to cancel the entire Olympics right now.
The interesting thing about the WTA is that the end of year finals, by going to China, had the largest ever prize in tennis history, larger than any prize for mens tennis too.
Unfortunately, while the money was good, the live audience wasn’t great in terms of energy not numbers, and due to time zone issues, there wasn’t a big broadcast audience either.
Now we’ve had two years without any tennis in China, and it’s been… better! The WTA finals in Mexico have had fantastic crowds and have been super popular.
Women’s tennis can do without China, and will take the money hit no problem. I give it 50-50 chance that the ATP might take this opportunity to drop China from the schedule too, and rearrange the calendar to include some more American/Mexican/Latin American tournaments post-US Open.
Despite covid and pandemic stuff, Tennis is doing fine.
The Olympics? The IOC needs China! They won’t do shit.
No more women’s tennis in China.
Guy with metal hip beat plays good tennis:
Finally. Closure. And we got the good ending!
The full info:
https://reddit.com/r/sports/comments/s55yj4/_/hsvo2pj/?context=1
Aussie here who followed the court hearings. For anyone interested they didn’t actually have a process to hear a case to appeal the merits of the decision to cancel his visa.
The only option available was to bring a case to federal court to have them assess if the process of cancelling his visa by an executive branch of government (in this case the minister) was legal. Meaning, did the minister exercise his powers legally in a manner as prescribed by the law. which he did.
Because the minister used his powers as they are legally provided to him there was essentially no case for Novak and therefore it was dismissed. There is also no appeal to federal court rulings. They also specifically pointed out in the ruling that they were not assessing merits of the reasons for cancelling as they are not afforded the ability to do so. Simply if the process of making the decision was legal. Which it was.
He could have taken a similar case to the high court but it wouldn’t have made it before them with a conclusion before the tournament commenced.
Edit: the entire thing was live streamed on the Federal Court’s YouTube.
X-post the best game you can name:
“You are a small cat”!
Extended highlights reel.
I was traveling during the match, but kept up with a lot of the action via radio and the live scores before settling down with the Eurosport app while waiting for the plane. The plane took off at the start of the fourth set. When it landed I didn’t turn on my phone again, so could watch the replay of the last two sets.
And omg, what a rollercoaster ride! Easily one of Nadal’s greatest wins. And without a doubt it’s going to take a lot for any other match to top that one as match of the year.
Djokovic is such an idiot.
To be clear, he didn’t withdraw by choice; he couldn’t get into the country due to being an anti-vaxer idiot.
The current number one tennis player retires: