Asked if she was surprised by her level, Williams replied: “No. I’m just Serena.”
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Reminds me of someone asking Katie Ledecky if she thought 8 minutes would be broken in her lifetime. “I don’t know, I’m pretty close.”
I never knew anything about Margaret Court except her majors count. Good riddance.
Court said she has become a persona non grata in the tennis world because of her Christian beliefs, which led her to oppose same-sex marriage when it was proposed in Australia.
There will be a new number one in the mens rankings on Monday. Well, one possibility is Nadal returning to number one. Ruud and Alcaraz could make it too.
Novak Djokovic is such an idiot.
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It’s still hard to believe that Alcaraz is 19 years old. If he can keep going, he just has so many opportunities to win majors in front of him.
I know that most Australians who even remotely follow sport view her as legendary champion of the past, who they also desperately wish would just remain there, please.
That rally was the only interesting thing to happen I the first set, and it was the last point! I went to sleep and set my alarm for when I thought the main event would get interesting.
How does Alcaraz keep going? It’s crazy. I guess that’s why he pointed at his legs during his celebration.
Now we have a fantastic situations for the finals:
Saturday = The top two women, who will be number one and two in the rankings on Monday (Iga number one of course).
Sunday = Two contenders in the mens final, both of whom could be the new number!
My money is on Swiatek and Ruud. Swiatek because she’s just the best. Ruud because while Alcaraz is better, he’s now played three five set matches in a row.
Iga doing her thing:
She takes the first set 6-2 after returning EVERY SINGLE serve by Jabeur.
Let’s see if Jabeur can do better in the second set.
Edit:
I know tennis isn’t over until it’s over, but in the middle of the second set, I think it might be safe to say it’s over. 
After the first game of the match I predicted Jabeur would win a maximum of three games across two sets. And she’s got there! The cheers when she won that third game were a bit patronizing, but now I think she might win another.
Okay, a way closer second set than I expected after the first set. Jabeur worked out where to hit the ball (to Iga’s forehand, apparently) and made a good match out of it.
I only have vague childhood memories of the prior generation of champions like Agassi, Seles, Graf, Navratilova, Sampras, McEnroe. Hell, I’ve seen McEnroe play more guitar and show up at more hockey games than I’ve seen him actually play tennis live.
Effectively, for as long as I can remember seeing any tennis at all, these people were on top. They’re basically the same age as I am. And now they’re retiring.
I’m most jealous of the fact that they don’t have to keep working for another decade or two like I do than I am of all the championships and fame.
I’ve been way more emotional about Serena and Federer retiring than the Queen dying. I didn’t watch a moment of the funeral this week but stayed up late to see both final matches:
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Despite the sexist lower prize payouts for women’s tennis, Iga has brought in more cash than anyone in tennis this year.
It’s a pity it takes an all-time-great level of performance for an entire season for a woman to match a handful of men.
Not putting this in the cheating thread… YET.