BSR

As much as Roger wanted to come back (multiple surgeries, endless rehab), I pretty much knew this was coming when the news came out that fluid was accumulating in his knee, always a horrible sign. I wanted Roger to have a proper farewell, whether it was in his hometown tournament Basel or Wimbledon next year like Serena did this year. He'll compete in Laver Cup, but I don't take that event seriously. No one sells tickets or boosts ratings like Roger Federer. Outside of Spain and Serbia, Roger plays with home court advantage at every tournament around the globe. The sport will sorely miss him.

I just finished binging the 2nd season of Merli Sapere Aude. I loved it, even more than Season 1. Now that Bruno's gone and with Rai hopelessly straight, Pol finds a new love interest, Axel, a hot restoration artist in charge of returning the UBarcelona assembly hall to its former glory. Axel likes Pol, Pol likes Axel, so what's the hitch? Unfortunately, Pol discovers that he has HIV (not a spoiler, he finds out in the 1st or 2nd episode). Most of the 2nd season deals with how Pol deals with his HIV status, as if school, family, and financial issues weren't challenging enough for our young protagonist. We also see how Professor Bolaño deals with her alcoholism and get some insight into why she drinks. Pol quits his parking garage job and starts bartending at a drag nightclub. Oddly enough, María, not Pol, ends up making a very close friend with one of the nightclub staff. Some of last season's characters disappear or fade into the background. Bruno is gone obviously, but also Minerva, who stays in Argentina. Rai is reduced to a peripheral character, as is Silvia (María's only friend at UB). While Biel, Oti, Arnau, and Amy get some more screen time, this season is Pol's story. One big plus is that Carlos Cuevas & Jordi Coll (Axel) have great chemistry. Their sex scenes are hot! hot! hot! The only downside is that there aren't enough of them. I really wish that the series had been renewed, but unfortunately, we won't see a third season of our sexy Catalan philosopher. The final episode comes off as a bit frantic, like the scriptwriters found out last minute that the show got canceled & they had to scramble to wrap up all the storylines. But that's a minor complaint. Overall, I highly recommend Season 2.

Carlos might be tempted to spend more time abroad to avoid being besieged every time he goes out in public in Spain. Ruud actually played really well, but Carlos simply has too much firepower. It's scary that he's only 19 and will only improve from here. His coach Juan Carlos Ferrero says that Alcaraz has tapped only about 60% of his potential.

Brad Gilbert once said about both Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul that they were both great talents who simply weren't willing to work hard enough. Sure, they trained in the gym and hit the practice courts, but they didn't put in the hard yards like the top players did. Tiafoe hired a coach who is a stern taskmaster and started working harder than he ever had before. And whaddya know ... as disappointing as his loss to Alcaraz was, Tiafoe must be happy to know that he can compete with the game's best. Crossing my fingers that Tommy Paul is inspired by Tiafoe's success and puts nose to the grindstone as well. In a second consecutive Slam final, Ons Jabeur wasn't able to play her best. I felt awful for her when the camera caught her post-match sitting on the floor crying. But who knows maybe even had Jabeur played her best, Swiatek was just too good.

I busted up laughing at your description. In the immortal wisdom of Bart Simpson: "It's funny because it's true." After a very disappointing Wimbledon, this 2R loss against #73 Ivashka must have dealt another body blow to Hubie. Apparently the USO courts are quite a bit slower than Cinci, even though the USTA owns both tournaments and tries to make the court speed identical. Unfortunate for Borna because he wasn't getting the same payoff from his new big serve, and once in rallies against Brooksby's depth + lack of pace, he was a bit lost out there. A tough loss for Brandon Holt too, 5th set tiebreak against Pedro Cachín, who plays almost exclusively on clay outside of the Slams. The loss is even more heartbreaking because #112 Moutet is a 3R opponent like you dream about. Ah well, still a great run for him.

Good news: Netflix will start streaming the 2nd season of Merli Sapere Aude on September 9.

The big upsets continue. Last year's surprise winner Emma Raducanu lost in the 1R to Alizé Cornet. After last year's fairy tale run, Raducano has struggled to win matches at any level, and today was no exception. At least my favorite Borna Coric survived, despite being 3-5 down in the 5th set. Phew!

Brandon Holt had a rough start to his pro career. He turned pro in 2020 during the worst of Covid when tournaments, especially the Futures and Challengers, were getting canceled everywhere. Then in 2021 he needed surgery on his hand that sidelined him for 7 months. He was struggling in mostly Futures & Challengers, and he couldn't get into the main draw in the 2 ATP qualifyings he played. So to make it into the main draw of the USO then to beat the #10 seed is a "pinch me I'm dreaming" moment. Taylor Fritz did indeed have high hopes of winning this US Open. How much that messed with his head, I don't know.

I was a bit worried for Nick because he does struggle when playing against a friend. Despite all his surliness while on court, Nick is apparently a much nicer guy off court and has plenty of friends on tour: Kokkinakis, Andy Murray, and of course his new BFF Novak. But Nick was all business against his buddy TK, and the result was very much as expected.

Win or lose, nothing stops Tsitsipas from posting shirtless pics. Stefanos was suffering from an arm injury ( bicep?). His average serve and forehand speeds were noticeably down. After he got treatment from the trainer, he did win the 3rd set, albeit with both serve and forehand still subpar. Great players often figure out how to win despite injury (Novak 3R 2021 AO, Rafa QF 2022 Wimbledon, Steffi Graff her entire career), but it takes great mental strength, something Tsitsipas lacks. OK, his bicep was bothering him but not that much. Like I said in the opening post, Stef's got some work to do.

Congratulations to Brandon Holt for beating the #1 American Taylor Fritz. Holt made it through qualifying, which is an accomplishment in itself, only to draw the #10 seed in the 1st round. But Holt handled himself like a seasoned player instead of a newbie playing his first Slam. Fritz was off, not sure what was going on with him. Since he was going into the USO with his highest ever ranking and career-best season, I have to think Taylor had high hopes for the 2022 USO, especially with a wide-open field. Maybe he put too much pressure on himself & freaked out a bit? Holt goes from #303 to #214 in the live rankings. He more than doubled his career prize money with the win tonight. Since I don't know much about his next opponent, I can't say if it's a winnable match or not, but at least Pedro Cachín isn't a top seed (ranked #66). PS: Brandon's mom Tracy Austin must be so proud.

Golf also has a US Open, but this thread is for tennis's version, which starts tomorrow (today in the Eastern time zone). More than any Slam in recent memory, this US Open is missing a favorite or even solid contenders. Novak and Zverev aren't playing. Medvedev is the defending champion and world #1, but he hasn't looked good lately. You can't get excited about his winning Los Cabos because it's just a 250. He lost to Kyrgios in Canada and double-faulted the match away to Tsitsipas in Cincinnati. Rafa would be the favorite if fully fit, but I've read he's serving at 3/4 speed because of the abdominal. Alcaraz has been very beatable lately, losing to Norrie, Tommy Paul, Musetti, and Sinner 2x. Tsitsipas showed in his loss to Coric in the Cinci final that he needs to do a lot more work to get his act together. The rest of the top 15 (Ruud, Aliassime, Norrie, etc.) look not quite ready for prime time. The one exception might be Sinner, but even he's a stretch. My favorite is a guy who's an even bigger stretch: Cincinnati champ Borna Coric. No, I don't think Borna will win, but he's my favorite because the guy will look so damn good while trying. Hopefully it'll be nice & toasty in Flushing and we'll be treated to a lot of shirt changes. Feel free to free to discuss the women's side as well. I don't follow the WTA all that closely, but their side seems just as wide open. The other big story is Serena's retirement. If you thought the crowd went nuts rooting for Jimmy Connors in the 1991 USO, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

In MTF (men's tennis forum), a lot of members like to point out that Novak is the only player who has refused the vaccine, but that's not true. Novak just gets the most attention because of his ranking and number of Slams. Tennys Sandgren is unvaxxed but could play since he's a US citizen. Unfortunately for him, his ranking dropped so low (currently #426, once as high as #41) that he can't even get entry into the qualifying, forget the main draw. Pierre-Hugues Herbert could have gotten into qualifying with a singles ranking of #234 and into the main draw of men's doubles w/a doubles ranking of #28, but as an unvaxxed French citizen, he couldn't get a visa to enter the US.

I agree with @Charlie, it's hard to avoid politics when you believe that the motivation for banning unvaxxed foreigners is 100% political. If the reason for the ban is not motivated by politics but instead public health, can anyone present the science for why one unvaccinated tennis player (with 2x natural immunity, btw) threatens public health whereas hundreds of thousands of unvaxxed illegal aliens pose zero risk?

Is this an appropriate way to raise money? No, because most high school boys are underage. If they were college kids doing this, then heck yeah! The only problem would be all the pissed-off drivers behind me because I stayed put long after the light turned green. Appropriate or not, I do wonder how much those high school boys raised.

I was not arguing the right or wrong of forcing members of the military to get vaccinated, simply that they were being forced to do so. @Bucky argued that the federal government is not forcing anyone to get the vaccine, which is why I brought up the example of the military. The vaccine is indeed offered to illegal aliens, but many refuse (~30%). They are allowed to stay in the US nonetheless. Joe Biden could force vaccine-refusers to remain in Mexico (sound familiar?) while their case is adjudicated if he were so concerned about public health, but that would discourage future illegals from coming. Oh no, can't have that! Instead, Biden wants to maximize illegal immigration because he views it as a "gift," public health be damned. "illegal visitors are not allowed to travel freely once they are caught." Hmm, this immigration attorney disagrees with you. In sum, Joe Biden enforces the vaccine requirement on unvaxxed foreign visitors to maintain the appearance that he is "doing something" about Covid whereas Biden knowingly, willingly, and all too gladly allows hundreds of thousands of unvaxxed illegal aliens to enter and stay in the US because apparently public health is overrated, or something.

A balk?? The HBPs and walks are understandable given it was his major league debut, but a balk ... hooooooboy. As disastrous as his first outing was, I still hope the poor guy gets a second chance

Technically no, the government isn't locking people up or putting a gun to their head to "force" them to get the vaccine. But they are, for example, expelling people from the military for refusing the jab. Maybe taking away a person's job/career isn't your definition of "force," but it is some serious pressure. On the flip side, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens refuse the vaxx yet are allowed to enter and stay in the US. If the government were enforcing the rules equally and to everyone, then I'd have no problem with Novak not being allowed to enter the country. But when the government at its whim enforces the rules on some but not others, we end up with a banana republic.

To clarify, Novak has never been anti-vaccine. He opposes government forcing people to get vaccinated. In that sense, I agree with him. If government can force you to put something into your body against your will, government can force you to do anything. In any case, I'm pretty sure Novak will be able to play the Australian Open next year. It sounds like the new government is amenable to lifting Novak's 3-year ban. He's already able to play Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Hopefully the US lifts its vaccination requirement for foreign visitors in time for the 2023 USO.

Correct, in fact, NYC has a law exempting pro athletes and entertainers from vax mandates. If Novak had somehow gotten entry into the US, he would 100% be eligible to play the US Open.

I don't think of armadillos as "cute," but you gotta love this one's athleticism.

Not relevant to the 2022 season, but when I read this, I had to post it ... OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming ...

Sometimes I am so damn weak. Tease me with a bunch of hot guys showing some skin, and I can be lured into watching almost anything. But in this case, I lucked out and happed upon a good documentary series, Spain's Elite Police: Beyond Limits. Spain's GEO (Grupo Especial de Operaciones) works the most dangerous assignments: drug wars, terrorist attacks, high-seas piracy. As expected, the training course is brutal, 7.5 months of excruciating physical tests (killer obstacle courses, lots of endurance tests like an hour in freezing water, an hour in a sauna in full gear) and intensive training (shooting, armed entries, street combat, judo, boxing, rappelling, parachuting, navigating stormy seas). 100 trainees started the course; only 12 graduated and became GEO operatives. All the guys were super-hot, although I did notice the dozen who finished the course seemed the most sculpted of the bunch. The series didn't disappoint, showing the trainees shirtless a lot and in undies a few times (they had to endure the freezing water a bunch of times, always in just skivvies). The men were separated from their families, wives, girlfriends for the entire time. I couldn't help but wonder what all these strapping lads did for sexual release, 7.5 months is a hella long time, but of course the documentary didn't go into that. On Amazon Prime Video, 8 45-minute episodes, English subtitles available but no English dubbing.

IV drips were trendy amongst professional tennis players in the early 1990s because they supposedly sped up recovery. An aging Jimmy Connors was the most prominent devotee, and Connors with his portable IV drip became a bit of a fixture in the locker room. With $millions at stake and players desperate to do anything legal to gain even the slightest incremental advantage, not a single pro does the IV thing today. That tells me all I need to know. How many bodybuilders or fitness models do IV drips today? I have no insight into that world, but my guess is the number is the same as the number of tennis players. Besides, I'd feel silly walking around the locker room like this ...

A super-polite little dog ...