ATP Tennis/Non-India Davis Cup

[Rajiv]

22 for Nadal

Yes that is sweet, but the Finals were a damp squib and one has to thank Cilic for that..

Not only took out, Rublev & Medvedev, but even gift wrapped Ruud for the Finals

[PKBasu]

Murray in the semifinal in Stuttgart, and plays Kyrgios. The other semifinal is Berretini vs Otte (who was playing Challengers until a year ago). Wimbledon is really going to be wide open this year, with Nadal, Zverev, Federer and the Russians missing. Some of the grass-courters are putting out their stalls...

[PKBasu]

So the Stuttgart final is Murray vs Berretini. Murray is making a serious bid for his third Wimbledon title this year...

[Sin Hombre]

25-year old Dutch journeyman Tim van Rijthoven won Hertogenbosch beating Medvedev 6-4, 6-1 in the finals. He beat FAA and Fritz on his route to the finals.

Why is this noteworthy?

He was ranked #205 coming into the tournament, he has never won a Challenger (something which RamK deservedly got a lot of criticism for) and this was just his second ATP tour event!

[Rajiv]

Tim van Rijthoven have been following him not only his run at Hertogenbosch but since 2015 where he spoilt Ram's party somewhere in Turkey( if I am correct )and the day before the Finals, Ram said ,"Uncle will get this title", as Tim was then 17 yr old ranked somewhere between 1000 to 1500, but the result turned out to be opposite.

And continuing on this topic, year or two years later at a Futures Final somewhere in Spain, Ram was successful in getting the title unlike against Van Rijhtoven and his opponent that time was a guy called FAA,and this fellow (FAA) is now in a different zone. (I still have the photographs of Ram with trophy & FAA with the Runner Up Cup).

[Sin Hombre]

Tim van Rijthoven has now made it to R4 of Wimbledon as a WC, where he will play Djokovic. What a fairytale run from the journeyman.

Overall this is a pathetic Wimbledon with the ban on the Russians and all the Covid withdrawals and low crowd attendances.

[PKBasu]

I watched the first 2 sets of the Djokovic-Rijthoven match. The 25 year old guy is very, very good. He was just playing Futures until a year ago -- having won 10 Futures titles -- but made his first Challenger final only in August 2021, and his second in February 2022, but was still spotted and given a wildcard into the main draw of s'Hertogenbosch by the Dutch tennis federation, and went on to win the title -- beating FAA in the QF, and hammering the world #1 61 64 in the final! He thoroughly rattled Djokovic by the end of the first set, and especially in the second set. But I kind of suspected he wouldn't be able to sustain it, so I eventually went to sleep after the superb second set.

[prasen9]

So, mother nature took care of Nadal in the semis. Here's hoping Kyrgios wins it all.

[PKBasu]

Nadal withdrew because he wasn't sure he could beat Kyrgios with the pain in the abdomen. He hinted as much in his statement, which also admitted he could have played but would have had to take a 3-month break to recover afterwards. It's the Wimbledon semifinal, and you concede before getting on the court? Come on!

[arjun2761]

Kyrgios has the game to beat the Djoker. The question is whether he can keep his head in check to focus on his tennis rather than on everything that will be going on around him.

[prasen9]

Nadal withdrew because he wasn't sure he could beat Kyrgios with the pain in the abdomen. He hinted as much in his statement, which also admitted he could have played but would have had to take a 3-month break to recover afterwards. It's the Wimbledon semifinal, and you concede before getting on the court? Come on!

It's his body. You play the probabilities. If he had to take a 3-month break, that would jeopardize his U.S. Open. Nadal honestly thinks he has a better chance of winning the USO than the Wimbledon even when he is in the semis at the latter event. So, he wanted to do that. To me and him, the Wimbledon is another slam. While the probabilities are not cast in stone, I'd rather take more of a chance in the U.S.O. than at Wimbledon. Also, I think he may have thought that he may not beat Kyrgios but I think he thought that he had no chance of winning it all with more certainty because he certainly could not beat Djokovic, the likely finals opponent. A wimbledon runner-up vs a chance at the USO - he'd rather choose to be fitter at the USO and that is the right decision imho.

[indiansportsfan]

Also with Djokovic likely not being allowed to play in USO, Nadal's chances go up significantly. I think Djokovic has a stranglehold on Wimbledon for a few more years, unless there is a breakthrough by someone new.

[prasen9]

Exactly. Nobody knows whether Djoko will be there but there is a very good chance he will not. So, Nadal is playing the expectation optimization game. Kudos.

[Omkara]

Some controversy with pics of Nadal post Wimbledon SF walkover.

[Rajiv]

Finally .... Tennis to make a arrival back in China , with Two 250's slated in Chengdu & Zhuhai for September.

First baby steps in China gradually opening out to the world and also has far reaching consequences on Hong Kong which has been cut off from the rest of the world since Feb 2020 , and in a sequence of events , the Hkg Health secretary announced that from Nov , all strict quarantine rules will be abolished and there be no 7 day quarantine required for any visitor or resident coming into Hkg , which the rest of the world has already implemented.