Wimbledon

[Bada-Bing!]

Singles finals have been moved to 4pm today and tomorrow, which I wasn’t aware until yesterday. Doubles finals moved to before.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Double bagel in the ladies final. Ouch. Felt bad for Anisimova. No mercy was shown by Swiatek for her first W crown.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

And Sinner wins it, avenges his RG painful defeat. Totally deserved.

 

[Which Tyler]

Better player on the day, but
Boooo, Hissss anyway

Not the first player to professional ignorance and innocence after testing positive for banned substances, just the first for authorities to go "oh, okay then, if you say so"

 

[Bada-Bing!]

I prefer to concentrate on the tennis. But FWIW:

It was a billionth of a gram of cholstebol he tested positive for and he was contaminated by his physio who used a spray (common in Italy) on his cut finger and didn’t wash his hands when attending to Sinner. Sinner didn’t know and has since fired that physio. There was absolutely no performance enhancing effect on Sinner, which was accepted by the ITIA.

Jannik Sinner cleared of any wrongdoing after twice testing positive for banned substance in March

World number one Jannik Sinner is cleared of any wrongdoing after twice testing positive for a banned substance in March.

www.bbc.com

He got preferential treatment no doubt being a world no. 1 compared to others and the timing/length of the ban. But there are exceptions and this is one such case - especially given the amount involved, no performance enhancing effect and his co-operation.

If he’d missed tests and didn’t tell drug testers his whereabouts and his biological passport also showed anomalies then that is a different story. But not aware any of this being the case.

I don’t think the guy should be hung drawn and quartered because of it. The circumstances of the case should be known rather than: he failed a drug test therefore he’s a doper and a villain for the rest of his career. This wasn’t a Ben Johnson drug bust.

 

[Which Tyler]

I never claimed it was.
He was busted for a non-enhancing amount of a performance enhancing drug. That is a known fact.
He had a story that it was all someone else's fault and that he was entirely ignorant of it. This was accepted by the authorities, but I'm under no obligation to accept it. For all we factually know, he had a performance enhancing amount of the same drug in his system, and thought his body would have cleared it before the test, but still had a trace amount in his system, which came to light.
To my understanding, a 2 year ban is automatic for anyone found with any quantity of a banned substance (enhancing or otherwise).

Tennis authorities bent over backwards to avoid busting the arse of their #1 player and biggest draw.

I've no problem with him as a player (though I prefer watching Alcatraz, in the same way I preferred watching Federer over Nadal or Djokovic). But IMO he's a drugs cheat - whether wittingly or not. He had a banned substance in his system, and a story that made it all so done else's fault.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

This comes down whether you want a zero tolerance policy towards testing positive. What was found was extremely minute amount, which could be explained. Yes you could infer more but then what happens to giving the benefit of the doubt? It’s not always that black and white in each case.

Swiatek is another who got busted and served a 1 month ban and had to go through all the rig-moral of proving her medication was contaminated.

Yes, there are others who were busted - Halep although apparently her biological passport showed anomalies which she couldn’t explain. Tara Moore also had to wait an age for due process to take place. The system is far from perfect and yes will favour the top players more depending on the facts of their case.

I also wanted Carlos to win yesterday but have to say he just didn’t serve well enough. Gave too many looks at his second serve, double faulting because Jannick was putting on so
Much pressure on him and took control of key rallies.

I think he may become the dominant winner at Wimbledon going forward because of the consistency of his serve together with all court game.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I can't say I ever appreciated baseline play from an entertainment pov until yesterday. It might have been the contrast in styles, Fed and Nadal could always fight back against Djockovic and manufacture their own opportunities whereas Alcaraz just didn't have an answer for Sinner's precision ball striking.

I enjoyed it a lot despite wanting Alcaraz to win.

Not sure if I think Sinner should have been in the tournament at all, it's borderline for sure, but I'm a casual to the sport so won't ruin my viewing experience over that.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Apart from the first set, Alcaraz just didn’t serve well enough and only had breakpoints on Sinner’s serve when he was behind in the 4th set but failed to take them. That was down to Sinner serving so well.

And the baseline game is more prevalent than ever since 2002 when they changed the composition of the grass to 100% rye. Hence why you only see serve volley sporadically and mostly baseline rallies, only coming to the net when it’s on their terms otherwise they’re sitting duck to be passed.

I thought Alcaraz’s drop shots didn’t work as well yesterday because Sinner is just a good a mover at getting to them.

But grass is different to clay, which is different to Hard courts, which is why I love the points of difference. Top players take a long time to adapt to grass courts because it’s just such a short part of the season. And most grew up playing on clay and hard.

Anyway, really looking forward to how this rivalry between Sinner and Alcaraz develops. Next big one is USO where Sinner is defending champion but Carlos beat him in an epic 3 years ago on his way to the title.

One final point - great to see that both guys are great sportsmen and how well Carlos took it on the chin yesterday. Wins like a champ but also takes the losses like one.