Wimbledon Update: Quarter-Finals
Fritz up a set on Nadal right now, and Nadal just went back to the locker room. I don't see Nadal finishing this match.
This would be an absolutely golden opportunity to get an American male in a final of a Grand Slam since 2009. Fritz would play (probably) Kyrgios.
Can't say I know much about Kyrgios, but the things I've read about him the past few weeks make him seem like an absolute prick...
He is. I find it funny though…put him in the NFL, NBA and he’s just a run of the mill trash talker/poor sport.
Have to admit, I love having a McEnroe/Conners style villain in tennis though.
Um, didn't he just get charged with domestic violence?
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/05/tennis/nick-kyrgios-assault-allegations-intl-spt/index.html
Billion dollar talent. Ten cent head. If he’d just get his head out of his ass he’d have the sport by the balls.
Nadal is STRUGGLING with Fritz’s serves. And his serves as well.
Fritz was the first of the "next gen" American hopefuls- he's FINALLY starting to reach the top of his potential. Hopefully the rest of the group can follow.
I was surprised to see that Fritz was seeded 11th. That's got to be the highest Grand Slam seeding for an American male in quite some time, right?
Kyrgios is playing the best he has in a very long time, if not ever. Been quiet this match, thus far, and the previous. The guy is a prick but he is entertaining... I'm a fan, especially when guys like John McEnroe go scorched earth on him any chance he gets.
Not much of a tennis fan, but I watched Kyrgios play on Saturday with a friend who is a big fan (both of Tennis and of Kyrgios). I don't understand why McEnroe crapping on him, seeing that he's the closest thing to McEnroe that we've seen in a while. Any insight?
I think it's very hypocritical but have no real idea of why.
I can assume it's because John is now "I know better, listen to me, I lived it" or also that Kyrgios who is very talented but doesn't take tennis as seriously as McEnroe did and he reminds him of himself with the antics but his play made the antics "okay," in his mind. I get a feeling it's both but more on the latter and if it is, then McEnroe needs to get the fuck over it, it's not his life.
I follow tennis pretty close and play a lot too. I would guess it’s this - Nick is a top 2 or 3 player in the world if he would take tennis seriously. He’s said flat out that tennis is not very important to him, and doesn’t really care about it, train hard, or play a full schedule. Essentially shitting on everyone involved with the sport. He comes off very petulant because he can have poor results (never made a major Semifinal) and just shrug and say he doesn’t care. Total loser attitude. Everyone sees his potential and want to see him take it seriously. That to me is the difference between Mac and Nick. Mac cared or at least put in the work to be great despite being a dick.
If he wins Wimbledon, McEnroe's head may very well explode.
So he's the tennis version of Allen Iverson?
But McEnroe in his prime had a reputation for relying on sheer talent rather than undertaking rigorous training.
i think this is it - he doesn't seem to care enough to truly excel, which is one thing if you're an aloof jay cutler type but another if you're constantly either bitching or (admittedly!) tanking when you do show up. the other thing is showing up your opponents, which he seems to do on occasion.
Mac was doing tons of blow & spent a lot of time partying and not caring about his training. Maybe McEnroe has been around long enough that he's created his own myth. Didn't win a slam after 25 as a result.
I really disagree with the whole "if-Kyrgios-would-take-it-seriously" line. In my opinion, it's all a defense mechanism to protect his fragile psyche.
He simply plays an inconsistent style of tennis. It's really fun to watch because he blasts serves and rips forehands at the lines and hits lots of drop shots. I enjoy watching his tennis. But it's high-risk-high-reward. Sometimes he'll beat Djokovic. Sometimes he'll lose to Mackenzie McDonald.
Kyrgios knows that even if he tries his best, he'll struggle to crack the top 20 (which isn't anything to be ashamed of, by the way). I think he's been trying his best the past two years and still losing to pretty much every top-30 player he faces. He's just not that good. But he has such a huge ego that he had to create this schtick about not taking tennis seriously, loving basketball more, etc. as a defense mechanism.
My two cents anyway.
I grew up with McEnroe, Connors, Lendl, etc..As poorly as McEnroe behaved at times it was almost always directed at chair umpires or tournament directors. Rightly or wrongly, people tend to be ok with that (Kill the ump, fuck you ref, ref you suck). Krygios obviously has issues with chair umpires but a lot of his issues have been with other players (Tsitsipas, Wawrinka, many others) which McEnroe rarely did, especially on the court. I think McEnroe has a serious distaste for Krygios behavior as it relates to the "brotherhood" of tennis
McEnroe had Connors to play off of, his contemporary when it came to "acting out." Krygios doesn't have that.
Tsitsipas did hit a ball into the spectators the other day, yet Kyrgios' reaction led most of the discussion.
Conners was the biggest ass in tennis.
McEnroe only complained about line calls to the ump. And he was probably right. That wouldn’t be an issue with the camera replays. And McEnroe regrets his behavior.
Kyrgios is far worse than McEnroe ever was. Some of wha Kyrgios does is “gamesmanship” to throw off the opponent mentally. McEnroe didn’t do that. He was just frustrated with bad calls and getting angry actually improved his mental game.
Kyrgios hasn’t cared about tennis up until now.
McEnroe has plenty of reasons to shit on Kyrgios.
When you acted like this in HS, you got a lot of balls hit right at you by your opponents.
Conners mocking icon Ken Rosewall at the end of his career was the biggest jack ass/ disrespect move I have seen. Then when Johnny Mac did sort of the same thing with Conners I was okay with it.
Might it have something to do with the allegations of domestic abuse?
Eh. I was a big McEnroe fan, but he has always been fairly oblivious about how badly he acted. It's like he's always a strange combination of surprised and offended when people bring it up or try to tease him about it.
Also, he's not the first human being to criticize others for behavior he himself demonstrated as a younger man.
Kyrgios is similarly oblivious, by the way. All this "if it had been me I would have been defaulted" nonsense gets old. Damn I'm tired of people actively seeing themselves as victims, without even taking a second to wonder why, exactly, they tend to get in trouble. As in ... is it possible that your previous conduct makes it more difficult to excuse bad behavior as a simple mistake or unintentional? No ... it's simply because "people are so unfair to me!"
I don't disagree with anything you had to say, at all. I was a McEnroe, as well.
Right. And the Jan. 6 Committee investigation is a "witch hunt."
So very, very unfair.
Ugh- Nadal gets the 2nd. Come on Taylor, you got this.
I’m torn…Nadal favorite player and a semi (if he’s close to 100%) against Kyrgios would be must see TV as there is some bad blood there. Hard to root against getting an American man in a major Semifinal though.
I'm not torn. I like Nadal. He's an all-time great. But he's been here a million times and it's been an eternity since we had an American male win a slam, let alone get to a final. No brainer for me.
(And I threw down 25 on Fritz to win the whole thing, so there's that.)
me too - i love nadal, but it's exciting to see an american player finally go toe-to-toe with him.
I’m with you.
Fritz needs to keep Nadal moving. He’s battling an injury.
Rafa is the ultimate fighter and force you to beat him no matter the circumstances.
Fritz got tight and choked. Stopped going for shots and started pushing it over. He rad Rafa on the ropes and played not to lose.
Kyrgios antics don’t bother me…reality is, they have cost him more than anyone else. He’s one of the most talented individuals to ever pick up a racket, but is not in love with the sport he is best at (he actually prefers basketball)
If he had 25% the love for the sport as Rafa and 10% of Novak’s mental strength, the guy would probably already have a grand slam or 2
True, reminds me of Happy Gilmore in that respect. Reluctantly playing tennis although if it were up to him he’d play basketball professionally
I see a 5th set tiebreaker in their future.
Fritz, Shitz da bed!!!
That’s too bad for Fritz. He played to well to go down like that without a competitive tie breaker.
Fritz had so many chances to win. Just glad I don’t have to listen to the commentators man crush over Nadal anymore.
Ugh. Dude is just impossible to beat. It is even more frustrating for him to lose this one because he would have a good chance to get to a final.
Fritz will be fine. He's going to be great. Just has to continue to refine his game.
Can't take anything from the young man. Hopefully he finds that extra gear one day. Overmatched from the beginning of the Tie-break.
Fritz was afraid of playing at the net. Follow that serve and hit overheads. Hot take - this has been one of my problems with American tennis for a while.
Hey, maybe Cressy will carry the mantle- he's about as old school as it gets.
I still think Fritz is the best of the bunch. He has the best chance to win a major for this country before everyone else. Nakashima looks like he could be 2nd in line- dude's completely solid and unphased- just needs to continue to mature.
Aside from Fed and Nadal and a handful of other that use it as an occasional surprise, are there any true serve-and-volley players out there? It seems like everything is go for the big serve and then grind out a baseline volley if you have to...
There were countless chances for Fritz to charge net at opportune times after deep shots that had Nadal off balance, but instead he chose to hit with the greatest hitter of all time. Assuming Joker makes it to the final, watch how much more opportunistic he will be at the net. Fritz needs to develop this part of the game and then he will be top shelf, major worthy.
It was a combination of not going to the net and not going for his shots. He started pushing the ball back when Nadal was simply slicing the ball to the middle of the court. Fritz played not to lose and got tighter as the match wore on. Can't win a match at a major against a legend hoping that he will retire or just start making errors - even in Nadal's injured state.
Fritz had to keep playing as aggressively as he did in the first 3 sets and it was his. Nadal, Djoker, and Federer before them, will never give an inch...you need to take it from them. Hopefully this is just a tough lesson for Fritz, and doesn't become a psychological barrier that sticks with him going forward, because he has all the tools - except needing to advance and improve his net game.
When your opponent is serving the ball 90 miles an hour on his first serve, as Nadal was for much of the match, not excuse not to blast those back and go for the kill. Love Nadal, ultimate fighter, but Fritz lost this one - and was lost from the neck up.
Only at opportune times to come forward. Modern game has essentially taken out exclusive Serve/Volley as they get punished by passing shots as racquet technology has improved.
Generally, yes. But Nadal was slicing balls back to the middle of the court. Fritz should have been on top of those and/or whipping them back to Nadal's backhand. He got suckered into a pushers game of tennis, and eventually Nadal showed the courage to go for shots down the stretch while Fritz fell apart. Very unfortunate.
Fritz is a choke
Nonsense. Down a break in the fifth set to one of the greatest players of all time -- if not the greatest player of all time -- and he breaks back, and takes him to a fifth set tiebreak?
This understanding of sport is weak. If Nadal had lost, would you have said he choked? One of them had to lose. Fritz played a hell of a match against a master. Full credit to him.