Australia Paying Price for Mistreatment of Novak Djokovic

 Potential tourists don't like what they saw.   I would never visit there based on what they did to a high profile visitor since I would never even be noticed if I were to be hauled away.  

Forget that place.

Australian Gulag

Big 3 Stats at End of Year 2022

 

Future ATP Finals on Clay?

That would be odd since a good majority of tournaments are on Hard Courts.

Clay?

Biggest Spread among ATP Finals Titles - Novak owns the record

The biggest spread between ATP Finals titles.

 
Novak Djoković 14
Roger Federer 8
Pete Sampras 8
Boris Becker 7
Ivan Lendl 6                                                                                                                                                       John McEnroe 6

Who is the Real Number One in the World of Men's Tennis

 I believe that this man has it right.

Novak would have passed 400 weeks at #1 if they hadn't wrecked his momentum with the mandates.

Rafa out of Turin

This may be Nadal's first expression of self-doubt. Once that creeps into your psyche, invincibility disappears. That is especially true once the other challengers in the pack sense weakness. The former Big 3 may soon become the Big 1.

Time is moving against Nadal. Alcaraz can thank political intrigue for denying his competition for #1 the opportunity to compete. More than one official has slipped when naming who is #1 when promoting his entry in their tournaments. Hint: his name rhymes with Slovak. 

Alcaraz YE #1 -  Rafa Joins Group Exit 

 

 

 

 

Med a Novak Fanboy?

 Rafa is not Amused

Holger Rune Wins over Novak Djokovic

This is a great win for Holger Rune over Novak so he deserves congratulations.  It's great to have more top talent out there.

Here is my suggestion to those who start making predictions and planning for Novak to retire now.

Just a reminder to those who now might say the torch has been passed with this win. Not yet.  I remember watching fresh faces taking out Laver, Rosewall, Connors, Mac, Sampras, Agassi, Fed, and Nadal. It's inevitable even at that level to lose matches to relative unknowns and outside of tennis enthusiasts, anyone lower than 1 or 2 is an unknown.  There are many really fantastic tennis players out there in the top 50 and even the top 100. On any given day, you can lose to any of them no matter how great your record. 

As for being a future best ever and stacking more slams than the big 3 have so far, I take all predictions in that area as chatter. First hit 20 slams and you can talk about someone surpassing them. In this case, first hit 1. He will probably do that soon which as always is good for tennis.

Alcaraz is out for the Season

Add this to the retirement against Rune.  He's out for the season based on this tweet. "Unfortunately this is the result of my injury: an internal oblique muscle tear in the left abdominal wall with an estimated recovery time of six weeks. After my withdrawal yesterday and having been evaluated by my medical team,@drlopezmartinezand@JuanjoMoreno_M"    Carlos Alcaraz

 

 

Novak - Ice in Veins and a Superior Record

 

 

 

 

Rune brings Alcaraz to Retire with Injury

I suspect that if Alcaraz saw a chance to win he'd have stayed with it.  Give Rune some credit.

 Novak walks through his matches.

 Turin News - ATP Finals

Stubbs Supports Following Rule that Allowed Novak to Play

 That is refreshing since most tennis commentators are still going on and on about the now dispensed vax rule.

Stubbs