Topic: Tennis League All Thread - page 325. (Read 203654 times)

Breaking news... Australia have cancelled Djokovic's visa again!

I think this is the right decision. He should never have got a visa in the first place as he didn't meet the criteria, he tried to cheat and lie his way to getting one. His apology or explanation (or whatever it was) the other day really sealed it for me, and removed any empathy I might have felt for his situation. It was so obviously manipulative, and the way he tried to cast himself as a well-meaning innocent and throw all the blame on one of his team was just pathetic.

The whole thing doesn't reflect well on Djokovic, and the way it's been handled doesn't reflect well on Australia. But it's the right decision.

... is there time for another legal appeal before the tournament starts?

Some pics for the Australian Open Women's Qualifying matches:  (both today and Monday)

Harriet Dart - Kimberly Birrell      Match Winner   Harriet Dart @ 1.32   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.04 mBTC
Storm Sanders - Aryna Sabalenka      Match Winner   Aryna Sabalenka @ 1.22   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.04 mBTC
Sloane Stephens - Emma Raducanu      Match Winner   Emma Raducanu @ 1.85   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.06 mBTC
Robin Anderson - Samantha Stosur   Match Winner   Samantha Stosur @ 2.00   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.06 mBTC
Anna Bondar - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova   Match Winner   Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova @ 1.32   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC   Possible Payout: 0.04 mBTC
Zarina Diyas - Elena Rybakina      Match Winner   Elena Rybakina @ 1.11   Taken Amount: 0.05 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.06 mBTC
Ons Jabeur - Nuria Parrizas Diaz   Match Winner   Ons Jabeur @ 1.09   Taken Amount: 0.06 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.07 mBTC - CANCELLED
Magda Linette - Anatasija Sevastova   Match Winner   Anatasija Sevastova @ 1.62   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC   Possible Payout: 0.05 mBTC
Petra Martic - Jil Teichmann      Match Winner   Jil Teichmann @ 1.50   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.05 mBTC
Anastasia Potapova - Camila Giorgi   Match Winner   Anastasia Potapova @ 1.97   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC   Possible Payout: 0.06 mBTC
Bernarda Pera - Ekaterina Alexandrova   Match Winner   Ekaterina Alexandrova @ 1.39   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC   Possible Payout: 0.04 mBTC
Ajla Tomljanovic - Paula Badosa Gibert   Match Winner   Ajla Tomljanovic @ 4.10   Taken Amount: 0.03 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.12 mBTC
Qiang Wang - Cori Gauff         Match Winner   Cori Gauff @ 1.07   Taken Amount: 0.08 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.09 mBTC
Belinda Bencic - Kristina Mladenovic   Match Winner   Belinda Bencic @ 1.12   Taken Amount: 0.05 mBTC      Possible Payout: 0.06 mBTC

Won 8 (bet 0.28 mBTC - won 0.41 mBTC) / Lost 5 - 0.21 mBTC / Cancelled 0.07 mBTC / To play 0

Well the draw could have waited a couple of hours but nothing has changed yet and as far as we know currently Djokovic will play on the Australian open. I hope he plays and wins this tournament it will be really historic especaily with this being his 21st grand slam title if he wins

We for sure that is the case with Medvedev, he can seem to feed off the negativity
of the audience and seems to have better mental control, he used to quite wayward,
slamming the racquet etc.

On the other side there is Djokovic who does seem to get distracted/annoyed with
the audience at times even if there is a slight disruption, and can lose it too, look at
his disqualification in 2019 ^{i think} after hitting the ball into a line umpire.

You just wouldnt see Federer or Nadal doing that ^{those two being the best comparisons}
and Medvedev just serves through the distraction.

It is a shame the turn that events took, in fact very embarrassing, the Australian government had information and far from being what I mentioned, it turns out to be guilty, it is worth saying then the evidence is irrefutable. So the individual, the citizen that should be, I fail, then blaming third parties is not the best, accepting the error  is to make known to all those involved that before being a tennis star, he is a person who is tempted to human error.

I think Djokovic has been tested many times throughout his career so I doubt that he will be affected mentally with all the drama surrounding him in the AO.

And if ever he will play in this tournament and never got the love from the crowd it's understandable. But I doubt that it will have a negative effect on him. On the contrary, athletes like Djokovic thrive in this kind of environment and they love when the crowd is against them.

Let's see on the Stephens vs Raducanu match, yeah, both are very inconsistent so who knows as this is really a tough call. Maybe it's better to wait and do live betting and see who has the good form that game.

For Medvedev's draw, I do agree, I think he has past that already and I doubt that he can get an axe early and be upset by someone who he has beaten in the past.

I also think Medvedev will be ok with these match up's, This is his favourite surface
"hard court" so I really hope there is no upsets for him early on in the tournament.

---

On the ladies side and back to Raducanu, she has drawn a tough opener against Sloane
Stephens, who can be unpredictable performance wise. Would you bet on Raducanu
on this match? tough call IMO.

^The draw seems quite interesting. Zverev seems like he got a comparatively easier matchup and I hope he will do good in all of them.

I also don't think that  Kyrgios and Hubert will post that much of a threat to him, Medvedev. If he's calm and composed and plays by the books, I don't see a reason for him to struggle against them.

I'm hoping Djokovic also will go a long way in this tournament but after all those controversies, will he be mentally stable to have the winning mentality like before?

With all those things happening in these few days, I think it might somehow affect Djokovic in his matches. But also he's a professional and he will try his best to not let these things affect him in-game.

I don't think that both Kyrgios and Hubert will be a threat to Medvedev at this point, Kyrgios is not that active although he will have the home court advantage although I've read that he has covid too.

(https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/kyrgios-hopeful-australian-open-tomic-anticipates-joining-him-covid-19-positive)

So let's see what will be the final result of the draw, @cryptofrka draw a interesting point in his post, they should have delayed it until the Djokovic case is close.

I know there are some rules regarding the draw (when it's supposed to come out), but considering the general situation around Đoković I feel the draw should have been postponed for a day or two as well.

Đoković is a top seed player, if he doesn't play the whole draw will be totally unbalanced. Example - if Đoković is eventually deported, Berrettini doesn't have a top 15 player other than Cameron Norrie in the draw until the semifinal.

The draw is ready: https://ausopen.com/draws#!mens-singles

Medvedev is not going to be much happy with his draw. Likely to face Kyrgios in 2nd round. Followed by Hubert in 3rd round. Its going to cost early in a long tournament.
Zverev must be extremely happy with his first 3 matches. First Altmaier then most likely followed by Millman in a 2nd and L.Harris in 3rd.
Djokovic starts against fellow Serbian Kecmanovic. Most likely followed by T.Paul in 2nd and Sonego in 3rd. Optimal draw for his part.
Nadal is going to have some really hard matches throughout the tournament as he starts with Giron. Most likely followed by Kokkinakis in 2nd, and Khachanov in 3rd.

I take the point that everything came together for her in the US in terms of the way the draw opened up. And as I'm from the UK I may be somewhat biased here, but she's been seen as the next big hope for British tennis for quite a long time now, and whilst it was a surprise to see her breaking through so early, it was always a question of when, not if. And remember the US Open was actually her second slam. Her first was at Wimbledon last summer, where she made the last 16 before retiring due to breathing difficulties.  Yes her results since the US haven't been great, but her game has everything, and all she really needs is time. But I agree the media should not pressure her (although, of course, they will).

 

I was not a fan of the way he tried to force his way into the country despite obviously not having a real medical excuse. But about the Covid test, I think I said a couple of pages back I wasn't willing to condemn him until the picture became clearer. I think it's now pretty clear, and his statement just makes it worse... it reads exactly like the sort of crap that politicians always come out with, blame the "error" on a mistake by some expendable underling. And the way he's trying to frame his moving about between countries, and attending public engagements despite testing positive, and claiming he's doing so because he doesn't want to let the journalist down... absolute garbage. I really don't like his arrogance and utter contempt he's showing not just for Australians but for any fans who he expects to swallow these lies. I hope he gets heckled by the fans and gets knocked out in the first round.

Been trying to avoid comments about Djokovic, but it seems that he is still hugging the limelight and it turns out to be political now.

In any case as I have said before, if he is not taking the jab, then the government of Australia should not issue any exemptions and the Tennis Federation should not allow him to play in the AO. And now it seems the everything is coming, if he indeed falsified his vaccine documents then it speaks how his total personality is. I'm not really sure how his fans can defend him if this is really true.

In order to not quote multiple posts I'll share my thoughts as per recent topics:

#Raducanu
She is one tournament wonder in my eyes. Everything came together perfectly during that grand slam for her and she will have big problems coming back to that levels. I am predicting a year or two of mediocre results for her at the minimum and then if she has the character and strength of will maybe fight for top positions and another grand slam. If you take away those 2 weeks she has not shown anything extraordinary in all other matches of her career. She needs a lot of work and hopefully media will not take on her too much.

I was looking forward to see Osaka in women side of the draw but she withdrew due to abdominal injury. She was always the one I saw as future number 1 but unfortunately her well known public performances problems set her back significantly.

#Djokovic
He is the best player at the moment and I would love to see him play in AO. As I said multiple times I am all for freedom of choice but he took it too far. He did not do himself any favors with all these omissions/lies. I have a feeling he forged that positive test in some way since I can't believe he would be that uncaring to go among the people when he knows he is positive. Now it is even possible that he gets 5 year jail time. Not gonna happen but nice to see him sweat a little.

Edit: just seen cryptofrka post which nicely adds credibility to my Djokovic theory. I was thinking that as soon as those pictures of him hanging with the kids day after he got positive results become public.

I'm linking a great investigation into the Covid test by the German Spiegel: https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/novak-djokovic-were-the-results-of-his-positive-pcr-test-manipulated-a-cf3e7344-e98f-4fc3-8bb3-7727d4795e97

They found some irregularities in the process and based on the evidence presented - it appears that someone falsified the positive test. If that truly is the case, I think they will deport him before the tournament.
Also - if proven guilty - he's incredibly lucky he's from Serbia. Balkan countries have shitty laws and worse judges so I'm sure he won't be prosecuted any further.

Still - a horrible thing to do from his perspective. Fighting to play is one thing, forging documents is something entirely different.

Ah yes, its a pity she only got minimal "game time" in before the GS.


Yes, they tend to do it all the time....

TBH IMO that statement doesnt read well.
How unprofessional is that from your team, the team behind the #1 Tennis player,
I dont buy it. As well as the rest of the statement, its very hard to disprove what he claims
and because of how this has gone so far I'm not buying what he claims he did or did not do.

Those darn agents ticking the wrong boxes

I think some of it can be ascribed to her having Covid over Christmas. She has recovered now, but she pulled out of last week's Melbourne tournament because she wasn't yet ready to play. So the match against Rybakina was her first of the year, and her first after Covid.

If I were the Immigration Minister, I'd be searching out website sites such as the various BBC/CNN/APP etc then the less mainstream ones such as TMZ who actively follow and report the goings on of the rich and famous (whether they want to be followed or not) then build up a report of where and when Djokovic traveled (Intra-EU travel details via flight manifests etc)

There *could* be reason to issue an interurm statement detailing "some issues" have been found to give the media frenzy a chance to report while a decision is being made.


That should read:

"I've never placed a wager either for, or against Djokovic.  Make of that what you will."