Osiris3657

Big news today...Andy Murray is going to retire this year, citing chronic pain. He hopes to make it to Wimbledon, which would be his final tournament.

jfoobar

Yup, its pretty clearly time. Sir Andy is loaded, will easily be able to make a nice income after tennis, and has a growing family. Three majors, two Wimbledon titles (ton include ending the drought) and two gold medals, yeah, you're good.

eXcentris

AO might be his last tournament. Hip injuries/surgeries are murder for tennis players, see Guga Kuerten and Magnus Norman (and players like Nalbandian and Hewitt were never the same after their hip injuries/issues).Haas made a decent comeback after his hip surgery in 2010 but he's the exception.

Sad to see Andy like this, I feel for him:

PhantomStranger

It's a sad day and hard to believe that Andy Murray is the first of the Big Four to hit retirement. He was an extreme grinder when it came to training and always carried as much muscle as anyone on tour. I think that finally caught up to him when he made that final push to become #1 in the world. I wish him the best in retirement.

This is a blow to tennis because Andy is a good guy and was easy to root for. I was happy when he finally won a major and snagged Wimbledon.

Tennis at the highest levels of the ATP tour is more demanding on the body than just about any sport, outside of the NFL. Outside of Federer, it's hard to think of a top player that didn't break down at some point. Djokovic, Nadal and Murray have all had major injuries. I think we've been lucky that Nadal and Djokovic were able to come back from their injuries.

Osiris3657

MMA at the very least belongs with those two sports, if not higher.

AaronHernandez

The seeds are mostly holding on both the men's and women's side so far. Don't think I have seen a lack of upsets in the first 2 rounds of a slam before in a very long time.

PhantomStranger

Surprised no one has mentioned the new super tiebreaker that decides matches. Do they call it the Isner Rule? This was all motivated by one historically unique player in Isner and McEnroe as an announcer whining for years at every Slam about five setters going on forever.

I don't like how it's only ten points for the victory. If they are going to have a tiebreaker, I'd like to see something like 13-17 points for the victory.

eXcentris

I'm fine with a tiebreak, heck even a "regular" one to finish 5 set matches. Tennis is so physical and there are enough injuries already without having matches go on forever. Only the French Open left I think.

On another note, good job by Milos taking care of Kyrgios and Stan. Talk about a tough first two rounds!

jfoobar

The Aussies must be going nuts with two wildcarded men making it into the 3rd round. Also nice to see Tiafoe finally get into a 4th round at a major.

As is my custom here, I'll focus on the women's side:

• Serena's pregnancy seeding means that she will likely draw Halep in the 4th round, which is unfortunate.
• The Ash Barty/Maria matchup in a couple of days will be sure to draw many eyeballs.
• Osaka and Keys seem to be on a QF collision course, although Sevastova is not one to be trifled with.
• The new and improved superslim Petra Kvitova is just rolling so far.
• Two atypical U.S. women's faces still in the draw (Danielle Collins and Anisimova), but they run into Kvitova and Kerber next so unlikely to see any progress further.

PhantomStranger

Anisimova is going to be the face of women's tennis over the next decade, you better get used to hearing her name.

LurkerDan

Sharapova had to have been particularly happy to beat Wozniacki.

eXcentris

The next great American player! Like Melanie Oudin and a bunch of others.

eXcentris

Can the Next Gen make a dent?

Fed vs Tsitsipas
Nadal vs de Minaur
Djokovic vs Shapovalov

I'm gonna say no. The only possible upset I see there is Tsitsipas (Fed just beat him 7-6, 7-6 in Perth) but I woudn't bet on that in a slam.

jfoobar

I share your skepticism.

jfoobar

The reigning U.S. Open women's champion is looking awfully sloppy so far against the #28 seed.

jfoobar

Down goes Maria, thank God. I like watching her play less and less with each passing year. Having to listen to Chris Evert remind us what a fighter she is 47 times per match doesn't help either.

Kvitova cruises over America's "next big thing" and looks quite dominant right now.

jfoobar

Danielle Collins, 0 for 5 in her career at Slams until this event, just absolutely smoked Angie Kerber. So glad I stayed up to watch that. Thank you ESPN for showing the end instead of the Nadal snoozefest.

jfoobar

Goodbye Dmitrov, Cilic and, most notably, Fed.

Glad to see that Tiafoe was able to pull that one out. I watched the third set tiebreaker just before bed and he looked tired. I would speculate that his tank is probably about empty and he won't be able to maintain this energy into the next round but then I looked at the draw. Yup, Nadal. Good run, Frances.

eXcentris

I should have upgraded that one from unlikely to probable. Tsitsipas got the best of the tiebreak battle this time. Good to see the Next Gen step up.

Ash Barty (bye Maria!)

jfoobar

And adios to Madison Keys, but hardly an upset considering how Svitolina has been playing recently.

PhantomStranger

Anyone that closely watched Fed play in those early rounds knew he was going down the minute he went up against a real challenge. It's uncanny how Tsitsipas has copied so much of Federer's court movement into his game. Their footwork is very similar.

This is still Djokovic's tournament to lose.

eXcentris

Huh??? That's just your Fed bias showing. His form was good in Perth and he carried it to the AO where he hadn't lost a set before playing Tsitsipas. And he "went down" 3 tie breaks and a 5-7 set... You have this backwards. If you saw Tsitsipas lose to Fed 6-7, 6-7 in Perth, you would have known he'd be trouble for anybody at the AO, even for the top guys.

Kudos to Milos for destroying Zverev. He has the toughest draw of all the guys and he keeps rolling.

jfoobar

Zverev was just embarrassing. McEnroe opined during the U.S. coverage that he wouldn't have gotten through qualifying playing the way he was playing. I think that was probably overstating things, but Milos shouldn't take too much pride in the win. Zverev is now 0 for 7 against top 20 players in Majors, which is remarkable in all the wrong ways.

If Serena can win this, it will be one of her most impressive Major wins ever. A nice win over Halep and probably her toughest test remaining will be against Osaka (presumably). Pliskova is playing as well as I have ever seen her play, but I don't think she has enough of a Plan B to beat Serena. I would say the same thing about Kvitova if it comes to that, although she has improved her wheels with the weight loss. The best chance of someone from the bottom half of the draw beating her will probably be the winner of Collins/Pavlyuchenkova.

PhantomStranger

Did you actually watch those early Fed matches, or repeating the content-free analysis spouted by television analysts saying Fed was in top form? Routing inferior opponents early in a tournament is no measure of an elite player's game, as repeatedly seen by Grand Slam history. This is not even the Fed of two years ago. He's playing at diminished capacity these days and his mystique often helps against inferior talent. Tsitsipas would have been straight-setted by Federer just a year or two ago. He's rising but Fed is also falling.

eXcentris

Right, his form was poor, but he won matches in straight sets because of "mystique", therefore this alleged poor form is based on a single match where the other guy played out of his mind.

And what does "top form" even mean? Fed is 37, nobody is arguing he's invincible anymore. But hey, your Nadal fan opinion of Fed's form is duly noted.