Daniil Medvedev is a Russian tennis player making his third appearance in a Grand Slam final today. He lost the first two so he's hoping to get off the schneid. Medvedev is a long lanky guy with my hairline from five years ago and a funny grasp of the English language. Here he is daring Stefanos Tsitsipas to step to him, more or less.
"Man you better shut your fuck up ok?!" and "He's a small kid he doesn't know how to fight!" are not things you often hear on a tennis court. He's famously dooshy.
I'm working on a post about the sudden explosion of over-sized string-bean chicken-legged hard-hitting male baseliners in the ATP and the evolution of what I call bigman tennis. He's one of those guys.
The other guy is Novak Djokovic. You've heard of him. I've written about him before. He's really good at tennis.
It's hard to say whether he's the best of all time--as I get older I think those arguments are futile. Could any fighter from any single point in time have beaten Mike Tyson the night he fought Michael Spinks (Trump was involved?!)? Could Djokovic beat Pete Sampras at the height of Sampras's powers if they played on Centre Court circa 1992 before they changed the grass to make it slower? Could he beat Bjorn Borg at Borg's peak at Roland Garros if they both had to use wooden racquets? Who knows.
I can, however, say with great confidence that if Djokovic wins today he will have the best resume of all time.
A win today gives him 21 major titles, the most of any man (but behind Margaret Court's 24, Serena Williams's 23 and Steffi Graf's 22 majors). It would also give him a calendar Grand Slam which has only been done by Don Budge and Rod Laver (twice), and Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, and Steffi Graf. This would be a companion to his non-calendar Grand Slam that spanned Wimbledon in 2015 through the French in 2016. Only Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Serena Williams (twice) have done that.
He has winning records against almost every other man who won a major since he turned pro in 2005.
He's 27-23 against Roger Federer, including a 3-1 record at Wimbledon (all three wins were in the Finals).
He's 30-28 against Rafael Nadal, including a 2-7 record at the French. That French stat might not sound too impressive, but he's 98-1 against everyone else in the world combined at Roland Garros so Djokovic's two wins are meaningful. He is the only person to ever win the French Open by going through Nadal and he did it twice.
He's 25-11 against Andy Murray (including 5-2 in major finals), 19-6 against Stan Wawrinka (but 0-2 in major finals), 16-4 against Juan Martin del Potro, 7-5 against Dominic Thiem, and 17-2 against Marin Cilic. Only Marat Safin retired with a winning record against Djokovic, they played twice and Safin won both matches.
He owns the Australian Open. He's 82-8 there, including 9-0 in the finals. No man has more Australian titles--Federer and Roy Emerson are in second place with 6 each. His 6 Wimbledon titles is fourth-most (Federer has 8, Sampras and Willie Renshaw have 7).
He reached the semis or better 12 times at the US Open, including 9 finals and at least 3 titles (today would make 4).
He holds a bunch of oddball records too, like holder of all four Major titles on all three different surfaces at once, 4 streaks of 3+ consecutive Grand Slam titles, 6+ finals at each Grand Slam, 3+ consecutive finals at each Grand Slam, 79+ match wins at each Grand Slam, and 2 Major titles after saving one or more match points.
I could go on but that would be less fun for you than watching the match.
Djokovic is playing insanely good defensive tennis right now. He keeps losing first sets, possibly because his opponents come out guns blazing, super hyped to topple the best, so he holds back and lets them tire themselves out. Sort of a tennis rope-a-dope. After that he turns up his game at the end of the second and the start of the third to get some breaks, then dials it back until a convenient time in the fourth. This almost didn't work against Zverev (and I didn't see it all because I fell asleep putting zdaughter to bed) and I don't think he's going to fuck around against Medvedev (he's too good and there's no next match for which Djokovic needs to save a reserve of energy). I also think he wants to slam the door with authority on this Grand Slam. I'm taking the Djoker in straight sets.
Oh, and the Bills will beat the Steelers too.
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i've been watching this us open like it's my job (which it will be, I'm coaching varsity tennis this spring!) and I'm definitely rooting for djokovich against the beanpole . . . djokovich, nadal and Federer are all just a bit over six foot-- they are regular sized humans (and my older son just surpassed the six foot mark! crazy for a kid in my family. ian is headed there as well) because I want tennis to remain a sport where normal-sized people can win just as often as against. obviously the women's open final proved that (although i was rooting for sabalenka-- she's babe ruthian). i also like the fact that random people-- like my dad and my colleague terry-- dislike djokovich and root against him because federer is "such a nice guy" and a "gentleman" and they don't want to see his records shattered. i think they don't like djokovich's facial expressions-- which I love. he's like a cartoon character. and mentally, he is the toughest-- because everyone he plays has incredible skills. it should be a great match.
I agree with all of that. Aside from all his incredible tennis skills, Djokovic’s physical conditioning/endurance and his mental toughness are what sets him apart.
Wife and I watched the 5th set of Novak's semi win. He was so mentally strong. Other dude wilted. I like Novak and will put up with his occasional outbursts on account of him growing up in Serbia and practicing tennis while hearing bombs go off.
Everyone’s a petulant asshole at some point in their life. Especially men’s tennis pros.
Surprised that Bob and Abishola are still together. She can do better.
I said Medvedev in straight sets and Steelers win, right?
I was texting Zman during the last Novak match. My impression was similar to TR’s. He looked like he was cooked until he decided he wasn’t and dominated the 5th set. Impressive stuff.
got the straight sets part right, z
a person of my acquaintance tested positive for covid last weekend. they are vaccinated, and believe they were exposed a week prior to their positive test, so that makes this weekend roughly two weeks from exposure. this person remains symptomatic, with nausea to the point of occasional vomiting. this person also went to several soccer games with their kids and to a team dinner, because they claim their doctor said they are no longer contagious.
is this person batshit crazy to the point of reckless endangerment, or am i the crazy one?
This just in: TR is a mensch. My kind of guy.
gtb, making internet friends real since 2003
Apparently TR had an awkward conversation with his wife about how he knows me. I think we’ve all had similar conversations but it’s never not funny to me.
Twas a fun, albeit responsible, gathering. Hopefully I’ll see my internet friend again in the mountains this winter.
And yes - strange wife convo. It went like this: “Remember that guy Dan, who hooked me up at golf courses a few times at Hilton Head? Mark is like that guy, sort of.”
I came home to this story: the 12 y/o walked the dog, the dog rolled in 3rd party feces, my kid didn’t notice, the dog came back in, and then my wife noticed after the dog jumped into bed with her. Of course, this is all my fault.
Because it was your feces the dog rolled in?
He does have a reputation for being loose with his stools.
my dog rolled in a third-party dead mouse over the weekend. dogs are the best. except when they're the worst.
There was third party feces on my lawn this morning but it couldn't have been TR's unless he had it shipped here.
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