2020 ATP General News

[Carol]

Rafa is defending 2 titles, USO and RG but I'm sure it's going to be difficult to him to make the choice and I doubt he will play both GS. The problem is when all of them are coming from different countries to NY they will have to be in quarantine and when they will come back to Europe they will have to be in quarantine again which won't be very easy. Uncle Toni says that Rafa still has not decided where he is going to play, I think he probably will decide to stay there

 

[Chris Koziarz]

Rafa is defending 2 titles, USO and RG but I'm sure it's going to be difficult to him to make the choice and I doubt he will play both GS. The problem is when all of them are coming from different countries to NY they will have to be in quarantine and when they will come back to Europe they will have to be in quarantine again which won't be very easy. Uncle Toni says that Rafa still has not decided where he is going to play, I think he probably will decide to stay there

No brainer: if he has to chose 1/2, RG is the only reasonable option. Eu has opened its internal borders while people from America are not allowed in without quarantine. Needless to say he has better chance to successfully defend RG.
If current situation in US wrt the virus stats does not change in next few weeks (very likely) we can expect very few international players to participate in USO this year. Who would voluntarily subject themselves to 2 week quarantine? So, USO will likely be US (and maybe Canadian) players contest. Finally we may have an American major winner, whom we've been waiting for so long (since Agassi in 2004). And vice versa: no or hardly any, Americans at RG. If the situation does not change much for rest of the year, we may see largely Australian-only AO! An unforeseen opportunity for Nick/Deminor! Both can freely travel to Melbourne and back home as NSW/ACT/VIC borders are open. Finally the Big3 reign will be broken: strangely not by the second gen displacing them on the court but by the a virus. The current No1 was already potentially displaced, IMO. Joker, even if he physically recovers 100%, I suspect the mental pressure of everybody criticising and booing him and a collapse of his PR image, is likely to take a toll and prevent from performing at top level.

 

[the AntiPusher]

No brainer: if he has to chose 1/2, RG is the only reasonable option. Eu has opened its internal borders while people from America are not allowed in without quarantine. Needless to say he has better chance to successfully defend RG.
If current situation in US wrt the virus stats does not change in next few weeks (very likely) we can expect very few international players to participate in USO this year. Who would voluntarily subject themselves to 2 week quarantine? So, USO will likely be US (and maybe Canadian) players contest. Finally we may have an American major winner, whom we've been waiting for so long (since Agassi in 2004). And vice versa: no or hardly any, Americans at RG. If the situation does not change much for rest of the year, we may see largely Australian-only AO! An unforeseen opportunity for Nick/Deminor! Both can freely travel to Melbourne and back home as NSW/ACT/VIC borders are open. Finally the Big3 reign will be broken: strangely not by the second gen displacing them on the court but by the a virus. The current No1 was already potentially displaced, IMO. Joker, even if he physically recovers 100%, I suspect the mental pressure of everybody criticising and booing him and a collapse of his PR image, is likely to take a toll and prevent from performing at top level.

Chris , I see your thoughts are very similar to what I said last week in regards to Novak's mentally afterwards his debacle of the past few weeks. I think Rafa will play both the USO and RG being the primary preferred choice Acourse.

 

[Jelenafan]

Hard not to defend your USO if your relatively injury- free.

I do think the extended sabbatical would possibly allow Rafa to play both the USO and the FO, It’s doable for him if he’s physically feeling good. At the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if he shuts down his tennis year after that.

 

[Carol]

There are dumb people, then dumber and then the dumbest.......

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

There are dumb people, then dumber and then the dumbest.......

That is his idea of 'self isolating' ? Words Fail Me.

 

[Carol]

That is his idea of 'self isolating' ? Words Fail Me.

Now I’m very curious to know if he will be fined....otherwise I don’t know what else to think about how many stupid people are in this world

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Now I’m very curious to know if he will be fined....otherwise I don’t know what else to think about how many stupid people are in this world

His actions speak louder than words,he could not care if he put other people at risk,as long as he can do 'what he wants to do' just selfish behavior.

 

[Moxie]

Now I’m very curious to know if he will be fined....otherwise I don’t know what else to think about how many stupid people are in this world

I wonder if they can, meaning, if they have a specific COVID/pandemic policy that he's violating, OR, if they can find he's violating a more generic code of conduct clause that the ATP or ITF imposes.

 

[Moxie]

In actual tennis news, I saw a very entertaining match earlier today between Berrettini and Thiem at the Mouratoglou tournament. Thiem won, but it was tight, with some very high-quality tennis.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I wonder if they can, meaning, if they have a specific COVID/pandemic policy that he's violating, OR, if they can find he's violating a more generic code of conduct clause that the ATP or ITF imposes.

Quite frankly after the Arida Tour and now this video that went viral on Twitter,certainly the powers that be at the ATP can impose strict protocols for all players who wish to partake in the up coming tournaments,that also includes the ITF.,fine them if they break the protocols., or even suspend them.
I also wonder if Zverev will attend the USO? his wings will be clipped and he cannot carry on like a complete selfish person,he showed his real colors to me in that video,he was not sorry at all.I am biting my tongue as I do not want to use four letter words.Maybe I will invite him to come with me to ICU where conoravirus patients who are badly infected have to be put in a induced coma and put on a machine to help them breathe.

 

[Chris Koziarz]

Giraffe has the same mentality as Joker. I never liked him (mainly for the idiosyncrasies of his speech and "raw" playing style) and this news confirmed my dislike was justified. Now I even wish him that he not only never win a major but further, that he end up as low as Joker with his PR, or even lower: all sponsors turning back, booing all over, essentially he plays for himself only, according to his narcissist character.

 

[Moxie]

Quite frankly after the Arida Tour and now this video that went viral on Twitter,certainly the powers that be at the ATP can impose strict protocols for all players who wish to partake in the up coming tournaments,that also includes the ITF.,fine them if they break the protocols., or even suspend them.
I also wonder if Zverev will attend the USO? his wings will be clipped and he cannot carry on like a complete selfish person,he showed his real colors to me in that video,he was not sorry at all.I am biting my tongue as I do not want to use four letter words.Maybe I will invite him to come with me to ICU where conoravirus patients who are badly infected have to be put in a induced coma and put on a machine to help them breathe.

They will likely be looking at that. Clearly they can see that they need to have some level of control over the behavior of the players off-court, as they are joining these private tournaments, which is all a bit Wild West, right now. Clearly, with some of the attitudes on display, they can't hold big tournaments safely just on the "honor system," trusting that players will adhere to protocols. And we all know that testing isn't quite accurate enough. I don't know if Zverev will be too, what? embarrassed to come to the USO? And someone wondered if Novak would be uninvited. I don't know how punitive things need to be for past indiscretions, but they do need to get a handle on keeping folks in line with the protocols, going forward.

As to biting your tongue, for a second I thought you were going to call Zverev a different "P" word when you wrote "selfish person." The other one was the one that came to my mind.

 

[Moxie]

Giraffe has the same mentality as Joker. I never liked him (mainly for the idiosyncrasies of his speech and "raw" playing style) and this news confirmed my dislike was justified. Now I even wish him that he not only never win a major but further, that he end up as low as Joker with his PR, or even lower: all sponsors turning back, booing all over, essentially he plays for himself only, according to his narcissist character.

I have spent a lot of time around here defending him from the detractors, but I may be done. How can he have done that big public Mea Culpa and then have that video on twitter? Like @Carol says: how dumb do you have to be? One would have thought that a lesson was learned from the Adria Tour. I guess we have yet to see.

 

[kskate2]

I have spent a lot of time around here defending him from the detractors, but I may be done. How can he have done that big public Mea Culpa and then have that video on twitter? Like @Carol says: how dumb do you have to be? One would have thought that a lesson was learned from the Adria Tour. I guess we have yet to see.

Apparently no one close to him has contracted it and not recovered from it.

 

[Carol]

Thanks heavens it was just an exhibition

 

[Carol]

Don’t text when you are driving and taking a self vid even worst! but for once he is right about what he says

 

[Jelenafan]

Don’t text when you are driving and taking a self vid even worst! but for once he is right about what he says

OMG, the World has stopped spinning. It’s official: Nick Kyrgios is the Tennis World’s voice of reason.

NGL Loved his” just have your girlfriend with you for 14 days”...

 

[Moxie]

Don’t text when you are driving and taking a self vid even worst! but for once he is right about what he says

OK, fairly good point about Nick posting a video that he took while he was driving, about important things that impact his work and should be done with reasonable consideration. One could say that that didn't have the most consideration for safety, either. But I agree with you that he's not wrong.

 

[Jelenafan]

OK, fairly good point about Nick posting a video that he took while he was driving, about important things that impact his work and should be done with reasonable consideration. One could say that that didn't have the most consideration for safety, either. But I agree with you that he's not wrong.

Stop bashing MY Nick !!!