Wimbledon

[stroke]

Good numbers from Craig at Braingame on Iga losing yet again in early rounds at Wimbledon, on his blog at this link.

Short version, Iga's severe Western grip and truncated, severe upswing might be fine on clay but on grass, she doesn't play defensive forehands well enough.

Winner Putinseva had 11 forehand winners / 16 errors = -5
Loser Iga 19 forehand winners / 46 errors = - 27

Main points in his analysis:

Iga doesn't seem to have a defensive forehand.

Swings hard and extremely fast regardless of how rushed she is.
Often starts to recover before she's finished the shot. Panicking?
When Iga is on defense, she tends to squat to hit her forehand and is off balance.
She only has one speed, and doesn't alter her technique to defend.
Does poorly hitting the first forehand after her serve.

Iga to me has the biggest weapon in WTA tennis with her closed fist western forehand, the first woman to use it. ATP, we have Fritz of course, Sock, Igor Andreev, and Kohlchrieber used it. All have/had massive forehands. Fritz for whatever reason seems to be really the only one to maintain the effectiveness of it on grass, but Kohl actually had a decent grass court game also. Kohl another casualty of the big 3.

[jimlosaltos]

Upcoming fourth round match between Lorenzo Musetti and Giovani Mpetshi Piccard promises to be interesting. The pair met in Stuttgart only a couple of weeks ago with the Italian winning in two tiebreakers.

Gio hit 21 aces in only 12 games plus tiebreaks and saved all 8 breakpoints he faced. But Musetti never faced a single break point and hit some great passing shots as Gio rushed the net (25/47 net points). Gio was serving bigger there than he is at Wimbledon so far - Max 148 MPH, ave first 137 MPH, and average second 129 MPH. But to no avail. Gio then went to London where he beat Ben Shelton.

[stroke]

Upcoming fourth round match between Lorenzo Musetti and Giovani Mpetshi Piccard promises to be interesting. The pair met in Stuttgart only a couple of weeks ago with the Italian winning in two tiebreakers.

Gio hit 21 aces in only 12 games plus tiebreaks and saved all 8 breakpoints he faced. But Musetti never faced a single break point and hit some great passing shots as Gio rushed the net (25/47 net points). Gio was serving bigger there than he is at Wimbledon so far - Max 148 MPH, ave first 137 MPH, and average second 129 MPH. But to no avail. Gio then went to London where he beat Ben Shelton.

I am picking GMP, not that it matters. Oddsmakers have it at a pretty much pic 'em.

[don_budge]

NAVARRO

[jimlosaltos]

By comparison to the women's side, the men are as predictable as global warming.

The top 1,2,3,4, 5 seeds all remain.

The Carlos Alcaraz - Tommy Paul quarterfinal looks tre's intressant. Their H2H is 2-2 with the two playing four tiebreaks and a trio of three-setters out of 4 matches.

[jimlosaltos]

Three women's NCAA champions still in the Wimbledon draw. Emma Navarro and Danielle Collins, who won individual titles for Virginia and Lulu Sun who clinched team title for Texas

[don_budge]

NAVARRO!

[stroke]

A lot of good matches today. Gii vs Musetti is a pick 'em. Zverev a solid favorite over Fritz. Now is certainly the time for Fritz to get a significant win. Novak vs Rune, Alcaraz vs Paul, Demon vs Fils also on tap.

[stroke]

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3269308/meet-wimbledons-rising-tennis-star-emma-navarro-who-hails-billionaire-family-23-year-old-just-beat

[stroke]

Fritz has played well through 2 sets vs Zverev, has lost 5 more total points thus far, and is down 2 sets to 0.

[stroke]

Fritz finally gets a break of serve, on a Zverev double fault, and leads 5-4 3rd set. Zverev appears a bit hobbled with a pre-existing knee issue. This match could be up for grabs.

[stroke]

Great win for Taylor. He is not really a dark horse anymore. He will be favored over Musetti, then who knows, he could beat anyone.

[stroke]

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/1920082/Novak-Djokovic-Wimbledon-injury-news-update

Oh the drama. I am really pulling for Fritz to take him, if he gets past Demon.

[stotty]

Novak was moving very well against Rune and I don't see any problem with him at all physically. He's clearly in the tournament to win it and if he keeps current form he should brush past de Minaur.

[stroke]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RscXPqDemZrqiG4o7

Shot Quality rankings on all final 8 players.