Djokovic Wins Tel Aviv Title Over Cilic

“Playing in HER first tournament…”?!

October 2nd, 2022 at 9:58 pm

Hi WB, yes it looks Nole now has the preferred pronouns “she/her/hers” :)

Roger, who has apparently been elevated to royalty by his fans since his retirement, prefers “they/them/theirs”.

I’m requesting that everyone refers to me by my preferred pronouns of “zie/zim/zer” which go very nicely with “Zed” don’t you think?

Don’t we live in crazy times?

October 2nd, 2022 at 11:51 pm

Am sure she is happy she won.
Zed I like Zero better. Re: Fed …since you mentioned him. He was already royalty before retirement, not since, but you knew that ;)

October 3rd, 2022 at 10:48 am

Hi Zed, it’s ok , as long as they don’t start to pronouns Nole “shim”.

I stayed away and tried to be respectful during mourning period, I can’t stand the tears (it was plenty of them here) and I am not good in writing obituaries, particularly for someone whose carrier was cut short at the age of 41, after 24 years on tour.

October 3rd, 2022 at 5:42 pm

WB, I too left people to their grieving, it’s wasn’t the time to discuss reality with them.

The “retirement” was of course a forced result of the sponsors saying “enough with the ‘injury’ thing!” It was time to get back onto the court and give the sponsors the exposure they were paying good money for or they would stop paying.

So, faced with the embarrassment of the sponsors dropping him or the even worse embarrassment of being bageled by lowly ranked players, what choice did he have other than declaring retirement?

Cue the media’s emotional farewells, the tearful pieces to camera, the “we will always love you” placards blah blah blah.

But now back down to business.

2023 will be the “Nuclear Novak” year. They’ve done everything they can to stop him and all they achieved was to slow him somewhat. Now, with cold hard determination he will power through tournament after tournament, slam after slam, like an unstoppable Juggernaut.

Record after record, he will break, win after win after win he will accumulate and all that the Federer and Nadal cults will be left with is their weak whimpering bleating “oh but our boy is more popular, we love him so”.

And that’s just 2023. Novak won’t stop after ATP Finals 2023, no, no, no. He will rest up and enter 2024 stronger, fitter and even more determined.

When will he stop? 2025? 2026? Probably, even he doesn’t know. What you can be certain of is that, in the end, only the most religious will still be claiming “Roger” or “Rafa” to be the greatest. People who are honest and sincere won’t be joining them in their fantasies.

October 3rd, 2022 at 6:22 pm

Zed,
I really don’t know what more Nole will achieve on court (he already holds most of relevant tennis records), but I know I will be one very happy chap when he decides to retire, I mean happy with smile on my face thanks to everything he provided me as a fan during his playing days.
I absolutely don’t see the reason for crying nor I will be crying (unless I had a bottle of Jameson;).

The reason for crying is if something happens like it did happen to Ayrton Senna, best F1 driver and great human being.

Back to Tel Aviv, Nole looks fit and determined though still rusty, I watched two matches, agains Vasek and Marin and was plead with what I saw, he is really fired up, but Astana is different ball game, 6 of Top 10 players are there (two are injured), that will show us where is Nole atm.

October 3rd, 2022 at 6:48 pm

WB, yes and on the positive side he doesn’t hold the title at Astana so if he wins that adds 500 points to his ranking.

Not that he’s in the danger of missing out on Turin but it would be nice to cement it.

He also holds the Paris Masters so needs to defend that to keep his 1,000 points.

Obviously I expect him to take his 6th ATP final to match Roger’s tally.

Hmmm, just trying to remember, how many ATP finals does Rafa have again? Ha Ha!

October 3rd, 2022 at 6:53 pm

Zed,
The biggest injustice by ATP has been done to Nick Kyrgios, ATP in order to “punish” Wimbledon punished the players by not giving them points for what they achieved in London.

If Nick had his 1200 points he would be #7 in the race to Turin and certainly qualified for Turin, which he absolutely deserved this year.

October 3rd, 2022 at 7:43 pm

Yes, it has been a shameful year for tennis.

I’m pretty sure there were wheels-within-wheels in those decisions. Wimbeldon made a lot of money, the ATP didn’t suffer, the only people who lost out were the players.

It was pretty obvious who would take the trophy just as it was also obvious who can’t play on grass. Taking away the points was favouring the clay specialist and hurting the greatest grass (and hard) court player ever.

As an aside, it was amusing seeing Mr.Clay once again claiming injury just as it looked like he may have to face Novak. What a coward.

October 3rd, 2022 at 7:58 pm

Mourning period? It was a celebration. It was nice to see Djoker hoisting up the GOAT on his shoulders :)

October 5th, 2022 at 7:33 pm