Australian Open - tennis 2020

He will have to lift to win. Thiem's shot selection has been good and he's been working the joker over. Also the latter has made a lot of unforced errors.

He also appears to be moving better. Maybe he just doesn't fear the joker like others do and Novak hasn't really been extended much over the course of the tournament.

And we're into a 5th.

Only one winner from here I reckon - Thiem's done his dash.

Thiem wins the first game of the last set.

Will be interesting to see if fatigue sets in for him after his campaign.

Hate the worm's eye view which Channel Nine loves showing far too often. Much prefer the higher perspective.

You would think age would balance that out - though he’s only 6 years younger, which is remarkable given Novak seems to have been around since dinosaurs were roaming Wimbledon Common.

Game over.

Yep Joker gets the break. It has seemed at times though that he's been playing within himself to some extent.

He's the greatest ever mentally.

Oldies win again.

It's really becoming quite pathetic.

I wonder what the odds are on no man born in the 90s ever winning a major?

It is a poor reflection on the younger generations, although these three players are the three best ever by a distance. If any one of them had had an era to himself, he would have won 30-35 Slams.

Your last point is the amazing one. 30 might be selling it short.

The only thing that might have prevented it was boredom - clearly the Big 3 are pushing each other to ridiculous limits. I wonder if when Fed goes (after Wimbledon?) that the other two will have quite the same drive?

Well, Rafa’s always going to limit his workload, but probably still try and peak for the big ones. I can see him winning four or five more French if his knees hold out, but not sure if he will win another one away from the clay.

I think Novak will just be motivated by holding off the youngsters for as long as possible. He could be the dominant force for another few years.

No more tennis for 6 months

beamer wrote:I wonder what the odds are on no man born in the 90s ever winning a major?

Well, it looks like we will finally get one, almost literally by default... unless Felix A-A wins it in which case we actually will have skipped a decade.

beamer wrote:

beamer wrote:I wonder what the odds are on no man born in the 90s ever winning a major?

Well, it looks like we will finally get one, almost literally by default... unless Felix A-A wins it in which case we actually will have skipped a decade.

Wow!

He really is a tool.

Meanwhile Joker has been booted from the US open after hitting a lines woman.

Bradman wrote:He really is a tool.

He nearly did it at Wimbledon a few years ago as well.

Rafa will be grinning from ear to ear tonight.

Two peas in s pod. Personally I think the qunt did it deliberately.

It was perhaps inevitable that the changing of the guard would happen under strange circumstances, but nobody would have predicted quite how bizarre.

Whoever wins will have the biggest asterisk against their name since that boycotted Wimbledon in the ‘70s, though...

... what have you got against Jan Kodes*** ??

What a choke by Zverev.

A bit of a battle of the bottlers, who wants to lose most...

Sure Djokovic and Nadal, and maybe Federer, will be back to make mincemeat of them for another few years.