hypotemuse

Dzumhur hand skills never disappoint.

Finally caught up on Montreal final, & this is v true re her pace.

Usual caveats for 18yo breakout, but Mboko has sound foundations. Her superpower for me is how controlled her aggression remained all event - increasingly stifling opponents w/pace, neat redirects, or else trading freely as need be.

A question of intent On Israel and Gaza.

"The most plausible explanation of current Israeli policy is that its object is to induce Palestinians as an ethnic group to leave Gaza Strip for other countries by bombing,shooting & starving them if they remain.
A court would be likely to regd that as genocide"
www.newstatesman.com/world/middle...

UK opinion on Gaza war (YouGov, July 2025)

18% support Israel’s actions in Gaza, 55% oppose
81% of those who oppose say it’s a genocide

Large margins in favour of:
- trade embargoes (48% to 20%)
- financial sanctions on individuals (52% to 19%)
- suspending arms exports to Israel (57% to 18%)

They pass the fish-out-of-water awkward test. Winners only genuinely soar to new heights with me if they pair clinical on-ct excellence with ballroom awkward. And these two stepped up to the plate..awkwardly.

In fact overcoming the mental battles/on ct anxiety she's very visibly struggled w/over past few yrs arguably more important.

Besides, the 'Iga can't play on grass' stuffwas always an overstated, overstuffed talking point. Nobody should be surprised that a player of her innate rich variety, movement, and timing should eventually optimise her game here as elsewhere. 1/

(1) Anisimova's freezing up, and (2) Iga's well-documented grass ct adjustments (& overall improvement that were more than evident in the 6 matches she played prior): in my view it's more instructive/useful to decouple the two events from one another.

Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK Bluesky users in the UK can verify their age using their face, ID, or payment card.

Starting July 25, Bluesky will require users in the UK to scan their face, upload an ID or verify their identity with a bankcard.

I realize that platforms feel they have no choice but to comply with the government surveillance schemes, but shocking nonetheless.

The telling aspect of the quality of this match isn't the raw shotmaking and power we associate with both Sabalenka and Anisimova, but the smart reactive/improv nature of the rallies: the redirects, the slicing, the brinksmanship with lines, the net play.
Still, Anisimova's BH in a class of its own.

There's a magnificent irony in jitter merchant *Pavlyuchenkova* of all players steeling up after being robbed by ELC and seeing out the match as robustly as she did. Weirdly dialled in even before the incident. 👀

I dunno what i expected with SwansongFabio. Mellower at 38 perhaps, but still a multiverse of chaos.
Strip away the slapstick, and his loose, uncomplicated ball striking was always an underrated asset.

Lol bbc Wimbledon subtitling rendered Henman's ref to Federer/Nadal retirement as 'Fedora and Adele'.
We are all post-Fedal now.

That balance eventually tipped in Iga's favour but given how well ER began set 3, took real guile/resilience for Iga to wear her down.

Convincing win for Iga over a quality opponent, good we got rel even final set.
So much of set 3 dynamic involved Iga (obv better mover) trying to get Rybakina off balance + drawing errors/weaker ball - & ER making her pace count when in position. 1/

strongly which confused matters - still early but either way a Rybakina in her ball-striking element isn't what you want when you're still largely regrouping.

Just thinking this. The weird thing about this is the nature of Iga's recent losses coming into this event were so well-documented that you almost couldn't categorise the Ostapenko Stuttgart loss as usual h2h/match up struggles.
She then started this event rly 1/

Sad Paolini fell prey to error-fest of that last set. Svitolina's play, tho, is so much more matured in her 'second career'. Leveraging measured play, fitness, acute awareness of what's happening w/her opponent, and drilling her inside-out FH. Eclectic stuff.

Džumhur showcased some sublime hand skills, esp on BH. Weaving racquet imparting pace/spin/touch (almost badminton-like at times).
Of course there's a gulf, but worth remembering how 'journeyman' designation can occasionally appear fairly academic with top 80 players (he's been as high as 23).

This is the only correct opinion.

He'd be uncontainable if they kept him out there long enough. His ppl probably had strict time stipulations 😁

No recipro-crying from Federer. Arguably biggest shock of the day.

🙃

Importance of that final game of first set Alcaraz fought to hold on to setting up the tb can't be stated enough.

That's one of the most convincing wins I've seen from Alcaraz in a while. Focused, mature, digging deep when needed, but also nicely contained and well within himself.
Composure & nicely flowing tactical play indicative of a confidence that hasn't been there even in recent wins.

The jokes write themselves.

(Also, the announcer going all gravelly at the end is giving me Gene Wilder vibes)

Yup. Like she'll obviously have structural limitations on serve etc but commentary should have moved on from presenting her wide ranging skillset as a revelation by now. (And yes Domi was another fave for similar reasons 💪)

Always weird to me how even after 18 odd months there remains surprise at Paolini's aggression, timing & movement. I say this not as some hipster nonsense but how against-the-grain it's still regded: in-built resistance to idea of a 5'4 player possessing that blend of skill/executing at highest tier

Some people said that if Schiavone won the French Open, it would be "bad" for women's tennis. Some said that Pennetta didn't "deserve" to win the U.S. Open. Now people are saying that it would be bad for women's tennis if Paolini wins Rome. Some people are not in their right minds. #WTA

He seemed to rally a certain flavour of support well before his encouraging words to Iga. Rublev doesn't always get things right, but clearly an early adopter here.

Beyond the talk of Ruud's heightened aggression, effective serving, yrs of just falling short —& in a roundabout way how Draper's intensity played its role in drawing that performance from him — I also think it important to recall Rublev in 2021 designating him, & I quote, a "very correct person" 1/