In yesterday's article, I introduced the first article of the top ten bad things in tennis in 2021 rated by foreign media, and the top five bad things in the shortlist were: Djokovic became a world-famous vaccine skeptic, the French Open night game was suddenly cleared, the Davis Cup was accused of "selling the soul", the tennis tournament arrangement caused the players to lose the time to adjust their offseasons, and how Federer would say goodbye.
Today, we're going to talk about the remaining five bad things that made the list.
Nadal fell to the lowest point of his career in recent years?
In this year's French Open semi-final, Djokovic defeated Nadal 3-1, which was rated as the best match of the year by many media, but it was Nadal's most painful match. After this battle, Djokovic may not only end Nadal's rule over the French Open, but also make Nadal's entire career go downhill.
You may think that statement is a bit sensational, but Nadal has barely played a game since losing this game, missing Wimbledon, the Olympics, the US Open and the Davis Cup, and playing only two games in Washington in early August. The other day, Nadal lost to Murray and Shapovalov in the Abu Dhabi exhibition match. In the four games after the French Open, Nadal looked like an obscure player on the tour, in mediocre form, far from his peak performance.
Unlike Federer and Djokovic, who have not been injured for most of their careers, Nadal has struggled with injuries almost constantly, so much so that many experts have long predicted that his career will not last long. But Again and again, Nadal has come back from injury, breaking through doubts again and again. Therefore, it is obviously not sufficient to infer that he will enter the downhill road based on the performance of this return from injury.
Good people always expect heroes to never grow old and will continue to write legends. However, Nadal, who is about to turn 36, is also flesh and blood after all, and his state will only get lower and lower after each comeback, which is a reality that has to be accepted. Federer's comeback since last year has been full of thorns, and the comeback has been short and sloppy. It is conceivable that Nadal's future comeback will most likely follow Federer's lead.
After losing the exhibition match in Abu Dhabi, Nadal, who returned to his hometown, was exposed to the new crown virus, which cast a heavy shadow on his comeback. Speaking about the Australian Open, which starts on the 17th of next month, Nadal said the situation is "very difficult for me".
There's no doubt that Federer and Nadal, who are at their best, will be among the top, but there's no denying that they haven't been at their best in a long time — Nadal has at least six months, and Federer's time is much longer.
Conversely, while Djokovic is still at its peak, Medvedev and Zverev have apparently replaced Federer and Nadal as the strongest contenders for a Grand Slam title. In addition, Tsitsipas, Thiem, and the more promising Lubrev, Sina, Aliasim and others are also eyeing the Grand Slam.
In such a pattern, djokovic still has a certain degree of difficulty in winning a grand slam, not to mention Federer and Nadal, who are in doubtful form.
7. Where does Naomi Osaka's future go?
Compared with men's tennis, the competitive landscape of women's tennis is more open, this year's men's four Grand Slam singles titles were won by Djokovic and Medvedev, while the women's four Grand Slam singles titles belonged to four players, of which Kregitskova and Raducanu were the first Grand Slams.
As many people have said, the top 100 players in the women's ranking now have a chance to win a championship, or even a Grand Slam title. If the future women's tennis world will give birth to such dominant figures as Graf and Serena, then Naomi Osaka is undoubtedly one of the most likely candidates.
In terms of age, technology and physical fitness, Naomi Osaka's becoming the new empress of tennis does not seem to be a problem, but her biggest problem is mental health.
During this year's French Open, Naomi Osaka announced that she refused to participate in the post-match press conference due to mental health problems, and after being warned and punished by the French Open, Naomi Osaka announced her withdrawal before the second round of matches.
Later, Naomi Osaka competed in the Tokyo Olympics, shouldering the burden of gold and great psychological pressure, she lost to The Czech Republic's Vandrosova in the third round. Since the second half of this year, Naomi Osaka's mental health problems have been the focus of speculation and attention from all sides, and such attention has in turn brought her greater psychological pressure.
People who don't understand mental health and depression may think that Naomi Osaka is purely "pretentious", she makes a lot of money off the field, and on the other hand, she uses mental health on the field to excuse her failure.
If you know enough about tennis and have played a certain number of matches, it is easier to understand Naomi Osaka's state. At the end of the day, tennis is a sport that is heavily influenced by psychological factors. In the future, whether Naomi Osaka can break through her demons, whether she can regain confidence, whether she can win another Grand Slam, and whether she can return to and rank among the top players for a long time are not only bad things in 2021, but also an important factor in determining Naomi Osaka's career achievements.
How long can the enduring Murray persist?
For most of his career, even at his peak, Murray lived in the shadow of the Big Three for a long time. When needed, people move out of Fernardmu's "Big Four", but more often than not, they say Fernard is "Big Three".
Among the active men's players, Murray is the most professionally accomplished person outside of the Big Three, and if he must name the fourth big man, Murray is more qualified than anyone else.
One might mention Wawrinka, who won three Grand Slams with Murray, but don't forget that Murray has two more Olympic singles gold medals and world number one title than Wawrinka.
Winning two titles at Wimbledon and winning two Olympic gold medals for his home country has given Murray countless fans in the UK, who has been knighted for his outstanding achievements. Throughout Murray's career, his breakthrough began with winning the London Olympic gold medal in 2012, a valuable gold medal that greatly boosted Murray's self-confidence, and he won his first Grand Slam at the US Open a few weeks later.
Therefore, Murray has a special complex for the Olympic Games, he originally reported two sports in singles and doubles at this year's Tokyo Olympic Games, and finally only participated in doubles for some reason.
After his disappointing trip to Tokyo, Murray's form did not improve, but he still played several major matches, including the first round of this year's US Open.
He played a five-set match against Tsitsipas in the first round of the US Open, a match that was not the thrill of the process, but a gruesome accident. Tsitsipas had a long restroom suspension during the game, which triggered a strong dissatisfaction from Murray and also drew questions from many viewers. Subsequently, the ITF announced that it would change the Grand Slam manual to regulate the washroom suspension rules to prevent abuse by players.
Throughout this year, Murray played the tour mainly on wild cards, and according to statistics, he won about 13 wild cards. Some have questioned whether Murray is eligible for that many wild cards, or whether it is appropriate for the tournament to issue Murray so many wild cards. Considering Murray's huge historical achievements, extremely high popularity on and off the field, and the courage to return with a metal hip, I believe that no one is more eligible for a wild card than Murray.
The latest news is that Murray has secured a wild card for next month's Australian Open and next year will be a very crucial season for Murray. If he can continue to be in good shape and score deeper rounds in each tour, he will be able to regain confidence and move on. Otherwise, he is likely to fall into a vicious circle of "repeated defeats - repeated defeats and repeated battles". If this continues in the first half of 2022, Murray will probably not be embarrassed to accept wild cards again, and his persistence is likely to come to an end.
Tom Jarovich and Ostapenko performed a "tearing each other" farce on Wimbledon
After the U.S. Open, Murray said he had "lost respect" to Tsitsipas. The same horse grab happened at Wimbledon this year, except that the protagonists were replaced by Tom Jarovich and former French Open champion Ostapenko.
Before coming to Wimbledon, Ostapenko had just won the Championship at Eastbourne Meadows, and she was considered a favourite to win the Wimbledon title in good form. In the third round, Ostapenko met TomJalovic, who won one set each in the first two sets, making it 6-4. Trailing 4-0 in the third set tiebreaker, Ostapenko abruptly asked for a medical timeout while Tom Jarlovic was preparing to serve, saying: "I can't hold on anymore, I'm in pain. ”
This made the leading TomJanovic very unhappy, believing that the move had disrupted the rhythm of the game. So he said to the referee, "You know she's lying, right?" Everybody knows. Can you call in the event supervisor? Have you ever considered her looking good for 1.5 hours before and then suddenly got hurt! ”
Ostapenko immediately shouted to the referee: "Can't the tournament supervisor come in and teach her how to do it?" ”
In the end, Ostapenko was reversed by TomJanovic in a 2-6 score, and the two continued to argue while shaking hands. Ostapenko said: "If you think I'm cheating, you can talk to the physical therapist. Tom Janovich replied, "Then I wish you good health and peace." ”
Ostapenko was furious again and said, "Your behavior is terrible! Tom Janovich shot back unceremoniously, "You're the kind of person you say you are." Ostapenko finally said, "You have no respect at all!" ”
At the post-match press conference, the two continued to fire their mouth cannons in the air.
Ostapenko explained that she suffered an abdominal injury in the second set and was getting more and more painful in the third set, which caused the serve to be much weaker than usual, "If I played 50% of the level, I would definitely beat her." ”
TomJanovic accused his opponent of trying to disrupt the rhythm of the game with a medical suspension, "She had no problem with the whole game, but why did she suddenly sit down and ask the physiotherapist to come in when I was leading 4-0 and was about to serve?" From my point of view, she doesn't have any problems, I've played with a lot of players and know who's injured and who isn't. Ostapenko said after the game that she had lost respect for me, and that her behavior was shameful and ridiculous, especially for a Grand Slam champion, because the children were watching her and she was a bad example. ”
After this match, the momentum of Ostapenko's rise was interrupted. She was out of the first round at the next Olympics and Montreal and withdrew from the US Open.
It seems that quarrels and horse-grabbing incidents not only affect emotions and psychology, but are more likely to be the trigger for the decline of the state, after all, no top player can win more championships in swearing and noisy.
10. Listless, 13 races are all rounds of Parre
On the Tour, there are always a few very talented players who seem to have little respect for tennis and no interest in the profession. Australia's Kyrgios and Tomic, for example, are such people, while France's Parret's performance in 2021 seems to be more "listless and unlucky".
Throughout the year, Parret played a lot of matches, he participated in a total of 30 races, and the attendance rate was not low in the face of the very difficult global travel caused by the epidemic.
Unfortunately, Parret won only 13 races, and 13 of the 30 races were a round trip, which made him look like a ridiculous loser - thousands of miles to run to the game, only to lose the first round of the game and then immediately roll up and run to the next stop.
In March, Parre lost to Tsitsipas in the first round of Acapulco, and the year's events had just begun, and Parret had already made a third consecutive round. After losing, Parret made a big fuss, explaining why he continued to participate in a frequent round, "I came to the competition, took the money, and then turned around for the next event, which means that I have done my job. It's fair to say that if you win one ATP250 tournament and make $30,000, I can make $10,000 every time I lose two consecutive sets in the first round. So why go like a fool and try your best to win a few more games? ”
Parre not only said that, but did it, and it's no wonder he was out of the first round of all four grand slams with the highest prize money. In the first round of Wimbledon, Parry met Schwartzman, and after losing two sets in a row, he was warned by the referee for his negative performance, and finally lost the third set 0-6.
Not only was it a mess on the field, but So was Parre's personal life. His French friends said that every time on the Tour, the rooms at the Parré Hotel were the dirtiest and messiest, and it was hard to believe that anyone could live in such a harsh environment. In addition, Parrey's beard is long and messy and looks like a member of the Taliban.
For most of 2021, he's been playing "Taliban tennis" and looks uninteresting, lifeless, and infamous. (Source: Tennis House Author: Yun Cirrus Yunshu)