Will this be Nick Kyrgios' year at Wimbledon?

Hey everyone, here’s a short mailbag ahead of Wimbledon 2022. We’ll have preliminary reports later this week.

Also, your soldier remind that Wimbledon Tennis Channel Coverage begins June 27.

mail bag

I agree with your assessment of Serena’s match against Wimbledon 2022. But I find it interesting that regarding Roger Federer you said “[n]Eew’s rule: Win an event eight times, your name is automatically mentioned as a competitor.” The same logic wouldn’t apply to Serena, even though her total is seven, not eight. But you could argue that her 2012 Olympic title could easily equate to an eighth Wimbledon title.
-Dr. Harris, Tennessee

• I like your second point. In 2012, wasn’t Serena, in fact, a two-time Wimbledon winner? (For that matter, was Andy Murray’s gold the first of his four titles?) He won, after all, in a major, against a full boat field, amid pressure and high stakes equaling the Major?

A reader suggested last week that even if he was healthy, Federer wouldn’t make it to the second round if he played Wimbledon 2022. My point: He made it to week two in 2021 because of his seriously compromised knee.

Again, do I think Federer or Serena will win another major? No, but I don’t understand this strange joy in some corners due to the decline of Serena and Federer. They have more than 40 majors among them. Both of them – luckily for me – insist on continuing to play. I understand sports tribal. I understand the fan’s right to favor the opponent. I have a desire for new blood. but this Nelson Montezian (dated reference) Ha there you are old and do not meet the criteria you once set It is, well, strange to me.

You rarely seem to get the right to your choices in the major tournaments! However, you are very rational in your arguments. am I missing something?
– Pierre Ros

• Dude, before RG 2022, I had defeated Swiatek Coco Gauff in the final! Lee Nadal was hitting Casper Roode. Oh, wait check it out. In men, Djokovic was hitting Tsitsipas. Oops.

I’m torn about choices, predictions, and predictions. Nothing arouses anger and How-Do-You-Job CArbbing like failed shots. I met a woman at the US Open a few years ago who came up and said, “I’ve lost all respect for you…” My heart sank, thinking about some terrible moral blunder I’ve inadvertently made. She then finished her sentence, “You thought Roger wouldn’t win Wimbledon?!?!” I got hit last month “because I didn’t choose Nadal to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals”. Which seems silly. Even considered that his opponent in the quarter-finals – who was not suffering from the degenerative foot condition that forced him out of the previous event – was the title holder.

However…as much as I sometimes want to get out of the prediction game…it’s fundamental to the experience of being a fan. What is a fantasy league but an opportunity to make informed guesses? What is a pre-match game show but a chance to speculate? What are the seeds but parts of the prediction? The great beauty of sport: it’s its unexamined nature, the possibility of anything. (See Raducanu above). As such, it makes sense that prediction is an important part of the experiment. So we will continue to rationally manipulate the footage.

I’m not sure how close you are to pursuing mayhem in the world of professional golf. Tennis appears likely to be in a similar situation – a very long season, world-class players outside the top 50 with little financial security, etc. – and vulnerable to a faltering system trying to snatch its best players for a rival league.

Do you think the ATP and WTA will see this as a kick in the pants to make some changes?
—Joel J

• This can go one of two ways. Either tennis comes together, sensing the destabilizing threat of a Saudi-style show. Or that tennis – who has never studied in the unit – becomes more vulnerable than ever. Someone asked me if tennis might fall prey to a similar competition round, buying top athletes. I don’t think it’s necessarily likely. But is there something special about tennis players in particular that prevents them from indulging in doubling their income? number.

John, I can’t wait for your “extremely accurate” predictions later this week in the Wimbledon Report!! But you’re in luck this time as far as the winners… I don’t see any way the Joker or Swatik would lose! Both of them can not be missed favourites!
– @adamginsberg9

• We see? These damns. I agree with Adam. But to keep things interesting, maybe we go with Iga and pick out the less competitive but not as crazy guys as Berrettini or Felix?

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John, how excited must he be we It’s about Nick Kyrgios and his chances at Wimbledon. Is this the year?
—Jackie W.

• You have avoided too much Kyrgios’ question lately. Dude takes a lot of oxygen. He is like Fredo from the ATP. He betrays (his talent) and breaks our collective hearts. He was fantastic at Halle (reached the semi-finals before losing 7-6 in the third to Hubie Hurkacz. He won three games in Stuttgart. He He has a new management. He is excited. It’s “box office” to use the term coagulant. But he’s hurting himself by not getting the workbook. And I don’t trust his body and mind to withstand the rigors of winning seven best of five matches.

On the topic of Wimbledon bans for Russian and Belarusian players, a common implication is that players compete not on behalf of their countries but as individuals. However, this situation seems a bit disingenuous when, for example, the Spanish national anthem is played in honor of Nadal’s victory, a celebration of an Olympic medal. I remember when no such official National Leagues were created during major tournaments, but even television coverage (ESPN, in particular, comes to mind) often put graphics of players’ flags on either side of the field before play begins. If players are really just individuals, they should really be treated as such in every respect. Otherwise, one can easily understand the logic of the All England Club.
– Sean, San Diego

• Yes, I think that’s a point worth discussing, it’s easy to say “nationality doesn’t have to matter” and point out how alternative representation has come to be in tennis (the Los Angeles-based half-Haitian, half-Japanese player is one example among countless). But this is an oversimplification. In some cases, nationality is of great importance. The real question: Is this the best basis for preventing a player from trying to make a political statement?

Who is NBA GOAT? Michael Jordan, LeBron James, or Steve Curry? Please give rationale for your answer. Please also list the NBA for all time starting at five. You can put me on it if you want.
-Dr. c.

• Jordan. More episodes. The best defender. You never lose in finals….also – and that looms large in tennis – aren’t there bonus points for being first? You set the standard. Other men know exactly what they have to do to get over it – and adapt accordingly. It’s like hitting the bottom of the ninth. I’m not saying that Federer is a goat. I’d say it’s worth considering that he set the standard and that Nadal and Djokovic know what it takes to beat him. It has to account for something, right?

Was it revealed why Serena stayed out of tennis last year? I know she’s had a hamstring injury, but that’s not usually the kind of injury that lasts that long. Also, what has kept Venus away from tennis for the longest, but not to mention its nature or retirement?
—John R. Middletown, Connecticut

• As it is her prerogative, Serena has been sparing in revealing the details. This is not criticism. This is nothing new. In 2010 she won Wimbledon, then missed months after cutting her foot in a Munich restaurant. (You will not find any reference to the name of the institution where the injury occurred, the nature of the injury, treatment, etc.) This is tennis. Tours do not have the jurisdiction or authority to claim an NFL-style injury reporter. Players are individual contractors. They control the flow of personal information. Serena has always tended to do so.

As for where she has been in the past 12 months, Serena is 40 years old. She is a mother. Even before Wimbledon 2021, she was playing a very limited schedule. For years, she’s been playing – right and perfectly reasonable – for one reason, winning major titles. If you’re not 100 percent, you don’t have to relate to it. My strong sense is that this wasn’t so much about hamstring repair as it was about thruster repair.

The DC reporter in your last mailbox delves back from two sets to one deficit at Wimbledon but I’m not sure there are any valuable conclusions to be drawn. Coming back from two sets to no deficit in a big final doesn’t happen often either. In the nearly 80 years (and more than 300 finalists) since the end of World War II, it’s only happened 13 times. Three times in Australia and New York, seven times in Paris and never at Wimbledon. In a surprising turn of events, there have been 0-2 comebacks in each of the past three years and in three of the last seven finals, with Thiem, Djokovic and Nadal returning 0-2 to Zverev, Tsitsipas and Medvedev. Make it what it will be.
—Elysie Missbourne, Washington, D.C.

• Fun, thanks. Hempelberg: The Nobel Prize-winning economist is reading this column and is convinced that there is behavioral economics gold in the top three versus the top five. If someone with advanced mathematical skills wants to have them, I welcome further analysis here.