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Maybe the most misunderstood top player during his prime. Definitely the most underappreciated.
 
Medvedev was surely the better player last night, but Alcaraz still hit the most insane shot of the match (he always does). The point starts at 8:47 of this extended highlight video:



Alcaraz slips, then comes racing across the court as Medvedev tries to hit a passing shot down the line. Alcaraz overruns the ball but as he flies past, he turns his body while in the air and reaches back to hit a crosscourt winner. The kid really is Gumby -- just amazingly flexible. That shot reminded me of Patrick Mahomes' ridiculous off-balance, across-the-body passes.
 
The IBM Match Index shows Coco with a 60% chance to win. For reference, last night it gave Medvedev a 19% chance of winning.
 
Sabalenka's little dink in that last game of the first set was classic -- made me laugh. I mean, hey, if you've been dumping your overheads into the net, why not?
 
A tremendous performance by Gauff. She looked like an overmatched teenager in the first set, but got herself together, got a break in the second and held on. Did Sabalenka give her some free points? Yes. But Coco also got to all sorts of balls it seemeed like no one should get to and did the old Djokovic trick of making her opponent have to hit the extra shot.
 
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A tremendous performance by Gauff. She looked like an overmatched teenager in the first set, but got herself together, got a break in the second and held on. Did Sabalenka give her some free points? Yes. But Coco also got to all sorts of balls it seemeed like no one should get to and did the old Djokovic trick of making her opponent have to hit the extra shot.
Coco and Iga are the two fastest players in the game. Coco got to some balls that were unbelievable. Good for her.
 
Who are the haters who thought she couldn't win?
Ha! I said the same thing to my wife!

She’s been The Anointed One for, what, four years now? I’ve can’t think of anyone who’s tried to “throw water on her fire.”
 
This morning (our time), Ben Shelton beat Aslan Karatsev to win the Tokyo tournament, his first career tournament title. When the new rankings come out tomorrow, he'll be No. 14 in the world, in a dead heat with Frances Tiafoe and closing fast on the current top Americans, No. 10 Taylor Fritz and No. 12 Tommy Paul (who Shelton beat in Tokyo).

Since the beginning of the U.S. Open, Shelton is 14-2 with two victories over Paul and one over fourth-ranked Jannik Sinner. His only losses were to Djoker in the Open semifinals and a three-setter (in a best-of-three, with two tiebreaks) to Sebastian Korda (who BTW, has risen to No. 23 in the rankings) in the Shanghai quarters.

Next up for Shelton is the ATP 500 event in Vienna next week, where he got a crappy draw -- he'll play Sinner in the first round. That said, I'm sure Sinner is thinking he got a crappy draw as the No. 2 seed (Medvedev is the top seed). Should be a great match.
 

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