Federer91

Agree, though i think having groups of only 4, makes the group stage a bit pointless. There are only a handful of matches with clear implications about passing the group stage. Each group always has a big favourite that never loses and a big outsider that almost never wins. Which leads to only the match between the second and third seeds as a direct battle for qualification. And some groups didn't even have this battle, as the top 2 teams were much better than third and fourth one. I think groups of 6 is a better format, but it can't have a clear path to the eliminations, if they insist on the expanded number of teams.

The Stoevi sisters with another superb performance. A second 1/4 at a World Championships in their career. Too bad their success has largely been in the background of Bulgarian sport through the years.

There is enough time to start all over with a new Group. This one just won't be it. They lack a champions mentality and their results are embarrassing.

I like Zarazua, very happy she won As for Kvitova, yeah another pointless comeback. And there have been many such in the WTA in recent years. She didn't even look at 10% of her previous form, so the preparation, or motivation, was not there at all.

Who on Earth decided the Vuelta to start in... Italy? It's understandable if it's a smaller country, but Italy of all places. Are there not enough Italia races on the calendar or what. It's like if the tennis US Open have it's opening day matches be played at the AO courts..

Disappointing result, but it was evident where this was going after the shitshow at the start of the second set. Another year with minimal, if any progress at all for this team. Not being able to beat Canada, when they are without their 3 best players shows how this year has been another standstill, on the contrary of the comments that were made from the staff this summer.

Not gonna lie, Pogacar's decision to miss the Vuelta has tainted my interest in it a bit. Though i'm sure, when we get things going and start having the GC battle under way it will pop-up again.

3 of the girls who became U19 world champions this summer are actually in the roster for the WCH, so they want to incorporate them as soon as possible. But at 16 & 17 they are just too young to keep up with the level of play and power at this level. This has been a decade long issue for us and not only in volleyball, but in all of sports. We always have talented juniors, or big results at junior level, but when it comes time to pass over to the big leagues those athletes just disappear or never really reach a high level. On the contrary to other countries, where you never see them have good results at junior events (volleyball a prime example), but then they always have athletes rise up at senior level from "out of the blue".

Never seen such scenes in a senior National teams match before. Our commentators are trying to figure out what has happened and they think the initial rotation was different, than what we usually play, which threw off the payers. But it's unacceptable after the first error, that they, or the coaches couldn't clear the rotation. Now even the referees seem confused.

This match has turned into a complete shitshow for our side... And we had a nice lead in the first set. Even Canada probably doesn't know how they are getting so many free points.

Unbelievable for professional players

Tight first set as expected. Canada squeaks it, after we led for most of it, but a couple of mistakes at the end turned things around. Our middle play is non-existent, Milanova is still just a name on the field, everything goes through Stoyanova and Paskova and you have a hard time winning this way..

The most important match of the first round of play in the group stage is coming up in half an hour. vs. is pretty much a direct elimination match, as the winner is almost assured in getting to the 1/8. An interesting fact about the other team in the group . This will be their first appearance at the women's WCH in 40 years and they have a player, who had been born when they last played, as they have a 45-year old in the roster.

She would still be second even without that error, the difference was too much.

This tournament will be the first GS without a main draw Bulgarian participation in either men's or women's singles since AO 1996 and without such at the US Open since 1982

Argentina getting a gold medal seems like a fairly big surprise in my eyes.

The organizers must be kicking themselves, that the only true doubles pairing actually won Their dream of having "big names" win the title for the headlines didn't pan out as expected. But from the full stands you can see, that this whole thing was a success from a commercial standpoint. Also, Ruud manages to lose another GS final, of course not as the same caliber as the singles ones, but still.

Now now, who are you kidding But Canada not having some of their best players is good news for us, i guess. After all this match will decide the second place in the group. We will also be without our captain Elitsa Atanasijevic and Radostina Marinova.

Now it's time for the Alcaraz-Raducanu romance rumours to intensify. I'm sure many sites are on speed-dial of their articles.

Add another name to the dafuq are you doing list. 5 months before the Olympics so why not. It's not like Austria has a plethora of rising speed skiers, where Venier place in the team would be in question. On the contrary her quota would have been 80% certain.

To be frank, mixed doubles haven't been relevant in over a decade. It was mostly a paycheck for the doubles players (not that there is anything bad about that), but far from the fans and medias attention. There is potential in this idea, but as usual a sloppy execution. First, it really does need more teams, if not 32, then have 24 at least. After that, don't have it in a random Tuesday-Wednesday. If they really want to make it a big prelude to the start of US Open have it Thursday-Saturday, just before singles start (though i'm sure the big names wouldn't want that). I mean Iga played a final yesterday and she will do 2 matches today and doesn't seem tired at all.

We are going to play a friendly with Canada before the start of the Worlds, which i'm not sure how wise it will be, since our first match at the Worlds will be against... Canada in a basically direct match for the knockout stage.

Oh God, a group stage format in a skiing event Everyone seemingly wants to have a group stage nowadays. That being said, i've been advocating to have more variety in competitions for some time. Though i said they should use the knockout system more often and not only at the Four Hills. If there is life in this group stuff, you can add it to a couple of starts in the season. Guess they are looking to make the first round more "important and exciting" in that you would have direct battles every 5 jumpers with stakes and not just wait 45 until the best arrive.

I thought Russ Bray was retired from calling matches? Then why am I seeing him in Australia calling matches at the World Series of Darts Not that I am complaining though.

Nothing screams "players health and wellbeing" as adding more frequent tournaments with more matches. Still, the LA system is better, than the Paris one, which is good. I'm happy we are getting the Continental quotas being the first ones allocated, as it ALWAYS should be.