Will Djokovic still play the semi today? Or will he have to play two matches tomorrow?

Okay let me put it bluntly - I'm against any doper expecting or requesting preferential treatment at the end of their ban, across any sport, in any circumstance.

The reason being any favoritism they receive will (usually) be at the expense of a clean athlete. This is especially true in tennis, where you have a finite number of players in every draw.

A wild card isn't preferential treatment though. It's a decision that the people who run the tournament make based on a number of factors. Save me the "spirit" of the wildcard fluff too. There are agreements made among tournaments and countries all the time in regards to dishing out wild cards. Is that not preferential treatment in a sense?

You think any of those "clean" players who spend their lives in the qualies are licking their chops at having to possibly face Maria? A lot of them are barely making enough money to scrape by tour life, so you're taking a spot away automatically no matter what way you slice it.

And on top of it all you're refusing to acknowledge the circumstances leading to the ban. This isn't a Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong type of thing yet you seem to put all these dopers in one similar bag.

Well, the rules on WCs are away to be reviewed due to this issue.

They didn't expect this situation to occur at the time. We should bring in WC because if someone gets caught cheating and banned for >1 year, they'll lose their ranking. Ridiculous.

It's meant for injuries. Not players who have been caught doping. The only reason she got them is because she's a big draw and having her in a smaller tournament gets a lot of spot light and media attention which is good for the tournament financially. GS shouldn't need to lower themselves to that though because the coverage/profile is already there.

Whether that's right or wrong isn't really up for debate because tournaments should do as much as they can to maximise revenue/profile etc etc so I have no issue with that. The problem with me is she is a known doper, she has been caught cheating, yes she has served her time but she should not be eligible for WC for 12 months after her return. Same should go for every player.

Now that's a clear, concise well thought out response on the subject even if I don't agree with the entirety of it.

So a wild card isn't preferential treatment? or is it? Either way, someone getting a WC on the basis of say their nationality is not the same as a doper getting a WC.

Eh? if there is enough room in the draw for 32 players, then 'Pova rocks up asking for a WC, then someone else is going to miss out.

That's because it's irrelevant.

So all murders are the same? We don't even have to go that far, all marijuana related arrests are the same? Details aren't important?

Completely different scenario and situations. That's way you have murder/manslaughter etc

The PEDs that she took, are banned. Its freely available information. There is no excuses for someone of her level to not know that.

All she had to do was stop using them once the ban on that substance was made. She chose to ignore it and continue to use it.

She stops using it, then she just laughs at the authorities for taking so long to ban it as she would have been benefiting from it while it was completely legal.

In all of those circumstances, ignorance is not a valid defence.

There are always however mitigating circumstances that may be a valid defence. Jake Livermore being a case in point.

So Djokovic is back? Hope so.

Didn't watch the match. Can anyone logically explain the rape?

I watched. Thiem missed his FH every time he went for it. Novak was clinical, a few special moments but textbook beat down for the most part. Novak was very engaged, yelling at himself throughout the match in positive ways.

Novak fired his awful toxic negative energy coached and is a new man ready to crush the world?!

Thiem smokes Rafa, gets embarrassed by Novak. Looks like if Novak played Rafa, he would have won 6 to -4, 6 to -2 probably.

We'll see in a couple weeks.

for all of those who are up in arms about Sharas cheating, what % of tennis players do you think are doping?

I share Bill's thoughts on doping.

Yeah, actually when you think about it, it's probably quite high so they should have let Sharapova off with a $1000 fine and told her not to do it again.

nah I wouldn't care much even if she got banned for life - yeah she got caught which brought some unwanted attention to the issues that will never be fixed, but I don't get the "great news! we'll get to watch some random 117th seed (which didn't get caught) at FO rather than 2-time winner" rhetoric

I''m sure the 117th seed would think it was great news to have the opportunity to get in the main draw and if they won a match or 2 not have to worry about financing their career for the next 12 months.

I'm sure that her mommy and daddy is overwhelmingly proud as well, but this is not where it's at

Here we go. Novak vs Zverev

Lets go sasha!

When Zverev is playing well he looks like a better version of Djokovic. Big serves, powerful and deep groundstrokes, and a great 2-handed backhand.

His return speed is also faster than Djokvic's by a large margin.

What a weird tournament this has been