ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

0-40. The mini-bar is shakin'...

Delpy serving for it, 30-0.

So Federer and Del Potro can now work out the perfect scoreline between them to put Murray out? Nice :)

― nearly 50 in vagina years (onimo), Thursday, 26 November 2009 19:34 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

see Germany vs Austria FIFA WC 1982

You reckon? Del Potro put a 112mph 2nd serve on the back-edge of the line to save break-point at 3-4. Sorry, no way.

This tournament lives up to its acronym. Couldn't tell you how I much I was laughing when Fed double faulted to set up the BPs in that last game.

how much*

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46810000/jpg/_46810815_jamie_murray_getty466i.jpg

Murray's brother Jamie was an interested spectator at the O2 Arena

evidently.

I really have nothing to add, except 'lol'.

from the ATP twitter: Federer's games won/lost were 44-40, with Del Potro 45-43 and Murray 44-43. What a nailbiter!

Dayum. Conspiracy theorists can say whatever but with the numbers this close, I really doubt that they would've managed to work it out beforehand. It all came down to Fed winning that second set in the end.

JMDP was really, really lucky there. Or Murray was really, really unlucky.

can't believe i'm only watching this for the first time - year-end champs in my own damn home town and probably the tournament i've followed least closely in the whole year. this week has been mental. didn't even know who'd qualified for the SF until today. pissed off that i seem to have missed a ton of great tennis, and insanely jealous of mike getting to go!

anyway, roger's in full on fed-error mode here. go king kolya!

Roger's been doing that in the first set in every match so far, before recovering beautifully in the second. He's doing it again now. :/

oh damn it Kolya.

This is great stuff now!

whoo. kolya played so well to come back from 0-30 when serving at *4-5 in the third, after some outrageous genius from fed...

KOLYA BREAKS!

come on Kolya don't fuck this up now!

30-0 to 30-40... :/

FOREHAND! deuce!

WOOO!

:D

first win over fed for kolya, i believe.

Kolya's H2H vs Federer now: 1-12. :D

Magnificent last set. Fed looks devastated.

I wonder if Kolya will quote Vitas G in his post-match interview? "NO ONE beats Nikolay Davydenko thirteen times in a row!"

only got to watch the final set but pony boy was fabulous there coming back from a break down and going on to play a superb TB.

More bad news for Murray, if Delpo goes on to win the title, he'll take over Muzz's spot at no. 4.

Mauresmo retired

I wish you well, you awesome burly headcase

:( I loved her, even though it was goddamn painful to watch her most of the time.

Enjoy that cellar full of red wine Momo!

memories of mauresmo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQP6mNYkKAQ

so, justine's back! and drew petrova in her first match back - nadezhda obviously wasn't going to let her 94843948th chance to prove her uselessness pass, and accordingly fell in straight sets.

also, i'm not a fan of either wozniacki or azarenka, but their twitter banter to each other is pretty charming.

i love this pic of nadia drawing justine's name during the draw ceremony. "Oh fuck me."

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/4931/nadsdrawbrisbane.jpg

didn't she draw sharapova on her first match back as well? fact: tennis gods hate nadia petrova. to her credit though, her match against justine wasn't bad at all, she just choked at the end as she always does. about 300% better quality than the ivanovic-dokic match before anyway.

twitter is basically making me love all of the players I hate. :/ I should stop reading them.

watching justine play for the first time in 2 years!! god i've missed that backhand. she's just taken the first set over sesil karatantcheva, stream at http://www.freedocast.com/forms/PopOut.aspx?sc=5320427231E3213D109B

elsewhere, 39-year-old kimiko date-krumm has moved into the auckland QF w/victories over chakvetadze and razzano...

Lex the Henin match is live on British Eurosport if you have it.

i don't any more :(

this stream is pretty good though

well, that was fun! watched from 4-4 in the first set; when closing out the first set and coming back from 0-2 to 4-2 in the second, justine was ON SERIOUS FIYAH and it was gorgeous to watch. i think she's playing a lot more aggressively than she used to - lots of net rushes, esp off sesil's weak-ass second serve. some amazing down-the-line winners. from 4-2 to the end was a bit, uh, scrappier - some nasty shanked shots and she totally fucked up serving for the match. but i am very positive about this comeback now!

karatantcheva's ability to stay with henin in rallies was impressive - good anticipation, good pace and depth, but she often made a hash of more aggressive moves - though given henin's defensive skills you can't blame her. she fell apart towards the end and her serve was pretty woeful, though.

in other news, what the fuck is wrong with new zealand? http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/asb-classic-disrupted-protesters-3324955

the israeli govt is criticised around the world, which is fine, but at no other tournament has this meant personal harassment (for the second year running!) of a tennis player. those protestors need punches in the face. i'm not a fan of shahar peer and her ugly defensive game by any means, but i reaaally hope she wins the whole tournament now.

that whole bullshit makes me so angry - she's had to put up with so much crap just because she happens to be israeli. it's ridiculous. she's a 21yo female tennis player playing in an international tournament where she's not even representing her country or competing in support of her govt's policies. she's a professional athlete trying to do her job - what's so hard to get about that?

btw, joining kimiko date-krumm in the ancient stakes: Younes El Aynaoui, at 38, has just become the second-oldest male player to win a tour match since Connors in 1995.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=4800546

I am only posting this now-out-f-date story because OMG BLAKE WON A MTCH

Could be a Clijsters vs Henin final in Brisbane - first one for 4 or 5 years?

pretty solid bet imo - sadly i don't think henin's solid or tuned-up enough to beat clijsters just yet though :(

she will doubtless avenge herself on one or more big stages this year though :)

kim clijsters d. lucie safarova 6-1, 0-6, 6-4.

lol wta i have missed you

oh lucie :(

soooooooo happy to be seeing Justine on TV again! And in my home town to boot, shame I don't live there anymore. I'm gonna pop into the Medibank International in Sydney next week and do some stalking and such though!

My favourite loser and Latvian #1, Ernests Gulbis took a set off Fed today. I'd just like to note that this is a significant achievement in his young career.

also hilarious match. I lol'd way too hard at the hawkeye challenges alone.

Roger in Fed-error mode + gulbis' eternal headcasey-ness = comical tennis.

Blake lost but at least it was to someone with a modicum of talent

4 out of 6 Sports Illustrated experts pick Blake as their "On his Last Legs" for 2010.

Of course, one of those "experts" also picked the guy who's never gotten past the second round of Wimbledon to *win* it this year so make of that what you will.

those predictions are a bit "throw a name at the wall, don't wait around to see if it sticks". one dude picks serena to win 3 slams and safina to win the other...yet also picks henin as player of the year? what? also, picking vaidisova, who fell out of the top 150 last summer, as "on her last legs" strikes me as more than slightly behind the times

and picking roddick as breakthrough player seems to indicate a failure to understand the concept of "breakthrough player"

It's somewhat encouraging that Blake took a set off of Monfils, but then I remember that it's Monfils, who sometimes decides that the best strategy for his game is to hit balls as far out as he can possibly get them in a baffling attempt to confuse his opponents into bouts of incapacitated laughter.

xpost I know right? jon weirtheim's picks are prob the only reliable ones, but then he is SI's resident tennis expert. SL Price used to do okay coverage but these days, he's just way too in love with those guys who came up with Fed - Safin, Roddick, Hewitt et al. The rest are just crazy talk.

okay that was massively funny reading

"breakthrough" clearly means something different to me than it does to some of these guys

monfils is a funny one. he can never seem to decide between dumb ball-bashing and passive pushing, either. it's so frustrating that he STILL stands 5 million miles behind the baseline so often - whenever he comes in a bit more he's so good. i think he'd rather coast along and be the crowd-pleasing, entertaining sort than push himself to be a real elite player.

i'm so annoyed i'm going to have to do these myself, even though some of the questions are dumb and making any predictions in the first week of the year is a fool's game

How many Slams will Federer win? - one
Which Andy will win a major? - murray
Should the U.S. Open add a roof? - yes, but it should probably sort out its dumb-ass final week schedule first
Player of the Year - nadal
Breakthrough Player - cilic
On His Last Legs - ferrero
Most Curious About - nishikori
Year-End Top Five - nadal, murray, djokovic, federer, davydenko
Australian Open - murray
Roland Garros - nadal
Wimbledon - federer
US Open - djokovic

Will Serena be suspended in 2010? - wtf, no
Will Henin crack the Top 5? - duh, yes
Higher year-end ranking: Melanie Oudin or Ana Ivanovic? - lol, ivanovic, but neither will be impressive
Player of the Year - henin
Breakthrough Player - lisicki
On Her Last Legs - schnyder
Most Curious About - jankovic
Year-End Top Five - henin, clijsters, serena, azarenka, jankovic
Australian Open - serena
Roland Garros - henin
Wimbledon - henin
US Open - serena

Most Curious About - nishikori

OTM!