ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

last point in the Tomic "match" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvDLOfu5Ols

lmao

today's play hasn't even started and Halep and Kleybanova have both w/d. ugh, had been looking fwd to the Halep/Venus 3R

also, it needs to be said that the disparity between men's and women's TV coverage is embarrassing - no way can this tournament lay claim to "fifth Slam" status when about a fifth of women's matches are televised as men's.

from a fan perspective I've always loved joint tournaments, and really it makes little sense that the ATP and WTA are so separate (in terms of ranking points, calendar etc) but this really demonstrates why a joint tour would just screw the women over completely

otm, it's pretty infuriating

Svitolina beating Bouchard is not really surprising given their h2h...

Bit disturbing how quickly the wheels have come off Muguruza's stellar start to the year though.

that last game between sharapova and safarova was outstanding

I went to bed when Ma$ha broke in the third set. Her hysterical fighting warrior mode remains the most insufferable of all.

This Vandeweghe run of actually winning matches is hideous.

Oh and is that Lisicki giving her third walkover in six tournaments this year? For "the flu"?

Vandeweghe winning matches is so gross. It's like... tennis gods adding insult to injury on top of Del Potro maybe being out for a year. CANNOT TAKE THIS.

That set wasn't as close as the scoreline. Only went to a TB because Li had a disastrous four-game stretch from 3-1 up, DFing and UEing all over the place. Outside of it, she had few difficulties and surprisingly, Keys never really imposed her power on Li. Keys seems to have plateaued if not actually regressed this year, her big weapons don't seem as effective for some reason.

meanwhile, baghdatis has come back to life here. but wtf is up with tsonga this season?

just switched to that and Tsonga looks dreadful

Peak Baghdatis dropshot/lob

lmao

SP Tsonga, Baghdatis holds up play by flapping around about a wasp, Tsonga DFs.

lol this is amazing

Hahahahaha something karmic about that

Keys is particularly dire on big points. She had every chance to break Li back in that last game and did nothing about it except hit errors

Tsonga keeps digging himself holes with woeful errors then saving BPs with excellent play

Well, Tsonga escaped there...mess of a match. His footwork was especially painful.

Aga closed out Vesnina with an ace, a service winner and an ace!

So annoyed that I fell asleep in the first set of Nishikori/Dimitrov, I was enjoying it.

Hahahaha Stephens got bagelled and breadsticked by 2014 Wozniacki. 0-4 H2H now. She won five points in the second set.

seems like Chang has helped Nishikori

lololol I hope Annacone is getting a hefty flat fee for his services rather than asking for a % of prize money.

haven't seen lajovic play before, he looks pretty good. nice one-hander as well

he looks pretty good in more than one sense if u know what i mean

http://unseededandlooming.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/oh-hi-dusan-lajovic/

Lajovic chokes for the match and the rain arrives.

oof that terrible call at 5-5 in the TB screwed Lajovic over completely. two points from his career best win! two points he then lost tamely.

(he should have closed out the match at least twice before that, to be fair)

Petra hitting home runs for fun apparently

She got her FH together in a satisfying way but this match has entered full-on LOL-at-Ivanovic territory

3-6 6-0 6-0 lmaooooooo

Thank-you, Ana, for the first Petra match I've been able to watch in years without any nerves

Ivanovic is back, back, back! Back to her amazing 2012 form, right!

Domi a win away from the top 10. would be pretty well deserved

yeah I'm so impressed with how she's backed up her AO final - I always said she was the most unpredictable player on the WTA but she's really stepped up her consistency. Was v impressed at how she dealt with a tough opponent in Cornet in R3, sad the Venus match wasn't on at a useful time. I think she'll beat Aga again...

I don't think I have EVER seen Ferrer hit so many errors

sad abt del potro

what a choke from kei

this match is so so bad

cannot believe Kei managed to win that set

never want to see anything like it ever again

You probably won't in the next 90 minutes or so, because he probably will drop in a hole quickly.

Ugh why am I waiting up to watch Petra probably lose in the most frustrating fashion to Ma$ha AGAIN ffs.

I think Petra will win!

wtf there's a huge wide-ranging broadband outage and I can't watch this and am reduced to using my phone to get updates. Why could this not have happened when there were no streams grrrr

siiiigh @ everything that transpired from 4-2

Thanks Kvitty for finally giving Masha some confidence ;)

kei and ferrer at 9-9 in the 3rd set tiebreak. kei saved 2 MP already on ferrer's serve!

and he wins 11-9! good tournament for him.

What a ridiculous MP for Nishikori to win! Dominated the rally then shanked two shots that still landed in, then Ferrer hit a UE anyway.