ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Incredible to think how far Halep's come since this time last year. She lost R1 to Dominguez Lino here in 2013!!! And then literally overnight started playing at a top 5 level.

Of course, her physical training regimen would fucking kill Kvitova stone dead within five minutes.

Kvitova's training regimen involves walking on a treadmill while reading a book :(

Petra hit 66 UEs, fyi. Is that even a notable number by her standards tho.

I did see a nice photo of her on an exercise bike in a pool. Yes, with water in it.

At least Radwanska probably won't flop a set and a break lead vs Sharapova. Because lol she's not likely to get one of those on clay now.

Kei beats Ferrer in three sets with an absolutely crazy last game that lasted almost 20 minutes

Nishikori and Halep would make for wonderful winners today.

Maria gettin' killed

Not so much^ .Only lost against Serena on clay is a meaningful stat, but no matches go by without weird lapses in focus, and one day it will end in a loss. Still 2/2 clay tournaments. These two should meet again quite early on in Rome.

Big Safina farewell for the trophy ceremony

Sharapova won this tournament in about the most annoying way possible. Nearly a R2 exit until McFail choked and then horrendous hysterical-fighting-spirit comebacks after getting comprehensively outplayed by two of my faves UGH

Kei save Madrid 4 me

I STILL maintain "Claypova" is a myth btw, clay rewards aforementioned fighting spirit way more than any natural affinity for the surface

7 of last 9 tournament wins are on clay and she's got the best win percentage on the tour so natural affinity or not it's her best surface and she's the most winning player on it atm.

Also if you're outplayed for one set in a three setter you're actually the one outplaying the other player altogether on account of the other two #tennis ('comprehensively outplayed- vs li na total points 93-93, vs halep ms 83 halep 76 points)

brilliant play from kei so far

Go go go

Need to find a stream stat.

just wow

He hasn't won a point since I start watching.

And hasn't lost one since I moaned about it.

didn't really even contemplate Nishikori being an exciting player to watch until a couple of months ago. This is great though

Painful to watch now.

yeah such a shame

You get the idea that this will forever be the story of his career. He's very breakable.

Such a bloody shame, Nishikori was peaking in the first set. Rafa never came close to playing well himself. What an irritating tournament.

:-(

Fran turning back the clock and giving a clay tennis masterclass to Bouchard, who looked mostly hapless. Only Fran's 4th win of 2014.

wow the end of this Cibulkova/Giorgi match is so dramatic but so bad

Giorgi gagging hard, Cibulkova not doing a thing except yelling POME after basic missed returns

Deserved win for Giorgi. Good to see her hit through her choke. Baffling by Cibulkova - first that she was so passive and nothingy, then her collapse in the TB against a nervous opponent.

Puig d. Hantuchova 60 46 60. Peak WTA scoreLiNa <3

It's basically got to the point where I'm surprised when any given Kvitova shot lands in the court, and when she misses by inches rather than miles I immediately think "oh, her form is improving!"

This Schiavone/Muguruza match is brilliant. Third set TB!

Fran wins, capers around in delight <3

lmao @ simon trolling nadal

this match is quintessential simon hilarity. speaks for nadal's form that he let himself get sucked into this.

no discredit to simon btw, he's playing really well and more agressive than usual

something really dreamy about claycourt tennis at night

yeah i want this match to go on and on

I haven't seen a lot of Haas this year because he hasn't lasted long enough at many events, but watching him beat Stan today, I'm baffled that he was slumping at all.

Stan's FH was a mess though.

haas' shoulder is bothering him again. he said in munich that he won't have another surgery and that he just hopes he can finish the season more or less in one piece. i don't think he'll play for much longer.

Errani has an insane new service motion that has made the actual serve no better. Li is atrocious.

I really love Radwanska's new outfit.

Sure enough, out goes Haas after a set vs Dimitrov.

looks like a Venus design

MURDAL TIME GUYS. hope this isn't horrible

hah

pretty good match even if the conclusion was NID. andy looking better on clay than he has in ages. rafa peaking right at the end

I was out and was surprised to see it still going on when I got back (the last three points anyway). What happened in the first set? Rafa still below-par or is Murray finally, perish the thought, regaining some semblance of his usual form?

Murray resembled his "good" clay court form, but what is that really? IIRC he's never made a clay final.

I think Nadal's clay results this year kind of speak for themselves. Without Nishikori's injury he'd be riding one title in Rio. Now he's dropping sets to Youzhny and 2014's version of Andy Murray.

Really funny to remember how Murray said clay was his favourite surface at the start of his career.

It'll be disappointing if RG isn't crazy tbh. None of the usual favourites are peaking, all have form/injury question marks. But I can actually see them just ~fighting through and ending up with a normal-looking SF line-up.