ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

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.

92 combined UEs, lol. Good to see Nishikori winning ugly, I guess.

*glances at scoreboard*

*does not re-open Petra/Ma$ha stream*

Don't know why I didn't subscribe to tennistv earlier.

Nice win for Dolgopolov over Stan, who really caved in at the end. Glad to see Dolgo finally being consistent...

6-2 vs. the top 20 in 2014 for Dolgo

nice way to bounce back from the mess vs. Lajovic too

he'd better beat the Isner/Berdych winner

yeah hopefully berdych loses soon because I don't want to see another Nadal-Berdych match ever

Federer's dropped only 18 points on serve in three matches (faced one BP). Looks like that racket is working out for him.

really entertaining match this. also even though i'm expecting Nole in 2 and it could be a total mess i still can't wait for Nolandy

that crosscourt backhand winner by Andy :)))

Domi makes the top 10 <3 Third Slovak in history to do so after Habsudova and Hantuchova.

Federer and Miami are a bad mix.

Nishikori way more offensive this year, good to see.

whoa would never have expected a win over in-form Fed after the mess of a match vs Ferrer. Happy for Kei! Sad I missed it.

it's pretty weird that Nishikori and Djokovic have only played twice ever (and split wins!) (Nishikori's came at the end of 2011 when Djokovic was running on fumes generally)

Nishikori's aggression levels have gone up but I'd like to see them go up more, he still lapses into passivity during matches - against Ferrer he was content to engage in so many nothingy BH-to-BH rallies, but he at least seemed to recognise every so often to step it up.

another h2h that made me laugh was re: Keothavong comparing Cibulkova's pomes with Ivanovic's ajdeeeeees on her BT Sport commentary. Turns out she's 3-0 against them combined. (Keothavong has wins over eight of the current top 20, which just seems incredibly bizarre.)

mm this is like last year's final in a microcosm, so far

Sharapova peaked and then Serena woke up

She's been competing believably the last 3 out of 4 times they've met but in the end what good is that.

she's competing amazingly even now, even after blowing the first set

This is why I don't get the argument that it's all mental - if mentality had anything to do with it Sharapova would be completely beaten down by now. It might be mental in the sense that Serena's mentality is strengthened but it's basically a match-up issue.

Eh, they've met so many times even if it's a poor match-up she should've won one of the many times she's had a shot or serena's had a poor day. She often does break down after some crucial point goes against her. Of course it's a bad match-up as well but Serena's lost agains journeywomen with similar styles.

Also screw that game going that way just now, agh.

never got the sense that it is that much of a mental thing, i'm sure the h2h plays on Maria's mind but at the same time she always seems pretty good at shaking off the losses and her attitude towards it seems pretty balanced generally. Serena obv still LOVES beating her though

love Maria's outfit btw. if i want her to ever beat Serena then it's when she's dressed like this

Welp. Lots of very short points in a row for Serena

I'm not a Raonic fan, but I really think he's on the verge of breaking through. He's much more aggressive from the baseline with Ljubicic. Needs to stop having these matches where he has like 7 DFs.