ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

stan has done real well this match considering his past history vs rafa and how this match started. he was getting pushed back and rafas depth and spin was controlling him; now hes put nadal on the defensive and really punishing rafa's looping short balls

why does everyone choke against Rafa ugh

stan had a few easy volleys on his serve where he shdve won this match, rafa is lucky xp yup

those horrible shanked BHs for no reason

haha now nadal is choking

redeemed himself in the TB :)

2-1 game second set of stan/novak was amazing, stan got a break back

novak drops his first set in his last 30 sets.. he hit some out of character errors but stan also elevated his play

Sharapova swing volley fail on SP against Kvitova :)

Love watching her look overpowered and as if she has no say in the outcome like this.

lolol Kvitova has one lousy game to lose serve after being rock-solid, then Sharapova plays an even worse one to give the break back including two failed drop shots.

Really high-quality second half of set here.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CT28BhTW4AIwiB-.jpg

Full house for a doubles match as a closer is pretty amazing

Vesnina choked

stan looks injured maybe

sudden realisation last night that the ATP's doldrums are happening right now, we just hadn't fully realised

I don't think there's even a match-up at the WTF I'm really hyped about? which is ludicrous. but basically almost every one is a) predictable b) a match we've seen a million times. Wawrinka is the only exception and after last night...

anyway yeah this year's WTF proceeding exactly along last year's flop lines so far. funny how the ATP WTF gets so much hype and reverence while the WTA's gets doom-mongering and mockery, yet...the WTA's...is...better these days?

The WTA's was exceptionally good this year, I thought. Masha/A-Rad, A-Rad/Mug, Kvitova/Masha, Kerber/Mug were all good matches.

Also my belief that Berdych would look good in anything has finally been shaken by that ensemble he had on. Like, the shirt or shorts by themselves would have been fine paired with something white or bright, but it made him look like someone fashioned it out of a sack.

Gorgeous Fed drop-shot to take the first set.

And Djokovic shirt change!

They were both pretty great in the first set but both fell off in the second, especially Djokovic

Murray just cut some of his own hair off on the first changeover

2nd set was the worst novaks looked since like fall 2014

Murray is sooo tetchy today

ugh are we gonna have to deal with a Rafa resurgence then

So, assuming Fed beats Kei, Djokovic only needs a set vs Berdy, right? For someone who just got thumped in his 2nd RR match, Novak has about a 95% chance of qualifying... ND-TB has been a match-up at three of the last four WTFs and ND's margin of victory has only gotten wider each time.

Sorry, four of the last five. 3rd set t/b in 2011 (when Novak was spent, and subsequently lost to Ferrer and alternate Tipsarevic (who came within a point of making the semis)).

that Federer miss just now, oh my god

this looked like it was following the pattern of "fun first set, loser collapses in second" but Nishikori's won four games in a row from 1-4 down!

For someone who just got thumped in his 2nd RR match, Novak has about a 95% chance of qualifying

one of the oddities of RR is that in a group with two significantly better players, assuming form holds the match between those two big names is one of the least important in terms of who gets out of the group

ie for Nole vs Fed to matter for anything other than group standings, either Nishikori or Berdych have to throw a spanner in the works at some point

anyway this was the Federer miss, which gave Nishikori a BP, which he then took

https://twitter.com/Renestance/status/667366364395479040

Ridiculous single-handed bunt pass from Kei

Nishikori peaking from 1-4 down again, that stop volley!

damnit Kei just fell away in the final couple of points

Second point of the final game was a treat though - angles and spins galore.

my goodness, Murray's defence

bad job by andy in that tiebreak, smart of stan to just back up & let andy fuxx up

what a bizarre collapse

this comparison strikes me as so obvious that surely it's been made before but Murray = ATP Jankovic in so many ways regarding needless and inexplicable psychodrama

WAIT SVETA'S DOG HAS HIS OWN INSTAGRAM

https://instagram.com/thedolce27/

that's a great dog

it is!

strange resolution there was hoping murray could get his shit together and get it to a 3rd

it looked like he was going to for a second. pretty strange match but happy for Murray that his unpleasant week in London has been put out of its misery at last

really hope Stan and Roger reprise last year's dramatics, that was the one match I missed (the only one that was worth watching obv)

BAGEL HA, NOVAK

No bagel but that's more than enough to convince me that this will be over 6-3 6-2 so I can go to bed and get up early for Roger/Stan.

Which I'm going to miss for the second year running -_-

lmao Novak toying with Rafa for fun in this game, these casual experiments in dropshot-lob combos and he wins both points anyway

H2H finally evened at 23-23!

Novak is 21-22 against Federer, got a chance to even that back this week.

And next year we take the lead in both H2Hs, hopefully :)

yea the drop shots were not good

rafas current game is 1 of the least likely to give novak trouble tbh, hes just not going to lose long rallies regularly

23-23 vs Rafa
22-22 vs Fed

Fed got Dubai, Cincy and the YEC round robin
Nole got Wimbledon, the US Open, the YEC final (and IW and Rome)

Kind of amazing that their rivalry in 2015 breaks down so simply. Even two days after getting dominated by Federer in RR, the bookies had Nole as the heavy favourite today. Mediocre match though, to conclude another generally mediocre YEC (the two Nishikori three-setters notwithstanding)

Has to be said that Novak's 2015 is probably the best season of the last two decades. Two more years like that and he's the GOAT, not Federer. I mean, how many M1000s has he won? It's insane, nobody's ever dominated that tier while also racking up the slams at such a rate.

@jrcunniff: Djokovic completes best year of career, going 82-6.

Earns 16,585 ranking pts out of possible 18,790.