ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

seriously. 8 break pts and not one converted.

-_-

Such an aggravating match

Oh joy @ another sharapova/azarenka final

This Sharapova/Azarenka match... is good??!?!? What weird bizarro dimension am I in where I am enjoying this?

I mean, that looked like 2004 Sharapova, which honestly I am totally in favor of

Two days later and just thinking about all of those break points in the Kvitova/Sharapova SF still enrages me. How can you have a break point in EVERY GAME in a set, one of which was also a set point, and only manage to actually break when she's serving for the match.

LOL maria!! yes girl

until about two mins ago I thought it was madrid this week. wtfffffff who cares about budapest or w/e

so tommy haas has beaten tsonga huh

LOVE the blue clay in Madrid! Crystal clear visibility of the ball and it's wonderfully aqueous too, something very sea-like and relaxing about it. Such a huge change to the frustrating weekend streams where you couldn't see the ball at all.

didn't watch the match, but Petra did not like that blue clay huh? :/

I don't like it much either actually. Yes, love that you can see the ball better now but with the TV distance, it just looks like any random outdoor hard court. Doesn't help that the clay in Madrid has always been dryer and thinner due to the altitude.

Biased though. I love fiery red clay - it made tennis look so warm and spirited when I was living in Melbourne and watching clay tourneys in the winter months.

lack of proper tv coverage is really annoying. not that i want to watch azarenka vs. ivanovic but still...

I'm so sick of this Petra Shitova alter ego. This year has been terrible for the players I like ;_;

Madrid is just...a gigantic fail of a tournament all round though. The blue clay is probably the only good thing about it. I wouldn't like RG to change colour but I prize being able to see the ball over other considerations...

I really don't know why the WTA scrapped or screwed over so many tournaments that were well liked by players and fans to replace them with the empty stands and unmotivated play we see in Dubai, Madrid and Beijing. Well I do, £££££££, but ugh @ tennis leadership yet again

Li's year is not too bad really, and will be on a sharp uptick if she manages to beat Azarenka next round. Please, please, please.

wrt TV coverage, did anyone see Federer/Raonic and was it any good?

Raonic will undoubtedly be a major force in the game if he stays healthy so with that in mind I refuse to actually watch him play until it's abolutely necessary

oh whoa I've just seen the score. though actually it's not really surprising at all given his game.

w/r/t Li, she may not be crashing and burning like stupid Kvitova but she hasn't won a title this year and also is responsible for one of the most annoying losses in a year that has been very generous with them

http://www.wtatennis.com/player/vesna-dolonc_2257889_12874

Vesna DOLONC (SRB). OK then. Third name change in 14 months.

YEEEEEEEES SERENA

if she'd lost that, it would've been pretty major

serena/sharapova QF :D :D :D

just tuned in in time to see Verdasco double-fault three points in a row. -facepalm-

I don't think I've EVER seen Rafa play as awfully as he did in the final stages of that match. Literally couldn't put a ball into court. The penultimate FH that bounced before the net on his side. It genuinely looked like some sort of protest against the surface.

Rewarded with shirtless Nando though!

ya that was unexpected. stopped watching after Nadal went up two breaks in the third, then I looked up the scores five minutes ago to find that FeVer had somehow crawled his way back and won! still amazing though - don't think anyone apart from Djokovic has done something like that successfully against Rafa on clay before.

Oh Na Na, why you no break loud shrieking bitch when she seemed so determined to serve DFs?

Serena eviscerating Maria will never get old.

I swear even if she suddenly had to play Maria in the depths of some Eastern European autumn tournament on the eve of a Kardashian wedding she'd still bring her A game to this match-up.

It could've been even easier had she not attempted that lazy and kinda arrogant "dropshot" that was worthy of Dementieva on her point to go up 3-0 in the second set but even though that allowed Maria to claw her way back for two (2) games, those three Maria DFs at 2-2 were hilariously inevitable.

HEHEHE

disappointed with the lack of bagels YET AGAIN though, Serena. :@

Don't ask me why, but I'm putting myself through the second, presumably final set of Azarenka/Radwanska. A-Rad drops her serve at 2-2 despite having a game point (lolol let's get on the back foot, hit with no depth and then make errors when pressed even slightly). Then, Azarenka gets smashed, broken to love:

00: BH return winner from Radwanska
15: Laughable drop-shot attempt from Azarenka.
30: Great FH return that Azarenka gets barely a racquet on
40: DF from Azarenka

So now my hopes are up and I envisage them being ruined again.

My hopes are now firmly pinned on Serena utterly molesting her in the final.

serena doesn't lose tournaments she beats sharapova in. ever.
and serena doesn't lose to azarenka. ever.

so i am not nervous.

This is so, so, so great. Best so far? Serena falling over while Azarenka serves to stay in the set, Azarenka gets distracted and nets the ball. Two winners and a DF (on set point) later and it's 6-1. Dominant #1 my ass, and if not for getting injured St Kim in the semis, she wouldn't have a Slam either.

Lol, Serena's final serve hits a dodgy spot on the court, bounces up and Azarenka compltely misses it. Apart from two really sloppy return games, that was... uh, so Serena's going to have 16 Slams by the end of the year. Not that we didn't know the tour was weak right now, but seriously, nobody has been able to match it with Serena since Henin, and unless Kvitova stops being retarded, we won't ever in all likelihood.

Smashing up Azarenka is making me appreciate her, I guess I will miss her when she's gone! (Still will never like her as much as Venus).

woz did breadstick serena this week

Sooooo the past year has seen Serena look utterly dominant and imperious in the warm-ups and then flop in the Slams? THE NEW SAFINA

I really really hope someone gets to say "But she won...Rome and Madrid" about Silliams this year. "Charleston and Madrid" might be more of a zing though. Somewhere, Dinara feels comforted.

Not that this result doesn't make me v happy and appreciative of her.

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

lex -_-

US OPEN F AFTER NEARLY DYING ISN'T A FLOP. AND SHE WAS INJURED IN MELBOURNE OK BYE

not that i'm saying she'll definitely win RG lol. it will be a nervy mess. i can just hope

ugh roger do you not want to be no. 2? What the hell was that service game?

Lol not the most awe-inspiring win from Fed but I guess he got it done, even if he needed a little help from Berdych's bone-headedness.

Serena, on men complaining about the Madrid clay: "We ladies don't complain we just do our best. On the WTA (tour) we are real performers, we are not about going out there and being weenies."

Serena now trolling the ATP as well as the WTA. Is she trying to make me like her or something?

Welcome back, Serena!

“I see some of her previous matches and then she plays against me and produces 13 aces,” joked the Russian. "What about the other matches? I am flattered that she likes to do that against me."

LOLLLL Maria. Yes Serena hates you but she also plays well against you because you have NOTHING to hurt her with. Serena does literally EVERYTHING better than you.

US OPEN F AFTER NEARLY DYING ISN'T A FLOP.

she totally gets that pass for Wimbledon but she was amazing throughout the entire USO series and also the USO itself until the final!

Obv as things stand now she's RG favourite but that slam has history of turning into a mess so the winner will probably end up, like...Lepchenko or someone.

I really never thought Federer would be in a position where getting back to No 1 and breaking the Sampras record might happen...

it's still a ridiculously superhuman effort tho

plus she lost to stosur because of racist schedulers k

good to be back in a country with wta traditions

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7217/7202595274_cc164b4a95_z.jpg

nalbandian/murray match is amazing from what i've seen

BTW, Radwanska still has not lost to anybody other than Azarenka this year. 0-6 against Azarenka and 32-0 against everybody else.

how embarrassing for 32 people smh

But not for Petra Cetkovska! Who beat her... at some other tournament, probably a Slam once, or something, and just beat her again. (Radwanska is rubbish on clay, anyway).

haha. I watched part of the second set, then had to turn it off, it was so bad. Aga didn't look like she wanted to be there at all.

Anyway, Woz already down a set and a break to AMG lol

Maybe Woz is hoping that by falling to #8, she will then rise back to #1 to show people it was no fluke?

PLAN GOING EXCELLENTLY, CAROLINE.

NID that Petrova would play her peak tennis against Serena