ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Yeah apparently her coach flew home after Miami to save on expenses.

She was on the Tour fringes last year though didn't miss any time as far as I can tell. Broke through at Wimbledon 2012 (qualified, made R3), ended the year just outside the top 100. 2013 was consolidation mostly, only one Tour QF (Florianopolis) but stayed in the top 100 thanks to a few Slam wins and ITF runs. Charleston was her eighth tournament of 2014 (she already reached the QF in Shenzhen).

I can't believe the Bogota event is still going, it was The Worst WTA Tournament every year for so long, I remember the days when there'd barely be enough top 100 players to fill the seeds. And now, after 16 years, they finally get two top 20 players in Jankovic and Stephens.

Yulia Putintseva and Michelle Larcher de Brito are playing each other RIGHT NOW in the QF of a US $25K challenger. And it's not being streamed ;_; ;_; ;_; ;_;

Giorgi beats CSN to reach the Katowice final, cool. Pretty consistently good year she's having. Has started playing with slightly more control and it has made a huge difference

Yulia Putintseva and Michelle Larcher de Brito are playing each other RIGHT NOW in the QF of a US $25K challenger. And it's not being streamed ;_; ;_; ;_; ;_;

Lol

Only saw the last few games of Cornet v Giorgi, they were hilarious enough for the contrast between Cornet's theatrics versus the most expressionless player on tour. So typical of Cornet to win a title having gotten bagelled twice en route (and WTF @ Aga losing that SF)

missed return on MP was pretty heartbreaking. entertaining match though

I see Garcia beat JaJa in Bogota! Truly the week of...one over-achieving and one under-achieving Frenchwoman

Fognini is just the kind of player to bring out Tsonga's inner moron on clay, his touch is so wonderful

Fognini in full rant mode <3 Unfortunately in Italian.

meanwhile in KL, Cagla Buyukakcay has become the first Turkish woman to make a WTA QF. Hilarious moonballing by Majeric in the closing two games to attempt to stave off defeat.

lol, and I turn back to Fognini/Tsonga to find Fognini tanking and getting booed in the third set

great win for ferrer but a pretty awful match

First set of Stan v Raonic was pretty good until halfway through the tie-break in the first when Raonic decided just to hand Stan the set. Rafa v Ferrer was hilariously entertainingly unforced-error central.

what's up with Djokovic? Fed winning his first Monte Carlo title at 32 would be kind of cool

yay all swiss final

Djoker's dealing with a wrist injury. Probably shouldn't have played. Didn't seem to affect him in the first set tho.

he was barely competitive in the second set, astonishing that the first set was as high quality as it was given how serious it looked

not really here for Olderer nostalgia

v excited that at 17, Donna Vekic has now made three WTA finals! please win this one, it'll be an uphill battle vs Domi though.

LOL what PR advisor is telling Bouchard that being an awful person will win her fans https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh-game/genie-bouchard-gives-opposing-slovak-fed-cup-bulletin-022356714.html

that is pretty annoying.
I like Cirstea's attempt at a mean face here:
https://24.media.tumblr.com/29b51e5f0cf1e886422dadcf3c0d3ca5/tumblr_n49jblLeGz1sllw2oo2_500.png

I guess Bouchard is just weird. Better than being fake I guess.

it seems fake to me, never heard of her doing it before and it's just the sort of thing some clueless PR would tell her to do - "be MEAN and BAD-ASS like Sharapova and Serena!" or something. Except obv a terrible way to do that.

Sounds like Djokovic will have to miss Madrid

At least he doesn't need surgery.

Stanimal is all the way back. Had maybe one bad set in the whole tournament. Making it to number 1 isn't out of the question.

Him & Vekic winning titles at the same time made me smile

Felt so appropriate given that they're BFFs <3

The KL final was very high quality, and Vekic displayed mental strength I didn't know she had to take it despite nearly choking that 5-1 lead.

definitely still on the Thiem team, impressive win over Granollers today. Epic game to hold for 1-1 in the decider and then steamrolled. He has such a versatile game, almost Djokovician.

never mind "time to retire", watching Fran these days she's all but already retired. woeful to lose to Beatriz Garcia Vidagany as defending champ in Marrakech. BGV (career high rank 146, current rank 248) now owns two career victories over Slam champions (she beat Clijsters in Marbella 2010). Which is only one fewer than Sloane Stephens.

nicest story of the day: Kleybanova's win over Tomljanovic today brings her back inside the top 100. Amazing comeback after cancer, hope there's much more of it to come!

First triple tie-breaker three-setter in years with Safarova and SHarapova right now. Despite the massive choke in the third set before she got her head back on in the TB the match was pretty fun with positive W/UE stats for both and solid serving.

I don't like to make many BOLD PREDIX with tennis but if Thiem gets a little better on serve I think he's a top 5 player.

*stares at the shots Barthel tried to hit on MPs*

*gives up*

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bl7sm3wCMAE9TXK.jpg

That outfit is probably a bigger concern than her loss to Kleybanova. No, it totally is, I mean I love Petra, but why would anyone support someone so talented but so lazy against someone who wants AND deserves success?

Pavs vs Ma$ha is a pretty awful match

Literally no idea what just happened in the Sweta/Simona match. Halep was basically dominant and hitting all her spots really well until 5-2 up. And then lost 21 of 22 points and the set *blinks*

Almagro about to serve for the match vs Nadal, he's probably not going to win another point now.

well, he was up a break a minute ago and that went quickly

as is this too, it seems

i can't believe Almagro shanked two FHs that landed in the service box and Rafa netted that

!!!!!!!!

wow. first win in 11 attempts

is it foolish to get excited about RG now?

i'm not doing that just yet, 5 sets is a different beast, but...maybe MORE excited than at any point in the past half decade?

meanwhile, PEAK SWETA FH!!

aside from what it means for Rafa, very happy for Almagro. He has a beautiful game and I hope it helps him perform on the bigger stages.

1-25 vs. Ferrer and Nadal now!

Nishikori has played SO WELL this week and it's continuing vs Gulbis now

yeah he's playing like peak level kolya right now, it's incredible

that gorgeous angled volley in the last game, that BH pass now, wonderful stuff. Working with Chang has counter-intuitively brought out his most aggressive game. I LOVE how good he is at changing the direction of the ball

also, Gulbis is not even playing badly!

HOW did Nishikori win that

that gorgeous angled volley in the last game, that BH pass now, wonderful stuff. Working with Chang has counter-intuitively brought out his most aggressive game. I LOVE how good he is at changing the direction of the ball

― lex pretend, Saturday, April 26, 2014 12:32 PM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Chang was actually an aggressive player considering his tools. Arguably the first power baseliner?