ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Volleying straight back to Petra hahahahahaha, Sharapova's so bad at the net, people act as if she's good because she comes in on easy shots she can swing volley.

UGH no bagel :(

Now would be a fun time for some double faults.

What a week this is!

(Though the comeback starts here.)

Stop it Shitra.

Irritated at them both for needlessly prolonging this game

Amazing winner on MP at last

Bouchard getting completely exposed for the third time this week

ooh, nice to see some proper shock-and-awe tennis from Serena on that point

Serena taking tips from her BFF! Wozniackian FH moonball to reset the point and then BLAM massive angled FH to end it. OK, the second bit had nothing to do with Karolina.

A wrong call and a net cord enable Bouchard to avoid the bagel, sigh

Congrats to Bouchard on 11 games over 3 complete rubbers. Just like wildcarding in a junior slam champ or something.

Even worse than Dementieva's 0-3 in 2005!

I was just about to say! Dementieva 2005 had been the only YEC competitor (post-RR) to play all three RR matches and fail to win 4 games in any set. Until now! And Bouchard's 11 games are even worse than Dementieva's 15.

I look forward to Bouchard playing the Dementieva/Kuznetsova role of being pasted in the YEC for years to come.

YECs always come down to bloody maths in the end.

Ivanovic needs a straight-set win over Halep to qualify. If Halep wins a set, Serena qualifies. That's a tricky one, because Halep has zero incentive to play hard or dig deep - I doubt she'd be motivated by kicking out Serena, but she will certainly want to conserve her energy for a likely SF vs Wozniacki the next day. I suspect Halep will come out and try to play aggressively for a straight-sets win but if it just leads to errors, or if Ivanovic gets off to a strong start, Halep won't bother fighting back.

The other group is so convoluted that even now Wozniacki (2-0) could fail to qualify and Sharapova (0-2) could be in the SF.

xp I wouldn't look forward to it too much when she ends the next five seasons ranked 18.

Oh, and I have a feeling a lot more players will be working Bouchard out next year. She really reworked her game and approach in last year's off season to be so ultra-aggressive, but between her wonky technique, a number of players including SHELBY ROGERS showing how best to dismantle her and her own knocked confidence, a fall cometh.

True! But it felt like a lot of players worked Wozniacki out, and look, here she is in 2004 back in the top 10 with a GS final and likely a SF spot in the YEC...

If they all finish 2-1 matches/4-2 sets, it's games %age right?

Right now, SW: 26-22, SH: 24-7, AI: 20-17

So, AI 7-6 7-6 SH, means AI: 53.97%, Williams goes through (54.17%)
Any other 2-0 result, AI goes through
Halep can't go out even with a double-bagel defeat (worst = 55%+)

2014, 2014, 2014. Bouchard doesn't have Sharapova-level game, god not even close, but she'll be like a cockroach.

Having nightmares about Halep losing to Ivanovic, eliminating Serena, then Kvitova flopping massively to Woz, and us somehow ending up with a Sharapova/Wozniacki final of even lower quality than that thing from the other day

xps I trust others on the maths, Twitter said that as soon as Bouchard won her second game, any two-set win for Ivanovic would do including 76 76. As soon as Bouchard won her first game, Halep officially qualified.

(I mean I trust other people than myself not other people than Michael! I have no idea what's right any more)

In applying the tie-breaking procedures, a conduct default or retirement shall count as a straight-set win or loss. However, games won or lost in matches with a defaulting or retiring player shall not be counted in the application of the percentage of games won method.

So if Halep retires...Serena goes through!

omg I turned this match off at 7-5 3-0 up

LIFE

Sharapova had three MPs for the straight-sets win she needed. LOST IT FROM 5-1 UP FINISHING WITH A DF LMAOOOOOOO

Yasss Aga!

And now Sharapova has to come back out and play a meaningless set. She must be seething and I love it.

Ah, AI beat EB one and three. I could've sworn it was two and three when I looked yesterday! So, yeah, 7-6 7-6 over SH takes her to 54.84% and into the semis.

Useless Radwanska can't even beat a Sharapova with nothing to play for.

And she's not even out yet! Wozniacki wins by any scoreline, Wozniacki and Radwanska go through.

Actually, I doubt this crossed her mind, but that set had surprisingly little effect on Radwanska's chances of progressing. If she'd won, Petra would have needed a straight-sets victory. So all that changes is that Petra can afford to drop a set now.

lol Petra flopped anyway NID NID NID

this halep/ivanovic match makes zero sense

So Halep didn't tank but choked the first set but still fought in the second and then LOST ANYWAY? uh, at least she's honest I guess, but well done on idiotically getting yourself into the worst possible scenario: three-setter with the SF tomorrow, losing anyway, doing it all in tremendously stupid fashion.

Meanwhile spare a thought for alternate Angie Kerber, who earned $60k this week for a nice little holiday in Singapore and didn't even have to touch her racquet.

Gotta think it'll be a Serena/Simona rematch in the final, too.

So this set between Coric and Nadal is also happening.

Winners/unforced errors:
Coric: 2/13
Nadal: 1/19

that was a pretty brilliant match and it will HURT for Wozniacki...

Yeah I don't feel like Wozniacki could have done much more than she did there... uh.. her game was even not-awful to watch for once!

I wonder if this will be like Sampras-Agassi in the men's YEC in '99. Andre thrashed Pete in the round robin, Pete was a different player entirely in the final.

Probably! Radwanska doesn't look very interested in stopping Halep getting to the final.

Great exhibition of what a good striker like Halep can do when given the same mid-paced ball over and over again. Her practice would have been tougher than this.

Really looking forward to the Halep/Serena rematch.

it begins..

Williams made to work straight away to save the 1st BP

1st DF, another bp

Intense right from the beginning, SW gets the game.

Halep wins her game to love.

way too many errors from serena = 2 more bps

Breaks.

Also not enough 1st serves.

Got her returns going and has Halep in all sorts of trouble.

this is a great game - Serena can't get Halep to make that fatal mistake.