ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

i look forward to waving this tournament in the faces of anyone who starts whinging about equal pay tho

this Nole/Kei match is the first one I've bothered to stay up for, it had better be good.

Haha oh man, if you watch just one point from this, 6-1 3-4, break point to Kei.

(Novak just put on a total clinic in set one, broke to open set 2, then his serve went to shit.)

And after failing to convert two break points in the opening game, Kei has just collapsed himself. More ill-advised drop shots, barely any first serves..

And of course, ends on a DF.

this game stan tryna close out rog is crazy

Crazy shot selection from STan, in a bad way. Stop S-V-ing!

yea it was sweet how rog hit a drop return to force stan in also

wtf that was in?

That was proper.

feel badly for stan but that s/v on every match pt was bzarre so

typical that i miss the only classic! tennis twitter was doing its nut, my bf was texting me point by point updates and i was stuck on a train that resembled a circle of hell. selfishly rooted for fed from afar for a better chance of a good final, which i'm looking fwd to a lot. what a choke by stan tho.

really with those serving stats i'll be surprised if this is closer than like 6-4 6-3.

First walkover in the history of the ATP YEC. Shame for Fed, appropriate end to the tournament.

damn was looking fwd to this

Radwanska's hired Navratilova as her new coach! And this after declaring she'd bulk up in the off-season. Props, she's had a couple of disappointing seasons where she looked like she was just coasting in the top 10 but getting further away from a Slam. Good to see she's serious about changing things up at least.

murray looked gooood in this abu dhabi match vs rafa

lol saw a murray trophy presentation vid scrolling twitter and was like o shit he beat djoko? ok obv withdrawal

- First tennis watched of the season: Wang Qiang vs Timea Babos. Of course. It was actually a really high quality first set
- Second tennis watched: Diyas vs Vekic. Well, Vekic hasn't improved a single thing in the off season, that was absolutely dire, and she completely quit at the end.

LOL @ Bouchard getting bagelled in her first match back, she made such a huge revamp to her game last off-season and this year players will start figuring her out if she hasn't improved it again.

Completely baffled as to why Russian junior Natalia Vikhlyantseva (who beat CiCi Bellis in the USO juniors after Bellis's big senior win) got a WC into Shenzhen but she made the most of it beating Friedsam, and she'll probably play Halep next.

this year's edition of the month-long tragicomedy known as Stosur In Australia kicks off with Sam blowing a 5-1 final set lead and a MP to lose to Lepchenko

Ah, tennis. I didn't have time to miss you.

At the start of this set I was like "man, Taylor Townsend has no discipline to her game at all" but she got better and better - from SP down some of her shotmaking was just breathtaking. Such a natural talent.

she's a genius

konjuh's serve is pretty amazing

Bepa still fighting.

Amazed that Bepa beat Peng given that she a) entered b) struggled in c) withdrew from a $10K last week.

Garcia/Kerber was really good until Garcia blew 0-40 on Kerber's serve at 3-2 in the second set, then she pretty much melted down. Five or six DFs in her last two service games including on MP. The usual. So talented, so mentally frail.

WTF happened in the Serena/Flavia match? 0-6 6-3 6-0 is a batty scoreline.

Siniakova reminds me so much of Radwanska in the way she hits the ball and "sees" the court to construct rallies. She has more power, less craftiness and definitely less emotional control though.

impressive composure from KlisPlis to serve it out against azarenka. some great passing shots as well

That was Karolina not Kristyna!

Azarenka is as we last saw her at the USO. Oscillating between solid and hideous seemingly at random. Strange to see Pliskova be the more consistent one. Her defence is a revelation now she actually tries to do it - she can't run but she's so tall that her reach alone allows her to get to tons of shots (not that Azarenka's exactly powering her strokes these days), and she has GREAT hands/timing, so anything Pliskova does get her racquet on she'll get back in court - some terrific passes and lobs. And obviously her serve and FH are as massive as ever.

lol I still get them confused despite not having seen krystina play in ages.

i didn't know that muguruza sprained her ankle :(

I sure hope Maria's done major things to her HC game off season.

lol, Keys d. Cibulkova and everyone raves about her game and how she's gonna step it up this year under Davenport's tutelage. Then she loses to Lepchenko the next day of course.

So many players are defecting to Australia...Gavrilova, like Gajdosova and the Rodionovas before her, has an AUS boyfriend. Is Tennis Australia's policy to produce hot male players in lieu of good female players? Presumably Rogowska dating Rhyne Williams is the result of a reverse policy of trying to offload useless home-grown players on to other countries. I guess Tomljanovic bucks the trend by merely defecting because of her AUS coach. Also, who the fuck will get AO WCs, there are literally no acceptable options.

Serena needs a coffee.

I had no idea mid-match espressos were allowed until yesterday and now I wonder why more players don't ask for them.

My Hopman Cup is a choppy mess. Like Serena's game!

Rafa bout to lose to BERRER???

Berrer saves 3 BPs, brought on in no small part by his untimely DFs, to serve it out. Quite some result after getting breadsticked in the first set

Great interview as well

What is this kind of writing http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2015/01/eugenie-bouchard-knows-exactly-what-shes-doing/53533/#.VKxVdSuG98F

idk like celeb gossip writing p much?

hey tennis ilxors, any folks have strong feelings/experiences abt best tour events to attend in person? thinking abt planning a trip & would love it to coincide w/ a tourney. was considering rome clay cts in may. nb i live in east coast usa. thx

oof the pointlessness of that Bouchard fluff piece. It's going to be worse than Kournikova.

I've never attended any tournament apart from Wimbledon, the YEC and a couple of challengers, strangely. I'd willingly attend any tbh. Rome would definitely be high on my list (much more so than Madrid, which rarely gets raved about). Closer to home Charleston is meant to have a superb atmosphere etc despite the quality of the entry list not being what it used to be. Monte Carlo always looks special though Monaco generally seems hellish. Eastbourne always looks good, rain aside! And I'd definitely contemplate any Slam qualies, a ton of superb tennis and drama for free.

nadal not getting enough depth, been his problem ever since the french

waking up straight into a hilarious Chardy choke. Up *6-5 in the third set TB...back-to-back DFs, of course!

I will never go back to Queen's until Hewitt retires - ticket prices are £££ for anything after the 2nd round and avoiding him before then is near-impossible :( Shame as it's a great little venue. Lex I'd be up for Wim qualies this year if I can get time off!

yes I'll 100% be going so let me know if you do! It's a great day out.

thanks for this Andy: http://instagram.com/p/xlcLNbohpg/

lmaoooooo @ that set

Kaia desperately trying to choke from *5-0 up. SP at *5-0...horrible DF. SP at *5-4...even worse than DF. On her fourth SP Ivanovic stops to challenge a ball that was obviously in to hand the set over anyway.

i'm not watching but lololol Federer is a set and a break down to... Millman?

or is the score thingy reversed, I don't even know

Pironkova has to play qualies in Sidney. Hopefully the courts are as fast as they were last year...

Hard to believe Fed nearly lost two nights ago. He was very good just then against Dimitrov. Though Dimitrov's second serve and backhand where craptacular, so, that.

Meanwhile Serena is totally puffballing v. A-Rad at the moment. I didn't see the Bouchard match but if she played like this then I can totally get that.

Serena just hit a serve at 103km/h. I mean, at least hers are going in. This match is very bad and I am going to pretend it's not happening.