ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

querrey w a great get/fh winner 3d set tiebreak

& yet he's sabotaging himself w/ errors and even had a double fault too

loool and a second double

Turn on to watch Petko final and.........she's playing Clijsters????

damn this tourney has no luck, #1 seed bounced early (lol) rest of the belgians knocked out early.

Kim can still bash it mind you.

Was looking frwd to the Final tho :(

quintessential St Kim masterplan to swoop in to a) save b) win your own tournament at the last minute

Wawrinka hits one of the best drop volleys I've ever seen and one of the worst dropshots I've ever seen on consecutive points. Good tennis here generally, Berdych looking confident

Berdych went away at the end of the second set and got broken on a dead net cord to start the third.

Banger of a BH pass from Stan, double break!

Not seeing this much-vaunted New Berdych in 2015. That was v much the Same Old Berdych. Couldn't recover from a slight wobble and his opponent raising his game, third set looked close because that wasn't peak Stan either but it wasn't really - some of Berdych's errors, especially off simple shots, were miles out. Decent match though!

This Flipkens/Cornet match. The Flipkens overhead that bounced before her own service line. Cornet responding with one of her patented DFs-into-collapsing-on-the-ground.

A lengthy interlude of Cornet gesticulating, screaming and repeatedly beating her towel into the ground over her inability to challenge <3

Cornet goes into hysterics for the second time in 5 minutes over a call. To be fair to her she's actually been right both times! But maybe this is why you don't piss away all your challenges too early in the set, Alizé...

omg it happened again at 6-6 in the tb

Cornet wins the first six games of the match, and the last six games from 0-3 down. What happened in between will scar me forever

kei has been mad testy abt his rackets & their string tension this tourney

love watching Diyas when she's playing well. Finished off Petkovic with a clean dropshot winner then two clean return winners to win <3

csn recovered quickly!

indeed, I think it was just a cricked neck though. High possibility that she just stood there as Giorgi self-destructed for the whole match though.

Tuned in to the closing stages of Wozniacki/Stosur just in time to see Stosur, down MP, shank a FH so badly that it probably landed in Iran.

six of the Dubai top 8 seeds have played so far. Radwanska - OUT! Venus - OUT! Ivanovic - OUT! Kerber - OUT! Kvitova - OUT! Makarova - WON.

such an error-fest this rio match rola/souza

lol and appropriately ends on a df

it's really weird that ppl sit in the on court promotional car to watch the match @ delray

Interesting all-ESP match between CSN and the White Mug, such contrasting styles - both have gorgeous BHs but in totally different ways. Muguruza lost a set she really should've won - she went down a double break and kept making errors, when she got it together she stormed through 4 consecutive games to reach SP, and then it turned rather messy with the errors. I don't think CSN even played particularly well until the TB.

In the long term what I like about Muguruza is that while she's fundamentally a first-strike player with immense power, she's still capable of rallying and is capable of playing defence.

Quite apt flicking between the White Mug in Dubai and 18-yr-old Brazilian WC Beatriz Haddad Maia in Rio, who just whomped Hercog. I find these players who go against their national stereotype interesting - both Muguruza and Haddad Maia are tall hard-hitting big servers rather than the traditional Spanish/South American clay grinders. I can see BHM upsetting Errani tbh in the QF if she carries on serving like that tbh.

Halep v Makarova third set is awesome. Halep stepping up her aggression to break >>>>>

rafa is def laboring v carreno busta rn

Thought Muguruza would take that SF but I was wrong - yes her movement's superior to Pliskova's but Pliskova was too solid to just give away a game to love like Garbiñe did at 5-5

I can see BHM upsetting Errani tbh in the QF if she carries on serving like that tbh.

― lex pretend, Thursday, February 19, 2015 2:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is happening!

halep looking erratic so far, although she strung a few good shots together for that last hold at 1-4

Three MPs came and went for Haddad Maia, total choke and meltdown in the TB :(

Cramping and crying now :(((

delbonis/fognini is p entertaining

2d set tiebreak @ 9-9!

omg sick pass

12-10 delb, wow

ppl waiting for rafa were def bummed delbo pulled that out lol

lol 3rd set tiebreak

this fucking match

the momentum swings are so odd & its been so unpredictable

delbo has like several scorching match saves

this shit is unbelievable

idk if that was out ?

reeaally close

wow nowis rafa gonna lose

holy shit insane get by fabio, beats rafa

really hesitate to write off Rafa bc we've been through a number of "is Rafa done?!!!" cycles now but...there are more warning signs this time

was excellent to see Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, who I first saw in Wim qualies in 2013, play her first final vs Errani in Rio, she put up a good fight and really should've taken the first set but just couldn't put it away, and fell away in the second. She's beefed up her game though, which is positive, and her cross-court angled BHs are still gorgeous, and she's officially out of the slump she went into after beating Venus at RG last year :)

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/12365437/ivo-karlovic-wins-delray-beach-open

Young did his best to force Karlovic into baseline rallies so that he could maneuver his way to the net, a tactic that had been effective in his previous matches. But the Croat, who lives in nearby Plantation, forced the issue by lunging at every opportunity.

Serving at 3-3 in the first set, Young elected to let a Karlovic backhand passing shot go long. Instead, the ball landed inside the baseline. Young, clearly unnerved, double-faulted on the next point and was broken when Ivanisevic approached and knocked off a forehand volley winner.

No wonder Donald Young couldn't win, what with Goran lunging out of the stands and hitting random balls at him

xp def are some warning signs but I did think he looked better vs fognini than I've seen him play in a while; wasn't exactly a flukey loss but its not like losing to berrer

krajicek has a good forehand