ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

I don't see it as a waste really, early in her career I didn't even see her as the consistent top 5 player she became and I've never thought she'd be able to win a Slam except with a dose of draw-related luck...and she had that twice, and blew it twice.

Earlier this year I thought there might be an element of "a step back to go two steps forward" about the M-Nav appointment but maybe her window generally has shut, as it did with JJ a few years ago. Though given how draws routinely fall apart at Wimbledon, her best chance of winning a Slam, I'd still rate her chances at a Slam higher than Wozniacki's.

That pasting she got from Cibulkova in the AO SF was probably the equivalent of JJ's mauling at the hands of Stosur at RG, or something.

Kerber just did not miss in the second half of that third set, huh. That's what had her in the top ten for a few years and gave her that awesome win over Sharapova at Wimbledon. The WTA needs Kerber back in the top ten even if it doesn't realise it.

the most unfortunately-named man in tennis won the US Men's Clay Court Championships

I think Jack Sock's name would be fine if he didn't actually have problems with his socks/footwear.

There has to be a way for him to improve his backhand, it's such a technical monstrosity.

Even the Kerber/Keys youtube highlights were thrilling despite knowing the result. Sublime dropshots by Kerber towards the end, huh, so good to see her break her finals streak too.

Lovely to see Schmiedlova win her first title too, her crosscourt BH is such a great shot.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CCajd7IW0AARnvu.jpg

After championship point. Great picture

I watched a lot of that sock/querrey final, was nearly comical sock running around his bh so often, he does have good speed tho, and he really did bully querrey w/ his forehand quite a lot, moreso 2nd set. sock had a double fault in every single service game but one I think, and still generally had little trouble holding serve. sock was fortunate to come back from 2-5 in the 1st set tiebreak, gotta think it was a really frustrating loss for querrey

that court in Houston is so weird looking

Andreas Haider-Maurer d. (13) Ernests Gulbis 61 60

^^didn't see it but I'm sure that was an edifying performance to watch

I watched a lot of that sock/querrey final, was nearly comical sock running around his bh so often, he does have good speed tho, and he really did bully querrey w/ his forehand quite a lot, moreso 2nd set. sock had a double fault in every single service game but one I think, and still generally had little trouble holding serve. sock was fortunate to come back from 2-5 in the 1st set tiebreak, gotta think it was a really frustrating loss for querrey

that court in Houston is so weird looking

― johnny crunch, Monday, April 13, 2015 3:18 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

now that he's improved his fitness Sock's only problem really is the backhand. If he could just get it up to a Roddick level he'd be headed for the top 10 in a hurry.

The forehand is amazing, the heaviest ball in the history of the game.

somewhere along the way Sock had a coach who gave him the most severe and avant garde western forehand on tour but let him hit a backhand like a toddler.

yea the announcers always mention how he hits his forehand and backhand with the same face of the racket, which i can like barely wrap my head around how is possible

it would actually make sense if he used a one hander!

in fact I wonder if that's what they should have done, but I'm a huge advocate of the OHBH

the big issue with his BH is that bizarre racket prep

Sock will get tossed in with all the other American serve bots but he actually has wonderful touch and volleys which you can see in his doubles success

http://www.tennisunleashed.net/jack-sock-backhand/

Wow. The bottom of the handle is pointing straight up immediately before he snaps through. I guess that could be...a good thing? For spin? Such a strange technique.

Good to see Funky Flo back on tour, I've missed watching him.

bad loss obv but cmon, monte carlo -- Wawrkinka was booed as he left the court.

MONFILS

Hingis is going to play SINGLES in Fed Cup. She's so beating Aga

meanwhile, so glad someone finally gave us the STATZ on the Nole smash: https://twitter.com/tennisabstract/status/588735317626105857

Hingis playing singles.

Hingis playing singles. I don't know whether I'm going to hyperventilate or get hugely aroused.

Amazing scenes in Québec. Bouchard refused to shake her Fed Cup opponent's hand pre-match AGAIN - if you're going to protest tennis etiquette what a bizarre and petty hill to die on. Then she got upstaged by a junior compatriot and then flopped to Dulgheru, and then this happened

https://twitter.com/ProdigyRep/status/589552319135621122

:D

okay lol

also singles didn't go so well for Hingis, huh

The first set was competitive from the highlights. No doubt Hingis couldn't physically have won in 3 so why worry about the second set. She did better than the other alternatives, even against Slumpwanska. But she should stick to doubles.

first set was interesting esp in that it highlighted how different their styles are - the "Radwanska is the new Hingis" line was never shown up more. Hingis taking everything as early as possible, totally the aggressor. She could definitely have taken the first set but her stamina was never great even in her prime and is inadequate to grinding three sets out with Aga these days...

Serena has just gone a set down to Errani o_0

That Hingis stamina vs Ursula

Lisicki just hit 17 UEs and five DFs in a 0-6 set to Diyas

LMAO. Double bagel. Such fighting spirit at the end there.

Diyas hit some great dropshots on the rare occasions she needed to, but the funny thing is that every time Lisicki made her move her own terrible clay movement was exposed. Not that Lisicki had any idea of that.

Loved Keothavong's snark too. "On the bright side, Lisicki has made it past the hour mark. [Beat] With the aid of the bathroom break."

awesome to see Bencic save three consecutive MPs vs Goerges yesterday too. I don't think her form is anywhere near what she showed last year but she's slowly getting it back; nice revenge for that embarrassing AO loss.

I see that time Petra took off for "exhaustion" two months into the year has really paid off. Losing to BRENGLE, seriously?

Garcia shanked three overheads in that last game

So Martina out as A Rad's coach. That didn't last long. Decided that being a solid top ten player albeit a passive one was maybe her best bet after all.

Woz-Halep was excellent fare. Woz in 2014 end of season form.

kinda wild theyre showing college tennis on sec network & theres neighboring cts where two matches are 5-5 in the third set

the spectators on the shared side btwn the cts are turning back and forth to watch each match point by point

KERBER

God, those match points were tense...excellent final overall, Kerber's entire 11-match winning streak has been v enjoyable to watch. She has such an entertaining game.

wow @ vesely v ggl

end of Thiem/Pospisil was good - had been a somewhat underwhelming servebotting affair for most of the last set, some huge winners from both towards the end of the TB though.

watched some of 17yo Andrey Rublev beating Dzumhur in Istanbul earlier, impressed with his game - especially his BH, and also his attitude on return

on an unstreamed court in Prague, Bencic just saved six consecutive MPs from 0-6 down in the second set TB against Konjuh - their first senior meeting (Konjuh won their only junior one)

Christ. Konjuh blew another three MPs serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, saved three serving down 5-6, finally won the TB 7-3 on her 10th MP.

If they both get to the top of the game, this epic match that nobody saw will have been the start of it.

so annoying that this match got bumped to a non-televised court bc of the rain delay

i'm glad that thiem won that match but it's not a good sign that he struggles against pospisil on clay. the tiebreak was great though.

Talking of 17yos, Frances Tiafoe of USA seems to be making a decent attack on the Challenger level: reached quarterfinal two weeks ago in Sarasota (out to Buchanan), semifinal last week (out to McGee), and just now knocked top seed Bagnis out in the first round in Tallahassee.

BTW (you may possibly all be aware of this already, but just in case): Most (men's) Challenger events have a court or two streaming continuously for free in decent quality at http://livestream.com/atp.

Safarova is truly a mystery. *2-4, 0-40 down in the final set vs Smitkova, she plays:

- Five perfect service points to avoid the double break. 3-4*
- Four impeccable defensive points with Smitkova absolutely pummeling the ball at her to break back to love. *4-4
- So much momentum! Then: DF, basic error, shanked BH two feet in front of her, DF. 4-5*
- Then Smitkova serves it out, albeit it took her 5 MPs. Safarova had two BPs; on one Smitkova served an ace, on the other Safarova hit a baseball home run overhead

Notwithstanding Safarova, CZE gets six out of eight QFists in Prague and will have three out of four SFists. That's a successful home event, then!

Rublev very impressive but that hair

Continuing on the theme of youngsters: I had a feeling I'd been seeing an unusual amount of under-18's doing OK lately in the men's tournaments, and looking more closely at the data, this appears to be the case. I chose a pretty low bar for "doing OK", in order to get a decent amount of data: winning a first-round match in the main draw of an ATP main tour or Challenger tournament (without the aid of a retirement, walkover, disqualification or forfeit).

This chart shows, for each of the last ten years, the percentage of such 1st-round matches that were won by players under 18 (with the caveat that the calculated ages may possibly be up to a week off or so):

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b356/olem/u18winners_zpssqkcqatl.jpg

Sure, the numbers are low, especially for 2015, which is only 1/3 complete, but it still seems this trend is real. Part of the effect, of course, is that the youngsters of 2011 and 2012 were hardly Any Good At All; in 2011 only two Challenger first-round matches were won by under-18's, in 2012 only ONE (!) out of 2281 (and none for the 1169 completed main-tour first-round matches).

In case you were wondering, the U18 players who have won a 1st round match so far in 2015 are:

Andrey Rublev (1 x ATP 1000, 1 x ATP 500, 2 x ATP 250, 1 x Challenger)
Alexander Zverev (1 x ATP 1000, 1 x Challenger)
Frances Tiafoe (3 x Challenger)
Orlando Luz (2 x Challenger)
Tommy Paul (2 x Challenger)
Duck Hee Lee (1 x Challenger)
Omar Jasika (1 x Challenger)
Roman Safiullin (1 x Challenger)
Stefan Kozlov (1 x Challenger)