ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Federer peaking at net and continuing his Yung Bartoli returning approach today...Djokovic looks flummoxed and furious

Three DFs from Djokovic in that service game :o

lol what does young bartoli mean?

Returning from midway up the court, she used to do that all the time in juniors and when she first came on tour

i finally figured out the best sesh new haven to go to and went -- 3 qtrfinals, tserenko/pliskova abt to start

followed by safrova/cibu then radwanska/kvitova

rad, enjoy yrself!

*jealous*

tsurenko looks really good

cibu has been v feisty

wow drop shot after a long rally in the tbreak to take the set

Cibulkova is a personal fave, love it when her game is on

there are these chatty yung moms behind me that are like 'did u see serena in that article photos she looked like normal and not like a monster'

cibu really battled to get back in the 2nd set, had 40-0 to get to 5-5..........then hit b2b double faults at deuce to lose the set

I remember doing those fed service returns against one of my buddies who had a terrible second serve, which resulted in him almost killing me with a tennis ball

someone did 1 of those against me just on tuesday, but he was mostly joking, and i won the pt anyway so

match was def close enough that cibus bad serving and bad use of challenges was what cost her imo

wow murray/kyrgios rd 1 us open

I will be surprised if Kyrgios gets more than 10 games.

Kvitova trolling her fans by winning a couple of matches a row and facing her pigeon friend in the New Haven final. Out in R1 of US Open, then.

lmao at this result and scoreline from Davis Cup

Egor Gerasimov (BLR) d. Joao Sousa (POR) 06 16 62 62 64

Sousa was playing at home!!!

(I'm in Glasgow covering DC, for a while it looked like Tomic's gigantic choke was going to make Dan Evans relevant again but he got it done in the end)

The way Bencic has turned round her h2h vs Wozniacki is beautiful.

2014 Istanbul R1, 06 06
2015 Indian Wells R3, 64 64
2015 Eastbourne SF, 30 ret.
2015 Toronto R2, 75 75
2015 Tokyo SF, 62 64

Third Premier final this year for Bencic and I'd say she's favourite over Radwanska.

Radwanska is not messing around here. Winners everywhere!

actually p hilarious to see Nole toying with Rafa like this

and those last two Rafa FHs that barely reached the net, screaming

I've only just noticed that the ATP250s have a 28-player singles draw. The top four seeds go straight into the last sixteen? What kind of bullshit is that? Four matches to win a title? When did this happen?

In MY day everything was best of nine sets, 256-draw and you didn't even get a week off for Davis Cup, you just played those matches *at the same time*.

Thiem's Umag title was my favourite 250 title run this year. R1 bye, R2 retirement, QF retirement

byes are bullshit but top players are pampered babies who call the shots

the WTA end of year is turning into its traditional clusterfuck, as well as everyone being injured/fatigued/absent somehow no one managed to notice that Luxembourg, the final tournament that's meant to count to YEC standings...ends after the YEC starts because it has a Sunday final. So points won't count. This particularly screws over Bacsinszky, who's in 10th place (effectively 9th with Serena out), 20 points behind Pennetta, but has only got Luxembourg scheduled

The alternate YEC this year is like a consolation tournament for the 9-20 ranked players, new depths of pointlessness there. I can't imagine Venus hanging around in China to play it and even Aga is whinging

Well the amount of points on offer at that consolation tournament is mind-bogglingly large. Where else would you have access to that many points without one of the top eight being there to stop you? Such bullshit.

(watch Wozniacki win it, obviously)

Federer did not look like he gave a fuck losing in R2 of Shanghai to... Albert Ramos-Vinos. Obviously. Last time they played, he got three games in a Bo5.

djokovic continues to barrel toward GOAT status

Pennetta was pathetic today. Venus must be so pissed sitting on the sidelines watching this group of mostly-injured-or-exhausted women.

Who all outperformed her this year though.

Radwanska should be ashamed that she couldn't beat a Sharapova who hadn't completed a match since Wimbledon and who was completely falling apart at the end.

Rosol is rosoling Rafa again

Rafa just broke himself with a terrible challenge, lol. His groundstrokes are barely holding up against Rosol's power

Halep v disappointing against Sharapova yesterday (though to be fair Sharapova's half-year off just means she's a zillion times fresher than anyone else in the field here). Feel like Halep's spent 2015 desperately clinging on to her top 3 position, and to her credit has just about managed it despite threatening to fall off more than once, but there's a definite sense of regression, that the next step is further away than before and that she might not actually be able to take it.

Watched the replay of Panetta/Radwanska; what a fun match!

Kerber/Muguruza is really good (again this year). Kerber = WTA MVP for being part of so many high-quality matches

Radwanska wins 6 pts in a row from 1-5 down in the TB, which she looked like UEing herself out of in a couple of seconds. Last three points were two return bangers and then a crazy, crazy SP full of every shot in the book, lobs and dropshots and volleys and everything

Halep fell away totally in the second set again and unlike Sharapova, Radwanska didn't let her back in to make the score respectable.

Radwanska pushing Sharapova to the limit then losing to Pennetta then straight-setting Halep is...not that logical.

Funny, Sharapova is now guaranteed to be in the SF, but Radwanska is only through if Sharapova wins in straight sets. Pennetta needs only one set to progress.

In general I am coming down harder on the side of "Halep will never win a Slam"...she has had several opportunities for a real statement win now and flopped every time. The AO QF, whatever happened in her clay and grass seasons, the USO SF and now what should have been an open YEC with Serena out and Maria rusty.

She's shown disappointing limpness in important matches, with no explanation, but I still feel pretty confident in a slam win in the coming years.

in general I feel like she's much less confident in her game than a year ago; she's actually better at winning ugly over lesser opposition, which is how she's maintained her position, but a lot worse at imposing her game on good opponents (which was always a knife-edge anyway, with her one-dimensional counterpunching style) - and especially at big moments. I can see her with a Wozniackan/Radwanskan slamless career, now

lol @ Sharapova fighting to snatch that set from Pennetta (aided by a bit of a gag) even though she's already qualified - vaguely wondered whether her dislike of Radwanska would tempt her to tank and save energy while kicking Aga out at the same time, but I fully believe Sharapova would rather keep Aga in just so she gets the chance to beat her again

And that's farewell to Flavia forever.

Some tight stuff in the 2nd set. Obviously isn't as worn out as the others. Still going to set me up for a '16 season disappointment.

Sharapova vs Kerber/Muguruza in the SF/F would be a pretty tantalising match

https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/659794761340100609

Muguruza has been intent on storming the net all autumn, which I admire and bodes well for the future, bc lord knows she needs a few extra dimensions to her game, but ever since I tuned into this match her lack of natural touch has been really costing her. Should've broken Kvitova at 4-4 in the second but fucked up two swing volleys, and the volley she played on BP just now was embarrassing

Muguruza wins it with a BH volley though! That was a good match, esp towards the end

Fun 3rd set. I hate my useless faves so much tho.

She did a lot better than I expected given that she was bending double after every point in the Safarova match

Kerber needs to win one set to go through, I can't see that not happening