ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

strange resolution there was hoping murray could get his shit together and get it to a 3rd

it looked like he was going to for a second. pretty strange match but happy for Murray that his unpleasant week in London has been put out of its misery at last

really hope Stan and Roger reprise last year's dramatics, that was the one match I missed (the only one that was worth watching obv)

BAGEL HA, NOVAK

No bagel but that's more than enough to convince me that this will be over 6-3 6-2 so I can go to bed and get up early for Roger/Stan.

Which I'm going to miss for the second year running -_-

lmao Novak toying with Rafa for fun in this game, these casual experiments in dropshot-lob combos and he wins both points anyway

H2H finally evened at 23-23!

Novak is 21-22 against Federer, got a chance to even that back this week.

And next year we take the lead in both H2Hs, hopefully :)

yea the drop shots were not good

rafas current game is 1 of the least likely to give novak trouble tbh, hes just not going to lose long rallies regularly

23-23 vs Rafa
22-22 vs Fed

Fed got Dubai, Cincy and the YEC round robin
Nole got Wimbledon, the US Open, the YEC final (and IW and Rome)

Kind of amazing that their rivalry in 2015 breaks down so simply. Even two days after getting dominated by Federer in RR, the bookies had Nole as the heavy favourite today. Mediocre match though, to conclude another generally mediocre YEC (the two Nishikori three-setters notwithstanding)

Has to be said that Novak's 2015 is probably the best season of the last two decades. Two more years like that and he's the GOAT, not Federer. I mean, how many M1000s has he won? It's insane, nobody's ever dominated that tier while also racking up the slams at such a rate.

@jrcunniff: Djokovic completes best year of career, going 82-6.

Earns 16,585 ranking pts out of possible 18,790.

@jrcunniff: Since the 2014 U.S. Open, Djokovic has played 20 events, won 14 of them, and compiled record of 99-7 (5-4 vs Federer, 94-3 vs all others)

Federer 2006 was 82-5 (losing to Nadal four times and Murray once). Fed had three consecutive years at 92% W/L or better; Djokovic has just posted his second (after 2011), Nadal has had one (2013).

They're all around 82% career-wise. It's a toss-up at this point. You'd fancy a rejuvenated Nadal to win one more Roland Garros before he quits, and Novak to win anywhere from three to eight more Slams before he reaches Roger's age. Roger might have a Wimbledon left in him.

They're still not Guillermo Vilas ;) (145-14 in 1977; never mind the %-age, feel the quantity)

I think Fed played ok yesterday, I'm just not sure how you attack someone who is hitting every backhand to within 30cm of the baseline.

Djokovic's second 90%+ year, I mean.

it's still so incredibly weird to me that GBR are in the davis cup FINAL

I only have the dimmest memories of '78. Buster M beating Gottfried from mp down at a purpose-built venue in the middle of the CA desert? And 19yo McEnroe winning his two singles easily. But I don't think I've ever seen footage - it was only newspaper reports.

And Edmund is a decent high-end Challenger level clay-courter so could conceivably win his opening singles. It might be over by Saturday. To lose against Spain, Argentina, France, etc on this surface would be no disgrace. But Belgium would be a real downer.

Edmund's got a lot of potential to be more than that in the future imo. Anyway, Goffin's looking incredibly tight, Edmund's completely relaxed and bullying him around the court. 5-0!

(Got to think Bemelmans is going up against Murray to save the energies of Darcis or Coppejans to take on Edmund on Sun if it comes down to that) (it should be Coppejans if they've got any sense, who's an erstwhile junior rival of Edmund and leads him 2-0 on clay, including once this year)

Edmund held an 12-min opening service game, sped out to 5-0 in the next 20 minutes, then it turned into a bit of a struggle but he got it done 6-3. Long way to go though and Goffin's got his teeth into it now.

tempted to watch the next rubber because if you squint Bemelmans looks like Justine Henin.

oof @ Goffin freezing up even more

hands over double break with terrible DF

hands over double break with terrible DF

― lex pretend, Friday, November 27, 2015 1:46 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

repeat down set point ://///

lmao @ the cut-away to Clijsters in the crowd looking absolutely disgusted

Goodness. I came back in here to retract my statement above because I thought Edmund was up against Bemelmans. Didn't think he would trouble Goffin.

Goffin now a break up in set three.

I've only seen two games (the last two games) but I'd be amazed if Edmund does any better than 2-6 in the decider. :/

seemed like Edmund got a bit sloppy at the start of the third and Goffin seized his chance, and now he's finally stopped choking is just out-manoeuvring Edmund...

I've seen lots of comebacks but so rarely such a 180 from "frozen and terrified on court" to "free-flowing and confident"

Murray really lucky not to be broken there...

Goffin flopping => Murray has woken up now

Won it.

It is extremely surreal that GBR have won the Davis Cup. Like actually won, not just won a play-off

Five years ago they were losing to Lithuania (hats off to Laurynas Grigelis) and facing Turkey in a relegation play-off to drop to the four tier (which would have meant a round-robin in Macedonia the follow spring vs Albania and Norway - I can't imagine Murray returning to the fold for that).

The road back has been that long and would have stopped in March if it hadn't been for James Ward, beating Isner 15-13 in the 5th in Glasgow (though Inglot/Murray J ran the Bryans close).

Hell of a final point.

Ivanovic losing to Naomi Broady is the first hilarious result of 2016. Ivanovic lost the first set with two consecutive DFs (three total in that game) and down MP ballooned a sitter FH wide. Dealing with pressure as well as ever then.

Great win for Daria Kasatkina over Venus, she's going to be really good.

Halep, Sharapova and Serena all w/d from their first matches rmde

ffs @ halep robbing us of the azarenka match-up, she's so cowardly & basic

ana's fh on MP was so perf <3

kvitova retires too

gr8 start to the year every1

What is wrong with them all, this is week one when they're all supposed to be fresh ffs

5:58

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMlmCcZoi-M

i'm enjoying this paszek renaissance

also lol @ bouchard

So, Broady falls to Stephens but that's her best week on the WTA tour since Quebec City in September. And didn't she try and get Ostapenko (who beat her in the Quebec semi) defaulted in the last sixteen in Auckland? She chucked a racket and it hit a ball boy. Broady eventually won from mp down.

Don't follow the tour much so those highlights are the first I've seen of her since she lost to Woziancki at Wimbledon. Backhand is something fierce now.

The Broady/Ostapenko drama was hilarious. Don't think either of them came out of it well. Ostapenko seems pretty bratty (and has form even in her short WTA career, her Québec runner-up speech last year must have set a record for shortest acceptance speech of all time - it was literally "I'm upset I played so badly, thanks to the sponsors [mic drop]") and was lucky not to be DQed (though it's not like she chucked her racquet particularly hard or angrily), but omgggg Broady's desperation. Never seen an opponent campaign to the point of tears to try to win like that since Ramos Vinolas against Kyrgios last year in Estoril. Broady and Ramos were both technically right but it's probably worse behaviour than just an immature racquet toss. Funny how they kept going at it afterwards too. Broady didn't cover herself in glory on Twitter afterwards either.

Also I swear literally every single time there's drama or beef involving any other tennis players, Cornet ALWAYS pipes up.

Sam Crawford finally getting it together, huge huge power game but she's inexplicably spent three years fucking around in US ITFs.

Wouldn't it be something if Paszek could play consistently well for an entire year. Her BH is so pretty and smooth.

The WTA #s 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 all withdrew or retired from their first match of the year, well DONE everyone. What's the betting they're all miraculously risen from their deathbeds for the AO.

Ugh, as much as I love tennis in my timezone, watching (male) commentators doing the whole Asexual (Though Possibly Sexual) Man Love thing for Jack Sock of all people is... please stop. I mean, at least Roddick back in the day was smashable.

Wozniacki can't even beat her pigeon to make a MM final these days:

https://twitter.com/Dimonator/status/685587570923802626

Azarenka/Kerber was pretty great until 3-3 and then Kerber completely fell apart, totally scrambled tactically.

Didn't get home in time but 61 62 is a DELICIOUS scoreline for Djokovic to finally take the h2h lead over Nadal

Coric is the first teenager in an ATP final for eight years, I knew about the drought of young talent but even so that surprises me!

Azarenka is going to win the AO isn't she

Not sure a title run that went Q, LL, Vinci, Q, Kerber really institutes anyone as Slam favourite (nb I don't believe any of the others are exactly on their deathbeds)

Makarova just slipped on a beetle

berrer/zverev is a nice contrast of styles rn

Um, Russia have lost the first 3 rubbers in Fed Cup to the Netherlands. Sharapova is playing... in doubles? Nice dead rubber to keep her eligible for Rio, that. Kuznetsova is now losing to Hogenkamp and Bertens for fun these days.

pretty interesting match between Taylor Fritz and Michael Mmoh in Memphis last night. First time I'd seen Mmoh play, I really like his strokes and his defence was pretty amazing against Fritz absolutely whaling on every stroke. Fritz's power just too much though. A bit surprised Fritz's serve wasn't the weapon I've remembered it being before, or maybe Mmoh can just read it well.

The latest instalment in the tragicomedy that is Donna Vekic's career: losing to Sevastova from 4-0 up in the third set in Kaohsiung.