ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

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.

coric/monfils is p entertaining

coric's fitness level seems v solid hes waay behind the baseline sprinting side to side and getting balls back...is still not gonna be enough unless gael falls apart but still..

watching thiem-nadal, it's really startling to see the rafa decline in real time. so many forehand shanks for what used to be such a reliable shot, and he doesn't have a clue how to change it. seeing your best weapon disintegrate like this must be terrifying for a player.

fritz into the mem final; good effort by berankis there too

only saw the middle set of Thiem/Nadal, it's getting to the stage where that would have been a bad loss for Thiem - even in that set he was bullying Rafa on most points.

Fritz's game and personality don't appeal to me but he's scary good tbh. Def overtaken Rublev, who's had some really disappointing losses this year, among the 1997 generation.

Bencic/Kasatkina was fun, first pro meeting of erstwhile junior peers. Bencic becomes the first teenager in the WTA top 10 since 2009 (er, Wozniacki). Vinci/Ivanovic was also hilarious, as expected.

lol @ isners latin american results

Errani AVENGING that golden set Shvedova dropped on her four years ago in style, 63 60.

Halep is such a bad player these days. She makes so many bad decisions on court and makes so many routine errors and it's like...not doing those things was literally the only special thing about your game, you're literally left with fuck all.

Fitting that this historic WTA feat of all the seeds in a tournament going 0-8 in their first matches should be sealed by Shitra managing to lose to Brengle after bagelling her in 19 minutes

On the plus side, Vinci breaks the top 10 at the age of 32!

Haven't seen any of Delpo's matches this week but great to see some pretty easy scores and a deep run off the bat - final vs Dimitrov upcoming? Thiem/Nadal rematch in the Rio final looks likely too! Kyrgios trashing Gasquet 60 64, lol, maybe he'll make the Berdych match more interesting this time - Berdych was lucky to escape Zverev in R2.

Legit looking forward to the Strycova/Errani final in Dubai more than any other big final in ages. I think Errani might actually be my favourite WTA player right now. A true inspiration to those of us who can't serve to save our lives.

ive watched some delpo - hes playing ok, not doing anything truly great but not that youd expect that, the results are mostly the effect of moving well and his opponents mostly not doing much, chardy in partic played terribly for a lot of that match

SARA ERRANI <33333

Hahaha at Dimitrov losing to Rajeev Ram. He will never win a Slam. That rhymes, and is also true.

Just shows how when one guy is hoovering up ALL THE POINTS EVERYWHERE, the difference between being low top 10 low top 20 is not that much, and even at Dimitrov's peak ranking he was still a fair way behind the guys just above him.

Shame Del Potro will probably lose to a useless, dislikeable flake like Querrey here.

lol so much if del ray final is raj ram v querrey

i feel happy for jan hernych apparently into a challenger final in poland after i saw him destroy his knee last summer in person

cuevas/nadal has been.....interesting

lol @ cuevas unable to not hit slam overheads rt to rafa

2h 37m already & its going to the third ~~

vintage rafa for 1 pt there otherwise funny how this reminds me of his match almost a yr ago to the date, this is what nadal is now, its still entertaining tbh

rafa is def laboring v carreno busta rn

― johnny crunch, Thursday, February 19, 2015 6:58 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haven't seen any of Delpo's matches this week but great to see some pretty easy scores and a deep run off the bat - final vs Dimitrov upcoming? Thiem/Nadal rematch in the Rio final looks likely too!

lmao @ how these assumptions turned out. Rafa can't even vulture the South American clay events any more, amazing. The Thiem loss might actually be weirder though.

Kyrgios played really well vs Berdych, he's been so much more disciplined this week than I've ever seen from him before.

First title of many for Kyrgios. Only a 250 but Pospisil, Gabashvili, Gasquet, Berdych, Cilic is a pretty impressive title run regardless (and without dropping a set). On his best behaviour all week I think. Remarkable the things he can do with his racquet when you'd swear he was completely jammed up on court. Takes over from Thiem as youngest ATP titlist!