ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Vesely beats Novak! Nole started badly but played pretty good in the end. Vesely redlined everything and hit some of the best drop shots I've ever seen

lol xp

thought Djokovic was fine off the ground (if a bit passive in the last game) but his return wasn't there - he had a half-chance to break back at 3-4 but missed a couple of key returns

wow huh

first opening round loss for Djokovic since Madrid 2013 (Dimitrov)
first loss to a player out of the top 50 for Djokovic since Queen's 2010 (Malisse)
first completed loss to a player out of the top 50 on clay for Djokovic since Umag 2007 (Troicki)
first time Djokovic has failed to reach a Masters final since Shanghai 2014

damn so rafa looks better than he has in like 2 yrs

this match has been phenomenal so far

beset by terrible streams all afternoon :(

gross result to go w my gross stream

halep just got first set breadsticked by someone i have never seen play before

I can't watch but Siegemund is super-talented and full of variety. Until a couple of years ago she was a student who only played tennis part-time, but that was enough to get her into Slam qualies, and now here she is...

yah. the first set and a half (which is all i watched) i was amazed at the variety she showed. v attacking, came to the net a ton, hit a bunch of v good drop shots and also often faked the drop shot and instead played beautifully deep sliced forehands nicolescu style.

milestones! in front of her home crowd, Cagla Buyukakcay becomes the first Turkish woman to make a WTA final, and with it the first Turkish woman to make the top 100, and she'll be the first Turkish woman to play a Slam MD this summer - this will get her direct entry to Wimbledon if she doesn't qualify for RG

Siegemund just out-Aga'd Aga. Never looked in doubt

also, the fourth non-top 70 player in a WTA Premier final this year so far

#94 Puig @ Sydney
#88 Ostapenko @ Doha
#85 Vesnina @ Charleston
#71 Siegemund @ Stüttgart

and this also makes the first single-nationality final of the year, strangely

Cagla Buyukakcay, first Turkish WTA titlist!

djokvic is really good at the running x-court forehand

obv also really good @ other shots

crazy game, novak serving to end it & murray tryna break

Bartoli designed a dress for Jankovic and this is what happened

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiFrdOWWEAAvB3G.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiFrdQ2WEAAbwz-.jpg

see that looks better to me than the weird color block things that ivanovic & pavlyuchenkova were both wearing yesterday in their match

damn thiem took out rog

err haven't watched any tennis in a while but still checking following scores, Berdych got double bagelled by Goffin?!!

I left the house yesterday evening and every one of the remaining matches wound up with a hilarious bagel scoreline -_-

Thiem played really well to beat Fed, who I didn't think was as off-form as the press or he himself suggested (he was excellent vs Zverev the day before)

Muguruza/Bacsinszky is super high quality right now

that set point for Djokovic over Nadal was incredible

just came here to post this^^

novak/nadal was v high level; their match @ the french last yr i wouldve bet my house on novak i rcall...now, djoko has won 7 straight sets of rafa i heard but if they play in paris id say rafa def could win

oh 7 straight match wins not sets wow

& 15 sets

still rafa looked & is looking p good rn

huh tennis channel is marathoning every serena slam win starting tmorrow @ 1 est, they look to be in no discerning order

or chronological i guess heh

god novak in this 3d set >>>>

novak was cranky and a bit off but andy played really great, holy shit that match pt

Elise Mertens d. Eugenie Bouchard (7) 6-2 6-0

the "bouchard is back!!!" narrative is getting more credible every week. what has she even done this season apart from reaching the hobart final and getting thrashed by cornet (?) in 30 minutes?

60uchard will never leave us!

She was never "back", she just played weaker tournaments like Kuala Lumpur. Her losses at the start of the year (Babos, the Cornet thrashing, Zheng, Svitolina) are the losses she was having last year. Her game still looks rudimentary. When she plays top players like Aga or Bacsinszky (or #171-ranked qualifiers like Mertens, lol) it's barely competitive.

I wonder if Jim Parsons is still returning her calls

Meanwhile Dimitrov loses to permanently-injured Delpo, extends losing streak to 5

Delpo remodeling himself as a fast court player is kind of sad to see

just great to see that he's playing at a decent level again, did not look likely a year ago

lol apparently Dimitrov lost 7 straight games after the DJ played "Don't Cha" during the changeover

Watching Mladenovic win even as Sharapova gets two years feels v appropriate

damn 2 years for sharapova RIP

her "strategy" of trying to discredite the ITF is so weird and this new facebook post does not help her at all imho

full document very interesting

http://www.itftennis.com/media/231178/231178.pdf

especially her active concealment of using meldonium before it was banned

Unexpected meldonium effects (side effects) may include an irregular heartbeat, changes in blood pressure, irregular skin conditions, an allergic reaction, the inability to defeat Serena Williams and/or indigestion.

the original prescribing doctor having her on 30 supplements/medications as a like 18-19 yr old seems insane

upping her dosage before "special matches" is eyebrow-raising

Federer struggling against Taylor Fritz on his comeback in Stuttgart. Mostly I'm just hoping I don't see "ret." appear in the live scores app.