ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

best recent press conference = Marat defending baby sis by telling the press to "go fuck themselves" <3

this whole presser was fucking classic.

Q. Now that you stopped, what about coaching her?

MARAT SAFIN: Oh, you want me to hang myself? (laughter.)

http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=58340

<3 <3 <3

Wow, Pennetta will be Italy's FIRST EVER top 10 woman! Both Schiavone and, before her, Farina Elia peaked at 11.

Meanwhile, Andy Murray becomes the first man not named Roger or Rafa to hold a spot in the top two since forever. More importantly, Del Potro beat Roddick.

i am enjoying Del Pony's hardcourt domination of Roddick v much.

Does it mean Del P gets his #5 ranking back? I know he lost a bunch of points in the second half of July. In fact, I'm happy to support Juan Martin today if it makes the difference... ;)

yeah, if he wins today he'll be back at no 5.

How is Nadal doing post-injury? Lost an edge, or is it too early to tell?

he's only played two or three proper matches so yeah still rusty/cautious but he seems to be getting better everyday.

gonna be a great USO - with Murray at number 2, it's likely that Nadal will end up on the same half of the draw as Fed which is just weird to think abt. they've both been at the top for *ages*.

henin to unretire

can only be a good thing

i have no problem with these comebacks, but geez, i wish these "i am gonna quit tennis"-people just announce a sabbatical instead.

also, on another forum i heard a theory that Henin will have a much more difficult time getting back in top shape, since "she's no athlete" and only got to number 1 after years and years and years of hard work.

otoh Clijsters had a kid.

"Subconsciously, it might have had an impact," Henin said of Clijster's successful comeback. "But it certainly was not the most important reason."

loooool keep telling yourself that, honey

Whatever the reasons this is good news.

Justine <3

This is only a good thing if we WIN THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN. And everything else. And get that Wimbledon title. And overtake Serena's Slam total.

I love the idea that she's only doing it to bully St. Kim again :D

exactly... like she'd ever let kim be the number one belgian. :P

http://www.7sur7.be/static/FOTO/pe/9/14/3/media_l_1750878.jpg

Wonderful news. Unless it's a total failure and she runs out of wildcards after a few months.

This is so hilarious! Welcome back, Justine!

women's tennis is so fucked.

3/1 To win 2010 French Open

Need to point out that 38-yr-old Kimiko Date-Krumm - she will be 39 next month - has just reached the Seoul final, beating Kleybanova, Hantuchova (lol Hantuchova) and Kirilenko in consecutive three-setters! So happy for her. From the bits and pieces I've seen of her this year, her old-school flat strokes are still a joy to watch and she's still a superior athlete to many of the girls half her age. She'll play Groenefeld or Medina Garrigues in the final - surely either are winnable matches.

And the WTA used "age ain't nothing but a number" as the headline for their story :D

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090926/capt.43743459a1d84ecd965456cb3822e396.south_korea_korea_open_tennis_sel101.jpg

Not to take anything away from Kimiko's win srsly!, but surely first the Kim Slam and then this should be a bit embarrassing for the current wta generation...?

right and both sveta and safina have been knocked out in the second round of tokyo. sigh.

also these pictures of sugiyama's retirement ceremony is ;_;. poor Daniela!

so i guess I should mention that I'm currently working at the media centre at the Malaysian Open. Have gossip abt some of the players to share but for professional reasons, can't divulge until the after the tourney. XD I will say though that Magnus Norman is one hot coach and Tomas Berdych is a very very nice guy.

oh snap

whoa can't wait for the gossip! jealous of you roz. pretty great QF line-up for an inaugural tournament - Davydenko/Monfils, Soderling/Berdych, Youzhny/Gonzalez, Gasquet/Verdasco. hope the winner of the first one takes it all.

Not to take anything away from Kimiko's win srsly!, but surely first the Kim Slam and then this should be a bit embarrassing for the current wta generation...?

oh yeah, for sure, but the current WTA has been digging itself new lows for a couple of years now so someone cool may as well benefit. but you would never guess from looking at her that Mrs. Krumm is 39. would argue that Clijsters winning the USO was worse; Seoul is a small event and journeywomen be journeywomen, but Clijsters showed up the "elite" of the game.

btw the top six seeds all lost their opening matches in Tokyo :o

hope the winner of the first one takes it all.

oh totally - both those guys are rad esp Kolya who is all kinds of awesome. seems like he's just having a ball here. But i suspect that General Sod will probably win this - he's only played one match so far but even during practice, dude is on fire. Indoor hard courts suit him.

and yeah Tokyo is a clusterfuck but at least Jankovic is still there. She's been steadily regaining her form (I think the USO loss was forgivable given her personal circumstances at the time) so I really fucking hope she pulls it together.

pffft JJ! Retiring in a final at 5-2 without even waiting until Sharapova finished the first set. Awful fucking behaviour.

The Sod is inexplicably the most popular player here - there were like 300 people at his signing session. Someone in his entourage quipped afterwards "He's not even this popular in Sweden".

was just laughing about how Tokyo somehow got a marquee final out of that mess...and then, 5-2 ret. Oh dear. Bah, this means Li Na won't be making the top 15 just yet!

Impressive week from KING KOLYA, beating fresh-off-a-title Monfils and on-fire Soderling, the final vs Verdasco should be good. As should the Troicki/Simon Bangkok final!

A couple of notables from Luxembourg WTA event:

1. Some new 14-year old called Yulia Putintseva gets wildcard to the qualies, takes out Stefanie Voegele and Claudine Schaul, though loses 36 46 to Kirsten Flipkens in the final qual round.

2. 1st round match between (1) Wozniacki and (LL) Kremer: WozDEN is up 75 30, has a chat with fathercoach Piotr. He allegedly says "hey, retire at 05, u won't play tomorrow anyway, let them have some joy" or similar WITH LIVE TV MIC NEARBY, sending in-play bettors into whorls of confusion -- and acrimony when it happens. K def W 57 05 R. What are WTA rules for this, I wonder?

loooooooool

i managed to catch a little bit of rafa/davydenko (!?) @ shanghai - didnt seem like a v. good match tbh altho it was a surprising result

WozDen's getting away with it with the whole "St. Caroline was SO NICE to let the hometown girl go through when she knew she couldn't play the 2nd round" angle. Also, Luxembourg, no one cares any more. Completely ridiculous anyway.

KING KOLYA played amazingly in Shanghai - his SF against Djokovic was a great match and I wasn't surprised he beat Rafa after that. He was on fire.

wait what, what was the reason for Wozniacki retiring?

I haven't managed to see any tennis since the US Open. Oh god no, I mean since the GB Davis Cup tie. I neeeeeed it.

"strained hamstring" or something? It wasn't like she was unable to play on - she just tweaked something which presumably would have meant that she'd give a w/o in the 2nd round, to save herself for Doha next week. She's played an insane schedule recently - Beijing, Tokyo, Osaka, Luxembourg, Doha in consecutive weeks?!

Has Del Potro won a match since the US Open? Kolya nudges Roddick out of the way in the rankings and Murray is now down at #4.

No matches won! But he has been the subject of two kiss-and-tells by ARG models he contacted on Facebook though. Go Del Pony.

Safina finally lost the No 1 spot with consecutive losses to girls ranked 140 and 226. Silliams celebrated regaining it with a third-set TB loss to NADEZHDA PETROVA, how is that even possible? Venus lost two consecutive early-rounders to Pavlyuchenkova. Bepa 3's latest choke was a monumental one - from 6-3, 5-1 up over CAKE.

~America's sweetheart~ Melanie Oudin has failed to get out of qualies since the USO :/

Anyone tempted to see the end of year event in November? No idea what the tickets cost, just excited that its taking place in London.

Caroline Wozniacki is insane - she's played more matches and tournaments than anyone else this year and totally setting herself for a major injury in the future if she doesn't learn to cut back on her schedule.

No talk about my favourite wasted potential Ernests Gulbis getting busted for hiring hookers in Sweden yet? The news came out a couple of days ago although no one was actually named, but Joachim Johansson blurted out on his blog that it was indeed Ernie... loool nice work Pim Pim

lol Pim Pim, what a dummy.

Gulbis should not need to pay for sex tbh.

For some reason I didn't take on board that the YEC being in London means that it will BE IN LONDON AND I CAN GO TO IT - think it's largely sold out now though :(

Really? Aargh, I have been sleeping

prostitution isn't legal in Sweden? that seems weird.

interestingg...
In 1999, Sweden became the first country to make it illegal to pay for sex, but not to be a prostitute (the client commits a crime, but not the prostitute).

i'm just amused that it was Gulbis - the guy is never going to get rid of his spoiled rich kid tag. he's the Chuck Bass of tennis.

But he has been the subject of two kiss-and-tells by ARG models he contacted on Facebook though

pics or it didnt happen

irl lolz @ non-slam tennis l8ly

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/1027/ten_g_wtagirls_576.jpg

lol what are the Williams sisters wearing here

bitches ftw

Jankovic: "I basically gave her everything. I beat myself. That was really unfortunately the case. My game was completely off."
Azarenka: "I'm glad she gave me the match and she was not in the mood. It worked out pretty well for me."

zing!

i'm so glad someone finally used that response! I love JJ and hate Azarenka but Jelena walked into that one rather.

Surprised that everyone (except Serena) looks basically acceptable in the promo photo, given most of their track records. Spent a while trying to figure out if Venus pulls off her look, it's a bit aprony, but I think she does. Dinara's not great but could be and has been much worse. Everyone else plays it safe and together look boring, but on their own pretty good, especially Sweta of all people. Serena, jumpsuit, god, when she retires the attention-seeking is going to reach unprecedented heights, isn't it?

Apparently in Agassi's imminent autobiog, he admits to using crystal meth in '97!!!

between that and maria sharapova snarking on both her AND azarenka a couple of weeks ago, jelena jankovic is officially the wta's new favourite punching bag.

the entire agassi story goes something like "i was on meth for a while, failed a drug test, made up a lie which the ATP bought, felt really bad about it and never did it again. ps richard gasquet ain't got nothing on me." ok i made that last part up but that's the gist of it.

tennis is so badass this year.