ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

oops I forgot about this during the rain delay. Uh, well done Andrew.

nice piece on date-krumm here - http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Ageless+Date+Krumm+finding+ways/3410520/story.html

found this quite interesting -

“I enjoy being on Tour. In the first career, I couldn’t enjoy it,” she said Tuesday. “I don’t speak so much English, don’t like Western food, don’t like hotels, so I always had stress.”

This generation of tennis players can’t imagine all that tournament downtime without texting, iPads, and Twitter. But back in those days, the Internet was just an infant, and cellphones were nonexistent. It was a huge challenge for Date-Krumm to handle the isolation.

Serena is out of the US Open. Everything can happen... again.

^^based on current rankings, this means the top seed at the Open will be... Caroline Wozniacki. ;_;

OMG Wozniacki as top seed in a Slam. Actual lulz.

Serena and Justine out, Venus injured, Jankovic and Demented in dreadful form, Clijsters hit about 50 UEs and picked up an injury just now while losing to Bepa again...this has the potential to be even nutsier than RG.

Wozniacki vs Sharapova rnd of 16. Let's knock the dane out.

(WC) Kimiko Date Krumm (JPN) d. (12) Maria Sharapova (RUS) 75 36 63

A day before her 40th birthday! BEST RESULT OF THE YEAR, ilu Mrs. Krumm. Really hope highlights get on youtube soon, didn't get to see a point of it.

So much for the argument that '90s players couldn't cope w/today's power game, btw. Steffi could return next year and win the Australian Open, seriously. Hell, we should probably expect comebacks from Huber, Majoli, Schett, Rubin, Spirlea, Testud and Tauziat at this rate. Just to get the Slams which eluded them first time round.

Majoli won a slam though!

I always felt so bad for Anke Huber, such a great big hitter but always falling short of glory. Most of those players you mentioned could totally win a slam nowadays (in peak form), considering how lousy the WTA is, barring Serena (and I guess Clijsters at the US Open).

So happy for Kimiko, she was always my #2 fave in the mid-90s.

omg if Chanda Rubin came back I would do backflips

also I saw that result and was like "lol I bet the only person on Earth happier than me right now is Lex"

Francesca Schiavone (ITA) d. Kaia Kanepi (EST) 75 46 75

man this was such an awesome match

Caroline Wozniacki is your new Women's Tennis No 1, everyone! RIP WTA.

more like RIP Caroline Wozniacki; it seems like that ranking has been a complete curse for everyone except Serena in the past few years

Also, Venus is calling a presser this afternoon, and the Italian press is speculating that she'll announce her retirement, which...seems unlikely, given that just one or two days ago she released a statement saying she was looking forward to the 2011 season. But what on earth is the presser for, then? She's already announced she's ending her year.

looool seriously I quite like Caro shameless flirt that she is but looooollllll

re venus: Possibly announcing her retirement after 2011? Making a final go-round ala Safin... I don't know why any player would do that though - surely they know they're going to get the same questions over and over and over again for a whole year.

Wozniacki is a nice girl and obviously because she is a raging Pollack I can't hate her. But the idea that she would even get five games off an in-form Serena is surely highly amusing.

Oh hello:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/large/176746250.jpg

If that didn't work, http://twitpic.com/2x8aa2

exciting week this week. kimiko date-krumm broke her own record as the oldest woman to beat a top 10 player - stosur joined the wall of shame this time - but fell to tamarine tanasugarn in the final. oldest wta final ever, apparently. i <3 tammy so it's ok.

and murray pretty much thrashed the field in shanghai, ending with a brilliant 3 and 2 dismantling of federer. do it in a slam now, this is old news.

on a side note, the crowds in shanghai were so enthusiastic and excited - such a contrast to wta events where no one bothers to show (including the players). i've said it before, but imagine how good the wta could be now if the williamses and belgians had comported themselves like the big four on the men's side instead of being pampered divas who deign to show up to 6 events per year and blow off the tour at every opportunity they get. this year's ATP YEC will be super-exciting, even with all the players knackered from a long season. this year's WTA YEC is going to be a fucking embarrassment (again). if clijsters doesn't show - and she hasn't since the us open - the only slam winner in the field will be schiavone. who i hope wins it all.

no one could beat Murray if he played like this at a hardcourt slam. This is getting ridiculous-- fucking win one.

Winning 7 five-setters is a huge jump from winning this week - he seems to be over his youthful stamina issues but his mentality is questionable & although he has a great head to head against the top two his record over five sets isn't so good. He doesn't seem to be able to maintain that high standard over longer matches and tournaments.

That said, I still think he has it in him to win one and is maybe most likely to be the next new winner of a hard court slam.

WTF... My love Vera beat Jankovic 6-3 6-0 in the year-end ch's? I'm going to start watching this dried out tournament if Vera is in top form. Meeting Azarenka next. I hear Jelena tanked it like a polaroid picture in the 2nd set though.

that match was dreadful. women's tennis is so, so bad now. just cancel this farce of a tournament.

the schiavone-stosur match is pretty good

This Azarenka -- Zvona thing has been prettty good.

I mean, yes Zvona V chokes in finals now, but she's stopped choking otherwise! Some shoddy serving now and then, though.

Dementieva just RETIRED! I thought she'd stick around in pursuit of that elusive Slam forever. Have a nice life, you amazing headcase.

Her finest moment? Maybe killing Capriati's dreams yet again in the USO '04 SF despite That Serve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei9_HL6Zuq8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY2fICGc6Uo

I remember one of those serves being measured at 38mph.

nooo! :( :(

Happy I got to meet her once though - she was really sweet and gorgeous in person.

aw

aw, Demented's finest moment. I love her reaction to actually winning something big for once, it's like she can't quite believe it's happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5wZ3vmTOhk

ATP finals on the BBC, woo! Murray desperately needs a haircut.

so did anyone see the nadal-murray match last night? easily match of the year for me in terms of crazy shot-making and drama. (Rafa breaks Andy. No wait, Andy breaks back! No wait... Holy fucking forehand! etc.)

murray lost that one narrowly but for once, it was a loss he could be proud of. wish he would play like that in big matches more often.

yeah so glad i watched that - i attended on mon (djokovic/berdych) but this week have been soooo busy i haven't caught much tennis. that match was crazy good though.

i didn't particularly prefer either player but it was much more important for murray - winning the YEC could well have been a v important foundation for him to actually go ahead and win a slam for once. it's been a crucial step for lots of players who underwhelmed at slams.

oh yeah and i'm not all that impressed with the tournament - maybe i'm just spoiled by how cheap the wimbledon ground passes are, but it strikes me that £17 (or less, as in previous years) for a wide array of matches and players, and being able to get right up close to the court, is better value than £34 to sit in the nosebleeds (not even the very cheapest seats!) and take your chances on 1x doubles and 1x singles (in our case, both were ok but hardly worth it). i mean maybe people really are suckers for the very biggest names but when you can see top 20 players on outside courts, as well as future elite players on the way up...

pretty uncompromising from roger there.

he was pretty much on it throughout - really aggressive play. rafa played well in the second but just looked exhausted in the third, roger can thank murray for that. good match!

Good stuff! I think there was a break point for Nadal in the third where I third Roger would throw away the lead, but after that it was all business. Loved the delayed reaction at the end --- a match point should always have a twist!

where I thought*

I'm proud happy that Roger won. Sets the tone for next year

(another year which I will be rooting Nadal)

holy shit:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-1208-dwyre-20101208,0,1757631.column

Sampras has been robbed of the majority of trophies, medals, plaques, crystal and rings that are a testament to a career that brought a then-record 14 major titles and status as one of the greatest ever to play the game. Three weeks ago, he found out that the dozens of boxes containing those symbols of his career had been stolen.

"I have 13 of my 14 Grand Slam trophies," he said. "Some are at home and some up at NikeTown [in Portland]. My first Australian Open trophy is gone, and so is everything else."

Seven Wimbledon and five U.S. Open trophies, and one Australian Open trophy, remain.

"Everything else" includes trophies for winning 64 tour tournaments, and finalist hardware from 24 others. It includes what he was presented for winning five season-ending ATP World Tour titles, for being on two Davis Cup winners, and for taking 11 ATP Masters event titles. It includes an Olympic ring, seven ESPYs and six trophies awarded to the player who was No. 1 in the year-end rankings. Sampras, now 39, was that from 1993 to '98.

much as I want to feel sorry for him, what kind of idiot puts all of his trophies in a public storage facility in West LA? And on top of everything, waits *three weeks* before issuing a public notice? I mean, dude.

Nishikori teaming up with Brad Gilbert... let's hope he can make Kei more consistent on court.

right so Lukas Lacko has always been one of those dudes with plenty of talent but with no consistency at all, but I've never seen him play this well before, especially with Rafa not even playing that badly. Lost first set narrowly in a TB, before proceeding to bagel the current number one player in the world. When was the last time Nadal was bageled?

Unsurprisingly, Rafa immediately breaks in the first game of the third - I've no doubt he'll pull out the win (duh he's Rafa) but it's pretty nice seeing someone come out of nowhere bringing some game to him.

http://cowbell.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83423e30253ef0147e2e32061970b-pi

Ranked 484 three weeks ago and now he's back in the top 100 at 89. Dude's such a champ.

:)

watched it last night - Pony looked as if he'd hit the wall of fatigue before the first set was over (no wonder, given how much he's played without being match tough of late), but he just kept holding it together - had a few issues with putaway shots but in general his power and clutch serving was so impressive. Tipsy was...yeah. Let's just say "women's tennis" and leave it at that.

What with Djokovic looking probably as dominant against Fed as he ever has and BEPA completely dismantling Wozniacki, last week was a good one in tennis, I feel.

Bepa 3 :D

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/ap/72/fullj.2431c87199d07dee44526db035124387/ap-6caf6de8e81e427cb2a75dab15286e73.jpg

Only her second Tier II-or-over title, can you believe it. (Actually...yes, you can, very well.)

xpost yeah - didn't see the Pony match, but Fed looked utterly flummoxed in that final against Nole.

and Bepa was pretty awesome against Woz, who didn't even play too badly I thought - that match was the first time I felt she was trying to do something other than just get the ball in.

I wanted to see Schiavone/Dokic, appaz poor Fran got injured and was near-immobile in set 3? And it was still only 6-4! Still, god for Jelena's double-faultwinner count.

YIKES @ the Serena news - seriously scary. I don't know enough about pulmonary embolisms or hematomas to really know what's ahead, but from what I've read she could be out for another year? It'd really suck if the sport lost Serena and Justine for good at the same time.