ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

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.

(also Roz, are you at the women's KL event this week? whenever I've tuned into the livestream there appears to be pretty much no one in the crowd)

An old boss of mine had pretty much this exact thing happen to him a few years ago (he was... 35?) and it knocked him out of commission for about a year. It was seriously scary; he almost died.

it's really scary to think that this all stems from just stepping on broken glass, and despite what I assume has been the best possible medical treatment. I wonder if the restaurant settled with Serena financially already? cuz if she's so minded, she could take them to the cleaners for loss of earnings.

I don't know if this is a general physical indicator, but the big thing they were terrifying my former boss/bandmate with was the possibility that this was an indicator of some variant of cancer.

Basically with him, he had tweaked his leg on a ski trip and gotten a clot in a major artery in his leg, which slowly built up over a period of several months to encompass THE ENTIRE ARTERY.

lex, I was there for the Bartoli-Camerin and Safina-Han matches on Tuesday, both of which were awful.

Cake is leaner and taller than she looks on TV, her serve unfortunately still isn't prettier. Safina-Han started off with four breaks in a row before Dinara got a handle over her groundstrokes. Han did not hold serve once the entire match. :/

Working the rest of this week, but I should be there over the weekend. Crowds are pathetic because the whole tourney is horribly disorganised - they only landed BMW as a main sponsor in November, which left them with just two months to promote the event in a country where tennis isn't a big deal AT ALL. especially not women's tennis. The venue isn't the most accessible either - Bukit Kiara is basically an ultra-posh country club. It's sad that the crowd turnout is still so low, even though entry was free for the first three days (and is still free for BMW owners/white card members).

re Serena: definitely scary. I'm not sure if stepping on broken glass alone would've caused it - she's a tennis player who spends long hours on airplanes and has been bed-ridden lately, both of which increase the risks for a pulmonary embolism. Risks also increase if she's on the pill, which i wouldn't be surprised if she was.

The thought of her leaving the game is really scary and highly possible - even if she recovered enough to play in the next few months, I doubt her doctors would allow her to travel long distances for tournaments very often after this.

lol Dima: http://twitter.com/TursunovTales/status/45782199257141251

geez Murray.

was just thinking of bumping for that. shameful. can't think of a worse loss in his career!

didn't see the match but guessing he still hasn't gotten out of whatever funk he's been in since the AO final. srsly thought my screen was broken when I read Donald Young (Q) def. Andy Murray (4) 7-6, 6-3. Donald Young!

anyway, go Delpo.

I saw Delpo beat Ljubicic last night! It was a good match, had no idea Ljubicic could still play well like that (in patches only though). Also had forgotten he was the defending champ, lol.

I also see that Sweta failed to win a set off a girl who isn't in the top 100 #rmde

wait waht (re: Murray/Young)

deep belly lols

also: Li Na won her first 11 matches of the year.

And has now lost her next four.

Brad Gilbert, getting to the heart of what's important:

@bgtennisnation Can we get an Amen? Djoker in all Black...I believe! Best outfit since he's been with Sergio Tachini by far. Beat down in proper gear. about 11 hours ago

I don't know if anyone was online to see this as it happened but...Isner's completely awful attempts to flirt with Woz last night: http://cowbell.typepad.com/forty_deuce/2011/03/isniacki-still-going-at-it-like-two-neutered-puppies.html

he's been at it for what, months, and still no mobile phone number to get this stuff 'offline'? ai ai ai

i love how Djokovic is all like "ok i'm taking over" and IMMEDIATELY gets invited over

Haha yeah Caro is all "omg thank god you're here" when Nole shows up.

Isner's so adorably clueless. There was also his equally fail-tastic attempt with PETKORAZZI who was -clearly- just messing with him:

http://cowbell.typepad.com/forty_deuce/2011/02/iskorazzi.html

omg actually cringing. of all the songs to try to use! oh god that moment when someone who's into you and knows you ~like music~ and are just so clueless about what you like...been there petkorazzi, been there. she's awesome.

isner trying to mack on PETKORAZZI is just the most unfair sight, really, like from the very start you could tell he was being fucked with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh8luGivOlw

so much gold. loooool mumford and sons.

obviously the australian and the brit have the worst taste!

the Ivanovic/Cake match I just watched for some reason was a horror show btw. Don't think I've seen many more pathetic things on a tennis court than Ivanovic whining to her coach about she didn't know whaaaat to dooooooo. Cake looked like she was on the verge of vomiting, Ivanovic looked like she was on the verge of crying, and both played accordingly.

also Ana's constant AJDEEEEEEEs are still ringing in my head and may even have displaced "friday"

Kind of like how Ana insists she's having 'fun fun fun' after every bad loss.

She had it right when she said she dominated the rallies and still lost, though.

ehhh, Cake was pretty proactive in the first set, in the second set she reduced her strategy to "hit everything to Ivanovic's BH all the time, regardless of anything else" - think she could've won it a lot easier if she'd deviated from that a bit but hey it worked. in any case, Ivanovic does tend to control rallies against most opponents, it's just that she controls them into the net or 5 feet long.

Peng vs Sharapova is really good.. As in both athletes playing well!

Now it's just one of them.

man, I really didn't think I'd ever find myself rooting for Sharapova again, but she's playing Wozniacki

I'd be interested to see it just for the stylistic match-up but I've no idea who I'd root for/who I dislike less. I didn't see their USO match but remember thinking, going in, that it'd be an easy win for Sharapova. Whoops.

Gasquet is so pathetic. Missed points for a 3-0 lead in the first set...promptly lost six games in a row. Got his 3-0 lead in the second set...promptly lost five games in a row.

lol, never change Gasquet

is it just me or are there a lot of parallels between the US and French players in terms of ability/choke factor

also I can't say 100% why both Sharapova and Wozniacki irritate me so much, but they really, really do

it's pretty basic for me - I find Wozniacki's game pretty dull (and her personality seems like St Kim of Niceness redux), I find Sharapova's shrieking intolerable (and the corporate Nikebot hype surrounding her is annoying too). I guess I'd have supported Woz because when I woke up to the result I laughed out loud for about 10 minutes. 1 and 2!

is it just me or are there a lot of parallels between the US and French players in terms of ability/choke factor

haha maybe Blake, I don't think even the Russian headcases can compete with the lack of fortitude and/or mental weakness demonstrated by Gasquet/Mauresmo/Mathieu/Pierce.

Hey, Gasquet took out Roddick, which is basically Job Done in this event.

Mauresmo and Pierce actually won slams in the end

I guess I'd have supported Woz because when I woke up to the result I laughed out loud for about 10 minutes. 1 and 2!

as did I but I imagine I might have the done the exact same thing if the results were reversed.

Never want Woz to win *anything* though I find her pretty likeable, I guess? her personality/Twitter/flirtations with ATP-ers can be unintentionally hilarious in a way Shaz-bot's ice queen routine never is.

So Fedz is just an out-in-the-semis guy now, huh.

Never want Woz to win *anything* though I find her pretty likeable, I guess?

This is extremely OTM. I think she's great everywhere except for her actual tennis game, which is probably better than "competent" but just isn't compelling to watch/follow, not like the entire generation that proceeded her or Ivanovic/Jankovic before they fell apart.