ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Peng and Vesnina are doing a decent job on the clay.

Peng has put up such good results this year but I worry about burning out a bit, she's played a hell of a lot.

Fight Peng! Let's not go and lose to friggin Vesnina now.

Lame.

Absolutely no chance I'll be watching a Wozniacki vs Vesnina final. Yuck.

This was a better match.

Clijsters "sprained her ankle" "dancing at a wedding" and has seized the not-at-all-predictable opportunity to pull out of RG FIVE WEEKS in advance. Not even trying with the excuses any more. God, she is the worst.

Fed just lost in straight sets to Jurgen Melzer at Monte Carlo

I saw the last few games, Melzer was playing well but Fed was doing pretty much nothing. Not sure he's any more "done" than he was in '08 but this time it might actually show in a Slamless year...

haven't watched any tennis in weeks, and the first thing I see is Petkorazzi losing the first set 4-6 to Woz after being up 4-1. -_-'

There was a shocking result from the women's match this week, Na Li won a match! (And then lost her next match in straight sets to Sabine Lisicki, but still!)

Oudin won a match, too! And then got a walkover, then a third set bagel from Brianti. Believe!

Rezai managed to lose to the #497-ranked Moroccan wildcard in Fes, lol. Big ups Nadia Lalami for becoming the first Moroccan woman in a WTA QF, though.

The SRB/SVK Fed Cup tie last week was hilarious, so much drama in that. Jankovic was initially benched (I think she was ill)...but that just set it up perfectly for her to ride in as the heroine to save the day after Ivanovic retired. Hantuchova lost both her singles rubbers in front of her home crowd, and then also lost the deciding doubles...from 6-2, 5-1, 30-0 up. And then apparently Ivanovic was nowhere to be seen when the Serbs celebrated when they'd won.

Oh yeah, and the Groths divorced. Back to Jarmila Gajdosova already.

And! Last night Donald Young tweeted: Fuck USTA!! Their full of shit! They have screwed me for the last time! #enoughsaid

Then apologised for the language but not the content. Then deleted his Twitter account. Wonder what went on there.

J Görg owning Stosur at home in Stuttgart. Finished off the first set with some great points, set point with a drop.

Not sure exactly what happened with Young but he's always had a very contentious relationship with the USTA because they've been begging him for years to get a real tennis coach instead of using his dad.

OMG Görges owning Wozniacki so far.. first set was tight, though, no breaks, but now it's 3-0. And Wozzy just got owned trying to moonball her way back into the match.

Julia could have won that first set a lot easier, she kept getting overexcited and bashing putaway shots 5 miles over the baseline whenever she got an open court. Playing görgesly right now though! Woz is terrible today even by her standards. Errors even when she tries to moonball.

sadface, I am singing in an Easter service and can't watch the owning

The owning completed with a service winner!

A couple of months ago, Goerges was losing to Han and Medina Garrigues on clay.

Deutschland, Deutschland über alles

She's still been pretty mentally strong in front of her home crowd. Don't think anyone would like to meet her at Roland G now. If Woz is going to win a Slam I don't see it being on clay for a long time, even though she's dominated the season to a certain extent. It's just so damn easy to run down her forehand on this surface.

agree, it's a misconception that clay favours passive players. You need the ability to finish a point more than ever on a slow surface.

plus I think a player's aptitude for clay is based less on their game and more on their upbringing (and thus familiarity with it). eg Hewitt, a defender who was always better on grass than clay. Wozniacki was raised on fast indoor hard courts in Denmark and she doesn't move or slide like a clay expert at all. It's her worst surface, I think. (Though she can still win RG because who else is there.)

Always nice to come home to see Wozniacki's lost.

FYI, story behind the Young tweet: http://blog.timesunion.com/tennis/donald-youngs-not-so-nice-words-about-the-usta/5777/

Apparently, the USTA denied his request for a French Open wildcard after he missed the ratings cutoff by a week.

Sooooo who else is just tuning in for the GRUDGE MATCH in Estoril between Verdasco and Raonic? When Raonic and his big serve beat Verdasco twice in a row earlier this year, Verdasco said Raonic didn't play "real" tennis, and he couldn't wait to play him on clay. Well...NOW HE CAN! And let us see who is right.

Gorgeous Goerges does it again. d. Wozniacki 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. :)

So so great

I like this new thing of totally gorgeous, fun German female tennis players who take turns beating up on Woz

That started with Lisicki trashing her in the Charleston '09 final, lest we forget! Such a shame about Lisicki's injuries since. Woz is even more powerless on red clay, if that's possible.

Midget Cibulkova taking down Sharapova yesterday was v pleasing too.

Really quite excited about the Rafa/Delpo match later today.

Yeah, it sucks that that's a second round match! Delpo's comeback from injury has been fantastic.

Ranked out of the top 450 in Feb, and already in Slam seeding range! (though - hidden danger is that if he's not in the top 24 by seeding time, he's guaranteed to get one of the top 8 seeds in the 3rd round. Danger for them, I mean, I love blockbuster early rounds.)

It was nice to see Davydenko win the Munich title last week too, he might not be a Delpo but it would've been sad if his injuries had finished him off as a threat.

Davydenko. :)

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/6f/fullj.9a044f6e8ca72c5a903a9d4567266aac/9a044f6e8ca72c5a903a9d4567266aac-getty-112763404ah025_tennis_bmw_o.jpg

I wish I could stay up ronight to watch Rafa/Delpo but I have an early morning assignment tmr. :( Rooting for JMDP of course, even though I think Nadal will win.

er, tonight*

...and Delpo w/d with a hip injury :(

oh boo. I was wondering if that might happen - he injured it in the Youzhny match but I thought he was fine given how he pretty much dismantled Cilic yesterday.

boo

Djokovic is now 30-0 for the year. O_O

So who's watching Federer take a set off Nadal on clay?

I only just remembered this match was happening. Guess it's business as usual for Nadal now :[

Oh that break point... Ugh whatever Fed.

*closes the stream*

Second set was tough to watch.. so much closer than the scoreline suggested, but Fed is pretty crappy at playing big points this day or closing out tight games.

these days*

Fed was so bloody shit on his 2 break points in the third set.

fuck yeahhhhh kvitova

is there anywhere streaming Kvitova/Azarenka?

Rooting strongly for the former!

http://www.fromsportcom.com/v-2/4/188/v-258957.html is the best stream i've found and it's not very good. lag central.

I've managed to watch a few points on it. I love how Kvitova looks so hungry and steely and yelps and looks focused.

But it's stopped working :(

http://www.fromsportcom.com/v-2/4/188/v-258957.html

works for me?

Working again, fantastic.