ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

and there it is! bravo.

Nice rally to finish up! When was the last time Rafa lost a match on clay?

Robin Soderling, Roland Garros '09.

amazing

Not since the RG defeat in '09...indeed here are all of Rafa's defeats on clay since 2005:

Buenos Aires QF, 2005 - l. Gaudio 6-0, 0-6, 1-6
Valencia QF 2005 - l. Andreev 5-7, 2-6
Hamburg F 2007 - l. Federer 6-2, 2-6, 0-6
Rome 2R 2008 - l. Ferrero 5-7, 1-6
Madrid F 2009 - l. Federer 4-6, 4-6
Roland Garros 4R 2009 - l. Soderling 2-6, 7-6, 4-6, 6-7
Madrid F 2011 - l. Djokovic 5-7, 4-6

that '09 final in Madrid i felt he lost only because he had played that four-hour heartbreaker against yep, Djokovic in the semis.

Rome next week should be interesting just to see how much energy Rafa and Nole put into it...gotta be careful about the old peaking too early thing.

i don't like nole but i'm a sucker for cool streaks so i kind of don't want him to ever lose

So who holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak the start of a calendar year? I'm guessing McEnroe in 1984 must be up there - undefeated until the final of Roland Garros (two sets up vs Lendl). If you count the '83 Masters (played at Madison Sq Garden in Jan '84), World Team Cup and Davis Cup, he was 42-0 through June 8 that year. He was murderising ppl Nole-style too - e.g., winning a 32-draw indoor event in Brussels for the loss of 17 games.

Not sure Rafa or Fed have ever had a streak in the 30s? Must go and look...

Ok, Fed had a 41-match streak from Aug '06 to Mar '07 (I know we're all a little down on Roger now - "the guy who loses semifinals" - but it only takes a glance on his stats to make the jaw drop; I mean, SIX 20+ winning streaks...). Nadal's best sequence was 32 in 2008.

There are now no American men or women in the top 10, for the first time in history. And there seem to be very few prospects with top 10 potential out there too. Good job USTA.

Another week, another match where Kuznetsova loses to a nobody in an epic. I still begrudge her for beating Serena at the French in 2009 so yay.

The GREAT ARN a nobody? She beat Sharapova earlier this year too!

I do fear that this Swetaslump is terminal, though. But nobody should be begrudged for beating Silliams.

There are now no American men or women in the top 10, for the first time in history. And there seem to be very few prospects with top 10 potential out there too.

I don't know, Ryan Harrison looks like he'll be pretty good. Christina McHale and Sloane Stephens don't really scream "future top 10" but they're doing better than most other girls their age - if you think the WTA is bad now, the paucity of any special juniors coming through is going to make it even worse in a few years' time...

lol Oudin and Dushevina have beaten Sharapova as well.

Oh yeah and Kudryavtseva

We've also seen the late bloomers from Germany this season, so there's still hope that 18-year olds of today become top players in a few years. /optimist

re US players: Yeah there's Harrison and that's about it. I actually like his game but suspect i'm going to tire of him soon enough if his Roddick-esque on-court mantrums continue. Am already tiring of the bad behaviour from other junior pros like Dimitrov.

as for the women, as lex said, most of the fairly decent juniors don't really scream top 10 yet - this includes the likes of laura robson, heather watson and the pliskovas. Gavrilova, the current junior number two and last year's US Open girls' champion, seems okay. Kept waiting for Pavlyu-whateva to do something special but so far, ehhhh.

What does the winner of Madrid do next you ask? Play a 100K tournament of course!

Ivanovic - Petrova 6-0 3-0 ret, although I don't think that factored in on the first set. Petrova didn't mention any troubles talking to her coach. Great serving by Ana.

Why are the tennis gods so cruel. Why can't someone who plays such an attractive, clean tennis, and has the pop star qualities that help promote the sport, be stable? Why is it always the evil Wozniackis? Would anyone complain about the WTA if she dominated right now? I want to kill myself just thinking about her match against Clijsters. I need to invent malicious tennis gods to blame or else I could never forgive Ana for gifting Clijsters that.

KILL CARO IN THE THIRD ROUND KILL KILL

Ivanovic is as irksome as Woz tbh, and her ultra-basic bashing game not that much more attractive

We've also seen the late bloomers from Germany this season, so there's still hope that 18-year olds of today become top players in a few years. /optimist

I like Goerges and love Petkorazzi but I don't think they're late bloomers of Slam winning calibre - they'll hang around the top 20, maybe top 10, hopefully consistently, but that's it really. And a lot of the juniors coming through look like they'll be able to attain that. It's just that none of them screams "future Slam winner", let alone dominant Serena/Justine type figure.

It actually seems like anyone who comes close to phenom-style results regresses before they even get anywhere - Larcher de Brito, even Oudin. All going backwards already. Pavlyuchenkova is the top teenager in the world by a huge amount and nothing about her game leaps out. Of the 1992 girls, McHale and Watson are both retrievers...that's not a dominating style.

What is interesting is that the last wave of phenoms who broke through - Vaidisova, Karatantcheva, Golovin, Paszek - all had their careers completely fail for unrelated reasons. That must be unprecedented - based on their results as 16-year-olds and their raw talent, you could legitimately have expected them to be at the top right now.

Ivanovic is as irksome as Woz tbh, and her ultra-basic bashing game not that much more attractive

Oh no you didn't! The slice was a constant weapon today, as in so many victories.

Well it's not like she has a particularly good drive backhand.

Good volleys, good hands.

By the rock-bottom standards of today's Tour, maybe. She's hardly a Novotna.

Schiavone looking pretty dangerous again.

Hey go figure: Nadal just lost the first set of his match to Paolo Lorenzi (29 years old, career ATP match record of 5-18).

Ah well, after a surprisingly tough 2nd set, Nadal 6-0s set 3 to take the match. Still, good show Paolo.

ohhhh 7-6 4-4 30-0 and lorenzi misses an easy volley :[ wouldve been the funniest result ever

I do hate Wickmayer.

haha she is pretty awful. I support this result though, because Ivanovic is such a golden weekly source of comedy. What lead will she choke away this week!

Jankovic lost to Safarova last week. This week, only loses three games to her. wut.

Verdasco is having a really poor year, down to 17 in the rankings already...

After the first set I was just about ready to gloat in the general direction of your hatorade, but then Ana had to do her thing again. I fear her coach is going to be the sixth on the chopping block.

At least Wozniacki-Wick is one less match to watch.

You guys I just bought tix to the ATP finals in November :) Hurray for forward planning (and boo to Queens ballot failure)

i went last year, they're super-expensive - worth doing it obv but i think it's a bit too much of a lottery for me, certainly given how cheap and easy wimbledon is. (i'll be doing my usual thing of going in the first week.)

Are you guaranteed to get in to outside courts by just showing up for Wimbledon?

If you're prepared to queue for a few hours, then yes. If I had more flexible working hours I'd totally queue up for Wimbledon again.

i've always started queueing at 8.30ish and that's been more than fine for ground passes

Tried the ticket lottery once, with all its complicated rules, to no success. Having to fly across the sea it would be a shame if I ended up at the entrance, locked out, but that sounds nice. Perhaps next year.

ivanovic is always so terrified on the court nowadays. i wonder if she likes tennis

i've been to wimbledon every year for the past few years. seeing serena and venus aka my two all time favourite people play doubles was amazing. best tennis experience ever though was QUEENS FINAL 2008 NADAL DEF DJOKOVIC.

Oh and Safina is out of the French Open.

I went to Wimbledon lots 1987-2003 but not since - lots of different experiences; queueing from 8am and not getting in until 5pm, queueing after work at 6pm and getting in immediately, going in the evening, seeing queues around the car park and giving up, scoring tickets for court #2, scoring resales for Centre, getting in and watching the entire day get washed out, etc, etc.

Never forget your first experience of pro tennis up close though - for me, it was Andres Gomez on an outside court. Just beautiful.

My first experience was also an outside court during Wimbledon 1987. Perhaps we were watching Gomez together, me the pubescent geek and you the older, cooler kid with the scary accent.

Never forget your first experience of pro tennis up close though - for me, it was Andres Gomez on an outside court. Just beautiful.

yeah - mine was Lindsay Davenport d. Maria Vento-Kabchi (or Maria Alejandra Vento as she was known then) in three sets on Court 2. Davenport was the #2 seed but I had an inkling Vento could stretch her, having reached the last 16 the year before.

Vento's career wasn't as consistent as I thought it would be - especially once she married, the Kabchi of her name was some rich lawyer iirc - but a few years ago in its twilight she had a weird resurgence and made the last 16 of the USO and made the top 30. She had a nice game! Flat, hard hitting like Tanasugarn - not the usual topspinny retrieving you expect of Latin American players.

Perhaps we were watching Gomez together, me the pubescent geek and you the older, cooler kid with the scary accent.

I was never cool, Mark. Especially not at 18.

Such amazing tennis from Sharppavaova right now. Down 0-2 against Peer, who has not really let off after that, she plays relentless tennis, but Masha found answers and we've had some pretty crazy duels. Now 5-2 after double ace. Consistency, give me consistency after this PLEASE.

(and it's 6-2)

no intention of watching this but Schiavone/Hantuchova was great fun earlier. Such a nice surprise to tune into a women's match with a huge crowd real atmosphere - commentators said it was the biggest WTA audience since the AO. The match was another hilarious Hantuchova special - serving at *5-5, 30-0...double fault, then just total collapse, including two of the most pathetic dropshots I've ever seen (seriously Dementievaesque). Very happy for Fran to pull it out in front of her home crowd! She is genuinely the WTA's shining beacon right now, I looooove her.

Absolutely night and day to see the wta audience in Rome vs Madrid, where no one gave a shit. Helps with Schiavone vs no Spaniards, of course.

How can you take Schiavone seriously when she grunts so much, lex??

despite the Schiavone audience, I don't think combined events is a very good idea on the WTA's part. Though when has the WTA ever had a good idea (I actually mean that, it's such a terribly-run organisation).

Schiavone's deeper grunt means it's not quite so piercing or annoying to hear.

federer/gasquet getting interesting