ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

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

Well that was the best she's played since 2008. Azarenka next, oh god.

Azarenka next, oh god.

*mutes life*

0 DFs from sharapova omfg

*mutes life*

I will murder someone if I read another preview with that angle.

if you do it during the match it'll be the perfect disguise for the screams of your victim

Pffft.

Play more creatively, please, Roger.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

man there was that one point Gasquet played in that third set tiebreak that was just like WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW

glad to see Richard the mental case not freak out

who the fuck loses two tiebreaks to gasquet

if you do it during the match it'll be the perfect disguise for the screams of your victim

lololololololol

When I less informed more obnoxious, I used to think the French Open only counted if you won it twice owing to rub people who only won it once. In the spirit of that, coming good just before it and then winning it two years in a row would be so great for Schiavone, and for women's tennis in general. Doubly hope she ends up in Wozniacki's half and carves her up on clay like she would have on the plexi if she hadn't been clagged in January...

uhhh schiavone's been in horrible form all year. beating hantuchova 7-5 in the 3rd on red clay of all things isn't really a great indicator for the french.

Didn't say it was likely, saying it's what I hope against all rational evidence for :(

who the fuck loses two tiebreaks to gasquet

haha srsly

wonder if roger has mortality issues over turning 30 or something...

Did love this comment on a Yahoo news item though.

"When the third set gets going all you have to do against Hantuchova is stand upright and stick your racquet out."

lol otm - the minute it got to 5-5 I knew she'd lose.

uhhh schiavone's been in horrible form all year.

what makes RG so potentially nutsy is that so has everyone else. you could make a case for Azarenka and then you remember she's never been past the QF of any Slam and can't stay healthy. you could make a case for Woz and then remember that any B-rate basher on a good day can take her out.

w/r/t the abomination on my live stream right now, does anyone remember when Jelena Jankovic was actually a good player, and one who was so fantastic and dynamic to watch? because she is so fucking bad at the moment and doesn't seem to care.

the fh-to-fh rallies are complete nightmares. These players suck.

Couldn't make myself watch that match.. hopefully the big crowd at centre court will get a good match now, though.

I used to love Jankovic and always delude myself that of all the failed placeholder #1s, she's the most likely to come back strong (based mostly on her stellar record against the Williamses). but apart from a few times when her native solidity carried her through a draw falling apart, she's sucked for over two years now. I should really give up on her.

i'm glad the french open is going to be such a catastrophic mess this year (even moreso than usual). i have exams and no distractions! yay! last year when serena lost to stosur (ughhhhhhh even the thought of it still makes me shudder) i couldn't revise for days :/

Last year's FO final was pretty good, though.

Yeah the way Fran played the winning TB <3 <3 <3

One of the best women's Slam finals of recent times.