ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

lol it's not saying very much at all! the last decade hasn't been kind to women's tennis finals.

RG '01, Capriati d. Clijsters
AO '02, Capriati d. Hingis
Wim '05, V.Williams d. Davenport
Wim '06, Mauresmo d. Henin
AO '10, S.Williams d. Henin
RG '10, Schiavone d. Stosur
AO '11, Clijsters d. Li

^^only ones in the past decade I'd stretch to calling "good" finals (never saw that Serena/Jelena one). Always makes me sad that Henin never won a great final, her great matches always seemed to come in the QF/SF and her finals were mostly one-sided.

2006 US Open was good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4koDiPnLZuo

haha I knew you'd come in with that, I never saw it though (I often end up missing USO finals). terrible final result obv ;)

lol it's not saying very much at all! the last decade hasn't been kind to women's tennis finals.

yknow i was being sarcastic right?

you missed a classic with the 2008 US! serena was down 3-5 0-40 in the 2nd set

and the AO 03 final was great

haha i should've got that. don't remind me of Jelena's three set points ;_;

In other news, Azarenka has now retired TEN times since the start of 2010. Third of the year already.

Azarenka:

FootFault_: RT @Ataraxis00: Oh whoa.. they showed the replay. She most certainly did call her a "f*cking b*tch." Drama!!

First set was pretty tight. It was after that we got Azarenka's quote.

lulz, accurate but like Azarenka can talk

Li Na take it all!! The only acceptable winner left.

Well they haven't exactly seemed like friends before, I recall "is her last name Jankovic?"

This match was pretty good before that (Azarenka got it stretching for a crazy forehand from Masha)-- so much better than their recent meetings. Felt like it could've gone to three high-energy sets.

Omg I missed Murray - Fayer 1-6 6-1 6-1

love azarenka just for giving us a bit of drama. a tour full of wannabe saints is so boring

don't remind me of Jelena's three set points ;_;

actually she had four. she doublefaulted on the fourth one :]

Very sad and tough day for me. Very hard to retire like this. Said some things to myself on the match that I'm not proud of. But it was just Being mad at myself. Will never refer anything to my opponent. I play with respect to every single player. I apologise if there was a Misunderstanding of that situation. Thank u for the support and so many spectators. The atmosphere was great

Which seems a bit odd, after winning the set. But you know

lol @ Azarenka, lol @ Twitter, lol @ the tennis journalists now whitewashing what is really a very minor drama by buying into that non-explanation

Nole is playing really very well, btw, but you knew that already. Soderling actually looked like he had him on the ropes at 3-3 in the third when he got a couple of break points and was slamming winners everywhere, but he juuuust missed the relevant points and Nole juuuuust got the lines and since then, one-way traffic.

first slam without a williams sister for 8 years :/

So it seems Sam Stosur will take this tournament and go into the French as a contender again.

Ugh

Lest we forget she's spent the clay season before this losing to, like, Vesnina and Pavlyuchenkova though.

I think Sharapova will beat Wozniacki, for all the cow-on-ice jokes she's not as hapless on clay as people think, and for all her defensive style, Wozniacki's much more vulnerable on it than people think. I don't really know who'd win a Sharapova/Stosur final.

Hope so, but Woz still has the ability to make opponents suck more than usual on any surface. Maria leads Stosur 7-0 in h2h, but they've never played on clay.

Why are you serving to her backhand why are you serving to her backhand why are you serving to her backhand.

This match is so frustrating. I can't believe I'm supporting Maria? I can't believe it's this close, ugh, Woz is SO BAD

Like, Woz doesn't even HIT THE BALL CLEANLY, she just hacks it back hacks it back hacks it back and makes Maria fall over, which admittedly I laughed out loud in real life at, but Woz's forehand is actually an abomination so WHY DOESN'T MARIA HIT TO IT MORE

Maria did her best to choke the first set, flunking volleys and yeah, giving Woz backhand opportunities. Someone get her the memo.

Was that siren was the ambulance coming for the corpse of women's tennis?

I really do think Piotr has some sort of dark magic spell going on, though, inflicting unforced errors on the opponent. Caro's poison to any match, anyway.

Sharapova may still be dominating the rallies but this match is now being played exactly how Woz wants it - multiple deuces, grinding rallies, she's managed to turn it into a fitness marathon. And guess who wins those.

Talking of Piotr can I just bitch about on-court coaching? Why is this still going on? No real top player countenances it. No commentator or journalist approves. Every fan mocks it. I refuse to believe platitudes muttered in Czech have brought any casual fan around to the sport. It certainly hasn't raised the quality of the game. And it's embarrassing watching Our World No 1 get shouted at by daddy on every changeover. Whyyyyyyy is it still a thing.

Also are Woz's moonballs magnetised to the baseline or what.

Hurts the reputation of the women's game in a real way. "Makes the match more entertaining" according to Caro.

how could any match involving wozniacki possibly be made more entertaining

it's pretty entertaining when someone just goes ham on her and kills her in 45 minutes, like Kvitova or Li

What about that thing vs Zvonareva with the hysterics.

i saw kvitova vs wozniacki wimbledon live and yeah that was the best thing i've ever seen

YES MOTHER FFF COME ON NOW

Sharapova at the finishing line. Why do I feel so much more confident about her crossing it than I would if this was Demented or Bepa.

easily my favourite result of the year

maria looked so happy afterwards! she's gonna get so much confidence from this. WHAT A LAST GAME. such a fun match

Oh god yes. Nice enthusiasm afterwards, and lol @ her fiance's sweaty palms throughout the match. For all my complaints 36/27 is pretty good w/ue.

Haha, never thought I'd see Maria so exultant about beating someone who's never won a Slam.

Here endeth my brief support of Sharapova, though tbh Stosur is gross as well, so...just as well I'm missing the final tomorrow.

There's really no reason why Sharapova shouldn't smash Sam to pieces tomorrow.

I also don't think it's silly to say that clay has now been Maria's best surface since '08.

Stosur's serve and FH? I mean I hate her but they're pretty massive weapons, unlike anything Woz possesses. And both seemed to be actually working against Li.

Well there IS a reason, or question mark, since they've never played on Sam's best surface! Hopefully Masha can keep her confidence.

Oh and yeah, we can all unite against Woz, at the very least.

Sam sucks against tall big hitters where her service weapon is nullified a bit. Venus smashed her in Madrid last year. Maria should do the same!

Also every time Azarenka's retired this year, her opponent's gone on to win the tournament. Can't argue with that

Ooh, these "strong is beautiful" pictures are a bit of a mixed bag aren't they:
http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=434565

Best ones are Zvonareva, Li, Kvitova, Radwanska, Kuznetsova. Worst one is obviously Stosur or Bartoli.

Oh wait, the Safarova, Pennetta and Dulko ones are pretty fierce too.

2 double faults whilst serving for the match. Nice, Murray.