ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

^^yeah pretty much. I didn't think Pony played too badly at all actually but there was no winning that when Fed's service games never lasted beyond two or three minutes each throughout the whole match.

I was kinda surprised Fed won that (didn't see it either). Guess Pony has some way to go still.

Kim Kardashian's wedding is on Saturday. Does Serena stop trying before then? I hope she realises she still has time to beat Stosur. Then, lose to Li.

While the No.12-seeded Pavlyuchenkova was ousted, No.13 seed Jelena Jankovic had few problems - on the court at least. The champion here in 2009, Jankovic cruised past Iveta Benesova, 60 63, then told the media about her troubles from earlier in the day.

"Me, my coach, my mom and my sparring partner were on our way to the site, and all of a suddent she was supposed to turn on the highway and the car completely stopped. My mom was like, 'Oh this car is not working.' We were like, 'What do you mean it's not working?' Then we looked and there was zero gas. I was like, 'Oh my God, I have 20 minutes until my practice session!'

"Luckily the gas station was two minutes' walk. So me and my coach ran out to the gas station and bought that thing, that gallon you fill the car up with. We didn't really know how to open this nozzle thing because it never happened to us, but then he figured it out and it was okay. Then we got going.

"There were some players passing through and looking at us in the middle of the road, like, 'What is she doing up there?'

"A lot of people found out about this because they saw me in the middle of the road. I'm like, 'How do you know I got left without gas?' Why didn't you stop to drive me back!'"

LOL @ all the players seeing JaJa stranded at the side of the road and just driving on.

Ooh, apparently Roddick's 1R loss this week - complete with the now-customary tantrum that makes him look like even more of a pathetic baby - drops him out of the top 20, a decade to the week after he first entered it :D

he must hate Mardy Fish so much right now

Wozniacki losing to McHale now

LOL/hurrah

Lost. Seriously the only thing that gets me excited about tennis these days is seeing Woz fall.

Kim Kardashian's wedding is on Saturday. Does Serena stop trying before then?

w/d, lol

"right" "toe" "injury"

wonder what kind of heels she'll be wearing at Kim K's wedding

Woz meltdown is eternally hilarious

only just saw the results and am here to belatedly LOL. And idly wonder what John Isner thinks of Rory McIlroy.

Pretty smart of Serena to withdraw, she needs to be fresh for the US Open. Six straight days of tennis, then a flight, then another day of tennis is just too much physically. I've done intense athletic activity for the past six days and totally need a day off tomorrow, but then again I'm not in Serena's shape.

Wtf kind of game does McHale even have to hurt Wozniacki?! She doesn't hit that big or is that crafty or w/e. What a terrible #1, hoping this is the beginning of her downfall (but then again, who's going to capitalize? Bepa? Yeesh)

I think Kvitova and Li are both way ahead of Bepa in the race (though Kvitova appears to be in a post-Wimbledon slump and Li keeps drawing FUCKING STOSUR so I can't tell whether she's playing badly or not cuz it's just a horrible match-up for her, she cannot deal with Stosur's heavy topspin at all)

Most pissed off at how Serena's w/d benefits Stosur. She had time! For one more win! Then fuck off or tank or whatever! Ugh.

Azarenka w/d too, what the hell is wrong with her now.

Bogomolov d. Tsonga. I do not comprehend this result.

Kvitova, Li and Sharapova are 1000 ahead of Bepa. And in contention this week still (tho yes, Li will probably lose to Stosur again, Kvitova will probably repeat her loss and Sharapova will win the tournament.. gosh)

Bogomolov d. Tsonga. I do not comprehend this result.

Bogo had a big ESPN.com puff piece earlier this week, maybe things are coming together for him like they came together for Fish?

RIP Verdasco's hotness.

his tennis is looking pretty good though - this match with Nadal has been quite the slugfest. Still, watch him unravel if he blows this first set.

Nando's beard. What is that thing!

whoa this match is still on?

predicting a DF here on MP

niiice

how has the quality of play been in the third set, lex?

i only tuned in at 5-5 in the TB. it's been...women's tennis

RIP Verdasco's hotness.

kinda safinesque from a distance?

yeah what i watched earlier was pretty bad lol

can't believe how Nando keeps missing those FHs to give Rafa MP...and how Rafa can't take the MPs on his own serve

emphasis on "from a distance" whoa

finally putting Verdasco out of his misery

ooooooh snap that handshake was a bit Women's Tennis as well, Nando

verdasco has to be a top 5 men's tennis choker all-time. my god what a trainwreck.

Nadal played even worse than he did against Dodig.

have I mentioned lately that I adore Petkovic? cuz I do

Petko is adorable yes.

Nadal '11 is looking a little Federer '08. Fell asleep after Verdasco blew the first set (horrible error followed by double fault after going up 5-3 in the TB, naturally) but jesus that result - he’s SUCH a failure. I think he's even worse than Gasquet who usually just gives up after the first break but the sheer number of times where Nando has played well enough to win only to go away in the last few points or so is just...

Kim Possible is out of the USO..

It'll make for a slightly more balanced draw than the hole left by her 2R (ret.) loss. idk, with how she couldn't make it through two matches without falling apart I didn't see her as a threat anyway. Only remote threat to Serena is Li, right? Kvitova seems to be playing hideously, Azza/Shazza are...definitely not threats to Silliams.

well doesn't it depend on how her foot is hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha couldn't even get to submit with a straight face

I hope she finds the strength to hobble through the Kardashian festivities ;_;

You have to think that this might be the end of Kim though. (Clijsters not Kardashian.) She was grumping about having to - tiny violin - turn up to tournaments and play tennis even before she got 939484 injuries in a row over the summer that ruined 3/4 of the year's Slams for her. And she never seemed to particularly care about the Olympics so that's not a motivation like it would be for Venus to stick around.

I'm kind of hoping Hantuchova keeps her shit together, I always wanted her to do better than she has (also I wanted her to eat)

yeah I'm guessing Kim is done

Kim's comeback has been a success, in that her three slams have sort of retroactively given her good but overall pretty underachieving first career a lot of hindsight shine. She doesn't really need to play again and should retire for good.

Stosur was hilariously pathetic against Sharapova. Did she even win a rally, I don't know. And Maria kept her double-faults largely in check but it is a lot harder to double-fault when you only get 4-5 points per game. Though she did do two of them serving for the match!

women's tennis par excellence, then :D

that random year where Stosur magically learned how to hit groundstrokes will seem weirder and weirder in retrospect

The entire match consisted of fast-paced forehands landing somewhere around the service line from Stosur, followed by Maria taking them nice and early, directing it to the backhand where it would eventually find its way into the net. Is there any other top 10 player for whom there is such an obvious game plan (bearing in mind that not everyone is capable of executing it due to physical reasons, i.e. height I guess)?

isn't the gameplan for Woz "don't hit it directly to her"?

yeah that's the reason Li does so badly against Stosur - she's powerful, but she doesn't have the height to take on the topspin. whereas it sits up right in Sharapova's hitting zone.

Sharapova heading inexorably towards year-end Slamless No 1, it looks like.

Well done on probably ending up year-end #1, Sharapova! If that happens, it's probably in the bottom half of outcomes as far as the level of embarrassment for the WTA, so that's something.

x-post!

I was hoping Kim would play so that dumb US Open win streak of hers would end. :[

I guess the gameplan for Sharapova (and Kvitova) is pretty simple too - make her run. But it's true that no one else in the top 10 has such a disparity between their strokes.

Nadal and Federer out in pathetic fashion.

djokovic lost a set!

wow this is an amazing match