ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Jankovic even coming to net now!

I don't want to be all hasty and use words like "revival", because I'm definitely not convinced of that, but this is the best I've seen Jankovic play - and the happiest I've seen her look on court - in, wow, YEARS

Handshake's gonna be fun in this.

:popcorn:

Best Jankovic has played in years was Rome vs Wickmayer and Venus 2010 I'm pretty sure.

I'm watching this on and off but the result is never in doubt. JJ will win.

Seriously pleasantly surprised about the tiebreak outcome! :D

Well, she totally lost it from midway through that set.

Still think JJ will wear Maria out physically and mentally in this third set :( Maria should've won the first set.

Unless JJ keeps up these nice inexplicable and weird misses! Maybe her form of the last 2 years is coming back to her :D

LMAO @ Maria smashing her racket. She hates JJ so much.

Yeah I'd forgotten the hate between these two!

jesus christ stop YELLING Maria. Intolerable woman.

I am thoroughly enjoying this. It's kind of old school. If, like, 2006 counts as old school. Neither are at their absolute best like they were back then, but the drama is delicious and the quality is mostly great.

Oi JJ's been shouting "come on" as well. She just can't yell as loud with her weird husky voice.

I'm enjoying it too, quality was really good through to the middle of the second set (apart from the Sharapova DFs, which have an entertainment value of their own). Since then it's been kinda bad but there's been enough Women's Tennis Drama to keep me amused.

Jankovic doesn't yell "come on" anywhere near as much as Sharapova, who is doing it on virtually every point she wins! Including the most innocuous Jankovic errors!

I guess JaJa being a huge drama queen every time she considers challenging might be pretty annoying though.

Did you catch the hand incident and subsequent JJ vs umpire and Maria vs umpire exchanges straight after? Delicious.

If I was Jankovic I'd be tempted to give Sharapova really slow, shitty second serves - Maria tries so extra hard to bash those and it usually results in an error.

xp yesssss

Maria's stare at JaJa after she dithered for what felt like a day over another challenge was quite hilarious, too.

lolololololol at that game

lololololol at this match

from both of them

Loving the clashing of tennis styles. Plus they are two, you know, INTERESTING PERSONALITIES. There are so few of them now... *sobs quietly*

A HOLD!!!!!!! <3

These break point returns... I literally just... UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH DIE

Firmly into comedy territory now. What are some of these misses??

Is her last name Sharapova?

Has Jankovic served more DFs than Sharapova yet? Christ almighty.

Love how smug Maria looks :D

I watched that shitfest and they don't even give me a bitchy handshake for it? :(

After what was a truly horrific 11 months for me as a tennis fan after Wimbledon 2010 I have had Kvitova, Serena and Sharapova sweeping the last 5 biggest tournaments. Just the US Open now to top this all off for me plzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Maria didn't even mention JJ in the speech I don't think lol.

Never noticed this before this godawful/amazing match, but Jelena Jankovic plays tennis like a crab would.

..with the double faults! It's just a fact now that they'll never go away.

Nooooooooooo, Mrs Krumm "fell in the bath and injured her arm" and is out for a month :((((((

The USO basically worthless now :(((((

Damn. WTA accidents happen at home.

But Serena might still fall to some journeywoman in the early rounds. If not, it's a 6-2 6-3 final.

Serena Williams def Anastasia Rodionova 6-0 6-0 Anastasia Rodionova def Polona Hercog 6-0 6-0 Polona Hercog def Nadia Petrova 7-5 7-5 Nadia Petrova def Ana Ivanovic 6-3 7-6 (4)

Within the last few weeks. Poor Ana

"But Serena might still fall to some journeywoman in the early rounds."

WTF why would you even suggest this? :(

Q. With this title and your previous title in Rome and Wimbledon final, you're now No. 1 in the year in the rankings race. Talk about how your year is going. Obviously pretty well.

MARIA SHARAPOVA: You just answered your own question right there. Isn't that a journalist mistake?

why is she so horrible always

Laughable opinion.

journo should've come back and said "Okay so pretty good year but how does it feel to get smacked around by more talented players in the biggest occasions"

hahaha rock on, Maria

To be honest I'd have thought she'd be disappointed. And I'm kind of disappointed that she isn't.

go get Slamless year-end No 1 Maria! I shall laugh.

we could well be on course for the entire year-end top 4 to be Slamless incidentally, I shall DEF laugh at that - all it'll take is a couple of cushy draws for Bepa and for Kvitova/Li to continue underwhelming

Until the US Open thread gets underway in earnest:

SERENA IS IN AZARENKA'S EIGHTH! This is really the absolute best thing that could have happened.

I'm watching Switzerland/Australia Davis Cup. Had the chance to go but because I'm going away for a month on Monday it ended up being logistically awful. Anyway, some observations:

1. It's quite easy to see how Wawrinka lost to Young at the US Open
2. Yellow is not Bernard Tomic's colours
3. Grass-court tennis not involving big servers can, points at a time, be such a joy (tho the standard isn't uniformly high, some really poor Vav forehands)
4. Pat Rafter - even more smashable than during playing days tbqh (tho he is kinda annoying)

lolololololololololol @ Wussquet. 3-6 0-6 1-6 against Rafa in Davis Cup. And we all know what Rafa was doing a few days ago.

1-6 4-6 1-6 for Simon against Bandy is not much better. Point and laugh at the entire nation of France.

Wait, what, "Bandy" is Ferrer? Man, have I been misreading these threads for years.

no, "Bandy" means only Tired Lex. I AM SO TIRED THIS WEEK/FORTNIGHT/MONTH :(

that's OK, I'll point and laugh at France for you, k?

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/7007705/li-na-says-dip-form-related-mental-toughness

"All the active women tennis players have the same situation of ups and downs in the competitions, almost everyone," Li said Friday at a sponsorship event. "Because women cannot have the same mentality of men, who expect to win every competition.

"We are very easy to be satisfied after winning a championship and we like to leave some time for self-adjustment. So this season is coming to the end, and there is still some time, several months ahead of the next season. I will try my best to prepare well for the competitions of the next season."

And this, in a nutshell, is why Clijsters and Serena were able to waltz back after long layoffs with dubious fitness and steamroll most the current women's elite. I hope Stosur doesn't buy into this nonsense.

Oh I think Stosur will work very hard and continue to be hungry. She'll put up a decent show at the YEC, where she's defending SF points, and is one of the players who can actually beat Wozniacki on hard courts at least.. but I'd say the chance of her following up with a strong showing at the AO is pretty slim.