ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

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.

kmt Na, try telling that to Steffi

I've seen so many male players over the years with that mindset too

I was going to say that, but obviously Steffi, Serena, Martina I etc were actually man-mentality-having FREAKS of nature. Oh Na, go back to being amazing pls.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SERENA ILY xxxxxxxxxxxx

Kaia Kanepi d. (1) Caroline Wozniacki 7-5 1-6 6-4

if maria keeps her shit together this nightmare could be over soon (woz at #1 that is)

also lol @ losing to kanepi

Kanepi is exactly the sort of player that Wozniacki WOULD lose to if the WTA weren't full of chokers - huge weapons off the ground and actually before injury was showing ability to measure those strokes and construct points, push opponents back rather than just going BANG BASH WINNER NOW (except actually hit massive unforced error instead)like frigging Gajdosova. Plus she looks quite slim.

That plus an Ivanovic loss is making my day so much better.

Oh and A-Rad beat Jankovic? SO MUCH LIFE!

KAIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE that girl. I'll enjoy her hot streak whilst it lasts before she loses to some random loser every week again. Ugh I've been so out of touch since US Open. Is Tokyo being streamed? Is it on Eurosport? WTF is going on in the tennis world

You missed Jeepers fucking Scheepers winning a WTA title last week.

Kvitova/Sharapova Wimbledon final rematch, Petra serving well so far...

eww @ Scheepers

awww @ Bardina beating Larcher de Brito. A win!!!

Ma$ha just served and fell straight over o_0

And retires. Ligament tweak, thinks Sam Smith. Well, that was an anticlimax for the first tennis I've seen since the USO.

um wtf did not see that. how weird :/

sad but after everything after wimbledon I will take advancements for Kvitova no matter how they occur. Bark!

can't believe bartoli took azarenka to a 7-5 set

Here at KL ATP. Honestly, only came by to catch up with a former colleague and fellow tennis fangirl I worked this tourney with two yrs ago but she bailed at the last minute. so now I'm stuck here on my own watching the ode to baseline bashing that is Almagro V Ramos.

Sad to see attendance still hasn't improved but the small crowd here at least seem pretty devoted. Can't believe Almagro fans exist anyway.

Can you buy tickets on the spot at that KL tourney? Or you have to buy them somewhere else?

Yes you can. You in town Jibe?

Yup. I might go see a game, could be fun. I'm gonna ask a silly question, but that is an indoor tournament right? I don't know if I could stand the heat&sun if it's not.

hehe thankfully it is cause honestly, I wouldn't be able to stand the heat either. It should be fun - there will probably be a bigger crowd over the weekend too.

WTF.. Kvitova had 5-1 and ended up losing 6-7 0-6 to Bepa. Did anyone see this? Was this massive choking idiocy, an UE-fest, Bepa improving, all three, what the hell SERIOUSLY

Will try and go if i'm not too out of it on sunday. Even with bigger crowds i guess it won't be impossible to get tickets. Also, I might not have been looking in the right places but I don't think I've come across any ads for this tournament... except for one radio ad in a taxi this morning.

Oh I had this nightmare of Bepa taking out Petra and then losing to fucking Azarenka in the final, but A-RAD has taken out the trash first! Yes!

Of what I saw of Petra yesterday, she was serving well but not really imposing in any other way. Bepa can handle her serve for some reason so this result isn't too surprising, though the scoreline is ridiculous. She'll probably lose to A-Rad in the final though, A-Rad's beaten her twice this year and Bepa's big final record is appalling.

Funny, A-Rad has played really well every time I've seen her this year and has visibly improved a lot of her weaknesses, yet there she is, still stuck just outside the top 10 in the rankings forever. And then I remember her massive fails at the last two Slams.

and her serve, forehand and backhand

Her last slam fail is made a little bit better by the hindsight of what her opponent went on to do, kind of, sort of, maybe... (/end making excuses for my occasionally/often useless faves)

her BH has always been a weapon and her serve is what's massively improved this year. the FH, yes, well, but then look at Our World No 1.

Wozniacki's virtually sewn up year-end No 1 for the SECOND YEAR RUNNING OH MY FUCKING GOD, hasn't she

God I hate that she's played consistently better than anyone else, the bitch.

i wouldn't call her backhand so much a weapon as it is not as laughable as her forehand

hitting hard is not everything

Funnily enough Woz's 2011 is anything but consistent. Lot of first-round losses in that there record. Sharapova has very arguably been more consistent and has a slam F and a SF.

Yeah, Wozniacki is anything but consistent. Three opening round losses this year (Sydney to Cibulkova; Toronto to Vinci; Cincy to McHale) and early round losses to Goerges, Hantuchova and Kanepi. Sharapova has no 1R losses but she has lost early to Voskoboeva, Pennetta, Arn and Cibulkova.

The reason Woz is #1 by so much is because she's won 6 titles to Sharapova's 2. Even discounting international-level Copenhagen, that's 5 Premiers or over (ie the ones that should count). The trouble is she's very adept at sweeping the weaker Premiers like Charleston and Brussels in inconvenient spots in the calendar, hence lesser fields showing up for them.

In fact, no one else comes close to Wozniacki in terms of titles won. Kvitova is next with 4 (3 Premiers and over). Then Vinci with 3 (all internationals, lol). Sharapova, Li and Serena have won two Premiers or over; Zvonareva and Azarenka have won one premier-or-over and one international.

And if there is to be a solution to Wozniacki it's not to devalue the non-Slams any further. (Not unless you really hate women's tennis and only want it to be a sideshow to the men in Slams, because if no one cares about the tour then that's all it will be.) All these other bitches have to start bringing it whenever and wherever they play. It's not hard. Steffi did it. Hingis and Davenport did it. Serena did it for that one year. All the top men do it (and if Rafa can do it, I want to hear no whining about how the game is so physical now from the ladies).

hitting hard is not everything

omg :o

but srsly radwanska has zero rackethead acceleration and her groundstrokes/serve are harmless. this is probs why she never beats anybody good (serena/venus/clijsters/henin/kvitova/sharapova other than that one time)