ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Three huge points by Bepa, such amazing BHs, and she has a double-break. If this ends up as Women's Tennis, then it will be neither pretty nor funny. GO BEPA.

6-2 4-6 6-3! Take out that one unfortunate game serving at 4-5 in the second - esp the DF at deuce (too many of those) and this was the routine straight-setting that just about any top player should be laying down.

Sharapova out! And withdrawing! Does that mean? ALLEZ CAKE?

Oh I'm quite sad Ma$ha pulled out. I saw the scores on my phone and got quite excited about the possibility of her playing the traditional Bepa role of going 0-3 here. Good for Li Na, though. In fact all of today's results are positives.

The last time CAKE was an alternate, she got double bagelled by Justine!

For the last 9392932 years the only dead cert about the WTA YEC is that one, usually both of the alternates need to be hauled into action. I don't know why none of these women can stay healthy (or play tennis well for more than a month per year).

If CAKE decides to play her one-good-match-every-few-months against Azarenka, that's all good.

Also, KILL HER NA.

I think I might enjoy Azarenka's game even less than Wozniacki's. Same interminable grinding tedium, none of the occasional comedy provided by the Woz FH. Obviously she's killing Li right now. Such a dull, dislikeable player.

SuperPetra shows up in set two, breaks twice, should have broken three times not once in first set. 6-4 3-0. Bagel, please!

Also Woz hit a first serve that bounced before it made it to the net, and in fact may have just about run off the court without even hitting it. LOLOLOLOL.

6-4 6-2 - SO MUCH LIFE. Those errors on the first two match points were a bit ick, but... no break points during two sets, no chance, Canary.

Winners: 6
UE: 18

Well done Caro!

6 games? i'm disappointed, petra

You know how "NID" is way overused? That was NID from the minute Kvitova won the first game. Even though she was super-sloppy! Score could've been even more decisive.

Yeah her return game, except for those three actual breaks, was way down on what you'd expect. Lots of games where she troubled Caro on serve and hit errors. Those two breaks to open the second set were so :D :D :D, best was her hitting a savage cross-court forehand which Caro could only bat back meekly, and then having Petra kill it with a savage cross-court BH in the same spot.

Bepa win knocks out Caro. As does Aga win in 2, or Aga win in 3 plus Aga gets a set or two off Kvitova?

What was great was that even serving at *5-4 in the first set - only one break, and we know how that situation can go in Women's Tennis, especially after missing SO MANY chances to go a double break up - you felt absolutely confident Petra would serve it out. And so did she. And so she did.

Have to go out in a bit so I'll pass on Bepa/A-Rad...

i'm not going out but i'll pass on bepa/a-rad

Which of the two has a better chance of beating Azarenka in a SF? That's who I'm going for but tbh I prob won't watch it either.

A-Rad

(the answer is prob neither but I can envisage A-Rad actually doing it; Bepa, not so much.)

Bepa d Azarenka would be a pretty sweet semi-final.
Er, unless Shitova turns up for her semi with, uh, Stosur?

Bepa 6-1. Finish it off quickly! Poor punch-bag A-Rad. Had your chances v Woz though!

Put a stream on with Bepa serving for it. At 40-15 we got this: 3 Bepa errors to go BP down. Two AMAZING winners, including a low-struck volley that must have fallen right on the baseline for god's sake, then some errors, then, sadly, a fuck-off amazing BH pass from Radwanska.

But Zvonareva can't finish below Woz on games now so WHO CARES.

k i started watching about 15 minutes ago and OMG this is ACTUALLY AMAZING. 3 match points saved by Radwanska, the last of which was ludicrously good defense. Zvonareva on the verge of a meltdown. HOLD PLEASE, AGA.

Oh forgot about that third MP, it was zomg zomg. Even better than the point she retrieved like three smashes against Fran early in the year!

wait

so is this match now meaningless? is radwanska out and zvonareva through? i'm confused

Anotehr amaze-balls set of defensive shots from A-RAD there, culminating in a not-very-good Bepa dropshot.

surely if radwanska wins this and then beats kvitova then she's through

This match is not meaningless per se. Woz is out. Bepa goes through with 2-1 if she wins. A-Rad can go through if she gets a set of Kvitova. If she doesn't, Bepa goes through on game differential.

(that is if ehs wins this and gets a set at least off Kvitova)

Jesus. Next time someone asks me why I'm an A-RAD fan, I'm going to show them those last two games.

LOOOOOLLLLLL @ that netcord winner

The net is letting rather a lot more shots over it on contact than usual. Except Woz's lololol

Oh Bepa. You have to do a lot better than that to drop-shot Agnieszka Radwanska.

But can she serve for it? I hope for DRAMA, but not Women's Tennis. (Zvon failing to serve it out wasn't Women's Tennis, it was just utter refusal to give up by A-Rad)

I didn't hope for FH errors from Bepa, but, I guess...

ewww i suddenly feel dirty after rooting for radwanker

From the stats it looks like large parts of the match must have been UE-tastic and we popped in for the best bit.

If Radwanska wins in straight sets, she wins the group as two-way ties are split on H2H, and plays the winner of Li and Stosur and Kvitova plays Azarenka.
If Radwanska wins one set, she comes second and plays Azarenka, Kvitova plays winner of Li and Stosur.
If Kvitova wins in straights, a three-way-tie is resolved using results at game level, which would result in Bepa qualifying and taking on Azarenka. Kvitova again plays winner of Li and Stosur.

(Actually Radwanska wins the group even if she wins in three over Kvitova. Oh tennis, your tournaments' arbitrary rules are nutty. Sets won should be a more important criterion than the H2H between two tied players.)

Stosur d. Li 6-1 6-0

I like Stosur fine but any reaction other than going "lol" at Li seems strangely inappropriate. Kvitova will maul her though!

A-Rad served for first set against Kvitova twice at 5-1 (!) and 5-3 and couldn't close it out. Fought like hell in the second but after failing to break at 3-3 despite some BPs just fell apart. Still, all points, and at this rate Li at least won't be long for the top 10 so 2012 might be looking up for top-8 seedings at the majors for A-RAD!

Hope Bepa can play one of her five good matches a year against Azarenka.

Finals possibilities:

Kvitova v Zvonareva. NID outcome, great for tennis. WANT THIS.
Kvitova v Azarenka. Would be nice to see Azarenka put to the sword on a big stage but I worry she might win. Risk and reward!
Stosur v Azarenka. Please god no.
Stosur v Zvonareva. It's really a toss-up between this and Stosur/Azarenka as to which would involve the lowest overall quality of tennis, I think this might conceivably be a lesser evil in that respect but it's really all degrees.

Stosur has never lost to Zvonareva, so that would certainly be both the lowest quality and least uncertain match-up. It also won't happen, Kvitova and Azarenka seem to be on another level this week.

Stosur has lost to Zvonareva twice! Uh, once in Fed Cup and, er, once at Wimbledon, on grass (lol). That said, I can actually imagine Stosur coming out and playing like shit and losing to Vera. Even if she plays the match of her life and Azarenka plays awfully, Azarenka would still probably win.

In any case, I agree, Kvitova v Azarenka is most likely final.

Wish I'd watched Bartoli/Azarenka, apparently failed tank attempt that backfired and lasted close to three hours! Oh, WTA, learn to tank.

oh haha whoops, I'm totally misremembering then. Didn't they meet up at the Open recently? The commentators were making a really big deal about their H2H, but I thought it was that Stosur always won, instead of almost always. Zvonareva, aside from the Kvitova match and totally blowing the Radwanska match, has actually looked really good, her shots seem to have more sting than usual.

Zvon won their first two meetings. Back in 2004. (LOL) I really liked watching Zvonareva during the Wozniacki match too, it really looked as if she had a good game plan for it, which made me think, maybe somewhere in that usually-covered-with-a-towel head the right gameplan to take on Azarenka is in there too.

aw man, I wonder if Bartoli had been there the whole time instead of Sharapova if she could have knocked Azarenka out of the semis

Hard to say really. She pwns Stosur too, so probably would have qualified herself if she was good enough to beat Azarenka.

BUT, and I didn't see the game, reportedly Azarenka wasn't trying at various points, didn't grunt and wasn't running things down. How it ended up so close I don't know, esp given that Bartoli had a big lead in the set she lost!

Cake has a terrible record against Shriekarenka - 1-7, with her one win being a Vika retirement. She just can't hit through Azarenka's turbo-grinding. Bartoli and Stosur are really pure match-up players.

Bepa matches up a bit better against Azarenka - they have very similar games but at her best Bepa is more resourceful. However I assume a Vika win because Bepa will assuredly fail mentally at some point.

I must say it's a bloody miracle that after playing terribly basically ALL YEAR, and at no point visibly improving or getting it together, Bepa is somehow in the YEC SF. How did that happen?

Her group had Wozniacki and Radwanska in it?

Can we just take a moment to LOL @ Ivanovic again? I hadn't seen this clip before but I JUST CAN'T~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTL6RFt3NwI

She lost that match! One of only three matches Batty won this year before retiring :D

Sooo this is full-on SuperPetra vs Shanksur in the first three games. LOL. Long may it continue.