ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

exactly, that's the thing.

Blake was asked about the partisan crowd before today's final and reminded everyone he's half English :)

BBC giving it "Blake is just happy to be here" bollocks - dude isn't here to make the numbers up. I think I'll be pro-Blake today, as he does things like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYE8gper9VM

Well done Andy!

Bit of a dull game lit up by a few stunning forehands. Shoddy line calls all day, none of which helped Blake. Well done to Murray on being the first Brit in yonks to win Queen's, which I'm sure won't lead to even more Wimbledon hype.

I predict Murray will cave under the pressure and be out by round 3.

he doesn't seem to be the sort to cave under pressure. but a friendly first-week draw would certainly be nice...

didn't watch the Queen's, but watched the Edgbaston SFs (Li d. Sharapova and Rybarikova d. Mirza) and a bit of the final today - Magdalena Rybarikova is a real discovery, such a classic grass-court game! Slices and volleys and good serving! she looks weirdly like Samantha Morton, too. i remember seeing a photo of her from her junior days when she lost some random final - she was posing w/the trophy and seriously looked like she was about to go bowling for columbine. so it was lucky for Edgbaston that she won today!

Haas beat Djokovic in the Halle final this week too.

in other news, larcher de screamo gets a wildcard to wimbledon. FUN.

The weird transatlantification of Murray's pan loaf accent has meant I can't actually hear what he's saying - it's just a series of droning noises that makes my ears stop working.

pan loaf accent

is that how you talk with your mouth full of bread?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_loaf

It was once more expensive and regarded as more fashionable than the then more common plain loaf. Hence, to speak with a pan loafy voice is to speak in a posh or affected manner.

How on earth does Murray speak with an affected accent?! He just mumbles.

I found that picture of Rybarikova looking like she's ready to go bowling for Columbine after losing the Wimbledon juniors final!

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/6027/wozrybwimb2006juniortrophies6a.jpg

Fortunately today was more to her liking.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/2d/fullj.78eac332e51971240cfb28c1cb4cf0ab/78eac332e51971240cfb28c1cb4cf0ab-getty-tennis-gbr-wta-aegon_classic.jpg

Haas beat Djokovic in the Halle final this week too.

!!! interesting result for sure. fed dropped out?

yeah...Djokovic was lucky to be in the final at all, he had to come back from 5-7, 2-5 down and save 5 match points against Florent Serra (!) in the 2nd round.

waht

French tennis player banned for betting found dead

Natural causes apparently.

RIP Mathieu

Fuckin' hell. (Though my initial shock was because I thought you meant Paul-Henri Mathieu...)

Oh right, sorry! To avoid confusion to others: it's Mathieu Montcourt.

The Lex's favourite choker, Richard Gasquet avoids getting suspended after testing positive for coke.

The full findings are here (pdf): pretty lol-worthy just for the kissing descriptions and finding out that he was allegedly "contaminated" at a Bob Sinclar event.

hingis should've found a french waiter of her own to blame. or maybe just one of the 9494439 atp players she'd slept with.

her ban ends in january right? think she'll come back?

wtf federer?! 5-2 up in the final set, somehow fails to serve it out twice and then DFs on match point in the tie-break to give Tsonga the win.

all credit to Jo-W for stepping it up right at the end, but still... that was some breakdown.

5-1 up in the third! :o

at the same time I was watching Flavia Pennetta try to choke away her match - she beat Venus in the last round, and winning this would mean a top 10 debut. 6 match points came and went, double faults on at least two of them, but her opponent was Hantuchova so it was OK in the end.

btw, Serena's post-Wimbledon record = QF loss in Stanford to Stosur and 3R loss in Cincinnati to Bammer, who now owns a 2-0 record over her. The Real Number 1!

am endeavouring to pretend the horrific Clijsters comeback isn't happening. never liked her.

best recent press conference = Marat defending baby sis by telling the press to "go fuck themselves" <3

obv didn't see the Fed match but am guessing that J-W just started going even more for broke than usual when down 1-5, and everything began going in.

yep and suddenly firing aces as well when he hadn't been able to get a good first serve in since like the end of the first set. meanwhile fed's serve just went to pieces after that.

also yay dinara fighting back a break in both sets to beat kimmy. would've hated it if she lost this one.

best recent press conference = Marat defending baby sis by telling the press to "go fuck themselves" <3

this whole presser was fucking classic.

Q. Now that you stopped, what about coaching her?

MARAT SAFIN: Oh, you want me to hang myself? (laughter.)

http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=58340

<3 <3 <3

Wow, Pennetta will be Italy's FIRST EVER top 10 woman! Both Schiavone and, before her, Farina Elia peaked at 11.

Meanwhile, Andy Murray becomes the first man not named Roger or Rafa to hold a spot in the top two since forever. More importantly, Del Potro beat Roddick.

i am enjoying Del Pony's hardcourt domination of Roddick v much.

Does it mean Del P gets his #5 ranking back? I know he lost a bunch of points in the second half of July. In fact, I'm happy to support Juan Martin today if it makes the difference... ;)

yeah, if he wins today he'll be back at no 5.

How is Nadal doing post-injury? Lost an edge, or is it too early to tell?

he's only played two or three proper matches so yeah still rusty/cautious but he seems to be getting better everyday.

gonna be a great USO - with Murray at number 2, it's likely that Nadal will end up on the same half of the draw as Fed which is just weird to think abt. they've both been at the top for *ages*.

henin to unretire

can only be a good thing

i have no problem with these comebacks, but geez, i wish these "i am gonna quit tennis"-people just announce a sabbatical instead.

also, on another forum i heard a theory that Henin will have a much more difficult time getting back in top shape, since "she's no athlete" and only got to number 1 after years and years and years of hard work.

otoh Clijsters had a kid.

"Subconsciously, it might have had an impact," Henin said of Clijster's successful comeback. "But it certainly was not the most important reason."

loooool keep telling yourself that, honey

Whatever the reasons this is good news.

Justine <3

This is only a good thing if we WIN THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN. And everything else. And get that Wimbledon title. And overtake Serena's Slam total.

I love the idea that she's only doing it to bully St. Kim again :D

exactly... like she'd ever let kim be the number one belgian. :P

http://www.7sur7.be/static/FOTO/pe/9/14/3/media_l_1750878.jpg

Wonderful news. Unless it's a total failure and she runs out of wildcards after a few months.

This is so hilarious! Welcome back, Justine!

women's tennis is so fucked.

3/1 To win 2010 French Open

Need to point out that 38-yr-old Kimiko Date-Krumm - she will be 39 next month - has just reached the Seoul final, beating Kleybanova, Hantuchova (lol Hantuchova) and Kirilenko in consecutive three-setters! So happy for her. From the bits and pieces I've seen of her this year, her old-school flat strokes are still a joy to watch and she's still a superior athlete to many of the girls half her age. She'll play Groenefeld or Medina Garrigues in the final - surely either are winnable matches.

And the WTA used "age ain't nothing but a number" as the headline for their story :D

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090926/capt.43743459a1d84ecd965456cb3822e396.south_korea_korea_open_tennis_sel101.jpg

Not to take anything away from Kimiko's win srsly!, but surely first the Kim Slam and then this should be a bit embarrassing for the current wta generation...?

right and both sveta and safina have been knocked out in the second round of tokyo. sigh.

also these pictures of sugiyama's retirement ceremony is ;_;. poor Daniela!

so i guess I should mention that I'm currently working at the media centre at the Malaysian Open. Have gossip abt some of the players to share but for professional reasons, can't divulge until the after the tourney. XD I will say though that Magnus Norman is one hot coach and Tomas Berdych is a very very nice guy.

oh snap

Loved that he played Borg in r1. 20 French titles across the families.

Nadal about to serve (for the third time) for the win vs Navone in Bastad qf. Close to four hours.

crazy.. great fighting spirit & his body cooperated
assume he’ll pull out of doubles now lol

sinner's 2024 season has really been wild 66-7 record, 2 slams, #1 ranking, $7.5M for winning the saudi slam exo, doping controversy, w/draw from olympics, now w/draw from paris

expect him to win turin prob unless hes struck down w another viral infection

incred final in miami, mensik in straights over a very in form novak

Funny detail: Mensik apparently tried to withdraw on day 1 with an inflamed knee. Supervisor was on lunch break, so headed over to the physio to get the paperwork done - got a bit of treatment, felt a bit better, somehow beat Bautista Agut hours later, stuck around, wins the thing.

Always good to see Novak lose, not so good to see that he can still (comfortably) win five in a row at Slam/1000 level if the stars align. So he's stuck on 99... maybe a 4-day stroll to a 250 in Belgrade means he can tick off the century and then go away.

didnt know that abt mensik nearly withdrawing wow

lotsa good matches this event, the mens game rn, w sinner not obliterating everyone temporarily, is p exciting and open

novak would have won that match, comfortably, vs most opponents;

Saw a Northwestern/Illinois tennis match this past weekend. Obv not pros and I'm at best a casual fan, but it was the first time I've seen the sport played legit competitively up close and it was really cool. Some of the serves were redonk -- jaw droppingly fast. And we were close enough to see different spins on the ball toss and watch the spin on returns. Very little at the net during the singles game but the reflexes during the doubles match had to be *finger snap*. Fun stuff.

thats cool, yeah ive only ever been up close to a mens challenger, i suppose ppl know from the movie maybe that is like aaa baseball equivalent, but the level of play was just outrageous.. & the match im thinking of was a fringe level pro vs a past his prime pro

I've seen a few of the greats in the flesh - Serena W, Agassi, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, McEnroe, Sampras, Lendl, Becker - but it's something else to be court-level and close up. My very first experience of that was Andres Gomez on an outside court, Wimbledon '87. The speed of thought and the footwork is what stays with you, I think. Also a joy to see Dustin Brown's net-craft in the doubles at Roehampton a few years back, just sublime skill.

As much as I always hated Boris, I remember a match vs Diego Nargiso at an invitational warm-up on Merseyside back in '89 that was a marvel to watch from the lower seats. This slightly scuzzy, fast grass park court, which seemed to have a slight camber, hosting such a high standard - it hardly seemed possible.

Jenson Brooksby, out of the sport for two years after surgery and a suspension, and still ranked outside the top 500, gets a wildcard into the qualies at Houston, wins six matches (including three from mp down) to reach the final. Highlights of the semi vs Paul are worth seeing.

finishes off the title tday vs tiafoe w little drama

great run, one of the MPs he saved was 1st rd of quallies…i wonder how often someone has saved MPs 1st rd of qualifying and gone on to win that event

amazing by venus tonight in dc, oldest to win on tour since kimiko date

Valentin Vacherot!

truly unbelievable run

rinderknech also ! all cousin final

great run from felix since us open, unless you compare it to sinner

sinner this season is 56-6

4 losses to alcaraz (1 was a retirement from illness)
1 loss to griekspoor 3rd shanghai (sinner retirement -cramping)
1 loss to bublik rd of 16 halle

take out the matches lost, he's lost nine sets in 56 matches won

I was thinking earlier, The Ban satisfied no one and was widely considered the softest possible sanction, but it cost him up to 4000pts. And yet he's still got a shot at YE #1.
Meanwhile, Felix and Lorenzo could be playing for the last Turin spot all the way until the eve of event, unless Novak steps aside (can he just take that 250 event anywhere he wants to live?). Daniil also playing this week, which affects the alternates. $155k for sitting on the bench, not bad.

First names, like they're my pals.

Also, good to see Vacherot keep sailing along - one tight loss to Fritz and another three main draw wins in Paris. Might be around for a while, at least make a year of it, like Karatsev.

good analogy vacherot to karatsev, that seems apt to me

i think meds withdrew from metz fwiw

I see this year Sinner is determined to only lose matches where he outscores his opponent (89-86 vs Mensik).