ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

If Aga got a second wind as the WTA Santoro I'd start liking her.

I am really loving WTA tennis right now, the only top 10 players I dislike are Azarenka and Lolzniacki

also loving the bittersweet story of David Ferrer, who must love/hate the current ATP regime even more than post-US Open Roddick

I hope Serena beats Jankovic 6-0 6-0 in the final at Charleston. Seriously, what a cake draw to the final. The hopes of delusional "Empress" stans must be dashed swiftly and completely.

Oudin, Garcia, Pegula, Bouchard, Voegele. A tough draw in 2016 perhaps.

Don't forget her Bogota title. Undefeated on clay in 2013. 10-0! She hasn't faced anyone in the top 50 during that streak - only one in the top 80 - and half those matches have been three-set shitfests.

I do love her though, the strop she threw halfway through yesterday's match was Peak Jankovic. Spent the entire TB monologuing to herself and then didn't bother calling her coach down, just yelled at him from the chair <3

The all-Williams match was so awkward, Serena pushing disinterestedly in full-on practice session mode while Venus DFed and smacked everything out or in the net. I'd been looking forward to it out of nostalgia I guess, and the knowledge that it could be the last, and it was pretty much a reminder of why I've been avoiding them for the past decade.

Oh a complete rout after losing the first set, that's even better. God, I love Serena so much now.

10 games in a row to win miami <3
her fight with jankovic during her final win in charleston <3

red clay time :'(

oh man if you can get to any source showing Youzhny/Djokovic, do so immediately

this third set is fucking incredible

yay working from home

lol, no surprise that Djokovic won (I was out) (though I saw the score and just assumed his ankle's still giving him issues)

If Youzhny wasn't a headcase he could have won; he had Djokovic legit on the ropes several times.

Anyone hear watch Dimitrov/Nadal? Grigor definitely had chances, and even kicked up the fight in the final game despite cramping. I only saw the final set, mind.

i wonder what sloane stephens thinks she's doing with this. the definition of coming at the queen and missing by a mile. i pity her if she's drawn to face serena any time soon, though given their rankings and the fact that stephens can't even beat hantuchova 2013, she'll prob be saved that fate.

http://tennis.si.com/2013/05/04/sloane-stephens-serena-williams-2/

This interview would be interesting and maybe even make sense if Sloane wasn't playing like wet garbage at the moment.

wow this djokovic/grisha tiebreak was insane

please win grisha

he did it!

that was so great

WTA Year-End to Singapore.

oh YESSS... just a few hours' drive away for me! :D

unnnghhh I can't believe I missed yesterday's match, nothing about it made sense at all. Grisha choked for the set AGAIN but still won the TB after saving SPs? I went out at that point but all I saw on Twitter was Nole winning the second amidst DRAMA and Grisha cramping, and everyone saying the third set would be a formality, which it...wasn't?!

Anabel Medina Garrigues becomes just the seventh player ever to bagel Serena.

(AMG's career record against top 10 players is 5-41. Of those five, three were retirements)

You know it's going to be 5-42 soon enough. She can't close it.

That pass that would have given AMG two MPs...

The inevitable.

For posterity, all of Serena's bagels in her career:

Q1 Indian Wells 1997, l. Alexia Dechaume-Balleret 46 06
3R Roland Garros 1999, l. Mary Joe Fernandez 36 61 06
SF Dubai 2005, l. Jelena Jankovic 06 34 ret.
F Miami 2007, d. Justine Henin 06 75 63
1R Zurich 2007, l. Patty Schnyder 06 03 ret.
RR Doha YEC 2008, l. Venus Williams 75 16 06
QF Madrid 2013, d. Anabel Medina Garrigues 63 06 75

great trolling by andujar this week

Excuse me, I have to go onto Tennisforum for some quality schadenfreude. Five games. Best clay-courter going. Pah!

never gets old

Sure, but let there be no doubt that she plays a lot lot worse against Serena than other players the rest of the week / season. There's no excuse for that kind of hyper impatient game and it's all mental. She may lose anyway but not in such a pathetic fasion.

Oh well, so far the results are mirroring last clay season quite nicely.

Serena is also a lot, lot better than all the other players Maria beats. Why couldn't I have had this violently pro-Serena revelation 10 years ago?

In general yeah, but did she play a lot better than the others this tournament? Nope. Someone else will probably beat her at Roland Garros.

Does that matter even remotely? She won all the matches in front of her.

My original point here is what's important to me: Maria didn't put up a decent fight and I'm pissed off.

Look at it this way - you can let go of expectations that clay significantly increases Maria's chances of beating Serena and then be pleasantly surprised if she backs up last year's RG.

All I have to say is LOL

(@ Maria, not this convo)

@BenRothenberg:"Thanks Maria! Thank you! Good try! Thank you!" -Serena to Maria at the net.

amazing

I'm just gonna start calling Serena "Shade"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=165r4mM9edc&feature=youtu.be

:-D

kinda strange Gulbis doesn't join the conversation with an eloquent and well-mannered opinion of his own

that was amazing

quite an achievement to be the craziest person on court with Gulbis right there

YULIA. PUTINTSEVA. I knew her presence on the main tour would be worth it.

CoCo Vandeweghe ‏@CoCoVandey 5h
I have never played a person with worst sportsmanship... Putintseva...

CoCo Vandeweghe ‏@CoCoVandey 5h
...How can anyone comment on my game style after you have already won the match in such a negative way is unbelievable!...

CoCo Vandeweghe ‏@CoCoVandey 5h
Her exact words were "You are a terrible player only serve. I win all the rallies" that comment is totally uncalled for...

CoCo Vandeweghe ‏@CoCoVandey 5h
...and on top of it your father clapping while you say this haha, unreal! #venting

Yulia Putintseva ‏@Yulka1995P 7m
And by the way saw a twit of Coco... Wont comment much!Really surprise that people can act like that after losing to younger player:p

Yulia Putintseva ‏@Yulka1995P 3m
@jakedavi5 haha i did:D i think she is angry coz before the match she thought that im not her level of player:p lol

RobOsna ‏@RobOsna 3m
@Yulka1995P haha, she is just a bitter bitch. Good luck in your next match
Retweeted by Yulia Putintseva

Maxime Parans ‏@MParans 5m
@Yulka1995P Hahahaha, just bitter that you were the better player out ther
Retweeted by Yulia Putintseva

Yulia Putintseva ‏@Yulka1995P 2m
And by the way no matter who is at the other side i am respecting that person! And always shaking hand in the end of the match!

Her exact words were "You are a terrible player only serve. I win all the rallies" that comment is totally uncalled for...

fucking lol

Yulia serving TRUTH there

really looking forward to CoCo's bitter early retirement

looooooool did yulia lie? <3 her

Wozniacki extends her losing streak to five: Voegele, Suarez Navarro, Shvedova, Jovanovski, Zheng. It's so beautiful how every player is supremely full of confidence when they face her these days, no matter how deep their own slump.

imagine a Woz/CoCo doubles team

oh hey Sloane beat Pironkova? (I know it's not at Wimbledon so it almost doesn't count but still, with how Sloane's been performing that's a surprise to me)

Pironkova's been even worse, 3-11 for the year before this match

(but not as bad as Paszek, who is 1-10 in 2013...although that's pretty much where she was at this time last year)