ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

overall this Djokovic/Del Potro match was magic right up until Pony forgot he was playing tennis

yes, that is what was so frustrating! There was no excuse for that sudden, terrible service game. I just don't know how many of these close losses to Nole I can take. :((

otoh looking forward to the Federer-Delpo shootout - their past couple of matches were pretty great.

Wawrinka serves out a set for once!

He is 0-4 in TBs this week, though.

Hurrah, Stan (probably) in the SFs :D

Does anyone know the maths of what it would take for him to finish ahead of Fed?

minimised my stream after Nadal won that first set and he goes and wins 4 points in the next 5 games

Fed ratio of great shots to utter cringe about 1:4 right now. Pony playing very well. Go go go Pony

oh look Roger remembered how to play tennis. :/

of course my stream conks out at 30/40.

Peak Roger Niculescu. Boom boom pow serving gets Delpo the set anyway.

hahahahahahahahaah roger niculescu.

tense final game but Delpo managed to close it out, phew. Could see this going three.

:/

Federer has been brilliant in spurts but v unimpressed with Delpo losing concentration after taking a lead in both sets...by no means Peak Delpo

alright, no more fuckups, Pony!

Wow at this stat

TennisTV ‏@TennisTV 17m
Number of times Federer broken in first 3 games of deciding set: 2008=61%, 2009=66%, 2010=68%, 2011=75%, 2012=80%, 2013=100%

SIIIIIGH

DELPO TWEENER LOB (even though he lost the rally goddamnit)

Oh Pony. so many wasted leads. ;_;

what a weird match

Such poor concentration by Pony. Federer was so scrappy, I guess. Good shot vs Nadal indoors I guess.

Pony looked mentally spent tbh, which is not that surprising given the past few weeks for him.

Looking good for 2014 though!

rafa will destroy him tomorrow I feel

Fed misses three BPs. That was probably his chance there, gone

looks like the classic Fedal pattern of Fed threatening early and wasting BP opportunities and then eventually getting more and more beaten down by Nadal and starting to shank everything. 2 more BPs now though

Peak Fedal rally to get Fed two break back points

That first break chance came so out of the blue though, he hadn't got a point in Nadal's first two service games.

I'd still predict a 7-5 Nadal set on that though.

Certainly if Fed throws this service game away like that

A bad challenge, 1/4 on BPs vs 2/2 for his opponent... all peak Declinerer that game.

SIIIIIGH

From that first missed break chance, as predictable as it goes. Wish it had been Pony there instead.

second set was painful

Murray is all over the BBC's coverage despite NOT PLAYING, why do they have so little faith in non-British players being able to sell it?

Nole looking sharp

The shock of serving two DFs in one game appears to have loosened up Nadal

So predictable. Miss points for the double break against Nadal = you will rue that

holy shit that rally to break

THAT RALLY

yeah that was probably the best point i've ever seen

overall i'm very pleased with nole's performance. hopefully he can do the same in the slams next year

Nole's been unusually excellent at net today

wau rafa staying alive

so hobak hires becker as his new coach?

i don't really know what to think of this, he's seen as a joke here but i guess people still respect him in britain or the us? judging from his inane commentary i think this could go the same route as connors/sharapova.

Li v Zvonareva in round one???

Konjuh makes her WTA debut against top seed Vinci?

Tennis draws already trolling us in 2014

add to that Nadal v Rosol in Doha R1

Aus TV is so desperately trying to make Dimitrov seem like the biggest name in the world, constantly referring to him as "Sharapova's boyfriend". Hmm, he's defending some points here, eh.

Hantuchova's errors are just hilarious. Especially the absolutely NID ones that came when she tried to serve out the set

Watching Hantuchova flop will never get old.

Also while I haven't particularly enjoyed any of the matches I've seen, the acoustics at the Burswood Dome (Hopman Cup) are still so, so, so beautiful.

Barty has improved a lot though. But that was Peak Hantuchova there, and by Peak, Imean it in the comedic sense

I watched Bouchard lose to Aga yesterday, Aga didn't play very well. Bouchard's game is effective but my god her groundstroke technique is ugly, her FH makes me wince every time. Amazed she doesn't mishit more. If she looked like, idk, Vinci or CSN (who both have gorgeous games) she'd have a hundredth of her fans.