ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

brilliant play from kei so far

Go go go

Need to find a stream stat.

just wow

He hasn't won a point since I start watching.

And hasn't lost one since I moaned about it.

didn't really even contemplate Nishikori being an exciting player to watch until a couple of months ago. This is great though

Painful to watch now.

yeah such a shame

You get the idea that this will forever be the story of his career. He's very breakable.

Such a bloody shame, Nishikori was peaking in the first set. Rafa never came close to playing well himself. What an irritating tournament.

:-(

Fran turning back the clock and giving a clay tennis masterclass to Bouchard, who looked mostly hapless. Only Fran's 4th win of 2014.

wow the end of this Cibulkova/Giorgi match is so dramatic but so bad

Giorgi gagging hard, Cibulkova not doing a thing except yelling POME after basic missed returns

Deserved win for Giorgi. Good to see her hit through her choke. Baffling by Cibulkova - first that she was so passive and nothingy, then her collapse in the TB against a nervous opponent.

Puig d. Hantuchova 60 46 60. Peak WTA scoreLiNa <3

It's basically got to the point where I'm surprised when any given Kvitova shot lands in the court, and when she misses by inches rather than miles I immediately think "oh, her form is improving!"

This Schiavone/Muguruza match is brilliant. Third set TB!

Fran wins, capers around in delight <3

lmao @ simon trolling nadal

this match is quintessential simon hilarity. speaks for nadal's form that he let himself get sucked into this.

no discredit to simon btw, he's playing really well and more agressive than usual

something really dreamy about claycourt tennis at night

yeah i want this match to go on and on

I haven't seen a lot of Haas this year because he hasn't lasted long enough at many events, but watching him beat Stan today, I'm baffled that he was slumping at all.

Stan's FH was a mess though.

haas' shoulder is bothering him again. he said in munich that he won't have another surgery and that he just hopes he can finish the season more or less in one piece. i don't think he'll play for much longer.

Errani has an insane new service motion that has made the actual serve no better. Li is atrocious.

I really love Radwanska's new outfit.

Sure enough, out goes Haas after a set vs Dimitrov.

looks like a Venus design

MURDAL TIME GUYS. hope this isn't horrible

hah

pretty good match even if the conclusion was NID. andy looking better on clay than he has in ages. rafa peaking right at the end

I was out and was surprised to see it still going on when I got back (the last three points anyway). What happened in the first set? Rafa still below-par or is Murray finally, perish the thought, regaining some semblance of his usual form?

Murray resembled his "good" clay court form, but what is that really? IIRC he's never made a clay final.

I think Nadal's clay results this year kind of speak for themselves. Without Nishikori's injury he'd be riding one title in Rio. Now he's dropping sets to Youzhny and 2014's version of Andy Murray.

Really funny to remember how Murray said clay was his favourite surface at the start of his career.

It'll be disappointing if RG isn't crazy tbh. None of the usual favourites are peaking, all have form/injury question marks. But I can actually see them just ~fighting through and ending up with a normal-looking SF line-up.

Just looking at results these past few weeks you can say the edge is off Nadal's game but he is still a fierce competitor, and I expect that to carry him through in Grand slams for a little while yet.

Yeah, same applies to Djokovic and Sharapova (and maybe Azarenka though I can't see her entering with NO clay warm-ups under her belt?). It'd be disappointing though, I don't want to see the same old names coming through just on scrappiness alone.

LOL @ JaJa

Djoko wins in Rome - Can't wait for the French Open. Nadal's so so form opens a couple of possibilities.

Nadal's worst clay season in a decade. Certainly seems logical to conclude that this is up for grabs.

Nadal isn't a favorite vs. the field on the books. Can't imagine that's happened since 2006?

The rapid actual break-up of Wozzilroy is going to make me feel rather positive and sympathetic towards Wozniacki until the point at which I have to watch her play again. Which at this point might be a long time. Help.

I don't really know much about him other than as Wozniacki's bf/fiancé but what an awful little weasel to actually go ahead an issue an "it's not you, it's me" public statement after jilting your fiancée almost at the altar

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/10957117/top-seeded-sloane-stephens-loses-first-round-strasbourg-international

lololololol

lol @ taking a last-minute WC into a small tournament and then bomb out in R1 visibly giving no fucks, though will she ever top losing to Puchkova in Washington last year or losing to Duque Marino in Bogota a few weeks ago

Wasn't McIlroy seeing someone else when he started dating Caro too? He always seemed like a douche.

Excellent interview with Ernests Gulbis: http://tennis.si.com/2014/05/20/ernests-gulbis-interview/

That's a great interview, I always assumed he was entertaining but kinda douchey and that makes him seem more thoughtful at least.

I always assumed Serena's "black-hearted" comment was about McIlroy/Wozniacki, not Dimitrov/Sharapova (I don't believe she ever dated Dimitrov! There is literally no evidence that this ever happened) and recent events are bearing this out. The way he dumped his ex is reason enough for Serena to judge his black heart, and she's been very quick (and sweet) to support Wozniacki publicly today.

Yeah I don't know if they were serious or anything, but I def remember seeing pictures of Serena and Dimitrov seemingly on a date at an amusement park a few years ago. And she was spotted at a couple of his matches at around the same time.

Rumour has it it was a love triangle between Serena, Dimitrov and Mouratoglou (who was Dimitrov's coach then), cause right around the time Serena and his coach went public, Dimitrov abruptly left Mouratoglou's academy and started dating Sharapova shortly after. LOL tennis drama.

yeah I saw those pictures but even at the time I just thought people were jumping to conclusions off nothing, they didn't look loved-up or anything, just like friends hanging out

I think they prob dated but briefly - Dimitrov didn't exactly deny it when asked, he just told the reporter to "ask Serena". also re the black heart comment, I'm not sure she was talking about McIlroy because she was bitching about the player as well. The actual quote:

"She begins every interview with 'I'm so happy. I'm so lucky' – it's so boring," says Serena in a loud voice. "She's still not going to be invited to the cool parties. And, hey, if she wants to be with the guy with a black heart, go for it."

^That doesn't sound like Caro - whatever we think about her, Wozniacki is pretty popular on the tour. (Sharapova otoh isn't really friends with anyone else.)