ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Most of the main tennis journalists have been cool with it but I'm just WAITING for some nonsense to start once Wimbledon rolls around

Kimiko d. Hantuchova 64 60. Superlative grass court tennis, a joy to watch.

Kimiko is amazing

She first reached the QF at this tournament the first time she played it, in 1989

NINETEEN EIGHTY-NINE

in other news, fed just lost a set to sousa on grass despite serving 90% first serves.

ludicrous TB between Murray and Stepanek

Meanwhile:

Victoria Chiesa ‏@vrcsports 45s
Coco misses, screams "YOU PIECE OF CRAP. I'M PLAYING LIKE A FREAKIN' RETARD." Umpire: "Coco, you can't say that here. Not in this country."

this nadal/dustin match is amazing already. one point ended with both of them lying on the ground.

dustin takes the first set! this match is so much fun, very high quality.

ah Coco, such a charmer

Dustin is zoning, up 4-0 in the second. N

just put this on. Nadal tanking?

could be, but there's not much he could have done here.

either way this is really funny

amazing performance, well deserved

yay Dustin!

always an upset in the making imo, given the rapidity of Nadal's clay/grass turnaround and Brown's grass-only skillset

lol not that i think he meant to tank that match, but let's face it, Nadal's prob more excited for the World Cup rn

Stephens displaying her trademark heart and fight in that second set. Zhang didn't even bother with her c'mons

omg @ everything about the Brown/Kohlschreiber match. 18-16 final set TB!

omg @ stepanek saving that set pt @ 4-6 in teh tiebreak!

yeah that was amazing. shame about the stupid errors after that, though.

Azarenka/Giorgi R1 in Eastbourne lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kw83n9RPI4

Federer wins a match, fails to notice

here's the amazing point in the stepanek/lopez match (at 0:52)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WZ572AWZgY

wasn't my ideal semi final lineup but Birmingham was fun yesterday.
really classy performance by Ivanovic.
BZS is great value with the slicing and volleying and inexplicable tantrums.
Julie Kjendlie is the coolest umpire

hahaha, Grigor digs deep to hold at *5-6 - and Lopez dumps a second serve return into the net on MP - and then Grigor PEAKS while Lopez totally collapses in the TB. Fantastic returns by Dimitrov but that shank and those missed volleys by Lopez...6-1.

Third and final set TB. Quality match!

Haha no way. Serving masterclass until Lopez nets a BH slice to give Dimitrov MP...and then Dimitrov shanks a FH

Lopez's serve is really amazing, really should have done more in his career with a weapon like that imo

as disappointing as Grigor has been at times this year, this is what, 4 titles since hiring Rasheed?

Lopez blinked three times - once on MP in the second set (and in the ensuing TB), once on those DFs to give the third set break back, once in the third set TB. And that was enough. And otherwise, there was nothing to separate them...

4 titles since hiring Rasheed?

and, impressively, on indoor hard, outdoor hard, clay and now grass

really great match between giorgi and azarenka, despite camila hitting 17 double faults.

huh, Bouchard lost to King at the Topshelf Open

Giorgi 5-1 against top 20 players this year

Actually more surprised Giorgi/Azarenka was so close, with it being Vika's first match back.

King's some years off her peak form where she could always be counted on to outsmart a certain type of player, but even though she now gets squashed 90% of the time by that type of player, I'm never surprised when she actually manages to do it. Put King's tennis brain into even a slightly bigger body and you have yourself a solid top 30 player.

I went to Wim qualies yesterday, will put my report in the Wim thread.

Wozniacki extends her h2h vs Stephens to 5-0, 10-0 in sets. Only one of those sets was tougher than 6-3. This one was utterly straightforward and Wozniacki wasn't even that impressive.

What top player whose results in the Slams suggests at least a vaguely all-court player should ever, ever, be losing to Woz on grass? Oh, of course, Stephens.

All-surface rather.

Peak WTA alert in the Istanbul R1. Vekic led Koukalova 5-1. Then Koukalova won 15 of the next 16 games: 4-6 6-0 4-0. And now she's just lost three in a row, including both breaks.

Both players have a first serve % below 40%

Koukalova loses a fourth game in a row to make it 4-4.

Then she holds to love, of course.

And then Vekic breaks herself to 15, GSM. Peak WTA.

Lex, school me on Kontaveit. Just watched 6 or 7 games vs Cornet and was impressed with the depth of her ground strokes although I found it hard to tell just how much weight she was getting on the ball.

she's a great ball-striker isn't she? definitely a Baby Kanepi type. never dreamed she'd have the patience to hit through Cornet but she's done a good job of it today. movement isn't the best though. she doesn't get much hype but she's one of the best of her age group - obviously hasn't broken through to the top 100 like Keys, Bencic and Vekic have but she's right around Siniakova, Townsend etc

not the best closer, as you might have ascertained from that point

Great way to serve it out though!

Thiem in the top 50 :)

wow 17 year old Alexander Zverev wins a 500 match after winning a challenger last week.