ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

wow some really good hitting o_O

genuine headline on the WTA official site:

Bouchard: How To Take A Great Selfie

Are we ever going to get to the point where Radwanska looks like a slam winner or are we going to be watching her lose to Watson and drop sets to Begu forever like.

Also I'm going to be in Paris for two days in May so I AM GOING TO ROLAND GARROS HELL YES. Anyone got tips?

Wear a hat! My god, it gets brutal up high on Chatrier on a clear day. And if you're walking the grounds, don't decide to hug the Musketeers statue. The staff don't like that.

woo! I suppose this is a good time to mention that I'm gonna be in the UK from mid-April to early July so I am DEFINITELY going to Wimbledon and maaaaybe RG too if I have time to make it over to Paris.

this is awesome news roz, you should come with us!

would absolutely love to! I don't have any proper plans in place yet but I'll def shoot you a msg once I'm there. super duper excited!

Another great Thiem performance, getting my hopes up

Serena shut down the Bellis hype train with a quickness huh? Still, all top players got thrashed by the previous generation's top players...

Camila Giorgi has now hit 131 DFs in her 13 matches this year.

Rafa really going down with a whimper these days

ive noticed his service game is not really what it used to be, esp on hardct

Rafa has not looked good since Wimbledon for more than a set at a time.

It almost seems like his shotmaking ability is still there but his defence at crucial points is not? like in the last couple of games last night he just didn't retrieve a few Verdasco shots that would have been nothing for peak Rafa. Clay will be interesting.

Ivanovic really acting like 2014 never happened, huh. She trashed Lisicki 0 and 1 a couple of weeks ago.

I actually have the opposite take, the defense is still elite but he routinely has no depth on routine shots in rallies. Those balls sit up and people are teeing off.

They showed a graphic that 42% of his rally balls were in the service box vs verdasco, some very shallow

I'm glad more prominence is being given to stats like that - in the last few years there's really been an undue focus on winners and UEs without acknowledgement that most rallies are decided by poor decisions or weak shots before the one that actually ends the point

so from 3-5 down in the second set Venus plays nearly three games' worth of impeccable, patient aggression, totally and casually owning Wozniacki. And then at 5-5, 40-0 she serves three straight DFs, hits a BH five miles long and then another BH into the bottom of the net for no reason. WHY?

Venus peaked again in the TB :)

Venus should really make the final, right? Biggest threat remaining in her half is probably, like, Pliskova

it's really a damn shame that Dolgopolov turned out to be a homophobic moron

I didn't realize that Venus's record against Woz is now 7-0

lol

it's really a damn shame that Dolgopolov turned out to be a homophobic moron

God I know, I kept hoping he would at least back off a little.

I was thinking the other day that some elements of his game are kind of revolutionary and junior coaches should think about them especially the serve.

dolgo takes 1st set off novak, real nice aggressive play in the tb

700th win for Serena. Marion is very excited in the commentary booth about the imminent cake.

That was a brilliant game from Thiem to serve out the set from 0-30 down

So happy for CS Navarro, iirc she won her first career title about 6 months ago. Beautiful game.

Stupid time zones making me miss a Serena/Simona match that went 7-5 in the third

Fuck is this Isner revival bullshit

Isner has done this before, he looked incredible in IW last year. I think he has this mental block where he has 2 or 3 matches in a row where being aggressive doesn't work and he loses his commitment to it.

Fascinated by the way Halep's fans have become one of the year's stories though, when was the last time there was this kind of vocal support following one player around the world? If they're a bit OTT as new fans they'll learn but it has to be a great thing for the WTA

V happy that CSN breaks the top 10 with this run too!

isner did destroy kei, but ill be really surprised if he can do it to novak

serena/halep match was not that amazing - serenas unforced forehand errors were the only reason it was close; halep really needs a better serve to threaten serena more consistently imo

super ugly first set

novak looks tired but andy keeps hitting errors

gotta give murray the edge going into this third w/ how poor novak looks but he def could snap out of it obv

omg no one can hit an overhead

That was a pretty patchy match last night. Four bagels in six matches on the way to the title for Nole though, that's pretty amazing. Second big final of the year that's culminated in Murray getting bagelled by him, conversely.

I'm sort of astounded that CSN is only the third Spanish woman to make the top 10 in the open era!

wait really? conchita martinez is one right?

the other one is the "grass is for cows" woman maybe? Oh why can't I remember her name?

of course! Arantxa Sánchez Vicario! Can't believe I forget her considering how many finals I saw her lose to Steffi Graf in!

re: Djoko - Murray final. Quite a surrender. I didn't know Murray was unable to smash a fkn tennis ball..

18yo Sara Sorribes Tormo from Spain = Baby Errani. Moonballs and dropshots utterly confounding Shelby Rogers there.

Nice story on the mentor/mentee relationship between Jankovic and Danka Kovinic, the Montenegrin #1 who just beat Bencic and will now play...Jankovic: http://www.changeovertennis.com/changeover-diaries-2015-jelena-jankovic-mentor-extraordinaire/

Bouchard slump official. Bagelled by Tatjana Maria then wins four games off Lauren Davis?

That was some performance by 18yo Elizaveta Kulichkova. One thing to thrash the lesser Radwanska, another thing to do Kanepi like that in under an hour. Smacking winners everywhere. How the hell did she lose to Magda Linette in qualies though? (She's in Katowice as a LL)

linette played well against giorgi yesterday, very good serve & defense.

watching clips of Hingis/Mirza :D :D :D I love this team already

Mauresmo pregnant :)

Amélie :)

Giorgi had one of her on days vs A-Rad yesterday but A-Rad looked listless and grumpy...Giorgi vs Schmiedlova is a fine final, very happy that AKS is back on track with two finals this year after her slump post-RG last year. Love her game.

Keys vs Kerber should be good too, only saw the first set of Kerber/Petkovic but it was very high quality.

I really feel sad about A-Rad. Navratilova was supposed to be the secret weapon that would make Aga a slam winner, someone who could take out a Lisicki in a SF like she should have, and not get blown off the court in a SF by a player she once double-bageled like Cibulkova, and now the list of people beating her is far less impressive than back when she was only losing to Azarenka over and over again. I see her out of the top 10 pretty soon even if Bouchard tumbles. Petkovic is showing signs that she might actually hang on to lots of her points, Makarova has nothing to defend (if admittedly not much chance of picking up too much) around now, Suarez is in the ascendency and Keys and Pliskova have heaps of upside still. It's going to feel like a wasted career isn't it.

I don't see it as a waste really, early in her career I didn't even see her as the consistent top 5 player she became and I've never thought she'd be able to win a Slam except with a dose of draw-related luck...and she had that twice, and blew it twice.

Earlier this year I thought there might be an element of "a step back to go two steps forward" about the M-Nav appointment but maybe her window generally has shut, as it did with JJ a few years ago. Though given how draws routinely fall apart at Wimbledon, her best chance of winning a Slam, I'd still rate her chances at a Slam higher than Wozniacki's.