ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

Well the amount of points on offer at that consolation tournament is mind-bogglingly large. Where else would you have access to that many points without one of the top eight being there to stop you? Such bullshit.

(watch Wozniacki win it, obviously)

Federer did not look like he gave a fuck losing in R2 of Shanghai to... Albert Ramos-Vinos. Obviously. Last time they played, he got three games in a Bo5.

djokovic continues to barrel toward GOAT status

Pennetta was pathetic today. Venus must be so pissed sitting on the sidelines watching this group of mostly-injured-or-exhausted women.

Who all outperformed her this year though.

Radwanska should be ashamed that she couldn't beat a Sharapova who hadn't completed a match since Wimbledon and who was completely falling apart at the end.

Rosol is rosoling Rafa again

Rafa just broke himself with a terrible challenge, lol. His groundstrokes are barely holding up against Rosol's power

Halep v disappointing against Sharapova yesterday (though to be fair Sharapova's half-year off just means she's a zillion times fresher than anyone else in the field here). Feel like Halep's spent 2015 desperately clinging on to her top 3 position, and to her credit has just about managed it despite threatening to fall off more than once, but there's a definite sense of regression, that the next step is further away than before and that she might not actually be able to take it.

Watched the replay of Panetta/Radwanska; what a fun match!

Kerber/Muguruza is really good (again this year). Kerber = WTA MVP for being part of so many high-quality matches

Radwanska wins 6 pts in a row from 1-5 down in the TB, which she looked like UEing herself out of in a couple of seconds. Last three points were two return bangers and then a crazy, crazy SP full of every shot in the book, lobs and dropshots and volleys and everything

Halep fell away totally in the second set again and unlike Sharapova, Radwanska didn't let her back in to make the score respectable.

Radwanska pushing Sharapova to the limit then losing to Pennetta then straight-setting Halep is...not that logical.

Funny, Sharapova is now guaranteed to be in the SF, but Radwanska is only through if Sharapova wins in straight sets. Pennetta needs only one set to progress.

In general I am coming down harder on the side of "Halep will never win a Slam"...she has had several opportunities for a real statement win now and flopped every time. The AO QF, whatever happened in her clay and grass seasons, the USO SF and now what should have been an open YEC with Serena out and Maria rusty.

She's shown disappointing limpness in important matches, with no explanation, but I still feel pretty confident in a slam win in the coming years.

in general I feel like she's much less confident in her game than a year ago; she's actually better at winning ugly over lesser opposition, which is how she's maintained her position, but a lot worse at imposing her game on good opponents (which was always a knife-edge anyway, with her one-dimensional counterpunching style) - and especially at big moments. I can see her with a Wozniackan/Radwanskan slamless career, now

lol @ Sharapova fighting to snatch that set from Pennetta (aided by a bit of a gag) even though she's already qualified - vaguely wondered whether her dislike of Radwanska would tempt her to tank and save energy while kicking Aga out at the same time, but I fully believe Sharapova would rather keep Aga in just so she gets the chance to beat her again

And that's farewell to Flavia forever.

Some tight stuff in the 2nd set. Obviously isn't as worn out as the others. Still going to set me up for a '16 season disappointment.

Sharapova vs Kerber/Muguruza in the SF/F would be a pretty tantalising match

https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/659794761340100609

Muguruza has been intent on storming the net all autumn, which I admire and bodes well for the future, bc lord knows she needs a few extra dimensions to her game, but ever since I tuned into this match her lack of natural touch has been really costing her. Should've broken Kvitova at 4-4 in the second but fucked up two swing volleys, and the volley she played on BP just now was embarrassing

Muguruza wins it with a BH volley though! That was a good match, esp towards the end

Fun 3rd set. I hate my useless faves so much tho.

She did a lot better than I expected given that she was bending double after every point in the Safarova match

Kerber needs to win one set to go through, I can't see that not happening

It...didn't happen. Kerber was very underwhelming, Kvitova gets lucky and goes through.

Peakwanska on her own set point, as usual.

Muguruza really does have to be the worst volleyer in the top ten though. I've never watched her play doubles, but is she any better there? I mean, Sharapova is terrible too but she restricts herself to swing volleys and doesn't try to hit traditional ones...

Hate Muguruza's errors, but love her regal comportment on court. 10 in 3 games!

Halep and Kerber are pretty poor at net too, they just don't try it as much as Muguruza does

Tuned in with Muguruza 1-4 down, that was unexpected. Good match since though...

Aga winning a close high-stakes match? Well I never.

If she'd served as well as she did v Halep it perhaps wouldn't have been a close match, but, hey ho.

Now let's have a repeat of last year's Petra/Maria to add to this mess.

Kvitova so much more solid. She's not even peaking but Sharapova's BH is a mess

it's gone very bad now -_-

Some of Petra's returns now :D :D :D

And then very good from 1-5 down! PETRAAAAAAA

Petra will now lose this set 5-7.

Also, MARION BARTOLI.

Petra winning points with anticipation and defence!

thanks for reminding me why you're my favourite, Petra, after this not very good year

THAT FUCKING SECOND SERVE OMG OMG OMG

AFter all that, my two useless slumping underachieving failures of favourites are in the finals and.. whuh? how?

PETRA

KVITOVA

Both finalists had a 1-2 RR record! Amazing.

On top of that, Hingis/Mirza are in the finals of the dubs too!

some real entertaining pts in gasquet/rafa but gasquets hitting too many errors

that was a brilliant point for Gasquet to break on

even in Rafa's state this feels like the ultimate NID result, some very pretty points tho yeah

as I was saying...

Gasquet served for the set, DFed twice, left a ball that landed in, was broken to 15

NID NID NID

lol

Gasquet had two SPs in the TB and led by a break in both sets

but loses his 14th straight match and 20th straight set to Rafa anyway

Shitra has turned up to the final so far, it seems.

god, Petra is flopping so badly at the net and missing so many kill shots

100% of her smashes so far have been comedy