ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

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

Beautiful dropshot from Aga

UEs so far:

Radwanska 1
Kvitova 25

Adequatra turns up for two games! Whee.

It lasted to the end of the set!

Petra still better at hitting ridiculous shots from neutral or worse positions than finishing off a won point

Radwanska belatedly raising her level in response...

lol dead net cord puts Kvitova down 0-30 serving to stay in it

AGA!

She should have beaten Sharapova, but taking out Halep, Muguruza and Kvitova in a row, which is probably more top 10 wins than she's had all year is damned good.

Who would've thought her nightmare season would end in her biggest title yet? Petra actually made her work for it in the end, and historically Aga's tended not to have the answers in those situations.

May she follow in the footsteps of Novotna and Mauresmo and ride a YEC victory to a Slam title the following year...

Fedal XXXIV!...Federer just consolidated an early break despite some v ill-advised net rushes

Have spent most of this match thinking Federer should lead by more than he does - Nadal has played his best defensive match in ages - but finally, we're here and he's serving for it

63 57 63, a lot closer than I thought it would be. Federer reduces overall H2H deficit to 11-23 but extends indoor H2H lead to 6-1. More evidence that if they'd played as many times indoors as on clay (15) that overall H2H might not be as lopsided.

I did a little analysis a while back of every event they played while they were continuously #1 and #2 and I think Nadal came out ahead by two or three (whereas he was 8-9 clear in the H2H over the same period). Nadal failed to keep their final date more often than Fed, esp early on, so the H2H should really be closer.

Wait, can someone explain the justification for what I presume is a wildcard for Zheng in Zhuhai?

Same as for Pironkova and the sundry Pretty Girl WCs in Bali/Sofia for the past few years I guess ie there is none

That is egregious particularly because the format actually halfway makes sense compared to Bali/Sofia. Not that I'd expect her to win any matches.

Definitely not when drawn into the Venus/Keys group.

The event still has a bit of an underwhelming consolation prize feel, I don't feel like I need to see these players fight for scraps (or...700 points while being guaranteed not to face a Top 8 opponent) any more this year.

Meanwhile, Bouchard breaching Twitter and social etiquette all over the place: https://twitter.com/geniebouchard/status/661303458402799616

Particularly enjoy how she immediately assumes spam/hackers when she sees a colleague wishing another colleague well.

(neither does it surprise me that Wozniacki is the type to send multiple needy messages over the course of several months despite being rudely ignored every time)

that's heartbreaking

also, hilarious

damn kev anderson kinda choked trying to close rafa in straights…on to the 3rd

Rafa getting through so many aggravating matches on ~fighting spirit and opponents choking nowadays

It was pretty hilarious to see Saisai Zheng SABRing on Venus's second serves yesterday and succeeding btw

https://twitter.com/philousports/status/661663679063179265

dam berdych got from 3-5 down in this tiebreak v novak to set pt in v impressive fashion

the pressure to keep redlining/going for every winner is tuff to maintain rip berd

berdych is now 2-20 v novak

stan got a coffee mid 1st set (it was like 11p local time btw), won the set

commentators have referred to it it like 8 times now and just as nadal went up 2-1 and as they went to commercial said "no coffee, but he's rafa-nated" lol kill me

stan has done real well this match considering his past history vs rafa and how this match started. he was getting pushed back and rafas depth and spin was controlling him; now hes put nadal on the defensive and really punishing rafa's looping short balls

why does everyone choke against Rafa ugh

stan had a few easy volleys on his serve where he shdve won this match, rafa is lucky xp yup

those horrible shanked BHs for no reason

haha now nadal is choking

redeemed himself in the TB :)

2-1 game second set of stan/novak was amazing, stan got a break back

novak drops his first set in his last 30 sets.. he hit some out of character errors but stan also elevated his play

Sharapova swing volley fail on SP against Kvitova :)

Love watching her look overpowered and as if she has no say in the outcome like this.

lolol Kvitova has one lousy game to lose serve after being rock-solid, then Sharapova plays an even worse one to give the break back including two failed drop shots.

Really high-quality second half of set here.