ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

cld get a pooey/rafa rematch for monaco finals

Who knew that making Ilie Nastase a Fed Cup captain would turn out like this? Literally everyone.

rafa going for his 10th monte carlo title tomorrow

lucky loser yu sugita takes out gasquet and into the r16 @ barcelona

rafa is now +150 to win roland garros •_•

Funny seeing Bouchard lose all semblence of rationality in her attacks on Maria. At least the other WTA players tried to mix in the insults - although from the start it's always been "she isn't a nice person anyway", judgements of character losing all pretence of being about rules and regulations.

It's perfectly fine to not like her, and also to disagree with how she handles herself, then and now, but not to pretend those arguments have anything to do with how the governing organs should treat her. CAS, having the final, legal say, definitively established she was not an intentional cheater, and so she's served a period of punishment for negligence.

"intention" was always going to be the loophole the minute the ITF produced its report but there are two kinds of intention going on here.

intention to break the rules - no, she failed to read her emails, this was always clear

but the moral criticism has never been for negligence, it's been for taking a shady drug in the first place even if it was legal, and the ITF's evidence clearly demonstrates that she intended to use it as a PED (upping the dosage before important matches) and did so in an underhand way (failing to declare it at any point)

it's been very heartening to see just how many players, including Bouchard, have been against the WTA's disgraceful rolling out of the red carpet to have her back. The lengths official bodies are going to to avoid stating the reason she was out, as if it was some injury or something.

WTA seem to have just delegated responsibility on where/when MS can play to the tournament directors? It would be a simple thing to say "no wildcards for playing returning from drug bans". Maybe they think they're protecting the $15k ITF events she should rightfully be playing from a media circus. I've also seen the comment "this is just what happens to post-ban players in other sports". Is this true? Does a sprinter automatically find a spot in their national squad / on the blocks for Grand Prix events without first proving themselves elsewhere? I guess it's not the same. Tyson Gay could just post a single 9.99 at some college track meet and be back in the elite two weeks later.

Also: she hasn't been stripped of any tournament titles she won during the period when she was on PEDs, right?

She was technically only on illegal PEDs for one tournament, which she didn't win. The decade of meldonium usage previous to that is in the grey area of "technically legal, ethically dubious".

There's been talk of a rule limiting WCs for players returning from doping bans but it'll take a while to institute regardless. The WTA has pretty much welcomed her back with open arms in terms of their own statements, bending the rules to allow her to enter Stüttgart specifically (her ban didn't end until after the event began) and encouragement of the hype - if it weren't for several players and a handful of journalists actually speaking up, you could well believe she'd just been away because of injury. There's no recognition that being banned for a doping violation should actually have an effect on a player's reputation and how she's spoken about.

In terms of tennis players coming back from doping bans, I think only Troicki got a couple of ATP WCs through being Djokovic's mate, which weren't that popular, but he mostly had to rebuild his ranking through Challengers. Karatantcheva got absolutely nothing after her two-year ban.

We'll see what the FFT do about an RG WC next month...they've talked tough so far and the French players have been among Sharapova's more prominent critics.

hasn't she been on it basically as long as shes been on tour? don't think she won any event since the date it was announced as a banned substance xp word

She can't complain about her draw in Stuttgart, all players in her section are/were either massively out of form or out of their depth on the surface, or both. Vinci/Makarova/Kontaveit is a cakewalk on paper, and the alternative opponents would have been so as well (2017 really could have, should have been Muguruza's year.)

Went to the cinema with Mladenovic a set and 2 games down. What a result!

Fucking heroine, that Kiki

What happened to Maria's much-vaunted three-set record? Not that visible stamina dip in the decider.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-8SqYEXoAAFgYf.jpg:large

Simon d. Monfils 0-6, 6-0, 7-6(0)

A bagel, a reverse bagel, a tiebreak bagel. A perfect scoreline. I'm so privileged to see this day.

Marvellous. I see Monfils was 3-0 up in the decider, so 6-0 0-6 6-0 was a possibility for a while (he had MPs serving at 5-3). I trust he missed one by letting a lob drop over his shoulder and then pirouetting to hit a leftie BH while facing the wrong way. Or something.

Sharapova getting dragged on the court by the exact same girls who dragged her off it. Delicious. Bouchard's press conferences have been gems of late.

It feels a little weird to root for Bouchard but HELL YEAH BOUCHARD

I also see that Suarez-Navarro beat Woz

excepting davis cup, novak has not won a match in straight sets in a whiiile

there were some incred matches today & cilic/zverev 3d set rn is a battle, also stan/paire going 3

great win by paire

rafa/novak tomorrow

novak hasn't dropped a set to rafa since 2014, though still is (probably correctly) roughly a 2/1 or 2.5/1 betting favorite

rafa is the fav i phrased that poorly

First ATP top 100 player to come out as gay: Brian Vahaly

http://www.outsports.com/2017/5/12/15626904/former-pro-tennis-player-brian-vahaly-talks-about-being-gay

I remember him from some mid-00s draws but not much beyond.

Gambill hasn't technically come out I guess?

thiem rn hits the most/cleanest winners on clay possibly? dude is impressve

Vahaly beat Gonzalez, Ferrero and Robredo at Indian Wells in 2003 - which is a hell of a run - only to lose to... VINCE SPADEA in the quarters.

Also beat Michael Chang in a Challenger in Tazana, CA the previous year, but Chang was just about to slip out of top 100 for the last time.

murray out 2 and 4 to fognini @ roma

is anyone good at tennis anymore

Nadal

i just looked up fognini because it feels like he's been on tour for 20 years and i was surprised to discover that he's actually younger than murray

It's kind of remarkable how Murray and Djokovic are slumping simultaneously. If I had to guess I'd say it stems from Djokovic taking his foot off the pedal after holding all 4, plus his personal life issues; and that Murray weirdly thrived on being the fourth wheel of the Big Four and hasn't adjusted, or can't adjust, to being the nominal leader.

FFT coming through with that moral guardianship of the sport and DENYING Sharapova even a qualifying WC for RG! I cackled when they read out 14-year-old unranked Yasmine Mansouri's name in the QWCs and not Sharapova's.

thiem/nadal again tmorrow

plus delpo/novak & zverev/milos are v juicy

3rd time's a charm for thiem, hope they play again @ the french

Zverev! Youngest Masters finalist in 10 years (since Djokovic won Miami 2007)

novak is destroying thiem

supposing this continues & he beats zverev 2morrow, this is a nice run to become a def factor @ roland garros, whereas like a week ago it wasnt so clear

Great to have a new, young champion at this level in the week the entire ATP top five goes 30something.

#MercedesCup 2R @TommyHaas13 (39) vs @RogerFederer (35) is oldest @ATPWorldTour match since 1982 Vina del Mar R. Cano (30) d. L. Ayala (49).

how is Hass only 39

wtf *Haas

of course haas wins

lmao murray/raonic/stan all upset @ 1st rd queens club

Watched all three (thanks BBC2!) - not exactly classics I have to say. Only Deliciano looked in any decent nick (his tennis was alright too, hur hur)

lol my friends mom calls him that also, id love to see him make a deep run @ wimbledon

Same! He did a couple of really lovely volleys against Stan (who looked pretty sluggish).

Any excuse to roll out my photo of Felle Fel from London 2012...

(I hope he wins this)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8159/7680196476_325ee3c8aa_b.jpg

strong field in dc this yr

kei v del potro tmorrow 3rd rd & likely kyrgios v sasha zverev also

bhambri/monfils is really entertaining