ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_loaf

It was once more expensive and regarded as more fashionable than the then more common plain loaf. Hence, to speak with a pan loafy voice is to speak in a posh or affected manner.

How on earth does Murray speak with an affected accent?! He just mumbles.

I found that picture of Rybarikova looking like she's ready to go bowling for Columbine after losing the Wimbledon juniors final!

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/6027/wozrybwimb2006juniortrophies6a.jpg

Fortunately today was more to her liking.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/2d/fullj.78eac332e51971240cfb28c1cb4cf0ab/78eac332e51971240cfb28c1cb4cf0ab-getty-tennis-gbr-wta-aegon_classic.jpg

Haas beat Djokovic in the Halle final this week too.

!!! interesting result for sure. fed dropped out?

yeah...Djokovic was lucky to be in the final at all, he had to come back from 5-7, 2-5 down and save 5 match points against Florent Serra (!) in the 2nd round.

waht

French tennis player banned for betting found dead

Natural causes apparently.

RIP Mathieu

Fuckin' hell. (Though my initial shock was because I thought you meant Paul-Henri Mathieu...)

Oh right, sorry! To avoid confusion to others: it's Mathieu Montcourt.

The Lex's favourite choker, Richard Gasquet avoids getting suspended after testing positive for coke.

The full findings are here (pdf): pretty lol-worthy just for the kissing descriptions and finding out that he was allegedly "contaminated" at a Bob Sinclar event.

hingis should've found a french waiter of her own to blame. or maybe just one of the 9494439 atp players she'd slept with.

her ban ends in january right? think she'll come back?

wtf federer?! 5-2 up in the final set, somehow fails to serve it out twice and then DFs on match point in the tie-break to give Tsonga the win.

all credit to Jo-W for stepping it up right at the end, but still... that was some breakdown.

5-1 up in the third! :o

at the same time I was watching Flavia Pennetta try to choke away her match - she beat Venus in the last round, and winning this would mean a top 10 debut. 6 match points came and went, double faults on at least two of them, but her opponent was Hantuchova so it was OK in the end.

btw, Serena's post-Wimbledon record = QF loss in Stanford to Stosur and 3R loss in Cincinnati to Bammer, who now owns a 2-0 record over her. The Real Number 1!

am endeavouring to pretend the horrific Clijsters comeback isn't happening. never liked her.

best recent press conference = Marat defending baby sis by telling the press to "go fuck themselves" <3

obv didn't see the Fed match but am guessing that J-W just started going even more for broke than usual when down 1-5, and everything began going in.

yep and suddenly firing aces as well when he hadn't been able to get a good first serve in since like the end of the first set. meanwhile fed's serve just went to pieces after that.

also yay dinara fighting back a break in both sets to beat kimmy. would've hated it if she lost this one.

best recent press conference = Marat defending baby sis by telling the press to "go fuck themselves" <3

this whole presser was fucking classic.

Q. Now that you stopped, what about coaching her?

MARAT SAFIN: Oh, you want me to hang myself? (laughter.)

http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=58340

<3 <3 <3

Wow, Pennetta will be Italy's FIRST EVER top 10 woman! Both Schiavone and, before her, Farina Elia peaked at 11.

Meanwhile, Andy Murray becomes the first man not named Roger or Rafa to hold a spot in the top two since forever. More importantly, Del Potro beat Roddick.

i am enjoying Del Pony's hardcourt domination of Roddick v much.

Does it mean Del P gets his #5 ranking back? I know he lost a bunch of points in the second half of July. In fact, I'm happy to support Juan Martin today if it makes the difference... ;)

yeah, if he wins today he'll be back at no 5.

How is Nadal doing post-injury? Lost an edge, or is it too early to tell?

he's only played two or three proper matches so yeah still rusty/cautious but he seems to be getting better everyday.

gonna be a great USO - with Murray at number 2, it's likely that Nadal will end up on the same half of the draw as Fed which is just weird to think abt. they've both been at the top for *ages*.

henin to unretire

can only be a good thing

i have no problem with these comebacks, but geez, i wish these "i am gonna quit tennis"-people just announce a sabbatical instead.

also, on another forum i heard a theory that Henin will have a much more difficult time getting back in top shape, since "she's no athlete" and only got to number 1 after years and years and years of hard work.

otoh Clijsters had a kid.

"Subconsciously, it might have had an impact," Henin said of Clijster's successful comeback. "But it certainly was not the most important reason."

loooool keep telling yourself that, honey

Whatever the reasons this is good news.

Justine <3

This is only a good thing if we WIN THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN. And everything else. And get that Wimbledon title. And overtake Serena's Slam total.

I love the idea that she's only doing it to bully St. Kim again :D

exactly... like she'd ever let kim be the number one belgian. :P

http://www.7sur7.be/static/FOTO/pe/9/14/3/media_l_1750878.jpg

Wonderful news. Unless it's a total failure and she runs out of wildcards after a few months.

This is so hilarious! Welcome back, Justine!

women's tennis is so fucked.

3/1 To win 2010 French Open

Need to point out that 38-yr-old Kimiko Date-Krumm - she will be 39 next month - has just reached the Seoul final, beating Kleybanova, Hantuchova (lol Hantuchova) and Kirilenko in consecutive three-setters! So happy for her. From the bits and pieces I've seen of her this year, her old-school flat strokes are still a joy to watch and she's still a superior athlete to many of the girls half her age. She'll play Groenefeld or Medina Garrigues in the final - surely either are winnable matches.

And the WTA used "age ain't nothing but a number" as the headline for their story :D

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090926/capt.43743459a1d84ecd965456cb3822e396.south_korea_korea_open_tennis_sel101.jpg

Not to take anything away from Kimiko's win srsly!, but surely first the Kim Slam and then this should be a bit embarrassing for the current wta generation...?

right and both sveta and safina have been knocked out in the second round of tokyo. sigh.

also these pictures of sugiyama's retirement ceremony is ;_;. poor Daniela!

so i guess I should mention that I'm currently working at the media centre at the Malaysian Open. Have gossip abt some of the players to share but for professional reasons, can't divulge until the after the tourney. XD I will say though that Magnus Norman is one hot coach and Tomas Berdych is a very very nice guy.

oh snap

whoa can't wait for the gossip! jealous of you roz. pretty great QF line-up for an inaugural tournament - Davydenko/Monfils, Soderling/Berdych, Youzhny/Gonzalez, Gasquet/Verdasco. hope the winner of the first one takes it all.

Not to take anything away from Kimiko's win srsly!, but surely first the Kim Slam and then this should be a bit embarrassing for the current wta generation...?

oh yeah, for sure, but the current WTA has been digging itself new lows for a couple of years now so someone cool may as well benefit. but you would never guess from looking at her that Mrs. Krumm is 39. would argue that Clijsters winning the USO was worse; Seoul is a small event and journeywomen be journeywomen, but Clijsters showed up the "elite" of the game.

btw the top six seeds all lost their opening matches in Tokyo :o

hope the winner of the first one takes it all.

oh totally - both those guys are rad esp Kolya who is all kinds of awesome. seems like he's just having a ball here. But i suspect that General Sod will probably win this - he's only played one match so far but even during practice, dude is on fire. Indoor hard courts suit him.

and yeah Tokyo is a clusterfuck but at least Jankovic is still there. She's been steadily regaining her form (I think the USO loss was forgivable given her personal circumstances at the time) so I really fucking hope she pulls it together.

pffft JJ! Retiring in a final at 5-2 without even waiting until Sharapova finished the first set. Awful fucking behaviour.

The Sod is inexplicably the most popular player here - there were like 300 people at his signing session. Someone in his entourage quipped afterwards "He's not even this popular in Sweden".

was just laughing about how Tokyo somehow got a marquee final out of that mess...and then, 5-2 ret. Oh dear. Bah, this means Li Na won't be making the top 15 just yet!

Impressive week from KING KOLYA, beating fresh-off-a-title Monfils and on-fire Soderling, the final vs Verdasco should be good. As should the Troicki/Simon Bangkok final!

A couple of notables from Luxembourg WTA event:

1. Some new 14-year old called Yulia Putintseva gets wildcard to the qualies, takes out Stefanie Voegele and Claudine Schaul, though loses 36 46 to Kirsten Flipkens in the final qual round.

2. 1st round match between (1) Wozniacki and (LL) Kremer: WozDEN is up 75 30, has a chat with fathercoach Piotr. He allegedly says "hey, retire at 05, u won't play tomorrow anyway, let them have some joy" or similar WITH LIVE TV MIC NEARBY, sending in-play bettors into whorls of confusion -- and acrimony when it happens. K def W 57 05 R. What are WTA rules for this, I wonder?

loooooooool

i managed to catch a little bit of rafa/davydenko (!?) @ shanghai - didnt seem like a v. good match tbh altho it was a surprising result

WozDen's getting away with it with the whole "St. Caroline was SO NICE to let the hometown girl go through when she knew she couldn't play the 2nd round" angle. Also, Luxembourg, no one cares any more. Completely ridiculous anyway.

KING KOLYA played amazingly in Shanghai - his SF against Djokovic was a great match and I wasn't surprised he beat Rafa after that. He was on fire.

wait what, what was the reason for Wozniacki retiring?

I haven't managed to see any tennis since the US Open. Oh god no, I mean since the GB Davis Cup tie. I neeeeeed it.

"strained hamstring" or something? It wasn't like she was unable to play on - she just tweaked something which presumably would have meant that she'd give a w/o in the 2nd round, to save herself for Doha next week. She's played an insane schedule recently - Beijing, Tokyo, Osaka, Luxembourg, Doha in consecutive weeks?!

I've seen a few of the greats in the flesh - Serena W, Agassi, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, McEnroe, Sampras, Lendl, Becker - but it's something else to be court-level and close up. My very first experience of that was Andres Gomez on an outside court, Wimbledon '87. The speed of thought and the footwork is what stays with you, I think. Also a joy to see Dustin Brown's net-craft in the doubles at Roehampton a few years back, just sublime skill.

As much as I always hated Boris, I remember a match vs Diego Nargiso at an invitational warm-up on Merseyside back in '89 that was a marvel to watch from the lower seats. This slightly scuzzy, fast grass park court, which seemed to have a slight camber, hosting such a high standard - it hardly seemed possible.

Jenson Brooksby, out of the sport for two years after surgery and a suspension, and still ranked outside the top 500, gets a wildcard into the qualies at Houston, wins six matches (including three from mp down) to reach the final. Highlights of the semi vs Paul are worth seeing.

finishes off the title tday vs tiafoe w little drama

great run, one of the MPs he saved was 1st rd of quallies…i wonder how often someone has saved MPs 1st rd of qualifying and gone on to win that event

amazing by venus tonight in dc, oldest to win on tour since kimiko date

Valentin Vacherot!

truly unbelievable run

rinderknech also ! all cousin final

great run from felix since us open, unless you compare it to sinner

sinner this season is 56-6

4 losses to alcaraz (1 was a retirement from illness)
1 loss to griekspoor 3rd shanghai (sinner retirement -cramping)
1 loss to bublik rd of 16 halle

take out the matches lost, he's lost nine sets in 56 matches won

I was thinking earlier, The Ban satisfied no one and was widely considered the softest possible sanction, but it cost him up to 4000pts. And yet he's still got a shot at YE #1.
Meanwhile, Felix and Lorenzo could be playing for the last Turin spot all the way until the eve of event, unless Novak steps aside (can he just take that 250 event anywhere he wants to live?). Daniil also playing this week, which affects the alternates. $155k for sitting on the bench, not bad.

First names, like they're my pals.

Also, good to see Vacherot keep sailing along - one tight loss to Fritz and another three main draw wins in Paris. Might be around for a while, at least make a year of it, like Karatsev.

good analogy vacherot to karatsev, that seems apt to me

i think meds withdrew from metz fwiw

I see this year Sinner is determined to only lose matches where he outscores his opponent (89-86 vs Mensik).