ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

I like to think he's a real nice dude, but of course I've no idea.

Microscandal dept: Starace (best tennis name beside Smashnova) & Bracciali are suspended for a short while for betting insignificant amounts on matches not their own.

Mardy Fish a strong candidate for best name IMO

Fed vs Sampras at MSG, 3/10/08

1st titles of 2008, for reference:

WTA Gold Coast: LI Na d. Victoria AZARENKA 4-6 6-3 6-4
WTA Auckland: Lindsay DAVENPORT d. Aravane REZAÏ 6-2 6-2

ATP Doha: Andy MURRAY d. Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4 4-6 6-2
ATP Adelaide: Michaël LLODRA d. Jarkko NIEMINEN 6-3 6-4
ATP Chennai: Mikhail YOUZHNY d. Rafael NADAL 6-0 6-1

go davenport!!

Week 2/2008, with all eyes on the AO anyway:

WTA Sydney: Justine HENIN d. Svetlana KUZNETSOVA 4-6 6-2 6-4
WTA Hobart: Eleni DANIILIDOU walk-over vs Vera ZVONAREVA

ATP Sydney: Dmitry TURSUNOV d. Chris GUCCIONE 7-6(3) 7-6(4)
ATP Auckland: Philipp KOHLSCHREIBER d. Juan Carlos FERRERO 7-6(4) 7-5

Watching Sharapova vs Obziler in the Israel-Russia Fed Cup tie now, and wow is the crowd noisy! Rapturous cheering on every serve fault by Maria, tauntingly SCREAMING along with her on every shot etc. Umpire totally unable to silence them haha!

fuck what channel? we need to sign up for the tennis channle, i can't be missing stuff like this

I just go to myp2p.eu and check whether anything is available ("Live Sports" tab -> "Tennis" button). Note: playing stuff may in general entail installing various Chinese tv apps (sopcast, tvants, uusee...). That particular tie, however, is on some Israeli sports station showing through Windows Media Player or I guess any other .wmv-showing app.

How useful it is if you're not using Windows I've no idea. Also, quality unsurprisingly varies wildly; this Israeli broadcast is pretty decent.

Pe'er was double-breadsticked by the Shazbot right now, making it 2-1 to Russia. Elsewhere, France vs China will be decided by the doubles.

Murray knocks out Federer in the first round of the Dubai tournament.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7274636.stm

nice one you unpatriotic little shit.

he was wearing a saltire cap when he was playing, which doesn't seem desperately unpatriotic to me.

Federer was too busy not thinking about yesterday

i was only referring to his disinclination to play davis cup.
and i was kidding about that anyway - i care no more about it than he does.

still, 'unpatriotic' was probably a poor choice of word. well done young man!

It was more the "little shit" that you coupled it with, to be fair.

Anyway, yes, two out of three won against Federer now.

God knows why he'd want to play the Davis Cup. Who else is going to be on the team? I wouldn't want to be winning matches and carrying a team full of useless people in a tournament that has long since lost its cachet and relevance except in the eyes of really, really old tennis commentators.

x-post take umbrage wherever you like it was all meant in jest, apart from the congratulatory bit. internet does not do deadpan.

But I genuinely like Murray. I also agree with the above post. I can't be arsed to even watch Davis Cup so I can't blame him if he's rather not play in it.

Andy Murray wins something

He has won about 4-5 career titles before...but yes, its his biggest win

this is his third title of 2008 alone. by far the biggest though! wish i could've seen it, sounds like a fantastic match, and it's good to see him encroaching on THE TRIVALRY even if i do like nole more (lol the way fed's playing, nadal/djokovic/murray is the real trivalry).

on the WTA, dinara safina has won two big titles in a row! she is the only woman out there who is stepping up to fill the void at the top. jankovic is going to be world no 1 next week, that is embarrassing. the WTA is probably in the worst shape i've ever witnessed.

also i didn't know this thread existed!

Oh I know he's won stuff before but not a big tourney. It was a good match. He looks so much fitter and stronger than he was a year or 2 ago.

Nadal will be #1 on 18/8. Can't quite believe Fed's slump post-SW19; loss to Simon, near-loss to Ginepri, loss to Karlovic. Thought he might have at least made a fight of the #1 ranking (his form was fine for 18 of 19 matches in Paris, Halle and London); I had this romantic notion of the baton being passed as Fed beat Nadal at Flushing Meadow (Nadal's points surge taking him past the repeating champ despite the loss). Fed will be lucky to get out of the sixteens in NYC. Does Beijing have any ranking points?

yeah, it does. i think a few less than a masters event for the dudes, a few more than a tier ii for the chicas.

GOD that feels ridiculous looking at it! thinking about how much the olympics mean to, like, track&fielders and rowers and the like, and in tennis it's like...a TIER II.

anyway in other news, THIS is the 15-year-old saviour of the WTA who in the past month has taken sets from both serena and sweta, michelle larcher de brito: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kxaLo1riGo&feature=related

she makes sharapova sound like a trappist. seriously i can't believe she hasn't been asked to stop that bullshit yet, or like MURDERED ON COURT by a deafened opponent. that's not a grunt, that's a scream with a sustain pedal on. i'm not sure i'm going to be able to actually watch any of her matches.

oh and in other news silliams has pissed on her phone at the beach: http://serenawilliams.com/home/
sometimes you just long for the days before celebrities discovered how to work the internet themselves :(

(also note "enuf boring stuff" LIKE TENNIS)

you know, i used to watch all the nonslams cuz my stepdad taped them. then i didn't speak to him anymore. i wish i knew when they were on -- i think i'm gonna have to get on top of that!

they're on every week! televised or not is another qn

exactly, that's the thing.

Blake was asked about the partisan crowd before today's final and reminded everyone he's half English :)

BBC giving it "Blake is just happy to be here" bollocks - dude isn't here to make the numbers up. I think I'll be pro-Blake today, as he does things like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYE8gper9VM

Well done Andy!

Bit of a dull game lit up by a few stunning forehands. Shoddy line calls all day, none of which helped Blake. Well done to Murray on being the first Brit in yonks to win Queen's, which I'm sure won't lead to even more Wimbledon hype.

I predict Murray will cave under the pressure and be out by round 3.

he doesn't seem to be the sort to cave under pressure. but a friendly first-week draw would certainly be nice...

didn't watch the Queen's, but watched the Edgbaston SFs (Li d. Sharapova and Rybarikova d. Mirza) and a bit of the final today - Magdalena Rybarikova is a real discovery, such a classic grass-court game! Slices and volleys and good serving! she looks weirdly like Samantha Morton, too. i remember seeing a photo of her from her junior days when she lost some random final - she was posing w/the trophy and seriously looked like she was about to go bowling for columbine. so it was lucky for Edgbaston that she won today!

Haas beat Djokovic in the Halle final this week too.

in other news, larcher de screamo gets a wildcard to wimbledon. FUN.

The weird transatlantification of Murray's pan loaf accent has meant I can't actually hear what he's saying - it's just a series of droning noises that makes my ears stop working.

pan loaf accent

is that how you talk with your mouth full of bread?

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.)

wow. "latest finish in history" i am seeing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ScH5xN8hyc

whoops, meant to be this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9RuO690uXY

guy accused of abusing his partner has a temper problem, who would’ve guessed?

That doubles defeat clearly finished him off, cos he's withdrawn from the singles now.

He was booted out of the tournament

Ha, just shows what you miss when you follow tennis via the occasional stream, a score app, and the ATP site (which has said *nothing* about this).

What an idiot.

jiri vesely takes out novak in dubai ! meds will reach #1

vesely is now 2-0 vs novak btw

Had it on my phone during the tail end of a meeting :)

Vesely failed to serve it out once, and was unlucky with a bad call (played-two after a challenge) in the t/b - but Novak tossed in a double to hand back the advantage.

Not quite sure why it took so long for Novak's non-entry to the US to be confirmed... Indian Wells men's draw shuffled around overnight, Dimitrov now #33 at bottom of draw.

Irony is he'll be back at #1 unless Medvedev has a deep run here (Medvedev drops his Marseille '21 points this week, Novak loses nothing). Djokovic is only ATP player in top 25 absent (next highest absentee is Federer! Grimly holding on to those half-price 2019 points); women's draw rather spottier - Barty, Krejcikova, Collins, Pavlyuchenkova missing.

i read meds keeps #1 if he makes the quarters...his path looks like monfils then alcaraz or bautista agut.... gotta think he's like 75% or so to do that

Thanks to the Davis Cup interruption to the calendar, he's already beaten Pat "One-Week" Rafter anyway :)

Also seems like IW22 and IW21 points both count, until IW21 drops off in October (unlike, say, FO20/FO21)? I guess IW21 was sort of where Shanghai would normally be in the schedule, so it'll drop when that comes around again.

nadal comes back after korda was serving up 5-2 in the 3rd... great 3rd set, korda is uber talented

watched brooksby defend and torment stef last night, incredibly impressive... they said in the atp live rankings brooksby is now ranked #40 (!)

opelka also beat shapo yesterday

brooksby, opelka, fritz & korda are all 24 or under... that group bodes p well for us mens tennis imo

Not for the first time, I switch off a Medvedev match thinking "he's got this", and check 30min later and he's barely won a game since.

Harriet Dart in the last sixteen is unexpected; saw her play Wimbledon qualies a few years back. Alcaraz taking out RBA two and love is scary stuff. Kyrgios flying too.

man this breaks my heart a little bit

Used to be rackets and strings, now this🙄🙏🏻🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/hdYjMDlMuo

— Alex Dolgopolov (@TheDolgo) March 16, 2022

Age while entering the top-15:

Rafael Nadal - 18y 10m 16d
Carlos Alcaraz - 18y 10m 17d

— YoungTennisGuns (@YoungTennisGuns) March 18, 2022

Wow didn't see this one coming

World No.1 Asheigh Barty has announced her retirement from tennis.

Full video with Casey Dellacqua on Instagram: https://t.co/4dvdLMIgOQ pic.twitter.com/4A6bhh3pJT

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) March 23, 2022

mad respect though, going out on top

back to cricket

1 of the matches of the year thus far diego/stef in monte carlo, wow

Whoa, that's the one match I saw nothing of today! I saw it was 6-2 5-2 and didn't think it was even worth checking the score again!

yep diego came back to win the second in a tiebreak, then had a point to go up 5-0 in the 3d….but stef got momentum back & pulled it out, complete w a dive volley in his last game

Carlos Alcaraz won this tennis match pic.twitter.com/8Bj3es7QWT

— Ricky Dimon (@Dimonator) April 24, 2022

hes only lost 3 times this yr

The improvised shovel down the line to save the MP depicted above was bizarre.

Felt a bit sorry for Norrie in the midst of all the Barcelona rain - 3hr+ vs Fucsovics and then another epic vs De Minaur same day, while ADM's earlier last-16 match was a 6-0 (ret).

Grimly predictable recoveries from set (or set+break) deficits all week from Novak in Belgrade, only to get bageled in the decider by Rublev in the final. Excellent. Everyone is peaking too early again though! By the time Roland Garros is here, you know what's going to happen.

Swiatek finally dropped a set, but she's in Williams territory with this run. Even if Barty hadn't retired she'd be a long way off #1 by now.

Re: Russian/Belarussian ban at SW19 (sorry, strictly off-topic, but it's too early to start a Wimb thread)... where's the spirit of '73 in the ATP/WTA? I'm not sure what to make it of myself, but if the players' federations are completely against it then there has to be some action?

Loving the rise of Alcaraz/Swiatek. Never was too into Tennis but I've been fortunate enough to be around a lot of live matches lately by way working in the TV industry. Have quickly become a big fan. Seems like an exciting time with the tides of the Big 3 turning...

Alcaraz: first player ever to beat Nadal and Djokovic on consecutive days on clay. 62 16 63 vs Rafa yesterday (I saw CA getting his foot taped at 62 12, saw that he lost the next four games, and didn't bother tuning back in!), 67 75 76 in 3h35 vs Novak just now. He has a 10-1 record in final set t/bs? Ridiculous.

Tsitsipas-Zverev almost a non-event in comparison. Funny how the Next Gen, having failed to truly break through against the old guard (three of them have lost Slam finals from two sets up ffs!) are now becoming a supporting act to this teenager. My money was actually on Sinner or Musetti eclipsing them (or, once upon a time, FAA), and that may still be the case at Slam level.

(Entirely possible Zverev beats Alcaraz today, of course!)

Yeah about that

Tim Van Rijthoven, ranked 205, who had played precisely one ATP main-draw match before this week (as a lucky loser, Winston-Salem 2016), has just won 's-Hertogenbosch as a wildcard. Beat Fritz, Auger Aliassime and Medvedev.

“Living in the closet is impossible. It is too hard, it is pointless,” she added. “Living in peace with yourself is the only thing that matters, and fuck everyone else.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jul/18/daria-kasatkina-russian-tennis-player-comes-out-as-gay

Good for you, Daria!

bernarda pera wins back to back 250s
twenty-four straight sets won i believe

always liked her game everytime i watched her but she'd regularly have dips where shed make tons of errors; today vs konteveit she was so solid, only dropped serve once & it was when she was serving for the match up two breaks

Great stuff from Pera. Delighted to see Thiem string a few wins together, though he got thumped by Berrettini in the Gstaad semis yesterday.

Holger Rune's run to the Paris-Bercy title is quite... incredible:

R1: Wawrinka
R2: #10 Hurkacz
R3: #9 Rublev
QF: #1 Alcaraz
SF: #8 Auger-Aliassime
F: #7 Djokovic (6 times champ)

— José Morgado (@josemorgado) November 6, 2022

Hats off but I’ve got a feeling I have my NextGen hate figure :)

Watched the deciding set vs Stan (gutted!) and saw the little exchange at the net (which was a bit harsh). Also saw last hour of Novak-Stef semi and about half of that crazy 17min last game in the final (on my phone, on a train, picture freezing as I lost signal). So, yeah, any Djokovic defeat is good but really not sure about Holger…

What's wrong with Rune?

not sure if he was eventually fined but investigated by ATP last year for using homophobic slurs. also allegedly made up some stuff about Casper Ruud on social media

Yeah, he just seems fairly immature and brattish, yelling at his parents in the crowd etc; a particularly intense driven character who may grow into someone a bit more likeable :) The Ruud dispute was bizarre - genuinely seemed to have invented a locker room confrontation to deflect criticism of his own on court behaviour. And his “apology” (quickly deleted) for the homophobia was basically “sorry I’m not perfect LOL”.

Not easy to grow up in the spotlight, but he’s not winning ppl over so far. Alcaraz, in comparison, is already hugely popular.

good story

Djokovic once hand-picked him to 'impersonate' Nadal’s lefty forehand before a Grand Slam final

Yet until last night, 33-year-old Matija Pecotic had never competed on the ATP Tour

This is a story of redemption - a classic case of it’s never too late and you’re never too old 🧵 pic.twitter.com/fjcSwqqs9J

— Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) February 15, 2023

great scrambling match pt by dimitrov vs deminaur just now

saw the stat that this is dimitrov's 44th tour level semifinal & 12 consecutive seasons hes reached one...

undercutting that, today was grigor’s 11th straight semifinal loss

unbelievable cincy final, 3h49m novak comes back and beats alcaraz
novak said it felt like a grand slam final &
it truly kinda did, really great drama

Novak looked completely overheated and dazed while the sun was still over half the court (his first match in daylight this week!) - Alcaraz really let him back in with that loose game at 7-5 4-3. I had to sleep after Djokovic levelled. I clearly missed the ATP set of the year.

watched the third set live, a near-religious experience. djokovic is the goat goat

that match point alcaraz saved at — what was it, 5-3? — with the running, looping forehand down the line? jesus christ. or his kamakaze returns of serve? the truly astonishing djoko double faults? one of the best sets I’ve ever seen