ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

cilic is tough, couple gutsy as hell shots down set pt, is currently 10-10 1st set tiebreak

zverev takes it 15-13

Well, that was inevitable. As soon as the rain came I had a feeling Rafa would just roll through on the resumption.

Quite impressed with Sascha this week, coming through some tight matches (I’d pegged him as a bit fragile after losing a lead) but to fold after winning 9 of 11 games before the rain delay was really disappointing.

queens club semis tmorrow are interesting

krygios v cilic
&
djoko v chardy

chardy has been on fire but notably is 0-10 all time vs novak, has never won a set and only once has even gotten to a tiebreak o_o

check out these qtrs in newport (ill be in attendance for the later two matches):

jung/smyczek
ramanathan/pospisil

mannerino/granollers
stevie johson/dudi sela

theres also an xhibition match btwn sloane/keys iirc so that may be decently fun actually

mannarino crumbled & sela couldnt handle steve johnsons serve after beating ivo last rd ~

interesting night of matches in dc, impacted by lotsa rainouts already this wk

currently zverev v zverev
noah rubin took out isner & has to play again like 2hrs later v rublev
tiafoe/goffin
chung/deminaur
kei/shapo
murray is also still alive

well jeez - https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/45055266

I've been watching highlights of AM's matches this week - he fights and chases as much as ever did but, damn, 75mph second serves half way up the box. No wonder he's going three hours vs Copil and McDonald, he's not getting any free points.

It's a tough MATCH-UP for Andy, with the CONDITION he's in at the moment.

andy out of dc & out of toronto

did drop a tiebreak but otherwise titsy gets thru djoker w/ not a tonne of resistance, never broken o_o

And now takes out Zverev from MPs down. He’s a bit good.

real grind of a opening night match in cincy, djoker v steve johnson

novak wins it on his 9th match point ~

Real shame Titsy couldn’t take that set-point vs Rafa in Toronto and turn it around. No one has ever beaten five top-10 opponents in a single event* and he had a chance there.

(* men’s tour, since computer rankings in ‘73)

Kinda grimly curious to see just how many points Murray can scramble together before the protected ranking expires. Not that it matters, I guess - even ranked 250 Melbourne, Miami and the rest are likely to wildcard him next year. Can’t last forever for Stan W though.

Ah, but that’s a great win for Stan overnight! He’ll be fine.

hes looking p decent suddenly

chung looked as bad as ive seen a pro look vs delpo, who also looked not super interested

new haven quallies gets going tmorrow - 24 matches w some good names! for $7, i really should have planned better to be going to this :\

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Connecticut_Open_%E2%80%93_Singles

Held over from last night? Which means, with more rain today, Delpo is playing Kyrgios in a few hours. Off to bed, hopefully not to wake to a collapse from Dimi, who is suddenly all late-'17 vs Djoko.

xp

yea i could be wrong but im not bullish on djoko for the us open

fed/stan good so far

damn delpo/goffin set2 is nice also

fed giving it away whoa

stan!

goffin beating anderson then delpo in the same day is impressive as hell

stans bhand is looking great

some sloppiness but this is def a compelling match, fed rarely has recently been a match where he cant dictate as far as i can recall

that pt 2nd set fed 5-4 up in the tiebreak was thrilling

it better not fucking start raining lmao

killer semis, tho all are prob tired

novak/cilic
fed/goffin

fed looked really sluggish to me today

Only following by score app and RF has thrown in three DFs at crucial moments. After a week of not dropping serve.

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/martina-navratilova-documentary-reese-witherspoon-1202811524/

https://sports.yahoo.com/federer-mulling-clay-court-return-2019-182850585--ten.html?src=rss

& playing doubles w novak for laver cup

djoko 2 & 1 over sascha in an hour

fed loses to borna in straights, borna played/served great he didnt even face a break pt

Novak pretty unstoppable at this point. No one has risen from outside the top 20 to be year-end #1 before, and he's going to do it inside 5 months.

Fed clearly a notch below his 2017 level in all respects. Age, finally. Back in March, right up to the point he held MP vs Del Potro in Indian Wells, he seemed a shoo-in for year-end #1, given Nadal's injury, Novak's form. I thought Thiem or Zverev might be the challengers by summer. It's out of his hands now, even if wins 15 straight matches through to the end of the year (Basel/Paris/London) - that's 8160pts and Rafa/Novak pass that with decent runs anywhere. Of course, I've devised a scenario where he manages this ;) Gonna be so disappointed when Novak enters Vienna on a whim* and wins it, ruining my plans.

(* - maybe he's in the draw for this or Basel, hadn't checked; assumed he was skipping the 250s/500s ahead of Paris).

Next year, it's all about Thiem (clay) and Tsitsipas (everything else). I hope.

some fun points munar v de minaur @ nxt gen milan

super compelling 3rd set fed cup, siniakova gets by sophie kenin ~ sini had multiple break pts up 4-1, could not convert, ended up down two match pts @ 4-5 & came back to seal the cup 7-5... was p hi level competitive

If my maths are correct, Fed only has to win five games off Anderson tonight to make the semis. Kinda ridiculous...

I'm not entirely sure if h2h results take precedence if it's only a two-way tie, mind. Fed would want to avoid Novak in the semis, I imagine; I'm not sure whether *any* win enables him to top the group, or if he has to beat KA something like 6-2 6-3 to swing the %-age games in his favour.

This event can be such a let-down at times. Are we going to have a nice little round of applause at 5-5 tonight when they both go through?

(h2h does take precedence it's a two-way tie, I now read)

So... what if KA pulls out with an injury and Coric beats Fed 6-1 6-2 tonight? I'm just trying to spice it up.

one of the reasons i don't watch tennis as much as i ought to is the fans

i think tennis fans might be the worst sports fans in the world

i wish them so much ill

fed/serena will play in a mixed dbles match @ hopman cup

https://sports.yahoo.com/federer-relishing-once-lifetime-serena-clash-012904687.html?src=rss

the post match on court interview w the two of them was really nice

epic giles simon/millman match @ sydney rn

Opelka-Isner in NY semi had the inevitable scoreline and, delving into the stats, was exactly what you'd expect but more so. 80+ aces between them and Opelka surviving 6 MPs in a 16-14 t/b. More interesting than that, Brayden Schnur is Opelka's opponent in the final. 23yo Canadian, world #154, never won a Tour-level match before this week, never made it into a Slam main draw, won a few ITF Future titles back in 2016-17, has only reached one Challenger-level final. He'll be approx #108 if he loses the final and #92 if he wins, which hardly seems enough of a leap! At least he's straight into Delray Beach ATP250 next week as a special exemption.

schnur has looked good. stevie johnson had him dead to rights a few rounds back but choked p hard, credit to schnur for hanging in there