ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

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

tiafoe still wildly volatile coming off his qtr final aussie open run, was bounced in ny open 1st match by jason jung, now is abt to lose defending his 2018 delray beach title 1st match to dan evans

in good form w his racket smash tho, to be fair

lots of other big upsets today osaka out to kiki mladenovic in dubai, thiem out to djere and fognini out to FAA in rio

I'm stunned that Naomi Osaka fired her coach. I don't have a good feel yet for her maturity and temperament, but I hope this decision wasn't rash.

Del Potro's back in action! Beat Nishioka in two sets at Delray Beach

he looked good, nishioka put up a solid fight

fed confirms hes playing clay btw, madrid open entry

Hmm, interesting. I sort of figured that Fed would play clay again but only in a farewell tour kind of way.

wow bencic/sabalenka was just a fucking battle; belinda saved 6 match pts and won the match on her 1st mp chance

delpo sees two break chances vs opelka, converts both & cruises in straights, abt what youd expect~

lol mackie macdonald beats delpo, spikes his racquet in celebration

& the racquet nearly rebounds off the ct to hit him in the face

just a stellar monf/tsitsy match wow

fed 100 titles btw

href="

From Milan 2001 to Dubai 2019...

All 100 of @rogerfederer's titles!#RF100 pic.twitter.com/HMwzcKjx6q

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 2, 2019

Kyrgios working miracles this week - not sure how many BPs he saved across those matches but he squeaked home all the same. Back up to 30-31ish in the ranking. Think Fed is top 4 again.

Bit odd to see Kyle Edmund drop down to the Challenger Tour last week (Indian Wells) - I guess he's short of matchplay post-injury, but still ranked fully 50 places higher than the next best guy in the draw, and not surprisingly won the title. You'd think there'd be an upper limit on these things. And now he gets to stay in Indian Wells for the Masters 1000 event.

vika/serena are playing some long ass rallies/games

9 games played, 6 breaks~

shapo beats cilic to advance to 4th rd of indian wells, spits 16 bars to celebrate

wow bianca andreescu first set 6-0 over mugu in teh qtrfinals

mugu won (1) total game, 24 points in the match

oops

fed looks great + is trucking kyle edmund

Khachanov through to meet Nadal in the quarters. We were denied the prospect of Kyrgios extending his 100% record vs Novak, and hence a NickK vs GaelM QF - Kohlsc is spoiling all our fun.

Meanwhile, Auger-Al is the *real* real deal, right? The gen who got to be next because the NextGen weren't actually up to it.

yea FAA will get a title this yr, i bet; assuming nothing detrimental has or will come from the heart condition issue that forced him to w/draw vs shapo last us open

hurkacz is another next genner breaking thru, faces fed in the qtrs

Khach/Nadal had that great us open match last yr too ~ I see rafa and fed both advancing though for the dream semi

svitolina just beating vondorousova was amazing

oof monfils now w/draws due to injury - top semis is milos/thiem

get sampras out there to hit w someone to entertain the crowd

fucking hell, bianca andreescu....outgrits svitolina which is really saying something

outstanding win by thiem

I had to shut down the stream at midnight and get some sleep - at that point Fed was 6-3 1-2, and Thiem kept kicking his serve to the BH with no great effect. Fully expected to wake to a straight sets win though.

Wish Amazon was showing the WTA portion of these combined events. Have seen none of Andreescu’s amazing run.

I didn't see much of Andreescu but what I did see made her one of my favorite players on the tour right now