ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

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

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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

she came back and won tday miami rd one, was down a set and 1-5

felix now into the 4th rd @ miami, into the top-50 rankings

andreescu still hasnt lost in a whiile, beat kerber again

krygios hit an underhand ace, no look volley winner, & is jawing w a fan non-stop all w/in the last 5 minutes

I don't know why Kerber being such an incredibly poor sport about Andreescu is so funny to me but it really is

Delbonis was emphatically hitting through Novak for about 25min last night before he started to miss, and that was the end of that. Novak does not look happy though. But he didn't at Wimbledon, where this whole sweep back to #1 started. Continuing in the vein of turning off the Amazon stream around midnight GMT just before a match takes an unexpected turn, couldn't quite believe Ferrer came back against Sascha.

Now to find a Nick K highlight reel. And Andreescu on YT.

Nick K tells a spectator "F U", incurs a penalty point for a double-break in the 3rd and spends his last change of ends sarcastically applauding the ump for failing to control the crowd.

Bautista Agut loses first seven of first eight games vs Novak but outlasts him over three sets. Really good stuff towards the end. Both players looked utterly spent. Not sure what 25C + 77% humidity feels like, something like the Central Line in summer I'm guessing.

yea rba is a tough dude & having a nice start to 2019

id've prob thought it more likely of novak winning both of indian wells+miami as opposed to neither but these things happen

Back to fragility of the early months of his 2018 return - only takes a minor setback to have ND looking at his box, chuntering away, pushing the shot clock. You knew he was in trouble last night as soon as RBA got a toe-hold in the 2nd set. Can't serve out sets, take BPs. No doubt he'll sort it out, and the Slam format is so much more forgiving of these mid-match distractions. Last year's Wimb QF vs Kei was maybe a three-set defeat in another venue.