ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

(But you simply cannot lie prone on your back. The word the author was looking for is supine. :-P )

juicy madrid quarters:

novak/cilic
fed/thiem
tsitsy/sascha
stan/rafa

have some dignity stan

no shame when its vs rafa

It seems like Fed loses a lot of matches from MP up in the twilight of his career. Pretty good battle though and Thiem is a master of clubbing his way out of trouble. Hopefully he can win this.

yea thiem is confident in his serve & groundstokes at all times basically, i dont fault fed too much for squandering those match pts

And... Thiem just comes up short vs Novak. Up a break in both sets, ultimately a DF in the second set t/b did for him. Oh well, go win the French.

Genuinely great performance from Tsitsipas. The slices! He’s my guy for the next decade I reckon.

quite a day in rome

Yep. Wednesday washed out = Thursday So. Much. Tennis. Amusingly, the first six WTA matches of the day all went the distance too, pushing the schedule ever later. Not sure of the circs surrounding Serena's withdrawal - meant that Venus was the only person to progress yesterday (after 3hr+ vs Mertens on Tuesday). And now she gets to rest ahead of Konta match in mid-afternoon L16, who just played 2hr30 vs Stephens this morning.

Nadal seems to be peaking at the right time? Even in defeat, performance vs Tsitispas (Madrid) > vs Thiem (Barce) >>> vs Fognini (MC), and he's just allowed Chardy a single game here.

And... Nick K chucks a chair and gets DQ'd. He *started* his first round match with an underarm serve.

prob was too much overlap but it wouldve been amazing to see in person in one day each or fed rafa and novak play twice

kyrgios wow, that podcast was p hilarious that all he truly wants to do in life is get iced coffees shoot hoops and hang out ~ ok bro

nadal wins two matches and drops two total games o_O

Horrific shank wide from Delpo on double MP vs Djoko, after he'd been nailing FHs all night. I don't think I can bear to watch the 3rd set.

excellent match, both have missed tons of massive opportunities

love how now both are playing to the crowd~

Obv I continued to keep an eye on it. Absurd drop half-volley from Delpo to save BP, but ultimately to no avail.

Nice to see Dustin Brown having success on the grass in Stuttgart - plays Zverev next!

DB's win over Millman today was his first at ATP Tour main-draw level since 2017 US Open; he's been plugging away on the Challenger tour. He even won a title on clay at Sophia Antipolis in France in April to get himself back in the top 200. He got 9000 euro for that. Less than a fifth of what he'll get if he get into the main draw at Wimbledon.

And Dustin wins! 6-4 6-7 6-3. With the help of... FOURTEEN double faults from Zverev.

I really shouldn't be enjoying Zverev's slow implosion this much

I bet he wins Wimbledon now. Weird thing is, his first-serve percentage was pretty good: 69%. He only had to hit 32 second serves in the match. He missed the box with almost half of them.

dreddy vs faa is a wildly entertaining matchup, 3rd set rn

felix comes back from a break down in the 3rd to take it in a tiebreak; similarly coric did the same thing in den bosch earlier tday

Heading to Wimbledon for the first time this year, first two days, hoping for ground passes. Would we be likely to get those arriving at, say, 6 in the morning?

haven't been for ten years but back then yeah you'd be fine don't think it has changed too much in the meantime but could be wrong

Was thinking of taking a day off next week for Roehampton qualies (used to be you could just rock up and walk in - now it's £10 tickets online + photo ID at the gate) but the forecast is not great. If I could be *sure* the weather was terrible Tue-Thu, I'd go the Friday and there'd be a glut of matches left (I did this in 2016). But... the event is supposed to be over by Thu, and so there are no tickets for Fri. Meh.

xp thanks, hopefully

feli is having a week @ queens club, upstaging andy

today:
4:07pm: starts singles SF

6:23pm: wins singles SF

6:44pm: resumes doubles QF

6:57pm: wins doubles QF

7:08pm: starts doubles SF

8:51pm: wins doubles SF

Simon was terrific earlier - Medvedev couldn't break him down. Painted the line on 49th stroke of rally to save bp early in 3rd, and went on from there.

Maybe I'd never noticed before, but FAA has same b'day as Fed. 19 years younger. FAA, RF, Laver and Sampras all have their birthdays within four days of each other August. I'm one day outside of that group, hence my lousy overheads.

xpost I just really love how Feli Lopez has carved out a career as a grass court specialist in a world where all other Spanish male players prefer clay. up a set in the final against Simon rn.

Edging closer to the first 12-12 breaker at Roehampton; Sinner and Bolt are deep into the decider...

Edging closer to the first 12-12 breaker at Roehampton; Sinner and Bolt are deep into the decider...

Jinxed it! Bolt wins 12-10 as soon as I posted that.

compelling atlanta match, tiafoe had break pt vs bernie tomic to go up 5-0 in the first set, tomic looked his usual uninterested ~ set got to 4-4, 'foe won 6-4. bernie then came back, played hard & showed how skilled he is & won in 3 sets

andreescu is, amazingly, back at it again ~ 3 straight 3 set wins @ rogers cup, today over kiki bertens; up next is karolina pliskova in the qtrs

yet again, this gal is wild - 6-0, 2-6, 6-4

serena/osaka tnight also btw

fed unexpectedly flat & out of cincy to rublev (!)

deminaur is abt to close out rba 2 & 2 o_o

andreescu finally lost a match (to osaka & it was a battle)

ascendant next gens @ shanghai

meds v tsitsy / zverev v berretini

Fed was untouchable for approx 10min today, in the process of saving 5mps, and Zverev rode it out (a rattled RF getting himself a point penalty and needlessly haranguing the ump for failing to remind him when it was the last game with the old balls). Pretty impressive from Sascha. Glorious from Tsitsy too.

Maybe... it's finally happening? Until the next Slam when there's no one under 30 in the second week.

There's this idea going around that Zv, Dom and Tsits have somehow been emboldened by the Laver Cup experience, turning around their stuttering seasons. Which seems far-fetched. Kinda funny if being coached and cajoled by Fed courtside actually gives you the key to beating him forever after.

Yeah, that occurred to me too.
Medvedev in his sixth consecutive final!

Of course, DM skipped the Laver Cup altogether :)

6 straight finals is madness

thats like novak territory or rafa on clay

I hope Medvedev can sustain this for a few years

btw I am fully engulfed in COCO FEVER

As Lex pointed out elsewhere, we completed the triangle in Linz:

Qual R2: Korpatsch 6-4 6-2 Gauff
Round of 32: Ostapenko 6-1 6-3 Korpatsch
Final: Gauff* 6-3 1-6 6-2 Ostapenko

(* - reinstated as Lucky Loser when Sakkari withdrew from main draw)

Andrea Jaeger won a title in Las Vegas in 1980 as a lucky loser (Wiki says the Sept '80 event, but she was already a five-time finalist by then; more likely the Jan '80 event), and there was also Olga Danilović in Moscow last year. Happens more often with the men (though still rare). Rublev (Umag) and Mayer (Hamburg) did it in consecutive weeks in 2017. I think you should be made to play the person who knocked you out, best of three tie-break tens, in a challenge round, before you get the trophy. Unless they've skipped town.

You can lose an hour looking at openerarankings.com (or I can).

Fun fact: nearly everyone down as far as Aljaz Bedene at #66 in the ATP Race is still in with a shot of a place at the O2 :) (Off to put a fiver on Felly Lopez to win Antwerp, Vienna and Paris for that 8th spot).