ILE rolling non-slam Tennis thread

also: Li Na won her first 11 matches of the year.

And has now lost her next four.

Brad Gilbert, getting to the heart of what's important:

@bgtennisnation Can we get an Amen? Djoker in all Black...I believe! Best outfit since he's been with Sergio Tachini by far. Beat down in proper gear. about 11 hours ago

I don't know if anyone was online to see this as it happened but...Isner's completely awful attempts to flirt with Woz last night: http://cowbell.typepad.com/forty_deuce/2011/03/isniacki-still-going-at-it-like-two-neutered-puppies.html

he's been at it for what, months, and still no mobile phone number to get this stuff 'offline'? ai ai ai

i love how Djokovic is all like "ok i'm taking over" and IMMEDIATELY gets invited over

Haha yeah Caro is all "omg thank god you're here" when Nole shows up.

Isner's so adorably clueless. There was also his equally fail-tastic attempt with PETKORAZZI who was -clearly- just messing with him:

http://cowbell.typepad.com/forty_deuce/2011/02/iskorazzi.html

omg actually cringing. of all the songs to try to use! oh god that moment when someone who's into you and knows you ~like music~ and are just so clueless about what you like...been there petkorazzi, been there. she's awesome.

isner trying to mack on PETKORAZZI is just the most unfair sight, really, like from the very start you could tell he was being fucked with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh8luGivOlw

so much gold. loooool mumford and sons.

obviously the australian and the brit have the worst taste!

the Ivanovic/Cake match I just watched for some reason was a horror show btw. Don't think I've seen many more pathetic things on a tennis court than Ivanovic whining to her coach about she didn't know whaaaat to dooooooo. Cake looked like she was on the verge of vomiting, Ivanovic looked like she was on the verge of crying, and both played accordingly.

also Ana's constant AJDEEEEEEEs are still ringing in my head and may even have displaced "friday"

Kind of like how Ana insists she's having 'fun fun fun' after every bad loss.

She had it right when she said she dominated the rallies and still lost, though.

ehhh, Cake was pretty proactive in the first set, in the second set she reduced her strategy to "hit everything to Ivanovic's BH all the time, regardless of anything else" - think she could've won it a lot easier if she'd deviated from that a bit but hey it worked. in any case, Ivanovic does tend to control rallies against most opponents, it's just that she controls them into the net or 5 feet long.

Peng vs Sharapova is really good.. As in both athletes playing well!

Now it's just one of them.

man, I really didn't think I'd ever find myself rooting for Sharapova again, but she's playing Wozniacki

I'd be interested to see it just for the stylistic match-up but I've no idea who I'd root for/who I dislike less. I didn't see their USO match but remember thinking, going in, that it'd be an easy win for Sharapova. Whoops.

Gasquet is so pathetic. Missed points for a 3-0 lead in the first set...promptly lost six games in a row. Got his 3-0 lead in the second set...promptly lost five games in a row.

lol, never change Gasquet

is it just me or are there a lot of parallels between the US and French players in terms of ability/choke factor

also I can't say 100% why both Sharapova and Wozniacki irritate me so much, but they really, really do

it's pretty basic for me - I find Wozniacki's game pretty dull (and her personality seems like St Kim of Niceness redux), I find Sharapova's shrieking intolerable (and the corporate Nikebot hype surrounding her is annoying too). I guess I'd have supported Woz because when I woke up to the result I laughed out loud for about 10 minutes. 1 and 2!

is it just me or are there a lot of parallels between the US and French players in terms of ability/choke factor

haha maybe Blake, I don't think even the Russian headcases can compete with the lack of fortitude and/or mental weakness demonstrated by Gasquet/Mauresmo/Mathieu/Pierce.

Hey, Gasquet took out Roddick, which is basically Job Done in this event.

Mauresmo and Pierce actually won slams in the end

I guess I'd have supported Woz because when I woke up to the result I laughed out loud for about 10 minutes. 1 and 2!

as did I but I imagine I might have the done the exact same thing if the results were reversed.

Never want Woz to win *anything* though I find her pretty likeable, I guess? her personality/Twitter/flirtations with ATP-ers can be unintentionally hilarious in a way Shaz-bot's ice queen routine never is.

So Fedz is just an out-in-the-semis guy now, huh.

Never want Woz to win *anything* though I find her pretty likeable, I guess?

This is extremely OTM. I think she's great everywhere except for her actual tennis game, which is probably better than "competent" but just isn't compelling to watch/follow, not like the entire generation that proceeded her or Ivanovic/Jankovic before they fell apart.

ummmm guys this Nadal/Djokovic match is kind of incredible. Both hitting total God shots.

^^wish I had watched that - alas, sleep was too important. yay for djokovic though, dude is now 19-0 in matches for the year. o_0

jmdp well on his way to being seeded by RG/Wimby too, if his good form continues. :) seriously did not think he'd back in the top 50 this quickly (he's at 51 now but likely to move up further in the next few weeks).

meh Caro. I so wish I liked her tennis given how she now seems to be the only person on the entire women's tour who really does handle pressure well (lacklustre results at slams - or indeed, most of her losses - tend to be due to her getting outplayed rather than her choking).

OK what the fuck. I shit you not: St Kim has only gone and pulled out of tournaments in Tokyo and Beijing because of her radiation fears...SIX MONTHS IN ADVANCE.

If she's serious, she's a fucking moron, this is offensively stupid. If - as is more likely - she's frantically seizing any old excuse to get out of playing a couple of events in the autumn, and is willing to make herself look like a shit-for-brains idiot to do so...that's just incredibly sad w/r/t the state of women's tennis.

I wonder if it ever occurs to airheads like Serena and Kim, who sadly happen to be the only true elite players left, that without the Tour, women's tennis is nothing more than a sideshow to men's tennis at the Slams only. Wish they'd get out of the sport already if they hate playing it so much.

okay thank you Sony Ericsson for alerting me to the fact that there is an American tennis player named... JACK SOCK

Hah @ Petkorazzi getting Ivanovic in on her antics for their doubles matches.

Hey look, Na Li lost again. How shocking.

i'm abt to go to bed but for those playing at home, Andy Murray is currently down 4-0 to Alex Bogomolov Jr - not to be confused with upcoming Ukrainian Alex Dolgopolov Jr who's currently ranked 23 and could feasibly take a couple of games off the world number 5. Nope Andy Murray is down 4-0 who turned pro in 2002 but has never been higher than 97 in the world. -_-

*down 4-0 to someone

bah, i need to go to sleep. i will be prepared to laugh/cry in the morning if Muzza actually loses to Bogie.

lolololololololol Murray

Hey look, Murray got broken at 5-6 to lose this match. Nice US hardcourt series for Murray.

safina up 4-1 against bepa

kinda lol but...

looooool so Murray managed to outdo last week's Worst Loss Ever already. And how did Wawrinka manage to lose to Granollers, with a bagel set along the way to boot?

Roddick's straight set loss to #62 Cuevas isn't quite as bad, but it's still pretty bad.

I haven't been keeping up with anything. Is Nadal physically healthy now?

^^he's just fine, lorax. form's been a bit off lately, but only when compared to djokovic who's completely slaying the competition.

speaking of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r1SafhJE_5o

lmao basically andy murray shouldn't be anywhere playing tennis right now, let alone playing alongside the guy who's arguably at the peak of his talents.

Love getting Martinez Sanchez in a tv match.

MaJo is doing her usual silly and cool trick shots mixed with endless unforced errors, but Clijsters is helping her along by playing truly shoddy tennis.

clijsters always has the ugliest dresses

OMG Ivanorazzi with the schoolgirl BFF antics every doubles match. Is this the WTA?

During the changeover after this point, Ana went to wallet and gave Petko some cash. Want to know why? Well, this is what Petko told me afterwards:

She actually gave me $10 but I had to give her change. So [the rules are] if you serve an ace on an important point, $5. If you serve a service winner on an important point, $2, return winner, $2. And this, where she gave me $2, was she said "OK, I'm going to serve a first serve and if you cross and put the volley away I'll give you $2." And she just had $10 so she gave it to me and I said I would give her the change later. Then, after that amazing most epic point ever, she said "OK. You can keep the change." We said that probably we would be the #1 and #2 in the world if the prize money was visible on the net post. So that's our way of motivating.

[...]

Convincing was hard work because last week in Indian Wells, I think, in the tiebreaker, I felt like she hit one or two double faults and didn't hit the returns quite as she's used to. Because I told her before the breaker, I thought it would be motivation but obviously it was some kind of scaring her. I told her "Ana we do the Petko dance if we win!" and I thought like, she's gonna go like "Yeah! Now I'm going to run even more!" but she went, like "Yeah. I'm going to serve two doubles and not put the return in." So I think she was scared back then. But now we practiced and now she's more comfortable. But she said before the match points she said she was getting so nervous because now we were winning it and she would have to do the Petko dance.

http://cowbell.typepad.com/forty_deuce/2011/03/losers-pants-winners-dance.html

And finally: The 4th round is looking amazing for the women.

those two are so adorable, love it! xp

it was nice watching Delpo rip Toaderling a new one last night :)

^^real no. 4 imo

Has Murray won a single set since the Australian Open semi?