Raonic's inside-out FH has to be the most tedious shot in tennis
― groovemaaan, Monday, 23 January 2017 09:38 (seven years ago) link
PressedT by Vandeweghe's continued existence in this tournament, by 100% power players left in the women's draw and by Raonic in general
LUCIC though, such an amazing story
Bacsinszky/Gavrilova has been my fav match of the tournament, so much fun
― lex pretend, Monday, 23 January 2017 09:57 (seven years ago) link
I don't have Roddick levels of disgust for Raonic but when Bat-Agut missed break points at 4-4 in the third, I knew what was coming :/
Monfils not making much impression on Rafa so far either.
Mischa's net-charging leftie craft (where is his backswing?) vs Murray probably the best bits I've seen.
Once again, my cursory interest in the WTA means another huge story passes me by - Lucic-Baroni? As in the 1999 Wimb semifinalist? 16 years between tour titles! Kimiko Date only managed 13. I do vaguely remember the win over Bartoli at Wimbledon, the year before Bartoli was champ. But I'm still not sure I joined the dots with...last century.
― Michael Jones, Monday, 23 January 2017 10:36 (seven years ago) link
Monfils pinches the 3rd set, serving out from 0/40. 6-1 Nadal in the 4th would be the likeliest outcome here, but maybe...
― Michael Jones, Monday, 23 January 2017 12:05 (seven years ago) link
lmao Monfils just broke in the fourth with a dead net cord. playing really well though now
― lex pretend, Monday, 23 January 2017 12:22 (seven years ago) link
yes, Lucic as in the '90s teenage prodigy, Wimbledon '99 SFist and domestic abuse survivor who spent most of the '00s off the tour, financially unable to afford to travel. She's beaten a top 10 player at each Slam since her comeback - Halep at RG '15 and the USO '14 as well.
― lex pretend, Monday, 23 January 2017 12:25 (seven years ago) link
your QF line-ups, which don't make me very enthusiastic. no counterpunchers left in the women's draw :(
Coco Vandeweghe (USA) vs. (7) Garbine Muguruza (ESP)(13) Venus Williams (USA) vs. (24) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)(5) Karolina Pliskova (CZE) vs. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO)(9) Johanna Konta (GBR) vs. (2) Serena Williams (USA)
Mischa Zverev (GER) vs. (17) Roger Federer (SUI)(4) Stan Wawrinka (SUI) vs. (12) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)(9) Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. (3) Milos Raonic (CAN)(11) David Goffin (BEL) vs. (15) Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)
― lex pretend, Monday, 23 January 2017 12:47 (seven years ago) link
I really need Muguruza to destroy Vandeweghe
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Monday, 23 January 2017 15:23 (seven years ago) link
im def a sucker for lefties w quirky games so may try to get up early tomorrow am for mischa/fed
I was able to see some of fed beat kei, kei had to work so hard to get that fourth set that I am not surprised the 5th wasn't v close
dimitrov knocking out gasquet had the us announcers speculating dimitrov could get into the top-5 in the rankings by year end...lol it was impressive but pump the brakes on that imo
― johnny crunch, Monday, 23 January 2017 15:29 (seven years ago) link
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Monday, January 23, 2017 3:23 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Seconded. So annoyed with Vinci and Parmentier for not doing it especially as Vandeweghe was gagging for her life vs the latter. In the Bouchard match it was very weird to see Eugenie be the more likeable player on court by far!
Did you see Tennis Twitter dragging the fuck out of Isner for his Trump support the other day Dan?
I'm really fascinated by how Mischa and Sascha Zverev have such completely different games. I know a decade separates them but there's just nothing in common about their strokes, styles, approaches, anything.
― lex pretend, Monday, 23 January 2017 16:13 (seven years ago) link
I missed that. IMO fuck that dude (my lingering tolerance of him has pretty much evaporated)
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Monday, 23 January 2017 16:16 (seven years ago) link
faster courts really are having a big impact aren't they. feels like a different tournamentno way Venus or Federer are looking this imperious on slow hardcourts, for example
― cerealbar, Monday, 23 January 2017 17:23 (seven years ago) link
man monfils was 57 winners 64 UEs and rafa was 21 and 27
― k3vin k., Monday, 23 January 2017 22:03 (seven years ago) link
vandeweghe bagelling garbi T_T
― monotony, Tuesday, 24 January 2017 04:08 (seven years ago) link
UGHHHHHHHHH
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 24 January 2017 07:11 (seven years ago) link
Fedal/Serenus finals was not the way I intended the world to go back to the mid-late '00s, but it's a start.
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 24 January 2017 12:08 (seven years ago) link
just for lex:
Roddick said he has been a Clijsters fan since they first met.“I think we were 13 and at a world youth cup event in Japan,” Roddick said. “Try being more awkward than a 12- or 13-year-old at a dance with a bunch of teams from all around the world who may not speak your language and may not understand your culture and may not whatever.“But there was this one girl who was going around and just being really friendly to everyone and went out there and started dancing by herself and just couldn’t have cared less. She was just going to let kindness rule, and then all the sudden, five minutes later, everyone was out there with her.”That girl was Clijsters.
“I think we were 13 and at a world youth cup event in Japan,” Roddick said. “Try being more awkward than a 12- or 13-year-old at a dance with a bunch of teams from all around the world who may not speak your language and may not understand your culture and may not whatever.
“But there was this one girl who was going around and just being really friendly to everyone and went out there and started dancing by herself and just couldn’t have cared less. She was just going to let kindness rule, and then all the sudden, five minutes later, everyone was out there with her.”
That girl was Clijsters.
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 24 January 2017 16:52 (seven years ago) link
Lucic-Baroni takes the first set! At work unfortunately but thrilled by this scoreline.
― monotony, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 00:55 (seven years ago) link
took 3 sets but she's done it! Such a pleasing result
― monotony, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 02:03 (seven years ago) link
When Konya went up 3-1 in the second I said to myself "this is over, Serena is going to win the next 5 games in a row"
Then she did and I was like "lol, knew it"
I like Konya tho
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Wednesday, 25 January 2017 03:55 (seven years ago) link
Mirjanaaaaaaa
Stupid body started falling asleep halfway through the second set (at which point tbf I thought Pliskova would come back)
The theme of this year's SFs is "the '90s teenage prodigies who got me into tennis, now in their thirties"
It's really apt that Lucic plays Serena next because they're the same age and in 1997-98 they were spoken of in the same breath as the potential future greats of the tour, and then their careers diverged massively, and a good part of that is because one had a loving family who protected her from the pitfalls of being a teenage prodigy, and the other had an abusive father who beat her and when she fled had no institutional support and got treated like trash by her own management company
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 08:46 (seven years ago) link
Classic Rafa. Raonic has six set points, Rafa saves the lot, takes the set on his first. Up 2-0.
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 10:42 (seven years ago) link
Oh, and I see Raonic DF'd one of those SPs away.
watch Wawrinka play spoiler now
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 11:24 (seven years ago) link
Wawrinka-Dimitrov final may be good. Fed-Nadal final could be spectacular (but I understand the oh-no-not-again feelings) but I don't think my nerves could stand it.
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 11:27 (seven years ago) link
I'd be interested in watching Fed/Nadal just because it's been so long, it's the fawning nostalgia that will accompany it that I can't stand
Dimitrov has owned Wawrinka in recent years, weirdly. Not that I think Dimitrov is capable of rising to the occasion in his first Slam final. I mean, I give him 0.00001% chance against Nadal.
On the women's side the most important thing is that VENUS STOPS THIS NONSENSE. Either a double bagel, or a comeback saving a zillion match points that breaks Vandeweghe's career for good.
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 11:37 (seven years ago) link
lex OTM, Vandeweghe must be destroyed
It is really hard as someone who by default wants to root for all of the players from his country to have ppl like Isner and Vandeweghe in the mix. Basically, the Williams sisters can never retire and I need the currently-rising young guns on the men's side to pull through and take over.
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Wednesday, 25 January 2017 15:26 (seven years ago) link
I've got no time for the awful nostalgia which is inevitable for a Fed/Nadal re-match - please Stan don't let us down.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 18:44 (seven years ago) link
xp the female US players other than Vandeweghe have all impressed me politically of late - Keys, Hampton, Min, several of the ITF-level players and especially Nicole Gibbs have made some pretty smart, on-point statements. I haven't seen anything like that from any of the men except retired James Blake, who has been extraordinarily patient with some of his compatriots lately.
On the subject of rising US men, you all heard about 19yo Taylor Fritz becoming a daddy six months after his sudden marriage last summer? Such sensible decisions being made there.
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 18:54 (seven years ago) link
Watching even a little bit of the coverage on ESPN has been miserable: They've been doing their damnedest to try to make Vandeweghe in any way likable, and it is just immediately exhausting. She's also featured in a biometrics ad that has been airing incessantly on Tennis Channel during their coverage, so it has tried my patience to watch any of this event live. Completely with lex that I want Venus to win in a way that makes Vandeweghe reconsider her every choice moving forward.
I'm pulling decisively for a Federer v Dmitrov final, but would honestly be fine were Stan to win the title.
― jon_oh, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 20:45 (seven years ago) link
seems weird to root against two of the greatest players of all time meeting in a GS final when there are no other compelling competing storylines
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 25 January 2017 21:11 (seven years ago) link
the only reason I'm not emphatically rooting against a Fedal final is because I'm not really a fan of Wawrinka or Dimitrov (but I'd much rather see their games square off against each other in the final). If Monfils or Nishikori had only made it...
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 23:52 (seven years ago) link
I was also rooting for Monfils and Nishikori
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Wednesday, 25 January 2017 23:54 (seven years ago) link
same
― k3vin k., Thursday, 26 January 2017 00:00 (seven years ago) link
hard for me to recall/believe i saw lucic baroni lose in qualifiers just last august :o
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 26 January 2017 02:51 (seven years ago) link
o damn, that loss was to Sakkari !
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 26 January 2017 02:53 (seven years ago) link
nishikori is trending down imo, i had thought he could contend for a major this yr but i would back off that hard currently
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 26 January 2017 02:55 (seven years ago) link
espn tennis coverage is always bad; compared w how the cover the us open, this is a dream
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 26 January 2017 02:59 (seven years ago) link
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS
― (The caption: “fine dining.”) (DJP), Thursday, 26 January 2017 05:47 (seven years ago) link
18 years after their first ever meeting on tour - here in R2 in 1998!
― lex pretend, Thursday, 26 January 2017 09:04 (seven years ago) link
Thank goodness for Venus Williams.
Fed two sets up. Can't watch this - how it's going? Stats are not suggesting a great match (UEs>Winners, average serve %age) but that can be deceptive.
― Michael Jones, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:07 (seven years ago) link
couldn't watch the match because of work, but I just caught the Venus/Coco highlights - lol/smdh @ Coco's sore loser handshake at the net afterwards. girl, bye.
― Roz, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:08 (seven years ago) link
xp Fed's looking in control under pressure rather than peaking particularly - his net-rushing is keeping Wawrinka off-balance and it feels like Wawrinka doesn't have time to set up as he'd like. Federer's errors haven't come at crucial times.
As I type that Federer gets broken thanks to a bunch of errors obv
― lex pretend, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:15 (seven years ago) link
Going down two sets loosened Stan up, he's hitting much more freely and making fewer errors now. Now up two breaks in the fourth and serving it out.
― Roz, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:23 (seven years ago) link
Nothing about my post is true any more
― lex pretend, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:23 (seven years ago) link
wow, Fed broken for the third time in a row. his timing and serve has completely deserted him.
― Roz, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:30 (seven years ago) link
Fed stops the rot with a break back. All about steadying the serve now.
― Michael Jones, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:35 (seven years ago) link
like that.
― Roz, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:37 (seven years ago) link
I'm trying to calm myself with the notion that Fed has - against the odds - defended his 2016 points here, which is a good bedrock on which to build the year, keeps him in the top 20 through the spring probably, etc. This is the line that Fed would peddle after a defeat, most likely. All good, nice to be back, yada yada. But, damn, I really want him to get that 18th Slam.
― Michael Jones, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:52 (seven years ago) link
Stan just PEAKED to break for 5-4. Three incredible winners in that game
― lex pretend, Thursday, 26 January 2017 10:58 (seven years ago) link