The Tennis Thread

[Scott]

Aga!!! she looked so proud

and why does maria look like she's posing for cheesy travel brochure?

*facebook.com/wta

 

[Scott]

first upset of the day....berdych went out to giraldo. i suppose that's the thing about best of three sets. that now puts the czech hopes on kvitova,who may be a bit more mentally tough at this point than berdych is,anyhow.

 

[Chaky]

Berdych's not having a good year on the grass is he? Shocker. Oh and he lost to Steve Darcis; Harrison lost to Giraldo. Well, that's one less danger man in Murray's quarter.

Aga!!! she looked so proud

and why does maria look like she's posing for cheesy travel brochure?

Aga looked great! She seems to have taken a couple of inches off her skirt compared to everyone else.

And Masha manages to pull off her outfit I think.

Great to see so many tennis players (especially carrying the flags) in the parade last night.

 

[Scott]

oh the russian uniforms are très horrible....manages it but i never would have imagined anything could ever make maria look that dowdy but they accomplished that

i think aga,either likes short dresses or she's become accustomed to the tennis length she wears

looks like sam stosur might be following berdych....after winning the first set against suarez navarro pretty comfortably,she's now down by a set and 3/4.

 

[Scott]

and as such has fallen to suarez navarro in a marathon third set,8/10. li na was also ousted by daniela hanutuchova. i can't really say that it's a shock because neither sam or li na are comfortable on the grass,and they both lost early at wimbledon too.

roger federer is having a bit of a dog fight with falla right now. as you mentioned earlier,chaky,kind anticipated that might happen given their history.

 

[Chaky]

roger federer is having a bit of a dog fight with falla right now. as you mentioned earlier,chaky,kind anticipated that might happen given their history.

Yeah it was a struggle and Roger needed his 5th match point to win. Next up is Benneteau again so it doesn't really get easier.

 

[Scott]

petra kvitova had to battle today in her opening match against kateryna bondarenko...it went three sets and most of their service games went the distance. perhaps some opening round jitters from kvitova this being her debut and being back on the grass again.

and your girl keothavong....she played a very brave first set against wozniacki. best i've ever seen her play. she went down 0/3 in the second but battled back....woz ultimately taking the second set however. hopefully anne can get back some of that inspired play for the third.

cibulkova went down today against grass-proficient tsvetana pironkova. we should watch out for the bulgarian i feel.

 

[anaa lpz]

wow, I can't believe Sam lost against Carla! I thought she would have an easy match.

some upsets today, and some other players struggling to win, like Roger.
I like it
I hate how predictable the men's draw is at GS, for example.

I loved watching all the tennis players who were flag bearers I know I'm biased, but Maria looked so gorgeous

 

[Scott]

were any of you aware that marcos baghdatis has been with karolina sprem(i didn't even know karolina had officially retired!) and they're expecting a baby and they got married a week after wimbledon?

oh and aga i don't know what happened to her today. i don't what it is about the olympics but it seems to be making the players that are struggling otherwise play better and the top players play poorly.

 

[anaa lpz]

yes, that's true! only a few top players have won easily.

Maria and Andy didn't have problems to win, but Novak is now on the third set and so is Tsonga.

It's said that playing for your country is not the same than playing a regular tournament or a GS, but still, lots of upsets.

 

[Scott]

not to mention having that team support around you,definitely can lift a player up. and goerges has been struggling mightily since after the clay court season last year(apart from her 3rd consecutive upset over woz at dubai earlier in the season)so it's kind of nice seeing her bring her best in a circumstance that has nothing to do with her solely. it's kind of shame she hasn't been as consistent because the girl has shown real brilliance on the court...she should be a top player with the game and the serve that she has. 18 aces in one match. in fact it was a great serving day though from both women. i'm sure the conditions with the roof closed attributed to the consistency but i've never seen aga serve as well as she did and still come out on the losing end,especially from a woman who's beaten just about everybody outside azarenka and boasts a super-impressive 44-10 win/loss record on the year.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Russia, the US of A, and the Great Brit's uniforms were awful. [Great Britain's uniforms looked like that silly white milkman's suit Fed wore to Wimbledon a few year's back - PseudoFed even joked about lending it to them, ha ha]

I thought the Serbian team was one of the best looking: casual, bright and smart. Not the least bit gimmicky or tacky.

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/UxUsxd_wkbO/2012+Olympic+Games+Opening+Ceremony/RmuYEU7DQKI

 

[Scott]

another tough match for kvitova today. started out slowly again but in both sets but redeemed herself in the third set. great fight back but she definitely needs to improve and buckle down and play the way we know she can.

question though....why the hell was the 2011 wimbledon champion kvitova all the way out on court 14 but wozniacki--who's yet to do anything at this venue never mind won a major title and is lower ranked and seeded here--for the second straight round scheduled on centre court? i get the first round being on centre since she was playing a brit but today against wickmayer?? nothing about that decision smells right to me.

congrats to your brit girl laura robson....suprisingly she took out an always dangerous lucie safarova in straight sets. in fact both laura and heather watson had stupendous wins today and elena baltacha at this very moment is involved in a second set tie-break with ana ivanovic.

 

[anaa lpz]

question though....why the hell was the 2011 wimbledon champion kvitova all the way out on court 14 but wozniacki--who's yet to do anything at this venue never mind won a major title and is lower ranked and seeded here--for the second straight round scheduled on centre court? i get the first round being on centre since she was playing a brit but today against wickmayer?? nothing about that decision smells right to me.

I don't want to say "because of her boyfriend" but it's the only reason that comes to my mind

Vika's match was strange too. But today we didn't have upsets.

 

[pixiedust1603]

I think it's simply because the average British spectator, and most of the people going to the tennis matches are, know Wozniacki more because of the adverts she does. I follow the men's game a lot more and I remember around Wimbledon time her adverts played during nearly every ad break.

 

[Scott]

see that should not be occurring. i don't care how famous she may be,playing favorites like that over an actual champion,a very recent one at that,reflects poorly on a sport that we want people to take seriously. but they put a person on as pure novelty. the whole matter just seemed horribly disrespectful to kvitova. kvitova has done nothing to warrant that....she's played herself into three semifinals at majors already this season(unlike the other winners last year) and is a contender for a medal here too. not right. wozniacki had her presence on centre court,kvitova should have had her place there too. you would never see that kind of behaviour toward sharapova nor have i toward azarenka.

 

[Scott]

rematch of wimbledon....lisicki and sharapova. going to be highly interesting. can lisicki repeat the feat?

incredible history made by tsonga and raonic earlier. 25/23 in the third. almost never-ending but tsonga got the chances in the rallies.....finally nabbing it on his 4th match point. and unlike that isner/mahut debacle,this one did actually have some decent rallies....tsonga just had trouble getting a look on milos' second serve(when he had the chance,at least). good stuff.

 

[anaa lpz]

tomorrow's order of play:

Center Ct.- Serena vs Zvonareva & Wozniacki vs Hantuchova
Ct.1- Azarenka vs Petrova & Sharapova vs Lisicki


and, what's more: Ivanovic-Clijsters on Court 18


I hope Maria beats Lisicki...I like Maria and I hate Lisicki, so I need it

 

[Scott]

^woz is on centre court again?! i'm sorry but even the most popular players this week have been moved around from court to court. and serena and maria have this week. and once again,kvitova relegated to court 14. that's just appalling lack of respect,not to mention reeking of pure and utter bias. what a way to show respect to champs organisers

 

[Chaky]

Saw some bits of Tsonga vs Raonic. These sort of epic matches sometimes achieve a level of fascination just because they never end but this seemed pretty entertaining. Match point was awesome.

^woz is on centre court again?!

Does she have a really good agent or what? Don't understand this at all.