2017 Tennis Thread

[dash_pinched]

Milos drops the opening set by a 6-4 score - Come on Milos!

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

Yeah, that's a rough one. She did record her first ever Grand Slam win a couple of days ago, though, there will be better days ahead.

yah probably ran out of steam, 5 matches in 7 days.

[dash_pinched]

I'm not watching the match, but Milos takes the second set 6-2. Go Milos Go!

[dash_pinched]

Milos now up 2 sets to 1 as he takes set 3 by a 6-3 score.

[GirlySports]

long 9th game, Raonic trying to break to serve for the match

[Joborule]

Raonic just ace out the match to end it.

[GirlySports]

woohoo

[CedarMeter]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

long 9th game, Raonic trying to break to serve for the match

Threw his racquet to the ground in frustration.

[CedarMeter]

Good Job!

[dash_pinched]

Next up for Milos is Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain who loves the clay. If Milos is on his game, he should prevail.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

woot!! Nice comeback from Genie as she wins 2-6 6-3 6-2. She easily could have packed it in after that opening set.

She actually looked really good in the last two sets. You wouldn't have known she was nursing an injury based on watching the match.

[killer_carlson]

Abanda started well and was up 30-0 in the first game of the match, including a very aggressive, bold backhand up the line. I'm thinking WHOA, look at that.

And then Wozniacki proceeded to give her an absolute lesson the rest of the way.

Abanda had two service points to win a game when down 4-0 in the second set. I was hoping she would pull it out, but nope.

I think she was doing things that probably worked in the lower competition brackets but were totally exposed against a top flight player. Example, second serves to the middle of the box and slow might result in a rally two weeks ago, but were met with winners today (and will be every time).

Good moment for her, good lesson for her. Lots to work on.

[Resolute 14]

I wonder if the injury might perversely be helping her mental game. If she's focused on that, she's probably not thinking about whatever it is that causes her to collapse mentally as she so often does.

[FurnaceFace]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

Milos very efficient today in dispatching Steve Darcis in straight sets 63 64 62 in 92 minutes.

I'm back from Paris. I was at the Milos match, he looked pretty much the robot he is. It was getting pretty hot that day, he wouldn't have been happy to get off the court quickly as Steve looked good for the first set. Things that likely didn't come through on TV:

Milos got upset with the ball kids early on. He asked for his towel and the ball girl focused on the balls the other kid were rolling her way. He had to take the extra 3 steps to the wall and pick it up himself. He whined to the chair, who said something to the ball girl. They are there to cater to the players but this seemed a little much. It was day 2 of the tournament and the ball kids haven't hit their stride yet.

Steve got a lot of love from the fans, not much for Milos. There were a few Belg in the stands with flags. One French lady who likes to yell "Allez Steve". That sounded funny in a French accent as Steve is a pretty English name. There was an annoying guy from the States who would yell "Go Steve" in the quiet period of every point. Like when Milos was settling into serve. I think it was mostly because he didn't know how to say "Milos" but it was still annoying.

We pretty much stuck to court 2 that day. But between the Milos match we scored seats on the shady side of the court. That helped a ton as it was cooking again. We saw the Bertens vs Tomljanović match next. Kiki had the Dutch fans out and managed to have a classic womens match where she dropped the first set and then won 6-1 and 1 going away. Tomljanović just couldn't hang with her long enough. Boyfriend Kyrgios came out for the final two sets to watch Ajla get beat. Perhaps that's what threw her off her game. Nick seemed pretty much disinterested in the match though as he focused on his phone. He does just ooze jerk.
Kiki went into the Perrier freezer and pulled out a white towel. The umpire said something to her and made her take a Roland Garros towel to the back of the court instead.

Last for us was Cilic vs Gulbis. This match showed why they change balls throughout the match. These guys were bombing serves. The clock was _only_ at about 208kph for either guy but they were impressive to see 4 rows from the clay. Other things to note:
one of them has a WAG, or someone who supports one that looks like a mashup of Posh Spice and Angelina Jolie.
One of Cilic's team brought a bag of 4 bottles of some sort of orange drink in non descript bottles. They had a ball kid put them beside Cilic's chair. The umpire saw them, picked them up, walked them back to the player's box and then brought over a couple of bottle of Vittel water. He made them transfer the orange drink into the Vettel labelled bottles. Gotta make the sponsors happy, can't have the 7th seed drinking out of plain bottles.
Back to towelgate, unlike in the Kiki match, this umpire allowed Gulbis to use a plain while towel for between point purposes.
Gulbis made me laugh with his pre-serve ball antics. He'd have his two balls to serve and then have the ball kid toss him another which half the time he'd use his racquet to bounce over his head to the kid behind him and then the first kid would keep tossing him balls. He frequently never looked at the extra balls he was given and just discarded them back and used the first two he had. Usually the players will take a look at the balls and pick the two they think are fresher, but he just seemed to do it as a time wasting exercise.

As I said earlier we've been lucky enough to be to RG a couple of previous times. It was good this time too. I was happy to see some of the higher ranked players on the outer courts. We figure the outer courts are the best deals as you have such a choice of courts. When you have stadium seats you kinda feel compelled to stay in the stadium no matter who you have to watch. If you luck out and get good matches in those courts you're aces, but if you get a few unknown or lesser quality matches it could be annoying. Plus at 30euro the outer courts are exceptional value.

If you ever have a chance to go to a slam, I'd say don't hesitate. It's pretty cool to just experience the atmosphere and see some of the things you don't see from just watching on TV.

[FireGilbert]

There is growing momentum in Australia to change the name of the Margaret Court Arena due to her homophobic statements. Here is a great open letter from Martina Navratilova:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/a...01-gwhuyx.html

Dear Margaret Court Arena,
Sporting venues named for athletes, or any place, really, named for whoever, are so named for one reason. That reason is their whole body of work. In other words, it is not just for what this person did on the field, on the court, in politics, arts or science, for instance, but also for who they are as human beings.
...
It is now clear exactly who Court is: an amazing tennis player, and a racist and a homophobe.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Quiet the scene at the end of the Almagro-Del Potro match. At one set all it looked like DelPo was maybe going to have to retire, then Almagro's knee gives out on him and he literally falls on to his back in tears and has to retire. DelPo then shows the class we know him for and consoles him as he gathers himself.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

I wonder if the injury might perversely be helping her mental game. If she's focused on that, she's probably not thinking about whatever it is that causes her to collapse mentally as she so often does.

My thoughts exactly. For once she goes into the big event not expecting to do well and I wouldn't at all be surprised if she made her way to the quarters.

[agulati]

The first set, so far, not ideal for Genie. Trailing 5-2

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by agulati

The first set, so far, not ideal for Genie. Trailing 5-2

The second set is even worse (trailing 5-0)

[dash_pinched]

I didn't see the second set, but watched most of the first set. Way too many unforced errors from Genie today and her opponent played very well (Sevastova had a good game plan to test that wonky ankle with a lot of drop shots and it paid dividends).