The Tennis Thread 2014

[GirlySports]

Believe it or not the 2014 season is upon us.

It all starts with the Hopman Cup exhibition tournament on Saturday Dec 28 in Perth Australia. It will be shown live on SNET ONE.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Hopman_Cup

8 countries divided into 2 groups, each team has a male and female player.
Each series is best of 3, women's match, men's match and mixed doubles match.
The top team of each group meet in the final.

Group A
Poland - Agnieszka Radwańska & Grzegorz Panfil
Canada - Eugenie Bouchard & Milos Raonic
Italy - Flavia Pennetta & Andreas Seppi
Australia - Samantha Stosur & Bernard Tomic

Canada-Australia Dec 28 2:30am
Canada-Poland Dec 29 2:30am
Canada-Italy Jan 1 7:00pm

Group B
USA - Sloane Stephens & John Isner
France - Alize Corner & Jo-Wilfred Tsonga
Czech Rep - Petra Kvitova & Radek Stepanek
Spain - A-M Garrigues & Tommy Robredo

-----

Going into the season here are the ranking for top 5 Canadian men and women.

Men:
11 Milos Raonic
32 Vasek Pospisil
122 Frank Dancevic
141 Peter Polansky
149 Jesse Levine

Women:
32 Eugenie Bouchard
116 Sharon Fichman
205 Stephanie Dubois
247 Gabriella Dabrowski
285 Aleksandra Wozniak

[nemanja2306]

Curious to see how Nole will do with Becker as his new coach. Should be interesting to say the least.

[spiteface]

Originally Posted by nemanja2306

Curious to see how Nole will do with Becker as his new coach. Should be interesting to say the least.

somebody is feelin the heat

[GirlySports]

The Hopman cup is pretty funny. There is a 15-year Australian named Oliver Anderson who is the sub. He will sub for any guy who can't play (for any country)

Right away the Italian Seppi is sick today so with Italy down 2-0, he's "representing" Italy playing with Penneta in the mixed doubles. (on tv right now)

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by spiteface

somebody is feelin the heat

Roger does his part and picks Edberg for the battle of the big 4 and 80's tennis star coach...Rafa just hire Johnny Mac and complete the trend already.

[spiteface]

jmac should rejoin the tour

[GirlySports]

Poland def. Italy 3-0
Canada def.Australia 2-1
- Raonic def. Tomic 76 61
- Bouchard def. Stosur 36 62 63
- Stosur/Tomic def. Bouchard/Raonic 62 62

Great win by Bouchard. However Bouchard and Raonic played like they had never met each other. That match was goofy although it was fun seeing Milos serve 220km/h bombs at Stosur.

Canada vs Poland at 2:30am on SNET1 (it will most likely decide the group winner). Will be replayed on SNET1 at noon.

[GirlySports]

[troutman]

This seems like the Spengler Cup of tennis. How are teams invited? Seems kind of random.

[GirlySports]

It's by invitation. Whoever the organizers want.

And even then players pull out last minute due to injury which weakens some teams.

[GirlySports]

Canada lost to Poland 2-1, lost both singles (Bouchard fought really hard against Radwanska) then won the mixed.

Milos lost to some guy ranked in the 200s, inexplicable.

[Inglewood Jack]

I thought we were building something special...

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

I thought we were building something special...

The Polish guy has beaten Seppi and Milos. He's having one of those weeks.
He's just enjoying the moment and going for broke. He's 25 and his highest ever ranking is 279 so what does he care? He's probably never played in front of an audience.

If he beats Tomic tomorrow(?) then he would have beaten 3 top 50 players in a week and Poland will be in the final.

[polak]

[dash_pinched]

I watched quite of a bit of Eugenie's match against Stosur this past weekend, she definitely has the game to compete with the best ladies on tour. I didn't see the match against Radwanska, but to take her to three sets is very encouraging and hopefully a nice confidence boost for the upcoming Aussie Open.

[GirlySports]

Canada plays Italy at 7pm tonight on SNET1.

Canada needs a miracle to get into Saturday's final against France. They need to beat Italy 3-0 and then hope Australia beats Poland 3-0 in the evening.

[GirlySports]

Canada wins 3-0. Come on Aussies

Other than Milos' loss to a polish unknown on fire, it was a successful experience to start the year.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

I watched quite of a bit of Eugenie's match against Stosur this past weekend, she definitely has the game to compete with the best ladies on tour. I didn't see the match against Radwanska, but to take her to three sets is very encouraging and hopefully a nice confidence boost for the upcoming Aussie Open.

The only knock on Genie is the lack of an atomic weapon that the slam winners possess. Hopefully she develops one because the hustle and consistency is already near elite. Then again, ladies like Wozniacki and Jankovic have already proven you can grind your way to #1...no major required.

[fundmark19]

Poland won 2-1 Canada will not be playing for Hopman glory

[GirlySports]

Can never count on Stosur. She lost all 3 matches she played this week.