2025 Tennis thread

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Bianca's return to the WTA tour is a successful one in my eyes even though she dropped a very close match to #69 ranked Suzan Lamens. After losing the opening set 6-1, Bianca took set 2 6-4 and then dropped the final set in a tie-break.

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Also interesting to see that Bianca has made the switch from Head to Yonex (looks like an Ezone to me). Likely gives her more power which is certainly a trend we're seeing with many pros these days.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1912519444498420156

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I don't think the tennis gods appreciated the over the top celebration a couple of days ago that the 17 year old German kid did when Shapo was forced to retire. Today, Zizou Bergs delivered two breadsticks to zee German.

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This H2H matchup is inexplicable...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1913600761755324630

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Charlie vs. Holger is the Barcelona final on Sunday - That should be a good one.

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Holger won the opening set in a tie-break and we are on serve in set 2. Charlie just left the court for a MTO.

Edit: Charlie continued the match but he was clearly hampered and Holger wins Barcelona pretty easily 7-6 6-2.

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Happy to pass on the news that Gaby Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe just won the Stuttgart doubles title. Great to see the duo back to their winning ways!!

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https://twitter.com/user/status/1914321429954167202

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I caught some of this match on youtube (Madrid was providing some free streams) and Diallo played well, that 2nd set tie-break could have gone either way.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1914692871938023677

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Felix is defending a whole lot of ranking points this week as he made last year's Madrid final. Live rankings has him down 7 spots to #26.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

Felix is defending a whole lot of ranking points this week as he made last year's Madrid final. Live rankings has him down 7 spots to #26.

Wasn't it two or three retirements for him to get to the final? He should be happy if he wins his first match as his clay season has been poor.

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Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Wasn't it two or three retirements for him to get to the final? He should be happy if he wins his first match as his clay season has been poor.

Yeah, I think it was one walkover and two mid-match retirements. Then, he lost to Rublev who was battling some kind of virus and barely slept the night prior to the match.

Edit: The full walkover was over Jannik Sinner.

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Bianca just now wins over McCartney Kessler 6-2 6-4 and looks to be in fantastic shape. Bianca gets Rybakina next which is a tall order, but if she plays as well as she did today, she could cause an upset.

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https://twitter.com/user/status/1915324104413954504

And DiaLLo defeats Bergs 6-1 6-2. Gabriel was scheduled to play Charlie next, but Alcaraz withdrew from Madrid earlier today. His next opponent is unknown at this point.

Edit: And now we know...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1915375597477409190

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Is Alexandra Eala going to do it again? She just won the opening set 6-4 over Iga however this time they're playing on clay, Iga's favorite surface.

Edit: Iga survives winning 4-6 6-4 6-2 - I think a lack of experience caught up to Eala in this match as she was up a break twice in set 2, but could not capitalize and then Iga took over.

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Meanwhile, Leylah is one and done losing to #62 ranked Ann Li in three sets. Just no variety to her game today, just kept giving the same ball back to Li time after time who to her credit played a very good match.

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First round Felix strikes again - Maybe he should just skip clay season.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

First round Felix strikes again - Maybe he should just skip clay season.

I think he's settling into his role as a top 50 player that can have a few good runs a year but is more than not won't be going very deep into most tournaments. So many young players have leapfrogged him over the past few years that it's time to accept he's just another guy on the ATP tour. If he is really wants to make more out of his career he needs to change coaches ASAP but it looks like he's accepted mediocrity.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I think he's settling into his role as a top 50 player that can have a few good runs a year but is more than not won't be going very deep into most tournaments. So many young players have leapfrogged him over the past few years that it's time to accept he's just another guy on the ATP tour. If he is really wants to make more out of his career he needs to change coaches ASAP but it looks like he's accepted mediocrity.

I watched a youtube video of a practice set Felix played versus Novak earlier this week in Madrid, the final set score was 6-4 Novak, but it was 5-1 Djokovic before Novak get bored and started giving away games to Felix. Felix has a terrible return game, it's amazing that his ranking is as high as it is when he fails more often than not to get the ball in play. As soon as a rally goes past five shots, you just wait for an unforced error off the Felix racquet because it's not a matter of if, but when.

I used to lose sleep (get up early or stay up late) to watch Felix play, I don't do that anymore because it's not worth it. That's a pretty damning indictment of his game and he's still young as far as his tennis career is concerned.

[Erick Estrada]

Yeah it's crazy that the lightbulb hasn't gone off in his head that maybe a different coach, another set of eyes, could help him correct some of is issues and improve his game. It just makes no sense to me what he's doing keeping the same coach for his entire pro career when his game hit the wall a few years ago. It's clear things aren't working with Fontang.