wendy
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Post by wendy on May 29, 2017 18:49:59 GMT
Thoughts? Comments? Predictions? Favourites? Who are we rooting for?
I think it's interesting that the women's is wiiiiiide a$$ open. More than ever in the last couple of years. Pliskova was my bet but she disappointed me in Rome last week, i'm not so sure on her any more. Kerber is dead already in a historical loss (such a disappointing #1 these past few months - she needs drastic confidence boost), defending champ Muguruza hasn't been playing well lately especially for a clay queen and has actually retired/withdrawn from matches in like 4 out of her last 5 tournaments, Simona Halep is a strong bet but also injured, Kvitova is just coming back months after that traumatic attack, Serena is several months pregnant, Sharapova was denied a wildcard entry... could this be Granny Venus's time? She's always been a grass girl but it hasn't felt this up in the air in ages... although she won her first match in straight sets yesterday she still wasn't quiite playing at her peak.
Svitolina looks good (especially coming off Rome) but we've seen plenty of promising young guns fall after the hype. I do think she will have a very deep run at the least, though. Cibulkova has always struggled on clay although she seemed confident in her first match... maybe this is the right environment for Konta to finally emerge as a real contender rather than the strong fringe player she's been the past few. Kusnetsova has been average her past couple tournaments and in her first match she barely scraped by with a win. Radwanska has been doing it rough lately and I don't have any confidence in her at all. Madison Keys has sucked since Indian Wells, and Wozniacki's first match was super up and down. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Coco Vandeweghe are already gone too. One of the younger, low low seeded players? Truly a bizarre draw at the moment.
The men's side it looks like Nadal may be back to claim his crown, though i'm rooting for one of the Frenchmen to take it. Murray has been on struggle street lately, and though they're really pimping Djokovic and his Lacoste sponsorship, I still think it's Nadal's to take. If Nadal doesn't win I feel like it will be more on him than anything else.
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ibbi
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Post by ibbi on May 29, 2017 21:27:41 GMT
It will be very interesting to see where Svitolina is at tomorrow given Shvedova at least used to be a hell of a clay court player. She had a hell of a result in Rome, but doing it at slam level is always so much more difficult mentally. Garby has not had a good year at all, but she's got the proven big match nerve, and she looked great today against a player albeit very, very past her best. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Kuznetsova there or thereabouts come the latter stages, she's as reliable as it gets in the womens game. I think Halep would be the heavy favourite after her Madrid and Rome results, and previous good work here, but that injury really throws everything up in the air even if she insists she's fine. We shall have to wait and see. Venus? I mean she's made the finals here once in her entire career, but right now it would be stupid to write her off. She looked pretty good in Rome, so why the hell not? I don't think it's quite THAT wide open, I would imagine it'll ultimately be one of the ones we've seen in the latter stages here before/one of the in form ones. Kvitova has never been exactly happy on clay, but it will just be glorious if she has a good run here, and she had a hell of a start yesterday. Mladenovic looked a total mess today. I wouldn't want to be a French person rooting for her these next two weeks. What a headcase. As long as Wozniacki gets nowhere near it I'll be happy.
With the mens I do feel it'll ultimately be less interesting, but the real key for me if how guys like Goffin, Thiem, and Zverev do. Zverev has looked kind of crap in the first two sets with Verdasco, I hope he can keep his head out of the clouds, but Goffin and Thiem were both magic. They're on course for what could be a hell of a 4th round face off. Will be interesting to see where Djokovic is at/what difference Agassi has really made for him (apparently he's only going to be around in the first week anyway) it seems tough to see him winning it based on what we've seen from him this year, but you can never count him out on a surface he's so comfortable on, and with the monkey now off his back. Murray I think has got absolutely zero chance. He's the most useless mens number 1 since I don't know when. He's caved like some of those worthless WTA ones. I do think Nadal is the favourite, but it all depends on what kind of mood Wawrinka is in. There's no Federer around for him to bend the knee before, so if he actually makes it to the final (not too much of a stretch given the half he's in)... I wouldn't want to be on the other side of the net. #stanimal
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Post by jimmalone on May 30, 2017 14:30:06 GMT
Always my favorite Grand Slam, which usually has the disadvantage that I spend the whole day in front of the TV, watching the matches, often even some rather uninteresting first round WTA matches.
Nadal, while still not back to his best, played well enough to be the favorite here and I'd love to see him winning La Decima. Unfortunately the draw was a bit one-sided, with the biggest favorites all in the bottom half. Next favorite to Nadal is still Djokovic. He looked better in the later rounds of Rome (except the final, where he played one of the worst matches I've ever seen from him) and his potential level is still higher than the other players (with exception of Nadal).
The women's draw, though as always I'm far less interested into this part of the tournament, is wide open. Halep is the favorite for me, but she had some trouble with her ankles lately.
This was my prediction before the tournament:
ATP
Quarterfinals:
Del Potro - Nishikori
Wawrinka - Tsonga
Dimitrov - Nadal
Thiem - Djokovic
Semifinals:
del Potro - Wawrinka
Nadal - Djokovic
Final:
Wawrinka - Nadal
Champion: Nadal
WTA:
Quarterfinals:
Stosur - Kuznetsova
Mladenovic - Cibulkova
Switolina - Halep
Cornet - Pavlyuchenkova
Semifinals:
Kuznetsova - Mladenovic
Halep - Pavlyuchenkova
Final:
Kuznetsova - Halep
Winner: Halep
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on May 31, 2017 13:01:52 GMT
Shame Kvitova is out already, but what a hugely impressive achievement to be back and raring to go already.
I'll be throwing my Wimbledon support behind her and Venus.
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wendy
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Post by wendy on May 31, 2017 17:50:58 GMT
Such a shame Tsonga is out. Every year I root for him to win at home.  But Monfils is my real favourite so hopefully he can have a deeper run. I'm excited to see tomorrow's men's matches.  Was a shame to lose Kvitova but on the bright side it was great to see that she can still show up and show out again after her first round victory. This was a stepping stone. Svitolina, and Halep are looking good at the moment, playing the way they want to. Muguruza, Mladenovic, and Pliskova not as much but I still think any of those 3 could make the final. Queen Vee had a struggle start (a bit like Thiem in his match) but as soon as Serena showed up she thrashed her. If she keeps playing at that level I can easily foresee a final placement. As much as i'm not a Stosur fan, her path to the semis in the draw looks a lot easier than for some of the others. Hmmm!! |
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Lubezki
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Post by Lubezki on May 31, 2017 18:45:03 GMT
Was a shame to lose Kvitova but on the bright side it was great to see that she can still show up and show out again after her first round victory. This was a stepping stone. A fantastic effort from her and with some more playing time she'll be back to her best. It's great that she can actually still play the game after that horrific incident. |
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ibbi
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Post by ibbi on May 31, 2017 22:50:44 GMT
Such a shame Tsonga is out. Every year I root for him to win at home. But Monfils is my real favourite so hopefully he can have a deeper run. I'm excited to see tomorrow's men's matches. Was a shame to lose Kvitova but on the bright side it was great to see that she can still show up and show out again after her first round victory. This was a stepping stone. Svitolina, and Halep are looking good at the moment, playing the way they want to. Muguruza, Mladenovic, and Pliskova not as much but I still think any of those 3 could make the final. Queen Vee had a struggle start (a bit like Thiem in his match) but as soon as Serena showed up she thrashed her. If she keeps playing at that level I can easily foresee a final placement. As much as i'm not a Stosur fan, her path to the semis in the draw looks a lot easier than for some of the others. Hmmm!! Wooooooooooah! Garby's been amazing, hater, what you bin sippin'?! Considering how much she's sucked lately, the amount of fight, heart, and magic she's displayed through the first two rounds has been massive. What a battle it was today. |
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Post by jimmalone on Jun 1, 2017 9:30:53 GMT
Such a shame Tsonga is out. Every year I root for him to win at home. But Monfils is my real favourite so hopefully he can have a deeper run. I'm excited to see tomorrow's men's matches. Was a shame to lose Kvitova but on the bright side it was great to see that she can still show up and show out again after her first round victory. This was a stepping stone. Svitolina, and Halep are looking good at the moment, playing the way they want to. Muguruza, Mladenovic, and Pliskova not as much but I still think any of those 3 could make the final. Queen Vee had a struggle start (a bit like Thiem in his match) but as soon as Serena showed up she thrashed her. If she keeps playing at that level I can easily foresee a final placement. As much as i'm not a Stosur fan, her path to the semis in the draw looks a lot easier than for some of the others. Hmmm!! A pity with Tsonga. He usually wins the early matches in a Grand Slam. It's only the third time he went out in the first round of a major. He wouldn't have had a chance to win the tournament in Paris, but still I hoped for him (one of my favorite players) to have another deep run here. |
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Post by jimmalone on Jun 1, 2017 9:35:13 GMT
Such a shame Tsonga is out. Every year I root for him to win at home. But Monfils is my real favourite so hopefully he can have a deeper run. I'm excited to see tomorrow's men's matches. Was a shame to lose Kvitova but on the bright side it was great to see that she can still show up and show out again after her first round victory. This was a stepping stone. Svitolina, and Halep are looking good at the moment, playing the way they want to. Muguruza, Mladenovic, and Pliskova not as much but I still think any of those 3 could make the final. Queen Vee had a struggle start (a bit like Thiem in his match) but as soon as Serena showed up she thrashed her. If she keeps playing at that level I can easily foresee a final placement. As much as i'm not a Stosur fan, her path to the semis in the draw looks a lot easier than for some of the others. Hmmm!! Wooooooooooah! Garby's been amazing, hater, what you bin sippin'?! Considering how much she's sucked lately, the amount of fight, heart, and magic she's displayed through the first two rounds has been massive. What a battle it was today. Especially cause she found a way to fight back into the match. An important ability she usually lacks. |
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wendy
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Post by wendy on Jun 1, 2017 12:25:04 GMT
Such a shame Tsonga is out. Every year I root for him to win at home. But Monfils is my real favourite so hopefully he can have a deeper run. I'm excited to see tomorrow's men's matches. Was a shame to lose Kvitova but on the bright side it was great to see that she can still show up and show out again after her first round victory. This was a stepping stone. Svitolina, and Halep are looking good at the moment, playing the way they want to. Muguruza, Mladenovic, and Pliskova not as much but I still think any of those 3 could make the final. Queen Vee had a struggle start (a bit like Thiem in his match) but as soon as Serena showed up she thrashed her. If she keeps playing at that level I can easily foresee a final placement. As much as i'm not a Stosur fan, her path to the semis in the draw looks a lot easier than for some of the others. Hmmm!! Wooooooooooah! Garby's been amazing, hater, what you bin sippin'?! Considering how much she's sucked lately, the amount of fight, heart, and magic she's displayed through the first two rounds has been massive. What a battle it was today. I meant in general the last few weeks she hasn't been playing the way she wants to (needs to).. she got better in the 3rd set of her last match. But "amazing"?  I still think she's wildly inconsistent for a player in her peak (I like her more than Pliskova but at least she keeps to the same general level even if she hasn't hit the peaks Mugu has). It seems to me that Mugu struggles to deal with the expectations on her. What she has in skill and power, she seems to lack in confidence and mental game. jimmalone is right that that's potentially the first time i've seen her 'fight back'. Usually what you see at the start of the match is what you get for the whole match. And if she's struggling it gets worse and worse. This is the clay court season, missing many of the other big hitters (and of the ones that are there, many are injured). If she played as well as she could and should, she would be dominating. :/ |
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ibbi
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Post by ibbi on Jun 1, 2017 21:43:47 GMT
Wooooooooooah! Garby's been amazing, hater, what you bin sippin'?! Considering how much she's sucked lately, the amount of fight, heart, and magic she's displayed through the first two rounds has been massive. What a battle it was today. I meant in general the last few weeks she hasn't been playing the way she wants to (needs to).. she got better in the 3rd set of her last match. But "amazing"? I still think she's wildly inconsistent for a player in her peak (I like her more than Pliskova but at least she keeps to the same general level even if she hasn't hit the peaks Mugu has). It seems to me that Mugu struggles to deal with the expectations on her. What she has in skill and power, she seems to lack in confidence and mental game. jimmalone is right that that's potentially the first time i've seen her 'fight back'. Usually what you see at the start of the match is what you get for the whole match. And if she's struggling it gets worse and worse. This is the clay court season, missing many of the other big hitters (and of the ones that are there, many are injured). If she played as well as she could and should, she would be dominating. :/ Yeah, amazing! I mean granted Schiavone is obviously way, way past her best, but that was a gorgeous match to watch. The one yesterday, Kontaveit was playing scary good, and her weathering of that storm was super impressive! Her defence would have made any Spaniard proud, and the depth she started hitting to just push Anett back and out of her comfort zone...  Granted, it's one match, and after all of this fawning I'm doing she'll probably go down in straights tomorrow, but there's something to be said for starting to play better on the bigger stage. |
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wendy
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Post by wendy on Jun 2, 2017 8:38:19 GMT
I meant in general the last few weeks she hasn't been playing the way she wants to (needs to).. she got better in the 3rd set of her last match. But "amazing"? I still think she's wildly inconsistent for a player in her peak (I like her more than Pliskova but at least she keeps to the same general level even if she hasn't hit the peaks Mugu has). It seems to me that Mugu struggles to deal with the expectations on her. What she has in skill and power, she seems to lack in confidence and mental game. jimmalone is right that that's potentially the first time i've seen her 'fight back'. Usually what you see at the start of the match is what you get for the whole match. And if she's struggling it gets worse and worse. This is the clay court season, missing many of the other big hitters (and of the ones that are there, many are injured). If she played as well as she could and should, she would be dominating. :/ Yeah, amazing! I mean granted Schiavone is obviously way, way past her best, but that was a gorgeous match to watch. The one yesterday, Kontaveit was playing scary good, and her weathering of that storm was super impressive! Her defence would have made any Spaniard proud, and the depth she started hitting to just push Anett back and out of her comfort zone... Granted, it's one match, and after all of this fawning I'm doing she'll probably go down in straights tomorrow, but there's something to be said for starting to play better on the bigger stage. Hahaha. I guess I just don't see it honey, but I love your passion! She plays soon so maybe i'm the one who's jinxed her and she'll go great. |
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Post by ChairfaceC on Jun 2, 2017 16:14:47 GMT
My sweet Belgian prince is out because of some stupid tarp so none of this even matters anymore anyway.
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Lubezki
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Post by Lubezki on Jun 2, 2017 22:42:36 GMT
Nadal is steamrolling his way through this competition. Obviously he's expected to dominate on clay but focusing on the bigger picture, it's unbelievably satisfying to see him back to his devastating best. I thought we'd never see that level of explosiveness again with those injuries that were crippling him. Best player to watch when in full flow bar none.
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Post by jimmalone on Jun 3, 2017 9:43:36 GMT
Nice play by Nadal yesterday. Nearly at his best again. Basilashvili didn't even play that bad, but was still blown off the court.
Strong performance also by Dominic Thiem, who beat Steve Johnson comfortably, while Novak Djokovic was extremely inconsistent against Diego Schwartzman. And I don't even want to talk about his antics yesterday.
Meanwhile Cornet and Aga Radwanska are playing. 5 Breaks within the first 6 games...
Looking forward to Delpo - Murray today. Hopefully the friendly giant is healthy enough to give Andy a good match and possibly beat him.
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wendy
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Post by wendy on Jun 3, 2017 16:49:23 GMT
Thiem was indeed looking really confident. I like his chances at making a deep run.
On the other hand, what was going on with Nishikori? A mess.
Today is going to be a tough day for the women's draw. Aside from Svitolina and Stosur who have easier opponents and should clean up handily, the R4 match ups could be tricky. Mugu vs Mladenovic (with a homecourt advantage), Venus vs Timea (hopefully she can flip the script after losing to her in the 4th round last year), Wozniacki vs Kusnetsova. I see Alize Cornet besting Garcia and Halep should make fairly light work of Carla Suarez Navarro, but I think we'll have a better idea of which lady has the stuff to win this thing after tonight.
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Post by ChairfaceC on Jun 3, 2017 18:00:58 GMT
On the other hand, what was going on with Nishikori? A mess. He's just padding that deciding set stat is all. |
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Post by ChairfaceC on Jun 4, 2017 10:57:54 GMT
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Post by jimmalone on Jun 4, 2017 12:51:29 GMT
Nadal playing like God today again. Poor Roberto.
Then Eurosport will head over to hopefully the days highlight: Monfils - Gasquet, clash of the eternal talents, who both have won one set so far.
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ibbi
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Post by ibbi on Jun 4, 2017 13:10:05 GMT
Nadal playing like God today again. Poor Roberto. Then Eurosport will head over to hopefully the days highlight: Monfils - Gasquet, clash of the eternal talents, who both have won one set so far.It's going kind of tamely so far. The crowd aren't particularly hot, the tennis is good but not as magical as you'd expect from these two. I can't believe Muguruza and Mladenovic are not on Chatrier. This is a total tactical move by Kiki. |
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Post by jimmalone on Jun 4, 2017 13:59:02 GMT
Nadal playing like God today again. Poor Roberto. Then Eurosport will head over to hopefully the days highlight: Monfils - Gasquet, clash of the eternal talents, who both have won one set so far.It's going kind of tamely so far. The crowd aren't particularly hot, the tennis is good but not as magical as you'd expect from these two. I can't believe Muguruza and Mladenovic are not on Chatrier. This is a total tactical move by Kiki. Surprising indeed. by far the most interesting WTA match so far. And a duel between the defending champion and local hero. Kiki maybe prefers the Lenglen, but still the organisers should have got this on the Chatrier. Sadly Gasquet had to withdraw in the third set. A pity. Love watching the two terrific shotmakers. Monfils is now playing Wawrinka, but I don't see him beating the Swiss. |
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ibbi
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Post by ibbi on Jun 4, 2017 15:22:47 GMT
Poor Garby. Never seen anybody play so badly inside the court in my life. Mladenovic is such a f_cking ham. Timea will absolutely bottle it if she comes up against her in the next round. That means rooting for Grandma for the second time in as many slams. Ugh.
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Post by ChairfaceC on Jun 4, 2017 16:23:31 GMT
RIP Granny and Garbi. I guess back to praying for Halep to win. Though I'd settle for basically anyone but Mladenovic at this point.
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Post by jimmalone on Jun 4, 2017 16:23:41 GMT
Nice match today between Pablo Carreno Busta and Milos Raonic. The Spaniard wins 4-6, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 9-7 in what I'd call maybe a slight upset, cause it was his first win over a Top-10-Player. He now earns the honor of playing Rafa next. Don't see Pablo have a chance in that match.
Muguruza is out after a tough match. I like the French fans for that they usually make easily the best atmosphere of anywhere in tennis. But when one of their own is playing they are hardly to stand. Cheering at double faults, disgusting. Also Kiki obviously helped to push them up.
Would have liked Garby to go deeper again. But she definitely needs to play smarter.
My sympathies in the top half are now with Caro Wozniacki solely.
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wendy
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Post by wendy on Jun 4, 2017 16:26:21 GMT
Poor Garby. Never seen anybody play so badly inside the court in my life. Mladenovic is such a f_cking ham. Timea will absolutely bottle it if she comes up against her in the next round. That means rooting for Grandma for the second time in as many slams. Ugh. Horrible. I'm no fan but I MUCH prefer Garbage Muguruza to Mladenovic. But wow. How do you lose to someone with nearly 20 double faults? And a bad back? She hit so many balls wide. I hope she never goes to the net again. The crowd and Kiki were both awful (yelling 'forza' after Mugu's unforced errors? lol), but to be fair, she was being very bratty too and a champ should know how to handle that. Disappointing match all around. I wonder if she'll be out of the top 10 now? Very sad at Veesus Christ's loss, but she should have fought more in that last set. I guess she was tired from fighting back from huge score margins in the first two sets. Timea has a lot of versatility on clay and deserved her win (she's always been much better on clay than the queen), but Venus lost to herself just as much. She really did seem like a 37 year old against a twentysomething in that last set.  Hopefully she rests up, her two best slams are coming up and regardless of this loss, she's been playing brilliantly this year (more consistently than most, if not all of the other top 10 girls). Stosur disappointed me too tonight but I expected her to. She's another one who just got tired and gave away the last set. Too many wide. Interestingly, someone will win their first grand slam at the end of the week!! My money is on Simona Halep who has been cleaning up nicely, but Ostapenko and Timea could be big threats. They have a lot of fight in them and can switch up their game well. Not writing off Mlad. either, unfortunately. |
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But Monfils is my real favourite so hopefully he can have a deeper run. I'm excited to see tomorrow's men's matches. 
Granted, it's one match, and after all of this fawning I'm doing she'll probably go down in straights tomorrow, but there's something to be said for starting to play better on the bigger stage.
Hopefully she rests up, her two best slams are coming up and regardless of this loss, she's been playing brilliantly this year (more consistently than most, if not all of the other top 10 girls). 