The 2015 In Between Grand Slam Thread

yerwanthere123 · 14-03-2015 12:33am

Sloane Stephens has won not one, but TWO matches in a row so far in Indian Wells! Beats Kerber. Miracles never cease.

Seeing on Twitter that the announcement of "Serena's return" was greeted with some boo's from the crowd. Oh dear.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 14-03-2015 12:36am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Seeing on Twitter that the announcement of "Serena's return" was greeted with some boo's from the crowd. Oh dear.

That's the whole problem with this situation. All the focus was on the Williams' boycott and now it's all on Serena's return. Nobody at IW seems to have ever addressed what happened or acknowledged that it may still be an issue.

RosyLily · 14-03-2015 6:23pm

I hope the boos were from a small minority. Have the IW organisers said anything in the run-up to the tournament? No "We're delighted to welcome back Serena Williams...blah blah blah...expect the crowd to be courteous..." kinda statement? If not, that's bad form.

yerwanthere123 · 15-03-2015 12:41am

No sign of booing when she went on court anyway, she received a rapturous reception and a standing ovation, thank god.

RosyLily · 15-03-2015 6:35pm

Sabine Lisicki won her first main draw match in the singles at IW. 7 years in the making. Why am I not surprised?!:pac:

Sasha, Serena's hitting partner, is now working with Azarenka. Kinda surprised by this. Thought Sasha would be a constant on Team Serena til the end.

yerwanthere123 · 15-03-2015 11:46pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Sabine Lisicki won her first main draw match in the singles at IW. 7 years in the making. Why am I not surprised?!:pac:

Sasha, Serena's hitting partner, is now working with Azarenka. Kinda surprised by this. Thought Sasha would be a constant on Team Serena til the end.

Not only that, but she has now won two matches this season! Girls got skills.

Radwanska having a terrible season thus far, managed to lose to Heather Watson today. Great for Heather of course, but Aga has really got to start getting her sh*t together.

mrkiscool2 · 15-03-2015 11:54pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Not only that, but she has now won two matches this season! Girls got skills.

Radwanska having a terrible season thus far, managed to lose to Heather Watson today. Great for Heather of course, but Aga has really got to start getting her sh*t together.

It was a combination of Watson having a great match and Aga just not turning up. She didn't play sh1t or anything, she just crumbled whenever she was under pressure. Watson showing she is a top 50 player. Able to win one when the big girls have an off day but nothing more

yerwanthere123 · 16-03-2015 12:08am

I'd completely forgotten until now that Martina Navrtilova has been working as her coach. She's certainly not helped Aga so far anyway.

RosyLily · 16-03-2015 1:06am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Not only that, but she has now won two matches this season! Girls got skills.

Shut the front door!!:eek::pac: Can Lisicki make it 3??? Watch this space!!

She's also going well in the doubles with Petko.

Rjd2 · 16-03-2015 2:17am

LOL

Sloane is such a gutless wonder.:P:P:P

This has the potential to be a cracking choke against a washed up Kuznetsova.

Well done.

:D:D:D

yerwanthere123 · 16-03-2015 3:31am

Oh yay, a Serena-Sloane match. Should be fun

Rjd2 · 16-03-2015 5:13am

Fair play, some bottle from Sloane after a LOL second set.

Kuznetsova is so finished its unreal.

RosyLily · 17-03-2015 12:15am

Great win for Bencic! 6-4, 6-4 over Wozniacki - her first top 5 win.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 18-03-2015 2:03am

Sharapova vs Panetta is on at the moment and Flavia is randomly crying in the middle of it. No idea what's going on?

yerwanthere123 · 18-03-2015 3:30am

Oh ffs Maria. I had high hopes after such a good start to the year. Indian Wells/Miami is usually (when injury free) a happy hunting ground for her. I don't know.

RosyLily · 18-03-2015 1:28pm

Lisicki made it into the quarter-finals!! She'll face Flavia next...good chance of reaching the SFs. Hopefully it's the start of a good season for Sabine.

Apparently Flavs was not the only one crying yesterday. Sabine, Timea and Garcia had emotional moments according to Twitter. Haase and Rosol also had words - no tears though. A drama filled day at IW!:)

RosyLily · 18-03-2015 3:16pm

Petra Kvitova has withdrawn from Miami. Says her energy levels aren't good and she's not 100%. Hoping to be back for Fed Cup in April.

Quite a long time to be out due to lack of energy. Glandular fever? Some other auto-immune illness? Whatever is going on, hope it isn't too serious.

yerwanthere123 · 18-03-2015 6:12pm

Oh dear, Wayne Osdenik was caught doping again, banned for 15 years. I guess they needed a scapegoat :pac:

RosyLily · 18-03-2015 6:41pm

Took multiple "help" and still only made it to #77.:pac: Was expecting Wayne to get a long ban but not 15 years. He'll probably appeal it though.

Murray tweeted "Bye Bye Wayne..Good riddance." Not close pals then.:D

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 18-03-2015 7:39pm

He's released an official state saying he's decided to retire. Says he took something by accident and as the most tested player on the tour he would never knowingly take an illegal substance. Mmmmm, sure.

squadro · 19-03-2015 1:26am

Why do tennis players tog out in such garish gear especially on the men's tour? Ok there are some exceptions but wtf is the story with all the fluorescent gear? I think it's hideous.

Roger would look cool in anything but the fuppin state of nadal the other day.

yerwanthere123 · 19-03-2015 1:52am

It's the new Nike gear, I imagine they're being payed quite a sum to wear it.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-03-2015 10:51am

Nice to see Tomic having a good string of results. He's had a very good 2015 so far. Ranking should be back up in the 30s.

Floppybits · 19-03-2015 2:07pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

It's the new Nike gear, I imagine they're being payed quite a sum to wear it.

I'd say some are and some are not. I think Nike are trying to help their players by having them blind their opponents.

the worst for it is the aussie wonderkid with the Greek name that I won't try spell and its Kyrgios, anyway he wears illuminous top, shorts, socks and runners.

Usually the top players get first pick on the best styles and the lower ranked ones get the left overs. Berdych's gear is horrendous, he has to be getting a fortune for wearing it.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-03-2015 2:23pm

Floppybits wrote: »

I'd say some are and some are not. I think Nike are trying to help their players by having them blind their opponents. the worst for it is the aussie wonderkid with the Greek name that I won't try spell and its Kyrgios, anyway he wears illuminous top, shorts, socks and runners.

Usually the top players get first pick on the best styles and the lower ranked ones get the left overs. Berdych's gear is horrendous, he has to be getting a fortune for wearing it.

Nike have specific designs for their top players, so Federer and Rafa, but always within whatever the current range is. At the moment it's bright neon colours. Then they have a secondary range given to the next level of players. They get a whole bunch of stuff and can pick and choose from it. Then they have their basic stock that you or I could probably buy in the shops and that's given to the lower level players that aren't getting huge sums to wear it.

yerwanthere123 · 20-03-2015 3:56am

Where on Earth has this run from Lisicki come from? I mean, if I had to pick one of the least likely players to make the semi's she'd have been high up there.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-03-2015 7:40am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Where on Earth has this run from Lisicki come from? I mean, if I had to pick one of the least likely players to make the semi's she'd have been high up there.

Hard to believe it's her first ever SF at a Masters.

RosyLily · 20-03-2015 12:54pm

Maybe someone gave her a kick up the arse and told her to cop on.:pac:

About time she reached her first Masters SF.

RosyLily · 21-03-2015 1:33am

Raonic gets his first win over Nadal! Good match from both. Hopefully Milos will now have the confidence to knock out top players at Slams.

No top 4 SFs....but 3/4 ain't bad!:pac:

Looking forward to Serena-Simona!

squadro · 21-03-2015 2:09am

Me too but serena will kick her ass.

Rjd2 · 21-03-2015 9:26pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Maybe someone gave her a kick up the arse and told her to cop on.:pac:

About time she reached her first Masters SF.

Favourable draw to be fair.

She was painfully bad in the last 2 sets against Janko

https://twitter.com/annaliese_ah/status/579116835418718208

I mean seriously?:P

Rjd2 · 22-03-2015 8:30pm

Awful match between Jelana and Halep in the final, just hurry up and end please.

Rjd2 · 22-03-2015 8:55pm

This is possibly the worst final I have seen in years, very little quality whatsoever. The first set to be fair Jelena was ok, but this set is just all out awful. I like Halep and all, but ****ing hell in a perfect world neither would get any prize money for this "match".

Rjd2 · 22-03-2015 9:02pm

Just what the world needs a third set of this.:P

To be fair, Halep did step it up towards the end and is showing some class so hopefully she keeps that level up and she should be fine.

JJ? LOL.

That second set was dreadful, moaning the whole way through it, despite always been ahead and then totally choking towards the end, horror shots is one thing, but moonballing and pushing nervously should not win you such a title.

John.Icy · 22-03-2015 11:11pm

Comparing this final to Dubai, you really realise we could do with some more fast courts on tour. Novak is nearly unplayable on this court. The commentator said this court is 40% slower than Dubai, crazy!

yerwanthere123 · 23-03-2015 12:31am

Interesting to see Halep win Indian Wells, the biggest title of her career so far and should put her #1 in the race. However after the way she rolled over for Makarova in Melbourne I'm not at all convinced she possess slam-winning potential.

RosyLily · 23-03-2015 1:48am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Interesting to see Halep win Indian Wells, the biggest title of her career so far and should put her #1 in the race. However after the way she rolled over for Makarova in Melbourne I'm not at all convinced she possess slam-winning potential.

Stranger things have happened. I know I think "how did THAT happen" whenever I see Anastasia Myskina's name on the French Open roll of honour.

Halep could be one of those!:D

yerwanthere123 · 23-03-2015 2:08am

Yeah, a lot of people cite that one as weird. Was it really that random? I didn't follow tennis at all back then so don't know. Can't say she didn't earn it though, beat Kuznetsova, Venus, Capriati and Dementieva on her way.

Back to Halep for a moment, Jana Novona had this to say about her recently:

Halep is going to be always good, always consistent and she may win grand slams but she's going to be one of those players – I don’t mean it in a bad way – nobody will remember. A good player, solid, feisty, consistent but it’s not ‘wow’

Very interesting point I think, Halep is obviously a solid player, but I don't think I've ever watched her and thought "wow". She's made a few incredible gets recently that drew attention, but she's never wowed me. Although if she wins grand slams people will obviously remember her.

RosyLily · 23-03-2015 2:13am

Not a lot of female players around Halep's age and younger have been wow for me. Or maybe I'm just forgetting them.:p

yerwanthere123 · 24-03-2015 11:18pm

Donna Vekic managed to lose to 16 y/o, #765 ranked Ingrid Neel in Miami qualies. Falls outside of the top 100, and will fall to around 180 when Kuala Lumpur points come off. Dunno what's happened to her. The good news is, she's still just 18, lots of time to sort herself out.

Meanwhile, Cici Bellis (still only 15) has a WC into the Miami main draw and has won her first round match. Will play Zarina Diyas, who she took to three sets at the US Open last year. If she can pull off a win there she'd get a shot at Serena!

RosyLily · 24-03-2015 11:32pm

I haven't seen Cici play, what's she like? Wow or has wow potential?

yerwanthere123 · 24-03-2015 11:37pm

I haven't seen too much of her, just against Diyas. She can hit the ball pretty well for a 15 y/o, but I get the impression her talent is still very much in chrysalis.

yerwanthere123 · 24-03-2015 11:38pm

Tsonga is returning this week in Miami, as is Del Potro (again). I don't expect great things.

yerwanthere123 · 27-03-2015 3:41am

Not sure I can take another year of this sh*t from Sharapova. Ugh.

Well done to Daria though. I remember watching her play against Kerber in Brisbane, I was quite impressed.

squadro · 30-03-2015 12:27am

Only saw the tail end of verdasco v nadal but delighted for Fernando. Won't have to watch nadal pulling his togs out of his bum crack thank ****.

yerwanthere123 · 30-03-2015 1:41am

Yeah, Nadal is in horrible form right now. I expect he'll right the ship during the clay season though.

Floppybits · 30-03-2015 9:19pm

Raonic is struggling, had match points in his serve at 5-4 and lost the set.

Pighead · 01-04-2015 12:05am

Looks like Dolgopolov is gonna lose to Novak in three sets here but he is so much fun to watch. Played brilliantly for a set and a half.

Floppybits · 01-04-2015 1:56pm

Pighead wrote: »

Looks like Dolgopolov is gonna lose to Novak in three sets here but he is so much fun to watch. Played brilliantly for a set and a half.

Looks like it is going to be a Djokovic/Murray Final in Miami.

Rjd2 · 02-04-2015 6:29pm

Pighead wrote: »

Looks like Dolgopolov is gonna lose to Novak in three sets here but he is so much fun to watch. Played brilliantly for a set and a half.

Agreed, love watching Dolgo play, but he can never get it done, so often I have watched him and admired and then he collapses and loses the match.

He isn't to old, but he never will be a contender for anything, such a shame,:(

The 2015 In Between Grand Slam Thread

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