The 2015 In Between Grand Slam Thread

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 17-01-2015 4:52pm

Good win for Heather Watson in Hobart. She's up to 38 in the rankings. A good run in Melbourne and she could be into the seeds for Roland Garros.

yerwanthere123 · 17-01-2015 8:12pm

Well she'll lose a good few ITF points in February so it won't be that easy either. But yes, getting into the top 32 should be the goal for her now. I think she's now at the level she was pre-glandular fever, so she needs to focus less on the smaller events and enter more premier level events. She'll never be a world beater, but I think she can have a solid top 30 career, winning a few more titles along the way.

Who'd have thought a few years back that Heather Watson would win two titles before Laura Robson would win any?!

Slashermcguirk · 18-01-2015 4:01pm

the thing with heather watson is she never does anything against the top players. In fairness to Robson she has taken some good scalps even if she is unlikely to threaten the latter stages of slams. I cant see watson ever getting past 3 of a slam if even making it that far. She doesnt have the fire power in my opinion. Her two tournament wins have been in very small events. Fair play to her getting to the ranking she has but i think her game is pretty limited.

I think robson has more potential and has bigger weopons but she herself is prone to huge meltdowns on her serve. In the men's, you really wonder what is going to happen after Murray retires. They just arent producing good enough players in GB. Even Murray had to go to barcelona young just to improve.

WHne you consider Conor Niland got to 119 in the world, he pretty much the best player Ireland and GB has produced in the past 10 years after Murray. All this with Niland not even getting wild cards into wimbledon. I think McGee is also doing very well and can see him getting into a few more main draws in the slams. WOuld be great for Irish tennis.

As for Aus open, hard to see past Djokovic unless somebody like isner in round 4 catches him a bit cold

yerwanthere123 · 18-01-2015 8:29pm

I agree about Heather, she seriously needs to develop a weapon. No forehand, no backhand, no big serve.

yerwanthere123 · 31-01-2015 1:11pm

In Irish tennis news, James McGee is into the semi's of the $50,000 Maui challenger. If he wins it'll be (I think) his first ever challenger.

Amy Bowtell is into the semi's of the $10,000 Sunderland ITF tournament. Would be her 4th title.

Sam Barry is in the qualies draw for Montpellier.

yerwanthere123 · 04-02-2015 2:20pm

Kyrgios has pulled out of both Marseille and Dubai, reckons he's got a back injury.

yerwanthere123 · 04-02-2015 2:27pm

Serena will make her return to Indian Wells this year! :eek:

http://time.com/3694659/serena-williams-indian-wells/

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 04-02-2015 2:27pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Kyrgios has pulled out of both Marseille and Dubai, reckons he's got a back injury.

He does have a back injury, has had it since last year. That's why he only played a few times after Wimbledon last year. It's not so serious that he can't play but apparently they're worried about it getting worse and developing into a stress fracture. He's shot up the rankings so much though that he won't get away with that kind of schedule for too long.

In the other HUGE news, if it's true, it looks like Serena is going back to Indian Wells this year. Granted this rumour starts every year around now but apparently she's said it herself this time. We'll see...

yerwanthere123 · 04-02-2015 2:35pm

Yup it's true, she's said so herself. Poor Sharapova though, can't even go to Indian Wells now without Serena lurking in the draw

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 04-02-2015 2:48pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Yup it's true, she's said so herself. Poor Sharapova though, can't even go to Indian Wells now without Serena lurking in the draw

Poor everyone, it's the one Major where everyone has a pretty good shot at winning. I bet they're all cursing Serena and her forgiving heart.

yerwanthere123 · 04-02-2015 3:06pm

Laura Robson will make her return at Surprise, Arizona a $25,000 ITF tournament, followed by Rancho Santa Fe, also a $25,000 the week after.

Rjd2 · 05-02-2015 6:09am

Their was a "dodgy " match in Dallas challenger Monday Night. :pac:

great article about it here...
http://www.sportdw.com/2015/02/fix-tennis-match-denys-molchanov.html

And this is frankly hilarious.

https://twitter.com/TheTennisNerds/status/562365156806905857/photo/1

yerwanthere123 · 06-02-2015 1:52pm

Sam Sumyk is Bouchards new coach apparently, which seems odd considering he was in Melbourne with Vika just a couple of weeks back.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 06-02-2015 1:57pm

^ Yeah, very interesting to see how this came about. Last think Bouchard needs is to be accused of stealing another coach!

yerwanthere123 · 06-02-2015 2:29pm

We really need an Indian Wells Robson-Bouchard first round match, with the winner to play Azarenka.

RosyLily · 06-02-2015 2:32pm

*waits for a cryptic tweet from Azarenka* :pac:

Tunisia's Malek Jaziri retired when 6-3 in his match in Montpelier, apparently to avoid playing Israeli Dudi Sela in the next round. Similar thing happened last year which resulted in a Davis Cup ban for Tunisia

yerwanthere123 · 06-02-2015 2:49pm

RosyLily wrote: »

*waits for a cryptic tweet from Azarenka* :pac:

Tunisia's Malek Jaziri retired when 6-3 in his match in Montpelier, apparently to avoid playing Israeli Dudi Sela in the next round. Similar thing happened last year which resulted in a Davis Cup ban for Tunisia

You're saying you don't believe he really was injured? :pac:

Rjd2 · 06-02-2015 4:04pm

Nobody should really blame him for wanting to avoid that ****fest of having to play Sela.

RosyLily · 06-02-2015 9:01pm

If it was me, I'd try my best to avoid tournaments when Sela or any Israeli player is participating. There's not loads of them on the tour, could be possible. Then again, it might not.

Eugenie posted a selfie with her new coach...he did not look impressed!!:pac: Matt Cronin tweeted that Vika could have a new coach next week.

Will be interesting to see who it is.

yerwanthere123 · 06-02-2015 9:52pm

It'll be interesting to find out what happened between Azarenka and Sumyk. Perhaps he had already announced his intentions to leave and they simply never made it public, or perhaps he left and Genie was straight in there. Another theory I've seen is perhaps IMG made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and he left Vika high and dry. Given how long they've known each other I sincerely hope that's not the case.

yerwanthere123 · 21-02-2015 12:59am

Amazing news for James McGee, he's been awarded a wildcard in the Dubai main draw, will practice with Berdych tomorrow morning and Murray tomorrow evening!

yerwanthere123 · 21-02-2015 1:17am

Karolina Pliskova into her 7th final in 12 months, and her first premier 5 final. Up to #12 in the rankings. If she beats Halep she'll be close to the top ten. I think she'll have a deep run at a slam this year.

Tomic into the semi's at Delray Beach, playing very solidly this year.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 21-02-2015 2:59am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

It'll be interesting to find out what happened between Azarenka and Sumyk. Perhaps he had already announced his intentions to leave and they simply never made it public, or perhaps he left and Genie was straight in there. Another theory I've seen is perhaps IMG made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and he left Vika high and dry. Given how long they've known each other I sincerely hope that's not the case.

Bouchard said that her team heard that Sumyk and Azarenka were parting ways after the Aus Open. I think she said it was through her fitness coach who knew him or something like that. I don't think there was anything underhand about it.

yerwanthere123 · 21-02-2015 3:02am

You're right. Still, she wasn't long swooping in! :pac:

Have you applied for Wimbledon tickets this year? I'm anxiously checking my emails every day, would love to get them again.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 21-02-2015 3:20am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

You're right. Still, she wasn't long swooping in! :pac:

Have you applied for Wimbledon tickets this year? I'm anxiously checking my emails every day, would love to get them again.

I completely forgot about them this year. It's looking like I might be in Paris when RG is on though so I was thinking about trying to get tickets for that if the dates line up.

yerwanthere123 · 21-02-2015 12:18pm

McGee gets Sousa in the first round, with the possibility of Murray in the second.

So cool seeing McGee's name in a draw that includes Djokovic, Federer, Murray and Berdych

Pistachios & cream · 23-02-2015 11:05am

McGees match is being shown on sky sports 3 now

yerwanthere123 · 23-02-2015 11:49am

And it's not going well for him. Lost first set 6-1.

yerwanthere123 · 23-02-2015 11:46pm

McGee well beaten by Sousa, and by the sound of things he didn't make Sousa work very hard for it. Sad to hear.

Kerber got demolished earlier, the signs are looking good for Vika this year.

CassieManson · 25-02-2015 10:38am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

You're right. Still, she wasn't long swooping in! :pac:

Have you applied for Wimbledon tickets this year? I'm anxiously checking my emails every day, would love to get them again.

I applied for tickets this year. Any idea when we would expect to hear if we got them?

yerwanthere123 · 25-02-2015 11:26am

CassieManson wrote: »

I applied for tickets this year. Any idea when we would expect to hear if we got them?

They started giving them out round about last week and should continue deep into March. I got notified about my tickets March 13th last year, so there's plenty of time yet

RosyLily · 26-02-2015 5:50pm

Great win for Borna Coric in Dubai!! Straight sets over Andy Murray. Really impressed, although Murray looked a bit flat at times. I'm interested to see how Coric plays against Federer in the SFs. He beat Nadal last year in Basel...I'm hoping he's not a flash in the pan and continues this good run.

Another win for Venus over Aga Radwanska. Love watching Venus these days, great to see her still competing at a high level. Imagine it was only a few years ago that everyone was saying the Williams' were done with tennis. They showed them!:p

John.Icy · 28-02-2015 5:42pm

Federer wins in Dubai again, in 2 sets. You'd wonder if more of the courts played like Dubai how Federer would be doing the last few years.

the_monkey · 01-03-2015 1:41am

What is Federer playing for ???

He'll never win a grand slam again - he has FOUR KIDS , at their ages that it's most precious to spend time with them - but no , after winning 17 slams it seems 500/250 torneos are important to him while some slave maids look after his kids.

Got to wonder about the mentality of someone like that.

sick sick sick sick person

yerwanthere123 · 01-03-2015 1:45am

:pac:

yerwanthere123 · 01-03-2015 1:52am

Anyway, delighted to see Lucie Safarova win in Doha! Biggest title of her career thus far, and she's now closing in on the top ten. Richly deserved. Good to see Vika playing herself back into form too.

Also enjoyed seeing Ryan Harrison get a decent run of tennis going this week, hope he can start to turn things around again.

the_monkey · 01-03-2015 1:54am

OK it's a bit extreme with the 4 * sick , but you know what I mean ?

It's very strange, look at Sampras .... had one kid ... won the US Open 2002 ... 14th slam ... beat that history .... oh wait ....

Anyway ... he goes of to the sunset to spend quality time with his new wife and baby son ... class act.

Knew when it was time to leave the game.

the_monkey · 01-03-2015 12:14pm

Dermaroller wrote: »

Federer enjoys playing tennis and has the resources to still spend plenty of time with his kids.

Doubt that ,

RosyLily · 01-03-2015 12:40pm

This thing you have against Federer is getting really old. It has no place on this forum.

Either stop it or leave.

Henry9 · 03-03-2015 10:40pm

the_monkey wrote: »

Knew when it was time to leave the game.

Yep, when the got his arse handed to him at Wimbledon by a nobody, when his game disintegrated so quickly he knew he couldn't compete anymore. He got one more good tournament out of himself, and he got out, proper order.
I'm not Federer's biggest fan but if he can still get out there and do it, why shouldn't he?
And you know he's not the first tennis player to have children right? All this guff about 'he's got kids, he must be so tired' that you hear on the TV gets my goat.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 03-03-2015 11:02pm

Unless Federer actually gave birth to his 4 kids there's no legitimate reason for them to affect his tennis. It's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard.

yerwanthere123 · 03-03-2015 11:53pm

Anyone gonna to head to Davis Cup in Dublin this weekend? Would love to go but I'll probably be working

yerwanthere123 · 06-03-2015 11:51pm

Ireland well beaten by Belarus today, down 0-2 after day one. A shame, but they didn't really have a hope without James McGee.

Floppybits · 07-03-2015 7:43pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Ireland well beaten by Belarus today, down 0-2 after day one. A shame, but they didn't really have a hope without James McGee.

How come McGee wasn't playing? Is he injured?

Johnmb · 07-03-2015 9:33pm

Floppybits wrote: »

How come McGee wasn't playing? Is he injured?

He's in the US to play the qualifiers for Indian Wells. If you have a chance to qualify for a tournament that size, you have to take it. A first round loss there would still pay for most of his expenses for the next 6 months at least!

mzungu · 08-03-2015 1:52pm

Johnmb wrote: »

He's in the US to play the qualifiers for Indian Wells. If you have a chance to qualify for a tournament that size, you have to take it. A first round loss there would still pay for most of his expenses for the next 6 months at least!

Too right, a first round loss nets you $11,000. Not bad at all.

Moore has said that in 2013, first-round losers would get $11,000

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/02/atp-approves-indian-wells-prize-money-increase/46536/#.VPxFQoGsXiQ

yerwanthere123 · 10-03-2015 12:05am

Indian Wells draw has been made, we could get a Sharapova-Vika match in R3. Would be their first match since RG SF 2013, and first hard court meeting since Istanbul 2012. Calling a Vika win now!

RosyLily · 11-03-2015 2:08pm

Jonas Bjorkman will be joining Andy Murray's team on a trial basis. Interesting addition!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 11-03-2015 2:16pm

James McGee won his R1 qualifier yesterday. Still 2 more to go but it would be great if he could qualify.

Ryan Harrison drew Mardy Fish in R1. Both trying to make a comeback...Tough draw for both of them. Winner probably gets Nishikori in R2.

RosyLily · 11-03-2015 4:36pm

Good to hear! And a win over Falla no less. He plays Alex Bolt next...hoping he can make his way to the main draw.

James Ward also through to the next round of qualifying at IW.

The 2015 In Between Grand Slam Thread

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