The 2015 In Between Grand Slam Thread

Floppybits

Berdych looks to be in good form as well in Qatar. Should be a great Australian open if they all arrive in Melbourne in top form.

yerwanthere123

Terrific start to the year for Sharapova! First time has ever won an AO warm up tournament. Also, she stretches her streak of WTA tour titles to thirteen years, which is a terrific stat. Never really gets the credit she deserves.

No surprises to see Halep victorious in Shenzhen, although kinda concerning to see Wozniacki losing to Venus in Auckland. Happy for Venus though I guess.

James McGee is taking part in the Sydney qualies this week and is currently through to the second round, he beat Horacio Zeballos 64 64. Not bad!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Decent first week of tennis for the WTA, can't really say the same for the ATP.

Sharapova's record of titles is impressive, people tend to not pay attention if they're not Slams but considering she missed a huge chunk of a couple of seasons with her shoulder that's a really impressive stat.

yerwanthere123

McGee unfortunately lost to Gabashvili in qualifying. Was always going to be a hard task, he's ranked around 60 and reached the 3R in Melbourne and NY last year. Don't know what he cut-off point is at all but I'm assuming that McGee will make the AO qualies? Although he did fall to #228 in the rankings this week so not sure.

RosyLily

1,000 wins for Federer. Really impressive feat. What I found mad is that Jimmy Connors has 1,253 wins - that's incredible!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Nice win for Delpo. He was a bit emotional after, bless him.

yerwanthere123

James McGee gets Norbert Gombos in the first round of qualies, with either Dane Propoggia or Brydan Klein in the second round. Both seem winnable. Somdev Devvarman is also in his section, so not exactly easy. If he could qualify for a slam again it would be amazing.

The Sydney draw has been torn to shreds, so many players withdrawing with a varied selection of 'injuries'. No idea why any top player would even play a tournament the week before a slam. Conserve your energy for the two weeks ahead!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

The Sydney draw has been torn to shreds, so many players withdrawing with a varied selection of 'injuries'. No idea why any top player would even play a tournament the week before a slam. Conserve your energy for the two weeks ahead!

Sydney used to be the main warm up before the Australian Open but Brisbane has eclipsed it now. I suppose the timing stands to Brisbane, a week off after to recover means you can give it 100%. None of the top players are going to kill themselves trying to win Sydney and then only have a day or two to recover.

yerwanthere123

I know, it's sad when you consider the many great champions who've won there before.

Forgot to mention that Louk Sorensen is in the qualies draw as well, will play 31st seed Vincent Millot.

yerwanthere123

James through to 2nd round of qualies, beat Gombos 1-6 6-3 6-2. Dane Propoggia up next, very beatable.

RosyLily

Delpo through to the next round in Sydney after beating Fognini.:)

yerwanthere123

Nice to see him winning again, although he's admitted that he still feels pain and basically just decided to come back because he misses it too much. Maybe he'll never be pain-free and will have to play through it for the rest of his career? Makes you wonder how long he'll be able to keep that up for. Oddly enough, he has a decent enough chance of defending his title, the draw is that bad. As for who's left in Auckland...

Pironkova now has a very good chance of defending her title, gets a rematch with Kvitova in the semi's and possibly another rematch with Kerber in the final. Who'd have thought. Hobart has been rained off pretty much all week, most of the 2nd round matches haven't been played, meaning they'll play the final on Sunday, or else have to play a couple of matches a day to catch up. If the remaining players had sense they'd discover an 'injury' and just head to Melbourne.

James McGee has an excellent chance of qualifying for the main draw now, no seeds left in his section and will face Dane Propoggia next. Could play either Austin Krajicek or Kyle Edmund for a place in the main draw. All to play for.

RosyLily

Fingers crossed for McGee!! Delpo definitely has a good chance of retaining in Sydney. I'd worry more about how painful his wrist will be in Melbourne. Hopefully the organisers will leave his match until the 2nd day. Saying that he's still in pain is also a worry.

yerwanthere123

So sad James lost, really thought he could do it.

yerwanthere123

Andy Murray now has his own logo. Um.. what do we think? :pac:

RosyLily

Um, it's very....pointy? Looks like something one of his team cooked up on Paint or WordArt. C'mon Team Murray, get more imaginative!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

It reminds me of the German SS symbol.... a bit.

RosyLily

^ Was thinking it looked slightly Germanic.

ConM96

Aussie open draws underway and some very interesting draws in the very early stages.
Azarenka opens against Sloane Stephens with the winner most probably playing Wozniacki.
Wozniacki a potential route to the title:
Townsend
Azarenka
Zahlavova strycova
Cibulkova
S Williams
Kvitova/Radwanska
Sharapova

I still believe I you Caro( but In all seriousness that route is just brutal).

yerwanthere123

Australian Open thread here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057362730

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

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

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

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

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

yerwanthere123

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

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

yerwanthere123

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

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

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

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

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

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.