The 2014 In Between Grand Slam Thread

WaterLily. · 04-03-2014 9:49pm

James loses 6-2 7-6 to Goffin

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 04-03-2014 10:08pm

Yeah, was following the live scores. He served for the 2nd set but Goffin broke back and took it in the TB. Very long way to go for no reward. Maybe he'll get into Miami now too?

yerwanthere123 · 04-03-2014 10:49pm

Poor James. What a shame about the 2nd set. Hopefully he'll get into Miami

WaterLily. · 04-03-2014 10:54pm

I sincerely hope so because you're right, if he were to go home now it would seem like it was all for nothing.

I wish Wimbledon would give him a wildcard this year!! I hate to see him work so hard and not get anything for it.

I know it has been discussed before but it is just so frustrating the way Irish tennis players cannot get anywhere these days no matter how hard they work.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 04-03-2014 11:03pm

Have you guys seen this PledgeSports website? It's kind of like those kickstarter type sites for films but for sports people. James Clusky has a page on it and he's trying to raise 10k to help fund his aim to play Wimbledon this year. There's a couple of other familiar names on there too but James' seems to be the only one making any real progress. It's a good idea but it's a real shame that Irish athletes need these kind of things to fund themselves.

the_monkey · 06-03-2014 12:55pm

How many qualie rounds are there for these masters 1000 ?

3 ?

Pity about James ... very dissapointed in that 2nd set ... but Goffin is 100+ places higher in the rankings ... tough draw..

yerwanthere123 · 06-03-2014 1:39pm

the_monkey wrote: »

How many qualie rounds are there for these masters 1000 ?

3 ?

Pity about James ... very dissapointed in that 2nd set ... but Goffin is 100+ places higher in the rankings ... tough draw..

For Indian Wells just 2.

I think James will feel even more disappointed considering how Goffin then lost to Daniel Kosakowski.

yerwanthere123 · 06-03-2014 4:15pm

Who are ye picking for Indian Wells? The Men's will probably be a Rafa charge to the title, the slow conditions obviously suit him perfectly. Hope Andy can get to the quarter-finals at least, where he could potentially meet Rafa for the first time since October 2011! Have no idea why Del Potro is playing this tournament when it's patently obvious he should be resting.

The women's is a tough one to call. I can see Li Na losing early, and I'd be massively surprised if Sharapova won. Azarenka was wearing a walking boot for three weeks and consequently has only had one week of practice. Still though, she had a pretty good year last year when she was playing at about 50% for most of it. Overall though, I think it'll be one of Halep, Azarenka or Radwanska who wins the title.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 06-03-2014 4:32pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Who are ye picking for Indian Wells? The Men's will probably be a Rafa charge to the title, the slow conditions obviously suit him perfectly. Hope Andy can get to the quarter-finals at least, where he could potentially meet Rafa for the first time since October 2011! Have no idea why Del Potro is playing this tournament when it's patently obvious he should be resting.

The women's is a tough one to call. I can see Li Na losing early, and I'd be massively surprised if Sharapova won. Azarenka was wearing a walking boot for three weeks and consequently has only had one week of practice. Still though, she had a pretty good year last year when she was playing at about 50% for most of it. Overall though, I think it'll be one of Halep, Azarenka or Radwanska who wins the title.

Not only playing the tournament, but playing DOUBLES too! No idea who makes his decisions but they're all idiots.

Women's is wide open. Obviously the circumstances surrounding Serena's boycott of the tournament aren't great but at least it offers up a genuine chance for a bit of competition among the women. Maria's barely played this year.... I don't know what she'll do. She's as likely to win it as she is to lose her first match. As are a lot of the women, to be fair

yerwanthere123 · 06-03-2014 4:57pm

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Not only playing the tournament, but playing DOUBLES too! No idea who makes his decisions but they're all idiots.

Women's is wide open. Obviously the circumstances surrounding Serena's boycott of the tournament aren't great but at least it offers up a genuine chance for a bit of competition among the women. Maria's barely played this year.... I don't know what she'll do. She's as likely to win it as she is to lose her first match. As are a lot of the women, to be fair

Jesus Christ...

WaterLily. · 06-03-2014 5:12pm

^ I just saw that! What on earth are he and his team thinking!? I know he is defending a lot of points but I don't understand why on earth you would risk aggravating any kind of injury like that.

I reaaally hope both Rafa and Andy make it to the quarter-finals, I can't believe they haven't played in over 2 years!

I think this tournament could be really interesting, Wawrinka's first tournament after the AO, Rafa still didn't look 100% in Rio, Andy is slowly getting back to full fitness, Federer has seemingly bounced back after last year's disappointment and Djokovic has had quite an underwhelming start to this year.

Looking at the draw though, Djokovic has it really easy! Nadal, Murray, Federer and Wawrinka all on the other side.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 06-03-2014 6:17pm

WaterLily. wrote: »

Looking at the draw though, Djokovic has it really easy! Nadal, Murray, Federer and Wawrinka all on the other side.

Djokovic had an easy draw in Australia too.

John.Icy · 06-03-2014 6:24pm

Am I right in putting Federer and Wawrinka to meet in the quarters?

Mouth watering prospect for me if they both can get to that point.

WaterLily. · 06-03-2014 9:29pm

Djokovic always seems to get easy draws!

Hopefully the top seeds all make it to the quarters because Wawrinka/Federer and Nadal/Murray would be brilliant!

yerwanthere123 · 07-03-2014 7:38pm

Recently retired Elena Baltacha has been diagnosed with cancer of the liver. She's only 30, hope she pulls through.

RosyLily · 08-03-2014 4:35pm

Sad news from Elena. And she only got married at Christmas. She's so young, she'll fight this.

Great win for Lauren Davis over Azarenka at Indian Wells. 6-0, 7-6. I know Vika's foot is still crocked but still a win....and Lauren's first win over a top 10 player. She'll play Varvara Lepchenko in the third round. Fingers crossed she can build on this victory.

Vinci actually won yesterday!:eek: Beat Madison Keys in straight sets. She'll play Casey Dellacqua next, decent chance of getting another win.

Fedrinka teamed up to beat #6 seeds Bopanna & Qureshi 6-2, 6-7, 10-6. They're got a decent chance of reaching the QFs. I like seeing them play doubles together....I think they work well. If they hit the form they had in Beijing 2008, they could go far.

I know it's been said before but...what IDIOT put Delpo in doubles?!?! He's pulled out of the tournaments because of his wrist then plays singles and doubles at IW. Too early in the season...he risks doing serious damage. Himself and Cilic play Nestor & Zimonjic and I'm hoping they lose quickly. This is the guy that I was picking to sneak a GS this year but now I'm not so sure.:(

John.Icy · 08-03-2014 7:03pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nozroBGhO0s#t=0

What do people make of this?

Isn't the rule that if you hit the ball back in play and then challenge, the challenge is invalid?

As far as I see it, Istomin spent ages arguing that he did but his hand up, but if the above I said is true then it didn't matter that he did infact raise his hand because he played the ball. And by the time Istomin finally said he wanted to now challenge the last ball AFTER he had wanted to challenge the previous one (which he played) and sure 3 minutes had passed so he hardly expected to be allowed challenge.

Have I got this rule wrong? Whatever comes of it anyway, if the umpire took it as Istomin continued the point, the last ball should have been called out.

Johnmb · 08-03-2014 7:54pm

John.Icy wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nozroBGhO0s#t=0

What do people make of this?

Isn't the rule that if you hit the ball back in play and then challenge, the challenge is invalid?

As far as I see it, Istomin spent ages arguing that he did but his hand up, but if the above I said is true then it didn't matter that he did infact raise his hand because he played the ball. And by the time Istomin finally said he wanted to now challenge the last ball AFTER he had wanted to challenge the previous one (which he played) and sure 3 minutes had passed so he hardly expected to be allowed challenge.

Have I got this rule wrong? Whatever comes of it anyway, if the umpire took it as Istomin continued the point, the last ball should have been called out.

Actually, looking at that, Istomin was right. He hit the ball, and raised his hand immediately. Technically, the rule is you stop playing before you hit the ball in order to stop someone hitting a weak shot that they know will be destroyed and trying to give themselves a second chance by challenging and maybe getting a bit of luck. But, it is hard to stop yourself from hitting a ball once you are in position, you are often already swinging when it lands. He raised his hand before his own shot landed, the umpire should have allowed the challenge imo. The last ball should have been called out for sure if the umpire is claiming that he didn't see Istomin challenge. The only justification could have been that Istomin caused a hindrance, but if the umpire didn't see the challenge, how could he see a hindrance?

Floppybits · 08-03-2014 10:17pm

jerzy janowicz beaten in a tie break in the third set by Falla. Janowicz served a double fault on match point in the tie break to give Falla the win.

Rjd2 · 09-03-2014 1:31am

Karlovic v Wawrinka on now, interesting to see how Stan plays.

I wonder what strategy Karlovic will use

yerwanthere123 · 09-03-2014 3:41am

Johnmb wrote: »

Actually, looking at that, Istomin was right. He hit the ball, and raised his hand immediately. Technically, the rule is you stop playing before you hit the ball in order to stop someone hitting a weak shot that they know will be destroyed and trying to give themselves a second chance by challenging and maybe getting a bit of luck. But, it is hard to stop yourself from hitting a ball once you are in position, you are often already swinging when it lands. He raised his hand before his own shot landed, the umpire should have allowed the challenge imo. The last ball should have been called out for sure if the umpire is claiming that he didn't see Istomin challenge. The only justification could have been that Istomin caused a hindrance, but if the umpire didn't see the challenge, how could he see a hindrance?

I agree with you, I think Istomin was screwed over there. I know technically you must stop play before you hit the ball, but naturally it's impulse to hit the ball. There's a matter of milliseconds in between the ball landing and striking the ball, you can hardly make the judgement in that time frame. Having watched the video a couple of times, the 'delay' in Istomin deciding to challenge wasn't in anyway unreasonable. In fact you see this quite often! Not a good decision from the umpire.

yerwanthere123 · 09-03-2014 3:57am

Good to see Wawrinka and Sharapova winning on their returns. Andy won also, came from a set down against Rosol. Harrison is up a set on Fognini now, hope he can find a win.

Kerber loses to Torró Flor, a bad loss. Muguruza out too, which is surprising. Oh and Sabine lost as well, to 241st ranked Aleksandra Wozniak :pac:

Rjd2 · 09-03-2014 11:21am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

. Oh and Sabine lost as well, to 241st ranked Aleksandra Wozniak :pac:

Saving herself for Wimbledon.:pac:

RosyLily · 09-03-2014 6:27pm

Delpo pulls out of IW due to wrist injury. Not surprising in the least...not playing like his usual self!

yerwanthere123 · 09-03-2014 6:40pm

RosyLily wrote: »

Delpo pulls out of IW due to wrist injury. Not surprising in the least...not playing like his usual self!

Finally, a bit of sense. I hope he takes as long off now as he actually needs, rather than coming back too soon and having to withdraw from tournaments again. Even if it takes the remainder of the season, surely it'd be worth it if he can get back to full fitness?

Rjd2 · 10-03-2014 6:14pm

he played a doubles match before he pulled out which can't have helped.

yerwanthere123 · 11-03-2014 1:45am

Sharapova

Should not have taken that month off for Sochi. I knew Giorgi would be dangerous

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 11-03-2014 2:07am

Maria looked very rattled out there. I wonder is her shoulder okay? She's been struggling since she came back in January.

WaterLily. · 11-03-2014 3:51pm

Fecks sake, are Rafa and Andy EVER going to play each other again!?

RosyLily · 11-03-2014 3:56pm

^ Nope!

Saving it for Wimbledon.

The 2014 In Between Grand Slam Thread

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