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Post by mooncreek on Oct 17, 2010 14:19:51 GMT
The finals today are jarring. Ana won a title - rather easily at that?
I saw the Shanghai final. I think the matches against Soderling and Djokovic took their toll on Roger. There were so many break points chances and Roger's serve didn't do any damage (he was broken 4 times and Andy had chances in two other games as well). There was also a point where I suspect Roger had seen the highlight film from Andy's previous match (when he forced Monaco to hit four overheads in a row, won the point and knocked the spirit out of the match) , and muffed. 6-3 6-2 against an in-form Roger Federer?
At any rate, at least this match puts Murray back in the conversation with the other three.
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Post by breezybee on Oct 17, 2010 14:40:11 GMT
Serena is done for the year too. I don't know if I've seen this many of them out at the end of the year before.
The Federer/Murray match is being shown here later. Sounds like not a very good match. Not sure if I'll watch Murray and his sweaty bum or not.
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Oct 19, 2010 21:02:08 GMT
You know how I'm a bit obsessed with how Chris Fowler promotes tennis during his college football duties? I just saw a promo for College Football Live where the guys were wearing all white to give a shout out to Penn State's White Out. Each one was wearing a different style (Saturday Night Fever, etc.) but Chris? Tennis whites. Couldn't love him more.
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Post by falafaclese on Oct 21, 2010 16:39:43 GMT
Fowler can do no wrong in my mind. Although there seemed to be less of him at the majors this year. I hope that's not a trend.
Azarenka just locked down the last spot in the YECs. I'm kind of bummed not that Azarenka made it, but that Na Li didn't. She lost in the first round at Moscow, so unless someone else drops out, she won't be there. For some reason I still like Azarenka although I find the reports about her treatment of the ballkids disappointing. i hope it's immaturity, because I can't stand that stuff.
As for the men, it's interesting how the top four are all looking pretty good form-wise, and then the rest of the contenders, with the possible exception of Soderling, are all in various states of disarray. It seems late in the season for this many sports to still be open, but people keep getting dumped out in first and second round matches.
ETA: I just noticed that the ballkids in Stockholm carry around little butterfly nets to catch the balls with. I've never seen that anywhere. It looks so strange.
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Post by falafaclese on Oct 22, 2010 3:21:20 GMT
Sharapova just got engaged to Sasha Vujacic who is an NBA player from Serbia. Congrats to them. As hard as it has been for me to warm to her, she really seems to have developed into a pretty well-adjusted intelligent individual.
I will say, though, that if they have children, with those genetics, they are going to be gigantic. I expect one of those kids to attack Tokyo and then singlehandedly defeat Mothra.
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Post by tikigirl on Oct 22, 2010 16:21:56 GMT
This. I still can't stand the grunting on court, but I am really impressed with the adult Maria -- especially how she handled the situation with her heinous father. But this:
I am so in love with you, f'clese! Godzilla rulz!!!!111!
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Post by mooncreek on Oct 24, 2010 16:41:29 GMT
Probably inspired by Kimiko's recent run, 40-year-old Thomas Muster has decided to accept the wild card for the Austrian Open despite only having won 1 match in 7 challenger events.
He drew Gulbis first round. I hope Thomas makes it off the court in one piece.
Although what does it say about Austrian tennis that this match will be a bigger draw than any Melzer plays this week.
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Post by falafaclese on Oct 25, 2010 3:55:26 GMT
More importantly, I've just come to the realization that Thomas Muster is fine. I mean not just fine, but FOINE. Am I crazy? I never watched him the first time around.
Also, the women's YEC's are this week, and the groups have been set:
Maroon- Woz, Fran, Elena and Sam
White- Kim, Vera, JJ, Azarenka
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Post by amarathe on Oct 25, 2010 13:45:20 GMT
I always thought Muster was good looking. When I first got internet access around 15 years ago, I did a search for Thomas Muster and there was a picture of him wearing nothing but a jockstrap on a clay court with crowd in the background applauding. It was quite memorable, indeed.
Um... JJ is going to get killed in her group. She's been in a serious slump since the French, and she just lost last week to the #268 ranked player. And now all of her round robin opponents can easily blow her off the court.
This should be Woz's best chance to pick up the biggest title of her career: Kim is rusty; Dementieva is injured; Schiavone, Stosur, and JJ haven't done much since the French; and Woz already beat Vera and Azarenka this fall.
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Post by falafaclese on Oct 25, 2010 18:33:40 GMT
I recently stumbled across that Thomas Muster pic. I was going to post it in the gutter thrut then I was wondering if it would be too NSFW.
I think the only thing that's going to slow Kim down is rustiness, but I'm not sure how much of a factor it will be. She's got a crazy good record over the rest of the field (as in 41-7), and with the round-robin format, she has the opportunity to play herself into it a bit, and if she's not fresh at this point compared to the rest of the field, then she'll never be. All the women who have the most potential to give her trouble (Serena, Venus and Justine) are all out. Of course Vera and Vika are playing well, and Vera beat her twice this year, so who knows? The one thing I'm sure about is that JJ will be pure cannon fodder out there. She hasn't made it out of the round of 16 of anything since the French Open. It's amazing to me that she's still ranked as high as she is, but she's got that IW win and French Open semifinal finish, so there you go. There will probably be some entertaining matches with this crew. It's a shame that the name recognition's not the best for casual fans.
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Post by breezybee on Oct 26, 2010 12:37:31 GMT
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Oct 28, 2010 16:03:17 GMT
Wow, have I gotten behind--I didn't realize that Courier had been named Davis Cup Captain. First off: YEAH! Happy happy! Second: how funny is it that Roddick immediately said he'd play Davis Cup next year after the announcement was made? It's like he thought "phew, my stalker won't be there anymore, I can play again!" eta: So, I was watching "Raising Hope" and when they got to this (check out :49) you all know who I was thinking about. . . |
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Post by falafaclese on Oct 28, 2010 21:32:41 GMT
Heh! I haven't been watching that show, but I love Martha Plimpton, and that clip looked good. Is that a good show?
In my opinion that has been some good tennis being played in Doha. The first day was unsurprisingly bad given that Jankovic and Dementieva were playing, and both of them are hobbled. I'm not even sure why JJ is there at all. Since then, there have been some good matches. Azarenka has been playing tough, and Stosur had a surprising victory against Woz. Vera has looked very good. I'm enjoying what I've seen of it.
Ps. Love your avatar moon!
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Oct 29, 2010 1:20:19 GMT
I really like it. If you like "My Name is Earl"-type shows (same creator)--heartwarming but with a bizarre edge--then this is for you. And Martha Plimpton is just great. Love her. Hulu has all the episodes if you want to try it out.
I'm having tennis flashbacks as I sit here searching the internet trying to find a live feed of the World Series. I really, really, really hate FOX. And because FOX is a stronger presence than any tennis regulator, they keep killing my feeds as I find them.
[And this post had absolutely no tennis content. Sorry. Blame FOX. I am.]
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Post by falafaclese on Oct 29, 2010 16:05:20 GMT
Elena Dementieva just retired. I can't believe how depressed I am about this, but I really loved watching her play, and I have always admired how incredibly, almost impossibly fit she is. She has always seemed like one of the finest natural athletes on the tour, and always seemed like a really sweet person. This makes me even more sad about how close she got to winning the last French Open given how injured she was throughout most of it. This is terrible. I truly hope she really enjoys the next stage of her life, because she's really given me a lot of enjoyment.
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