Tennis Talk 2014

[falafaclese]

Wow, Madison Keys won a title? She's so great!

ETA: Coco Vandeweghe won a title in s-Hertogenbosch too. Not a bad weekend for the young Americans.

[harry24]

Whoa, a whole lotta ladies fug at the Wimbledon party: Wimbledon Red Carpet Photos

Winner: Sabine Lisicki

Runner Up: Laura Robson

Honorable Mentions: Venus, Urszula Radwanska, Hantuckova (just a skosh too slutty)

Near Misses: Serena, Ana I, Eugenie B, Agnieszka Radwanska (she kinda looks great, but that dress is tacky), Andrea Petkovic (unflattering, ill-fitting, but kinda cool), Bencic (too tight, too tacky), Vekic

WTF?: Maria

Oh, honey: Sloane, Cirstea

OMG, no: Jelena Jankovic, Azarenka

Please, just go home and only wear tennis clothes for the rest of your life: Li Na

[roseha]

Here are Roger and Stefan at Wimbledon practice. How on earth does Stefan still look so great?

I'm very happy for Madison Keys too.

[harry24]

How on earth does Stefan still look so great?

BBS* helps.

(*Being Born Swedish)

[falafaclese]

ESPN's new body issueis coming out again, and Venus and Tomas Berdych are being featured. The old cliche is that a picture is worth a thousand words, and so I will refrain from saying something completely inappropriate and yet complimentary. Behold:

Ahem. Refraining.

Venus looks fantastic as usual:


And there's also a Venus video, where she talks a little more about her health. She has managed to develop a pretty great outlook about it.

[lt]

Oooh, boy. Neil Harman has admitted to plagiarizing his Wimbledon books. He's resigned his Wimbledon membership and I'm guessing the fall out will be pretty extensive. I will say, based on the email he/she sent to Deadspin, I think the whistle blower has a personal vendetta against the guy.

[acre]

So I didn't even watch Wimbledon this year - Wimbledon, with the total love of my tennis life, Fed, in the final - nope didn't watch any of it. I guess I just don't watch tennis now. So I canceled all my cable. Got nothing.

Djok's ok, he can play, but figured it was Fed's last chance, y'all know it was. So g'bye and thanks for the memories my beautiful dream of a player. I will not see your like again, I wish, oh how I wish I would.



But hey I'm all cheery watching the Tour de France w/o drugs! Exciting, who even knew such a thing existed? Maybe it's not clean, don't tell me, I don't want to know.

Disjointed, written over time, but sincere if not sensible. Love my Fed always, Tour is fun too, I like it.

[falafaclese]

Great match and great win for Venus tonight against Vika. She wasn't Vika in full flight, but it wasn't Vika playing poorly either. Venus, for her part, was playing quite well. Good on her.

[falafaclese]

I went to the Citi Open yesterday, and caught the second half of Gasquet/Pospisil. It was a really entertaining match. Gasquet looked a lot smaller than I expected, but damn, that backhand does not disappoint. I sometimes get annoyed hearing commentators discuss it over and over, but now I get it. Pospisil really fought hard, and although I was rooting for Richard, I was happy that Pospisil was able to turn it around in the third set.

I also saw Kuznetsova in her match against Makarova, which was actually the reason we chose the night session over the day session (initially Sveta and Milos were the two people I wanted to see, but Milos was scheduled for the day session). Sveta was really fit, and smaller than she looks on TV. Makarova on the other hand seems much taller in person. Sveta's game is just so impressive to me, and it was even more so in person. Her movement is fantastic, and her forehand was so good. We were sitting right by the player's entrance, and I got to see her from just feet away. She was obviously tired, but she seemed really sweet signing autographs on her way out, and she gave this little girl a pair of her wristbands (brand new out of the package), and I really think it blew the girl's mind, she was so happy. I took some photos, but I have to go through them and see if there are any worth posting here.

[harry24]

A belated thank you to falafaclese for the report on the Citi Open. I just love hearing the impressions of our reporters when they see the players in person.

I've been thinking about all you Venus fans here with her excellent form of late. I haven't watched a lot of her matches, but have been paying attention to the results. How "back" do you guys think she is? Do you think she could challenge for major wins again?

And, dipping into the shallow end, the semi-finalists in Toronto make quite an attractive foursome, no?

[breezybee]

Woo Hoo Venus!!! Great match between Venus and Serena. I'v got my fingers crossed that Venus takes the whole thing.

[skyz]

harry, I think Venus' confidence is where it needs to be finally and all this match play is doing wonders. So, I think she could challenge for the US Open, possibly, tentatively hopeful. Her back seems to have healed and whatever she's doing for her illness seems to be working. But who knows. I'm just glad to see her so happy. Hopefully she'll win it all tomorrow.

[falafaclese]

I think, based on how she has been playing, she should be consistently making it to the second week, but I feel like she will need a little help from the draw to make it all the way to the final. She is definitely a threat, and given that the women's field is a little undefined right now, it may actually be a good time for her. I didn't see her match against Radwanska, but although I felt this way even before I found out that she lost, I certainly would have felt better if she had won or at least taken it to three sets. Did anyone see it? How was she looking?

[harry24]

Not much action around here since the last weekend of the Open, but I thought this was worthy of special notice: Li Na is set to retire

Sniff. I just love her, and will really miss her at the big events.

[roseha]

Sept 19, 2014 1:12:16 GMT harry24 said:

Not much action around here since the last weekend of the Open, but I thought this was worthy of special notice: Li Na is set to retire

Sniff. I just love her, and will really miss her at the big events.

Me too, Harry! Sorry to see Li Na retire, not only did she break new ground for Asian players, but she was an incredible personality for tennis. The sport really will miss her.