Tennis Talk 2024: Vol 5 (Abu Dhabi, Cluj-Napoca, Marseille, Cordoba, Dallas)

It's weird because before those three, the Danes had good people like Jeff Tarango inspire them and their behaviour.

Wait, he was American. Why did I put him in Denmark?

...Maybe the forumite was Danish.

I think so. It was same guy as Karbacher something no?

...think so.

Torpegaard (the tennis player) seems to be retired from the sport, or is on a very long injury lay-off (retired in his latest match in 2022). Remember when he stole the world's hearts by storming through the challenger tournament of his alma mater?

no sulk retirement here (hopefully).

If she intents to do a sulk retirement, she sure leaves it late.

it could happen if something triggers her, but with points from GSM unlikely to happen.

another bad call for instance.

Only fixers retire at this score.

Or if they cramp real bad.

oh wow she shook the blind man's hand.

Qinwen did once, and none of those applied to her.

Makes her a nicer woman than Kenin, who failed to shake the umpire's hand after the Watson loss. Presumably over one call she perceived as really bad (1-1, deuce in the final set. Allegedly bad call gave Watson a break point she converted for the break)

for the hipsters:
https://twitter.com/granttennis15/status/1755432919911248331/photo/1

Was gonna say maybe bad memory for Clara, but then I remembered she remembers everyone scoreline in the history of tennis.

Everybody is in the 40 to 50 lbs or 20 to 25 kg range and then you Mannarino at half that.

Zach Svajda and Ethan Quinn must be using super next level strings with them stating "confidential" for them.

Mannarino is very unfrench on court (never any drama), but then he has some of the biggest quirks off court (the light racquet tension + never looking at draws) so still finds a way to stand out.

The Moutets, Paires and Gastons of this world are just ruining the reputation of french players. Tsonga, Gasquet, Simon, Humbert, Halys, Rinderknech all reasonably normal and drama free. Monfils does drama, but the positive kind (if you haven't bet on him).

that is true. There's also Cornet, but most French girls don't do drama.

nice of the Cordoba players to not do lots of +3 hr matches this year.

You forgot Björn Borg when you listed Swedish musicians
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FixFjBfyBic

for Abu Dhabi tomorrow they put the players who played today as the first two matches and those playing yesterday as the final one. They wanted Ons later or why? No super long matches today so everyone should be ok, but I find it odd.

*final ones

Feb 8, 2024 -- 6:04PM, SamuelMertensBertens wrote:

nice of the Cordoba players to not do lots of +3 hr matches this year.

jinx alert! It's now raining there.

Tennis Talk 2023: Vol 17 (French Open)
By wisewords on 5 Jun 23 13:30
Astrid Lew Yan Foon. what a name!

in action today.

for ATP on the exchange, in the menus Betfair just lists the matches as singles matches and not 1st round matches, 2nd round matches, Quarter finals etc. Is this new? For WTA they still have the round listed in the menu.

Doha qualies tomorrow + quarter final action from Abu Dhabi, Cluj and Mumbai. Busy day for WTA.

Collins is scheduled for Doha tomorrow.

so is Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo.

and a local waitress

13‑Feb‑2023    Doha    Hard    Q1        37    (5)Elise Mertens [BEL] d. (WC)Al Naimi    6-0 6-0   
7‑Mar‑2022    W15 Monastir    Hard    Q1            Amira Bargaoui [TUN] d. Al Naimi    6-4 6-3                               
28‑Feb‑2022    W15 Monastir    Hard    Q1        1149    (9)Natalia Orlova [RUS] d. (WC)Al Naimi    6-2 6-3                               
21‑Feb‑2022    Doha    Hard    Q1        54    (1)Marta Kostyuk [UKR] d. (WC)Al Naimi    6-1 6-2   
1‑Mar‑2021    Doha    Hard    Q1        503    Ena Shibahara [USA] d. (WC)Al Naimi    6-0 6-1   
24‑Feb‑2020    Doha    Hard    Q1        68    (7)Laura Siegemund [GER] d. (WC)Al Naimi    6-0 6-0   

she made progress in every match and then my wife put a stop to that

Doha probably has (2) Special Exempt slots (would need to confirm), so if Collins cannot make it to qualies due to still being in action at Abu Dhabi she might directly get into the main draw through that mechanism.

Sounds like Cordoba is about to resume. I hope we get our streams back.

Feb 8, 2024 -- 8:05PM, edy wrote:

Doha probably has (2) Special Exempt slots (would need to confirm), so if Collins cannot make it to qualies due to still being in action at Abu Dhabi she might directly get into the main draw through that mechanism.

But Collins lost today, so it won't apply to her. Relevant for Bucsa though.

Al-Naimi bageled in set 1.

double bagel. won 14 points all match. finished strong by getting to deuce twice in the final game.

yay

Doha better start working on their onscreen scoreboards before the main draw starts. Get stuck all the time.

if they are gonna have broken scoreboards, they should at least make sure books get this inaccurate information.

Tomova vs. Pigossi has completed three games and the onscreen scoreboard still shows the end of the Masarova-Minnen match.

Just read that Zhizhen Zhang took sole ownership of being the best ever ATP ranked chinese player and the first top50 player after the Australian Open. At the AO he still shared the honours with Wu Yibing with both having a career high ranking of #54 then.

Feb 9, 2024 -- 2:03PM, edy wrote:

Tomova vs. Pigossi has completed three games and the onscreen scoreboard still shows the end of the Masarova-Minnen match.

They got rid of that Masarova scoreboard in the 4th or 5th game of the Tomova match, then just had nothing for a while and for the 8th game they finally found a fitting scoreboard for Tomova.

Feb 9, 2024 -- 2:22PM, edy wrote:

Just read that Zhizhen Zhang took sole ownership of being the best ever ATP ranked chinese player and the first top50 player after the Australian Open. At the AO he still shared the honours with Wu Yibing with both having a career high ranking of #54 then.

Felix is such a generous guy.

Feb 9, 2024 -- 2:03PM, edy wrote:

Tomova vs. Pigossi has completed three games and the onscreen scoreboard still shows the end of the Masarova-Minnen match.

when will they fix this do you think? Today or when they main draw starts on Sunday.

Tomova worked splendidly in the two games it has had a scoreboard. Maybe it is fixed now.

Felix losing to Zhizhen didn't enable the record in itself for Zhang. He claimed that #50 in the rankings following the AO already. Felix just allowed him to solidify it and improve on the record.

The bigger problem than the scoreboard has been bet365 removing streams or not having them to begin with. For some random reason they removed Tomova after about 2 and a half games and haven't brought it back. The feed itself works as I have been watching elsewhere.

Earlier in the day they also failed to put the stream online for at least one other match for a while (Rodionova-Shnaider I think).

Hidden double bagel for Tomova. Pigossi led 4*-0, 40-30 without Tomova having had either a break or game point. Tomova ended up winning 6-4,6-0, with Pigossi only having gp/bp on two of those final 12 games from a quick look.

Feb 9, 2024 -- 2:52PM, edy wrote:

Felix losing to Zhizhen didn't enable the record in itself for Zhang. He claimed that #50 in the rankings following the AO already. Felix just allowed him to solidify it and improve on the record.

Collins out there playing today. Respect to that old woman!

ah, it's only an 1 hr flight.

Osaka got Garcia again in Doha.

NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ @naomiosaka
Hmmmmm
3:16 PM · Feb 9, 2024

Perfect for revenge.

Osaka with her own big serve and blatant lack of returning must be cursing her draws to an extend in this comeback.

Pliskova and twice Garcia out of five matches.

with her luck she's get Errani in Dubai.

Cluj DJ playing such random remixes that Shazam came back with the wrong song.

https://www.tennisforum.com/threads/the-2024-off-court-photo-video-thread-%F0%9F%93%B8.1410453/page-41#post-84711086

Linda Noskova doing disrespectful things in what looks like a place of prayer.

#PrayForLindy

someone keep her away from that prayer room at Wimbledon.

Bogdan pretty happy about that win.

Errani already lost a service point today

Errani already lost a service game today

"cdunn
February 9, 2024
Oslo 2024

Gael Monfils has been disqualified from UTS Oslo due to a code of conduct violation stemming from his behaviour towards the tournament supervisor.

Monfils began his 2024 UTS campaign against Alex de Minaur, The Demon, losing 15-12, 17-8, 16-9.

Lucas Pouille, The French Flair, will replace La Monf in Group B for the rest of the tournament and will make his debut in Norway against Benoit Paire in Friday night’s final match."

https://www.uts.live/league-2024/oslo/news/4915-pouille-replaces-monfils-in-uts-oslo/

old new Rafa being injured or possibly just dramatic

Giron with a beat down !

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GF-qQJmXEAEtoN1?format=jpg&name=small
Gael is out of control!

Frenchies even booing Hubi

The Argentinian crowd is not pleased with Moutet using underhand serves here and there.

Feb 10, 2024 -- 2:24PM, SamuelMertensBertens wrote:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GF-qQJmXEAEtoN1?format=jpg&name=smallGael is out of control!

Bit weird that this exhibition clown show is trying to appear all serious by suspending someone over an accident during friendly fun.

Moutet is having trouble with his right wrist for his backhand here imo, but Navone is a mug.

And Moutet is of course also a mug who might suddenly decide again that he can hit backhands after all.

Now he's not jumping on his serve.

Maybe he didn't actually have trouble with his right wrist, but was cramping and the weird backhands were due to footwork and being a moody mug.

He is now doing standing sidearm serves hit hard. That's unique. Something I've never seen.

Like, he stood there and slapped at the ball at his side.

Definitely also wrist problems.

Jumping on serve again.

Somewhat.

Feb 10, 2024 -- 5:52PM, edy wrote:

Feb 10, 2024 -- 2:24PM, SamuelMertensBertens wrote:https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GF-qQJmXEAEtoN1?format=jpg&name=smallGael is out of control!Bit weird that this exhibition clown show is trying to appear all serious by suspending someone over an accident during friendly fun.

gimmick to get publicity.

But it's lame. In exhibitions like that you even more so than with normal tournaments buy your tickets with the expectation to see specific announced players. To then have Monfils taken away sucks.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YQk5k42XXmY

Brilliant fan joke makes Nick Kyrgios laugh mid-match
@Wimbledon

Feb 10, 2024 -- 11:34PM, edy wrote:

But it's lame. In exhibitions like that you even more so than with normal tournaments buy your tickets with the expectation to see specific announced players. To then have Monfils taken away sucks.

When I say a gimmick I'm thinking Gael couldn't play for whatever reason (injury, illness) so they come up with a wacky reason. If not, yeah like you say it is silly. But even with my wacky theory it's silly because then fans will still be mad at the organization.

some good/lucky timing there. only really works for a let serve, because while it would have been funny on a df as well Kyrgios might not have seen the funny side.

I see that clip is from 2019. That's the year he stayed at a hotel/airbnb on my street!

The UTS also had Thiem and some other guy withdraw today due to a stomach bug.

They should have made up a story that Gael punched Thiem and that other guy in the stomach to explain everyone's absence. Then build to future matches involving these players.

Darderi is a proper clay mug Since Acapulco last year, he's played TWO matches outside clay, Aussie Open and Wimbledon qualies.
Imagine if he and Katie Boulter were soulmates, they would likely never have met

With that other guy, Rune, it would even have been believable that he deserved it.

that's 74 matches on clay and 2 not on clay.

Feb 11, 2024 -- 12:07AM, edy wrote:

With that other guy, Rune, it would even have been believable that he deserved it.

JAAAAAAAA!!!!

rain in Abu Dhabi two points before GSM.

I like Abu Dhabi rain. Only lasted for 3 minutes. Game on now and GSM Ryba.

My flag Efremova won her first professional title in Monastir against Germany's Selina Dal in the final in late December of last year.
My flag Samson won her first professional title in Monastir against Germany's Selina Dal in the final in mid February this year.

Thanks. I look forward to having both ot them on my Flag comp vol 2 roster once Mirra has won first two Slams and sealed the current Slam comp for me.

Comp 2 needs to have a mechanism that lets you protect a number of existing flags.

I have actually thought about this. There is a possiblity that there will be something like this, but no decision yet. If so it's likely to be very limited, details will be presented at some point, but for now all the information I can give is there MAY be some sort of (likely very limited) flag protection for future comps so this can be taken into account when placing picks for this current one.

Maya Joint also rolled to her first pro title today  btw.

Without wanting to blunt the euphoria, she was however a bit older than Samson and Efremova were for theirs. Although at W75 level it was also a much bigger title than the W15 title of the other two.

for young players tournaments at this level are good to weed out who the talented ones are.

Yesterday during Doha's first round match between Lin Zhu and Varvara Gracheva, the chinese player won every point between 2*-1 30all in the first set and 2*-0 30-0 in the second set - good for 24 consecutive points or perfect six games.