Tennis Talk 2024: Vol 20 (Mallorca, Eastbourne, Bad Homburg, Wimbledon Qualification)

I was gonna ask you edy, what's with this Bad Hamburg and Good Hamburg stuff. why did they make a Bad Hamburg tournament? surely it makes sense for all their Hamburg tournaments to be good ones

Have seen this same fall a number of times. A player running for a dropshot ends up sliding around with their knee hyperextending in the process.

E.g. Potapova did the same against Yue Yuan.

The good Hamburg not any good either. They couldn't find a venue and it had to be moved to another country.

If Ons was evil she could take about 15 players in the lead-up to Wimbledon.

In a plot twist, Hamburg will be holding a WTA125 at Rothenbaum this season.

Rothenbaum is where the ATP tournament always is.

is Rothenbaum a good Hamburg or a bad Hamburg?

it's a rotten Hamburg

My prediction is Woz to retire yes 90%, no 10%.

Bad Hamburg not the same without Angie playing well.

Woz got rid of the tape.

Woz got rid of her strapping

Vera did it better.

Wouldn't you be sad as a trainer if you spent 3 minutes on wrapping tape around a player's knee and the player just undid all your work a few points later?

Absolutely.

Update on the most anticipated rematch in tennis.

Leylah has read the script and despatched home favourite Brenda Fletcher.
Emma has not read the script and is a set and a break down

and devastated if the player did what Vera did.

Maybe Emma is doing a tank to keep the psychological edge.

Jun 27, 2024 -- 4:40PM, SamuelMertensBertens wrote:

and devastated if the player did what Vera did.

Yes, but should take it as motivation to improve at their job so that the clients are happy with their work.

how important is this match to Woz really? Wimbledon have given her a wildcard which she can't use if she's injured..

Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki and her husband, two-time NBA All-Star David Lee, have sold their über luxe Miami penthouse to an as-yet-to-be-revealed buyer for a whopping $37 million. The sale comes six months after the pair put the residence, which sits atop the lavish Palazzo Del Sol building, on the market for $42.5 million. They purchased the aerie back in 2021 following the birth of their first child, Olivia. Although the elite athletes did not receive their full asking price, they are still walking away from the transaction with a pocket full of cash, as the couple nearly doubled the $18.7 million they paid for the exclusive digs. Wozniacki and Lee parted ways with another unit in the same building in 2021 for $16.3 million.

Speaking of riches: I learned recently that Djokovic cost Nina Stojanovic a regular income as a sports retiree in addition to the glory. Apparently all Serbian olympic medalists get a state pension of about €1500 per month from the moment they turn 40.

A nice staple for an oft-injured career journeywoman.

Muchova withdrew

SFs: Leylah vs Maddy, Jazzy vs Dasha

Muchova must have slipped on sea gull poo.

Jun 27, 2024 -- 4:45PM, wisewords wrote:

how important is this match to Woz really? Wimbledon have given her a wildcard which she can't use if she's injured..

That's what I'm thinking.

MC Bean adapting well to the grass :)

hmph, MC Beans to you!

Did you guys see Julia Riera catch a criminal in her hotel room in Eastbourne this week? The criminal made a right mess, but upon having had been caught tried to look all innocent.

https://x.com/juliriera02/status/1803865817639195029

yeah a seagull criminal!

Apart from a very disappointing loss to Björklund, Navarro already did quite well last grass season.

Hey! No need for that!

Jun 27, 2024 -- 4:26PM, SamuelMertensBertens wrote:

My prediction is Woz to retire yes 90%, no 10%.

Hope you all listened

Some players are easier to read than others.

ever since edy said Emma wouldn't ever make top 50, she's flown up the rankings and is now easily in the top 20 and will probably end up being a top 8 player

good call. I got some but I wasn't as confident as you were she would tap after she carried on when down in the 2nd

Dasha really took Emma to the woodshed. made her look lost at times

Yeah, I was downgrading it to 65/35 at some point. She has a history of retirements the week before a Slam so I figured that that there was a good chance either the injury was really hindering her, or she would fall behind in the score and decide not to take any chances. Can't blame her really. My book was 0 Emma, 600 Emma ret win, -75 Woz win, -1025. Placed at the end of 2nd set.

*-1025 Woz ret win

Jun 27, 2024 -- 5:10PM, wisewords wrote:

ever since edy said Emma wouldn't ever make top 50, she's flown up the rankings and is now easily in the top 20 and will probably end up being a top 8 player

my track record on who's gonna end up a top 10 player ot not is really hit and miss.

https://www.tennisforum.com/threads/the-2024-off-court-photo-video-thread-%F0%9F%93%B8.1410453/page-300?post_id=85012297#post-85012297

aww, look how happy Alex Bolt was after he beat Leandro Riedi today to qualify for Wimbledon!

You had a good chance to trick me there.

Is there 45 more minutes of light in Bad Hamburg?

21:40 is when sun will be down. So surely there is enough light until your requested 20:40.

I would never dream of tricking you. Just for research purposes.....how would I have done so?

could have just posted the image. Then I would have been pervy and said cute ass. And then when you had revealed it was Katie Swan it would have been really embarrassing for a Katie Swan hater like myself.

Didn't know you were a monster that hated Katie Swan.

we talked about this recently.

Oh, she was a meanie towards some Swede once, wasn't she?

An eviler than evil evildoer.

she is friends with someone who was.

I'm pleased to see that Kristina Dmitruk (once a shoe in for the JM Five until she vanished off the face of the earth for half a year) has resurfaced and has made it to a QF clash in a W75 with the fixed ceiling Hipster queen that edy keeps trying to sell, Tery Valentova.

I see Paul Jubb is 24. Looks like 17.

Three years younger fixed ceiling hipster queen has already won two more titles this season than former Shoe In JM Five has won in her career.

It must have been hard being a teenage upcoming Belarusian over the last two years (I know she's 20 now). Vika and Aryna were established with support systems. I'm not sure if that's why she's been out so long though, just ruminating.

Injury

That's useful to know. Thanks.

Maria Mateas was up 5-1 in the first set against Melisa Ercan, then didn't win more than 1 point in a game for the remainder of the set.

SamuelMertensBertens • June 27, 2024 4:08 PM BST
pretty much everything besides UTS counts!

wisewords • June 27, 2024 4:10 PM BST
oh. maybe UTS should count too then?

SamuelMertensBertens • June 27, 2024 4:10 PM BST


Just to clarify why qualies count but UTS doesn't here are the UTS rules.

Each match consists of four quarters of 8 minutes + the time of a hypothetical Sudden Death.
The timer stops during the 3-minute changeover at the end of each quarter.
The 1st player to win 3 QTS wins the match. If both players are tied at 2 QTs apiece, the 5th QT is played in a ‘“Sudden Death’” format.
The “Sudden Death” is a dramatic cliffhanger where the first player to win two consecutive points wins the match. Every point from the second point onwards is a match point during the Sudden Death.
There is no warm-up: Players enter the court and the match starts straight away
During the quarter, Players serve two points each : player A serves for two points, then player B serves for two points, then player A serves for two points again, etc.
As a major change designed to reduce down time and create more rallies, UTS players are allowed one-serve only per point : missing the serve results in losing the point.
Finally, the “No-Let” rule during serve will be in effect.

speaking of jerk Aussies, I don't think this Tomic news from last week was posted here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGgegZwLY3I

Classic Tomic
Mike C always get to comment on the weirdest stuff
Girlfriend not impressed at the end.

The USTA Pro Circuit - Where Dreams Come True....And All The Weirdest Crap Happens.

omg what a cool gift for Iga
https://x.com/SwiatekOOC/status/1806414048264622276

Bit unrealistic with the stands being full.

yes, very unrealistic

you're gonna upset Iga with giving such a cool gift but have the arena half empty just for realism?

I don't really understand Carlos being 3.65 with Sinner 3.1 when Sinner has never done anything big at Wimbledon and Carlos has the last two wins in the h2h. Market reading too much into Halle and Queens imo.

Carlos has the lower base level this season, especially on serve. He is more likely to go out against some random player with a big-ish serve than Sinner is imo.

Some funky R1's in the women's draw
https://x.com/josemorgado/status/1806619905170543072/photo/1

Poots vs Kerber, Ajla vs Osty, Collins vs Tauson, Krej vs Kudermetova, Boulter vs Tadde, EA vs Emma R, Badosa vs Rebellova, Brenda vs Mirra, Vika vs Sloane, KaPlis vs Shnaider and more.

Jun 28, 2024 -- 11:28AM, edy wrote:

Carlos has the lower base level this season, especially on serve. He is more likely to go out against some random player with a big-ish serve than Sinner is imo.

True but Carlos being more likely to lose in the early rounds has always been the case.

Wozniacki vs. Parks is clearly the match of the first round.

That one too.

Jun 27, 2024 -- 7:34PM, Journeyman wrote:

I'm pleased to see that Kristina Dmitruk (once a shoe in for the JM Five until she vanished off the face of the earth for half a year) has resurfaced and has made it to a QF clash in a W75 with the fixed ceiling Hipster queen that edy keeps trying to sell, Tery Valentova.

Easy enough for fixed ceiling hipster queen.

Keys just isn't what she used to be. Losing to Leylah Annegret Fernandez on grass...

It's so weird that Fernandez is only 21. She's been winning titles in Mexico since forever.

And she had her pro debut shortly after her 14th birthday.

What a most fabulous forehand down the line on the stretch by Fernandez to defend that break point.

Leylah says " see you in the final !!! "
Wisey says " you shone bright like a Donna !!! "

Navarro beaten !

2-3* to 6-3 !

Slaylah impressed edy

Jun 28, 2024 -- 12:01PM, edy wrote:

Wozniacki vs. Parks is clearly the match of the first round.

How can you say this with Osty vs Ajla on offer?
https://x.com/keninistist/status/1806644778269807052

Another very good win for Shnaider. Hopefully, it continues. Fingers crossed second semi goes to three sets.

Shocking Wimbledon draw, playing an ex-champion who has had a nice rest.

Unfortunately, serve gets Vekic over the line in second set tie-break. She looked out on her feet. Tomova looked much the fresher and had it gone to three a pretty good chance the result would have been different.

Kudermetova gave the middle finger to her husband ... and got a warning from the umpire for it, much to Demekhin's amusement.

At least I think the middle finger was meant for the husband.

Fritz doesn't seem pleased here with Hughes.

Also seems to think Vukic is not being entirely honest here.

....and the replay shows that Fritz is very much correct in his criticism towards Hughes and Vukic.

Although...

AllAboutTennisBlog
@TennisBlogger1
·
41s
Taylor Fritz on his knees begging the umpire for a call on a ball that he claims hit Vukic. As
@_markpetchey said, easy to see why Fritz believed it hit him, but it was just a double-hit on one motion, which is fine, rule-wise.

https://x.com/Smash_in_rete/status/1806754243686093115

To me it looks like the ball hit Vukic's hand, which should not be cool either way.

TennisTV seems impressed rather than outraged

https://x.com/TennisTV/status/1806754828195864651

Today is the birthday of all of Vondrousova, Vekic, Kostyuk and Salkova. Eastern Europeans must get bored in September.

Spectator emergency in Eastbourne?

Yes....why not show what's going on.....annoying not to ....eh ?

for as long as I've been watching this tournament probably going back to the year 2000, there's always been some pensioner in the crowd every single year who needs medical help

Just noticed Maxime Janvier got through Wimbledon qualification by winning all three matches as decent-ish underdog. His three opponents had starting odds of 1.4x, 1.3x and 1.1x respectively and Janvier only lost one set in those three matches.

The Frenchman had only ever won 1 match on grass before too, against Emilio Gomez who himself has won 1 match on grass in 8 attempts.

Melisa Ercan, better known as That-Cramping-Girl-That-Beat-Plucky-Brit-Lily-Miyazaki-In-AO-Qualies-On-Half... missed out on converting 5 match points in the second set and also lost a 4-0 lead in the final set. Guess another 3+ hour match was too much in the end after she had already spent just short of 7 hours on court the previous two nights.

.....and the match finished at close to 3 am local time.

That Cramping Girl That Beat Plucky Brit Lily Miyazaki In AO Qualies On Half a Leg

Second W75 title for Fixed Ceiling Hipster Queen. Only dropped one set all week, although it has to be said she exclusively played Fixeder Ceiling Hipster Princesses the entire week.

Speaking of fixes: There is a player with the surname Fix scheduled to play later today in Karlsruhe, but I couldn't think of any great puns.