Tennis Talk 2025: Vol 35 (WTA Finals, Metz, Athens)

Hard to see her lose against Keys anyway.

but there could be a three-way tie with her, Iga and Amanda with two wins each.

Sonego backer can lay off at 1.08!

Same can't be said for Djere backers !

although I think the games won alone here against Iga will make sure she qualifies if it comes down to a three way tie between Iga, Ryba and Amanda. So even with a 0-2 loss today, if she wins against Keys, she's through.

Smart of Bublik to play Metz btw, even if he's out of Turin this year. He's in good form, might as well strike while the iron is hot and try and get more ranking points. He'll have plenty of time to rest in the rest of the year.

Ryba fave!

Iga spraying errors that set !

woah!

Nov 3, 2025 -- 2:05PM, TheCarambaExperience wrote:

Iga/Ryba time!Will it have the usual pattern, strong start from Ryba only to have Iga win in the end?

Didn't quite happen like that!

breadstick and bagel !

Hopefully this is an indication of what Rybakina's 2026 will be like and she's not just doing a Nalbandian 2007 finish to the season (winning Madrid and Paris) only to go back to flopping in 2008.

1.08    £9,120.75        £40,146.49
1.09    £9,000.19        £35,599.25
1.1    £9,090.19        £36,784.00

Botic busted by STM !

Cam just ran into Royer Federer in this TB!

Very impressive and puts Cam in a spot of bother !

1.06    £974.39        £1,218.49
1.07            £32,601.89
1.08    £0.76        £1,913.71

Lumpy snipered in the TB there as Struff loses a 4-0 lead

Ons is a guest on Sky at the moment, says she'd like to come back on the tour but is not happy with WTA at the moment. She is NOT a fan of the two week Masters 1000.

"They see us as robots, not as players"

Ons doing the coin toss for Paolini/Gauff.

Angelique Kerber in Riyadh.

Czech dreamboat Andrea doing the cointoss for this one.

saba mugging from a set up against pegula again. is there anything more inevitable than saba getting broken straight after missing bps herself

or getting to deuce from 15-40 and still being broken

31% first serves in for saba so far in the decider. laughable

seen this record played many times. pegula will get the win. when saba is bad she is utterly dreadful and between her, iga and gauff its not a great time in the wta. for them to be the best players when saba can be a ue machine, iga can go from rock solid to fragile as glass in the blink of a set and gauff cant serve isnt a good look

not over yet even if saba has gone a break up in the decider. did the same against pegula in wuhan and lost

Norrie through

Venus Williams got a wild card to Auckland.

Keys out - Alexandrova(!) in.

Mirra ill and declined the spot.

why are they all getting ill in Riyadh? (Jasmine, Madison, now Mirra)

This place has been as dead as Riyadh for the WTA finals. Hopefully Iga vs Amanda part 3 (basically a QF) will bring some excitement.

Injured Gaston bageled in set 2 and close to tapping, manages to damage the jumbotron in frustration and gets a 30 min break for his troubles.

comes back after a 20 min wait and taps immediately. Free money (1.27) on Altmaier for those paying attention.

I had a 17% arb going up in flames, but at least nothing lost as both were with completed match books.

Amanda forces a decider!

collapso Iga again

sadly a fitting end to Iga's weird season.

Musetti's hair growing long again

what a mug bublik. why bother turning up to a tinpot tournament if youre going to serve up that dross. as if you lose to sachko he's rank

https://x.com/PrinceHolger_/status/1986385940605006027

Holger on the tennis court. Does this really help or is just good tiktok content?

nosebleed Cam takes his odds from 2.55 to above 3

Nov 6, 2025 -- 2:30PM, TheCarambaExperience wrote:

nosebleed Cam takes his odds from 2.55 to above 3

That was quite funny

and it stayed at these silly odds for the whole treatment, it didn't just react to a trainer coming in and then immediately adjusting.

6-2 Coco here could prove big as it could come down to games.

After all that Coco loses the 1st. Still in it though, I think she needs to win by either 4 or 5 gives so a double 6-3 from here would mean she qualifies.

Clutch vs not clutch

*games
(not gives, making up nouns here)

Nov 6, 2025 -- 4:40PM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:

Clutch vs not clutch

good biomechanics coach vs bad biomechanics coach

Few Novak theatrics. Market slightly concerned but pretty constrained.

Knee injury for Borges didn't help.

Yeah, Novak halved in price at that point. Good match though. Borges is very talented when he gets into that gritty mode. DJ pumping the music up ! Like to think wisey and Grant are there !

Borges a good player to bet on, he always fights for your money.

What is Novak doing btw?

Is he playing Turin? He says he'll decide after Athens, but with his broken down body, why would he want to play a tournament and go deep the week before Turin? I know Greece is his new home, but still. So in that sense it would be perplexing to play both tournaments. If he has opted not to play, it's also kind of a jerk move to make Musetti and FAA sweat this entire not knowing which one of them will make Turin, only for both of them to go in the end. Anyway, the tournament director for Turin said Novak would play, and they have also made the draw with his name there so I would expect him to play. It's not like he'll have that many ATP finals left. Maybe he, being Mr PTPA, is just mad at ATP and wants to create some drama.

my take is he will play the finals, but he knows he has no chance to win really. hence playing this week where he really should win and if he doesn't, it's another indication the end is near

Sky's graphics people drunk. They put Ben Shelton & Sasha Zverev in both groups for Turin and a Serbian flag for Ben!

Daniela!

I quite like the camera work for some of the points in Riyadh (drones?).

saba fav for the decider against anisimova after that absolute ****how of a 2nd set. what are the oddsmakers smoking

wow, what a rally !

this is WTA rivalry of the year?

Amanda/Iga has been fun too, but not particularly good matches.

I have really warmed to Amanda, I think she has done amazing since the awful Wimbledon final.

I'm quite annoyed that all the three finals today are clashing.

two box office matches as well, Lorenzo vs Novak and Aryna vs Elena.

Plus a brit in the other final trying to bring glory to the kingdom.

Novak is such a meanie!

Ryba takes the 1st set !

this Musetti vs Djokovic match

if novak loses this he really is done. theres been plenty of times in the past where hes lost matches like this because he wasnt really bothered, but make no mistake he wants to win this. and he might not now after looking like he had broken the back of the match

broken back from 40-15 also. not good

It's a great match. Tien Norrie also been a blockbuster !

oh Lorenzo ...

musetti sees novak broken from 40-15 and raises him broken from 40-0 and that should be the end of it. but who knows. djoko a shadow of his former self when it comes to closing out matches

meanwhile moster hold from saba. ryba now serving to stay in the second set

monster

1.04    £3,297.53        £28.50
1.05    £3,120.24        £10,837.83
1.06    £3,047.87        £1,477.66
1.07    £2,287.99        £31.60
1.08    £0.49        £2,494.97

1.04            £284.96
1.05            £6,040.08
1.06            £12,434.83

Cam nearly busting Tien 1.04 by coming from a set down AGAIN but then busting himself 1.04 - what a match !

monster hold from ryba now. that could be sabas chance to get back into the match gone

norrie is always relying on the other player because he is too passive. its always been like that and exhibit a for it was 'beating' carlos when in reality carlos beat himself with ridiculous numbers of ues

Nov 8, 2025 -- 5:42PM, tobiasr wrote:

musetti sees novak broken from 40-15 and raises him broken from 40-0 and that should be the end of it. but who knows. djoko a shadow of his former self when it comes to closing out matches

as i was saying...

saba all done. remarkable that she's the best in the world even though you never really know what you will get from her every time she plays

bagelled in a tb. that takes some doing. clearly gave up once the first few points went the way of ryba

Classic ecstatic Rybakina.

Pleased for Ryba though the result was pleasing financially

the wta is in a right mess. none of the top players have got any consistency.

Nov 8, 2025 -- 6:02PM, edy wrote:

Classic ecstatic Rybakina.

there was a smile.

For as clutch as Aryna is, she loses a lot of big finals.

she does. shes not clutch though. not for me. she wins as many matches as she does on ability, not mental strength

meanwhile, djoko and musetti turning into a wta match where each player has more chance of winning a game on return rather than serve

Lorenzo

Lorenzo must be regretting going to Athens over Metz but it might have looked a weaker field at the time.

mugging against sonego would be a bigger regret imo

rip shirt !! great to watch and a nice win !

quite the contrast to Rybakina!

and because he knew he got away with it there. musetti too much of a mug to take advantage of djoko being nowhere near his best

even wacky Sabalenka getting emotional.

just seen the mp in the norrie tien match and norrie hit so many shots nowhere near the lines. you just cant do that and expect to win unless your opponent is going for shots and missing

Nov 7, 2025 -- 8:44AM, tobiasr wrote:

my take is he will play the finals, but he knows he has no chance to win really. hence playing this week where he really should win and if he doesn't, it's another indication the end is near

on the other hand, he will probably withdraw...

Money has come for Carlos. Assume he'll be much more focused than against Norrie but 1.22 vs Demon is still a risky proposition

Quite unusual for a market correction like this for a match as big as this.
New thread up btw.