The General Tennis Thread

What's interesting is nobody is saying Rafa shat the bed. They say the guy just played like he had been body-swapped with Juan Martin Del Potro before the match. Dude just hit Rafa off the court; never let him get a rhythm.

 

Rafa played pretty nonchalantly through the first 3, and then he picked it up in the 4th, and the guy just legitimately won the 5th. Also, there was a 50 minute delay right after the 4th set, which probably affected Rafa.

 

Yes, yes, and yes.

Rafa himself said the 5th set there was nothing he could do about it, but that he could have picked it up the pace a bit earlier.

I never thought Rafa was going to lose that match until I saw that the match was over.

 

Fed survives after going down 2 sets to 0.

 

I had money on him. He almost cost me my rear.

 

Today is the best day of tennis of the entire year. Seriously. All of the men and women are in action. Set your DVRs.

Some matches of note:

Novak Djokovic vs. Viktor Troicki (I may have put some money on this. I'll funked if there is an upset.)

Roger Federer vs. Xavier Malisse (I like Mallise, generally speaking. I think he is a lot better than his ranking indicates, but I don't like him THAT much. Fed should win in three. If there is an upset, it may or may not cost me a sizable sum of money.)

David Ferrer vs. Juan Martin Del Potro (I have a bit of a mancrush on Delpo (this is because I saw him play live in the summer of 2009 about two weeks before he won the US Open. To see a guy that size hit a jumping backhand a la Marcelo Rios is a pretty impressive thing to see in person. So, I'm leaning Delpo. Line is Delpo-140, so if he loses against the always-game David Ferrer, it isn't going to cost me too much money.)

Marin Cilic vs. Andy Murray (Murray is at -450, which I think is the bargain of the day. I'm probably gonna toss down a C-note on that one.)

Tsonga vs. Fish (Fish hates the dirty frenchman just as much as I do. I'm probably gonna lay off this one, but go Mardy.)

Brian Baker vs. Kohlschreiber (This a very interesting match. Baker is +165, which is probably about right. Kohlschreiber is play really well and should probably be slightly favored, but I really like the way Baker is playing. Don't count him out

 

Also, Rhyne Williams and Tennys Sandgren are playing in a Challenger tournament. http://nielsenprotennis.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mds.pdf

Sandgren has Benjamin Becker, who is the guy who beat Agassi in his last match at the US Open. Becker is ranked 124. This would be a huge win for Sandgren.

Williams has Rik De Voest. Williams has played De Voest twice before, winning the last one in last year's US Open qualifiers. De Voest is ranked 148. This is the kind of win Rhyne needs if he wants to get his ranking up such that he automatically gets into the qualifying draws for majors (roughly top 200) (And definitely if he wants to get into the main draws of majors (roughly top 140 (majors have 128 slots, but some guys are injured)). Right now he is 268.

 

There's a good chance we played each other at some point if you played around the Tri Cities enough.

 

Kidb don't want none. #fact

 

Oh, is that a #fact?

 

Kidding. Would be fun though.

 

Wimby update:

Raining currently, but they're of course still playing on the roof court.

Fed gave me a serious scare. He had to have a trainer come out for his back. He left the court for several minutes. I got bailed out by the rain. It takes them 30 minutes to put the roof on, and so Federer had a chance to have his personal trainer treat him. He came out sharp. He then dropped a set, but eventually finished him off in fourth. So I won a hundred bucks rather than losing two thousand. I'll never again speak ill of Fed (unless he is playing Rafa). Going forward, though, I certainly won't be betting on him (this tournament). His back is obviously giving him serious problems. He may not make it into the semifinals, and if he does, Djokovic will destroy him.

Murray is up 1 set and a break in the second set. Play is stopped. I have money on this match, and I'm not worried about it at all. Murray should roll easy.

Sharapova lost.

Serena and Kvitova both won in three sets and play next. That is your de facto women's final.

Djokovic is just getting started against Troicki on Centre. I decided not to bet on Djoker. He's gonna win, but 30-1 seemed a little rich for my blood. I can only have on heart attack per day.

Fish took the first set of the dirty frenchmen.

 

Definitely.

 

Rhyne Williams just took the first set 6-1.

 

Big win for Fed. Let's see if Murray can hang on, and the final will be AWESOME.

 

Murray getting awfully frustrated now after playing really well the first two sets.

 

And then he gets broken despite playing a hell of a game.

 

I thought Murray played well, but Fed just raised his level significantly in the last two matches. I never thought he'd ever get back to #1 again although I'm not sure how long he can hold it. But, nonetheless, it's a hell of an accomplishment for him.

 

It's a big deal. I for one didn't think he could win another major. He proved me wrong.

 

In other Roger news, my girlfriend found a photo of Rogers's wife in which she looks relatively hot. Evidently she recently had twins, so maybe she can get it back. Still not a 10 or anything, but a lot better than what I've seen in the other thread.

http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1195529-roger-federer-wife-pics-of-miroslava-vavrinec