The Gays and Tennis - Part 39, Heart of Clay Season

Bump for new thread.

New thread url:

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/23662649

Where is Xisca?

DL Fave Jan-Michael Gambill has apparently dumped Jared Donaldson and is now coaching Ernesto Escobedo who has fallen on tough times.

Hot pairing.

yay! Happy to hear that. JMG needed to get away from that deplorable. Escobedo is a talented ball striker but he's inconsistent and needs to improve his movement. It's weird how he hit a wall after doing so well in 2017. JMG did wonders for Vandeweghe so maybe this pairing will work

good choice for the pic, OP. Last thread worked on Djokovic but so far not Nadal. Maybe his clay dominance makes him immune? hopefully not

Thank you, OP, for the new thread—and you also get a free blow job for posting the new poster boy. May the curse continue!!!

Wow, Medvedev is choking like there's no tomorrow, from 5-1 to Lajovic having two balls for the 5-5

And Medvedev collapse is complete, for 5-1 to 5-6

75 30 with two breaks.

I know Medvedev wouldn't keep the level, but i thought he would flop on Barcelona not in the middle of a set he was totally in control

Young guns on the ATP being inconsistent and flopping? Shocking!

At least there's gonna be eye candy in the final (Go Dutzee!)

Bad Boy Fabio takes the first set off Nadal. Loving this match.

Fog gonna fog

If Fabio somehow pulls out this coup I will worship Flavia 's pussy for the rest of my life

He's just thoroughly outplaying Nadal right now.

Holy shit, Fognini up 6-4, 5-0 right now and serving for the match!

6-4, 5-0. That's a fast-acting coverboy curse!

Get fucked Nadal!

Of course Fognini up 40-0, then doesn't get a single first serve in, then gets broken. Please not another Nadal comeback. Just finish this shit.

How do you like me now bitches-fabulous Fabio!

Wonderful result. And it's even better because he actually played brilliant tennis to achieve it. Nadal wasn't at his VERY best but you can't say Fabio didn't earn it. The winners were just piling up, he couldn't miss a backhand.

I'm greedy and I wanted that bagel but i'll take it. I hope he wins his first Masters tomorrow!

Ok, OP, you get [italic]two[/italic] blow jobs!

Number of Masters titles won not by Big Four:

2008-2016: 10

2017-present: 10*

(*including 2019 Monte Carlo)

Where is that uncle fucking Tony?

Where that fake girlfriend/wife Xisca?

Uncle tony was in the royal box.

R25, Uncle Tony was sitting in the royal box, just one person away from Princess Albert II.

Anybody here still doesn't believe in DL curse ? You guys literally destroyed my career for past 3 years by obsessing over my luscious ass and putting pics of it on every DL OP. Just think how much I would have achieved had you guys not jinxed me?

Sorry I forgot to sign my post

Really princess Albert with all those illegitimate children. Sorry he’s not one of us thankfully.

Monte Carlo M1000 final will be the first-ever meeting between 31y.o. Fabio Fognini and 28y.o. Dusan Lajovic. They have never played each other even at ITF tournaments.

R27, Prince Albert or Princess Albert? Was it a typo or not? If not what is the story here?

FABIO brava.

Those Barilla pasta commercials with Queen Federer need to go - though he does look hot in that suit.

And the curse works!!! So happy. Perhaps Nadal could find some underwear that fits....there has to be some somewhere in the world....he was pulling on his junk all day.

Fabio's wife looks old enough to be his mother......

Glorious victory for Fabio!

He's played like shit all year but his mojo really starts flowing when he has the Spanish Bull in his sights. So nice to see a talented shotmaker win a match like this rather than all these rudimentary players which are now dominating the 10-30 positions in the rankings.

R34 yes I see Flavia has adopted a middle-aged woman haircut. Schiavone has been in Fabio's box this week; maybe she recommended that look.

The victory should've been sweet for Flavia because Rafa's coach was her long-time boyfriend, who cheated on her and treated her very badly.

Dusan Lajovic will be a top 25 and a Roland Garros seed. Djere may also get seeding. Three Serbian seeds

And with that, Auger Aliassime's top 30 debuts will have to wait.

#JusticeFoFlavia

Domi practiced with Marton in Barcelona today

he looks so genuinely happy when a he is with a[hot] guy

.....

Fábio Fognini also ends Nadal’s streak of 25 consecutive SETS in Monte Carlo

Fabio Fognini is the 4th player in tennis' history to beat Rafael Nadal at least 3 times on clay

Novak Djokovic, 7

Dominic Thiem, 3

Fabio Fognini, 3

Gaston Guadio, 3

Fognini was 0-4 on clay in 2019 before Monte Carlo.

The tennis season of parity continues

18 of 18 WTA singles titles won by different players

22 of 23 ATP singles titles won by different players (Fognini-Lajovic final in Monte Carlo guarantees a new 2019 winner)

Federer only double winner: Dubai/Miami

Kiss from mum

Phew! I'm glad Fognini didn't panic and kept plugging away. If he'd been a young gun, he'd have lost the second set, then the third either as a bagel or breadstick. I only got to see a little bit of the match. Nadal looked like he was dropping a lot of balls short. Doesn't that usually happen when he's dealing with his knee issue? He can't really put his whole body into his shots in any consistent way when he's dealing with the knee. He looked vulnerable yesterday against Pella. It's still a mighty task to take him out in best of 5 on clay, but maybe there's some hope?

-- Fognini #15 with final, #12 with title

-- Lajovic #24 with final, #19 with title

Nadal calls it his « worst match on clay in 14 years ». Said « Feeling wasn’t there at all. »

No compliments were given to Fabio as expected

Rooting for Lajovic over petulant prima donna homophobe Fabio.

R37, Djere is looking like an uncertain seed at the FO in that he has over 150 points to defend prior, and FAA will overtake him to reach #32 in the singles rankings as of Monday.

Fabio in undies

lmao congrats DL we did it! Between this thread and the previous one, we slayed the 2-headed dragon of Nadal and Djokovic at least for Monte Carlo. We'll have to keep putting them in the OP for the rest of the clay season

It's a shame about Fognini because I enjoy his game and he's very good looking but he's a fucking asshole. I hope Lajovic wins his first title tomorrow

Stuttgart draw is out! Some very tough and interesting sections

Osaka will open against the winner of Q. Wang and Hsieh Also in that section is the other seed, Kerber, who opens against Vekic. Mertens and Kasatkina are there too

Next is Pliskova who opens against the winner of Muguruza vs. Azarenka! Kontaveit is the other seed who plays Garcia. Pavyluchenkova vs. Goerges is the other match

Next is Kvitova who will play either Cibulkova or a qualifier. Clay lover Siegemund is there too and the other seed Sevastova opens against Ostapenko -all Latvian battle

The last section is easier with more qualifier spots but Halep and Bertens head it with Bencic in there too

Lajovic is thick in the nicest way. 😋

And The Fog!! 🎉👍💨

Barcelona draw is out. Some good matches and sections but also some players are skipping.

Nadal is still entered and will open against L. Mayer or Copil. Mayer might trouble him. Retiring Ferrer opens vs. M. Zverev with Pouille as the other seed.

Tsitsipas will open vs. Fucsovics or Kudla. Goffin will open vs. Struff or a qualifier

Thiem will open vs. Nishioka or Chung and Tiafoe will play either Munar or a qualifier

Khachanov will open vs. Pella or J. Soua. PCB will play Londero or Paire.

Fognini will open vs. WC Kuhn or qualifier. Shapovalov will play either Garin or Kilzan

Nishikori gets either Opelka or Fritz. FAA will play Kohlscheiber or Jaziri

Medvedev will play Norrie or qualifier and Simon gets the winner of McDonald and Taro Daniel

last section: WC A. Zverev opens vs. qualifier while Dimitrov opens against older hottie Verdasco or F. Lopez. We know Grigor likes to date older

I suppose it's because IMG, but it's a little surprising Kuhn get a md wc while Davidovich has only a wc to the qualifying. Right now Alejandro is more than 100 positions high in the ranking.

Why is cutie Diego playing qualifier? He is high rank enough to have a bye first round.

Why is Fog a homophobe?

R56 He decided to play the tournament too late

[quote]He decided to play the tournament too late

I think he was planning to play Barcelone all along but forgot to sign up or there was some mistake. He asked for a wildcard but didn’t get one

R59: He had bad luck, Zverev asked for a wc too

I'd hit that

Lajovic is so hot . Like prettier than all the Baldwins! Pity he's taken :/ His blue eyes are white walkers level sometimes tho. Cute childhood video here :)

Dusan

Rafa on his loss:

'I probably played one of the worst matches on clay in 14 years," Nadal said. "When that happens, you have to lose. And today I deserved to lose because I played against a player that was better than me today.'

Not exactly gracious. The Fog whupped yo' fine ass.

Budapest draw out-good chance for someone who's struggling or not 1 of the top clay courters to get a title.

Cilic is the top seed and will open vs. Cuevas or a qualifier. Kukushkin is the other seed and plays Berrettini with Bedene and Tomic also there

Basilashvili and heads the next section with Lajovic there. The other seed, Djere, opens against Gulbis.

Cecchinato's section is next. He opens against Herbert or Dzumhur with Millman as the other seed and Hurkacz there too

#2 seed Coric has the last section with the other seed being Albot who opens against Mannarino. Seppi and Haase are there too

What’s up with Jack Sock? Has he retired?

[quote] Ok, OP, you get two blow jobs!

Thanks. Where do I collect? I hope the curse works for the French Open against Nadal though.

Frank Schiavino

Is Siegemund clay specialist?

Frank Schiavone

[quote] Lajovic is thick in the nicest way

What do you mean by this?

Stuttgart draw is so stacked! I hope Hsieh beats Osaka again.

Just to celebrate last night's win, I think it's worth posting this iconic video.

R57, his comments about RBA (who has been very supportive of gay causes) being a "spoiled princess" and serving "like a woman" are at the very least indicative of assholery. And did Frank talk him into those Joan Crawford eyebrows?

That Earnest Gulbis and not Fabio

Fed Cup update:

Romania-France 1-1 Halep destroys Mladenovic and Garcia def. Buzarnescu

Belarus-Australia 1-1 Sabalenka def. Stosur in 3. Barty def. Azarenka in 2

no top players are playing in the Canada/Czech tie but Czechs up 2-0

USA-Switzerland 1-1 Golubic def. Keys easily and Stephens straight sets Bacsinszky

Germany def. Latvia (they played 1 day ahead). Ostapenko lost in straight sets to both Petkovic and Barthel . Sevastova skipped the tie.

Belgium-Spain 1-1 Flipkens def. Muguruza in 3 sets lmao and CSN def. Van Uytvanck

What I wouldn't give to see Caro Garcia beat Halep in a couple hours and silence the obnoxious Romanian fans.

Flipkens beating Muguruza is fabulous. I don't know how to explain Madison Keys' losses any more lol. I watched the Australia tie (it was on TV here) and was surprised at how close Stosur was able to push Sabalenka. After winning a few matches in Miami too, she could be set for a good clay season.

wow I didn't know Fognini had 5-0 40-0 i n the second set before Nadal got 2 games. As great as the win was, it would have been better if Nadal had swallowed a bagel. Apparently it only happened twice in his career on clay

Not just Gulbis, R74...

Australia def. Belarus 3-2

on day 2, Barty won easily over Sabalenka and Azarenka crushed Stosur. Barty and Stosur then won in 3 sets over Azarenka and Sabalenka

Saving someone serves like a woman is hardly kind - but it's not homophobic. Get a grip. Fabio is very gay friendly and a nutjob at the same time.

Let's not forget Fognini was once chucked out of the US Open for calling the umpire a 'whore' and a 'cocksucker'. Unluckily for him the Swedish umpire spoke Italian.

R73: Everybody knows Fabio is an asshole, but i'm not that sure he is an homophobic asshole

Fognini also wrote 'hahahaha' on the camera after beating Nadal, which kinda makes me love him slightly. He's such an arsehole it's comical.

I actually don't mind the trolls of tennis when they play that well. The tour is in need of good villains. Not just the prissy tantrum-y ones (Djokovic, Zverev, Soderling, Medvedev, Sharapova, Azarenka, Vandeweghe) but the genuine comical assholes who play it up for the crowd.

Like Putintseva. Yesterday she saved 3 match points against Katie Boulter in Fed Cup, won the match, and gave the most ridiculous, over the top Hulk Hogan celebration. The London crowd were mortified and cleared the arena in 5 seconds lol. Boulter was in tears on the bench, and her team looked offended by the Kazakh fans even though they had the home advantage and much more boisterous support.

Fog when he's on is one of my favorite players to watch. So much talent, and you never know what shot he's going to hit next. Plus, he's pretty and kinda crazy. I hope he's on today, cause Dusan is playing great tennis and it could be a wonderful match.

Watching Halep vs Garcia in Fed Cup and my god, the Romanian fans are obnoxious. You would think it was a home tie for them instead of France.

I know Fed Cup atmosphere is more like a soccer match, but they're borderline bullying Garcia.

And Garbiñe is losing to Bonavernture, this girl has no shame

Yesterday Garbage lost to Flipkins. Now, this? How low could she go?

Sorry I mean Garbine

Sorry for autocorrect

And Garbiñe on the verge of losing.

Lose two matches against two players who should not have win her a set.

She is really hitting new lows

Barcelona update:

OUT: Chung

IN: Lucky Loser (will be drawn)

Nishioka will play against a Q/LL.

3rd time this season Chung withdraws after the draw is made (also Marseille, Miami)

Dusan is FINE

And who is the hottie in his box?

There was also this one time he called Krajinovic a 'sh***y gypsy'.

[quote] Let's not forget Fognini was once chucked out

Let's not forget Fognini was once chunky, i.e., fat.

The Fog 💨🌫 !

WTF . Danil is also married. These next gen /lost gen are more interested in getting married and becoming a teen daddy than become a successful tennis star. They should learn something from Nadal

Danail is so over like Karen

I hope at least Borna doesn't get trapped early by some gold digging pussy

R97 He already did!!! The money is all mine, suckers.

^ lol, creepy true

Guido Pella, yum

Is it now going to be Young Guido?

Well the bloom is off Grigor, I gotta say.

Tommy Paul won the Sarasota Open Challenger, taking out Tennys Sandgren 6-3, 6-4.

With the win, Tommy leads the USTA French Open wildcard challenge and jumps to #157 in the rankings.

I’m quite pleased whenever Tennys is defeated.

Mugu lost both matches in Fed Cup.

Garcia/Kiki playing the deciding doubles rubber against Help/Niculescu

Spain def. Belgium as Muguruza and CSN def. Flipkens/Bonaventure in 3

Sasha posted this of Domi on his IG stories

I don't understand why the marry so young. In fact i always thought that it would be very different to be in a couple when you are trouble around the world all the time.

So at least three of the nextgen are married

Domi looks so young in that picture, R107.

Thiem has wide hips based on that pic.

Rico Bellotti made Thiem make that face many times.

R108 This is normal in Russia or Belarus. People often get married really young (between 22 and 25), and often only after a couple months of relationship.

France def. Romania 3-2

Halep def. Garcia in 3 then Parmentier def. Begu in 3 and then Garcia/Mladenovic def. Halep/Niculescu in 3

so Fed Cup final will be France vs. Australia

By cunty DL standards, isn't this guy "chunky" or "fat"? Don't you see that 1/2 ounce of flab around and slightly below the belly button? FAT!

The match between Halep and Garcia was one of the best female matches of the year. 3 hours long, lots of twists and turns, and plenty of points for the highlight reel. Very high quality from both.

Also kudos to Garcia for returning to the team that treated her like shit and even playing doubles with 25 languages after all her snarky comments. She spent around 6 hours on court this weekend. They need her to be fit and firing in November when they play Australia in the final.

Who, R114?

R114 is talking about the Fog, methinks.

Da Fog.

Yes. Da Fog.

He had a protruding belly at the Aus Open. Commentators talked about it.

Muguruza seems fun to hang out with!! LOL. This is just after she and Carlo Suarez Navarro won the doubles and thus the fed cup tie (after her losing in singles to ageing Kirsten Flipkens and not-inside-top-100 Ysaline Bonaventure). What a misanthrope.

Video of that Sasha insta post

USA def. Switzerland 3-1

Stephens def. Golubic in 2 and Kenin def. Bacsinszky in 2

Nole.

R121: To be fair she has little to celebrate. She did awful at fed cup and she was lucky Carla was in one of her good days

[quote] Carla was in one of her good days

Who’s that?

R126: Don't you get tired of repeat the same stupid joke everytime someone uses her real name instead of a clear homophobic nickname?

She is not beautiful, but she is not a male. And she is a tennis player, her looks doesn't matter if she can play

looks matter

Well Mary Carillo referred to Schiavone as ‘Frankie” on air just this weekend. I don’t think there’s any homophobia at play here.

Lil Diego and Nishioka match was boring as hell. Nishioka was throwing the raquet at the fifth game. Diego was not inspired till the third set. Both ended very tired and needed some medical time.

I think Thiem will get a very easy first match

Looked very cold too.

Very empty stadiums today in Barcelona and Budapest.

If we didn’t have the same, old tired memes on these threads, half the posts wouldn’t be on here and, at least for me, it wouldn’t be half the fun. I suppose I’m easily amused.

Lil Diego is furious with the Barcelona tournament. They're making him play four days in a row and refused him a wild card. "It's a shame!"

Is the director of the Barcelona tournament a Muslim?

And he is totally right.

He said that he understand it was his mistake and he understand that someone with better ranking (Zverev) asked for the wc, but it's difficult to understand why they are going to make him play tomorrow when there's no real reason to do it.

Of course this happens all the time to players who come from the qualification, and it's a shame

He could've avoided all of it if he had just signed up for the tournament a month ago like he was supposed to.

he's not a top player and some tournaments only take care of the top players. It's not right but that's what often happens.

Who do top-ranked players prefer to face in first round: Qualifier or Lucky Loser?

R137: Yes, but he accepted his mistake and that was not the point of his rant. The truth is very simple, there's absolutely no reason for him having to play tomorrow.

And yes, that happened because he is not a top player, but unfortunately for the tournament he was a top player and he had no problem to complain. And it doesn't make them look good

R139: It depends of the qualifier and the lucky loser.

Sometimes it's better to face a wc when they are low ranked local players

Wow Diego is really unhappy!

Wow he is, R142.

Diego Schwartzman alias El Peque

Thanks you, R142.

dieschwantzman

Mark Petchey got dragged in the comments section.

Well, what he said is pure demagogy so he totally deserved

Can someone please translate?

So I take it Diego lost?

R150 He won

Thanks R151. I get it now.

He complains he has been scheduled today as last match and his second round already tomorrow without a day as break.

and he has done qualifications because he forgot to enter the tournament in time. So he has played every day between Montecarlo and Barcelona since last Monday

...and he's also playing doubles in Barcelona

I was just in Barthelona...it was chilly.

R156, what’s the relevance of that?

So will tennis channel and the atp drop Gimelstob after him admitting to that heinous attack?

Gimelstob pleads no contest. Judge orders him to serve 60 days of community service (8 hour days), 1 year of anger management, pay court costs and victim, and 3 years of probation.

Zverev's mail-order bride has flown the coop and unfollowed Sashca and Marcelo on Instagram.

A. Zverev?

The Telegraph's headline makes it sound like Gimelstob caused any pregnant women within a certain radius to miscarry.

They need proofreaders apparently. Should be woman, not women (I believe).

Diego has a right to feel hard done by. It's a bit odd that they are playing so many 2nd round matches on Tuesday and it's not like they are all in one half of the draw (Schwartzman's half) so it would appear that they certainly could have avoided the situation if they'd wanted to.

This schedule isn't unusual for a qualifier. Schwartzman is getting a reminder of how the "other half" lives.

Scheduling is a thankless job. You have to coordinate the schedule based on the popularity of the players and who fans will most want to see, requests from the top players, doubles matches, broadcast requests (from several different countries), gender when it's a mixed event, and in some cases, weather. You're going to piss someone off.

Honestly, Diego needs to shut it. This wouldn't even be an issue had he signed up for the event in time, so ultimately it's his own fault.

Lil Diego has a big ass temper.

I booked a last minute trip to the Puerto Vallarta challenger next. Week.

Anyone in the draw I should stalk, err, I mean pay particular attention to?

Pretty obvious but go watch Dustin Brown!

R160: Come on, that can't be true, i want more special videos from the two. What's suppose to do Sascha when he'll lost in the next GS? a little dancing video was the best to be on the right mood again.

R165: No, it's not. He made a mistake and he payed for it and he admit it, but there's absolutely no reason for him to play today.

And if he is angry now, he'll probably be fuming tomorrow when Fognini withdraw because it seems pretty obvious he is not going to play

And Zverev lost the second set and now Jarry is a break up in the third.

Failing three weeks in a row it'll be too much

And Munar won the first set against Tiafoe

It's a business.

And Sascha on the verge of suffering another break.

I don't understand why he didn't rest a week and think in what is he doing bad (because he is doing bad a lot of things).

Happy to see Zverev doing poorly. I hope he gets knocked out of top 10 asap.

K. Anderson will skip the clay season because of this elbow injury

*his

Has Fogna announced he's withdrawing from Barcelona? Idk how to translate his IG story, it seems like he's still playing?

Soooo... Sascha and his GF breaking up, Stan and Donna apparently, too (based on a few tweets I've seen) ?

Now, what's up with Stefanos and Naomi and whatever that exchange on her IG live is lol

GEMS Life,I'm pulling for you!

Djere is hot. Why is no one drooling over him?

Tbf, them Serbian men are hot !

Stefanos and Naomi have zero chemistry and didn't try to meet up during sunshine double. I think Stef just uses Naomi for attention. Naomi has been linked with a soundcloud rapper that looks like a stud lesbian. There have been rumors about stefanos dating sakkari, but nothing official yet.

R178 i think she also removed all photos with him from her instagram. Haha drama!

Well both Osaka and Tsitsi are on the spectrum.

Is Djere that hot dude who was in Lajovic’s box? He was smokin.

So it's his break up the responsible of such pathetic display, because come on, Jarry really tried but he was not exactly good at trying. Sascha had tons of oportunitiies to win but he never develop his game, it was all Jarry winning or failing.

I don't know what's happening in his life but he should try to relax and focus on the game.

And Tipsy and Naomi never were a thing, maybe friends, but sometimes he acts like he thinks he is smarter than he really is. Stefanos will benefit a lot if he keeps his mouth shut for a while and focus on the game too (of course he is not remotely on the level of Sascha, but he is losing some matches he should have won)

DL-Fave Pospisil continues to support Gimelstob.

Wimbledon also announced today that Gimelstob won't be allowed to compete in their invitational senior doubles event.

At least Wimbledon (much as I loathe their traditionalism) has made the right call, r186. Pospisil is, unfortunately, ever more irremediably deplorable. Ugh!

R182 He did the same! I think we could all see this coming. She'll have to find another steppin' stone; hopefully Sascha will be wiser in the future. R185 BTW, I don't think the break-up is solely responsible for the loss today. He's also involved in a lawsuit with his former agent; and God knows what else is on his mind. He's definitely in a slump; but things can change quickly in tennis.

He must be very charming in person because frankly, even before these incidents he had a very big mouth and curiously a lot of players seem to be pushing for him to be the top of the players council. I don't think that's possible after all this, but for people who seem to care that much about his image being linked to someone as obviously toxic as him is quite rare.

Trungelitti make some clains that he felt betrayed after he denounced the mafia with the betting on tennis, and he said a lot of players and coaches stopped talking to him

Has Tennis Channel make any comment about Gimelstob?

Tennis Channel made a statement saying they'd been waiting for the verdict and they've scheduled in a meeting to discuss his future there.

I want Martina and Chrissie’s opinion, r190. I’m sure Martina will rip them all a new one.

Naughty elf.

Martina, god I love that girl. Straight talkin' lesbian.

The throwing raquets must stop. They are doing this the whole time

And Tsitsipas start the match losing his serve. I think i watched four of five Tsitsipas matches this year and he lost his serve in the early games in most of them

Players choosing to side with Gimelstob boggles my mind, looking at you Pospisil and deplorable Isner. Although, idk what's he like with other top players like Fed or Djok, seems like they run the same circles, looking at his IG, their kids attend his kid's birthday party. Also kinda creepy if you look at the IG, you wouldn't think this man is a sociopath with multiple assault allegations against him for years running . The ATP tour should make a stand and bar this man, reading that victim impact statement, you'd think this man should be in jail stat!

The ATP and The Tennis Channel really should do the right thing and rid themselves of him. If isner wants to keep him as coach that's fine.

It's not surprising he has support though. People in sports and entertainment largely protect their own when scandals emerge.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Wimbledon's decision is pretty big considering he's a former (mixed doubles) champion and still a member of the player council.

I don't think he'll be on the player council for much longer.

The Guardian has their say on JG...We need more pressure from tennis reporters to question JG senior role in the ATP.

I'm glad the Guardian are calling him out. Tennis Channel's 'statement' was the most pathetic fence-sitting piece of PR i've seen in a while. Just waiting it out until he's let off the hook. They didn't even offer an 'of course we condemn violence and abuse of any kind' statement. Talk about protecting one's own. It's not like this is his first strike, either. They already suspended him once for saying something about Obama while commentating for them.

I just don't understand why he's so powerful/protected though. Does he come from money? Almost all the prize $$ he earned in his career he had to pay back in fines. You can watch one of the Wimbledon QFs on YouTube (against Graf/McEnroe) and even on such an occasion he starts throwing tantrums and shouting even though he was still a nobody. The three legends on court (Steffi, John, Venus) all look completely embarrassed and even confused by his behaviour.

The first comment on the video? "Venus's back is broken from carrying this guy." And it's true.

R202 the Guardian article said he was from one of the richest backgrounds in the country.

The British press has been pretty good at calling out Gimelstob and those defending him. Wimbledon's decision is very 'out there' since I can't remember any time a former Champion has been effectively banned from the tournament. I mean, no previous Champion is going to attend Wimbledon as a normal spectator when previous Champions have the right to sit in the Royal Box.

R203 I hadn't read it yet, but that makes sense (that he has a super wealthy background). Because anyone else would have been exiled from tennis for the Kournikova comments alone. Of course we're more attuned to offensive statements now, but even for the era in which he said it, they were pretty insidious.

He actually didn't win Wimbledon though.

Venus won the '98 Australian Open and then the French Open while he watched on and occasionally hit a volley. They were aiming for the mixed 'grand slam' to nab all 4 in the same year, but at Wimbledon he let her down big time in the SF against Mirjana Lucic and Mahesh Bhupathi. Lucic was outhitting him in the match. Fun fact: while they obviously didn't win all 4 in the same year, the other two mixed slams were won by Serena (with Max Mirnyi) that year.

They came close again in Wimbledon 1999 but he let them down in the aforementioned QF against Graf/McEnroe (Venus was literally 10 times better than him that day). I recall him kicking up a stink in the press when the oldies later withdrew from their SF match, saying that they should be allowed to play the match. To be fair I think they only withdrew because Graf suddenly went very deep in the singles that year [she was eventually runner up to Davenport] and wanted to focus on that. Fun fact: She also narrowly knocked out Venus in the singles QF that year.

The next year (2000) Venus had ditched the dead weight and won both the singles and the doubles at Wimbledon. Gimelstob never made it past the QF again there (not in doubles, nor mixed, and certainly not in singles).

Gimelstob, sad last days.

Djere

Flavia and Fabio have sex 12 times a week, says Fabio.

Fabio certainly doesn’t look flabby there (r207)

Who's the bottom?

With each other?

R199 Oh boy, I can't wait for Novak to get distracted by this again and lose early in Madrid !! thanks Daily Mail for the very transparent framing of this article lol

yes, he is rich, his dad was the CEO of an insurance company.

A. Zverez, sad last days!

Istanbul: CSN was not rewarded for her fed cup heroics this past weekend. As top seed she was bounced in straight sets by countrywoman Arruabarrena

Kuznetsova won and Cirstea gets the weird scoreline of the day with a 2-6 6-0 6-0 win over her opponent

Stuttgart: Kasatkina upset Mertens in straights. Sevastova wins a very up-and-down 3 set match over Ostapenko ending with a bagel

Greet Minnen (who?) upsets Cibulkova in straight sets

Budapest: Djere def. Gulbis in a 3rd set tiebreak

[quote] Players choosing to side with Gimelstob boggles my mind, looking at you Pospisil

I don’t get Popsicle’s support. He’s Canadian and doesn’t seem deplorable on social media. Why the support?

Popsicle is BFFs with Sandgren and the Harrisons.

there are some deplorable Canucks, ya know. Remember before Trump, Rob Ford was Toronto's mayor

He's been participating in the Yellow Vests Canada protests and joined Ontario Proud during his injury time off. He's tired of PC Trudeau, believes Canada is "full up" and wants more pipelines in Alberta. He's been radicalized by Sandgren and by reading The Rebel.

Popsicle isn't a deplorable, he's just not very bright.

Enough with the political cuntery already.

[quote] Popsicle is BFFs with Sandgren and the Harrisons.

Ugh.

Maybe the former mrs Zverev got upset when her hubby podted a pic of a man in see through shorts laying beneath him. Fortunately for Domi his wife to be are mostly not nearby most of the time.

M.R.S. Zverev

Presuming you're directing that comment to Mr. Pospisil, R220, whose appeal is pretty much gone anyway given that both his looks and tennis future are history.

Have any of you ever played on Nadal?

[quote]Greet Minnen (who?)

She's Alison van Uytvanck's girlfriend

Re: Chris Kermode, I know he has a lot of supporters in tennis but with all the stories coming out about match fixing now, it seems like he has his eyes off that ball. Not to mention the Davis Cup debacle, and the continued suspicion of PEDs.

Was Kermode really the right guy for the job?

The removal of Kermode became a story because the British press seized on it. Kermode is a Brit and British tennis journalism is very insular and provincial. He also obviously leaked to The Telegraph all that was happening. When it appeared Gimelstob was lining up to succeed him and then his violent actions came to light, the story became a scandal.

It also became an opportunity to criticize Djokovic, which is a hobbyhorse of nearly every Brit tennis journalist.

There was some merit to removing Kermode. To replace him with Gimelstob is fucked up though.

Gimelstob will step down/be removed from the council.

While I do agree tennis journalism is pretty small in general, I don't think Kermode's Britishness was a factor in the coverage. Pretty much every piece on the subject I've come across has been full of bafflement at the 'coup'. No-one seems to be able to explain what Kermode has done that was wrong. Indeed, most have said tennis has been in a very healthy place under his leadership.

I just posted, off the top of my head, three controversies/challenges that Kermode failed to address at R227. I'm not speculating whether it was the right move or not (I really haven't looked at the issue in full), but to suggest the move was completely without merit is incorrect. Clearly you could build a case around failures during his tenure.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the move is that there isn't a replacement identified, or even a plan or process to find a replacement.

R230 I think the main issue has been the secrecy or at least lack of explanation around the decision. Yes, Kermode seems to be popular but there's been this odd, sudden decision made by the players in a kind of 'coup' which seems to benefit Gimelstob who's on record as saying he thinks he's the best person for the job.

The NYT has been pretty vocal about this situation actually

Some good match-ups in Barcelona today. Looks like FAA is playing a tight match against Jaziri. Shapo v Garin is interesting esp. with Garin's Houston win. Karen v Guido is an eye-candy match for sure. And (sorta young) Grigor plays Verdasco, who's old at this point.

FAA looks much more aggressive and is hitting ball harder than in the match against Zverev, he shouldn't have lost that match, I think it was all in his head.

Yes, FAA looked good straight-setting twice-as-old Jaziri 6-3, 7-6. Looking forward to his next match vs. Nishikori.

Ferrer just destroyed 15th seed Pouille 6-3, 6-1 and fratboy McDonald upset 11th seed Simon 6-3, 6-2.

Gimelstob's whole family has been highly combustible, toxic, bombastic, and, at the very, very least, sucked the energy out of the room. I've read the articles linked above and others, and it seems to me that the players who support him, including, (at least his agenda) Popsicle and Isner, probably Djokovic and Querry (on the voting board), need to right now stop empowering Gimelstob. Jesus, he's not some leader like Billie Jean King or Arthur Ashe. He's polarizing. I wish the players who do support him would look in the mirror, realize he's not a good optic for the sport, wish Gimelstob well with his personal life and anger management classes, and step up THEMSELVES to the leadership role.

There are several articulate players. There are several players who don't have personal skeletons in the closet. Is he THAT valuable to the game that players, ATP, Tennis Channel, and others can't dismiss him and move on?

Gimelstob has been a putz for many years. And nobody should be surprised about the continued assholery of Isner, Posp, Djokovic or Querrey. If Tennis Channel has any PR skill at all, they'll dismiss Gimelstob for assaulting the audience with his horrible and self-important tennis commentary as well.

FAA shares not only Federer's birthday but also Sampras' odd mannerism of sticking his tongue out sideways while he's playing.

R228: That, and the fact that Federer and Nadal weren't happy about it

And Rafa lost the first set against Mayer

^ tee hee

[quote]Has Fogna announced he's withdrawing from Barcelona? Idk how to translate his IG story, it seems like he's still playing?

I think he only withdrew today, because of a 'hamstring injury'.

Nadal came back to beat Mayer in 3. Mayer folded 6-2 in the 3rd. Still, Rafa's form isn't currently his best. Hopefully we won't see his 12th Roland Garros.

Yeah Rafa isn't playing to the best of his abilities. I doubt he wins the French

We'll see, R242. Djokovic isn't playing his best, neither is Stan Wawrinka, Thiem, Zverev, Tsitisipas, etc. I think Nadal was vulnerable in 2017, but he never faced anyone ranked over #28 to win the French that year. If the draw is favorable to him, he could win it again even if not in peak form. The big question mark for me is Federer. He had the best spring, but that was on hard courts and he hasn't played on clay in 2 years. My next big question is can Djokovic turn around his recent slump. He's prone to mental walkabouts that can last weeks, months, and even over a year.

clearly Nadal must be injured!!!!

Early days but I feel like this upcoming French Open is a little more 'open' than a lot of the other slams have been recently. I mean it's still highly likely one of the big 3 will take it, but as someone above suggested, with Nadal/Djoko/Tsitsi/Zverev/Thiem/Wawrinka/Schwartzman all looking formless and gormless, and Federer not having played on the dirt in 2 years, this is a good time for someone to strike. Of course i'd rather have them all IN form than OUT of it like they seem to be, but it's nice to feel like it isn't already in the bag (like last year).

On the womens side too, I don't think Halep has looked that good this year. Even to reach the final in Doha, or win her Fed Cup matches she's really had to kill herself for every point. It's going to be such a slog for her to even make the final again. Bertens is a great clay player but has been much more error-strewn than she was last year. Kvitova unpredictable, Serena unfit, Pliskova uninteresting.... Stephens and Muguruza lazy and pathetic. Kerber/Barty not great on clay, Svitolina not great at slams, and Osaka and Sabalenka seem way off their peak form of last year.

Correction at R243. I meant Nadal didn't face anyone ranked over #28 at the US Open in 2017, not the French. At the French that year, he played Top 20 players, but they all rolled over like bitches. Same could happen this year, too, I guess.

Fernando still looks to be carrying a little pregnancy weight.

Keren lost to Pella

And Guido shaved off his lovely locks 😪

Thiqq Christian Garin is owning Shapo

Shapo simply doesn't have patience to play on clay. His shots are effective but you need to play more carefully on clay and he takes too many risks

Talent over hype.

What’s “thiqq” about Garin?

His accent, Rose.

Garin is hot. Nice face and decent body. I'm glad he's on the thicker side instead of that scrawny shit we've gotten used to in the last decade

Stuttgart: we're getting a Osaka-Hsieh rematch as Su-Wei won in 3 today over Q. Wang. Bertens vs. Bencic and Pliskova vs. Azarenka will also be interesting tomorrow

Istanbul: Mladenovic straight sets Yastremska. The only seed left in the tournament is #6 Martic. Kuznetsova vs. Vondroussova should be a good one tomorrow

Budapest: Cilic vs. Cuevas tomorrow. Given Cilic's form this could be an upset

Petition to have Gimbledick removed from ATP council and TC

[quote] instead of that scrawny shit we've gotten used to in the last decade

Is that a comment about Djokovic?

[quote] instead of that scrawny shit we've gotten used to in the last decade

Is that a comment about A. Zverev?

Q. Wang

A. Wang

Kei rolled over FAA, and Medvedev rolled over MacDonald.

Why is Garin on Orantes court, dammit?! He's my new fave.

In Anning, China, the top two seeds Zhang Shuai and Zheng Saisai won. Zhang Kai-Lin also won, but Zhang Yuxuan lost to Zhu Lin.

It's great that the WTA continues to move events into China.

R262= Rice queen

Did anyone else see Sorana Cirstea grab the shirt of an umpire and shove him?

I can't believe she got away with this. Not that i'm sticking up for them but if Kyrgios, Zverev, Serena etc. had done this I feel like they would have been defaulted.

Also I don't really remember him during his playing days, but having seen Raemon Sluiter as Kiki Bertens' coach, there is something so hot about him.

After doing so well before IW and Miami it seems clay is not that kind to Felix right now. It's true he is losing to higher ranking players, but unlike on hard courts, he is not even having a chance.

Well, at least he is doing better than Shapovalov

FAA has a big hitting game which is suited for faster courts. yes, he did find success in Brazil 500 but that doesn't mean that he is a clay courter. he will have nice run again after clay court season

Osaka has now had more weeks at No.1 than Venus.

R268 cause Venus was very inconsistent and would mainly show up for big events, similar to Muguruza.

R267: Felix was a Roland Garros junior finalist. He is a good player on clay even if his best surface is hard courts

R269: That's not remotely true. At her peak Venus was a very consistent player, and even at the beginning of Serena's dominance she was her only opposition. She is inconsistent now, but she was pretty solid at her prime.

Number of weeks at number one depends of a lot of things. ASV was pretty solid and consistent player but her number of weeks at number one was small too. While Wozniacki never was really a dominant was she spend a lot of weeks at number one

Yes!Yes! Yes! next gen N Jarry backed his win over Sasha by defeating young Grigor in three tight sets

This also means that his win over Sasha was no fluke

I like Christian but he should not underestimate RBC. All the Spaniards are very dangerous on clay regardless of their ranking

Why Marton was playing Barcelona and not in Budapest?

Grigor is almost out of top 50.

R274 cos Barcelona is a T500 and Budapest is a T250?

Someone on another forum said Fucsovics was in a fight with his federation, there's a little bit in English about it at this link.

Venus was definitely consistent at her peak... Her 35 match win streak in 2000 has not been matched since, even by Serena. Comparing her to Muguruza's lack of consistency is so insulting lol. One year she had a 91% win/loss rate.

She never held the #1 for long because she never played a super heavy schedule in order to preserve her body - perhaps why she has had such a long career - and in her peak years was injured a lot (out for months at a time). But she was VERY consistent.

In 2000 (arguably her best year) she entered 10 tournaments, and made the final of 7 of those (won 6, three of them being majors). In 2001 she played 12 tournaments, and won 6 (two being majors). So she was winning more than half the tournaments she entered, including big ones.

But you had the other girls vulturing a lot more points throughout the year. Davenport and Hingis were entering 20 and 19 tournaments in those years, basically double the amount that Venus was. So whenever she was #1 they would overtake her even though she had a higher winning percentage.

In the year 2000, Venus won 41 matches and only lost 4. Two slams, the Olympic gold, and still didn't make it to #1. Because she was injured a bit earlier in the year and the other girls were playing every single week to try and nab that ranking back.

Plus there was a lot more competition back then in general. They were all playing hot potato with #1 in the early 2000s: Serena, Davenport, Hingis, Capriati, and the rise of Henin, Clijsters and Mauresmo.

Hottie Cuevas takes down Cilic in 3

Is Marton clay court specialist?

R272: He played awful, he barely put the ball in the court. Jarry choked hard and played risky tennis with a lot of errors, but Sascha didn't profit on that because he was dreadful too

R262 it's a 125K super challenger, not a regular WTA event.

Struff upsets Tsitsipas in 3

Very poor performance from Tsitsipas, he was not inspired at all.

Struf tennis is very boring, but he did a good job today

Djere is winning easily to Sinner. The italian is a very strange case, he never was a top player on his age group, not as U14, not as U16 and not as juniors, but he is getting way better results on challengers than top juniors.

The hype was halted a bit because he lost with Carlos Alcaraz on Murcia challenge and Carlos is only 15 yo, but that doesn't change the fact that Sinner is doing pretty well. And i know there are a lot of good players that weren't top juniors, but they are generally late bloomers (or in some cases like Nadal they skipped the junior tournaments after being top players in U14 and U16)

Are there even 10 people in the stands at R264 ?

Azarenka takes out defending champion Pliskobot in Stuttgart!

I love seeing Azarenka doing well since the shit she went through with her ex and that custody battle.

Kiki Bertens hit 20 aces today to beat Bencic in Stuttgart. John Isner who? Osaka also def. Hsieh in a straight sets (but well-contested) match to maintain #1.

It's actually shaping up into a hard to predict tournament. Any guesses who will win? Bertens (St Petersburg), Kvitova (Sydney), and Osaka (Australian Open) are the only chances left to break the curse of no multiple title winners this year. Quarter final lineup is as follows:

Osaka vs Vekic

Azarenka vs Kontaveit

Kvitova vs Sevastova

Bertens vs Kerber

Really hoping Azarenka is starting to turn it around. She looked good at Fed Cup (not as skinny and hitting a little harder like before when she was dominating) and a good win today over Pliskova. WTA needs her at the top right now

R290 I agree with you but her serve toss is very bad and her serve a liability. It's like when one part of her game starts clicking another part breaks down.

I really want to see a Osaka-Azarenka match

Istanbul: Kiki keeping up her good form! She krushed Kozlova today with only 2 dfs. Vondrousova def. Kuznetsova in straights

Sinner is extremely pale for an Italian.

He might even be, dare I say it, not adjacent.

He's from Tyrol, which until 1919 was Austria. I bet his ancestry is 100% Austrian.

Are Djere and Djokovic related?

Are Sinner and Thiem related?

Sinner is sinfully ugly.

I'm sure someone here finds him hot. In the past various posters here have declared Anderson, Isner, Jamie Murray, Delbonnis and Leo Mayer to be studs.

I actually find Leo Mayer hot. He may not be exactly a "stud" but he resembles a lot with Micheal Trevino from The Vampire Dairies

I don't think they look alike, R298, but I Googled Michael and he's very good looking.

R293: That middlename is not italian (and neither it's his name), but it happens the same everywhere, spanish best young promising players are Nicola Kuhn (german father, russian mother) and Alejandro Davidovich (russian father, swedish mother). In Nicola's case he got the nationality after living in Spain since he was 3 (he played for germany till he was 15), but Alejandro was born in Spain and unlike Shapo he seems to have little interest in mother Russia

Coric dissapoints again. Nextgen and consistency doesn't seem to get well, but Medvedev seems to confirm his good form and good play on clay this season

There's a lid for every pot R297.

[quote] There's a lid for every pot

Or an axe.

Nadal beats Struff, but it isn't as easy as I would have thought with the score of 7-5, 7-5.

USTA "assessing" Gimelstob situation and won't make a decision until the 2019 tournament. To be clear: those are the same people that, right after 2018 final, labeled Carlos Ramos as a sexist pig, and said it's Ok to call an umpire a thief because "they've been called a lot more."

What's more empty Boris Becker's bank account or the stands at WTA Istanbul?

I even i don't like his game style, the truth is Struf is playing really well. I thought that he would fail lagainst Nadal, but the truth is he kept his level and give a good fight

A tragic end for Vika

Thiem's next test against Nadal...

Kvitova vs. Bertens should be interesting too

[quote]But you had the other girls vulturing a lot more points throughout the year. Davenport and Hingis were entering 20 and 19 tournaments in those years, basically double the amount that Venus was. So whenever she was #1 they would overtake her even though she had a higher winning percentage.

Playing 19-20 events is not "vulturing". That's a typical amount of events for top players, and actually fewer events than the average Top 50 player.

It's like the opposite of vulturing. Vulturing is sweeping into lower Tier tournaments and getting titles/points that way. Being consistent all year at a high level isn't vulturing.

Kei has a lovely lower body.

R309: True, in fact there were Venus and Serena the ones that performed way more tournaments than they should, not the other way round

18-21 tournaments are the standard for a top player

R312: way less tournaments

number of tournaments played 2000

Hingis 20

Davenport 18

Venus 9

Seles 15

Martinez 20

Serena 11

Pierce 13

Sanchez 18

Kournikova 26

Tauziat 26

Dementieva 22

Coetzer 23

Rubin 23

Capriati 20

Halard 24

Mauresemo 13

Testud 20

Cljsters 17

Huber 18

Frazier 22

top 17 results counted towards the ranking

Among the top 50...Tatiana Panova played 30 tournaments. Was she the very short one?

1999

Hingis 20

Davenport 19

Venus 18

Serena 12

Pierce 21

Seles 13

Tauziat 25

Schett 24

Halard 24

Mauresmo 16

Coetzer 25

Kournikova 19

Testud 25

Van Roost 25

Kristina Brandi and Nicole Pratt played 30 tournaments that year. They were ranked 55-56 at the end of the year.

it is a path on the memory line...all these names outside the top 10-20...

And that they all are dead now and Williams sisters are still alive and winning /doing good in grand slams. No point in playing more than 14 tournaments per year for a top player No point for a top player to play a WTA-470 tournament

For all the guys who are expecting an upset. Don't hold your breath. At BEST Domi will give Nadal a good fight but will play just bad enough to lose a close match.

I just hope he doesn't bend over, spread his cheeks and show his hole to Nadal. That will be embarrassing for Prince of clay

Domi defeated Nadal three times. I think he is probably the only player with less than 30 years that defeated the Nole, Rafa and Roger at least two times each.

He is very irregular, but when he is on, he is obviously one of the most dangerous players on tour

With Miroslava Vavrinec at 112, r316!!!

Medvedev looks like a malnourished Luke Perry.

R320 Just behind Anca Barna and Aniko Capros!

Medvedev is the Hydrocephalus Luke Perry of our Hearts.

Maybe if he weren't such a dick. He's the most unpleasant of the NextGen.

Oh, wait, former NextGen, never mind...

Domi presenting hole to Rafa... hmm, nice image!

R324=Preros

Hottie Djere lost

Yes, Danil !! so glad he defeated Nishikori

Also, underrated hotties krajinovic and Berrettini won their respective semies .

Berrettini prevented an all Serbian final.

After Nole, there is a nice line of second-rung Serbian player

!

Better ass: Nadal or Thiem?

Nadal. But the problem is his face

Why Domicakes wears black shorts today?

^ can’t choose 🥰

Domicakes! 🍰🍰

Great first set by Dominique.

[quote] Great first set by Dominique.

[quote] Great first set by Dominique.

?

Why are you glad Medvedev won, R329? You like badly behaved players and poor sports?

White boy ees going to win, no?

Just one service game Domi. Just one service game

Does the DL cover boy curse work?

Yes it certainly seems to be working, r341.

And we are very happy to see Thiem down Nadal.

Ah! We get see another championship game without the OCD Nadal and his nose, ear, ear, eyebrow, eyebrow, underwear tug choreography!

Thanks, Thiem.

Thiem takes down Nadal 6-4, 6-4. Glorious! I watched the second set. To me, Nadal does not look like he's in his best form. To hold for 5-3, it was game point Thiem, and Nadal dumped a neutral rally ball into the middle part of the net, the lowest part. It was a really bad error. There were a couple other free points from Nadal, too. Nadal had 0-40 to break Thiem's serve, although Thiem came up with some good shots. It seemed like Thiem was in control of this match, not Nadal.

I hope Nadal doesn't win a clay title this year.

R318 I think you owe someone a apology.

This dude is so weird.

Another milestone in Nadal's career: being the first tennis player to lose on a court named after him.

Rafa Court

Margaret Court Court

Interesting that whoever wins Barcelona tomorrow will be the first person the ATP tour this year to win two tournaments. The guys have sure spread the wealth this year.

^on the ATP tour

R361 = Andy Murray

R351 = Andy Murray

Nadal will start May ***titleless*** for the first time since... 2004. He never arrived in the Madrid Masters 1000 without titles in that year.

Sandgren lost now.

[quote] Sandgren lost now.

Today is a good day in the tennis world.

R350: They will be the second player -- Federer won Dubai and Miami.

Yes, R347, strangely repulsive.

Oops, my bad, R357. Still, there have been a lot of different winners this year on the ATP. So far, that is.

With Nadal not in his best form, nor Djokovic, and Federer playing on clay for the first time in 2 years, this is really a big opportunity for the younger generations. Hopefully we'll see a first time Slam winner at the French.

No worries, R350/R359: Had to think for a minute if Federer won IW or Miami -- then I remembered Thiem beat him in IW.

It would be nice to see a player stop Nadal or a Joker Slam. Federer might be able to do it if he doesn't have to play and beat both Nole and Rafa -- don't think he can do that, whereas Thiem has a better chance.

Thiem team or Daneel Olivaw team?

This Roland Garros will be very interesting. Nadal at five sets on clay it's difficult to beat, he is not in his best form but he has enough time to get there, but it's very interesting that he lost in two of his pet tournaments. Losing in Madrid or Rome won't be news but in Montecarlo and Barcelona Nadal's reign is almost as clear as in Roland Garros.

Thiem is inconsistent, but someone who defeated Rafa 4 times, Nole 2 times and Federer 3 times is very good when he is on. And on Roland Garros he lost in semis and final the last three years, and was defeated by Nole and Rafa, so it's clear that he is consistent on Paris. I pity the top 4 who have him in his part of the draw, because on quarterfinal and semis he doesn't have the pressure he'll get in the final, so Nadal should be praying Thiem will be on Nole's part of the draw

R360: Federer needs a cake walk draw to have a chance, if he defeats his rivals easily in the first rounds he'll have a chance. The problem is there are a lot of players than can defeat Federer on clay, from Medveded to Tsitsipas or Coric

[quote] I pity the top 4

I recall the Big 4.

Kvitova downs Bertens in 3

Kontaveit lucky again. After Azarenka retired yesterday, Osaka withdraws today so she's into the final.

If Kvitova wins she'll be the first to win 2 titles this year

R363: Oh Judy, i was talking about the top 4 seeds, and unfortunately i think Andy is not ready to come back for Roland Garros.

Of course at this rate Sascha won't be a top 4 seed, and Nole, Rafa and Roger won't have to face Thiem till semis

All 4 draws for next week are out.

A. Zverev heads Munich with slumping Khachanov as #2, Cecchinato #3 and Bautista Agut #4

Tsitsipas heads Estoril with Fognini, Monfils and Goffin rounding out the other top 4 seeds

Pliskova heads Prague with Sevastova, Q. Wang and Buzarnescu the rest of the top 4

Mertens is top seed in Rabat with Hsieh, Putintseva and Tomljanovic the next 3 seeds

It is Zhang vs Zheng for the Anning title

Stan liked this. I think he likes Domi

Domi's butt is jiggly where Rafa's in firm

Domi's ass is amazing

[quote] Domi's butt is jiggly where Rafa's in firm

Rafa's butt used to be jiggly, but then it was ruined. Ruined I tell you!

[quote] Why Domicakes wears black shorts today?

Will you motherfuckers please stop jinxing Rafa with the cover photo? I need him to pass Roger’s major record so the Fedtards will put a cork in it once and for all. They’re way more insufferable than Rafa (not to mention relentless). Please!

R373, Wait till US open then, Rafa has ruined clay court season especially French open for past 15 years for me. I want to see some new man asses

Team Thiem. He's earned it and an RG I think.

it's amazing how our cover boy jinx has been working so well lately. There were a few times last year when it didn't though.

No, not lately R376, It has always worked. We have literally ruined Thiem's career unintendedly by obsessing over his cute ass and putting him on so many DL OP in past 3-4 years. He would have more titles then he currently has.

Anyway better late than never. Lets put a stop in Nadal 12th French open plan. It would be cool if he plays big hitting FAA in the 3rd round in RG and gets knocked up

[quote] Lets put a stop in Nadal 12th French open plan

Agreed.

R377 last year at 1 of the slams I think the USO we had Djokovic as cover boy and it didn't work.

Andy Roddick has new hair.

R332, Yes! Would have been much better if both had white shorts on! That's part of the draw!

Clearly FedFans control these threads. Because I cannot remember Federer ever being the coverboy.

R382 for the grass season Federer should get more attention.

There are so many Fed haters in this thread no wonder he hasn’t had the cover...

R377: Felix is very very far from being a threat to Rafa on clay, and even less in Roland Garros. If Sascha crushed him without problem is very obvious that he is not there yet (not even near)

What is wrong with the people who make highlight videos? Earlier they use to be so good. They use to include great points and important of the match.

For the past few years ever since I have started watching highlight on the internet they are random. They are picking the randonm points from the match. And these are not some random youtubers. Even official ESPN highlights ARE terrible

What is wrong with the people who make highlight videos? Earlier they use to be so good. They use to include great points and important of the match.

For the past few years ever since I have started watching highlight on the internet they are random. They are picking the randonm points from the match. And these are not some random youtubers. Even official ESPN highlights ARE terrible

Some absolutely terrible. I remember watching one where all the winning points were from the player who lost.

And i remember in the Australian open highlights with only the last point of every set.

The GS oficial highlights are the worst. But it's not that surprising when you watch the incredibly bad webpages they have. Every change is for the worst

R388, True, ATP website use to decent. It was done by IBM. A few years back they give it to Infosys. And ever since it has terrible. They are saying they have made changes keeping the mobile version in the mind since most people access the website through mobile devices. I access the website through my computer but even mobile version is absolutely terrible.

Is R389 ESL or Google Translate?

Rafa's chest hair is a bit wispy..I think he should shave it and his head.

R385, that was quite a quantum leap in logic from you. R377 didn't state that FAA's a threat to Nadal, just that it would be cool to see an upset. Felix is still getting his feet on the ground, acclimating to playing against the top level ATP. Of course his results are going to be a little inconsistent. Flopos, who hadn't yet cracked the top 75 at Felix's age, is still wildly inconsistent at age 22 and it wouldn't have been much of a surprise to see FAA beat him on clay if Felix was having a good day and Flopos wasn't.

Nadal with a shaved head is not an image I want to contemplate.

Damn Thiem is showung great tennis - he is so calm a tactical, pleasure to watch. Hopefuly it will be a big year for him, he is capable of playing fantastic tennis.

Thiem should be at the top of his game now that he's closer to 30 than 20, especially if he focuses more on tennis, less on bearding.

F. Zverev

Domicakes!

Thiem takes it 6/4 6/0. Medvedev was trash but Thiem was splendid.

Dominic Thiem is the 2nd player to win multiple titles in 2019. A 1000 and a 500, just like Federer.

Petra Kvitova is the first player to win two WTA tournaments in 2019.

Where is that Canadian girl that was so good a month ago? Does she only play on hardcourts?

Bouchard? My pencil and I will find out.

No, r402, the Romanian/Canadian girl...I don’t remember her name. She’s a bit of a drama queen on the court. Kerber wanted to kick her ass...

Andreescu? She's injured (shoulder I believe).

Domi jumped in the pool after winning. Too bad he wasn't wearing white shorts.

Berrettini is really hot! Cute face! Horrible backhand though. I saw his bag check on tennis channel and most of it was filmed between his legs where his big cock eas in full display.

R392. Flopos won 2 masters 1000 before reaching 20, we'll see if Felix can do the same.

Precocity is great, but Shapo was very precocious and he stalled.

Felix results on clay are poor right now. It's not like he is not winning agains top players, it's like he has no chance of winning. Of course he was doing a pretty poor start of the year and then suddenly started to win and improved a lot (and of course his results are not like Kecmanovic who after a good IW - Miami seems to have a regression on clay courts)

Reaching the finals of a 500 clay event and only losing to top 10 players in the last two clay events would hardly be classified as "poor", R407, especially for a player who hadn't yet cracked the top 100 a couple of months ago.

FAA's record on clay since the Rio Open is 8:12, while Flopos since then has won 6 of 10 matches on clay. For a player ranked in the top 3, what would you call that? Lamentable? Pathetic? Horrible? Floporific?

If they face off in the French Open this year, I hope Thiem realizes he can beat Nadal. Thiem really should have won their 5-setter at the US Open last year. I hope that gave Thiem the confidence to realize he can beat Nadal at Grand Slams in 5-setters. When I played tennis (high school and college, so totally different level), I would set out to beat a rival, and sometimes it took several matches, working on my game, and then finally having that breakthrough. I kept getting closer and knew I could beat them, and eventually did. I think Nadal now fears Thiem a little bit. Nadal has to hope for Thiem to be a bit off his game to take him down, especially with Nadal getting older and Thiem still in his prime. Thiem should take that confidence to the next level and take Nadal down at a Slam.

Thiem hits very hard off both sides, has a good serve and can move. It's all about consistency and mental strength for him. I hope he can prevent Nadovic from winning RG this year.

Petra Martic finally wins a title! She defeated Vondrousova in Istanbul.

R411 are you sure? Were there actual people in the stands to witness that?

R412 there weren't many in Budapest for the men's final either

R408: It's not losing, it's the way he lost. The results are not bad at all, he is losing with higher ranking players, but it's pretty clear he is not there yet. On hard courts he seemed ready to challenge the top players and it's clear that he can't do the same on clay, at least not now

R408: The word is pathetic, but that pathetic player still won easily against Felix.

And yes, Sascha is pathetic this season, but he was pretty good (outside GS) the last two seasons.

Thiem is the first guy I've seen with a OHBH that can handle Rafa's spin on clay. That's the reason Fed was Rafa's pigeon for all those years at RG. I hope Thiem can pull of the RG win.

Thiem is taking one week break this week which is news in itself.

BTW what happened JMDP? Did he die?

The truth is Federer always had trouble to deal with Rafa. Their first match was when Rafa was a teen and Roger the number one, it was on hard courts and Rafa won easily.

Against other players his backhand is a weapon, against Nadal it was a weakness

Yes, R408, Felix has his good days and his days when things go off the rails, which is far more excusable in someone who's 18 and has only been on the tour a relatively short time, compared to a player who's 22 and turned pro six years ago. Also FAA may have lost badly to Zverev, but at least he didn't lose to Jarry or Munar like your "Sascha" did. (Btw doesn't he hate that nickname?)

R419: He is not my Sascha (and i couldn't care less if he hates that name or not). What i say it's people are talking about Felix like he did something special, and yes, the potential is there, but we see a lot of player with tons of potential than never achieved anything important.

And let's be clear, if Felix has to face Munar the chances are he will lost in clay. Munar is playing better than Felix right now (i know the potential is very different, but that doesn't change the fact that Munar is like playing a wall, and Felix is not that resolutive)

And by the way, this has nothing to do with Sascha, but the overhype of Felix.

I think he'll be a great player, but right now he is very far from being one, at least not on clay

Thiem is stronger and fitter than Federer. Look at Thiem's body compared to Federer's. He puts more on his backhand than Federer. It's more like Haas than Federer's backhand.

R421, for whatever reason you seem to be invested in taking all of the wind out of FAA's sails. He's the only teenager ranked in the top 75, he'll be in the top 30 in tomorrow's rankings, he's the youngest player ever to have reached the final of a 500 event, and he's reached the semis of a 1000 event. Those are indeed pretty special accomplishments. He's stated that these results have exceeded his own expectations and that he's very happy to be where he is now. Yes, he's had some unspectacular results against the top 10 in his last two clay events and is at best a dark horse to go very far in the FO. So what? Why are you so invested in sticking a hatpin in his balloon?

FAA is likely going to be inconsistent for the next couple years. He's already done more than the vast majority of 18 year old ATP pros

Also Munar lost to FAA in their last clay meeting in Rio a couple of months ago.

R425 Felix was playing way better in Río than he is playing now.

And nobody denied he is doing well (ve3ry well in fact), i simply said that he doesn't seem even remotely ready to be a contender on GS, nothing more, nothing less. Maybe by the time of the US Open will be different, or maybe he'll make a fantastic Roland Garros, who knows, but he doesn't seem ready to compete against the best players on clay lilke he seemed to be able to do on hardcourts.

And talking about nextgen Alex de Miñaur came back on Estoril, but he is losing his match

Nadal was always Federer's kryptonite. Nadal's strengths played into Federer's weaknesses and Federer's strengths didn't hurt Nadal as much as they did others. But Federer hasn't lost to Nadal since 2014, so he figured something out along the way. I think Federer's 2017 Australian win was a brilliant comeback. I thought Nadal was going to win yet again, but Federer really turned that match around in the final set. And to the points above, Federer's recent success has a lot to do with an improved backhand thanks to a racket with a bigger head.

Yes, that match was a big surprise.

Federer always needed to play better than Nadal to win, and sometimes even being better wasn't enough like in Australia 2009.

Nadal natural game is very uncomfortable to Roger, and the fact that Nadal is a rock and make you play an extra ball and he is mentally tough made the rest.

Of course h2h is only that one sided because Nadal got high in the rankings very fast but he didn't reach finals outside clay with regularity in his first years on the circuit, so basically most of their early matches were on clay were Nadal had advantage. But even outside clay, and even with Roger being clearly the best player back then, he always had a lot of trouble to defeat Rafa.

Last four matches were in 2017, it was a very good year for Roger (but a very good one to Rafa too) and it was not only that Roger was able to prevail, in the last three matches he did it without dropping a set

Milos got injured again. He has withdrawn from Madrid and Rome

Sascha talked about his bad game. He said he is worried but his personal situation affected him, his father had health problems and of course, he broke with his girlfriend

Yea, well he also stated that his game is "pretty much back". We'll see.

Hmmmmm, this article is dated 4/28?

If A. Zverev keeps losing early in this clay season, I think Federer and Thiem will both be in the top four seeds at Roland Garros. That would be huge to not have to face Djokovic or Nadal until the semis at the earliest.

We'll see if his game is back. It was not back in Barcelona for sure, that was a terribly awful match, even Jarry tried hard to choke but even with that Zverev was unable to win (and all he had to do was to put the ball on court). Anyway Jarry deserved to win, he played badly but at least he showed some guts and really wanted to win.

Alexander should try to keep a low SM profile for a while

Breaking news....Sloan Stevens is engaged to the football player Jozy Altidore.

Another pix...congrats Sloane!

They make a cute couple.

And it's time Sloane start to play well again. I love her game when she is on

Sloane is so pretty and he's pretty hot himself. Hopefully she'll start winning again. Since winning her 6 titles, she reached 3 big finals but lost them all in 3 sets. No reason for her not to win at least 1 more slam and more premier titles.

I'll be annoyed if she gets pregnant and quits. I don't see her as the type to return to tennis after having a baby

The guy looks like he has a huge cock

Sloane’s fiancé is very good looking. Congrats to them both.

Will she have a baby?

She’s kinda a step-mom...Jozy has a child from another relationship.

Sloane got engaged to her soccer player boyfriend.

Really, R443? Thanks for the news. Have any major players had babies in the past few years?

Sorry for the double post, I now see it had already been posted but the last 12 posts hadn't loaded until I clicked 'post'.

Anyway good luck to Sloane, not that she needs any more distractions from her tennis (like planning a wedding). She's basically been going up to Toronto every week to be with him.

Although I wonder how committed she'll still be to tennis after next year and the Olympics / US Open cycle. She'll be 27 years old, probably married by then, and we all know she's kind of lazy (plus exceptionally rich and has already won a slam). If she puts in the effort she could feasibly win another one and make a push for having 'world #1' on her resume before throwing in the towel.

I saw Serena on Strahan/Sara yesterday and she was asked by (pregnant) Sara when she's going to have another one, if it was any time soon and Serena said 'No no no, right now i'm playing tennis'. I suppose that puts to bed some of the rumours.

Andy Murray agrees with banning Gimelstob.

The latest Tenniis Podcast is very straight down the line re Gimelstob.

Journalist Simon Briggs of the Telegraph is a guest and most certainly doesn't hold back. Was surprised how forward Catherine Whitaker was, actually.

[quote] She's basically been going up to Toronto every week to be with him.

Do they talk about Rogers Cup?

[quote] Andy Murray agrees with banning Gimelstob.

Yay! Thank you Misery! I hope he’s successful in his efforts and I also hope Margaret Court Arena gets renamed.

[quote] I saw Serena on Strahan/Sara yesterday and she was asked by (pregnant) Sara when she's going to have another one

Another one? I didn’t realize she’d already had one.

[quote] The latest Tenniis Podcast is very straight down the line re Gimelstob.

Link please.

Good for Sloane! But I also want her to come back and play well.

R451

R446, I just saw Brad Gilbert is running for a seat on the ATP Council. Hopefully, he gets enough votes to oust Gimelstob.

R448 lmao great timing

R453 thank you

Thanks, R453.

R453 it's a good podcast, except for when, as usual, they ever talk about Murray.

Good post on the Gimelstob situation.

Stob the Gimel!

Brad Gilbert, running to replace Gimelstob on the ATP board, thinks little of the Gilmelstob family.

From 20 years ago, "He's a sick dude," Gilbert said of Barry Gimelstob afterward. "He's a disgusting human being."

love Brad!

I wish he'd pose shirtless too

It says in R459 that Justin's dad, who Gilbert loathed, threatened to kill his own wife with a butcher knife and that Justin's brother killed a man in hit and run accident.

The worst player on court... look at the handshake Serena gives him hahah.

I wish someone would ask Venus about him. Didn't she dump him soon after for Mirnyi?

Gimelstob also feuded with Agassi because he thought Andre preferred Jan Michael Gambill over him.

Did you know Pablo Cuevas' brother is also a tennis player? He got double bageled today in the first round of the Savannah challenger by Sandro Erhat

After the whole James Faulkner fiasco, I have zero patience for gay baiters like Sasha

Agreed, R468, looking forward to his freefall in the rankings over the next month...

[quote] Gimelstob also feuded with Agassi because he thought Andre preferred Jan Michael Gambill over him.

Pathetic of Gimelstob.

Flopos

[quote] Did you know Pablo Cuevas' brother is also a tennis player?

P. Cuevas

M. Cuevas

Thanks for the podcast link, R453. They said it all, and, again, I wonder: WHAT does JG HAVE on so many? Why has he been so empowered? At one point during the podcast, I think I understood that even if he loses to Gilbert or Mayotte or whomever on May 14 in Rome, that JG will STILL sit on the board throughout 2019. He needs to GO!

Is Pablo's brother hot, too?

Wawrinka speaks out against Gimelsthug

omg this is GREAT. I'm happy to see with at least some players there is evolution and progress. Despite non-tennis fans thinking tennis is a prissy sport, there are and have always been a ton of toxic masculinity-endorsing neanderthals

so I hope more keep speaking out against Gimelblob

I just don’t think there’s anyway gimbelstob can survive this now. I think that pr bullshit he was pushing in the Times article is backfiring bit time.

Big^

I have a good Justin Gimelstop story for ya'll:

I was a ranked junior in boys 16s and 18s in Southern California. I used to play junior tournaments all across the state/region. One time, Justin was playing a friend of mine at the legendary Ojai. Justin was demolishing him in pretty much every way. However, my friend tried to make a come back late in the second set, and came up with some pretty good shots, which irked JG to no end. He starts yelling to himself, and his dad "This guy fucking sucks! I can't believe this!"

Then there were some close calls and Justin yells over to my friend "You can't ever beat me, so you're trying to hook me after every good shot?" Remember, this is JUNOR TENNIS in the early '90s. Justin has been a TWAT for a LONG TIME.

Have Vekic and Wawrinka officially broken up?

America's Sweetheart Danielle Collins reacts to Jennifer Brady's good sportsmanship, after awarding her a point even though both Collins and the umpire didn't bother questioning it.

[quote] Wawrinka speaks out against Gimelsthug

Yay Stan da Man! Wawrinka team.

I went to UCLA and a friend's gf had slept with Gimelstob and said he was lousy in the sack, if you catch my drift. I've always disliked this guy. Good for Stan and Misery.

R482 Collins only won one more game after that. Brady's kindness left her SHOOK!

Schwarzman "liked" Wawrinka's tweet.

Just how many of us are there R482?

Lil’ Diego looks a bit like Theon Greyjoy

[quote] looks a bit like Theon Greyjoy

Is he journeyman?

Gimelstob sounds like an asshole.

Breaking- shallow, vapid, sexist, immoral, aggressive, predatory, bully Jew, overdoing it when having money and power.

I don't know if it's Tiriac or the fact that we spanish are complete idiots but it's absurd that you give no main draw wc to Madrid to any promising local player in Madrid.

Bolsova, Kuhn and Davidovich only received a wc to the qualification. And in Davidovich's case it's even problematic if he continues to win in Estoril. I find surprising that someone who won Wimbledon junior doesn't receive any main draw wc in any spanish tournament

Sweet little interview with AVU and Greet Minnen, who want to encourage and inspire other tennis players (male and female) to come out of the closet.

AVU won her match yesterday in singles and having won their opening match together, they will next play in the doubles QF (in Rabat). How nice that their rankings are finally evening out to be able to play the same tournaments more often. I'm rooting for Greet to keep rising.

Their dream is to play doubles together at a grand slam.

MInnen is doing pretty well this year, she was 350 at the beginning of the year and now she is 149 in the live ranking. Maybe both can start to play the same tournaments soon

Is Sir Misery going to play Wimbledon?

Well I certainly hope so. I miss his lovely legs.

R494 Greet is catching up! They've played several tournaments together already this year (like Hobart which Greet qualified for and won a few rounds in), but it's hard because Greet has to qualify and by the time she's in the main draw she's a bit spent. She even qualified for the stacked Premier event in Stuttgart last week and in the second set of her MD match was going toe to toe with Kvitova. Her big serve is very effective, I don't think she's a world beater but could be a solid top 60ish player at least.

I believe the Morocco Open (currently) is the first time they have been able to play doubles together. Greet lost in the final round of qualifying but AVU is through to the QF in singles. In doubles they play their QF match together in about one hour against the top seeds (Sorribes Tormo and Martinez Sanchez).

Gimelstob is resigning.

Great news!

The Gimel has been stobbed!

Estoril update:

OUT: Fognini

IN: Baldi (LL, gets a first round Bye, will play against Cuevas)

Evans would have been LL if he had signed in.

John Isner's gender reveal video officially makes him the biggest frau on tour.

^ You mean he's having a baby?

Flopos, as humble as ever...

Big Frau and Gimelslob supporter Isner withdraws from Madrid, giving him more time to come up with an equally horrible and ridiculous name for child # 2.

[quote] Flopos, as humble as ever...

Is F. Zverev clay-court specialist?

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

It was about time, good riddance.

Zverev and humble in the same sentence is difficult to match. Even after such crappy season is good to know he has no self esteem problems

So Stan and Misery were the straws that broke the camel’s back. Great. “Nole” doesn’t come out of this looking very good though.

Next up tennis powers: change the name of Margaret Court Court.

Ben R. drags Nole for his role in this. "Will Gimelstob still be allowed on the grounds of tournaments while completing his anger management rehabilitation? Will Djokovic take responsibility for this corrosive chapter in the council’s history?"

Good for Ben for once. Ben and Courtney usually just serve platitudes, but I’m glad he’s taking a firm stance for once.

I really don't understand the hatred for Ben and Courtney on here. Courtney's hands are often tied as she's so involved in WTA reporting but she does say what she wants to say on their podcast, which is obviously not the best out there, but it's at least fun.

Ben seems to troll twitter a bit but when he actually gets round to doing his day job, he's knowledgeable.

Dick-supporting Djokovic has some egg on his face that's stuck on pretty well, especially since he's displayed a similar temper that could have the same sort of rageaholic results.

Ben and Courtney got a lot of hate (envy) because both started as mere fans yet wound up with plum jobs some say they are unqualified to hold. (Ben even had an account on tennisforum and Courtney had some random blog). Neither is athletic at all or played tennis. On DL people mock them because they effusively praise the current state of the WTA, lecturing fans that they should be excited to watch scrawny Eastern European blondes blast unforced error after unforced error from five feet behind the baseline at Chinese tournaments with less people in the stands than your local McDonalds. He's also feuded with a bunch of players who consider him more of a gossip columnist than a tennis writer. I think many of his stories are great, especially the one about the Applebees (now closed) that was the hangout for players at Cincy. Exposing that nutjob Darko was his finest moment.

Ben's twitter account, in particular, is like a magnet for the various crazy fan bases (Serena, Fed, Nole, Rafa). Anything he says is interpreted as a slight against their fave. Years ago some crazed Serena fans actually stalked him in New York and posted videos of it online claiming it was revenge for him being mean to their Queen.

I hope Djokovic is still asked about his support Gimelblob at the next tournament. He shouldn't be let off the hook just because the pos stepped down

So glad Gimelstob has resigned. I read a lot more about the assault last night, including impact statements by the victim and his wife. I also read more background stories on Gimelstob and his family. What a complete jerk he is. He thinks because he has money, he can get away with anything. I can't believe the judge only gave him probation for such a vicious assault, which the judge herself described as unprovoked. I hope the victim takes him to the cleaners in the civil suit. And it's clear that Gimelstob is just mad he got caught and is being held (somewhat) accountable. If this had been some middle class or lower social rung guy who did this, he'd be in jail.

R515: Wow Tipsy is really great on melodrama

Even without his legal problems Gimelstob was an awful candidate, he has a very big mouth and a long story of misoginy and homophobia, not what you expect from someone who represents a gentleman's sport

has there been a statement from the Tennis Channel yet? They need to fire him. He's been on leave so far.

They have Gambill now anyway. An improvement in every way

R516, I hope the tennis reporters do their job for once and ask Djokovic what the hell was he thinking supporting Gimelstob for the ATP top position? This whole episode just tells me all I need to know about Djokovic’s true character. Disgusting...

I know posters hate when we bring it up but don't forget Djokovic is a nationalist as well. Never forget he took part in the march of "Kosovo is ours" etc. He is against their independence

he doesn't seem evil but he's got some flaws when it comes to some of his beliefs

this Gimelblob stuff is another stai n

[quote] I know posters hate when we bring it up but don't forget Djokovic is a nationalist as well.

Very true.

All peace and love until some brings up Kosovo.

[quote] On DL people mock them because they effusively praise the current state of the WTA

Ben and Courtney used to have fans on DL, but once they developed official ties to the WTA, their coverage became fawning with respect to women players and the WTA. That’s when every other match between the aforementioned “scrawny Eastern European blondes” became “compelling” to use the word with which they’re most often associated on DL.

Estoril must be the windiest tournament. I've never seen a sandstorm whipped up on a clay court before.

Flopos is way off in his where he put himself in his clay ranking estimate. If we look at actual winning statistics for clay events in 2019, He's not even in the top 40. Even if you take the last 52 weeks despite his terrible recent results, he's # 6.

Sharapova OUT of Rome.

And Alejandro Davidovich won his second match on the atp tour, 61 62 against Chardy and he enters in the top 150.

I really like Alejandro, he is cray cray (or aleast that's what he says about himself). I find curious that he never got a main draw wc for any spanish tournament (i thought being a Wimbledon jr champion make way easier to get wc)

There's also posts of Courtney on Twitter (from a few years ago) making really awful comments about some of the players. Offensively so. She was still employed at the time (by WTA) but it was before the age of connecting journalists to their own accounts. Someone recently posted screenshots on tennis forum actually.

She went after a lot of players in crude and sometimes racial and homophobic ways, for example certain comments about Sam Stosur, and in one rant she was referring to Serena as 'tranny' over and over again. I know that won't bother many on DL but most paid journalists would be fired from their jobs for that, and she wasn't reprimanded at all. Neither of them are 'great' journalists, and neither of them are good people.

By the way i'm a few days late, but Rennae Stubbs also called for Gimelstob's firing (before he actually resigned). Interesting that basically no other commentators said anything. Looks like they were all concerned they'd never be able to work for Tennis Channel. Good for her.

New teeth to go along with his new hip.

His teeth were endearing. I hate the trend of making everything fakely perfect.

Jon Wertheim on Sports Illustrated sort of called for Gimelstob to resign, too, before he actually did. It was somewhat tempered and more of a why-don't-you-step-away-and-assess/comtemplate, then maybe down the road see if there's a place for you. But Wertheim was clearly saying you need to step down now for the good of tennis. I was glad to see he did that. Nothing on tennis.com about it.

Full disclosure: I know Ben and Courtney. Not well, but I've met them and am friends with some of their colleagues.

Ben first.

Ben did some shady things when getting started in the industry. Misrepresented himself and others in order to get ahead and gain access to covering events. That's all I'll say on that topic, and I try not to let that color my assessment of his work. But it tells me something of his character.

He's essentially an opinion journalist. So while I may disagree with a number of his opinions (I haven't found the WTA compelling for about 10 or 15 years), I'm not going to slag him on that.

I don't find him to be a good or effective interviewer. Some keys to being a good interviewer are (1) keep your questions brief, direct, and to the point; and (2) do not ask leading questions, the listeners want to know about your subject, not about you. I believe he fails on both fronts. His questioning is ponderous and typically inserts his own viewpoints and tries to drag the subject along. I haven't listened in a few years, maybe he's improved, but that was my take as of 2016.

Similarly, the podcast often goes down the rabbit hole of their experiences, and not the experiences of tennis players. This happened to us in the Wimbledon press room, this happened to us traveling to China. It strikes me as commentary from a fan more than a journalist. Maybe some folks want to hear that perspective, but it doesn't particularly interest me.

Finally, the interaction with players on Twitter (notably Kyrgios) and to a lesser degree other journalists. Ben seems determined to make himself part of the story. It's fine being an opinion journalist, but you state your opinion and move on. By getting into debates and flame wars on Twitter you become more of a troll than a journalist.

Now Courtney.

It's always tough moving from "fan" to journalist. In the former life (her blog) you post about players you like and don't like, and now in your new life, I'm supposed to think you are being an objective reporter? It's possible, but a tough transition.

I could buy Courtney - like Ben - as an opinion journalist, until the point she started working for the WTA. Now you really have to represent your organization and the players within it. I don't find the WTA compelling, but I understand why Courtney would write about that - it's now her job to push that narrative. It's ridiculous for us to expect Courtney is going to work for the WTA and write pieces critical of the tour and it's players.

But - and there is a but - it is pointless for her to continue to have (or appear on) an opinion-based podcast. Because there is a clear conflict of interest. If you truly state your opinions, you're likely jeopardizing your role with the WTA. So you're going to side-step a lot of commentary...and what's the point in that? I find it difficult to swallow any discussion from her regarding the conflicts of interest in tennis when she herself is a walking contradiction.

Similar to Ben, I often find her content is as much about her, and her experiences, than it is about the players and tour. There's nothing wrong with that per se, I just think it should be billed/marketed as such, and personally it's not something I'm interested in hearing about.

Random thought: strange to think we're only about 16 weeks away from the U.S. Open getting underway, and the women still have no tour event scheduled for the week leading into it (what used to be New Haven). If you're staging an event, it takes a lot of preparation (player commitments, sponsors and funding, vendor agreements, press passes, on and on). It's not like you could pull together a significant event in a couple of weeks.

Will they just not have any WTA event prior to the US Open?

R534/535 Thanks for your thoughts and insights. Pretty much what I already thought/felt but it's good to hear it articulated like that.

R536 They already replaced New Haven with Zheng Zhou. Like New Haven it will be a Premier level event and i'm pretty sure it's still held in that same week. The ranking cutoff for direct entry is going to be so low, because what sane player (from outside of China) wants to spend a summer preparing for the US Open on American hard courts only to go all the way to China for the 8th time of the year.

Which means more hopeless Chinese players are going to fill the draw, and get wild cards, and get a huge ranking points boost because it's a Premier (Zheng SaiSai is an example). And as per usual there will be nobody in the stands watching.

Thank you R534/R535, that was very interesting reading. I agree about Ben's twitter behaviour, esp his exchanges with Kyrgios - I can't stand Kyrgios but still I somehow find that kind of baiting inappropriate by a supposedly serious journalist.

R537 Surely they can't hold Zheng Zhou the same week as New Haven? But who can they even expect to get playing then? Most top players won't travel to China right before the US Open, and those ranked ~100-230(ish)will be playing US Open qualies that week.

Found the tournament's page on the WTA site, it says Sep 9-Sep 15, 2019. In the calendar, the pre-US Open week is still empty.

Let's not forget that tennis journalists themselves have for a long time been guilty of licking the boots of well, pretty much anyone who's anyone in tennis, rather than asking meaningful questions. I suppose the silver lining of this Gimelstob debacle is that finally someone with power in tennis did something so awful that some journalists actually found it within themselves to stop fawning for a second and start criticising how the sport is run.

The best question asked by a tennis journalist in the last ten or so years has been (and I’m paraphrasing), “Maria, what are you taking for your heart condition now?”

Tennis journalists are not exactly skilled in most cases and some of the questions are dubious.

Last week, interview with Carlos Alcaraz, the guy is 15 but the journalist thought it was a good idea to ask him if he had time to girlfriends. Curiously i read interviews in the same blog to older players and there wasn't that kind of intrusive questions

Melichar/Peschke reach Prague doubles final.

Kveta Peschke made her WTA Tour debut this week 26 years ago.

And Khachanov lost his fourth consecutive match

They've semi-replaced New Haven with a $125K ITF event in the Bronx the week before the US Open. This even was held from the late-80s(?) to the mid-00s.

Virginia Slims of the Bronx

R544 that's great, I really like Kveta Peschke's playing style. Super flat forehands back in her singles days.

Aside from Pliskova withdrawing and Safarova losing from a few MPs up in the doubles opener (in her last tournament), it's been a good tournament for local interest.

Strycova beat Siniakova and is through to a SF, so is Karolina Muchova. And the aforementioned Peschke (playing with daughter of Czech immigrants Nicole Melichar[ova]) beat a Czech team in the semi.

It is still weird that with all the Czech success over the past decade, they only have ONE tournament. And an international on clay at that. You'd think they could be given a grass Premier or something (most of their players prefer grass). The audience is certainly there for it, they even have their own Czech games tennis tournament once a year between the highest ranked girls in the country.

The Prague tournament has no attendance charge. Free for everyone.

Sharapova's former coach Sven Groeneveld has joined Sloane's team

Will Gimelstob still coach Isner and be in his box at tournaments?

Nice choke fest by useless Nishioka, second straight week

What a train wreck this match is

Matteo Berrettini is really lovely.

Prague SFs set:

Jill Teichmann (Q) vs Barbora Strycova /// Karolina Muchova vs Bernarda Pera

Rabat SFs also set:

Maria Sakkari vs Alison Van Uytvanck /// Ajla Tomljanovic vs Johanna Kunta

Great match between Frances and Yoshi, except for the awkward choking by both players.

[quote]finally someone with power in tennis did something so awful that some journalists actually found it within themselves to stop fawning for a second

Tennis journalists don't "fawn". Everything they write is factually correct.

Tommy Paul wins the USTA Challenger event series (Sarasota, Tallahassee, Savannah) and earns a French Open wild card.

I he related to Lucky Loser or Qualifier?

Goffin's favorite WTA player is Bouchard. I guess he's really straight.

Goffin must have a pencil dick.

Asked about Alejandro Davidovich about his favorite WTA player:

"Pliskova"

I'm gonna guess Goffin doesn't follow WTA at all and Bouchard was the first name that he recalled when asked.

It's almost time for the new thread.

New cover boy?

R564 Federer please

for RG we need Nadal and Djokovic to be coverboys

Find a picture of the big three all together for the RG cover thread! We may finally get a new winner.

Madrid is coming up so I don't even think Nadal is necessary.... he sucks there regardless.

Who cares about a tennis cover when Stan Wawrinka is bringing truth to power? Stan wrote a letter to The Times about the JB debacle. Unfortunately, it’s behind a paywall.

Ugh, Stan is truly THE man. I love him calling out all the players for hiding their tails between their legs and just assuming this is all over now that Gimel has resigned.

This quote seems like a DIRECT call out of Novak Djokovic: “The fault lies not in the structure, but the calibre of people within it." I hope he snatches every wig in Paris in a few weeks and wins his second French Open.

Great letter, r568—and the guy whose tweet you linked to has posted the entire letter in pic form.

R569, I couldn’t agree more. There’s lots of blame in that letter for Djokovic and the way he schemed with JG yo bring down Kermode.

Let's re-live the final of what Djoko thought would be his first French Open. The arrogant prick was (perhaps understandably) feeling himself after beating an injured and substandard Nadal.

When he got to the final, Stan just wiped him off the court (even with Novak winning a set). Some of the shots from around the 15:30 mark are just scary. Unplayable.

Ben Rothenberg is claiming there is a candidate up for election who is working for JB who will do his bidding. So, JB will still have control of votes. The ATP board needs to be done away with, similar to USA gymnastics. It’s time to clean house.

Yes, Ben implied it was Weller Evans, and has since been told by other reputable sources (Richard Ings, Kamakshi Tandon) that Evans is no puppet. Be careful what you read from Ben.

[quote]New cover boy?

Sascha!

No, never mind, not necessary.

Keep it simple, guys. till grasscourt season. Just put Rafa in all the cover throughout clay court season and then afterward we will see. There is no point in putting Roger on the cover because he can't win shit on clay. let's get new clay court winner in very big clay tournament this year.

After the French Open, we will shift /change our target

You put Berrettini or Garin on there, and I cutta bitch...

I'm struck by the number of people in tennis' orbit who think the Gimelstob affair is reason to reinstate Kermode. Kermode - who is still serving, by the way - was ousted by a nine member council, not Justin Gimelstob. And while I was in favor of Gimelstob resigning, he has been a member of the board for some time, and was re-elected to that post. Like him or hate him, his role on the board was not self-determined, but fairly elected.

There are significant problems with the sport. Most recently we have seen match-fixing scandals, and clearly the conflicts of interest run deep. Players are clearly not happy with their compensation as a percent of tournament revenue in the game, and this has been exacerbated by the changes to the ITF events and rankings recently, which appear to make it more difficult for players to move into ATP events. The problems in tennis have been there for years, pre-dating Gimelstob, so his presence (and now removal) changes none of this. It just feels to me like Gimelstob is being used as a scapegoat.

**********

I'll try to put aside my personal feelings on Wawrinka, who had little concern about ethics when taking up with the underaged Donna Vekic. If the letter was a shot at Djokovic because he's concerned about Novak's representation of the players (there are other board members), I can't help but feel it would have been much more productive to sit down and talk to Djokovic directly. Really, it's never a bad thing to call for more ethics in any situation, but I found the letter to be passive-aggressive. I mean, fine, write the letter, but there's more that he needs to be doing here if he wants change. If Djokovic or Pospisil or whoever did something that pissed you off, have the guts to either talk to them face-to-face or state clearly in your letter what the problem is. To say "we need to be more ethical" isn't really actionable if you're not saying what was done wrong.

Quadruple hex....

^ lol!

Jinx them all for Madrid!

The last time someone won it who wasn't one of the big 3, Misery Murray, or Flopos Zverev was frigging David Nalbandian in 2007 when it was on hard court.

I want a new winner. And I also want that lush blue velvety clay back.

[quote] I hope he snatches every wig in Paris in a few weeks and wins his second French Open.

Agreed.

Titsy into semis at Estoril. Dude has shoulders as broad as a linebacker's.

We should put Karen up there as the new poster boy.

He’s doing so terrible lately. DL jinx may only help.

K. Hemsworth

Christian somehow manage to outcunt Sasha. I never thought that would happen

Has Journeyman Sasha retired from tennis yet or at least released a sex tape?

F. Zverev

I think DL needs to come up with a definition for journeyman. A journeyman has never been no 3 in the world or won multiple masters. Agree he has been a bust at majors but he’s only 22. I believe he will win a few.

13th Aug 2007: 1. Roger Federer 2. Rafael Nadal 3. Novak Djokovic

6th May 2019: 1. Novak Djokovic 2. Rafael Nadal 3. Roger Federer

I told you guys Sascha was so 2017. He must be dying inside that Shapo, FAA, Garin, Tsitsipas, and Tiafoe are playing great and he stinks now.

Madrid Qualifying update:

OUT: Garin (Munich SF)

IN: Andreozzi

I read a pair of articles (on a sports magazine) about how heartbroken Sascha is and that's making him play bad (to be fair it's pure invention of the journalist because he barely mentioned the break up as one of the reasons of his bad level). And there was a good bunch of nice pics of the girlfriend. I don't know why they broke, they seemed made for each other, but there are a lot of vapid girls surrounded tennis players so he won't have a problem to find a substitute.

To be honest he is doing so bad that i'm starting to feel pity for him

For some reason Munich decided to move their other two QFs to non-TV courts.

New thread:

Nole!

Titsy!

Misery

Stan

Sasha no Alexander Z.

Puig!