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    Bloody citizens of nowhere.

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      Originally posted by Etienne View Post
      In the men's Edmund had a really good match against Zverev, but lost in 2 close sets 7-5 7-6 (11)
      Konta also went out in the R16 to a 20 year-old, Jelena Ostapenko. It lasted three sets so was nominally tight, but there the similarity ends whilst Kyle's lose came with a lot of positives, Jo's was dispiriting as the outcome was clear long before the end. Konta did at least manage to see off a nemesis in Su-wei Hsieh in R2. Hsieh beat her in R1 of the French last year and is the sort of awkward player who often gives Jo conniptions.

      In non-Brit news, Simona Halep is still neck-and-neck with Caroline Wozniacki for the top seeding in Paris. Once the 2017 Italian Open had been stripped from both players scores there was effectively only a handful of points between, titled slightly in Wozniacki's favour. Both are now into today's QFs, Halep to play Caroline Garcia and Wozniacki to take on Anett Kontaveit. On the Men's side Rafa Nadal is through to the Semis as he tries to regain the no.1 spot though not the seeding, as Federer is playing Roland Garros. He will need to win the tournament to do that. Rafa won his QF today against Fabio Fognini, who had reached the last eight of the biggest home tournament for the first time in his career. Fognini actually won the first set, and has better Nadal on clay before and more than once at that, but couldn't see it through as Nadal won sets two and three for the combined loss of just three games.

      There are a few other stories and notable results from the event, some of which refer to players already mentioned. Fognini, for example, took down Madrid finalist Dominic Thiem in R2 (Thiem had a bye through R1 as did all the other 8 seeds). Nadal played and beat Denis Shapovalov in R3, Shapovalov having beaten Tomas Berdych in R1. Kei Nishikori, whose ranking has subsided to the point where he is not seeded here, has had a good run to take him to the QFs. That included a R2 win over 3rd seed Grigor Dimitrov and a R1 win against Feliciano Lopez. In the QFs Nishikori plays Novak Djokovic, who will be making his first last eight appearance of the year. Djokovic struggling like that sounds utterly bizarre, doesn't it? The winner of Nishikori-Djokovic plays Nadal in the Semi.
      The bottom half of the Men's draw saw a comeback by Stan Wawrinka after his abortive attempt to resume his career in January/February. He lost in R1 to Steve Johnson. The QF in this section is Carreno Busta vs Cilic, which is not far off as seeded - it should be Kevin Anderson instead of the Spaniard, but he pulled out injured after losing the opening set of his R2 match against Aljaz Bedene. Anderson has chronic injuries and retires from matches fairly often, so we can assume it was precautionary and also motivated in part by having had enough Tennis in getting to the Madrid SFs the previous week. More concern surrounds Juan Martin del Potro, who chose to shake hands with David Goffin when only a game from levelling the match up at one set all. He even did it mid-game, Goffin being on advantage when he approached the net. Reports are this is a groin injury rather than an elbow one that would set all sorts of alarms ringing. Goffin therefore appears in place of Del Potro in the final QF, where he will play Zverev.

      On the Women's side, there is a fair backstory behind Halep's advance to the last eight. Her first match was against Naomi Osaka, who absolutely thumped Victoria Azarenka 3&0 in R1, only to get trounced herself by Halep 1&0 in R2. Halep lost the opening game, then won the next 12! That took Halep to R3, where she was meant to play Madison Keys only for Keys not to take to the court with a rib injury. Again, hopefully precautionary with the Slam imminent. Halep's QF could be tough though as Caroline Garcia is on a role of her own with Semis in Stuttgart and Madrid. The winner of that will face either Maria Sharapova or Jelena Ostapenko in the Semis. Sharapova won a couple of three setters against Barty and Cibulkova (the latter another grudge match) along the way. Sadly, she seems to be coming back into something like the form of her meldonium-fuelled days.
      One Women's SF place is sorted, and it's gone to the defending champion, Elena Svitolina. She beat Angelique Kerber in the QFs. The stories from this quarter of the draw were Svitolina recovering from a bagel opening set to defeat Daria Kastakina in R3 and the progress of Maria Sakkari, who went out in R3 to Kerber but not before beating the Madrid runner-up Kiki Bertens in R1 and one of the Semi-Finalists, Karolina Pliskova in R2. The win over Pliskova will be remembered less for what Sakkari did than Pliskova's post-match reaction. The Czech is normally completely calm on court, but she lost it completely after a disputed key line call and deliberately smashed the Umpires chair! It doesn't matter whether the line judge and Umpires call was, in fact, wrong (in fact ridiculously so), you simply can't do that. How the WTA reacts will be interesting. Svitolina will play with Kontaveit or Wozniacki in the last four. Kontaveit has had a good tournament, beating two top Americans in Vandeweghe (though Coco played awfully) and Venus Williams. Wozniacki netted a decent win over Sevastova in the last 16. However the biggest news from this sector was Roberta Vinci's professional curtain call. She played on a wild card, and was beaten in R1 Aleksandra Krunic. She leaves having given one of the best post-match interview answers ever.
      Q: "When you woke up this morning, what gave you the belief that this moment was possible?"
      A: "No"
      Here's the entire thing:-
      Last edited by Janik; 19-05-2018, 18:18.

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        Kontaveit beats Wozniacki (actually a hammering, 3&1), so Halep just needs a win against Garcia to keep her top dog status.

        Whoever wins that one will have a big responsibility as Sharapova beat Ostapenko in the other top half QF. Dopapova has made and won just one final since returning from her PEDs suspension. That was in a very run-of-the-mill event in China that she wouldn't ordinarily deign to play and is easy to dismiss (just one top 20 player, half the seeds ranked #50 or higher). Fingers crossed it stays that way.
        Last edited by Janik; 18-05-2018, 17:11.

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          Originally posted by Jimski View Post
          That was actually Zverev's third masters title - he won Rome and Montreal last year. Remarkably that total of 3 masters titles is enough to have him 5th on the list of active players - only the big four ahead of him. Shows how they've been sweeping up the majority of such titles (as well as the majors).
          Just discovered that only Tsonga of other active players has won more than one masters title in his career (i.e. he's won two). It really has been the big four show.

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            Halep stays World No.1 after beating Garcia 2&3. She looked every inch like she belongs there as well. Her h2h against Sharapova is pretty ropey though, as I think was noted when they met in R1 of last years US Open, which Sharapova won. Halep did get revenge in Beijing a few weeks later, and we can probably dismiss their meetings prior to 2014 as that was prior to Simona being a top 10 player. But even so it still reads 5-1 to the Russian. Come on, Simona!

            Men's SFs are Nadal-Djokovic and Cilic-Zverev. Lots of star quality there. Djokovic recovered from a set down to beat Nishikori in his QF, which was a long affair, nearly 2.5 hours. Zverev also needed three to beat Goffin, but that was more wham-bam as it only lasted 1h46.

            OOP for today is:
            12:00 Svitolina [4] vs Kontaveit
            not before 15:00 Nadal [1] vs Djokovic [11]
            NB4 17:00 Sharapova vs Halep [1]
            NB4 20:00 Cilic [4] vs A.Zverev [2]

            N.B. those are local times, so knock an hour off for the UK.

            Oh, and one doubles match of note is Cabal/Farah [6] vs J.Murray/Soares [5]. That is also a Semi, and takes place at 14:00 local on the second court, Pietrangeli. Which might just be the most stunning looking pro Tennis Court in the world.

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              Ha, that court is brilliant. Whoever designed it clearly wants to shout "Look, mate, the Renaissance started here. The effing Renaissance, right?"

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                Raducanu won her final in straight sets. Very impressive.

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                  Five breaks of serve to open Halep vs Sharapova.

                  Maria's serving stats make terrible/wonderful reading (delete according to perspective).

                  1sts serves in - 8/14
                  Points won behind 1st serve - 2/8
                  2nds serves in - 2/6 (i.e. four doubles, or put another way her second serve is less likely to find the court than her first!)
                  Points won behind 2nd serve - 0/2

                  Simona is a bit better
                  1st serve - 6/9 won
                  2nd serve - 0/6 won
                  Last edited by Janik; 19-05-2018, 16:08.

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                    I had to open my gob, didn't I? Three games in a row for Sharapova has her serving for the opening set...

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                      Double fault, double fault, careful 1st serve returned on to the baseline unhandleably, bigger 1st serve sets up v play, another 1st serve but Halep controls the rally and a forced error from Sharapova ends the game.

                      So 4-5. Issue is though that Halep is yet to hold a service game...

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                        Thunderous returning gives a break to love and so the first set. Huh.

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                          Halep is such a frustrating player to watch (given that I am normally hoping she wins). She does feel like an oddly limited player to be world number 1.

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                            Typically fascinating coaching exchange between Cahill and Halep. She wanted to focus on not holding serve, how it was all going wrong. He was desperately trying to steer the conversation, and her mindset, to what she was doing well, "awesome" in fact, i.e. returning, and how to transfer that to her serve.

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                              Originally posted by Jimski View Post
                              Halep is such a frustrating player to watch (given that I am normally hoping she wins). She does feel like an oddly limited player to be world number 1.
                              I never feel she lacks anything physically, technically or even tactically. It's just her personality, what the commentators have just described as 'a glass half full type', that gets in the way. I'm waiting for the injury scare, just like Paris last year or Melbourne this. Both of which she was probably favourite to win before she got hurt, and both that she made the final of regardless. It's getting a bit girl who cried wolf.

                              When did Sharapova learn to drop shot like this?

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                                Halep holds! That makes it 2-0 in set two. It's now vital that she focuses in the next game rather than coasts, and backs up the service hold with another break.

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                                  Nope, though not Simona's fault. Sharapova just put down a very strong game.

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                                    Things that I don't think I was aware of a week ago:- Sharapova is left handed in general life (for reference, I'm aware that Nadal is right-handed for all but Tennis). This explains why she can do the left-handed forehand recovery shots as effectively as she does.

                                    Going back to strengths and weaknesses, if Halep had Sharapova's mental toughness, or indeed Sharapova had Halep's Tennis skills, the combined entity would be a fearsome player. Serenely good, in fact.

                                    Halep holds again, and this time does back it up with another break. 4-1, and techincally a double-break up but given the switch around in perspective of this match let's say she is a single hold to the good.

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                                      Halep has gone from a break down to a break up in set three. If she can close it out, it could be a big win in terms of self-confidence for these very biggest stages.

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                                        Sharapova, at 3-4 0-30 down hit one that looked for all the world like it was going long, but was called in. Either back of the line, or that is what the line judge saw it as at least. Sharapova won the rally, and the three that followed. The final set was 4-1 to Halep at one stage, now its 4-4...

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                                          But Halep wins the last two games. *phew* some match. Almost more important to Halep is that she wobbled, and then righted herself and hung tough in a clutch encounter.

                                          Sadly, despite the end result, we have to accept that Sharapova is back to being a live contender in Slams.

                                          Final tomorrow is a repeat of last year, Halep vs Svitolina. 12 months ago Halep was en route to the title and the world no.1 ranking when she turned her ankle, and also quit rather mentally playing like a drain in the final set. She already had her excuse for losing. So this works as a good test of how much she has improved since; it's clear that she has done so (finally getting to 1 has helped) but how much and is it enough for, y'know, those Slams...


                                          Oh, and Nadal beat Djokovic in a similarly intense match earlier in one of the Men's semis. Missed that one. I was out.
                                          Last edited by Janik; 19-05-2018, 18:11.

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                                            Woohoo. Hai Simona

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                                              Thank goodness for that.

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                                                Women's final now underway. Svitolina has started the quicker, 3-0 up in the opening set (two breaks). Halep isn't playing to the same level as the Semi yet, Svitolina is. Another noticeable difference from yesterday's is that Halep's noise when hitting has reverted to it's normal gasp from yesterday's near-scream. One has to think that was a deliberate - don't let yourself get out-psyched. It's very hard for Sharapova to complain about something like that without being a complete hypocrite... though off course being a hypocritical wouldn't bother Maria in the slightest. However her reaction was to simply up the volume even more. It sounded like a Azarenka-Sharapova match as a result.

                                                Men's final later is a peach - Nadal vs Zverev. Zverev beat Cilic in another tight one 7-6(15-13!) 7-5. J.Murray/Soares lost their Doubles semi 10-8 in a match breaker.
                                                Last edited by Janik; 20-05-2018, 11:23.

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                                                  First set over in 19 minutes, 6-0 to Svitolina. Halep won just 8 points, and some of those were double faults from Elena. No game reached deuce, even. And another cringeworthy coaching exchange with Cahill at 0-5, who essentially accused Simona of not trying. A more 'After the Lord Mayor's Show' performance it's hard to imagine.

                                                  Straw to clutch at for Romanian fans - the commentator has just noted that Halep recovered from a 6-3 5-1 hole against Svitolina in the French last year.
                                                  Last edited by Janik; 20-05-2018, 11:34.

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                                                    Originally posted by Janik View Post
                                                    I never feel she lacks anything physically, technically or even tactically. It's just her personality, what the commentators have just described as 'a glass half full type', that gets in the way. I'm waiting for the injury scare, just like Paris last year or Melbourne this. Both of which she was probably favourite to win before she got hurt, and both that she made the final of regardless. It's getting a bit girl who cried wolf.

                                                    When did Sharapova learn to drop shot like this?
                                                    Ah, here we go, the trainer has arrived for Simona. It's very sad that it's so predictable.
                                                    Last edited by Janik; 20-05-2018, 11:52.

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