2024 ATP/WTA thread

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Indian Wells women's draw, play begins Wednesday. 

[perfectchaos007 6,677]

2 hours ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Indian Wells women's draw, play begins Wednesday. 

Indian Wells is going to give Venus Williams a wildcard every year until she "officially" retires. Tournament can pat themselves on the back for their reparations. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Quote

Former World No.1 Simona Halep has been cleared to return to tennis with immediate effect after her four-year ban was reduced to nine months on Tuesday as a result of her recent appeal to the Court for Arbitration for Sport. 

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3923026/halep-eligible-to-resume-tennis-career-with-immediate-effect

[Napoleon 8,692]

Indian Wells puff mixed doubles tie-breaker challenge thing. 

The court is surrounded by a Who’s Who of ATP & WTA names. 

Some pairs are from the same country (Poland & Denmark) and some pairs are couples (Tsitsipas & Badosa).

Edited March 6 by Napoleon

[Napoleon 8,692]

They Rock/Paper/Scissors instead of flipping a coin to determine who gets to choose to serve or receive. 

I like that. 

Badosa’s jaw dropped after witnessing a Ben Shelton 143 mph ace from court level.  The other players are just sitting on benches next to the players’ benches. 

Edited March 6 by Napoleon

[gsoda3 3,276]

Indian Wells puff mixed doubles tie-breaker challenge thing. 
The court is surrounded by a Who’s Who of ATP & WTA names. 
Some pairs are from the same country (Poland & Denmark) and some pairs are couples (Tsitsipas & Badosa).

That sounds awesome

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Updated draw with qualifiers placed. Very top section is fun. 

Winner of E. Andreeva v. Dani gets Iga. 

Winner of Camila v. Katie gets Noskova. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Katie didn't back up her title, out 3 & 2. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

 

He played that Netflix exo against Carlos 3 whole days ago. 

 

Paula withdrew after playing the Tie Break Tens last night. 

[perfectchaos007 6,677]

Rain delay in the desert? What the hell is this?

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Mother Nature trying to see how long Venus can stay up. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Resuming with Venus now. Dani/E. Andreeva got royally screwed. 

[perfectchaos007 6,677]

Ashlyn Krueger did not take advantage of her gifted opponent. Lucky loser Podoroska beat her in 3 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

All over but the handshake for Venus. She has a WC into Miami also.

Simona will be back then too. 

[Napoleon 8,692]

On 3/7/2024 at 5:16 PM, shadow_operative2.0 said:

All over but the handshake for Venus. She has a WC into Miami also.

Simona will be back then too. 

Venus is ranked in the 400s, she is only getting into tournaments as a wild card. 

My guess is that she will be a Wild Card at all 4 Grand Slams (maybe 3 and she skips the French), she will be a wild card at Indian Wells, Miami, Cincinnati and the US Open in the USA. 

She may take a wild card to a grass tournament before Wimbledon.

Venus can play well for a set, but she falls apart in the middle of the second set, so she can barely win any matches at the WTA level. 

She will not retire this season unless she is told that she won’t get any more wildcards. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

On 3/7/2024 at 4:36 PM, perfectchaos007 said:

Ashlyn Krueger did not take advantage of her gifted opponent. Lucky loser Podoroska beat her in 3 

Rybakina withdrew against Podoroska today, gets Kayla Day instead. Quite the charmed week. 

[Napoleon 8,692]

1 hour ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Rybakina withdrew against Podoroska today, gets Kayla Day instead. Quite the charmed week. 

Mucha suerte por la lesbiana argentina 🇦🇷.

 

 

Podoroska would have been one of my English lesbian former flatmate’s favorite players and she didn’t even follow tennis. 

The only think holding her back from being #1 was that the flatmate preferred androgynous looking lesbians with slim hips*.

 

*it’s worthless information like this that will likely stick in my brain for the rest of my life. 
🤫

Edited March 9 by Napoleon

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Aryna v. Peyton now, let's ride. 

[Napoleon 8,692]

Stern’s looking up for it after the first 3 games. 
ONSERVE

STEARNS 2

SABALEN 1

[Napoleon 8,692]

Sabalenka’s hard hitting seems to set up nicely for the way Stearns likes to hit the ball. 

And Sabalenka double faults twice and the. Sprays to forehands wide and now Stearns is up 3-1.

Sabalenka seems to be pressing… and then Stearns hit an insane inside-out forehand that almost defied the laws of physics. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Opener to the Longhorn. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

The vet was not kind that set, 3rd could be similar. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Peyton holds to 4-all, damn good match. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Fucking ouch, 4 MPs gone to 5-all. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Gonna be tough to top Rybakina/Blinkova for Match of the Early Season, but this is close. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Breaker for the glory, let's go. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Fuck, that will sting for awhile, but great fucking match. 

Big girl tennis. 

[perfectchaos007 6,677]

Stearns served for the match twice and had 4 match points, but couldn't get it done. Moment was too big for her

[Bullneck 19,188]

13 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

Stearns served for the match twice and had 4 match points, but couldn't get it done. Moment was too big for her

Up 40-0 in one game (I guess 5-4).  Painful to watch.

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Young Noskova was up 4-2 on Iga, then the vet reeled off 10 straight to end that shit. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Caro v. Volynets now. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

3 & 5 for the Tigress over Emma in the all-pink Nike battle. 

[perfectchaos007 6,677]

A young Italian just knocked out Djokovic and it wasn't Sinner. Good stuff from Nardi

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Damn, was waiting for Navarro/Svitolina, just assumed Novak was fine. 

[Napoleon 8,692]

45 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Damn, was waiting for Navarro/Svitolina, just assumed Novak was fine. 

Novak is fine. 

He’s out of the tournament before the Quarterfinals, but he’s fine. 

Now he has extra time to go back to UCLA to train and watch some more NBA games. 

[Napoleon 8,692]

Nardi leads the all-time head-to-head. 
 

[Napoleon 8,692]

Korda continues to be his own worst enemy. He loves easy errors at the net. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Emma wins, we like her. Gets Aryna next. 

[perfectchaos007 6,677]

1 minute ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Emma wins, we like her. Gets Aryna next. 

Pretty wild that we now have two American women in the top 20 that have billionaire daddies 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

JPeg better get it together soon, or we’ll only have one. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Aryna v. Navarro now. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Emma takes the first in 38 minutes, Aryna answers in 38, now we battle. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

And that’s a wrap, Emma wins. Good times. 

[Napoleon 8,692]

Emma’s excitement upon winning matched someone finishing a practice session  and heard her name yelled…

…so she briefly acknowledged a possible fan or two before before proceeding to go pack her things because someone else needed the court for practice in a few minutes. 

She just beat the #2 player in the world who was the tournament’s reigning champ and who won the most recent grand slam.

Her response was similar to someone finishing up in a library with other people studying near her, so she will try to make as little noise or commotion possible, because she doesn’t want to disturb anyone. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Carlito is about to finish off Sascha, then they'll join Emma v. Sakkari. 

[perfectchaos007 6,677]

1 hour ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Carlito is about to finish off Sascha, then they'll join Emma v. Sakkari. 

They chose to show Medvedev v. Rune instead of Emma and swole Sakkari. dammit

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Playing 3. The 8-game second set took longer than the 12-game opener. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Surprisingly good stream. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

Uh oh, Maria breaks to 5-4. 

[shadow_operative2.0 16,012]

The Greek wins.