US Open 2012

And as we peacefully move towards this blessed event in the holy shit:

A high-ranking umpire on the U.S. professional tennis circuit arrested Tuesday in New York allegedly bludgeoned her 82-year-old husband to death with a coffee mug in Woodland Hills and then tried to make it look like he fell down the stairs, authorities said.

Lois Goodman, 70, was arrested at her New York hotel and charged with murder by the L.A. County district attorney's office. She was in New York to officiate at U.S. Open tennis matches.

"...love-40"

well damn

That's one strong mug

http://www.usopen.org/en_US/interactive/video/live.html?promo=subnav

the live streaming from USO qualies is AMAZING quality!

so cool!

As I mentioned before, I will be attending the 2nd Monday night session, so I am just hoping the mediocre Americans lose so that they don't steal night slots away from the people I actually want to watch.

After getting broken in the third set, James Ward launched a ball out of Court 17. It landed two courts over and caused play to be stopped on Court 11. Qualies <3

As for the insane murder story, I hope it was a white mug #jokesthatmakesensetonoonewhoisntatennisfanatic

How are the seeds usually arranged over the first round? Is it that the odd numbered play on Monday and the even on Tuesday?

I am off to watch the evening session on the first Tuesday. Still pretty exciting even if I don't get to see the tennis players I really like watching.

either the top half or the bottom half play on Mon, then the other on Tue (plus i think the USO idiotically drags the men's 1R out for three days). Don't think there are any Wimbledon-esque traditions over who starts first. Draws out tomorrow, you'll know after the Mon schedule is released (erm I think this might be at the weekend?)

Donna Vekic's Slam debut is a 0 and 2 win over Sirotkina. Nice start. That's a name to remember - just turned 16 and has been cleaning up in the ITFs. There's been a dearth of teenage prodigies or even just decent juniors in women's tennis lately but I think Vekic and Ashleigh Barty look really promising.

An olden days flashback.

WAIT WHAT KING AND SHVEDOVA DREW EACH OTHER IN R1???????

OMG

You still have time to book a flight.

Federer vs Young lolololololollllllllllllllllll

King and Shvedova are doubles partners and BFFs! I don't know how I feel about that, I love them both but it's kinda hilarious

Meanwhile if you need more tennis stories to read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/magazine/venus-and-serena-against-the-world.html?pagewanted=1

No luck for Venus - Kerber in R2 is a horrible match-up for her even if she's not having a Sjögren's day

FUCK FUCK FUCK why does Li have to draw St Kim, we'd better not have an AO repeat. LOL at the British journalists referring to that section as a "potential Watson vs Robson 3R match" - um, LI AND CLIJSTERS YOU GUYS.

On the subject of St Kim, I recommend reading the back story of her R1 opponent, 16-yr-old wild card Victoria Duval - Haitian-born, her dad had to be rescued from the earthquake

If Sloane Stephens decides she wants to prove me wrong and be any good at all this would be an ideal draw to start with, she should be aiming for the QF

So Nalbandian wasn't suspended for the Queen's incident but maybe he secretly agreed to be drawn against a top 8 seed in every Slam R1? Tipsy at Wimbledon and now Pony, ouch.

Dimitrov vs Paire is a good R1 match for fans of flashiness and hott men.

still can't believe there are two American sisters in the qualy draw by the names of Chi Chi and Chalena Scholl

I mean, you really really have to wonder about the parents

i hate this tournament

Two of the most likeable, prepossessing juniors bringing the DRAMA in qualies. First Putintseva somehow choked a 6-1 5-1 lead against terminally awful sub-100 scrub Anna Floris in the first round. Then last night Larcher de Brito outdid her by losing a 6-2 5-0 lead over Svitolina, then this happened:

@BenRothenberg
Michelle Larcher de Brito loses, collapses to her knees in tears, then walks off wailing, sobbing without shaking any hands. #usopen #drama

More importantly, Vekic won another match. One to go for the MD. Still on this bandwagon.

And in Dallas, Vinci just double bagelled Jovanovski in the SF. This after double bagelling Ivanovic two weeks ago. Did a Serb steal her boyfriend or something? And...she has JANKOVIC in the final next! A chance to go 36-0 against the whole of Serbia!

oh man tell me there's video of LdB meltdown out there

noooo it wasn't even televised, Rothenberg was on the spot

we have been robbed tbh

UNLESS someone had the foresight to video it in person

I hadn't noticed there was a new thread! Really liked that NYT piece on Venus and Serena.

Young will fall out of the Top 120 if he loses to Fed. Oops.

He has the Bangkok final coming off a couple of weeks after the USO too.

Young will fall out of the Top 120 if he loses to Fed. Oops.

lol @ if

17-match losing streak meets 17 Slams :D

ha i did type "when" at first but though eh, why not give the guy a break. xpost

Gasquet could make a good run out of the middle of the draw. He looked great couple of weeks ago. Hoping for a good tournament for Stan Wawrinka.

Man murray really got the short end of the stick here. Entirely possible that he has to go Raonic-Tsonga-Federer-Djokovic to win.

The Ferrer quarter is a huge opportunity for everyone in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFW4kgu-V3s&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFW4kgu-V3s

OMFG Rodionova drew Cohen

PLEASE put that shit on Ashe, only stadium worthy for it. Most likely tennis match to end in actual murder ever

Murray got through a tough Wim draw to reach the final and I see the same thing happening here.

Fed looked his age at the Olympic final so if they meet I can see one outcome. Djoko looks his old scrambled self so maybe a Murray - Del Potro final.

I don't know what's happened to Djokovic's FH this year, he's just not hitting it with the command he did last year. So many times I've watched him in 2012 and he's hitting neutral loopers with it repeatedly like his name is Azarenka.

Murray getting Fed in the SF is probably better than in the F, right?

I don't think it will matter if Fed's BH is really off.

Preeeeeeedix.

Azarenka d. Goerges
Li d. Lepchenko
Sharapova d. Wozniak
Kvitova d. Pavlyuchenkova
Stephens d. Giorgi
S.Williams d. Kirilenko
Kerber d. McHale
Vinci d. Jankovic

Azarenka d. Li
Sharapova d. Kvitova
S.Williams d. Stephens
Kerber d. Vinci

Azarenka d. Sharapova
S.Williams d. Kerber

S.Williams d. Azarenka

Federer d. Fish
Berdych d. Stepanek
Murray d. Raonic
Tsonga d. Cilic
Isner d. Troicki
Ferrer d. Haas
Del Potro d. Monaco
Djokovic d. Wawrinka

Federer d. Berdych
Murray d. Tsonga
Ferrer d. Isner
Djokovic d. Del Potro

Murray d. Federer
Djokovic d. Ferrer

Murray d. Djokovic

man I just finished that Venus/Serena article

I love them both so much

predicting on the men's side seems impossible. Fed has swung back and forth from inaccurate to sublime 3 or 4 times in the last 6 weeks, Djoker seems to be in a fog, Murray lost to Chardy etc.

Since it's raining.

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2012/08/26/federer-on-tennis-and-everything-else/

Nice interview with Fed - dude seems really happy and contented.

I have the general feed going, anything out of nowhere happening?

German girls going down, mostly.

Lol how in the world does Lisicki have a 0-3 losing record to Discount Ana?! 0-4 now.

Goerges losing to one of the Pliskova sisters is way more embarrassing though.

Murray-Bogomolov match is hilariously terrible - Andy is playing what seems to be the laziest match of his life but is winning anyway. Prob still hungover from the Olympics.

Soooo I didn't miss anything while I was at carnival then. Didn't expect KrisPlis to be decent enough for the Gorgeous upset but JuGs is in terrible form (and kinda sucks anyway) so not a massive shock she lost. Not even any drama in the Cohen/A-Nasty match? :(

Lisicki has only ever had decent results on clay and grass, I can't really think of a reason why she'd be awful on hard courts, but she always is.

Hate today so far. The Date-Krumm loss (I'd forgotten that Arvidsson is the most boring player in the top 100), the Ivanovic win and the brainlessness on display there from both, Goffin going 1/14 on BPs so far in this match...

If Karlovic and Raonic could continue to lose their matches it could be redeemed.

Just getting the basic coverage now. Yay talking heads I guess.

Raonic majorly choking this. Fuck this tournament.

I meant Giraldo. If only Raonic would choke this.

Raonic didn't choke it but he only just finally won.

lol

wow.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

my fears were kinda right and i got a massive popup ad over my stream during the last point. but

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

yesssssss!!!!

Just his reaction -- I think he was in utter shock.

this is so great<3

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Olympic gold as springboard to Slam champion. The narrative panned out as perfectly as it was possible to.

yeah

winning point was perfectly anticlimactic

this is how 70 whatever years ends

lol the livestreams a mess

ALSO CAN I JUST SAY

S.Williams d. Azarenka

Murray d. Djokovic

― lex pretend, Saturday, August 25, 2012 8:50 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also hat tips for overshadowing shitty minority sports in olympic year

You called it indeed Lex!

also hat tips for overshadowing shitty minority sports in olympic year

i don't think the olympic gold champion did this

this is why i love murray, completely genuine reaction. none of that fall-on-your-back bullshit. compare serena's reaction to winning yesterday

xp wow props lex

lol that this culminates in Murray joking about someone else not smiling

also this Historic British Moment occurred at 2am here, and not televised on any channel most people have

this is why i love murray, completely genuine reaction. none of that fall-on-your-back bullshit. compare serena's reaction to winning yesterday

stfu both reactions are genuine -_- see sharapova or nadal for forced reactions

This is why I loved Kvitova winning Wimbledon

COME BACK PETRA

i don't think the olympic gold champion did this

― lex pretend, Tuesday, September 11, 2012 1:11 AM (4 minutes ago)

yes not in a minority sport so

and overshadowed about 100x by this

that was just fucking awesome stuff anyway

look i love serena but her OMG CANT BELIEVE IT bullshit is off putting

the hell is a minority sport?

props to sky for employing dude to say 'take away the whole tennis thing'

yeah so weird that somebody might be happily surprised about winning a slam after being down a break twice in the 3rd set as well as two points from losing it 15 minutes earlier -_-

see serena's muted reactions to her NID AO '09 and Wimbledon '10 wins -_-

look i love serena but her OMG CANT BELIEVE IT bullshit is off putting

How dare Serena be all "holy shit, that happened" when, as a 30-year-old, she rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the third set to win 4 games in a row to win the championship after a set and a half of shit play. So totally fake of her.

alright if you watched that reaction and felt like it wasn't contrived then fine, we disagree

Well now we can all catch our breath and wait on the Australian Open next we--oh fuck.

ANDY MURRAY WON!

smdh at lex if he didn't put money on that btw

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/commercial/2012/9/11/1347327368135/Andy-Murray-kisses-the-US-003.jpg

this sky sports interview with andy

you know you know you know you know you know i mean you know you know i mean you know

he reminds me so much of great boring junior tennis players i played with

everything weirdly distanciated

fuck knows what wimbledon was about

Well now we can all catch our breath and wait on the Australian Open next we--oh fuck.

it's TASHKENT TIME

smdh at lex if he didn't put money on that btw

yupppp

Your new rankings:

1. Roger Federer (1)
2. Novak Djokovic (2)
3. Andy Murray (4)
4. Rafael Nadal (3)
5. David Ferrer (5)
6. Tomas Berdych (7)
7. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (6)
8. Juan Martin Del Potro (8)
9. Janko Tipsarevic (9)
10. John Isner (10)
11. Juan Monaco (11)
12. Nicolas Almagro (12)
13. Marin Cilic (13)
14. Richard Gasquet (14)
15. Milos Raonic (16)
16. Kei Nishikori (18)
17. Stanislas Wawrinka (19)
18. Philipp Kohlschreiber (20)
19. Alexandr Dolgopolov (15)
20. Gilles Simon (17)
21. Tommy Haas (21)
22. Mardy Fish (25)
23. Fernando Verdasco (26)
24. Marcel Granollers (24)
25. Florian Mayer (23)
26. Sam Querrey (28)
27. Andy Roddick (22)
28. Andreas Seppi (27)
29. Mikhail Youzhny (29)
30. Jeremy Chardy (32)
...
46. Martin Klizan (52)

Roll of honour:

Men's singles: Andy Murray
Women's singles: Serena Williams
Men's doubles: Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan
Women's doubles: Sara Errani & Roberta Vinci
Mixed doubles: Ekaterina Makarova & Bruno Soares
Boys' singles: Filip Peliwo
Girls' singles: Samantha Crawford
Boys' doubles: Kyle Edmund & Frederico Ferreira Silva
Girls' doubles: Gabrielle Andrews & Taylor Townsend

so shocking to see Djokovic tap out physically like that. Djokovic 2.0 is no more.

rankings race the rest of the year will be really interesting. Fed is defending a lot of points, but they're points at some of his best tournaments, and who knows how hard Djokovic will push the rest of the year.

sry for the grammar, it's late

Didn't come in here last night because I feared that my stream was 1-2min behind and I didn't want any spoilers!

So... (forgive if I've got the numbers wrong, it was back of a fag packet stuff yesterday during a meeting while looking idly at my phone!)
Fed 11,795 (3,000 to defend between now and Nov 12th)
Djoko 10,470 (560 to defend)
Murray 8,570 (1,930 to defend)
Nadal 7,515 (390 to defend)

btw, in "non US Open tennis news to make us all feel ancient", who remembers Rossana de los Rios? Former Paraguayan No 1, reached the Roland Garros last 16 in 2000, beat Coetzer and Seles in her time, also handed Vaidisova her final Wimbledon loss in 2009. Anyway her DAUGHTER, who I remember as this cute 5-yr-old who'd accompany her mum around the tour and with whom St Kim posed for many saintly photos, is now 15 and making her senior tournament debut this week in a Colombian 10K event...

Nice! I vaguely remember her though mostly because her name sounds like mine.

still not a Murray fan but... four different Slam winners this year! I like it. plus there's something kind of kismet-y about the thing with him and Lendl both finally winning one on the fifth try.

bummed about having had to miss pretty much every match from the QFs onwards though - completely swamped by work bs, and couldn't afford to stay up/wake up at ungodly hours for tennis. :( seems like the Vika/Serena match was decent?

Joy Lo Dico ‏@joy_lo_dico
Andy Murray and entourage went partying at Hakkasan NY last night. Total bar bill $6,500. Murray's share - one lemon soda for $6.

Hahahah. I hope he never changes.

this is why i love murray, completely genuine reaction. none of that fall-on-your-back bullshit.

― la goonies (k3vin k.), Monday, September 10, 2012 9:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha yes he was so genuinely overwhelmed he forgot to collapse for his photo op, hope he didnt violate any sponsor contracts

that and failing to get into the crowd to celebrate with his box, u rly messed up today's newspapers, andy.

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1183415/ConneryFistPump.gif

btw Brian Baker has gotten his ranking up to 63

So fkn happy - just went through so much last night, still drained as hell.

Glad Murray finally won! One of my favourite moments watching sports ever!!