why gilles? why?

poor simon:( what's happening with him:(

Woohoo- the Bryan Brothers won. That's about the only good news so far today!!

Sorry about Gilles Jackie! I think that Reeshie stole the Muskateer Mojo for this week...it does seem like only one muskateer is able to be in posession of mojo at all times. At least they share. Reeshie will need LOTS of mojo against Verdasco today.

so Fed's getting some practice with a lefty.

comms. to Gilles fans.

hello people!
just came back from work and *stares at TV in debelief* had DelPo defeated STM? has Gilles just lost to Zverev? was Jackie watching? ;)

wow, lot to catch up with. can someone at the bottom of the bracket move a little? I'm gonna be landing quite soon :)

That was surprising no?

JJ takes the first set 7-5 in Germany after getting a break point 30-40 with a nice FH winner and then gets the break when Sabine overhits BH past the open court out when she had JJ on the run all through the point. JJ's mum was so excited she was all smiles and got up to clap when JJ won the point and the set ;-)

"That's about the only good news so far today!!"

Sveta and Lena won in Stuttgart, that's a great news!!

commiserations to Simon fans.. according to the tennis rules, only one Frenchman is allowed to win today.. ;)

ptenisnet, the scoreline maybe but the result, not really.

commiserations to Simon fans

Wow. I left to make it look like I actually do something around my house when everyone is gone and Gilles lost? Was Mischa on fire? The commentators sound like he played really well. He is a lefty and will have nothing to lose against Roger tomorrow. That could be a cracker of a match.

sokol- you are right!! I should have clarified "in Rome". I am VERY happy with WTA results today (though I'm holding my breath until Dinara plays...)

Well done Zverev, you join Juan Monaco on the list of first time MS quarter finalists!!! Gilles, just dismal and unbelievably tame stuff from your end today. 4 and 1 in just over an hour...*sigh*

JJ won 90% of points on her first serve while Sabine won just 63%.

Congrats to this young german qualifer

gee imprssive game from hi,.great serve,good net play loves his deep shots.Good luck for tommorow.Also to get through at master Series level.Way to go.

Gilles this was the worsdt game I have seen you play

Serve,usual patience has gone? depth on your shots?

Commiserations to Jackie and other Gilles fans.

Hott Sauce v. Reeshard next.

"according to the tennis rules, only one Frenchman is allowed to win today.. ;)"

no Frenchman is allowed to win on the even day :-))
Vamos, Nando!

Well, I was 101st and #1 on the TW group for about a minute...that was fun...on my way to the thousands(sigh)

the gonzo/juanaco match should be a good one. Fed and Zverev will probably be a blow out. now do we get nando and gasquet?

we need bizzy in the TW group..

"I'm holding my breath until Dinara plays"

me too :-))
and Nadia for that matter
I'm pulling for all-Russian SFs, but JJ stands in the way :-)), I was hoping Lisicki might take care of her, but it doesn't look promising...

MJnanny-It is a roller coaster, no? Congrats on getting there though. :)

Bissy! You are on fire. Aren't you in the TW group?

plainsong: i am permanently as the bottom of the bracket, i'll just make some room for you. it's bad man. nadal and djoko are the only two people i have left. no joke.

Monaco and Zverev in the QFs, who could have known...

no, i've still got hott sauce into the next round. vamos.

Sokol I will join you with holding of the breath?

delpotro looks more animated in still photos than he does live.

Missed all the matches today :( Catching up with the results!

Very surprised at the Federer scoreline and the stats. Considering his first serve %, such an easy victory is really good. Does that mean we are getting to see Federer of old? (Or maybe atleast Fed of AO 09 and before?) . Everything's falling in place for a Fedal final.
Nole had a good victory too. Excellent! **Will Rafa do likewise?**

Anyway, need to go back and look at posts on Roger and Nole's play. Anyone willing to share their observations of the matches would be much appreciated.

Thanks Rafadoc...even though I am dropping like a stone, it is very fun to follow all the people in the group are doing...

Summer of 2009 - Best days of my (bracket) life!
"Rome: 37 pts - 13160th out of 14517."

Doubles winners:
(1)Bryan/Bryan
(2)Nestor/Zimonjic
(3)Dlouhy/Paes
(4)Bhupathi/Knowles
(5)Soares/Ullyett
(6)Fyrstenberg/Matkowski
(8)Coetzee/Kerr

(7)Mirnyi/Ram in action after Rafael/Robin

Avid Sports Fan,
Thanks for the JJ/Sabine update.

Gee its 3.45am here,when is Rafa due to play

Coffee double shots are not really working for me at the moment

Friday Order of Play:
Del Potro vs Djokovic at 7 AM TW
Zverev vs Federer
Nadal/Soderling vs Gasquet/Verdasco
Monaco vs Gonzalez at 2:30 PM TW

reeshie and hott sauce onto the court. vamos jellohead.

Is zverev some kind of obscure clay court god?

oh Annie thank you :) I think we share some picks then - Nole and Rafa and well, Dasco but only til today left in my bracket :) but a good company for me at the bottom ;)

Come on Richard,even though i didnt pick you to win

I would really love it if you could Allez!

2-2 still on serve in Germany. Both girls going for their shots with both making errors but Sabine making more. JJ serving now.

Robbie says

"This should be a shot making buffet"

Robbie you need to take a break really?

Douggie would never say such a thing.

Annie - Wow, I had to make a phone call and came back to see poor Gilles lost. I thought he would pull out his wonderful matches of coming back. Is he injured?

Aussiemarg - how do you do it with no sleep. I've done it a few times but took me months to get back on track. Bless you.

AM: rafa is due on court in 45 minutes. will you make it?

this is the first time he's played sod since wimby 07, right?

imjimmy,

Nole was blah - Robredo played like crap and he just did enough.

Fed's first serve was crap but Radek's was equally bad. The good news is the rest of his game seems to be coming together - not that many shanks and some quality shots - whether he can keep it up against an opponent playing well is the question.

JJ breaks 4-2 now to serve to go up 5-2.

I have had a cat nap for 1 hr

Though used to staying up all night

I have now opened up a packet of pink and white marshmallows as I speak

Yes hopefully sugar will do the trick.

don't know what's wrong with gilles. he was the player to watch at the end of 08. *sad face* but he's still ranked 7th in the world. not too shabby.

hope AM sticks around for rafa/sod or maybe she can catch it in replay.

Alright Peeps, time for the dog walk, i'll see you all in a bit. Vamos Nando!!!

jajaja y´all re my bracket.
i´m not part of the TW group (yet) cuz trying to join crashes my firefox. i´ll join as soon as i´ve some time on another notebook.

to think that i picked birdy birdman to reach the QFs... he lost vs zverev after holding a match point. and zverev is now in the QFs.

And Sabine has sent two BH winners on CC and another DTL to get two BPs to break back and she breaks right back as JJ's BH sails wide. 4-3 back on serve with Sabine to serve.

I have not seen Lisicki play and can only go by what I read on here about her massive serve - so I'm surprised that Jelena seems to be handling it quite easily - tho I guess Sabine just broke back, oops.

Gee that Back Hand he has the best technique

blistering bh by gasquet. wow.

deeps: Thanks very much for your comments on Roger and Nole. Appreciate it! So far, so good for both of them :)

Simon probably officially hates German qualifiers by now - Beck and Zverev. Zverev is pretty impressive today - immovably solid at the baseline, capable at the net and very economical in movement. Both he and Beck have never played in Davis Cup. Patrick Kuhnen should recruit them ASAP.

On to Verdasco-Gasquet. I don't think anyone's betting on Gasquet. I just hope he doesn't get humiliated.

Bissy I also picked the Bird Man,thought i would give him another chance? yeah right?

nando's hair looks like some sort of animal on his head. and he thinks this is a good look. okay then.

gasquet's 1hbh is very lovely.

Lol - ok pink and white marshmello's it is then for my next time!

Aw, I'm gonna cheer for Gasquet. Poor guy, he has some good stuff but has really been struggling for a while. Go Gasquet!!

tina - JJ is returning well but some of Sabine's serves are just nonreturnable. But she also goes for too much so she is making more errors than JJ but also has more winners. JJ is choosing strategic points to strike.

meanwhile Sabine just sent a BH winner at a very wicked angle that JJ tried to get to but could not and she had to go way off court to go up 40-15 and she finished off with an ace wide. 4-all JJ to serve.

Didn't see the match but opened up ATP site to get score.

Headline: Djokovic in Awesome Form.

Was that Blah Awesome or Awesome Blah?

:)

i can music playing at the gasq/verd match. god what is that?

Didn't see the match but opened up ATP site to get score.

Headline: Djokovic in Awesome Form.

Was that Blah Awesome or Awesome Blah?

:)

i can music playing at the gasq/verd match. god what is that?

Annie: other than his Casablanca, he pretty much sucked on clay last year too. He lost 6-1, 6-1 to Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo at MC, that I remember. So the losing to qualifiers on clay is not a new thing for him.

imjimmy - didn't see the Blue Footed Booby match, but pretty much what deeps said about the Fed/Steps match. Fed was serving sooooo badly, 1st serve percentage-wise, but his second serve held up very well and groundies were definitely crisper and hit with more punch. Failed to serve out the first set. Tsk, But broke Steps again for the set. Fewer, 'wth' shanks or painful misses of easy shots. A little lazy getting to some drop shots in the second set...he and Steps had several fun points of DS/Lob/DS/OH/Passing shot in the penultimate game. Steps won most if not all of those cat and mouse points. Fed closed the match with two aces, so that was nice.

Avid Sports Fan,
Thanks for the updates from Stuttgart. Sabine is playing her usual high risk, high reward game from the post I am reading.

a-marg,
i thought it was likely that both ferru and simon would lose kinda early on so the question was who would be the surprise QFinalist in that section?
gambling on berdych seemed to make as much if not more sense than gambling on mischa.

good on mischa though.

Bismarck - congrats on your Bracketology. Sorry about Marin. Do you think he is in a 'still a freshman slump' or getting an early start on the more traditional sophomore slump? Or is it just the clay?

A link for GasDasco will be much appreciated ...
Allez Richard!

nice love service game from reeshie. nando's do looks like a rooster's comb on his head.

Gasquet is looking like he came to play, which is nice!!! I picked him to beat Verdasco and go to the quarters in my bracket....which sounded insane when I did it, but I hope he comes through!!!

Hey CL: Those are some great comments with nice insights on Roger's game. Thanks so much!
I take this as a sign that things might be turning around for him (finally!)

Master Ace - You are welcome! yes Sabine is going high risk and high reward. She just held now 5-all, JJ to serve.

Come on Dasco dude! Stay motivated. I want to see you play Rafa tomorrow. Wait... I'm gonna be able to see any tennis after today.. damn those stupid holiday weekends and stupid roadtrips with friends :]
me likey this JJ/Lisicki match. some nice shots and nice drama there.

So JMDP and Bert: separated at birth?

http://tinyurl.com/c4623c

http://tinyurl.com/cwjl4f

Budour: try channelsurfing.net i think neil is using that.

Robbie says,

"Verdasco has got the mo hawk down to perfection"

Well Sabine breaks 6-5 and will serve for the set. This is similar to the first set except JJ was the one who got the last break of serve to take it 7-5. Can Sabine serve the set out?

Sabine will serve to force a decider with Jelena at 6-5

Robbie wouldn't know a mohawk if it flew down and mowed him over. What Verdasco is sporting is a Smurfhawk.

imjimmy - I really hope you are right, but the serve remains a sometimes thing and Fed has no chance against the Rafa/Djoker/Muzzah's of the world unless he can get some semblance of his old serve back.

Lisicki takes the set!!! And I have 2 working tennis streams!!!!!

Oh man, if Lisicki and Gasquet could both win, that would make my week. (And Dinara- I didn't forget about you Dinara).

Ah, it's nice here in dream-land, haha =)

great shotmaking by Reechie at the moment

F.hand working too.

plainsong: i feel your pain. to not be able to watch tennis. oh woe is you. take your laptop? look for wi-fi?

these guys are having quite the slugfest right now.

what.a.shot!

reeshie's only lost 3 points on serve. veddy nice.

Back foot b/hand by Gasquet? how did he do that?

Show off!

ok that backhand from gasquet is bloody awesome.... I refuse to jinx him by hoping but that one was good.

And I blame Fer's drop on that thing on his head - its sucking his abilities.

She starts with a DF followed by a service winner. She holds at 30 with a BH DTL and takes the set 7-5. So one set all 7-5, 5-7. JJ to serve to start the decider. Sorry I have to stop with the updates now.

Budour: http://www.justin.tv/tennismasters00

Thanks, Annie, but CS.net has stopped working for me since the start of MC. :(
Two of my favourites are playing each other and I cannot watch it. Pffft

Verdasco has seriously bulked up. The dude looks huge - I recall Rafa looking frail in comparison at AO 09.

Meanwhile Verdasco continues to go for very low percentage shots and misses them by a mile. Poor shot selection.

Amazing bh by Gasquet : single handed cc bh with an amazing angle and minimal follow through for a winner!

chris wilkinson is not a gifted commentator. boring.

sabine is good!!!!

hi all!!

long time no post....

hi all TWibers!

Wow -Gasquet is hitting some of his beautiful shots. I just realized he's only 22 - don't know why but i always thought he was older around 25/26. Seems like he's been around much longer. Anyway, hope he keeps this form.

"Lisicki takes the set!!!"

Whohoo! Third set...

I'm with you, linz, about Dinara :-)

AM any idea when nadal is playing?

it should be like 8 pm now in italy?

budour: arun posted a link for you! upthread a bit.

the Big Kahuna is due to play in about 10 minutes. AM, still awake?

neil in tornto provided this link to gasdasco
http://www.justin.tv/tennismasters00

The amazing thing about the b/hand of Gasquets that he was back footed when he made the shot and the angle

Amazing!

Avid Sports Fan,
Thanks for the updates on JJ/Sabine. Bet the crowd is going wild over this.

Annie Yes I have come alive watching Gasquet and his amazing b/hand.

He has the best b/hand in the game.