TENNIS: all to clay for

[JaneJeffer]

sorry

The Andrey/ADF match is not quite lving up to my expectations- Andrey is doing well. I'm not sure ADF has woken up yet .

It sounds like Holger is being sensible to delay his comeback for a while.

I hope Lore is Ok- he was wincing quite a bit during his match, his thigh was heavily strapped. I'm no sure it was only cramp. He is playing Casper next, and even though I'm torn on the result (and slightly more in the Casper Camp) , I really don't want Lore to be injured again.

Well done Andrey, nice to see him smiling.

Another good win for Sorana Cirstea, beating Noskova. She's nearly up to her career high ranking.
She has said she might re-think her retirement, if she wins the tournament.

Sorana is not really a player I follow (and I'm limited in my ability to follow WTA in general due to not having Sky), why is she retiring? Usually players retire because the results aren't there anymore and their ranking drops to the point they can't get in to the big tournaments. Sorana's ranking is good enough to be seeded at slams!

I’m glad he’s done this because watching him training on clay was nerve wracking!

I'm not 100% sure why Sorana is retiring. She is 36, so that could be a factor. Obviously before this year her results weren't where she wanted them to be .
Since announcing her retirement, she's won a tournament, and had a bunch of decent wins!

I assumed the retirement was age related. Maybe she wants to start a family (just speculation, haven’t seen that reported anywhere). Unfortunately I think the women often feel they have to retire a bit earlier than the men do for that reason - I know lots do come back after having a baby but it must be hard to balance, and hard to come back and get the results after a year or so off.

It is nice seeing Sorana get the good results - perhaps she will do a Danielle Collins and postpone retirement (although I don’t think Danielle is playing much at the moment).

Not so long ago, 36 would have been late, even for male players to be retiring really. There aren't that many that went on much later- unless they were doubles specialists.

I thought a plane was going to crash into them

The Blue Arrows apparently. Go away!

I wish MN would sort out the reloading grr

Coco has come back from 3-5 down in the second set to win that set and take it to a third. Jovic has got some sort of hand or finger injury which seems to be throwing her off.

It's a shame for Jovic that her finger is bothering her, I think she had the match in the bag (I missed what happened - but I'm assuming she's injured it).

Pellegrino is playing well against Tiafoe.

I’m not sure if it’s an existing injury, or whether she hurt something when she slipped over. I also thought she had it all sewn up so it’s a bit of a shame she let her lead slip away.

Mirra not having any trouble against Elise Mertens - already 5-1 up.

I might have jinxed Mirra now as she’s just been broken!

Well done Andrea

Andrea played well. The first set was a bit of an epic.

I don't think Coco really won that match- I think Jovic lost it.
But a win is a win.

It’s a shame for Jovic. I really thought there was going to be an upset.

Mirra having a trickier time in set 2.

I don’t know how I always end up watching Svitolina because I don’t like her that much. Nikola is still giving it her all.

Easy win for Jannik

I know I'm a bad person, but I find myself wishing Jannik would tweak something, just to make tennis more interesting.

I feel the same way with Elina- and I feel like it's not the done thing to dislike her. But I have never really warmed to her.

I had to go out, and before I had even realised Jannik's match had started, it was over.

Jannik is becoming predictable in a way that even Rafa or Roger didn't (I mean, apart from on clay, I was never sure of a Rafa win, and certainly not indoors)- and even Roger had his wobbles once Rafa /Djok came along.
Jannik seems to have become too good everywhere, against pretty much everyone.

It feels inevitable he will win here, and in the absence of Carlos, RG too.
But we don't want him to withdraw from RG for any reason, because over 5 sets, I feel like that gives Djok his best chance of a last bite at the slam cherry.

But yes, mayb he could get a bit of a sniffle and let someone else win here. Let Pannik have a go.

Daniil struggling a little bit- not surprisingly. 2-4 down.