by
Oploskoffie Welcome to the Strawberry Lounge! Where the strawberries are organic, plump, and above all: tasty! Where the cream is heavy, yet whipped up into state of fluffiness on par with the dreamiest of clouds! And where any and all players, results, weather conditions and everything else can be discussed during this year's Green Acres
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Oploskoffie Now, while the orange dust hasn't even had a chance to settle in Paris, the grass court season had already started during the second week of Roland Garros. Or their third week, depending on who you ask
Anyways...
Several category C through E players played in the Birmingham ATP Challenger/WTA 125 tournament and the seeds, overall, have not had a great week with Parks, Belluci, Eala and Nishioka out in the first round. While we tend to focus on the (usually) higher scoring category A and B picks, last year's tournament was won by a difference of a mere 43 points, proving once again that every choice can count.
The ATP Challenger results can be found here:
https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/curre ... 4940/draws
The WTA 125 results can be found here:
https://www.wtatennis.com/tournaments/1 ... 2025/draws
by jazzyg No D players picked made the quarterfinals of any of the four tournaments. For that matter, no D male player period made it to a quarterfinal. Suzan Lamens, whom I've never heard of, and Tatjana Maria made it for the women.
Opelka, who got into the Libema Open draw as a lucky loser, and Andreescu made it from E. Cocciaretto, who was not picked, joined them.
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ashkor87 Oploskoffie wrote: ↑Sat Jun 07, 2025 6:20 pm
Welcome to the Strawberry Lounge! Where the strawberries are organic, plump, and above all: tasty! Where the cream is heavy, yet whipped up into state of fluffiness on par with the dreamiest of clouds! And where any and all players, results, weather conditions and everything else can be discussed during this year's Green Acres
the strawberries in this lounge sound much more tasty than what you actually get at Wimbledon- I get disappointed year after year.. the strawberries are ok but the cream is weak and watery and just plain yuk
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Oploskoffie ashkor87 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 2:29 am
the strawberries in this lounge sound much more tasty than what you actually get at Wimbledon- I get disappointed year after year.. the strawberries are ok but the cream is weak and watery and just plain yuk
That sounds like quite the disappointment
And apparently a portion consists of about five strawberries?
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Oploskoffie jazzyg wrote: ↑Thu Jun 12, 2025 10:27 pm
No D players picked made the quarterfinals of any of the four tournaments. For that matter, no D male player period made it to a quarterfinal. Suzan Lamens, whom I've never heard of, and Tatjana Maria made it for the women.
Opelka, who got into the Libema Open draw as a lucky loser, and Andreescu made it from E. Cocciaretto, who was not picked, joined them.
The battle of the E's! While I didn't seriously consider Opelka, I did keep an eye on him, saw he lost in qualifying and thought "toodles" only to find out the next day he was in the main draw after all. Still, from last year I remembered Andreescu really, really enjoying being at the Libema Open and thought she had "a draw with opportunities...". So far, so hopeful!
by ponchi101 My strategy for the E players is truing to pick somebody that will actually get to play a lot, and that may have a shot at a QF here and there.
My trophy chest shows how good that strategy is.
by jazzyg Andreescu went down in flames today when she appeared to have a clear path to the final after winning easily over Sun, who had more grass credentials than anyone she would have faced until then.
by texasniteowl well...I basically flipped a coin between Keys and Rybakina and ended up going with Rybakina...who lost today. I also went with Samsonova over Alexandrova. Those are only 2 of my week 1 regrets....
by jazzyg Alexandrova blew 11 match points over three games in the second set against Mertens today. That has to be close to an all-time record on the WTA tour.
She had five at 5-4 on Mertens' serve, five more at at 6-5 on Mertens' serve and one on her own serve at 6-5 in the tiebreak. She was up 6-2, 5-3 at one point. Then she was up 4-3 and a break in the third set. Unbelievable.
Meanwhile, Keys never broke 37-year-old Maria's serve and had only one break point in her 6-3, 7-6 loss at Queen's Club. Maria took out both of my A players (Rybakina and Keys) in back-to-back matches, which had to be a 1,000 to 1 chance going in. For anyone who wants to point out her prowess on grass, Maria was 2-6 on grass in WTA 250 or above tournaments since her run to the Wimbledon semis in 2022, and she was coming off a first-round loss to the No. 229 player in the world at a 125 before this event. I have no words.
by ponchi101 I just saw the highlights for the Maria/Keys match. maria just slapped every shot with underspin and slice. Maddie (in the highlights) maybe hit two shot that were over her knees.
A masterful display of junk tennis.
And the Alexandrova debacle is nothing short of miraculous. Guess who had Rybakina and Alexandrova on his team?
by jazzyg Vondrousova is the only E pick to reach a quarterfinal this week.
Bublik made it there from D.
Boulter and lucky loser Jabeur made it there from C.
Ashkor picked all but Jabeur from those groups before heading to the Himalayas.
by ponchi101 And a lot of us switched Sinner for Zverev.
by Oploskoffie All I can think of at the moment is how amused I'm going to be if Medvedev wins Halle after I traded him out, being the only one to pick him in the first place. Obviously/probably Sinner and Alcaraz were the more logical cat. A options, statistically at least, but still.
by jazzyg I knew Lehecka was playing better than Draper all week at Queen's Club, but I didn't really think he would beat him after watching him serve four consecutive double faults last week in the final game to hand Shelton a match after being dominant on his serve to that point. But both of them played like they had all tournament in a very high quality match, and Lehecka won, ending any realistic chance of me winning this thing.
So while Oploskoffie understandably rues dropping Medvedev, being one of only two Lehecka pickers makes up for it.
by ponchi101 The one scorching the contest is Ashkor. He got Voundrousova and maybe Bublik in the finals, plus Alcaraz. A very good week for him.
by
Oploskoffie In other news, Bernard Tomic made it through qualifying to reach the Mallorca main draw
by ponchi101 And he will win Wimbledon this year.
He said he would win it one day.
by jazzyg I will never forgive Munar for not finishing off Alcaraz in the first round with a 4-2, 0-30 lead in the third set at Queen's Club. I left Alcaraz off my team because I expected him to be flat coming off the incredible Roland Garros win, and that's exactly what happened. It was a high-quality match, but Alcaraz was ready to be beaten and showed none of his typical energy. Munar blinked when he was on the verge of victory.
Ended up costing my 93 points against more than half of the field. Alcaraz turned into his normal self after the first round, and Draper underperformed dramatically compared to what I was expecting. He drop-shotted far too often on short balls and got burned repeatedly in multiple matches before Lehecka took him out.
by ponchi101 Don't give up that quickly. Jack will do well at W. I am so far behind that if he lands on Sinner's half, I may trade/switch them.
by Oploskoffie My main gripe at this point in time is with Kasatkina who, after three tournaments, has yielded the grand total of 16 points after three first round exits. Here's hoping for an incredibly kind Wimbledon draw to turn my frown upside down...
by jazzyg I like my team, but nothing has gone right for me this year, and now five of my six ATP selections are in the same quarter of the draw.
Hurkacz getting injured in his first match. Dzumhur (not that it would have mattered most likely) getting injured in his first match. Ostapenko twisting her ankle after winning the first seven games against Eala right after I traded for her. Alexandrova blowing 11 match points to Mertens, who then went on to win the tournament. Munar blowing a 4-2, 0-30 lead in the third set to Alcaraz when Alcaraz did not do a whole lot to warrant the comeback. Raducano showing toughness to rally from a 5-2, two-break deficit in the third set against Joint, only to lose the last three points of the tiebreak after leading 5-4, and Joint going on to win the tournament. Keys dumping a weak second-serve return into the net after rallying from a 4-0 deficit in the second-set tiebreak against Vondrousova to go ahead 5-4 in the second round, and Vondrousova going on to win the tournament.
I need a miracle like Krejcikova winning the tournament last year to move up from near the bottom of the standing.
by ashkor87 Hurkacz cost me dearly too but because I had used up all my trades..
by
Oploskoffie So, amidst the final round of trades, one now stands out... texasniteowl traded in Yastremska who just took out Gauff
by texasniteowl well...that alone doesn't get me many points though! she's got to win a few more rounds.
and you can thank Andy Roddick for that. I was watching his draw and comparing it to mine and I was like...he's not wrong...Gauff could easily lose R1.
I had to trade Collins out to do it, but I kinda figured...if Yastremska pulled it off she had a chance to go a round further than Collins...in my amateur opinion. (Though a potential Yastremska-Kenin 3rd round could end that.)
Plus I didn't really have any other trades I was just itching to make. I could have traded out Mpetshi Perricard instead but figured his r1 with Fritz was a coin flip and there wasn't an ATP player in that group I really wanted to trade in.
So yeah...there is my reasoning for "why not Yastremska?".
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ponchi101 About the same line of reasoning like when you hit a running forehand winner.
Yes, you kind of not really thought about it that way, And you were a bit lucky.
But it was you who got there, and it was your racquet attached to your arm.
So, well done.
by texasniteowl Well...she's running out of time to turn it around, so it's looking like hero to zero for Yastremska. Down a set and 5-3 to Zakharova.
by texasniteowl and of course Yastremska pulls out the 2nd 7-5 and going to a 3rd.
by texasniteowl so...was that a reverse jinx? Yastremska pulls it out in a 3rd set tiebreak..
by
FredX texasniteowl wrote: ↑Tue Jul 01, 2025 8:32 pm
well...that alone doesn't get me many points though! she's got to win a few more rounds.
and you can thank Andy Roddick for that. I was watching his draw and comparing it to mine and I was like...he's not wrong...Gauff could easily lose R1.
I had to trade Collins out to do it, but I kinda figured...if Yastremska pulled it off she had a chance to go a round further than Collins...in my amateur opinion. (Though a potential Yastremska-Kenin 3rd round could end that.)
Plus I didn't really have any other trades I was just itching to make. I could have traded out Mpetshi Perricard instead but figured his r1 with Fritz was a coin flip and there wasn't an ATP player in that group I really wanted to trade in.
So yeah...there is my reasoning for "why not Yastremska?".
Bold!
