The Tennis Thread (Part 25)
Thanks lola. I'm wiped out today but it was totally worth it. I'm still pinching myself.
What's wrong with your dog? I hope it's nothing too serious, I dread it when they are poorly, Raffa is the love of my life, I don't think I've ever felt love for any pet like him.He makes living alone bearable. He's been tweeting to Andy's dogs. (He has a Twitter and Facebook account, set up by my 14 year old dog walkers who are both gems.
)
So I hope he is soon better. Raffa is sprawled under the tree sunbathing just as he was yesterday. He only came in to see what all the groaning and screeching was about! At least he could show interest.
Sorry, OT. But we can return to banter hopefully while we wait for Canada and the thread slows down.
Jimmy I hope you're OK after seeing Chrissie talking about rivalries. It's impossible to see her now without thinking of you.
Continuation of: The Tennis Thread (Part 24)
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:eek: :cool: Blimey, that was quick. I don't think I've ever had a post starting a thread before!!
Mens Singles - Mohammad Lahyani (Sweden)
Ladies Singles - Eva Asderaki (Greece)
Mens Doubles - Mohammed El Janetti (Morocco)
Ladies Doubles - Fiona Edwards (Great Britain)
Mixed Doubles - Kelly Thomson (Great Britain)
There is woman's tournament from Palermo on ESPN from Friday I noticed."
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Anything that's on TV - I follow WTA as I find ladies tennis far more interesting and skillful.
Good to hear we have some tennis again on Friday!
pardon
There are a few clay court events in Europe now in Sweden and Stuttgart and one at Newport, Rhode Island in the USA
The women have moved on to Palermo and Budapest, and from there go to Sweden
After that it is the North American Hardcourt season. The ladies begins theirs at Stanford, California before heading to Carlsbad, also California. Then it is to Toronto for the Canadian Open and then Mason, Ohio for a the last major warm up event before going to the US Open
Men start their hardcourt season at Washington, on to Indianapolis, Montreal and then Mason
Thanks for the info. Are any of them on TV before Palermo? I notice that starts today, but no TV coverage. Errani plays today.
Budapest also has doubles with Andrea Hlavackova &
Lucie Hradecka which I won't be able to see.
There are some erratic online feeds and the Bet365 site are showing some tennis today.
I tend to only really watch WTA.
I think the next ones that will be on TV - of which channel I am not sure is Stanford, maybe a little from Carlsbad.
I think Sky have mens tournaments from Montreal and Mason
Might be wrong but I think there might be some coverage of the womens tournaments in Toronto and Mason on Eurosport
Sky have the US Open
Eurosport are good for WTA and I hope they continue to be.
Sky focus more on ATP - I guess there must be more interest in ATP than WTA.
Moving away from the Wimbledon discussion for a second (I know a lot dislike the return to the clay after Wimbledon and simply don't care but it's still cool to keep track off for me either way).
ATP tour rolls on today with three 250 events, Bastad, Stuttgart and Newport .
Bastad
1. Berdych
2. Almagro
3. Monaco
4. Robredo
5. Dimitrov
6. Troicki
7. Zeballos
8. Verdasco
I like Robredo here based on current form (all 3 seeded Spanish for that matter), his run to the final looks decent. Berdych was great in Madrid and Rome but his clay court consistency is always iffy. Interesting to see how Dimitrov does here aswell.
Bastad also has some pretty cool doubles matches going on today with some of Sweden's all time greats - Edberg/Jarrad vs. Aspelin/Pernfors and also Bjorkman/Gustaffson vs. T. Johannsson/Wilander
Stuttgart
1. Haas
2. Kohlschreiber
3. Chardy
4. Paire
5. Fognini
6. Mayer
7. Rosol
8. Klizan
Other Notables: Monfils, Gulbis
Hard to look past the Veteran here at home but the 2 unseeded players could make a run, Monfils is set to meet Kohli in the quarters which should be a good match. Haas also set for a 2nd round meeting with one of the most disliked players on tour in Gulbis
Newport
1. Querrey :yawn:
2. Isner :mad:
3. Sijsling
4. Hewitt :cool:
5. Roger-Vasselin
6. Matosevic
7. De Schepper
8. Ram
Majority of the big name Americans are here (Querrey, Isner, Ram, Harrison, Sock, Blake, Kudla, Russell). Isner is the 2 time defending champion here and is looking to three-peat. As much as i would love to see him lose here I would say it's unlikely. A run from Hewitt would be good.
WTA Palermo
1. Errani
2. Vinci
3. Mladenovic
4. Zakopalova
5. Dominguez Lino
6. Begu
7. Espinosa
8. Pliskova
Errani is the defending champion and is the favourite by a considerable margin to repeat, Vinci obviously the main challenger. Mladenovic has great potential and it'd be great to see her do well here but you have to wonder if she'll be able to adapt quickly from grass to clay after winning the mixed doubles on Sunday.
Is one set all at the moment. Third just starting.
Can't be sure where I heard it but I think Nadal was going to play one hardcourt event in the run up to New York. That could have changed - I don't know.
I don't think Nadal can win New York. The hardcourts are tough on the knees - and over five sets - I don't think Nadal would last the pace
I think it will be Murray or Novak winning New York
I'd say Andy might win Cincy, which he's won in the past.
It's actually quite even for both events, any one of top 5 plus healthy Tsonga or Delpo can win either events
A cop out I know
Wow, wasn't expecting a challenging 1st round for him. Unfortunately I'm at work so I can't get a stream up
Unless he stages one of his miraculous (and oh so predictable) recoveries.
Plus he lives at No. 7.
5-7, 6-2, 6-4.
Was playing a Swedish wildcard who is ranked 1032 in the world.
Do these live streams exist for the major tournaments and even the US open.
Ha ha
You get people like my mate in football who is doing an amazing job and I worked with some really good people.
I also worked with people who in the main had neither motivation or skills required.
So much youth sport activity is regraded as a bit of fun at the weekend and while this is how it should be for the kids, the adults should be the opposite, namely professional, organised and structured; set up to make the kids and young people think, 'that was great, I can't wait until next Saturday'.
Many adults despite getting the odd badge here and there are left to unleash their 'dad at the football screaming at his team' style coaching with numerous cliches and sound bytes taken from platitudes spouted out by adult managers and pundits about adult / professional sports.
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The amateurism is the problem.
My boy was playing rugby at school and he knocked the ball on, deliberately, and scored a try, as he knew he could get away with it as the rugby coach was American and didn't understand the rules.
His football coach says he can't play out wide as despite the skills, he doesn't have the pace of a couple of other teammates, who don't really have any skill and have been given winger roles based on their speed.
The cricket team set out to have 11 all rounders consisting of average batsmen and bowlers and leave out the best batsmen and bowlers as they can't do both.
Whether it's better in different areas or we've just been unlucky with schools and outside coaches...