I must live in cloud cuckoo land as I was not aware there was a war between the Rafa and Fed camps. :eek: I know there are a few that come on here during the Slams to wind us up sometimes. I never go to the Mens Tennis Forum though ... so maybe I am missing it all. I also mainly follow the WTA tour where most of the fans squabble over everything.:)
Seasons Greetings to everybody!! :)
Edit: Happy 2011 to all as well.
JJ vs Ana fans are the most fun. Although, again, it's sometimes difficult when you're a fan of both :mad::D
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you've all had a good day and are all stuffing yourselves full of food and drink (and tally I hope you're feeling better:) ).
JJ vs Ana fans are the most fun. Although, again, it's sometimes difficult when you're a fan of both :mad::D
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you've all had a good day and are all stuffing yourselves full of food and drink (and tally I hope you're feeling better:) ).
Any one had any fun with the Wimbledon ticket ballot for next summer.
I sent a stamped addressed envelope off on 20 November - and the form finally came back today i.e. over a month later. I only live about 10 miles away from Wimbledon. Similar problem last year. I hope it reaches them by the deadline of 31 December.
Why is their ticket ballot process so antiquated and inefficient - could they not move to an internet process like Queens?:D
Merry Xmas - and only 1 week to the return of the tennis!:D
Nothing will change on the ticket system while;
- you still have many more people than tickets applying without question
- even more people willing to stand in the bloody queue and willing to endure the heat and discomfort
- efficious stewards hand picked from the middle gentry barking instructions around like there're to the manor born
- faceless security guards who search every nook and cranny you didn't even realise you had while those with tickets just waltz in with a cursory bag check (terrorists are far more likely to queue for ground tickets as opposed to be bright or rich enough to understand the ballot system or be approved for a Debenture, it seems).
- and once inside, fight their way around the site for 8 hours amongst 40,000 people with nowhere to sit down
- and unless they have a show court ticket, be willing to crane their necks on the outside courts or queue again to get a seat for a sight of some tennis
.......and leave thinking its all absolutely marvellous,
While all of the above continues, the Wimbledon Committee will carry on what they've always done doing things 'cos they're the AELTC.
The only problem being that although many of the committee are stuck in the Dunlop Maxply days of 1967, they are now surrounded by the most ruthless commercial machine in IMG who know every way to suck even more money out of the fans like a huge corporate Count Dracula on a quest to build the largest blood bank you've evr seen.
A massive and expensive shopping mall with constantly improving walkways, awful food and drink and everyone thinks its absolutely marvellous.
Thanks god for the tennis. But I can watch that on TV. At least you can see it.
Though you missed that the new Court 2 is now all-reserved seating and frequently half-empty. You could queue for return tickets but that queue is about a mile away from the court (all uphill at the opposite end of the grounds).
Dread to think what they will do with the new Court 3.
- I will do something about my dropping left shoulder/side when I hit my first serve. I will not hide behind my improved ace count as some sort of proof that my serve is improving.
- I will also do something about my powder-puff second serve. I will use my improved leg and core strength to explode into the strike more and accelerate everthing better by 30%.
2. Tactical play patterns
- I will develop 5 set plays which will be my default plays. Inspired by Agassi's abilty to hit his crosscourt background
to the far right corner as repetitively as the UK population keeps going back to the supermarket each week, I will be absolutely clear in my mind where I should be hitting the ball before I hit it and how I want the point to play out.
3. Mental toughness
- I will adopt Jimmy Connors 'Never Surrender' mantle for every point.
- I will stop showing my emotion. Look at Fed and Raf, you will never know how they are doing, what they are thinking or what stage in the game, set, match they are.
Tennis - Off court
4. Support team
- I will fire my Mum. I am nearly 24 and I don't need my Mum following my every move. She has been brilliant. She is brilliant. But from now on, I must break away like other young men in their early 20's. I am no longer 12.
(I also don't like the way she looks like one of the Velocoraptors in Jurassic Park when she scowls after points, often shown by the telly people)
- Kim must no longer sit on the side at my matches like all the other tennis WAGS. My friends who are not tennis players tell me that they don't have their partners sitting in a chair in the corner of their offices standing up and applauding when they've got through their intray/inbound e-mail list.
- I don't want my team standing up all the time when they shake their fists at me. They can do this from the seated position from now on. Tennisman tells me that their knees will get badly worn and they'll suffer in later years. Also, what are the seats for unless to sit in?
Wimbledon
5. Ticket system
Having read Tennisman's post on Spy Digital, I will put pressure on the AELTC to scrap the ballot and the queue and introduce a normal webite based booking system.
6. Food and Beverage
- I will get the Bath buns re-introduced
- I will get that crappy Nescafe coffee scrapped and decent, real coffee introduced.
- I will get them to consign the Pizza they serve to be used as lagging for people's homes across the nation in preparation for another bad winter next year.
Some good points there tennisman! Definitely agree with you about the serve (first mainly as there have been some improvements in the second), tactical play patterns and mental toughness.
Have to disagree about the support team though. His mum doesn't travel to many events, and is there no more than Rafa or Fed's mum. Same with Kim really, she only really goes to a few events and I think it's nice for the players to have support in the big matches.
MARTYM8 - Can't find anything for the first two days of Hopman Cup but Sky are showing highlights from Jan 3rd (Sky Sports 4, 7pm).
Some good points there tennisman! Definitely agree with you about the serve (first mainly as there have been some improvements in the second), tactical play patterns and mental toughness.
Have to disagree about the support team though. His mum doesn't travel to many events, and is there no more than Rafa or Fed's mum. Same with Kim really, she only really goes to a few events and I think it's nice for the players to have support in the big matches.
MARTYM8 - Can't find anything for the first two days of Hopman Cup but Sky are showing highlights from Jan 3rd (Sky Sports 4, 7pm).
Thanks, xsalsafanx.
Actually, the further I wrote in that post, the more tongue in cheek I was getting - especially the support team stuff (although not with the point about the Bath buns!).
Of course, whatever works must be the axiom with all these players. His Mum has been a hugely influential figure in his tennis development, let alone his life.
And I've always had a negative thing about the players partners being there. Why in sports is there this expectation/behaviour that the partners must sit and watch while their spouses do their work? In every other walk of life, this practice would be regarded as completely ridiculous.
Anyway, I don't imagine Kim can watch him that often if she is training to be a teacher.
Also, maybe my beef should be with the TV stations and how they cover the support teams/partners etc.
I always liked the way Sampras' parents sat away from the players' box when he beat Rafter. They stayed in the bachground and let their son get on with his stuff.
Despite my anti-Wimbledon rant above, I was there to see Murray beat Simon on the middle Saturday in July and AM is a formidable player - he dismissed Simon, who is no mug, with ease.
But at the very top in the Slams, he must add just a bit more courage in taking the game to the likes of Fed and especially Rafa.
Murray is a top class counterpuncher. But the moments where he must take the lead, although few and far between, as many of his opponents make their own mistakes under the pressure that AM creates, are ones he must make happen with Rafa, Fed etc. They will not hand it too him.
In summary, his intensity must rise just a notch or two and stay ther non stop, Rafa/Connors style.
I've also said before that I believe the issue with Murray is how to manage himself over a 2 week Slam; that he can beat the top players is not at issue based on Tour results. But the concentration, focus and motivation over a 7 match Slam is a unique set of perameters which he must treat as a seperate experience to the standard one week events.
PS On the second serve issue, remember how Edberg used to get his to kick like a mule? Thats a benchmark Murray could work towards. To my eyes, AM still rolls it into play most of the time.
- you still have many more people than tickets applying without question
- even more people willing to stand in the bloody queue and willing to endure the heat and discomfort
- efficious stewards hand picked from the middle gentry barking instructions around like there're to the manor born
- faceless security guards who search every nook and cranny you didn't even realise you had while those with tickets just waltz in with a cursory bag check (terrorists are far more likely to queue for ground tickets as opposed to be bright or rich enough to understand the ballot system or be approved for a Debenture, it seems).
- and once inside, fight their way around the site for 8 hours amongst 40,000 people with nowhere to sit down
Don't forget the utterly pointless 'Guide to Queuing' pamphlet which is thrusted into your hand as soon as you arrive. :rolleyes:
However, I really enjoy the outside courts and I've never had a problem finding a good view for the matches I want to watch.
Don't forget the utterly pointless 'Guide to Queuing' pamphlet which is thrusted into your hand as soon as you arrive. :rolleyes:
However, I really enjoy the outside courts and I've never had a problem finding a good view for the matches I want to watch.
You forgot the even more ridiculous 'I've queued at Wimbledon' plastic stickers which perky youngsters offer you as if it's the very thing you didn't realise you needed until they revealed it!
You forgot the even more ridiculous 'I've queued at Wimbledon' plastic stickers which perky youngsters offer you as if it's the very thing you didn't realise you needed until they revealed it!
For me, it's a cheap reminder of all the stuff I've said above:D
Despie my views on it all, my brother, his wife and daughter have only just 'discovered' Wimbledon and went through a queuing day etc etc and loved it!
I love queuing every time. You meet different people have a laugh with friends it's great. I also love the pamphlet we had about 2 hours fun taking the piss out of it.
I love queuing every time. You meet different people have a laugh with friends it's great. I also love the pamphlet we had about 2 hours fun taking the piss out of it.
Got to have a sense of humour!
As I said above, different strokes for different folks. I am not going to tell you, my brother or anyone else who enjoys it not to do so.
Having a sense of humour has never been a problem for me (see my articles on The Spoof). But having worked in the sport for many years and having experienced the other side of things many times (one year I had a player guest pass for the whole 2 weeks) and having spent a year travelling the world and attending the other Slams back in '92, give me the egalitarian nature (if only the simple ticket system) of the Australian and (to a lesser extent) the US Open anyday.
Wimbledon may well be the greatest tournament in the sport but it is one of the reasons why the sport remains in a small, cliquey, niche in the UK, where those with the privileges hang onto it for dear life, whether that's at the AELTC or in Clubs on committees, even the proprietal attitude to 'my court' amongst the players.
To see all the LTA workers filling their boots with all sorts of mini privileges showed me that nothing will really change in the sport (it didn't in my time between 93 and 07 and listening to endless media features since telling us that 'We need to get the youngsters playing since, exactly the same stuff, by the way that was being preached in '93, is a demonstration of this).
There's always 'next year' to get things right when in fact, nothing ever changes.
And to cap it all, we heard the LTA say this year that 'Associations don't develop players'. Well, its taken a bloody long time and hundreds of millions of £ to find that out even assuming that it's correct (I personally think that this claim is just another excuse from a weakly lead organisation).
I haven't played for nearly 5 years now 'cos of bad knees and I would dearly love to play again. I love the game, but I'm afraid I can't say that about the sport and all that goes with it, certainly as far as the UK is concerned.
Wimbledon and the sport, I'm afraid mean different things to me now compared to before.
But to those that love it, more power to you. Enjoy.
Next year, I'm not going to slog it down from the NW to fight the battle of SW19. I'm going to watch it on TV and I'll enjoy it more. For me, now, that's the way to do it.
But at the very top in the Slams, he must add just a bit more courage in taking the game to the likes of Fed and especially Rafa.
Murray is a top class counterpuncher. But the moments where he must take the lead, although few and far between, as many of his opponents make their own mistakes under the pressure that AM creates, are ones he must make happen with Rafa, Fed etc. They will not hand it too him.
In summary, his intensity must rise just a notch or two and stay ther non stop, Rafa/Connors style.
I've also said before that I believe the issue with Murray is how to manage himself over a 2 week Slam; that he can beat the top players is not at issue based on Tour results. But the concentration, focus and motivation over a 7 match Slam is a unique set of perameters which he must treat as a seperate experience to the standard one week events.
PS On the second serve issue, remember how Edberg used to get his to kick like a mule? Thats a benchmark Murray could work towards. To my eyes, AM still rolls it into play most of the time.
I totally agree with what you're saying about how he needs to improve. It's not that he can't beat the guys above him, his results show that he can (not all of the time, but he can do it) and he's also got an excellent record against other top ten players. But out of the rest of the top four, he's vulnerable to losing in the early rounds of slams and I think that has a lot to do with his focus and intensity. I'm hoping that this year he'll improve that and also stop getting so down on himself when things aren't going his way, just move on to the next point. He's shown that he can do this before, and hopefully with time it can become habit.
An Edberg-style second serve would be great! There's definitely still a lot of room for improvement there.
Comments
I totally agree!
Merry christmas everyone and roll on january the 1st!
JJ vs Ana fans are the most fun. Although, again, it's sometimes difficult when you're a fan of both :mad::D
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you've all had a good day and are all stuffing yourselves full of food and drink (and tally I hope you're feeling better:) ).
Hopman Cup in 1 week!
Doha, Brisbane and Chennai in a week and 2 days
Like anything can compare to Ana and Nole teaming up :rolleyes::p
Start of the season can yes
Very true.
Oy Vay don't say that please. I think the first match is Henin -v- Molik. I'm gonna be dead by the time the AO has started :eek::mad:
I just can't do it anymore and I don't even have to go to work!
Nothing will change on the ticket system while;
- you still have many more people than tickets applying without question
- even more people willing to stand in the bloody queue and willing to endure the heat and discomfort
- efficious stewards hand picked from the middle gentry barking instructions around like there're to the manor born
- faceless security guards who search every nook and cranny you didn't even realise you had while those with tickets just waltz in with a cursory bag check (terrorists are far more likely to queue for ground tickets as opposed to be bright or rich enough to understand the ballot system or be approved for a Debenture, it seems).
- and once inside, fight their way around the site for 8 hours amongst 40,000 people with nowhere to sit down
- and unless they have a show court ticket, be willing to crane their necks on the outside courts or queue again to get a seat for a sight of some tennis
.......and leave thinking its all absolutely marvellous,
While all of the above continues, the Wimbledon Committee will carry on what they've always done doing things 'cos they're the AELTC.
The only problem being that although many of the committee are stuck in the Dunlop Maxply days of 1967, they are now surrounded by the most ruthless commercial machine in IMG who know every way to suck even more money out of the fans like a huge corporate Count Dracula on a quest to build the largest blood bank you've evr seen.
A massive and expensive shopping mall with constantly improving walkways, awful food and drink and everyone thinks its absolutely marvellous.
Thanks god for the tennis. But I can watch that on TV. At least you can see it.
I just love it! (As you can see):D
Happy New Year to everyone.
Tally stay well.
Though you missed that the new Court 2 is now all-reserved seating and frequently half-empty. You could queue for return tickets but that queue is about a mile away from the court (all uphill at the opposite end of the grounds).
Dread to think what they will do with the new Court 3.
1. Serve technique
- I will do something about my dropping left shoulder/side when I hit my first serve. I will not hide behind my improved ace count as some sort of proof that my serve is improving.
- I will also do something about my powder-puff second serve. I will use my improved leg and core strength to explode into the strike more and accelerate everthing better by 30%.
2. Tactical play patterns
- I will develop 5 set plays which will be my default plays. Inspired by Agassi's abilty to hit his crosscourt background
to the far right corner as repetitively as the UK population keeps going back to the supermarket each week, I will be absolutely clear in my mind where I should be hitting the ball before I hit it and how I want the point to play out.
3. Mental toughness
- I will adopt Jimmy Connors 'Never Surrender' mantle for every point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91BfYcTRVng
- I will stop showing my emotion. Look at Fed and Raf, you will never know how they are doing, what they are thinking or what stage in the game, set, match they are.
Tennis - Off court
4. Support team
- I will fire my Mum. I am nearly 24 and I don't need my Mum following my every move. She has been brilliant. She is brilliant. But from now on, I must break away like other young men in their early 20's. I am no longer 12.
(I also don't like the way she looks like one of the Velocoraptors in Jurassic Park when she scowls after points, often shown by the telly people)
- Kim must no longer sit on the side at my matches like all the other tennis WAGS. My friends who are not tennis players tell me that they don't have their partners sitting in a chair in the corner of their offices standing up and applauding when they've got through their intray/inbound e-mail list.
- I don't want my team standing up all the time when they shake their fists at me. They can do this from the seated position from now on. Tennisman tells me that their knees will get badly worn and they'll suffer in later years. Also, what are the seats for unless to sit in?
Wimbledon
5. Ticket system
Having read Tennisman's post on Spy Digital, I will put pressure on the AELTC to scrap the ballot and the queue and introduce a normal webite based booking system.
6. Food and Beverage
- I will get the Bath buns re-introduced
- I will get that crappy Nescafe coffee scrapped and decent, real coffee introduced.
- I will get them to consign the Pizza they serve to be used as lagging for people's homes across the nation in preparation for another bad winter next year.
That's enough for now.
AM
Haha it was more a question
Trying to work out when i need to be up
and the first match is indeed Australia vs Belgium
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12948,00.html
Have to disagree about the support team though. His mum doesn't travel to many events, and is there no more than Rafa or Fed's mum. Same with Kim really, she only really goes to a few events and I think it's nice for the players to have support in the big matches.
MARTYM8 - Can't find anything for the first two days of Hopman Cup but Sky are showing highlights from Jan 3rd (Sky Sports 4, 7pm).
There will be Aussie TV coverage of Hopman online
Thanks, xsalsafanx.
Actually, the further I wrote in that post, the more tongue in cheek I was getting - especially the support team stuff (although not with the point about the Bath buns!).
Of course, whatever works must be the axiom with all these players. His Mum has been a hugely influential figure in his tennis development, let alone his life.
And I've always had a negative thing about the players partners being there. Why in sports is there this expectation/behaviour that the partners must sit and watch while their spouses do their work? In every other walk of life, this practice would be regarded as completely ridiculous.
Anyway, I don't imagine Kim can watch him that often if she is training to be a teacher.
Also, maybe my beef should be with the TV stations and how they cover the support teams/partners etc.
I always liked the way Sampras' parents sat away from the players' box when he beat Rafter. They stayed in the bachground and let their son get on with his stuff.
Despite my anti-Wimbledon rant above, I was there to see Murray beat Simon on the middle Saturday in July and AM is a formidable player - he dismissed Simon, who is no mug, with ease.
But at the very top in the Slams, he must add just a bit more courage in taking the game to the likes of Fed and especially Rafa.
Murray is a top class counterpuncher. But the moments where he must take the lead, although few and far between, as many of his opponents make their own mistakes under the pressure that AM creates, are ones he must make happen with Rafa, Fed etc. They will not hand it too him.
In summary, his intensity must rise just a notch or two and stay ther non stop, Rafa/Connors style.
I've also said before that I believe the issue with Murray is how to manage himself over a 2 week Slam; that he can beat the top players is not at issue based on Tour results. But the concentration, focus and motivation over a 7 match Slam is a unique set of perameters which he must treat as a seperate experience to the standard one week events.
PS On the second serve issue, remember how Edberg used to get his to kick like a mule? Thats a benchmark Murray could work towards. To my eyes, AM still rolls it into play most of the time.
Don't forget the utterly pointless 'Guide to Queuing' pamphlet which is thrusted into your hand as soon as you arrive. :rolleyes:
However, I really enjoy the outside courts and I've never had a problem finding a good view for the matches I want to watch.
I realise i'm not going to get much sleep in January
but its more than worth it
You forgot the even more ridiculous 'I've queued at Wimbledon' plastic stickers which perky youngsters offer you as if it's the very thing you didn't realise you needed until they revealed it!
Is it not a souvenir?
For many, I'm sure.
For me, it's a cheap reminder of all the stuff I've said above:D
Despie my views on it all, my brother, his wife and daughter have only just 'discovered' Wimbledon and went through a queuing day etc etc and loved it!
Different strokes......
Got to have a sense of humour!
As I said above, different strokes for different folks. I am not going to tell you, my brother or anyone else who enjoys it not to do so.
Having a sense of humour has never been a problem for me (see my articles on The Spoof). But having worked in the sport for many years and having experienced the other side of things many times (one year I had a player guest pass for the whole 2 weeks) and having spent a year travelling the world and attending the other Slams back in '92, give me the egalitarian nature (if only the simple ticket system) of the Australian and (to a lesser extent) the US Open anyday.
Wimbledon may well be the greatest tournament in the sport but it is one of the reasons why the sport remains in a small, cliquey, niche in the UK, where those with the privileges hang onto it for dear life, whether that's at the AELTC or in Clubs on committees, even the proprietal attitude to 'my court' amongst the players.
To see all the LTA workers filling their boots with all sorts of mini privileges showed me that nothing will really change in the sport (it didn't in my time between 93 and 07 and listening to endless media features since telling us that 'We need to get the youngsters playing since, exactly the same stuff, by the way that was being preached in '93, is a demonstration of this).
There's always 'next year' to get things right when in fact, nothing ever changes.
And to cap it all, we heard the LTA say this year that 'Associations don't develop players'. Well, its taken a bloody long time and hundreds of millions of £ to find that out even assuming that it's correct (I personally think that this claim is just another excuse from a weakly lead organisation).
I haven't played for nearly 5 years now 'cos of bad knees and I would dearly love to play again. I love the game, but I'm afraid I can't say that about the sport and all that goes with it, certainly as far as the UK is concerned.
Wimbledon and the sport, I'm afraid mean different things to me now compared to before.
But to those that love it, more power to you. Enjoy.
Next year, I'm not going to slog it down from the NW to fight the battle of SW19. I'm going to watch it on TV and I'll enjoy it more. For me, now, that's the way to do it.
I totally agree with what you're saying about how he needs to improve. It's not that he can't beat the guys above him, his results show that he can (not all of the time, but he can do it) and he's also got an excellent record against other top ten players. But out of the rest of the top four, he's vulnerable to losing in the early rounds of slams and I think that has a lot to do with his focus and intensity. I'm hoping that this year he'll improve that and also stop getting so down on himself when things aren't going his way, just move on to the next point. He's shown that he can do this before, and hopefully with time it can become habit.
An Edberg-style second serve would be great! There's definitely still a lot of room for improvement there.