Originally Posted by Jenny1986:
“The Olympic bids are a mystery to me, they got chosen in 2009. Why give the Olympics to Rio knowing they were hosting the World Cup in 2014? The world cup decision was made in 2007, so they knew. Where is the money coming from to host the 2 biggest events in the world? If the infrastructure isn't there, why choose them? It makes sense to somebody I guess, i'm sure the people living in favela's are thrilled about it.
It's not as bad a Qatar and the 2022 world cup, which is just madness.”
I don't doubt that many brown envelopes are exchanged for the right to host these things. The Salt Lake City bribery for the 2002 Winters was exposed, but I'd wager that it's just the tip of the iceberg.
Originally Posted by amelia_lee:
“Haha, no Cherry, I'm not that way, I don't care if Roger has a lot of them, yeah he does, but so does Novak, who is also great too.
I've always thought they were valuable as a title before Roger, the big names have won it. You only play your very closest competitors, you cannot win by only playing people under the top ten.
I've also always thought the same about Olympic's for tennis before Roger. Roger has a gold anyway, in tennis, I just don't think it is that valuable a title, it's nice, but it's not one of the biggest ones for the sport, case in point Nicolás Massú won in 04 and Fish was the silver and of course the great Swiss of Marc Rosset has a gold.
A lot of the biggest names have won the finals, Fed and Novak, Andre, Sampras, Becker, Hewitt, Edberg, Lendl, Mcenroe, Conners, Borg. It's one of the big titles, even if it is heavily sponsored.”
Well your closest competitors are there, but in many cases they are simply happy to be there with the glitzy walk-ons and aren't motivated to actually do well. Or their bodies are ready for the offseason. Murray's basically been playing like a top 20 player there for a fair while now, so how much would a win over him there mean? Bobbins.
Tbh, the WTF may hand out oodles of money and 1500 points to the winner, but I'd consider it less prestigious than certain Masters. Rome, Monte Carlo, Paris, Cincy are all higher up the food chain for moi.
Originally Posted by
Lisa.B:
“Pretty much my thoughts on the WTFs too.
I dread to think what financial mess will be left on this chart after Rio.”
Not the first time we've been on the same page
Quote:
“She needs to work on her fitness and conditioning. It was a similar story with the back injury earlier in the year, which wasn't helped by Belinda trying to play through the pain barrier. She's still getting used to her adult body I guess.
Yeah I'm guessing it'll be Hingis/Timea and Hingis/Stan now.”
Yes, fair point. BB isn't especially conditioned, but it seems in this day and age you need to be. Worth it to recover from injuries quicker and potentially avoid injuries in the first place. Aga can pass for a mummy for much of the year as she's constantly bandaged up in some area.
Originally Posted by tartan-belle:
“Milos isn't going because as most people on here surmised, he wants to have a big go at the USO, get a M1000.
Berdych - can we not assume he/his wife can have/want children? Because not everyone can/have difficulties in doing so.”
Yes, Milos eventually abandoned the Zika excuse. Wish he'd been honest from the start.
And I can imagine the Czech flash...wanting kids, absolutement. Who wouldn't want to have Ester's babies?
Originally Posted by
lyn2:
“You missed a trick there Amelia - you could have said the reason he doesn't rate them is because Andy never does well there.
”
I walked into that one, didn't I. I think Andy's made a couple of WTF semis, but usually doesn't get out of the groups. Some years he's been injured, or had other priorities like the DC.
Tbh, the crowd feels more Western European than it does British - I remember vividly when Andy played Roger there that the crowd were 70% behind Roger, and that must be deflating on home soil. Andy smashed his racket in that match and got roundly booed. Just wouldn't happen at Wimby. The Swiss Fed fans must be buying up tix en masse knowing that they'll also see Stan.
Originally Posted by Jenny1986:
“Yes I agree with that, the small difference just makes me see tennis differently. It's more of an individual sport, maybe it's like golf in that respect.”
Golf is still a privileged, white sport for me with a strong American bias. Feels that way even post-Tiger.