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The Tennis Thread (Part 31)
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Jewels501
06-10-2016
Just a few random thoughts:

1. Delpo - I guess I fall into the category of a Delpo 'fangirl' as I am a fan and also a female (although many moons have passed since I was called a 'girl'). I am not actually sure what a 'fangirl' is meant to be but I guess it is derogatory and suggests one is more interested in looks than ability. I stand to be corrected on this interpretation. Anyhow, I like Delpo - I don't find him attractive but support the way he has not let endless setbacks make him give up. And from his performances this far this year, it was good for him and the game that he persevered. His forehand can still be a weapon of wonder.

I understand that he had a very light schedule this year due to his fears that his wrist wouldn't hold up (as mentioned by Cherry-Choc). I don't think he hasn't entered qualifiers down to him sitting on his backside hoping his 'fangirls' would help get him wildcards. But if you get a wildcard to the U.S. Open or a Masters event, why would you turn it down? Add to the fact that he hasn't disappointed when given a wildcard, wherein lies the problem? I doubt he planned the year to rely on wildcards, but as a fan draw and one who is being successful, I don't have a problem. He is now in the 60s in the rankings from being outside the top 130 prior to the U.S.. so hopefully this point will soon be moot.

I have a bigger problem with the likes of Rafa (another fangirl alert) requesting and being granted a wildcard on the proviso that one of his homeboys who no one had heard of, would also be granted a wildcard. Can't remember what tournament that was this or last year but it happened. Now that I don't like.

2. I guess with Maria, if you're a fan, some of her comments (eg re the carpet at the hotel where she announced the drug issue and her comment on travelling to places like Wuhan, can be taken as sass and confidence. I'm not a fan, so I take it as disrespect but hey, we all have our favourites.

3. Talking of favourites, happy to see the boy Rafa in Beijing. Today, he made unnecessary hard work of the 2nd set against Mannarino but still, I thought he played well yesterday in particular. I really need him to have good couple of weeks so I can decide about the WTF - I feel it is a rip-off in terms of prices but still.....

4. I also wanna know about the alleged match fixing at Wimbledon - bet it involved two or more players I have never heard of.

5. Thiem - why?

6. Is Berdych being coached by Ivanisevic now? I think I heard that but can't be bothered to Google? and

7. Kei, talk about China In Your Hands (80s music reference for you young ones...).
dduk
07-10-2016
I'm not happy with Sky Sports. Typical, they've had the China Open on Sky Sports Mix all week, and now today, when it's Murray v Edmund, they go and stick the England ODI cricket on and move the tennis to Sky Sports 1. But the epg says ATP Tennis. I hope it's a quick match, as I want to see Konta in action soon.
MissAyrshire
07-10-2016
Yes Jewels, Tomas is being coached by Goran now
Mike Teevee
07-10-2016
Jewels501 - I take fangirl (or fanboy) to mean that a person is dedicated hardcore fan of said person. Not necessarily to do with looks. more to do with the fact that there's support that will stick up them no matter what.
Ginger Daddy
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by Mike Teevee:
“Jewels501 - I take fangirl (or fanboy) to mean that a person is dedicated hardcore fan of said person. Not necessarily to do with looks. more to do with the fact that there's support that will stick up them no matter what.”

Correct. And for some reason I get the impression most of the regular contributors to this thread are female rather than male!!

Murray on the verge of dropping the first set against Edmund on a tie break.

EDIT - then again maybe not, its back to 5-5
Jenny1986
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by Mike Teevee:
“Jewels501 - I take fangirl (or fanboy) to mean that a person is dedicated hardcore fan of said person. Not necessarily to do with looks. more to do with the fact that there's support that will stick up them no matter what.”

That's probably what was meant, but its not really what it means. Its more like those Twilight fans a few years ago, utterly obsessed with Robert Pattinson, or people threatening Justin Bieber's girlfriends out of some bizarre jealousy. Not really a complimentary term.

ETA: Just seen Ginger Daddy's reply and your right, though the above is why some might not like being referred to as a fangirl.
Mike Teevee
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by Jenny1986:
“That's probably what was meant, but its not really what it means. Its more like those Twilight fans a few years ago, utterly obsessed with Robert Pattinson, or people threatening Justin Bieber's girlfriends out of some bizarre jealousy. Not really a complimentary term.

ETA: Just seen Ginger Daddy's reply and your right, though the above is why some might not like being referred to as a fangirl.”

To steal a Simpsons quote "it can be two things"

Other than one person on here (who seems to have calmed down a bit from their first few posts), I don't think there's anybody who could be thought of in your Twilight/Bieber analogy.
Jenny1986
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by Mike Teevee:
“To steal a Simpsons quote "it can be two things"

Other than one person on here (who seems to have calmed down a bit from their first few posts), I don't think there's anybody who could be thought of in your Twilight/Bieber analogy.”

lol true. No there isn't anyone like that here, thats why I was a bit at the original post.

Speaking of, she hasn't posted in a while, we need a good Rafa win to entice her back.
tartan-belle
07-10-2016
It's funny when you think of all the excitement/disbelief earlier on in the year at Queens when the press were all "OMG, Andy is going to play another British player which is the first time since 19 dickety" and here we are the tail end of the year with Andy playing another Brit - again! It speaks well of Kyle this year, as well as Dan and to a lesser extent, the other British players.
Mike Teevee
07-10-2016
Not that I'm watching but Kyle's level seems to have dropped. Having been a break up in second set he's lost 3 straight games.

edit: make that 5 straight games
tartan-belle
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by Mike Teevee:
“Not that I'm watching but Kyle's level seems to have dropped. Having been a break up in second set he's lost 3 straight games.”

Broken to love as well. Andy leads 5-2 from 0-2 down.
Mike Teevee
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by tartan-belle:
“Broken to love as well. Andy leads 5-2 from 0-2 down.”

Andy wins 6 straight games to take the set and match.

Hopefully Kyle won't be too down hearted by that second set performance. The first is what sort of level he should be aiming for.

Not sure how entry system works, but now Kyle is inside top 50 will he automatically qualify for the remaining MS events this year? Does he have to rely on wildcards or qualifying?
tartan-belle
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by MissAyrshire:
“Yes Jewels, Tomas is being coached by Goran now”

I wonder if Goran is single-handedly trying to make us like his players - first Cilic and now Tomas!! (Boredych works for both players...)
dduk
07-10-2016
I don't think Konta has woken up yet, terrible start. Down a double break 0-4.
Ginger Daddy
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by Mike Teevee:
“Andy wins 6 straight games to take the set and match.

Hopefully Kyle won't be too down hearted by that second set performance. The first is what sort of level he should be aiming for.

Not sure how entry system works, but now Kyle is inside top 50 will he automatically qualify for the remaining MS events this year? Does he have to rely on wildcards or qualifying?”

Far too late for Shanghai, cutoff was weeks ago and Edmund is scheduled to be in the qualifiers (he is seeded 3rd, win two matches and you are in the main draw)

Paris is only a draw or 48 and Edmund is ranked 48th as it stands. Once you take into account qualifying then only the top 42 get in by right and then you have the wildcards which takes it down even more again. And I think the cutoff for it is this weekend. So he will have to qualify for it.
dduk
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by dduk:
“I don't think Konta has woken up yet, terrible start. Down a double break 0-4.”

Would you Adam 'n' Eve it 4-4 now!
Mike Teevee
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by Ginger Daddy:
“Far too late for Shanghai, cutoff was weeks ago and Edmund is scheduled to be in the qualifiers (he is seeded 3rd, win two matches and you are in the main draw)

Paris is only a draw or 48 and Edmund is ranked 48th as it stands. Once you take into account qualifying then only the top 42 get in by right and then you have the wildcards which takes it down even more again. And I think the cutoff for it is this weekend. So he will have to qualify for it.”

Cool, thanks for the info.

When I see Kyle's rise up the rankings it reminds me of Tim Henman's ascent. Back in the days when Ian Carter was Radio 5 Live's tennis correspondent it seemed like each week he was reporting on Tim making an ATP semi final here and there. Whenever I've looked for the next 'great LTA hope' I've always used Tim's career path as a barometer.

Andy was able to make his way into top 10, hopefully Kyle will too.
Ginger Daddy
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by Mike Teevee:
“Cool, thanks for the info.

When I see Kyle's rise up the rankings it reminds me of Tim Henman's ascent. Back in the days when Ian Carter was Radio 5 Live's tennis correspondent it seemed like each week he was reporting on Tim making an ATP semi final here and there. Whenever I've looked for the next 'great LTA hope' I've always used Tim's career path as a barometer.

Andy was able to make his way into top 10, hopefully Kyle will too.”

I think he has very little to defend between now and the rest of the year.

Also he is only defending a L128 at the Australian, although he did make a QF at a 250 event in the run-up to it.

Konta has won 6 straight games and wins the first set!
dduk
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by dduk:
“Would you Adam 'n' Eve it 4-4 now!”

Konta wraps up the set 6-4, after losing the opening 4 games.
Mike Teevee
07-10-2016
Some fightback by Konta!
Ginger Daddy
07-10-2016
Nine straight games now....
BigBmad
07-10-2016
Amazing from Konta, cant wait to see the SF. If she plays like she did in the majority of that match it will great.

Win tomorrow and she will be a top 10 player and be sitting in that final spot for the WTA finals. Amazing shes even in this position
Mike Teevee
07-10-2016
12 straight games!

Was Zhang injured or did Johanna just step up level?
Lisa.B
07-10-2016
Virtual double bagel, that'll do nicely, especially when Keys had to slug it out in a 3-set war with Petra.
tennisman
07-10-2016
Originally Posted by Mike Teevee:
“Cool, thanks for the info.

When I see Kyle's rise up the rankings it reminds me of Tim Henman's ascent. Back in the days when Ian Carter was Radio 5 Live's tennis correspondent it seemed like each week he was reporting on Tim making an ATP semi final here and there. Whenever I've looked for the next 'great LTA hope' I've always used Tim's career path as a barometer.

Andy was able to make his way into top 10, hopefully Kyle will too.”

Mike, I couldn't remember when Henman's dramatic rise took place specifically and looking at this page (see link below), it was when he was around Kyle's age now (21) that he won a Challenger in Korea and reached the q/f at Wimbledon.

From then on, he rose into the Top 20 and the Top 10 and stayed there for pretty much the next 10 years before a gradual decline (influenced by a number of injuries).

Ultimately, every player is different and I just don't talk about players' potential anymore or say that they haven't reached their potential, as how do we know where that potential would have taken the player?

I've yet to see any predictive model that can forecast where a player might end up.

So I don't know about Kyle's or anyone else's potential. The only thing I look at is the reality of their results and as long as they are working hard and doing the right things, that's all they can do.

The media and fans love to look forward and make speculative estimates on what will happen. It's all fun and that's fine but its sport soothsaying to me.

In fact, before that Seoul Challenger win, if I remember it right (I was 2-3 years into my job as a coach then and remember Henman wandering around our club (it was the one he did all his training at whilst at Reeds School in Cobham), Henman was regarded as really just another British player but not necessarily anything special.

But maybe to prove the point about pre-judging players and their 'potential', all in a rush, he escalated his performance and once up there, stayed there for a long time, despite all the perjorative and frankly ill informed views of him and his niceness etc..

He had a fine game but no big weapons and that hurt him when playing the very top guys. people forget that he was the #4 in the World and a top ten player for many years. And if that's being a failure, I wish I was one too.

Good luck to Kyle.

http://www.eurosport.com/tennis/time...08/story.shtml
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