Originally Posted by
Jewels501:
“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.....
”
I'd have thought that Rafa fans would avoid the WTF like the plague? Rafa's a poor indoor player and the crowds are always rather...Helvetian.
Quote:
“4. I also wanna know about the alleged match fixing at Wimbledon - bet it involved two or more players I have never heard of.”
Could be. Without a big name player in the match they were probably hoping it'd be on the down-low. I'd be looking for a match where a player lost the first set heavily and went a break down in the second, before magically coming back to win. That is when the odds are juiciest.
Quote:
“5. Thiem - why?”
It may well be his coach Bresnik who is behind it. Either way, he/they need to wise up.
Quote:
“7. Kei, talk about China In Your Hands (80s music reference for you young ones...).”
Don't push too far.
Y'know, that song was #1 when I was born. I'm on the young side but I still listen to a fair bit of 80s stuff.
Originally Posted by Ginger Daddy:
“Correct. And for some reason I get the impression most of the regular contributors to this thread are female rather than male!!”
Yes. Pretty obvious with the focus on outfits and the half naked shots of male players popping up with regularity. I make up for it though by perving over the laydeez. Fair's fair.
Originally Posted by tartan-belle:
“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.”
I'd still rather it didn't happen too often though. On one hand, he doesn't want to impede his brother/countrymen, but on the other he's a fierce competitor who hates losing. Internally conflicted.
Originally Posted by
tartan-belle:
“I wonder if Goran is single-handedly trying to make us like his players - first Cilic and now Tomas!!
(Boredych works for both players...)”
At least Tomas has eye candy with Ester in the box. Cilic is monotone, monobrow...you'd have to pay me to watch him.
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.”
Pretty accurate. Paris Bercy is a very compact Masters to say the least. They probably don't have enough courts to justify a larger draw.
Originally Posted by Lisa.B:
“Virtual double bagel, that'll do nicely, especially when Keys had to slug it out in a 3-set war with Petra.”
It's certainly handy. Keys's match with Petra went 2½ hours and was mentally and physically draining.
Originally Posted by Mike Teevee:
“Some fightback by Konta!”
I turned over at 0-4. Jo shut me up in style...
Originally Posted by
tartan-belle:
“Tennisman and Mike Teevee - I third the Tim Henman comments.
Dimi has really come back this second part of the year. Shame Rafa lost though
”
Dimi is slowly figuring it out. He still has major flaws in his game (topspin BH, ROS), but he can conceal them better with an aggressive mindset and playing most of his shots at/inside the baseline. Grinding 3-4m behind the baseline is a poor strategy for most OHBHs. The ones that make it work either regularly generate huge power (Stan, Thiem) or have bucketloads of spin/angle (Gasquet, CSN). Gas can also flatten out his BH DTL when need be.
Originally Posted by
*Sparkle*:
“As far as I can tell, everything is used as a term of abuse on MTF.
”
At least it's not the t word with four letters. Dunno if you could even use it on DS without censure.
I've said before, but MTF/TF are like ghost towns atm. Even during big tournaments.