If Jo gets past 3815 points (qualification cut off), does that mean she will be in Singapore, or is it not as straightforward as that?

Great research, Dodge and looks like I owe Bobby and Mike an apology; I wasn't aware of those high seedings.

At that time, also the top British players included TV commentator John Barrett, Geoff Paish, Roger Becker, Tony Pickars (Edberg!) and Mike Davies who died recently and who became a top administrator in the sport.

There's a great clip of Billy Knight (I think) playing Fred Stolle on centre court in 1964 on Youtube - looks like someone has taken a Super 8 cine camera into the stands and taken it from there. Sideways on, the film concentrates on the player at one end which is always an interesting way of watching a match. If you are a player at any level, you can learn quite a bit.

It's not great quality but better than nothing;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-iobN4UDQM

A little later, when I was a kid but watched Wimbledon all the time, you had Sir Stanley Matthews son, Stanley Matthews junior, Gerald Battrick, John Paish, Peter Curtis and Graham Stillwell, Paul Hutchins, John Clifton and then Mark Cox (a lovely bloke) who reached higher levels than the others.

I'm less surprised / not surprised at all about the women players as they were generally a higher presence at the top of the game and especially at Wimbledon.

You are spot on about the home committee. I think even now, it's not just the first 32 in the rankings who are the 32 seeds.

Also, quite simply, in both mens and womens tennis, there wasn't the depth of competitiveness as there is now. Back in the 60's and before, each country in the ITF got an invite to send 2 players and this might mean that some capable but not outstanding 'country club' players would end up playing in Grand Slams.

At one of the Fantasy Camps, Stolle made the comment that in the early / mid 60's, all the top players wouldn't face any sort of real challenge until maybe the 3rd or even the 4th round when they'd start coming up against someone from the then, relatively small pool of World class players

10+ years ago, a young man who I had been involved with indirectly, managed to get 1 ATP point by doing really well in a number of Satelite events and his ranking with that single point was =1,500!

Some people got quite a shock when I'd tell them that he wasn't top 100!

I'm not sure if the ranking numbers have been extended but wouldn't be surprised if today, that point wouldn't get him a ranking of higher than maybe 1,750 or even 2,000.

Rafa won the doubles title in China

Ah so Aga, Rafa (and hopefully Andy in a minute) have won today. My dream team, minus Garbine.

Andy wins!
Gahhhh, Andy - didn't appreciate you being broken whilst serving for the title!!

Andy's homework on Grigor. I guess he earned a gold star for that lesson.

Kyle won again in qualifying

"Stay calm and breathe"

Yes, Andy, to breathe certainly would help.

Forget that, looks like she can't reach 3815 points, even if she claims the Hong Kong title.

Cibulkova has drawn Bencic in Linz first round. Keys faces Camila Giorgi.

Keys v Giorgi... gosh I hope the Linz organisers are handing out hard hats and shields to protect the crowd.

Heather is in the first round of Hong Kong. That makes 3 Bits, with Konta playing Broady. And Konta leads the head to head 2-0 if the info on here is correct http://coric.top/en/rank/wta/champ/

I shall be watching the Linz tournament with great interest (It's on Eurosport). Shame we don't get to see Hong Kong in the UK (although the Italian TV channel Super Tennis is showing the quarter finals onwards from Friday).

Haha, bless. Just as well there wasn't anything more personal in there, but it's still private, and I can't believe they filmed INSIDE his bag. If he had them wafting around and on the seat next to him, they might get away with it, but he had them where no normal person would expect any other normal person to look.

But well done in the great big cup. I hope the prize money has a bonus to cover the baggage excess. Shame for Jo, but a great week, and she should be pleased.

Edmund one hold of serve away from overtaking his opponent in the rankings and a match against Wawrinka...

EDIT - which he does.

I was kind of right. When Nick cranked up his groundies it took its toll on Goff, and it manifested itself when he stepped up to the service line in sets two and three.

Cool trophy presentation with Nick being awarded 300 bottles of wine. Nick really enjoyed it in Tokyo and basically committed to it for the rest of his career. Maybe it's because his sis works in Japan? Also a shorter flight from his base in Canberra and a more convenient timezone.


It's gonna take time for me to get used to these all-Brit matchups.


Polski names are just a nightmare. To spell and pronounce...


I think it'd get them to roughly 1600 at best.


Breathing takes more effort in smoggy China. Was so evident when Murray and Ferrer had their 20+ shot rallies.


I think Muzza's notes have been exposed before. Rotterdam last year I think? Be good to yourself.


Yeah, played well enough. Personally I'm still yet to be convinced of Edmund indoors and on medium/fast hard. It exacerbates his average ROS/BH, he has less time to set up the FH and his net/transition game is not reliable at this stage.

He'll beat the more passive players and the clay courters who worship at the altar of topspin, but he'll be toast against big hitters, players who take the ball early or hit flat.

Yeah, I'm a total slut for Eurovision I must admit. Although despite the fact that about 70% of what I listen to consists of today's shitty chart music, the other 30% would be music from before my time. I just turned 25, so I'm probably among the youngest of the regulars on this thread?


Anyway, really happy with how the past week transpired, titles for Andy, Nick and another big win for Aga. So that's three premier mandatory's for Aga.. but still no slam. Lots of tournaments this week with most of the top players in action. Already a big upset in Tianjin, Zhang Kai-Lin lost to Donna Vekic

And in irrelevant news, I got a laugh out of this article from Tennis.com, where Federer allegedly "rocks a stylish turtleneck" for Paris fashion week. When have turtleneck's ever been stylish?

Heather is first up tomorrow in Hong Kong on Show Court 2 @ 8am. Kerber is on Center Court not before 12pm followed by Broady v Konta.

Yes, Nick's win wasn't mention on here, I was going to post that it's strange how he is an Andy fanboy and takes a title the same day as Andy. Please for him, and the lack of headlines coming from that tourney means he was playing and not doing anything off the court to provoke the press.

Re age: you might be the thread young one! I'm almost 31

Re Asian swing: am happy because I'm moving house/starting a new job so will be without internet and headspace for a while.

That's what a cut-off would mean.

She can of course fall short of that and still qualify if those behind her don't outscore her by enough points (she has only a 10 point cushion over Cibulkova, her main rival, and is 73 points behind Keys).

Well Jo Konta is in the same half of the draw as Heather Watson.

Maria was back on court last night in a charity event in Vegas with Mac, Martina, Roddick and others :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/20...eturn-to-cour/

Hev wins the first set.

I'll be glad to have her back next year, but there is something not right about her doing this while still serving a ban. She is shameless.

She is. I guess she's trying to push the narrative that she's done nothing wrong and she's got nothing to be ashamed of. But whenever I think harshly of her I remind myself that what she did is probably nothing compared to some of the actual doping that's really going on in tennis, so...