Nope only worth 4 million dollars. So we know why he's interested

Seriously? I also thought he was minted! Trust you to get to the nitty-gritty Sarn. Hope she has a good pre-nup....

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year Sarn. You deserve it.

In fact to everyone on this thread - all the best and happy hunting for all our favourites...well, by that I mean Rafa obviously, no?....

Yeah I just assumed he'd be minted, but the interweb is a funny thing, not always easy to monetise it, as things like Napster have proven.

I've already wished everyone a happy new year, in my Xmas message, coz I'm lazy like that.

Too busy opening the doors on that special advent calendar until your Queen returns hey NotSean?

Meh, I dunno, I'm such an huge pessimist (and this entire year rather backs up my lifeview I fear), I fully expect her to break a leg filming an Head advert just a week before appearing back on court.

Yeah, I know what you mean about 2016. But you know? People like Maria are survivors. They always come up trumps so don't worry, I am sure you will many more happy tennis memories from her. i hate to admit it but tennis probably needs characters and big names such as hers.

But don't expect me to be happy if she stops Serena from winning a Slam or owt!

It's good to see a Serena fan with perspective at times, I've always got why you'd all dislike Maria (endorsements and the like, a personality that hints at misplaced arrogance, undue press hype), but in the end just calling her "white mediocrity" is not just doing her down, but it's doing Serena down, because the fact that Serena can dominate a career slam champ and borderline great of the game, is actually testimony to Serena's true greatness.

Both Williams sisters acknowledged that Maria is a big name for Women's tennis when she was banned and said that they were saddened by it. It doesn't help the WTA, and Venus particularly has fought hard for equal pay, and the three have been in unity over that (serena sticking up for maria in pressers over ATP players) and. Maria is box-office and even if you just love to hate her, it's a story-line, which lets face it someone like Kerber (admirable that she is) doesn't have.

and I wouldn't worry about Maria stopping Serena winning things, in fact as Jimmy Connors, the poster not the player, said before she helps, as she can't beat Serena, but she can beat the rest of the field most of the time.

Aww, I feel we should group-hug and sing a chorus of Kumbaya or something!

Seriously though, I think we fans take on a passion and often 'hatred' for our favourites' rivals that the actual people don't have in real life. Like my friends say, maybe we all need to get a life!

Happy 2017 to you NotSean and all on here.

Sur Andy on court now against plain old Milos.

Get in. Great straight sets win for SurAndy. He seems to be embarrassed talking about the knighthood.

Maybe Murray Mound can change to the Knight's Knoll now?

I'm liking the look of the new tennis season on BT Sport. Brisbane, Shenzhen, Auckland, Sydney and Hobart, all on BT Sport (live coverage where possible). Am I right in saying that Eurosport covered Hobart last year? And in the previous year, BT Sport covered the final (and only cause Hev was in it)?

Happy new year to you all.

Shame Andy is not in this final now against Rafa. Would have been good to see them both playing again.

Happy New Year to you too and everyone else on here. 🎆🎇🌠

Sir Andy Murray! About time.

David Ferrer is playing on into 2017.

That head to head must be getting quite embarrassing for plain old Milos....

10 - 3 now. Good win for Rafa today. I wonder if he will go far at Melbourne.

Actually, if you include Eurosport's efforts every tournament prior to the Australian Open apart from the ATP 250 tournament in Chennai will have either live or delayed TV coverage of some type.

I remember the early days, when Milos got ahead in the H2H, and he seemed convinced he really was the better player, despite Murray being injured. That was until that time at the US Open when Murray really did school Milos (an overused term justified this time) and he did have the grace to admit he was outclassed.


There's a reason that people tend to treat records in the pre-Open era as distinct from modern ones, and inevitably there continued to be a transition, especially for the Australian Open. I don't think that Court's views should alter our perception of her sporting achievements, but it's hard to ignore if thinking about her as an ambassador for the sport.

Regarding SurAndy, I am one of those people who would rather they waited until he retired, but when you consider his achievements against the other sporting Knights and Dames, there would have been an outcry if he'd been "overlooked". I'm not sure why they can't just say 'we've decided that athletes should be retired or over 40' first, but someone would claim they did it to snub Mo for being Muslim, or Andy for being Scottish, so I don't envy those who do have to decide who does and doesn't get one.

As anticipated, some of the comments about Andy's knighthood are quite grim, he gets a lot of hate on the Australian Open Facebook page for some reason. The thread in General Discussion is amusing though, I'm liking the person who's dismissing Mo Farah cause all he does is "run quickly"

I get that some honours are handed out to cronies, and there are a few who turned out to be wrong-uns, but if you look at the description of what you have to do to get an MBE/OBE/CBE/KBE, then our top athletes meet the criteria. I might complain that some are dished out too soon, and some sports have a disproportionate number, but the sporting gongs are probably the least open to corruption.

I am amazed by how many people find themselves getting worked up by a country honouring its citizens who are high achievers, same as most countries do. I fully understand why some groups, such as journalists, or anyone else who feels their work might be compromised may wish to turn one down, but I don't see why any of our sporting stars should be made to feel bad for being offered and accepting one.

Murray is in the difficult situation where there is hardcore group of "Little Englanders" who refuse to accept he doesn't hate the English, and then there's a sub-group of Scottish Nationalists who hope that Andy does secretly hate the English, and were looking forward to spending the day moaning about him being snubbed, only to discover that he's now "betrayed" them by not telling them to stick it. It amazes me how many people are utterly convinced that a person in the public eye has values that match their own in their entirety, and are surprised when they discover it's not true.

And for those complaining that accepting the award means Murray or Mo think they are better than the rest of us, well they are! At their chosen profession at least, and if you are the best in the world at your job, then get someone to nominate you too!

It was a farce when Cameron was handing them out to his pals, but why should our hard working athletes be punished for it?

It will always be Henman Hill to me.

Happy new year all.

Sir Andrew Barron Murray has a lovely ring to it, but I agree with tartan and others that they should've waited.

Konta is doing doubles with Bacsinszky tomorrow in Shenzhen against JJ and Siniakova.