Tennis Thread - Grand Slams & The Tour

They are all taught to come out with the 'I learnt a lot,will be better next time' codswallop!
Kyrgios was blunt in his post match,as was Tsitsipas saying how gutted he was and that he had mucked up.

Dan Evans has been a dirty little tart quite frequently,not sure how as he is an ugly toerag.
When Henman won in Tashkent the organiser said "See you next year Tim".
Henman said "Oh I'm not sure I'll be back".
The reply was "Yes you will,we have the film of your coach!"
Well suited pair.

 

Konta v Kvitova today.
Not impossible for Konta but a lot will depend on how PK serves.

 

I must say watching a big 3 match in the men’s game is dull as dishwater. The opponents can’t get remotely competitive. This Italian number 17 seed playing Federer is a complete embarrassment.

 

I would actually quite like to see Federer, Nadal and Djokovic all retire before anyone else is good enough to beat them.

 

Barty ran out of energy you'd think,emotional more than physical.
Great for Pella and 'Nutty Babs' Strycova and Batista Agut come to that.
Will the daft pillock in the Royal Box please desist from the mexican wave in future.
He knows who he is!

 

Konta Kollapses

 

Credit to 'Nutty Babs' she showed,like Barty,that an all court tennis player can beat a big hitter.

She executed her game plan perfectly and returned serve brilliantly.

Konta is a little too predictable in her game and today was unwilling to compromise and make a few balls to get a foothold in the match.

She won't have won many friends in the press either with her outburst.

I hope Strycova can beat Williams but doubt it.

 

I'm a tennis ignoramus - the Coco and Konta matches were the first I've seen for several years.

What surprised me was Konta's apparent inability to change direction quickly. She seemed to give up chasing balls that seemed to me to be potentially catchable, perhaps as a result of her general demoralisation as the match turned against her.

Is that fair, IBB, or am I overestimating plsyers' ability to react to a ball which moves rather faster than a football?

 

The weirdness of the Team Time Trial.

 

Before the semi final round?

 

It's not unfair.
Konta is not a natural athlete as say Barty or Maria Sakkari and Strycova are. She is a ball striker like many of the female tour.
Strycova was mixing her up,slicing short to Konta's forehand and coming into the net,as she would do being a major doubles winner.
Changing direction is the hardest aspect of tennis and Konta likes to win her points with two shot combinations.
Yet again she resorted to trying to bludgeon her opponent and play high risk tennis with little variety.
I do have sympathy with her to some degree in the press conference debacle.
It was a facile question "do you need to cut out the unforced errors" etc. It WAS patronising.
However I must admit I find her interviews almost scripted and the same psycho babble repeated each time.
Her tennis lacks the ability to improvise and so it appears do her responses.

 

She doesn't seem to have the mental strength to win when she is expected to win in a pressure match, and even less so when she is in a convincing winning position in a pressure match she is expected to win.

 

That would be fine though I am currently at my peak so she will need to be quick before the slide sets in.

 

Sports interviewers asking facile questions; who'd have thought it?
I thought the thing that really riled her was when he said 'presumably you want to win a Grand Slam', implying 'perhaps you're not really bothered about whether you win or lose'.

 

Another pathetic uncompetitive match in Goffin v Djokovic. I imagine it will be more of the same for Federer and Nadal.

 

Immediately breaks at the start of the 2nd though.....

 

She seems to be the typical Brit at Wimbledon. Gets in to the second week which doesn't happen often and the media start talking about if they can the whole thing only for them to get outplayed in the next round. Happened with Henman every year, happened with Robson the year she made the second week and many others.

 

Just got back home, to be greeted by the unmistakable sounds of female rapture emanating from the bedroom.

Intrigued, I made my way upstairs.

The missus having a sneaky lie down watching Serena.

 

Do you know whether Laura Robson is likely to return @I Blame Bassett, or have injuries taken their toll? I thought she may have had a chance of getting up there somewhere, but then fails to come back after a wrist injury, I think.

 

That's unfair on Henman I think who reached the semi final on four occasions and was slightly unfortunate on two counts I'd say.
Firstly the All England changed the grass to the 'green hard court' version we now have. People were worried about the big servers such as Sampras and Goran making it one shot tennis. This severely disadvantaged a serve volleyer like Henman,at his home major.The French would not do such a daft thing. Hewitt and Nadal have been able to win the tournament because the ball now sits up much much more than in the seventies and eighties.
Henman was also up against Goran when the rain stopped play and on resumption we all know the result. I would balance that with the fact that Henman benefited in the same way against Todd Martin in the quarters!
Konta has very little variety in her game and more alarmingly seems to not want to add to it,save the odd drop shot. Her preference for the drive volley and she's not alone there in the female game,limits her forays to the net and makes her very one dimensional.
I'm not sure what she will do as now the whole tour knows that if you junk her around,give her high,slow balls and short slice to her forehand,she implodes. That's a big weakness to carry. In her favour is that most of the tour can't or won't slice or junk as it's mostly whiff,biff,bash!

A wrist injury is just about the worst thing for a tennis player.I suffered myself but fortunately thanks to the immortal Peggy Pearman's expertise,was able to make a full recovery.Del Potro has been blighted however.
I think Laura's wrist is fine now but she has had hip problems,which as we know can be very damaging.
This may be because she overplayed as a young girl,when her bones had not developed.
She's been off the tour for a long time now and it's very hard to return so I would not hold my breath. Time moves on.
It will clearly depend on her love of competing and of course her body!

 

Great insights into the world of tennis.
Sad to hear a wrist injury kept your name from the list of Wimbledon winners.

 

Your TV warms up quickly!

 

Oh no,I've turned into my own Father who was often heard to say "He/she* would have played at Wimbledon if it hadn't been for the war".
I'll start withering on about Headley Baxter next!
Routine for Williams and Halep. Nutty Babs hampered by a glutes injury it appeared.
Smart money on Djokovic to overcome Batista Agut and he will of course be hoping that Federer and Nadal knock the stuffing out of each other.
I will go for a Djokovic v Nadal final. So put your savings on Batista Agut v Federer!
* Someone not even their own parents had heard of!

 

I would stake my house on Nadal beating Federer.

 

No you wouldn’t.
Sporting hyperbole.
“We’re by FAR the greatest team the world has EVER seen.”