Tennis Thread - Grand Slams & The Tour

Rublev wins in three.

 

Edmund out in Cologne first round to Nishioka.

 

Norrie loses to Raonic in Antwerp.

 

Evans beats Khachanov in Antwerp.

 

Humbert saves four match points to defeat Evans,who'd saved one the day before.

 

Tough first round matches in Vienna.
Tsitsi plays Struff,Felix AA plays fellow Canadian Pospisil and Evans plays that most transparent,even by Rusedski standards,of Brits, Bedene.

 

Evans plays first on today.
Tsitsi plays Dimitrov in repeat of Roland Garros.
Pospisil beats Felix AA again.
Djokovic marathon first set breaker 13-11 against Coric.

 

Sonego batters Djokovic in Vienna,2&1.
Anderson beats Medivet,as I shall rename him and Rublev beats Thiem.
Dimitrov beat Tsitsi last night.

 

Evans to play Sonego in an unlikely semi final.

 

Rublev beats Sonego.
The nation's tennis players and clubs await Scott Lloyd's announcement on our fate.
With golf gone,petition notwithstanding,it looks grim.

 

Lloyd has urged all of us in tennis to contact our MP.
I have emailed Grant Shapps.
He has at least replied.
We shall see.

 

Utter shambles this morning.
Doris saying no,Gove saying maybe then correcting himself.
Out of their depth in a puddle. I shall send them my so called coach colleague whose idea of an invoice is '19 tennis lessons' and the sum.
No dates,description of lessons,times,venue. Utterly deplorable and a stain on tennis that this ****** is allowed to work.
What is worse is that the club shelter him and refuse to remove him.
Tennis clubs in this country!

 

Perhaps the 'blond bombshell' could go and run the tennis club instead of the country and make that "world-beating" too!

 

Hasn't affected him too much.
Plays Medvedev in the final having beaten Nadal today.

 

Medvedev in three.

 

Before the current lockdown Scott Lloyd suggested all of us in tennis write to our MP.
I did so and credit to Shapps he replied within an hour.
I wrote to him again on discovering that individual cricket coaching and horse riding lessons were exempt. His minion,Nicholas replied and true to form did not answer my question but spouted on with the usual platitudinous claptrap about "difficult times,everyone in the same boat,beat the virus blah blah blah".
I reminded him of the fact he had not answered the question and said I was unsurprised given that the PM was out of his depth in a puddle.
He has not replied again!
However the tennis club have sent an email requesting help for my useless colleague who doubles up as a groundsman.
Poor timing I'd say as a few members have recently lost their jobs and will not see why they should give up their time to help a half wit paid from their membership fees.
Hopeless!

 

An odd day.
Five mad little boys at the nursery and then an online safeguarding course.
The tutor was, I imagine, in the early stages of gender realignment,with long hair,black rimmed spectacles and a thick,masculine Lancastrian accent.
I kept expecting a song about a little donkey and a black pudding, Gracie Mousouki would sum her up.
All this after the federation announced an overdraft of 15m to cover the 30m shortfall.
They should not have frittered away 14m on red and blue sweatbands and buckets in February.

 

Tsitsipas v Thiem kicks off The ATP Finals at the O2.
Murray and Skupski just miss out on qualification.
Salisbury and Ram competing.

 

Thiem in three close sets starts the tournament.
Very sombre /no atmosphere without the big O2 crowd and accompanying effects.

 

Nadal in two v the man who has no barber,Rublev.

 

Less intrigue in a thrice seen Midsomer Murders episode than in Djokovic v Schwartzman.
Djokovic 3&2.
Russian battle tonight with Zverev (via Germany) and Medevedev.
I predict,hard,harder,hardest,winner/loser. Participants will be at the net for the coin toss and for the racket tap and that's about it.
Probably a good thing that there are no spectators,although that didn't stop Djokovic doing that daft salute to all corners of the arena!

 

Medvedev in straight.

 

Thiem does not fear Rafa on a hard court.
Rafa got tight towards the end and even missed an overhead,very rare.
Match spoiled for me by the inane burbrings of Andrew Castle. It was a wonder Henman didn't hit him!

 

Τσιτσι in three,9-7 in tie break third.

 

Tsitsipas needs to improve his break point conversion rate. It must be among the worst in the top thirty,let alone top ten.
Credit it to him to come back from a match point down,having lead 5-2 in the breaker. Rublev then served a double fault on his match point.
Concerning news regarding the AO.
Many players are reluctant to travel given the restrictions and it could be a very reduced field.
Andy Murray has said he will play.

 

Djokovic comprehensively beaten 3&3.
If I were cynical I would say he was trying to avoid Nadal in the semis.

 

Rublev defeats an exhausted looking Thiem.
Djokovic may get Rafa after all!

 

A day of Brit splits.
Edmund with Franco Davin and Murray Maximus with Skupski.
I assume Murray is getting twitchy about an Olympic slot and has reunited with Bruno Soares.

 

Nadal in three to play Medvedev.
I would like to be a fly on the wall in the Tsistsipas camp for their goals for 2021.
I would humbly suggest the following.
1) Return of serve.
2) Slice backhand.
3) Conversion of break points created.