Tennis Thread - Grand Slams & The Tour

Not in Grand Slams yet, but currently Medvedev is world no 2 and Federer down to 8.

 

Due to Covid the ranking points are configured over a longer time scale.
ND has won last two majors so is easily 1,Medvedev had a great end to 2020 and good beginning to the year so is 2.
RF has hardly played and is talking of still being troubled with his knee on losing to FAA in Halle.

Quite possibly but lots of rumours as to the extent of the injury.
Time will tell.
He certainly doesn't like the hard court swing as cement is so hard on the body,clay being the most forgiving,assuming you don't then have to switch to raw grass courts!

 

Yes, I know, but the point is that Federer is 39 and Nadal 35. In previous eras the equivalent, equally dominant, players had been overtaken by the time they were into their 30s.

 

They don't call it the golden era of tennis for nothing.

In a year or two Novak will be past it then its over to them to get on with it.

 

Due to the extraordinary wealth of the top players and most earn more through endorsements than prize money (RF receives 1m per appearance at Halle,that's why he never plays at Queen's,they only pay Murray 500k or did) the top players have been able to cherry pick their events.
RF maybe nearly 40 but he has the tennis age of about 30 as he's barely played more than 15 events per year for the last dozen years.
Same applies to RN and ND in the last decade.
They have tailored their schedule to the main events and only play DC when they want to win it.
In previous eras Connors,JPM HAD to play so many events as the money wasn't as good,relatively speaking so they played as many and doubles too in some cases,although JPM just didn't like hitting so preferred to compete.
Kafelnikov often played 40 plus weeks a year on tour.
Managing your schedule is just as important as your s&c,tac/tech and admin details. Over play at the wrong time and you're out with fatigue or injury.
Uproar over AE's online ticketing sale.
Papers are full of it.
I would not want to be Ian Hewitt,Martin Guntrip or Richard Lewis for the next few days.
A huge amount of irate tennis fans out there who failed to get tickets.

 

That’s really interesting, thanks. And thanks also simply for the mention of John McEnroe - my absolute all-time favourite.

 

You're most welcome!
180 members on the AE ticketing webinar last night.
179 of them had a full view of an ex LTA president picking his nose for all of it,including one of his daughters!

 

Rublev through in Halle along with FAA,Humbert and Basilashvili.
Late start at Queen's.
Di Minaur through,Norrie nearly and Shapovalov up on Tiafoe.

 

True enough although still behind.

 

Berrettini into Queen's final,defeating Di Minaur.
Norrie a set up on Shapovalov.
Rublev in Halle final to play FAA (?)

 

Norrie seems a bit decent. Odd looking serve and awful looking backhand but that forehand is a thing of beauty.

 

Maximising his talent I'd say.
Personally I prefer his backhand,ideal for grass as very punchy action.
His serve and forehand are overly busy but he's had a very good year so far and is full of confidence. He got a bit wobbly against Draper but everyone does playing a countryman and an underdog to boot.

 

If MB serves well he should win but Norrie is quite persistent and will have the home support,if they're not out murdering the wildlife or plastered with Pimm's.
Rublev v half of The South Bank Show theme (in Humbert) in Halle.

 

MB in three and Humbert in three in Halle.
Meanwhile in leafy Harpenden we beat them again,one more time and we keep them!
Unpleasant incident in the two v two match.
Gozde or Gazza as the opposition thought she was called,ripped a return up the line that nearly hit server's partner.
She had a real go at Gazza and said "if you're going to do that there's no point in playing". Fact was this lady had tried to play a forehand volley on the backhand side,which had slowed down her movement. Jane said it wasn't close to her any
way and Gazza had apologised straight away any how.
This lady would not have lasted long at Regent's Park last week when the opposition spent most of all the matches smacking the ball straight at our heads!
Soppy tarts!

 

Wimbledon qualies starts today.
Awarding a wildcard to the main draw to 33 year old Sam Murray seems very generous to me.

 

RSP yesterday at Devonshire Park and Roehampton.
Hopefully a better day today.

 

Ticketmaster strikes again!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57558686

 

Do they have a reputation for this?
As I said in my Thursday post,trouble was brewing.
Quite a few people I know are threatening never to apply for tickets again.
Well,they'll always be takers for tickets but I'm not sure how it's gone so wrong.

 

I distinctly remember the warning about not using the same credit card multiple times when going through the Ticketmaster pages last week. I think some people just don’t read what’s in front of them as they’re in a flap to book their tickets with a countdown timer running.

 

I have to say,without any experience of applying through this method,that I suspect a lot of people who historically have received tickets have not read the literature.
There is a certain snobbish attitude and entitlement to some people about receiving tickets.
Tennis clubs are the worst and the AE employ four full time lawyers to combat ticket fraud.
I could name a number of Hertfordshire clubs that have not conducted their ballots correctly and a fair few coaches who abused their access to tickets in the past too.
Clubs view their allocation as something akin to the golden fleece yet most members would be hard pressed to name the tournaments on at present or up and coming players in their club.
Thiem withdraws v Mannarino in Mallorca and his participation next week must be in doubt.
Dart and Watson lose at Devonshire Park to Rybakina and Swiatek respectively.

 

Ultimately it was a first come, first served free for all and those are always going to end up with winners and losers. Especially when it was 2 tickets per person and payment method. The actual website seemed pretty seamless - good queuing system, no glitches and usefully they weren't letting people fanny around selecting their seats and so you just had to take the (as of yet undisclosed) seats given to you by the system.

The only thing I think the AEC will be clobbered for is they started sending out one-time only codes to those who'd signed up in the minutes before 1pm. They hadn't mentioned the need for these codes before then and it transpired afterwards that anyone who'd not opted in to marketing emails from myWimbledon probably wouldn't get one. Mine arrived at 12.50pm and I duly got on at 1pm and got the tickets I wanted. But there were plenty of folk on social media saying they hadn't received their code or that it arrived at 1.30pm, by which time they couldn't get tickets to the day/court they wanted.

I suppose the AEC will say they only revealed the need for codes, and sent them out at the last minute, to stop touts and other organised folk (including maybe some of the well to do folk you refer to) harvesting them in anticipation of 1pm and then being able to get around the rules. And I guess they won't really care as demand far outstrips supply and if they sell out, why should they care too much about Disgraced of Trunbridge Wells missing out on tickets for the first time in two decades.

 

Yes quite a number of people have moaned about the codes only for them to be withdrawn the following day.
The queue for 1/1 ticketing tutorials on Tuesday at the AE was a who's who of GB tennis past.
John Curry.
John Barrett.
Angela Barrett.
Keith Wooldridge.
Mrs Wooldridge.

 

Exactly Sampras had retired by the time he was 31 I think.

For Roger to still be in the top 10 at nearly 40 is an outstanding achievement

 

Two five set defeats from two GB youngsters in qualies.
Arthur Frey must have played well against his opponent Griekspor who is no one's fool.
Katie Swan in final round today.
Draw announced for Wimbledon today.

 

I think my question would be: is it an outstanding achievement by Federer and co., or is it a failure by the next generation?

 

In my opinion,see my answer of June 17 that has allowed RF,ND and RN to continue.
In addition the average age on the ATP Tour is 27 and Tsitsi was the youngest finalist for quite some time. RF emerged when their was a gap in quality. Becker winning at 17 at TAE and Chang at RG at 18 are rarities and it takes a few attempts to win a major,ask Lendl! One of the main reasons Murray hired Lendl was because he wanted Lendl's knowledge of how he finally won a major event.
Some excellent first round ties as ever next week.
Stand out matches are Medvedev v Struff,Struff beat DM in Halle.
RF has Mannarino who is a canny grass court exponent,with short punchy swings and a leftie too.
Tsitsi has a tough opener against the unpredictable Tiafoe.
Murray plays Niko Basilashvili who is playing well again.
Evans v Fellie Lopez,Norrie v talented but declining Pouille.
Jack Draper gets Djokovic,Fran Jones v Coco Gauff.
Konta plays RG doubles winner Siniakova.
Hurkacz v Musetti will be interesting as will the two Kazaks Kukushkin v Bublik.
Katie Swann qualifies.

 

A very dignified and well worded statement from Halep announcing her withdrawal from the tournament.
A big shame.
She will be missed,a fine competitor.

 

Di Minaur wins at Eastbourne over Sonego.
Ostapenko the ladies.
Medvedev wins in Mallorca against Querry.

 

Interesting article and thanks for posting it.
It's very hard to generalise but on the whole as I've mentioned earlier the main problem with tennis is the club structure in GB.
The LTA has just introduced some new NEDs almost all of whom tick some sort of diversity box. They try almost too hard to be inclusive in many ways.
The AELTC is a fabulous club and has one of the best if not THE best outreach programme in GB,which takes tennis into the poorer parts of the borough.
However down the road at Hurlingham and Roehampton such programmes are non existent and a very wealthy white membership prevails.
Tennis is an incredibly tough sport to excel in,I believe the hardest and many children,especially from minorities are attracted more to team sports be they cricket or football due to numerous role models available to them.
France doesn't have too many to call upon I'd say,Tsonga and Monfils and Noah going back 40 years. I can't think of any Italians and Germany has Dustin Brown but no others so it's a game problem not a GB problem.
We've had Anne Keothathong,whose parents are from Laos and Arvind Parmar ( Hitchin lad) whose parents are Indian.
In the London clubs there is much more diversity and so too in the other big cities.
Home counties tennis clubs are to a large extent like a set of Midsomer Murders although at Hoddesdon we have three families who don't fit that mould and the best little player at the club has Kenyan parents.
Competition from football as ever takes potential players from tennis as it does all sports but really it's the governance of the sport at club level that messes up for all players,whatever their race,creed,colour or gender.

 

Wimbledon update...

Come on Novak!

 

ABJ