Tennis Thread - Grand Slams & The Tour

Well done Nick Kyrgios for calling out Djokovic and others over the quarantine restrictions row at the Aussie Open.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55713453

 

Djokovic has that unhappy knack of making a twerp of himself at every opportunity.
He cannot accept that he is not admired as much as Federer,Nadal and even Murray. He tries too hard to be liked and now seems to be attempting to become a Serbian Alexander the Great.
It would help him no end if he stopped that absurd throwing out his arms to the four sides of the court when he wins.
Always reminds me of the Bob Newhart sketch "Krushchev Landing", "Don't let him skip Ed,he looks ridiculous".
Must do better.

 

Carlos Bernades has had a heart attack in his hotel room in Melbourne prior to the AO.
Scott Lloyd has replied to my email alerting him to the online failings of the coach training facility.
According to a third party every head of department meeting contains a new series of breakdowns in the federation's IT,so not a question of if it fails but when.Firefighting does not adequately describe the problem.
Credit it to SL for his reply however as it was not a cursory response,quite the opposite.
Oddly enough I had received an email from the coaching department on this matter a couple of hours earlier and then another immediately after my reply!
Clearly the chain of command had been set in motion!

 

Looking likely from her comments today that she will retire,her third bout of surgery apparently.
Too much too young is a dangerous matter.

 

Murray out of the AO with covid.

 

The WTA have organised a pre AO tournament starting Feb 3.
Heather Watson is playing.

 

For the second major tournament running players are unhappy with the quality of the balls.
Tsitsipas not impressed.

 

Now I'm very annoyed.
An email has just arrived as to whether the bubble should be deflated.
This was a monstrously bad decision on the part of the committee,one which I cautioned against in my September report.
Of course hindsight is always 20/20 but you did not have to be a seer to predict another quarantine was likely,if not certain.
Bear in mind this costs £1500 to inflate and the same to deflate and costs an extra £300 a month in electricity to work the fans.
It was used for one month before it was out of action.
THIS is why tennis is such a mess in the country,well intentioned but incompetent decision making.

 

Further to my rant of 1.50pm Covair are coming tomorrow to deflate the bubble.
I bet they can't believe their good fortune.
Perhaps they might crayon "mugs" on the dome?
Not exactly what a 10k grant from the council was intended for when the club received it in April 2020 I think.
Pitiful.

 

Players now coming out of their hotels to practice before the AO begins a week Monday.

 

A Day at the Drive event on in Adelaide.
Djokovic playing silly beggars again,withdrawing and then playing a set.

 

Yes good news and especially for Tsitsi,Kyrgios and Sakari,Melbourne having such a large Greek heritage population.

 

ATP Cup starts tomorrow. Reduced from 24 nations to 12.
Murray River 250 and Great Ocean Road 250 also on. Norrie out at MR.

 

Nadal pulls out of his first match with a lower back problem.
Katie Boulter beats Coco Gauff,who serves three double faults in her final service game.
Draw for AO should be tomorrow.
I'm doing an interview with a lad from London University today who is doing a piece on the AO for his journalism course.
I shall not say "At this moment in time"!

 

Just so Smudger!
I may have mentioned before that I know Sue Boulter,Katie's mum. She played for years for Leicestershire when I played for Middlesex at Eastbourne in County Cup. Katie came when Sue was in my GB 40s team in Perth in '05 and she loved the game.
It surprises me in a way as Sue has some guile in her game but I'm afraid it all goes down to unimaginative coaching.
As you say it's a case of 'hard,harder,hardest end of point'. Very tedious,thank goodness for the likes of Barty and Jabeur who have craft and can mix it up.
No play today in Melbourne as there has been a positive test at one of the hotels where players and staff are staying.
The draw has been postponed but Craig Tiley is saying the tournament is not in jeopardy.
Alarming times yet again.

 

Back on court today and still no Rafa so his participation must be in doubt for next week.
Germany defeat Serbia in a third set tie break of the doubles to advance to the semi finals of the ATP Cup,joined by Russia,Italy and Spain,despite a 2-1 loss to Greece.
Top pick of 1st round draws is Sinner the young Italian v Shapovalov.
No doubt the GB press will be looking to Evans v Norrie too.

 

Evans into the final having beaten Chardy.
Italy play Russia in the final of the ATP Cup.

 

Russia win ATP Cup and Medvedev and Rublev will be ones to avoid from tomorrow,
Evans beats Augur Aliassime in straight to win the Murray Road or was it the Great River 250? Good win anyway.
Barty wins the Yara River Classic.
Match to watch tomorrow I would say is Sinner v Shapovalov,night match so 8am Monday morning for us.

 

No shocks as yet,routine wins for most of the seeds.

 

ND cruising v Chardy.
Sinner gains the first set v Shapovalov and it's on serve in the second.
Shapo looks anxious,as well he might as Sinner is probably the one player all the seeds would want to avoid.
The best bit for me so far is the automated line call of "Ahhht" in a very recognisible Aussie accent,although it seems remiss not to have added "mate" or "sheila" afterwards!
Shapo breaks for 5-3 but he will most certainly have to win this. Sinner is miserly in his unforced errors.

 

Boulter out in straight against the very able Kasakina
Shapovalov prevails 6-4 in the 5th.
Sinner stayed so far back when returning he was almost in the presidential tribune. This gave Shapo so much space to work the court and therefore so much running for Sinner,especially after his marathon victory yesterday.
If he came up the court and moved over,especially in the advantage court, he would bisect the angle.
Shapo quite canny and threw in a couple of underarm serves in the his first service game of the 5th,1-0.

 

I'm watching a repeat of the Kasatkina v Boulter match.
It rather illustrates your point of last Wednesday Smudger of the lack of guile in Boulter's game and the inability to deal with it when Kasatkina changes the pace and spin and such.
I think it used to take her mother longer to put on her headband than it did for Kasatkina to win the first set.

 

Did he?
He's been having a bad time of late and you could trace it back to Monte Carlo in 2019 I think when he received a diabolical piece of umpiring at a critical moment against Nadal.
Hasn't quite been the same since.
I think he received ball in the eye too and had a detached retina or something close to that.
Set all in the Evans and Norrie match.
Nadal showing no ill effects from his bad back.
Watson through in two tie breaks against the leftie Pliskova who always seems to flatter to deceive.

 

Fran Jones did well to draw level from 3-0 downs but Shelvy Rogers went up a gear and won 4&) but Jones will benefit from the experience.
Norrie defeats a very weary looking Evans in four tight sets.
Konta injured yet again,hip problem this time.
Tsitsi looking as smooth as ever against the wily old fox Simon.

 

Wawrinka,Venus Williams and Kvitova out. Djokovic loses at set to Tiafoe.
Kyrgios now a set down against the very talented young French leftie Ugo Humbert.

 

Kyrgios in five having saved a match point in the fourth.
An enthralling contest marred only by the failing net cord device that the umpire refused to turn off,despite everyone recognising that it was faulty.
Sometimes officials do not help themselves.
Throughout the latter stages of the match I kept hoping that Humbert would play doubles with Herbert,thus creating a possibility for an acapella version of 'The South Bank Show' theme.
One person to take the Humbert role,another the Herbert and a third to be the violin.

 

I got up at 3.30am just in time for the start of the Tsitsipas v Kokkinakis Greek fest.
One of those matches where you can never fully get on top of your opponent and therefore never shake off the nerves.
Kokkinakis is a fine talent and has been beset by injuries and then glandular fever and did well to dig in to take the match to a fifth set.
Watson out,Norrie on the way to victory.

 

Norrie in four close sets.
Fun and games in the epic Italian clash between Caruso and Fognini.
Fabio won the match tie break and then proceeded to launch a verbal assault on Caruso accusing him of being somewhat lucky. Caruso responded and it continued for a good minute or two.
Fognini won the swearing but Caruso,being Sicilian,certainly won the hand gestures!
Defending champion Sofia Kenin out to the veteran Estonian Kanepi and she joins Kontaveit,Watson's conqueror,in the third round.