The Tennis Thread

[Not Plain Jane]

wow, petra power!
congrats to her.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

amazing men's finals - both in doubles and singles! super happy for pospisl & sock as well as djokovic.

 

[Scott]

you know i felt petra would win but i didn't think it would be so brutally spectacular as that! i just hope this will get her back on track again and she has a positive follow-up this summer. petra has said she's hired a new sports psychologist and being more experienced with the limelight now she should be able to handle everything better now. let's hope this will also serve as a massive lesson to the disgusting media for hyping certain players so overwhelmingly and overshadowing the player who had the pedigree already. petra gave genie a real schooling in this final and served a mighty slice of humble pie to the so-called journos who pretty much crowned the winner before it had even been played. shame on them.

interesting that this year is also a repeat of 2011...both petra and novak won that year as well.

 

[Chaky]

amazing men's finals - both in doubles and singles! super happy for pospisl & sock as well as djokovic.

Yeah the men's final was incredible. I wanted Fed to win of course but it was a bit of a classic. I was super-nervous all through the fifth set but serving second in a final set is always tough and unfortunately Roger cracked first.

And the men's doubles too. So exciting. I was really impressed with Popsicle/Pospisil. He just needs to translate that type of play into his singles and I think he will do very well.

Women's final was a superb individual performance by Petra but the match was a foregone conclusion after a very short time. I wish Simona Halep hadn't twisted her ankle and got through her SF. Would have been very interesting to see if she could have coped with Kvitova. I'm really not on-board the Bouchard bandwagon just yet. The hype was a bit ridiculous and I find her personality almost a bit robotic.

I went to Wimbledon last Monday. It rained a lot.

First player I saw when I got there was Petra Kvitova. She walked right past as I was waiting in line to get to the practice courts. Amazingly no-one else in the queue seemed to notice who she was.

Saw Halep practicing and then my current fave on the WTA, Radwanska. Last year I saw her coming off the practice court and I shouted "Good luck Aga" and she totally blanked me! This time she walked right past me as I was taking her photo and she gave me a little smile. A small victory. I've learned most players really don't want to be bothered if they haven't played their match yet. I remember Sloane Stephens turning down an autograph request last year and the person got quite offended and started making nasty comments back at her.

My ticket was for Court One. Weather report said it would be sunny but shortly after Ivanovic vs Lisicki resumed their held-over match it started raining. Story of the day. I saw Dimitrov vs Mayer and it got interrupted about three hours by rain. I was in a T-shirt when I arrived but ended up shivering with my coat on.

Final match was supposed to be Sharapova but at around 8:00 they cancelled it. I ran up the hill and queued for Centre Court return tickets. Managed to get in and see final 30 minutes of Djokovic vs Tsonga. The roof was on and the atmosphere in there was incredible. I'd never seen either of them live before and the level of tennis was some of the best I've seen. I think it's made me appreciate Novak's game more having seen it first-hand.

I've been lucky for most of the years I've been going and this was the worst one in terms of weather affecting play. It rained the first year I went, but not as long as this. Can't wait for the roof on Court One.

 

[Scott]

sadly only we die-hards and insiders would notice her.

you know i was thinking about simona too....simona has better defensive skills and actually has a winning record over petra right now. i think the lack of defense is probably one of the biggest thorns for genie bouchard....even had she stepped back a couple steps it still would have created a problem for her because it is such a weakness for her. simona though she can play defense and offense so i think that could have been a closer match if anything at all.

a lot of people have been complaining about genie's attitude most of the last week. i dunno if i'd say she is arrogant so much as she is mechanical. they said they patterned this after sharapova but unlike bouchard maria seems to know when to turn it on and off,genie really hasn't found that chord quite yet. it almost reminds me of justine henin in that she was so stoic in most every facet of her demeanour and she sort of closed people off....and it certainly didn't buy her a lot of fans. of course different circumstances with justine too having dealt with so much tragedy and negativity so young. i'm not saying genie should become petra kvitova or anything but she could loosen up a little.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

chris evert compared genie to herself, noting she didn't have a lot of friends on tour either because most of them were off tour and so she just kept to herself. i kind of don't like it when these negative narratives are spun by the media about players. i like genie's tennis and i think it's good petra schooled her. genie will only get better for it.

in the meantime i am really hoping petra takes over at #1.

chaky, am so jealous of your wimbledon experience even though it was rainy and cold. you should be at least a bit chuffed about the final, even though roger lost, because goodness he played well. barry cowan even said that he thought it was fed's best performance in a wimbledon final. not sure i agree. but the point is, he played very well. clearly edberg has been a success. he may sneak another slam title yet! and those little girls are just ...

 

[Scott]

funnily,chris evert has been the worst in all the hype. her egregiously hasty favouritism of bouchard before the final and not even giving petra any due credit,despite actually being there before,was truly astounding for a former player. i find her so unbearably hypocritical and shallow. and i can't understand why she always finds a way to criticise petra for the most inane things. she finds her 'pojd' celebrations after winning points annoying but lauds and makes excuses for the 'pretty' shriekers during rallies. and we all know as far back as kournikova that she has a very superficial position. seems to me she equates success with mere celebrity and i guess that's why petra isn't her cuppa. shame because by and large when petra plays like that she mops the floor with 98% of the players and is the only player who can literally hit with serena. i mean even during that final she sounded disappointed that petra was playing at that level. that's why i hope petra keeps playing well because it'll shut people like her up.

interesting the wta has sort of fallen for the hype themselves...nominating genie for both their monthly polls for june,including newcomer of the year which genie has already won. understandable they would ride that wave as it generates a bit more traffic to the site but a pretty unfair to first-time titlists madison keys and coco vandeweghe seeing as genie is no longer really a newcomer but,like simona halep,an established player now. she was nominated for player of the month with petra and ana but if she gets it over petra we're going to have some issues,i think.

it'll probably be a while before that happens unfortunately. unless serena has a really poor us open series and us open where she's defending a lot of points,i don't think anybody is going to threaten no.1 for a while. serena was still 6000 points ahead of li na before the clay season got underway and still is over 3000 points ahead. i think simona might actually get closer to that before anybody else at this juncture as she's been so rock solid and only within a couple hundred points from the no.2 ranking. she's also playing bucharest this week so that may come very soon. i hope petra can continue this form though and hopefully get close enough to challenge.

i'm worried for li na right now. she's gone downhill very quickly since making that miami final and with the news over the weekend that she and carlos split,due to mounting pressure from the academy he runs in beijing,i have to wonder how she's going to handle the situation emotionally and mentally this summer.

 

[Chaky]

chaky, am so jealous of your wimbledon experience even though it was rainy and cold. you should be at least a bit chuffed about the final, even though roger lost, because goodness he played well. barry cowan even said that he thought it was fed's best performance in a wimbledon final. not sure i agree. but the point is, he played very well. clearly edberg has been a success. he may sneak another slam title yet! and those little girls are just ...

Yeah the final was an amazing match and I'm very impressed with the way Roger played. He's playing more aggressive again and I think his movement is better than a couple of years ago. I think Edberg has had a much clearer influence on him than say Becker on Djokovic. Long may it continue.

Did you ever go to a slam tourny, Jane? If not I highly recommend it.

interesting the wta has sort of fallen for the hype themselves...nominating genie for both their monthly polls for june,including newcomer of the year which genie has already won. understandable they would ride that wave as it generates a bit more traffic to the site but a pretty unfair to first-time titlists madison keys and coco vandeweghe seeing as genie is no longer really a newcomer but,like simona halep,an established player now. she was nominated for player of the month with petra and ana but if she gets it over petra we're going to have some issues,i think.

I think the more dedicated followers of the tour don't react well when a player is being shoved down their throats like that. I was surprised at how many of the seasoned pundits were picking Genie as the clear winner before that final. I don't see American coverage but I've heard a lot about the stuff Chris Evert has said - seems sometimes she's watching a different match to everyone else!

I guess the WTA has to market itself more aggressively than the ATP just because women's tennis is a harder product to sell to the general public. And however much they don't want to admit it, image is a big selling point for them.

I see Simona's carried on her good run of form. Thought she would be tired out but she's won her home tournament in Bucharest with some ease.

 

[Scott]

yeah problem is,she gained nothing from the win in terms of ranking points even though it's an entirely different and new event from budapest which she won this time last year and was ended. i didn't think the wta transferred points like that. usually when tournaments have ended in the past they usually void the points to those who's defending. same situation with sam coming up at carlsbad and roberta at palermo.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Did you ever go to a slam tourny, Jane? If not I highly recommend it.

No... sadly it's not been possible. I haven't even seen live professional tennis even though I've been watching and following it since I was 13, i.e., a lot of years! Someday, I hope.

 

[Scott]

i tried to when they held the russia vs usa fed cup tie in my area but ticket prices were a bit out of my budget even for nosebleed seats. would have been nice to see one of my favourites in elena dementieva before she retired.

 

[Chaky]

No... sadly it's not been possible. I haven't even seen live professional tennis even though I've been watching and following it since I was 13, i.e., a lot of years! Someday, I hope.

Rogers Cup maybe?

 

[Scott]

so sad about li na's retirement. was it ever revealed after she withdrew from the us open series and us open that she had surgery? i didn't even see that part of it. apparently her knee was worse than we thought and why she had to pull out of those tourney's. it's unfortunate to see injury end one's career because you want to see player's stop while they're still playing well and of course healthy. if not for that i think she could have had another year left in her. but she seems satisfied with her decision.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

utterly HUGE achievement by Novak Djokovic today
he holds ALL four slams at once.

to put that in perspective, a tweet:

Nick McCarvel ‏@NickMcCarvel 5h5 hours ago
The last time a man held all 4 Slams: Nixon was prez, the Beatles were together & the US had just landed on the moon

also cool win on the ladies side by gabrine
in mixed dubs by paes and hingis
in male dubs by the lopez bros

etc...

the FO was cursed with horrible weather
but it had very interesting and historical outcomes none the less.

tennis rules

 

[castorpollux]

There never seemed to be a full house (except during the final) when I was watching matches on tv.... Was it b/c of the flooding?

 

[Chaky]

I didn't really like Roland Garros this year. Not so many memorable matches. I think the weather really did ruin it. The conditions were awful to play in. One day they put matches on court when it was already raining. The schedules got messed up.

And all the corporate boxes lower down around Phillippe Chatrier Court were always empty at the start and when the weather wasn't so good.

Anyway it was a stunning achievement by Nole. I think this was the first slam final I remember in which most of the crowd seemed to be on his side. Helps not playing Federer or Nadal. He looks like he'd be on course to overtake Roger's slam record.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

not sure he'll overtake fed chaky... maybe too soon to tell.

especially as news today says lendl is back with muzza, so that rivalry might heat up.

i know what you mean; i found roland garros difficult this year. i missed the first week because i was on holidays but even the second week alone was tough to sit through with the bad conditions, interrupted matches, and so on. that's why i was glad that at least some of the wins were special.

i guess it's been raining a lot in stuggart this week too. : /

luckly wimbledon has a roof!

castorpollux: There never seemed to be a full house (except during the final) when I was watching matches on tv.... Was it b/c of the flooding?

- think so, yes. a lot of people didn't want to sit in the cold and wait for matches that may or may not happen.

 

[ivano]

Murray is my guy. #GoAndy

 

[MyNameIs]

Now that Serena has seemingly and thankfully lost her invincibility, WTA has become more fun. Unfortunately, Novak is still ruing ATP.

 

[Chaky]

I'm just so glad they're back on grass. Much prefer to clay.

Shame the weather has impacted so much over the last couple of months. At least Wimbledon has a roof.