The tennis thread!

[LarrahRobertson]

Well I've noticed there are some tennis fans around here and that it would be nice if we had a thread to discuss the matches, in progress or finished.

The current tournaments are the ones played in Eastbourne and Hertogenbosch and after these it's time for Wimby!

Roger Federer is the first favorite for Wimbledon, but that didn't come out as a shock, the main upset for the tennis fans was that Rafael Nadal is the 4th favorite for a victory. I have to remind you though, TODAY is the day when Rafael Nadal will decide the 'future of the tournament' and announce is he going to play or not.
Another thing I have noticed, there are some new players coming on the tour, like Ernests Gulbis or Garcia Lopez, but probably the best new - comer and youngster is Juan Martin Del Potro who is also one of the main favorites for victory.

As for the female players, for the upcoming Wimbledon the Williams sisters are the main favorites, followed by Dinara Safina. Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic are in a bad form and they both suffered a big ranking drop (Jelena is 6th and Ana is 13th!) because of which they will have a harder draw and probably not much success on this year's Wimbledon.

WIMBLEDON : 22. 06 - 05. 07

[very.tee]

Nice thread Lara

Now, did anyone watch Queens last (week? was it!) It was nice to see Murray win though it was sad that Andy Roddick had to pull out of the semis with and injury (from not looking where he was going!!!)

Weirdly enough, apart from Andy M and Andy R, I also really like Nicolas Mahut!!! (Anyone heard of him)

I'm going to Wimbledon this year for one day (think it's the mens semi finals) which is going to be ace! (get it!) Anyway, I hope to see all of *my favourites* doing well there

As for the women's game: I really should have a bit more of an interest (sorry) but there are only a few names I know... I think I need to sharpen up a bit...

And I also forgot to mention that I hate the promo for wimbledon the BBC is showing! It's AWFUL

[AntMac147]

Nadal has pulled out!!!

Thats a shame, I love the Nadal-Federer finals which it would have probably been again this year

I can see Murray taking it now! Beating Rog in the final!

[noel]

WIMBLEDON, England -- Defending champion Rafael Nadal withdrew from Wimbledon on Friday
because of acute Federitis in his knees.


=o)

Noel

[FerruleFox]

Nadal has pulled out!!!

Thats a shame, I love the Nadal-Federer finals which it would have probably been again this year

I can see Murray taking it now! Beating Rog in the final!

Sorry AntMac, but Fed is finally going to make it 15 and overtake Sampras.

I was getting worried there for a while but Nadal's dogged punishing style has done to him what Chang's did almost a decade ago.

[AntMac147]

I actually don't care who wins out of Murray and Fed, as long as its one of them I don't mind.

[FerruleFox]

I actually don't care who wins out of Murray and Fed, as long as its one of them I don't mind.

I like Murray too. I was just messin wit ya.

I know Andy winning Wimbledon would be pretty huge, especially after Tim never really came close.

[LarrahRobertson]

Don't you dare talking like that!!! Gulbis will beat Andy in the second round!!!

[very.tee]

Oh! I remember him!!! I really liked him last year To bad he's up against Murry early on... there's no way I'm letting him get past Murray!

[LarrahRobertson]

Oh! I remember him!!! I really liked him last year To bad he's up against Murry early on... there's no way I'm letting him get past Murray!

He's a sweetie And to not mention he has amazing hair.. and he is probably my dream guy too.. :/

[very.tee]

Ok, it's all gone a bit quiet after Rolland Garros, and as I went to Wimbledon yesterday (whoop, whoop!) I thought I'd give you a little report.

We went as a group of 12 with 10 court 1 tickets and 2 centre court tickets, planning to swap every 45 mins or so. This would be my first time on Centre Court!!!

First I saw the Williams sisters play doubles (which they won, annoyingly!) We then went to Henman Hill to watch the Murray match before swapping on to centre court for the second set (consequently the only set Andy won!) There were so many of us on the hill that we were sitting in about 6 rows on the pavement in front of the hill!We then swapped off again, watching the rest of the match on Henman Hill.

When it was over the whole hill went quiet and we all got up and left... You'll never witness such a silent crowd in your life - it was really quite astonishing.

Some of our group were still inside centre court so the rest of us didn't know what to do with ourselves. We heard Jamie Murry was playing next and we all wanted to see it but unfortunatley we only had 2 tickets. Then Nidhi and Lauren turned up saying they'd been given tickets by a couple that had left! But still, we couldn't all go on! Then the genius that is Alex Southern did something I would never have thought of doing:

She just asked the person checking tickets if we could go on! AND he said yes! So we were able to watch about 3/4 hour of Jamie's match before we had to go home... On centre court the atmosphere was completely different to what it had been about 2 hours earlier. Everyone was deflated and flat, miles away from the intenseness in there earlier in the day. There were only a smattering of us to watch Jamie's match and most of us were very quiet. It was kind of sad actually...

Anyway that was my Wimbledon experience. Although the matches on centre court were good this year, we had court 1 tickets which had really (boring ) matches on and we only stayed to watch the Williams sisters before settling on Henman Hill. It was a pity that we didn't go earlier in the week when there would've been good matches on court 1 (not that I'm complaining...) And it's more of a pity that every single match I watched yesterday went the way I didn't want it to go...

I'll finish by stating the famous people I saw:

- Tim Henman
- Williams sisters dad
- John MacEnroe
- Trevor MacDonald!!!
- Claire Balding

And finally a:

Boo Hoo Andy Murray... for good measure

[FerruleFox]

^^ good story. It must have been pretty devastating. Murray was such a huge favourite. Roddick just played his best ever tennis against him.

Nadal pulling out, Haas beating Djokovic and now Murray losing. The field has parted like the Red Sea for Federer.

[noel]

Federer. No doubt.

Oh.... question for you guys in UK....

My favourite commentator in broadcast sports is John McInroe.
Experience. Knowledge. Great Eye. Attitude.

Is he on the BBC coverage at all?


Cheers!



=o)

Noel

[very.tee]

Yeah Noel, MacEnroe/McInroe?! presents a bit as well as doing the commentary. A bit like John Parrott for snooker, though I expect you haven't seen much BBC coverage of that either!

[wildJONESEYE]

yes Johnny Mc is on the BBC.

he was comantating the wommans final this afternoon with Mark Petchy and Tracy Austin.