Tennis 2015

[swinfordfc]

Lost in 3 sets today to Kamke today .....

[Spudulika]

Former Irish based players in the ladies main draw. The increasingly muscular Vitalia Diatchenko and Margarita Gasparyan. Rita is in deep against favourite Serena Williams. She should take 4-5 games over the 2 sets and if she gets her power game going, it could be a shock!

[Crosby87]

Halep goes down in the 1st round. Ridiculous.

[SkStu]

Brown v. Nadal. The Magik of Wimpleton!

[Crosby87]

Potter woman defends Serena's manhood.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3157999/Don-t-mess-JK-Rowling-Enraged-author-issues-withering-riposte-Twitter-troll-body-shaming-Serena-Williams-gets-retweeted-650-000-times.html

[Spudulika]

Potter woman defends Serena's manhood.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3157999/Don-t-mess-JK-Rowling-Enraged-author-issues-withering-riposte-Twitter-troll-body-shaming-Serena-Williams-gets-retweeted-650-000-times.html

Rowling has lost the run of herself a wee bit, what with interfering in a foreign country (Scotland) and her various other odd rants, but this will come back to haunt her.

Serena is without doubt a powerful and tough tennis player, she has little competition and while she is heavily built, she used to look well. However she has substantially muscled up in the last 2-3 years and question marks remain.

Her missed test (when she refused to open the door to the testers) at home, 1 after the 2012 Olympics and testers being shut out of her French training base on more than one occasion, plus her boyfriend/coach and his links to known doping doctors in France/Spain. That is one issue.

Her personal life has been very well managed by her agency, anyone else would have been destroyed. When Sharapova (not the nicest of people herself) lost her temper and told the truth about Williams and her holier than thou attitude, the media rounded on Sharapova.

Serena's, at times, thuggish on court behaviour has been excused over and over (even when she has been disqualified) and her attitude towards officials off court has for years been horrendous.

She escapes sanction and exposure very often by pulling out the race card, yet she is very reticent to contribute to real coloured female groundbreakers.

All said, she's a nice enough person when she wants to be, but very unstable. Most female tennis players are, it's the nature of the business.

She gets unfair protection from the media and now when celebrities like JK Rowling jump in with both feet it eliminates any hard questions being asked.

[Crosby87]

One thing I find interesting is she claims she does no upper body work, that her arms are naturally toned....is that possible?
Her jaw line is much less chisled than a few years back....the dead give away for females in the wwf who used steroids was the jaw line. Chyna admits to using steroids for years and her jaw line was chisled. Serena reminded me of that a few years back. Just sayin.

[Acornvilla]

Didn't post at all during the comp, but it was really enjoyable. Stan and Gasquet getting so far and their 1/4 final match were plus points for me, Federer was amazing v Murray, but couldn't keep anything near the same level of perfection against Djokovic, great final all the same, but that really had to have been Fed's last chance at a major, no other GS has a court as fast that favours his new style of play. I really can't see him being quite as good next year as he was this.

Nice to see James Ward finally get through some rounds, he'd been living a tough auld existence outside the top 100 as a nearly man previously, Murray/Peers making the doubles final also another good story for those lads. Pity Brown didn't really show up Vs Troicki after beating Rafa for the 2nd year in a row, the lad has skills and flair, shame he never puts runs together. That quarter of the draw was a massive opportunity with Nadal and Ferer going out so early, Pospisl will be delighted he took advantage.

Didn't watch quite so much of the womens, sickened for Radwanska that she just never has enough in the tank, or the power to win deep in a GS. She's doomed never to win one you'd think. Herself and Jerzy Janowicz should have some sort of super Polish mutant tennis baby, with her brain and his power.

Muguruza keeps looking better every year, she'll win a few GS's no doubt, dosen't seem afraid to take anyone on, nice to see glimmers of Azarenka returning to her old self. On an aside, Sharapova plays the most boring brand of tennis imaginable.

Would have been brilliant and hilarious if Heather Watson took Serena out, she gave it a real go, but didn't have the cojones to finish the job or win the big points on her serve.


Regarding Serena and doping, anyone who manages to dodge a drug test is as good as guilty of at least some minor wrong doings imo, why else would they be hiding. All the same they're a family of naturally very big strong people. She is very bulky, and must have a pretty low body fat % even as female athletes go, and would still be massive with or without doping. I don't see the chiseled jaw myself these days thou, she's about as feminine looking as a lady that strong can look, I guess.

Whatever she says about not exercising her arms is stupid, sure isn't playing tennis a massive arm workout in itself!

[BonnieShels]

That backhand from Federer v Murray. Still. Wow.

[Crosby87]

Good points Acorn. Sharapova's grunting is out of control. The guy from Maroon Five went on Howard Stern a few years back and said she was one cold fish in the sack, telling him not to make any noise...I guess she saves it for Wimby?

Master of the obv but the girls need a real rivalry or someone new to at least be consistent. We hear about all of the next generation and it never seems to pan out here. Melanie Oudin had that one run and dissapeared. Christina Mchale got mono and fell off the map. Even Sloan....i doubt she will ever win a major. Why did Li Na retire?

One other thing....this trend in sports broadcasting where the announcers refuse to shut up the entire time....i like Chrissy Evert and Mcenroe but the entire match...they have like 3 people in one booth analyzing, and they all must feel like they have to earn their money....they never shut up the entire time. It happened in baseball on espn's sunday night telecast. Curt Schilling used to be a great announcer, he was such a gamer as a pitcher....and now he literally analyzes every single pitch....it's brutal. I can't believe these networks think people want to watch that way.

[Real ale Madrid]

If James got a WC that would be amazing for him, but Kudla would rightly feel very hard done by if he didn't get it.


Kudla ended up in the 4th round as well!!! He is up to WR97

Ireland take on South Africa away in the Davis Cup this weekend. Ireland have James McGee and Sam Barry playing singles and probably James Cluskey / David O'Hare in the doubles.

Kevin Anderson who gave Djokovic his toughest match in Wimbledon, is out for SA as is their top doubles player Raven Klaasen - on the face of it we have a decent chance of winning. Win and we stay in EUR/AFR Group 2 - Lose and we are relegated to Group 3.

[Crosby87]

Wow you know a lot about the wilderness areas of tennis! Raven Klaasen? Is he related to Raven Symone from the Cosby show? Clusky&O'Hare sound like a second rate Private Investigator firm.

[Acornvilla]

Watching Challenger level tennis is a bit like watching League of Ireland football I guess. Were all mad.

Is Thiemo De bakker playing? I'd worry he'd win both singles matches. But We'd probably win the other 3.

It's really good that Cluskey and O'Hare are playing together every week, probably helps each other a lot with support, coaching, travel and all that, hopefully they'll improve as a pair over time. But their results so far have been very, very ****.

Klassen is actually pretty good and rather well known for what it's worth Crosby!

[Crosby87]

He's 32 years old and his career singles record is 7-5. So doubles is for people not good enough to play singles? I mean what's the point really? If I played doubles I would just keep trying to hit the guy in front with the ball. It still counts right?

[Real ale Madrid]

Is Thiemo De bakker playing?


Not against us anyway - He's Dutch!

[Acornvilla]

Not against us anyway - He's Dutch!
I'm an idiot, this is who I meant..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rik_de_Voest Think he as good as retired over 12 months ago thou now, just plays the odd usta challenger in canada.

Should be a handy enough win for Ireland really, the rest of the SA players are pretty weak.

[Acornvilla]

Regarding doubles Crosby, I'm sure almost every lad who ends up concentrating on it, dreamt of playing singles, but didn't have the game, stamina, work ethic or whatever else was required. But doubles is as good as a different sport in itself. Entirely different skill sets are necessary for it. Very rarely when the top singles lads enter doubles draws do they make a dent, obviously if they played it every week they'd improve, but I think it's unfair to brand all doubles players as far inferior, sometimes doubles just suits their skill set far better. Tis great entertainment too, especially at the top level.

[Spudulika]

The draw is up for the Davis Cup:
Wolmarans - McGee
Vorster - Barry
Dean O'Brien and Roelofse - Cluskey and O'Hare

Reverse singles without change in players.

This will be difficult for Ireland, though the thought of dropping down a division is petrifying! Irish players will go in unafraid, but it'll be tight.

The doping and Serena issue is going to rumble on and my greatest fear is what happens when someone squeals. Her boyfriend has known associates who are doping doctors and yet the ITF just close their eyes. Tennis is riddled with it but it won't change, ever. Plus there are far, far greater problems that will won't even address.

Here's hoping our Irish boys win this weekend!

[Crosby87]

Wolmarans can cement his legacy.

[Acornvilla]

McGee loses 3-1, that's pretty cat.

[Spudulika]

Well, it's Division 3 next year and it will be a pain to escape from it. We'll probably be without the 2 James and probably Sam. I don't believe Conor Niland is the right man for the job, as much as he is a good guy. But it'll be impossible to get Garry back.

[Crosby87]

Spuds what do you think about this?

http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2015/07/13/3679627/top-conservative-pundit-suggests-serena-williams-won-wimbledon-cheating/

[Real ale Madrid]

Irish Open on this week - in Fitwilliam in Dublin.

James Cluskey has also got into the ATP 250 doubles event in Bastad, Sweden with Andreas Silkestrom of Sweden - they are currently playing the No.1 seeds in R1 Cabal/Farah of Colombia, and have lost the first set 7-5

Edit - beaten 7-5 6-2

[Spudulika]

Spuds what do you think about this?

http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2015/07/13/3679627/top-conservative-pundit-suggests-serena-williams-won-wimbledon-cheating/

I heard about his tweets and suspicions, just didn't know about his TV appearance. Is Serena clean? From experience in tennis, no. How unclean is she? Questionable. It is not her physique that is at question, it is the stamina and recovery - and interestingly she's "taking an injury break" right now, which is immediately suspect. Her boyfriend is too closely associated with very dodgy doctors and he has, in his academy, allowed doping coaches in and let them do their stuff. And the most tested athlete bit - I really get the spidey senses tingling when I hear this.

Sadly tennis is too big and too powerful to question or attack and the vast majority (if not all) journos are completely compliant and useless in this regard. The majority of coaches, vast majority, are good and clean - and none will ever step out of line and report anything. They know that if they do report something, they'll never work again!

[Crosby87]

More evidence that serena is actually attractive and not manish...or a little manish but still attractive. I think. Anyway she is ripped.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/08/serena-williams-still-has-tennis-history-to-make.html

[Crosby87]

Hard to not be impressed by Bencic. She beat Eugenie, Woz, Ivanovic, Serena...then Halep today. Halep was hurt and quit but still. One thing about Halep....everywhere she goes there are these 1000 or so rabid romanian fans. Are these people who live in Romania and have the money to follow her around All over? It seems strange.

[Spudulika]

Hard to not be impressed by Bencic. She beat Eugenie, Woz, Ivanovic, Serena...then Halep today. Halep was hurt and quit but still. One thing about Halep....everywhere she goes there are these 1000 or so rabid romanian fans. Are these people who live in Romania and have the money to follow her around All over? It seems strange.

Bencic was being coached by Hingis' Mother, though not as "intimately" as with the daughter. She's been knocking about the circuit, building herself up well. I think she caught a good tailwind with some out-of-sorts opposition - plus Serena is "rehabbing". Halep has been an idol in Romania and her bill is footed by some oligarch there. Romania's a poor country in a way, but there is a heap of cash (especially EU) there.

[swinfordfc]

Is McGee injured? ..... not seem him play for a while .....

[Real ale Madrid]

Is McGee injured? ..... not seem him play for a while .....

Yes - had a knee op after wimbledon quals.

[Spudulika]

Jenny Claffey picked up a doubles title in Sharm last week. These tournaments are for beginners or comebackers, though you'd hope to see more Irish players make use of them. She's picked up 2 doubles titles this year and is just outside 800 singles and doubles. It's a good sign for our Fed Cup, though Amy Bowtell's physical condition is a worry. She's played 3 tournaments this year and will soon be out of the top 500. Her big tournament win this year (especially beating former sparring partner Sirotkina in the final) wasn't followed up on, so there a bit of talk that she may quit the sport. A real shame.

[Crosby87]

Mcenroe says he could beat Serena if they played now...I guess he is mid 50s...wonder if he could.

[Acornvilla]

The masters series stuff that he plays is decent enough quality. He'd be fit to win a set maybe, but would surely die if it went to 3.

[Crosby87]

Someone on the radio said yesterday that the top 500 current male players in the world would beat her....is that accurate?

[Crosby87]

Serena stays classy in addressing endorsement gap between her and Maria:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/serena-williams-perfect-response-maria-sharapova-pay-gap_55df20b1e4b08dc094868ff9

[Spudulika]

Someone on the radio said yesterday that the top 500 current male players in the world would beat her....is that accurate?

Yes, and I'd probably extend that to the top 800. When a former client of mine was training in Dublin with us, she was just outside top 100 (now inside top 80) and she was trounced by a retired ex-pro from Georgia. Massive differences in power, stamina and strength. McEnroe would probably take a set off her.

[Acornvilla]

The womens game is just so slow in comparison to the mens. Ladys hit winners from all over the place because their opponent has crap footwork or is too slow to even try to defend, on the other hand, even futures players (lads ranked outside the top 350 onwards) in the mens game would be able to defend v Serena and get her running all over the place. She wouldn't know what to do once all the big shots came back at her with just as much venom if not more.

[Crosby87]

Interesting.

You guys think it's worth throwing a few bucks on any of these long shots in the men's?

Wawrinka 12-1 Nadal 14 - 1 Nishikori 14-1 Cilic 25-1
Dimitrov 25-1 Berdych 33-1 Raonic 40-1 Del Posto 50-1 Ferrer 125-1

[Acornvilla]

Berdych, Del Potro, Nadal and Ferrer are absolute no no's IMO.

Don't think Dimitrov or Raonic are capable yet either. Cilic will be up for it simply because he's defending his title and has the belief that he can do it now.

Stan's had back troubles and the whole Kyrgios thing has distracted him a lot, while you never know what you're going to get with Nishi, but I don't think his body will ever hold up to get him the whole way through to win a GS.

So in short, not really no. It should be one of Murray, Fed and Djokovic, Murray and Federer are on a high atm and looking good, while Djokovic will be extra motivated now more than ever after losing two finals in a row to both.

Wawrinka/Cilic/Nishi would be the 3 more likely if I had to pick someone, it'd be Stan, simply because if he gets past the 1st week, he's able to beat anyone.

[Real ale Madrid]

I'd concur with druggie Cilic - 25/1 is big!
Djokovic has had a long season as well - could be an opportunity for Murray.

[Spudulika]

Some shocks in the women's draw, Ivanovic and Watson out. Serena Williams beat a former client of mine who conveniently quit. Serena seems in great form since her "injury" break, funny how this happens when she goes into the recovery-prep cycle between major tournament runs.

Quite a few seeds gone early - drug test failer Kuznetsova, Jankovic and Suarez Navarro. And turncoat Dasha Gavrilova (sold to Australia for the princely sum of US$150,000 up front and US$100,00 per year for 5 years) gone too. Looks like Serena's for the losing.

Monfils retired, Nishikori lost, the big boys (Nadal, Djokovic came through).

If you want a seed upset in round 2, check out Teymur Gabazhvili knocking off Seppi of Italy. Teymur is a dogged pro and he has really put the work in this year.

[Crosby87]

I'm going tomorrow. I want to see CoCo Vandeweghe. I kind of like her.

I think your former client was legitimately hurt. I felt bad for her, Pam Shriver said she was here with no coach and had only one person in her box. (No pun intended.) she looked like a deer in the headlights walking out there.
Sharapova is all over the city and she's not even playing....she's so icy and uninteresting. Go away Maria. Really don't think she is even good looking. Not sure why she gets all those endorsements honestly. No personality, pretty flat chested. Her agents must have pictures of some people or something.

Derek Jeter was in Woz's box (again, too easy). He's dating Hanah Davis. Hmmmm.

[Spudulika]

I'm going tomorrow. I want to see CoCo Vandeweghe. I kind of like her.

I think your former client was legitimately hurt. I felt bad for her, Pam Shriver said she was here with no coach and had only one person in her box. (No pun intended.) she looked like a deer in the headlights walking out there.
Sharapova is all over the city and she's not even playing....she's so icy and uninteresting. Go away Maria. Really don't think she is even good looking. Not sure why she gets all those endorsements honestly. No personality, pretty flat chested. Her agents must have pictures of some people or something.

Derek Jeter was in Woz's box (again, too easy). He's dating Hanah Davis. Hmmmm.

If it was a botox'ed blonde, then it's her mother. She gets some coaching from Garry Cahill (our Irish coach), he was with her in Wimbledon. The issue is that it's impossible to be around her for more than a couple of hours at a time and worse. She's done well to come back from a pretty terrible self-inflicted injury a couple of years ago, but she's a compete waste of talent who ha dabbled with the wrong "doctors".

Sharapova is a mystery. She has nice hair (it smells nice, don't ask) and can be pleasant when she wants to be. But it is simply down to catching the marketing wave after having money behind her to begin with. It's a real issue with women's tennis, especially. I always felt terrible telling clients that they were never going to get the big contracts simply because they weren't typically what is needed. I know this will sound a bit odd, but in my dealings with "image makers" for big companies, the majority of men or women in those roles, Art Director etc, are usually looking for someone they themselves will be interested in and usually someone androgynous. So Serena does well, Maria does well, and they're winning.

[Crosby87]

Nice info.
Seems like a lot of these girls are nuts. I guess its like any prodigy or whatever. It's better to be in team sport if you are elite as a kid, at least you can have friends in your teammates.

[Spudulika]

Nice info.
Seems like a lot of these girls are nuts. I guess its like any prodigy or whatever. It's better to be in team sport if you are elite as a kid, at least you can have friends in your teammates.

Vitalia has no friends, which is sad. But I think her mother prefers it that way. I got an sms from a mutual contact, Vitalia is sporting a leg brace! If she retires she has nothing, but she can always hook up with a rich dude.

I watched the 1st set of Serena last night. I know it is a weird observation, but she has actually put on weight. She's a little softer than in Wimbledon, but is heavier. Her boyfriend looked happy with it, then again he's on the gravy train. Collecting coin as her coach and traveling the world for free.

One thing that is left on the side for Serena in relation to sponsors is her chaotic private life (not so much he shadow of doping). Her boyfriend's rep and how they got together upset a lot of people in the sport. And a link to Vitalia. She was in his academy when she was a kid and he ended up nearly destroying her shoulder while putting her in the charge of a dodgy coach. Gavrilova was the same but got special treatment as her parents were footing the bill.

[Crosby87]

Yeah, its funny you say all that...we were talking about how Serena was all over the web and TMZ last week for getting hot and heavy with the rapper drake in a club...im not sure what her relationship with the coach is. Non.....manogamous? Isn't he married with kids? I'm not into the home wrecking thing. Than again if his wife is french she prob does the same things? Isn't that accepted in that culture? Thats what I heard anyway.

Seeing her up close I can say she has some cottage cheese on the backs of those legs but I would never say that to her face! She said she never works out with weights upperbody wise, bc she is afraid of her arm muscles getting too manly, meaning that THAT is her natural form if you will, a factoid I repeated which almost got me laughed out of the building...but I still have to say, I liked her outfit yesterday and I can watch her bounce around anytime. What's the difference between Serena and Venus? About 4 cup sizes!

Venus was legit last night, that chick she beat played well.

First time the Bryan twins have not won a grand slam event in ten yrs. Other than that, im glad college football starts today bc I think its been pretty fn boring!

I saw Martina Nav's wife at the gelato stand, she's pretty cute. T shirts cost 60 bucks. Insane.

[Acornvilla]

Venus is a few inches taller, so far easier for her to be/seem slim I suppose. Random observation based of a line in Crosby's last post..

Lopez destroyed Raonic just there, Cilic got very lucky v Kukushkin or however you spell it. Paire has been mightly impressive so far.

[Crosby87]

That's the 1st time Serena has lost the 1st set in Flushing since 2005. That's amazing.

[Acornvilla]

Ha! Fognini is an absurd tennis player. I went to bed after the 1st set because it was 3am, some comeback!
He's just ridiculous altogether, he'd do that and then lose in the 1st round to nobody and not try.

[Crosby87]

His name sounds like he's a slow witted pornstar.

[Acornvilla]

Incredibly talented, verging on wasting it, more like. Occasionally puts a shift in for a week to remind everyone what he can do.