Tennis 2015

[Crosby87]

Simona says male and female fans keep asking her for kisses wherever she is. That's a little creepy. Did you do that Spuds?

[Crosby87]

Eugenie hurt in locker room spill. Canada weeps.

[Spudulika]

Simona says male and female fans keep asking her for kisses wherever she is. That's a little creepy. Did you do that Spuds?

Nah, working with female tennis players makes you realise that you don't find them attractive! I do remember Simona when she was a Junior, she played one of our Junior kids back in (I think) 2008. It was funny to see her before the breast op and after, she used to look like a chunky little thing, then suddenly (in 2012) she slimmed down. A couple of other girls went the same way. She played one of our players in the Kremlin Cup in 2012 and even though she was rated, she didn't look much. She did a nice turn by helping with a local kids program though - gave a coaching session just for the craic.

Big one now is the Williams battle, still social media here is (gigglingly if that's a word) calling it the Williams Brothers Battle. The funny thing is that some of the Russian girls outsize both sisters by quite a bit, Nastia Pavlyuchenkova for one. This is a girl with a mass of natural talent but real eating issues.

A former colleague and client (and GOAL athlete) is in the q/f's of the Mixed, Nastia Rodionova. She's partnered with Max Mirnyi and it'd be great to see her win this one!

[Crosby87]

Do you think Venus is going to roll over for sis?

[Dodge]

Do you think Venus is going to roll over for sis?

I don't think she'll have any chance of beating her either way

[Crosby87]

Normally I would agree but she seems rejuvenated. Gonna be hot today. Euro fainting expected.

[Spudulika]

I don't think she'll have any chance of beating her either way

Spot on.

Watched the Halep-Lisicki match while the football was on. Both were flakes, Halep did everything to prepare for a loss. I detest that in players, pretending to be injured to psyche out an opponent as well as have an excuse to lose.

Weather looked hot though.

[Acornvilla]

In other news, James Cluskey is on a 10 week odd losing streak. Lord blessus.

[Crosby87]

Rain causes a break at this terrific Halep Azerenka match. Winner has to play again tmrw. Lots of rain coming later and again tmrw could screw things up here, especially with the men.

[Crosby87]

Watching Feds speak right now he hasn't been in 6 yrs? Wow. So...that sucked. One more to go here. Hope that match is better.

So.......
Serena loses. Weird. Williams/Halep replaced by Panetta/Vinci
Two italians.

Some thoughts:
Stan is always cordial. Serena. Sigh. She seemed a little standoffish which is fine but...just so it's clear...she is definitely a phony. All of a sudden "Compton Serena" comes out.
So womens finals tix were averaging $1620 before the 1st set. 20 mins after the end of the match, it was $700 and believe me...no one is getting that.

One thing spuds, listening to this live as I am....pam shriver etc are killing wawrinka...they think he needs panties.

[Acornvilla]

Fed on a quick court > Stan, it's simple as that really, if it were clay/ a slow hard court, he wouldn't be able to rush the net like that. Stan needs time to wind up his big swings, which he got absolutely none of last night. Perfect tactical performance from Federer, left Stan with no answers.

Glad Serena lost, she seems like a right arsehole. Hope Panetta wins the final tbh, and think she will, she's the better of the two.

Djokovic to beat federer still I think, he's a better returner than Stan, will be able to take advantage of all those break points Wawa didn't last night, has played Federer enough to know the score with his new play style at this stage, including a match on a really fast hardcourt. It'll probably be another really tight one that ends up being 3-1 or so.

I also hope Jamie Murray/Peers win the doubles!

Hingis/Paes were a joy to watch in the mixed, if she plays with Federer in the olympics, they're winning the gold medal imo.

[Crosby87]

Sorry I was drunk last nighg making little sense. Anyway yeah this final must be getting terrible ratings!

[Crosby87]

Fair play to these 2 Italians they both seem like nice girls...so Flavia uses her speech after winning to announce she is retired. then they hand her a check for 350k which is 1/3 of her career earnings. And Roberta grabs it from her.

[Spudulika]

Interesting ending to the USO, glad the eyeties made the final, both have decent reps, no matter what is going on with them.

James is in a tough place right now, we could have a big announcement from him soon. It's sad, but sometimes, like with Barry King, something just clicks inside.

[Acornvilla]

Interesting ending to the USO, glad the eyeties made the final, both have decent reps, no matter what is going on with them.

James is in a tough place right now, we could have a big announcement from him soon. It's sad, but sometimes, like with Barry King, something just clicks inside.
Yeah, wouldn't blame him if he quit at this rate, he's making no money, and life on the road for a doubles player isn't easy. let alone if you've not won a match in 3 odd months. It's be a real shame, but I'm sure he'd get a coaching role somewhere.

McGee must be back soon enough, posted a picture during the week of a billion bags of Fila gear, so he's gotten some sort of sponsorship here.


As regards the USO, I stayed up for the men's final, the rain was a balls, and the crowd are a pack of classless idiots, Djokovic was so impressive to pull through and win it. That really was Federer's last chance saloon if you ask me, French and Aussie courts are too slow, for him to get close, so unless he flukes a Wimbledon that's that. Everything was in his favour and he still couldn't push it over the line. Federer's amazing thou, I doubt there's many if any other player's out there that'd be willing to put the time and hard work into figuring out how to adapt their game at his age, and make such a success of it.

Chances of Djokovic getting all 4 next year? Unless someone dramatically improves, he's just got Stan and Andy on a hot streak to worry about. He's on 10 GS now, with Fed on 17, he's 28, don't think he will surpass that, but it's no longer beyond the reals of possibility..

[Crosby87]

All anyone could talk about was Feds SABR thing. Why are people so offended by it? Can't you just do it back to him? Becker sounded like he was going to cry talking about it.
Hingis winning doubles is strange. Or maybe it suits her at this age. Could she still play singles?

[Acornvilla]

Becker downplayed it's importance in the interview I seen, but I seen some ****e that he was complaining that it was unsportsmanlike too, which I think us crap. If you're good enough to do it, then do it.
The reason people can't just do it back to him Crosby, is because it's bloody hard to do, and Fed is a good server in any case.

[Spudulika]

All anyone could talk about was Feds SABR thing. Why are people so offended by it? Can't you just do it back to him? Becker sounded like he was going to cry talking about it.
Hingis winning doubles is strange. Or maybe it suits her at this age. Could she still play singles?

She's been coaching a fair bit, worked with Bencic and some other tour players, Kalashnikova etc. But she loved and loves doubles, so it's handy for her. When the heavy cavalry arrived in tennis her day was over as a singles player. Doubles is just about her limit now.