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SMB Tennis thread


It was shockingly poor tennis at times. She really needs to try not to get dragged into those attritional rallies.
I think that was a case of playing not to lose rather than employing some killer instinct. Let the other player make the mistakes.
I remember watching the likes of Chris Evert and her bore the tits off baseline play. The bewers have come a long way since then.
 
I think that was a case of playing not to lose rather than employing some killer instinct. Let the other player make the mistakes.
I remember watching the likes of Chris Evert and her bore the tits off baseline play. The bewers have come a long way since then.
I’d say a lot of women’s tennis is still attritional rallies from the baseline. The exceptions tend to be the ones that make it through to the later rounds so get proportionally more coverage.
 
I had a great day there today.
Went to court 12 for Darts win followed by Sousa defeating Cillic. We then went for a bit of a break from the sun and went to Henman Hill. Following that we went to court 18 to get ready for Jamie Murray, we watched Bencic win quite comfortably but due to work tomorrow I thought it was best to head home.
I cant believe that was all for £25!
We were in the queue for 5:55 and in the grounds for 11:00.

I would thoroughly recommend getting the Eurostar to Paris for Roland-Garros one year. I enjoyed Wimbledon but thought RG was a better experience, a bit more for 'the people' and less of Wimbledon's snootiness.

Massively better on the ticketing front, no need to queue at all! Had ground tickets for 2 days and upgraded one day to 'centre court' online the night before when we saw Nadal and Djokovic were both scheduled.

Also, it's in Paris! We had a lovely little Airbnb apartment 15 mins walk from RG.
 
Chuffing thunderstorm knocked me dish out at 5-5.
I get a bit sick of the way the media wank off over stories like this but you can’t help but admire the youngun like. Two match points saved in the second set and back to win. Its not only good skills but great mental strength to fight back from that.

6-3 5-2 and looked like it was just going to be a routine win for the higher ranked player. I was just hoping she'd get a few more games to make the score line more respectable on her Centre Court debut. Quality obviously wasn't great, but it was a veteran journeywomen who fluctuates between 60-100 against the A side 15 year old (only recently turned 15 as well) who had never played a grand slam main draw match prior to Monday. It would be weird situation for both.

I'm loving it tbh. It's my favourite sport and follow it all year round, and I love the interest it's generating and reaching audiences outside of tennis circles. She had the 2nd highest viewing figures for her last match and this one might have even topped the Nadal figures from last night.
 
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6-3 5-2 and looked like it was just going to be a routine win for the higher ranked player. I was just hoping she'd get a few more games to make the score line more respectable on her Centre Court debut. Quality obviously wasn't great, but it was a veteran journeywomen who fluctuates between 60-100 against the A side 15 year old (only recently turned 15 as well) who had never played a grand slam main draw match prior to Monday. It would be weird situation for both.

I'm loving it tbh. It's my favourite sport and follow it all year round, and I love the interest it's generating and reaching audiences outside of tennis circles. She had the 2nd highest viewing figures for her last match and this one might have even topped the Nadal figures from last night.
They fell very lucky the way the game played out. We picked it up after the 6 o’clock news and it might have been lights out in the tie break.

The 2nd set breakthrough and subsequent 3rd set would have massively bumped up the viewing figures.
 
They fell very lucky the way the game played out. We picked it up after the 6 o’clock news and it might have been lights out in the tie break.

The 2nd set breakthrough and subsequent 3rd set would have massively bumped up the viewing figures.
True. Hercog will be absolutely kicking herself as well, double faulting on one of her 2 MPs and then 5-3 up in the tie break. She's never been into the 2nd week of a slam before and will hardly get a better chance than that - she'll be having nightmares about that for a while. She couldn't get off the court soon enough.
 
6-3 5-2 and looked like it was just going to be a routine win for the higher ranked player. I was just hoping she'd get a few more games to make the score line more respectable on her Centre Court debut. Quality obviously wasn't great, but it was a veteran journeywomen who fluctuates between 60-100 against the A side 15 year old (only recently turned 15 as well) who had never played a grand slam main draw match prior to Monday. It would be weird situation for both.

I'm loving it tbh. It's my favourite sport and follow it all year round, and I love the interest it's generating and reaching audiences outside of tennis circles. She had the 2nd highest viewing figures for her last match and this one might have even topped the Nadal figures from last night.

Well I’d much rather watch the plucky kid than see Nadal with his fingers in his arse all day long the disgusting greasy sweaty rancid stinker.
 
CENTRE COURT
1:00PM

A. Barty (AUS) 1 H. Dart (GBR)
J-W. Tsonga (FRA) v R. Nadal (ESP) 3
L. Pouille (FRA) 27 v R. Federer (SUI) 2

NO.1 COURT
1:00PM

S. Williams (USA) 11 v J. Goerges (GER) 18
S. Stephens (USA) 9 v J. Konta (GBR) 19
J. Sousa (POR) v D. Evans (GBR)


NO.2 COURT
M. Linette (POL) v P. Kvitova (CZE) 6
NOT BEFORE: 1:00PM
GENTLEMEN'S DOUBLES - SECOND ROUND (Andy Murray)
MIXED DOUBLES - FIRST ROUND (CoCo Gauff & Jay Clarke)

NO.3 COURT
K. Nishikori (JPN) 8 v S. Johnson (USA)
K. Bertens (NED) 4 v B. Strycova (CZE)

COURT 12
A. Riske (USA) v B. Bencic (SUI) 13
J. Struff (GER) 33 v M. Kukushkin (KAZ)

COURT 18
E. Mertens (BEL) 21 v Q. Wang (CHN) 15
M. Berrettini (ITA) 17 v D. Schwartzman (ARG) 24

COURT 14
12:30PM

T. Sandgren (USA) v F. Fognini (ITA) 12

COURT 16
C. Suarez Navarro (ESP) 30 v L. Davis (USA)

COURT 17
S. Querrey (USA) v J. Millman (AUS)


TO BE ARRANGED
NOT BEFORE: 5:30PM

MIXED DOUBLES - FIRST ROUND - A. Murray (GBR) & S. Williams (USA) v A. Mies (GER) & A. Guarachi (CHI)


It's also the start of the junior competitions tomorrow on the outside courts, which are always worth a watch, as the next breakout star could be just around the corner. Some recent girls finals include:

Wimbledon 2016 - Potapova beat Yastremska, 15 vs 16 year old. Yastremska has already won 3 WTA titles, 2 in 2019, and is also through to the 4th round here, not long past her 19th birthday. Potapova made 2nd round here and made 2 WTA finals last year.

US Open 2017 - Anisimova beat Gauff - Anisimova was seeded in this years Wimbledon (still just 17), and had only just turned 16 at the time of winning this, Gauff was just 13 and a half, and that was the first time I saw her.

French Open 2018 - Gauff beat McNally - both came through Wimbledon quals this year. McNally lost to Watson, but is currently just outside the top 100 at only 17.

Swiatek won Wimbledon girls last year and made the 4th round of the senior French Open last month, and is now around 60 in the rankings, and Kostyuk won the Aussie jr title in 2017 and then reached the 3rd round of the senior event the following year aged just 15, so definitely worth following it, especially the latter stages.
 
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I'm still watching clips of the match point and crowd reactions.

CENTRE COURT
1:00PM

A. Barty (AUS) 1 H. Dart (GBR)
J-W. Tsonga (FRA) v R. Nadal (ESP) 3
L. Pouille (FRA) 27 v R. Federer (SUI) 2

NO.1 COURT
1:00PM

S. Williams (USA) 11 v J. Goerges (GER) 18
S. Stephens (USA) 9 v J. Konta (GBR) 19
J. Sousa (POR) v D. Evans (GBR)


NO.2 COURT
M. Linette (POL) v P. Kvitova (CZE) 6
NOT BEFORE: 1:00PM
GENTLEMEN'S DOUBLES - SECOND ROUND (Andy Murray)
MIXED DOUBLES - FIRST ROUND (CoCo Gauff & Jay Clarke)

NO.3 COURT
K. Nishikori (JPN) 8 v S. Johnson (USA)
K. Bertens (NED) 4 v B. Strycova (CZE)

COURT 12
A. Riske (USA) v B. Bencic (SUI) 13
J. Struff (GER) 33 v M. Kukushkin (KAZ)

COURT 18
E. Mertens (BEL) 21 v Q. Wang (CHN) 15
M. Berrettini (ITA) 17 v D. Schwartzman (ARG) 24

COURT 14
12:30PM

T. Sandgren (USA) v F. Fognini (ITA) 12

COURT 16
C. Suarez Navarro (ESP) 30 v L. Davis (USA)

COURT 17
S. Querrey (USA) v J. Millman (AUS)


TO BE ARRANGED
NOT BEFORE: 5:30PM

MIXED DOUBLES - FIRST ROUND - A. Murray (GBR) & S. Williams (USA) v A. Mies (GER) & A. Guarachi (CHI)


It's also the start of the junior competitions tomorrow on the outside courts, which are always worth a watch, as the next breakout star could be just around the corner. Some recent girls finals include:

Wimbledon 2016 - Potapova beat Yastremska, 15 vs 16 year old. Yastremska has already won 3 WTA titles, 2 in 2019, and is also through to the 4th round here, not long past her 19th birthday. Potapova made 2nd round here and made 2 WTA finals last year.

US Open 2017 - Anisimova beat Gauff - Anisimova was seeded in this years Wimbledon (still just 17), and had only just turned 16 at the time of winning this, Gauff was just 13 and a half, and that was the first time I saw her.

French Open 2018 - Gauff beat McNally - both came through Wimbledon quals this year. McNally lost to Watson, but is currently just outside the top 100 at only 17.

Swiatek won Wimbledon girls last year and made the 4th round of the senior French Open last month, and is now around 60 in the rankings, and Kostyuk won the Aussie jr title in 2017 and then reached the 3rd round of the senior event the following year aged just 15, so definitely worth following it, especially the latter stages.

Cool. Anyone in particular worth keeping an eye on?
 
I'm still watching clips of the match point and crowd reactions.



Cool. Anyone in particular worth keeping an eye on?

Some of the current top juniors aren't playing which is a bit of a shame, including the recent FO winner (and AO finalist) Fernandez. Daria Snigur has been having some success on the ITF tour this year and won a warm up event in Roehampton last week, so she'll probably be the favourite. There's a very talented 14 year old from the Czech Rep called Fruhvirtova, she is due to face the 2nd seed early so may not last long here, but big things are expected from her. There's 8 British girls involved.

Great incentive for the winner as they pretty much always get either a qualifying WC (if needed) or a main draw WC for next years senior event, and the final (next Saturday) is on Court 1 and is usually packed.
 
I would thoroughly recommend getting the Eurostar to Paris for Roland-Garros one year. I enjoyed Wimbledon but thought RG was a better experience, a bit more for 'the people' and less of Wimbledon's snootiness.

Massively better on the ticketing front, no need to queue at all! Had ground tickets for 2 days and upgraded one day to 'centre court' online the night before when we saw Nadal and Djokovic were both scheduled.

Also, it's in Paris! We had a lovely little Airbnb apartment 15 mins walk from RG.
My friend went to the final a few years ago. I might try and take my mum next year, thanks for the idea!
 
This Mertens-Wang match is very good. Trying to keep an eye on Bencic-Riske as well as it's fairly deep in the decider and Bencic is getting very emotional having squandered a 3-0 and 3 break point lead in the decider.

The quality in this Mertens match has dipped badly this 3rd set. Both look knackered after the end of the 2nd.
 
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My God, how bad was Dart there? Totally outclassed.

She came through qualifying to reach the Australian Open main draw earlier in the year and lost 0-6 0-6 to Sharapova in the 1st round (also on the biggest court there), so at least she did get on the board here, but yeah not great. She is basically a 100-200 type player (generally middle to lower end) and will get more opportunities than many because of her nationality, including the WC here, which she did take advantage of, reaching the 3rd round and pocketing more than £100k, but it can be hard seeing her so out of her depth, and she is the 3rd or 4th best British woman, which isn't too encouraging.

Stephens serving for the 1st set against Konta.
 
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Sloane should have been off court about forty minutes ago with an easy straight sets win. Fair play to Konta for battling away though, gonna get rewarded for it.
 
Crazy momentum shift. First set in the bag and looked just a case of when Stephens would break in the second to ultimately get the W.

Not long later, Konta serving for the match and 2 points away.
 
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