@The Bridge Lad What are your thoughts on tennis at the olympics?
Im looking at paying stupid money to go to the olympics and one of the packages includes tennis. How seriously do you think it will be taken? Do you know what surfaces it will be? (I should probably go and look that up on google!)
It's a difficult one. It's an additional significant tennis event to look forward to in that year, so I am pleased that it got reinstated, but at the same time, like golf, football etc. it's not the absolute pinnacle, like it is for a lot of the other sports. There was also a fair few players that pulled out 4 years ago in Brazil citing the Zika virus, whereas if that was their everything, I'm sure they would have made more of an effort if you know what I mean. That said, players do really want to win and there's been a lot of players on the women's side who made sure they played enough Fed Cup matches in the past year to ensure they are eligible for it. 2020 does kind of feel significant, there's a lot of talk that Venus is potentially hoping to end her career after that, but she'll have a hard job just to qualify as it's a max of 4 players per nation. Federer has never won Olympic Gold in the single's, neither has Novak, so they will be up for it, and Naomi Osaka will obviously be a huge attraction and give an even bigger feel (and Nishikori).
It's on outside hard courts, but they do have a roof, it's the venue where the WTA Pan Pacific Open was played before it underwent the renovations.
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It's this one, but it will look completely different I'd imagine - the 2018 event was moved to cater for the changes.
If you're thinking of going, then it should be really good, and the presence of home top 10 players on both sides should really add to it. Pretty sure the men's final is now just BO3 instead of BO5 - BO5 is pretty much just the men's slams these days, now that the Davis Cup has been revamped.
Another tennis lover checking in.
I love this time of the year (the US/Canadian swing). Tennis doesn't start until after I've finished work.
So you've got a whole evenings play of Tennis.
Even better with the coverage it gets now, thanks to BT Sports.
Good to have another big tennis fan on the board mate, the more the merrier.
Although the 2 weeks of Wimbledon will always be my favourite, this part of the season is right up there for me too. It's great getting back home from work as you say and having the option to watch live tennis right up until bed if you wanted to, all obviously leading up to the US Open, which is my 2nd favourite slam, and probably would be my favourite if I wasn't British. A couple of decent tournaments this week with a lot of big names playing on both sides, but it properly gets going next week in Canada where pretty much everyone is playing, bar a couple of notable exceptions. Great stuff
