The official unofficial tennis 2017 - 2024 thread

[carcinogen]

Not Emma related but Indian Wells. Play suspended in Alcaraz v Zverev for a massive swarm of bees:

Aren't swarms inherently 'massive'? ie: Swarm? Anyway, pedantry aside ... they should be made to play in a swarm of bee's. I think it would add to the entertainment. Tennis is shit. Like golf and basketball. Thinking about it, football should be played with lions roaming around the pitch. Call Eddie Hearn and his Saudi bum-chums, I think I've hit on a format.

[JimmyDee]

Who else remembers David Steele (not the politician) calmly practising his forward-defensive when every other player on the pitch was cowering in terror from a swarm of bees? 1975 Ashes, I dimly recall.

[The Ghost of Alex Higgins]

No

[Sadact7]

Who else remembers David Steele (not the politician) calmly practising his forward-defensive when every other player on the pitch was cowering in terror from a swarm of bees? 1975 Ashes, I dimly recall.

Balls of Steele

[Reg]

Not Emma related but Indian Wells. Play suspended in Alcaraz v Zverev for a massive swarm of bees:

Mods, please move.

Thanks.

[Sadact7]

Not Emma related but Indian Wells. Play suspended in Alcaraz v Zverev for a massive swarm of bees:

Mods, please move.

Thanks.

Good luck

[Reg]

Not Emma related but Indian Wells. Play suspended in Alcaraz v Zverev for a massive swarm of bees:

Mods, please move.

Thanks.

Good luck

State of this place.

[Carlos J]

Not Emma related but Indian Wells. Play suspended in Alcaraz v Zverev for a massive swarm of bees:

Mods, please move.

Thanks.

Done, Reg.

[Sadact7]

Not Emma related but Indian Wells. Play suspended in Alcaraz v Zverev for a massive swarm of bees:

Mods, please move.

Thanks.

Good luck

State of this place.

You should be brutalised you ANUS

[Carlos J]

Good to see old Rafa back on the clay. Had a few games turn of the year and nothing since last years Oz Open.

Will be a send off year for him like for Sir Andy with special attention on the French and the Olympics also at Roland Garros:

[tennisman]

Good to see old Rafa back on the clay. Had a few games turn of the year and nothing since last years Oz Open.

Will be a send off year for him like for Sir Andy with special attention on the French and the Olympics also at Roland Garros:

Indeed Carlos. Let's see how his physical state holds up.

Great site for following the tournaments of the week, including the ATP and WTA main ones and the ATP Challengers where there can be up to 5 a week going on in various parts of the world.

Check out the relatively low amounts of prize money in the Challengers, especially for 1st and 2nd round losers.

It's not news to identify how much of a slog it is to make ends meet unless you are in the top 100 but these levels of money reinforce the point.

https://tennistonic.com/tournament/atp/ ... -Barcelona

#inpursuitoftheslam

[Carlos J]

Good to see old Rafa back on the clay. Had a few games turn of the year and nothing since last years Oz Open.

Will be a send off year for him like for Sir Andy with special attention on the French and the Olympics also at Roland Garros:

Indeed Carlos. Let's see how his physical state holds up.

Great site for following the tournaments of the week, including the ATP and WTA main ones and the ATP Challengers where there can be up to 5 a week going on in various parts of the world.

Check out the relatively low amounts of prize money in the Challengers, especially for 1st and 2nd round losers.

It's not news to identify how much of a slog it is to make ends meet unless you are in the top 100 but these levels of money reinforce the point.

https://tennistonic.com/tournament/atp/ ... -Barcelona

#inpursuitoftheslam

Cheers, tennisman, and yeah, see how he goes, hopefully gets a few matches and the body stays good.

That looks a great site and lots of little snippets of information. Saw something recently about how much Jack Draper had earned this year. Quite a nice amount as includes Indian Wells and Miami and yes, he's top 50 as well. Down on the 100s must be very hard, literally playing for your supper.

Another thing that interests me is crowds. Shite for the Middle Eastern swing and then mostly expats until the finals. Latin America is great, US good and Europe seems OK so far.

Remember Radders is playing tomorrow early evening I think and hope all good for you and the book's still selling.

[tennisman]

Good to see old Rafa back on the clay. Had a few games turn of the year and nothing since last years Oz Open.

Will be a send off year for him like for Sir Andy with special attention on the French and the Olympics also at Roland Garros:

Indeed Carlos. Let's see how his physical state holds up.

Great site for following the tournaments of the week, including the ATP and WTA main ones and the ATP Challengers where there can be up to 5 a week going on in various parts of the world.

Check out the relatively low amounts of prize money in the Challengers, especially for 1st and 2nd round losers.

It's not news to identify how much of a slog it is to make ends meet unless you are in the top 100 but these levels of money reinforce the point.

https://tennistonic.com/tournament/atp/ ... -Barcelona

#inpursuitoftheslam

Cheers, tennisman, and yeah, see how he goes, hopefully gets a few matches and the body stays good.

That looks a great site and lots of little snippets of information. Saw something recently about how much Jack Draper had earned this year. Quite a nice amount as includes Indian Wells and Miami and yes, he's top 50 as well. Down on the 100s must be very hard, literally playing for your supper.

Another thing that interests me is crowds. Shite for the Middle Eastern swing and then mostly expats until the finals. Latin America is great, US good and Europe seems OK so far.

Remember Radders is playing tomorrow early evening I think and hope all good for you and the book's still selling.

On crowds, Carlos, whenever I find a video feed for a Challenger tournament, the crowds seem to be pretty good. Challengers are also held at smaller venues, often what might be termed traditional clubs where in places like Italy, Spain and across South America, main courts at clubs were often / usually built with seating. The comparison is a bit like lower league / non league grounds v. soulless bowls for the big clubs. I prefer the former.

Attendances, increasing them and the revenues that go with more people, is at the heart of Wimbledon's plans to expand across Church Road. Because the likes of the US Open and the AO have evening / night sessions and (since my 92/3 trip) revamped significantly all their outside courts with seating etc, their attendances are significantly higher now than Wimbledon. Of course, there is the issue of TV audiences and while I don't have any numbers, I'd imagine that worldwide viewership would be highest for Wimbledon.

There is lots of opposition to Wimbledon's expansion plans from local residents. A friend of mine is involved with one group. I think that money will probably talk and as things never stand still, even if the proposals go from local council to national government level (which they probably will), the powers that be in all the institutions will not stand in the way of the development plans.

I'm still plugging the book shamelessly, although while the sales have been consistent with ones written by unknown authors, that is between 100-200, despite the fact that I had never been through the process, if I'm honest, I probably expected to sell a few more.

But buying and reading books is not everyone's priority, so although many people have said they would buy the book, it seems that lots of them have never got around to it and also, even those who have bought it, have not necessarily read it. Even close family and friends and tennis contacts (legends etc), who have received one of my copies, have not read it!

But the book is relatively timeless in that it's not about a current topic, so as the 2nd birthday approaches, I will roll my sleeves up and keep the social media promotion going. I know that the tennis fans who I had in mind when writing it, would really enjoy it from just a nostalgic perspective alone and as ever, the promotional efforts just have to hopefully target and find those people.

On the promotion, it's a fine line between on the one hand, just listing the link to the book and saying, 'Buy my book', to on the other, doing things a bit more indirectly, providing other information, clips, opinions on the game etc and giving the link at the end (as I've done here - see below!). If you do too much of the former, people get sick of it but if you don't get the indirect sell approach right, people start to enjoy your content but never actually buy the book! Then again, if you don't do a few direct sell link-only posts, people forget what you are really on there for.

Glad to see ER winning back to back matches in the BJK Cup and on clay and coming from a set down and against respected tour players (Garcia has been top 10 and Parry is ranked currently at #49).

I don't read through all the social media stuff I see about ER anymore, as by now, I've read it all before. There is almost a polarity between the ''So proud of you, my sweet, gorgeous girl' gang on the one hand to the 'She should be a model, is arrogant and was lucky to win in NYC, especially as it was a Covid tournament and the top players didn't play' gang.

On the final claim, I was intrigued by it and a few months back, did an analysis of who played and who didn't. I went on the WTA site (another good one, by the way, as is the ATP Tour site), went to the rankings page, and used the date drop-down to see the top 32 on the Monday start date of the '21 US Open.

Then, I used Wikipedia for the list of the 32 seeds in the women's singles. 30 of the world's top 32 played the tournament; the two that missed it were injured.

As for the fact that she didn't play top 10 players and that Bencic and Sakkari (top 20 players) were the highest ranked amongst her opponents, well, I've never seen any Grand Slam winner's performance critiqued in this way. It's not done like that. Luck of the draw or luck of performances? Maybe, but you play who is in front of you. And often, you have to watch out for players who have come through who have got there by beating top ranked players.

At the 1973 Wimbledon, the ATP had a strike and 98% of the world's top 80 players pulled out. Everyone shunted up. Jan Kodes won the title but even though it could be argued that on that occasion, there really was a weaker draw, the record books don't show that; they never do, ever.

The only time I will judge ER, as I do with all pros, is when they have retired.

PS Sad news last week to hear of the death of Alan Jones, Jo Durie's coach as she rose to world #5 back in the early 80s. By chance, I sat next to Alan back in '22 at the Winchmore Hill FC Centenary Dinner. Our paths had not crossed when I was a tennis coach. He had played at WHFC a few years before me. Although it was a football dinner, we talked tennis all evening. He will be much missed.

My book for anyone interested: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pursuit-Slam-T ... c81Vbio8Bw

[The Ghost of Alex Higgins]

Great to see you back in here tm

Radders made a err rod for her own back by actually winning something. That lit a fire for a starved Brit audience - they immediately wanted to see ongoing domination a la Novak, Serena. Anything short of that gets jumped on.

[Carlos J]

On crowds, Carlos, whenever I find a video feed for a Challenger tournament, the crowds seem to be pretty good. Challengers are also held at smaller venues, often what might be termed traditional clubs where in places like Italy, Spain and across South America, main courts at clubs were often / usually built with seating. The comparison is a bit like lower league / non league grounds v. soulless bowls for the big clubs. I prefer the former. [...]

Phew, TM, don't know where to start. Crowds then.

Currently watching Jack Draper playing Munich. A decent crowd there and they've been off for a rain break already. It looks very much like an early season cricket County Championship game - coats, woolly hats, though not seen gloves yet. It is 6°C/43°F, there so a bit chilly, Draper has leggings under his shorts and was wearing an under shirt earlier. Haven't really seen much Challenger stuff bit will look out for some.

Which leads on to Wimbledon. I've seen some of the stuff about the expansion and read some of your bits on Digispy as look there occasionally.

As you say, it'll probably get approved somewhere along the line. One thing I do like about Wimbledon is the curfew and no night sessions which seem to either finish super late or very quickly at the other slams.

Carry on supporting your book and you are right, it is a timeless read so won't be out of date next year or the year after. And yes, unlike some, I did read it. As downsizing soon with books, I will give to a charity shop so someone else can benefit, though sadly not you in royalties.

Said the same thing about Emma playing 2 matches in 2 days as well in her thread and good to see and now will be 3 in 5. Hopefully, her comeback has been done properly this time and nd she won't break down again.

Sadly, paolo of this parish, also a tennis fan and player, is of the Raducanu 'fluke' camp. See pages 11, 12 and 13 of the 'Raducanu' thread and like you I said you have to beat what's in front of you and she did beat two top 20 players and Leylah Fernandez, who she beat in the final, had beaten three top 5 seeds.

Then in desperation, he asked who is the only tennis player to have won a grand slam without beating anyone in the top ten? Seemingly not aware that Rafa and Novak have done it recently.

But, here like on twitter, just correct trolls with facts and they might learn something.

Ooh, Jack's just won in three. Osaka, Rafa and Emma still to come.