The Tennis Thread

[lollipopgirl]

Maria just streamrolled through her match against Elena too.... Really great to see her win another title, finally! I'm proud to be a fan!

X-Katie-X

[dido]

well, amelie mouresmo is world no.1 again .She says she will try to sustain her top spot till year-end. Last time she was at top for 5 weeks .Considering the competition around what do you guys think???Any predictions??personally speaking i like her game but iam not sure she is as dominant like steffi graff(well, she was the best). Will the belgians reclaim top spot soon,any guesses??

[HalfCamel]

I'm glad Amelie is at the top spot again. She always works hard so she deserves it. I haven't kept up with the players lately but I'm sure Clijsters and Hennin-Hardine will be gunning for no. 1, so Amelie shouldn't get too comfortable.

What do you all think of the "Hawk-Eye" replay? I think it'll be a great advantage for the game, because you know how one point can either make you or break you. No matter how good an umpire is, there's always the human error element. Especially when tiny, yellow tennis balls are flying at you at 100 mph. There's always the thing of players taking advantage of the "instant replay", but with the rules they have it should be ok.

[lollipopgirl]

I think Kim will reclaim the number one spot again soon but if Maria can continue her current form she may be competition for it aswell! Once clay court season comes around Justine will take control, DAMN IT! (I don't like her)
Hawkeye is great... I loved watching the player's challenges at the Hopman Cup so its great that they have brought it in to one of the major events! This should be a great tournament all around!

X-Katie-X

[Artemis]

I'm very much in favour of Hawk-Eye, to a point. I think it's a great system, and there are times when it would really benefit the game to have a pinpoint-accurate, indisputable replay, usually when a player either challenges the umpire with good reason, on those pretty rare occasions when the umpires get it wrong, or - more frequently, it seems - when the umpire gets it right but the player won't accept it, and you just with they'd shove Hawk-Eye in the player's face just to get him to shut up.

But that said, I do think having human judges and umpires is an important part of the game. You could argue that it'd be ideal to have infallible systems calling every point, and there's no actual practical objection to that, but I think part of the point of tennis is that, in the end, it's a game. You can have all the technology you want pre-match, do computer analysis of your serve to improve it, get a racquet designed by NASA, shoes by MIT, whatever, but in the end, you and your opponent go out onto a simple court where the ball can skid off a patch of thin grass, or catch the net and drop either side, or the wind can blow up in the middle of a point, or the line judge can miss a call here and there. So long as everything possible is done to see that the conditions are equal for both players, I kind of like that luck factor - sometimes it'll bite a player, but I respect people who can shrug it off if something out of their control doesn't go their way.

It's kind of odd to be saying that about tennis, which needs seven officials on-court just for two people to play (moreso, given that when I play tennis, line calls consist of "Was that in?" "I dunno." "Wanna replay it?" "Sure, why not.") - but at a professional level, I think it's important that factors other than pure skill still have a place, and the players have to deal with them, as well as their opponent. For me, that marks the difference between a sportswoman (or sportsman) and an athlete.

I recall hearing something during the Hopman Cup about a player only being able to ask for the Hawk-Eye data for a point to be checked a certain number of times per match - I think that's a good compromise. There are times when it's unfair to expect a player to accept a call they're sure is incorrect, but also, I think it's good that there should be a line drawn between when you argue the call, and when you suck it up and play the cards you're dealt.

Stepping off my soap-box now...

Times like this, in between Grand Slams, I really wish I had Pay-TV - unless Australia is playing a Davis Cup match, we never get tennis broadcast on free-to-air. The Slams, and the tournaments in Australia at the beginning of the year, are pretty much the only time I get to see women's tennis. They didn't even broadcast the first week of the French last year - I hope that doesn't happen again, I want to see Amelie's campaign from the start (and hopefully watch her win the tournament, but I'm under no illusions that it'll be easy, between the clay court players she'll be facing, and the pressure of her home crowd's expectations).

[HalfCamel]

Chris I agree with what you’re saying. Part of the excitement of playing a game is those calls that come really close. It’s emotional and motivates you if it’s against you, and it pumps you up when it’s in your favor.

I don’t think the Hawk-Eye should replace the umpires and line judges either. But I do think that when the stakes are much, much higher at the professional level, where there’s so much money involved and it’s your livelihood, the Hawk-Eye could verify that one crucial point.

I believe that a player only gets two chances to challenge a point and use Hawk-Eye, so I think that’ll put a limit on the John McEnroe types that want to challenge every point to psych out their opponent.

Chris wrote:

(moreso, given that when I play tennis, line calls consist of "Was that in?" "I dunno." "Wanna replay it?" "Sure, why not.")

That sounds like my friends and I when we play. I love that kind of attitude when playing a match with someone, cuz it’s not that competitive and all about winning, but more about having fun, and if you win, you win.

Jackie

[lollipopgirl]

These are the rules surrounding Hawk-Eye and I think they are really well thought out!

1. Each player or doubles team receives two incorrect challenges per set, plus an additional challenge in a tie-break (unlimited correct challenges). If a player makes two challenges that are incorrect in any given set she will not be able to make any further challenges until the following set or tiebreak.

2. Challenges will not be carried over from one set to another.

3. Challenges can only be made on point-ending shots or when a player stops play.

4. Challenges must be made in a timely manner and stated clearly (“I challenge.”) to the Chair Umpire

5. If for any reason the electronic review system is not functioning properly, the original call will stand.

X-Katie-X

[dido]

hai guys,isnt Hawk eye already in use in cricket by the commentary teams pointing out how wrong the umpires are some(many) times.It could be helpful in case the umpire gets it wrong,But as chris pointed out it does take away the whole human element from the matches,blaming the umpire for all the tight calls is part &parcel of the game..Imagine john macenroe not having a chance to fight with umpire....standing in front of hawkeye camera and saying..listen you hawkeye or pigeoneye or whatever YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS .In life you must have somebody to blame for all your troubles
Also agree with you on few broadcasts of tennis matches other than grandslams,here its always cricket cricket&more cricket even onpay tv

[Sasha]

Totally OT, but...

Should I be worried that I saw the title of this thread out of the corner of my eye, and thought it said 'The Penis Thread'?



*Sasha runs away from the angry lesbian tennis-fans*

[sabina]

Hello everyone

As the kittens who are tennis fans probably already know the French Open has just began a couple of days ago, 2nd round starting tomorrow.
I think I love the first rounds of Grand Slams better than the latter ones. I like the anticipation, the discussions about what will each seed do or not do againts less known players, about how far will they go and who will they clash against during the way. Basically I love the endless possibilities of outcomes when a new tournment starts.

So (and since most my friends think I'm nuts when I start trying to talk to them about tennis, lol) so I was hoping to draw some kittens to this thread and talk about tennis

Who do you think will win the women's singles?

I'm rooting for Mauresmo (waves imaginary pon pons in the air) and although normally I wouldn't bet on her going very far, considering she has always gotten the shakes while playing at home before, this year I thought she seemed more relaxed and confident on her first round so I truly think she has a chance.

I don't like Justine Henin-Hardenne but she is always a player to consider.
Petrova is out of the picture and Clistjers doesn't seem to be completely recovered from her injury. Hingis is back and going strong but I don't see her managing to overcome the more "hard hitting" players. (I'm hoping these won't become "the famous last words" in a couple of weeks when the open ends).

[Candleshoe]

I'm rooting for Mauresmo (waves imaginary pon pons in the air) and although normally I wouldn't bet on her going very far, considering she has always gotten the shakes while playing at home before, this year I thought she seemed more relaxed and confident on her first round so I truly think she has a chance.

Ooh, I do hope so! I've always been as disappointed as she is when she plays at home before, but perhaps this year she will defy all the expectations.

The French Open isn't particularly well covered here (all the TV channels are gearing up for Wimbledon) so it would be nice to be kept updated by Kittens!

[FemaleOfTheSpecies]

Trying desperately to scrounge some Wimbledon tickets from 'he that I am technically still married to' since he's working there over the event.

[sabina]

I'm lucky as far as tv coverage of tennis goes. I have Eurosport international and it does a major coverage of all grand slams.

Mauresmo won against Duschevina today 6-1, 7-6 (yay). I didn't see the game but after reading the interviews I got the idea that she breezed through the first set and struggled through the second (you get that idea from the result anyway,lol). It had been raining and it was windy so the conditions weren't the best to play. I'm going to be an optimist and say that is encouraging that Amelie managed to secure the second set even though she wasn't playing her best. I'm hoping it means she is feeling more relaxed and confident enough not to break on the important points

Both Venus Williams and Sharapova won their respective games and have booked a place in the third round. And so did Safina and Patty Shnyder.

I will be out of town and away from the television for the next four days, so no more Roland Garros for me until Sunday

[Artemis]

Thanks to the vagaries of Channel Nine (I think they're showing the nth CSI clone or something) coverage of Wimbledon doesn't start until later tonight - when, in any case, they'll just show Lleyton endlessly. So I'm reduced to watching the updating scoreboard on the Wimbledon website, and seeing the numbers tick over, as my only way of experiencing Amelie's opening match.

Still... go Amelie!

[sabina]

Start rant ---> It's kind of ironic to scroll up ths thread and see my last post where I said that eurosport international broadcasted all grand slams and now realize that their coveraged of Wimbledon is going to be really short. Bah... I like football but I'm starting to get a little bit tired of seeing so many reviews of matches. And yes I do realize that the championship only happens every four years and that Wimbledon happens every year but would it be so bad to mix a little bit of tennis with all the football games? <--- end rant.

Now on to the tennis.

I just went to the wimbledon site and saw that Amelie won her first game, yay
I'm hoping she will do well in Wimbledon although her preparation tournment didn't go exactly according to plans.

[sabina]

So is anyone following Wimbledon?

Eurosport isn't covering it
Well, I'm hoping the second week of the tournment will get some air time and also hoping my favourite players will still be playing by then, lol. Until then the official site will have to do.

I just discovered that Mauresmo won her second round game today. And according to the article she played well too.

[Candleshoe]

Venus Williams is out of Wimbledon? Which universe am I in now?

[Auburn]

Venus Williams is out of Wimbledon?

Mwahahahaha.

[Candleshoe]

Venus Williams is out of Wimbledon?

Mwahahahaha.

Well, that's not nice!

[Auburn]

Ok, ok, you may have a sympathy hug too. *hugs*

[Candleshoe]

Thank you!

And... Mauresmo's comfortably through!

[kisstheviolets]

when did venus lose?? i can't find anything in the news about it. i'm heartbroken. i love those williams gals.

[Candleshoe]

ktv: Look here

[kisstheviolets]

damn. - thanks candleshoe.

i don't even remember the last time i watched a wimbledon final without one of them williamses. oh, the tv was just kind of enough to tell me it was '99. blech.

[umgaynow]

Wimbledon has been on for a week now and only once have I turned on the tv to find that they were showing a women's match...and even then it was only for a couple of games...damned sexist networks!!!!!! GRRRRRRRR!!

At least the sexists at the French just zoom in on tight ass-shots of the players, whilst they are waiting to receive serve...and in all fairness, I can't really say I mind that

[Artemis]

Another Amelie match goes by with minimal coverage here - we got to see the last point of the first set, and - wow! - almost two-thirds of the last game of the second set. Obviously they couldn't bear to be away from Lleyton initially, but I do question covering Jonas Bjorkman in the gap between Lleyton's win and the start of Federer's match. No slight to Bjorkman, who I'm sure is a fine player with many fans, but out of him and Amelie, there was one top seed and world number one playing at that point, and they weren't Swedish.

Sigh.

I did get kind of caught up in the excitement watching the self-updating scoreboard on the Wimbledon site tick over during the match, though. That's kind of dorky of me

Looked like she had a minor eek moment just at the end, but steadied and closed it out without getting into any real danger. Quarter finals now, up against Anastasia Myskina, who looks to have been progressing strongly so far, barring a tiebreak in her last match, and has been winning doubles matches too. Looks like it might be a decent contest - no doubt Channel Nine will lavish attention on it, provided they're not busy showing Lleyton picking his nose, or playing one of their imbecilic "Look, it's Wimbledon, there are people here with strawberries!" mini-documentaries.

Go Amelie!

[sabina]

...no doubt Channel Nine will lavish attention on it, provided they're not busy showing Lleyton picking his nose, or playing one of their imbecilic "Look, it's Wimbledon, there are people here with strawberries!" mini-documentaries.

That was just too funny.

I too get sort of mesmerized by the self updating scoreboard board at the Wimbledon site so that's two of us Artemis, we just need to meet someone else who does that and then we can call ourselves a club, lol.
Although besides staring at the scoreboard I also like to stare at the point tracker and imagine the points played...
I guess that's what happens when you are broke and not willing to pay for video on demand to see Wimbledon. I just discovered Eurosport has the rights to every Grand Slam except... ta da... Wimbledon. Blech.

I would like to see Amelie play, apparently she has been playing well.
I'm hoping history will repeat itself (but just on this next round) and she'll beat Myskina tomorow.
Go Amelie, go.

Justine Henin-Hardenne and Clistjers are both favourites in their quarter finals so unless something unexpected happens they'll meet in the final.

I'm kind of curious to see what will happen in the Sharapova-Dementieva clash. I think it kind of comes down to what kind of day Dementieva is having. When she is playing well she is one of my favourite players to watch. It's like the ball is hers to comand and she can strike it in every fashion possible and win the point. But when she is playing bad she is really lousy.

[Artemis]

Yes! Amelie broke Myskina's serve. Finish her off!

Edit: Match point! Go Amelie!

Further edit: Darn it. Deuce.

Yet more edit: Rats. Oh well, serve it out. Go Amelie!

Bride of edit: Double match point! Finish her!

Son of edit: Aaaand, she's into the semi-finals! Yay!

[Candleshoe]

What Chris said.

[kimmy_s]

amelie vs maria in the semis. i really hope amelie doesnt choke again. shes been playing fantastic tennis this tornament and shes looking hot!!
bring on thursday ALLEZ AMELIE!!!!!
kim xx