2016 Tennis Season - Discussion Thread

no sign of rain as far as I can see from the pictures I'm watching, but CC is closing the roof. Must really want Serena to get through, as this only helps her serve. I'd be stewing if I'm Kuzzy. Have to be damn sure rain is on the way (which might well be the case) to resort to this BS. No mention from the commentators I've (only recently) tuned into.
 
Apparently only going to be brief showers, but they're an enough of an excuse to close the roof, which the rules state cannot be reopened for the remainder of the match. Light showers provide the flimiest of reasons to close the roof = favour Serena's serve = screw over Kuzzy's fightback.

CC needs to use covers just for brief showers, it's ridiculous if it really is only takes passing showers to warrant the full closure of the roof.
 
Yeah they really take bad quick decision sometimes.. Don't know if Serena insisted on closing the roof but they just needed to be patient for some minutes put the covers on court and decide after
 
Covers apparently already coming off on some of the outside courts. What a joke: they closed the roof for what? Certainly not imminent thunderstorms, otherwise those covers would be going nowhere but staying put.
 
Really is not understandable why they closed it, plus they are on point with weather forecast in Wimbledon most times..
 
Vesnina lucked out by serving 2nd in the 3rd set. Her serve is so soft that even if she breaks Makarova I don't believe in her ability to consolidate the break for the win.
 
Yeah I was hoping he had evolved a bit mentally, so much talent and so little in his head.. I guess he's still young he has time to change
 
And Gasquet has to give up.. Shame for him, a good career but with a better body he could have achieved so much more probably winning mutliple slams with the talent he has
 
Why headcase? Behaves well on court and seems like a good guy in his interviews. I would put guys like Fognini, Tomic and Kyrgios in the headcases basket.
The expectations were way too big for Gasquet since he was a child, but he used to beat Nadal when he was a teenager and was the biggest talent France ever had probably, I'm not a Gasquet fan by the way, but still I believe he could have won at least one slam if he was stronger physically and stamina like the top guys in grand slams.
 
Kyrgios gave an honest "no" when asked if he was applying himself with all his heart to become the best tennis professional he can be.

How can he go about changing that? "I don't know," he replied. "To be honest, I woke up this morning and played computer games. Is that the greatest preparation? I don't know. But it was fun."

:rofl:
 
BetCrimes1984 said:
Kyrgios gave an honest "no" when asked if he was applying himself with all his heart to become the best tennis professional he can be.

How can he go about changing that? "I don't know," he replied. "To be honest, I woke up this morning and played computer games. Is that the greatest preparation? I don't know. But it was fun."

:rofl:
Click to expand...

Yes a least he was honest with himself in the press conference saying he was too soft to win a slam, let's see if he takes the steps to improve. Murray said Kyrgios could use some help, hinting a psychologist could be a good idea for some players. It sure would be a good idea for Kyrgios!

(And BetCrimes, completely off topic and hope you don't mind me asking but as a kiwi, do you have a strong opinion about Scott Watson either way? I've been reading about the case quite a lot)
 
I read the North & South article about him (that's a nation wide monthly magazine). Based on that comprehensive take, I have to say that while I can't commit to him being either guilty or innocent for sure, I can't believe he was found guilty based on what I read. There's no way you can convince me there wasn't enough reasonable doubt to find him innocent. I'm disgusted by what the police got up to, specifically the senior guys in charge whose careers seemed to have profited quite nicely from the result they got.
 
For those who have a spare 7 hours to waste...

[video=youtube;6H6klMZ6-II]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H6klMZ6-II[/video]
 
BetCrimes1984 said:
I read the North & South article about him (that's a nation wide monthly magazine). Based on that comprehensive take, I have to say that while I can't commit to him being either guilty or innocent for sure, I can't believe he was found guilty based on what I read. There's no way you can convince me there wasn't enough reasonable doubt to find him innocent. I'm disgusted by what the police got up to, specifically the senior guys in charge whose careers seemed to have profited quite nicely from the result they got.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your answer. Yes I have the same opinion, can't say for sure guilty or innocent, but based on the very small amount of "evidence" they had I also can't believe the jury found him guilty... I found the article you mentioned online and read it recently. This Rob Pope guy doesn't inspire me much. I may read the book Trial by trickery by Keith Hunter someday. But I was of the idea everything was great in NZ, but now not sure sure about the police.. It seems they may have found Scott Watson to be somewhat of a strange character and just went with it and convinced key witnesses they had their guy.

Last question on this off-topic, what is the general opinion of New Zealanders about this now? I'm curious because it seems like it was one of the big cases in NZ and I was wondering if people have changed their mind over time about this conviction. I've read even Gerald Hope is not convinced Watson did it, quite unusual for a parents victim to openly say that, says a lot about the investigation...
 
Love Kyrgios post game interview. The dude gets such a poor wrap.... In some ways it's warranted but in others I don't think so. Being the type of sport tennis is, to be great you have to have the ability to motivate yourself day in day out and have a team around you to keep you on the right path. Kyrgios has way too many distractions in his life (distractions we all wish we had) and its so easy for him to just coast with his talent.

Seeing him flat out admit that he is soft and is consistently inconsistent in his preparation and motivation is very refreshing IMO.

He has yet to realize how lucky he is to have the talents he has. And he needs a coach/mentor to help him. Realizing the problem is a big first step.


He is clearly not as serious about his craft as others are. Prior to his match today he was in the stands watching a doubles match... I believe with Lleyton Hewitts family? Says a lot...
 
[h=1]Wedding or tennis? For Dominika Cibulkova, the answer is easy[/h]<figure itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-reactid="96" style="margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098);">
cibulkova.jpg.size.custom.crop.1086x724.jpg

<figcaption data-reactid="103" style="max-width: 100%; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-top: 1em; width: 335px;">An exhausted Dominika Cibulkova celebrates her hard-fought victory over Agnieszka Radwanska at Wimbledon on Monday. (Anthony Devlin / The Associated Press) </figcaption></figure>
WIMBLEDON—The church, the dress, the flowers, the guests, the catering: For a year, Dominika Cibulkova has been planning the details of her splashy wedding.
But she may have got one thing wrong: The date.
The Slovakian’s nuptials to long-time beau Miso Navaro are planned for Saturday. Except Cibulkova might be otherwise engaged on that day — on centre court at SW19, reaching for the bouquet of a Wimbledon ladies title.
Of course there’s tense tennis to be played between now and then. The muscular 27-year-old — built like a fire hydrant — has never made the last four at the All England Club.
However, time is rapidly running out on making a W-Day decision about the fancy fete. So, should Cibulkova today defeat unseeded Elena Vesnina — who saw off her Russian compatriot, doubles partner and bridesmaid Ekatarina Makarova on Monday — in the round of eight, she’s pulling the plug. On the wedding, of course, not the tournament.

It’s a bride’s prerogative. And this bride would be over the moon — honeymoon deferred also — to bide her time.
Rather the cathedral of tennis than a church in Bratislava. With only a wedding planner possibly crying in the chapel.
“If I would win (Tuesday), then we will change it,” Cibulkova declared at the press conference after her three-set banishment of world No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska in what was arguably the most exciting and intense match of the tournament thus far. “Then we will postpone it.’’

Came to that conclusion whilst sitting in the ice bath following her 6-3, 5-7, 9-7 vanquishing of Radwanska. “I said to my team, okay, now it’s getting more serious. We seriously have to deal with this.”
But what were you thinking woman? Didn’t you look at the calendar?
“We chose this because I never saw myself as such a great class court player,” Cibulkova struggled to answer, without quite coming out and saying she was an idiot lacking in self-confidence. Never believed she had a shot. Even after she won Eastbourne, the grass tune-up for Wimbledon, a few weeks ago — taking out Radwanska in the process — Cibulkova wasn’t envisioning at lengthy sojourn on the Wimbledon lawns.
Although she’d had a weird dream the other night, whether from bridal nerves or tennis Wimbledon nerves she was uncertain. “I had dreamed it was already Saturday. Then I woke up, I say, ‘No, I have to play match today. We are still at Wimbledon.’ ”
Cibulkova can pinch herself now. Yes, this is real.
At the end of the arduous encounter, Cibulkova stretched out prone on the grass and sobbed, as her engineer fiancé looked on from the stands (albeit ducking out nervously at various taut junctions; couldn’t bear to watch.)
Physically and emotionally drained.
“I was really crying. It was so emotional because it was just — I was physically, like I felt, I cannot move anymore. It was the toughest match in my career, physically and also mentally.’’
But what an exceptional high-quality match it was for both Cibulkova — who easily eliminated Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard the previous night — known as the Pocket Rocket (don’t they realize that moniker belongs to Henri Richard?) and Radwanska, heralded the Escape Artist, 2012 runner-up here.
Rivals who know each other’s game well, having met four times this year alone, Cibulkova seeded nineteenth to Radwanska’s third. Mind the gap. A tilt between power and touch with Cibulkova utilizing a mighty serve and thumping forehand versus the all-court energy and tremendous agility of Radwanska.
The Pole looked atypically flat-footed to start the contest, submitting meekly. They took breaks off each other in the second set, with a gritty Radwanska saving match point to set point in the ninth game. Cibulkova failed to take match point when serving with a 5-4 lead.
The third set was ferocious and epic, both women clearly exhausted yet neither giving an inch through thrillingly protracted rallies, grunts and shrieks amped up in volume. Cibulkova slipped out of an 11th game noose, saving match point on a forehand winner. Another slashing forehand sealed the deal on the second match point, trademark forehand winner enabling her to serve out the contest on her third attempt for a sixth career win against Radwanska.
“I felt really, really tired when the match was going on,” said Cibulkova. “But I was fighting for every single ball.’’
At the end, three hours after it had begun, the crowd rose in delighted applause for both women.
Celebrations were more muted for Americans in the audience — for red-white-and-blue tennis in general — on an Independence Day which began with four U.S. females in the fourth round but ended with only two of them still alive: the Williams sisters.
Biggest disappointment was the perennially on-coming-but-never-quite-there Madison Keys, who took a tie-break in the wild opener first set against fifth seed Simona Halep, couldn’t put her foot on the Romanian’s throat in the second, and then suffered leg cramps in the third, bowing out 6-7, 6-4, 6-3.
“I’m sure in two days I’ll look back and see a lot of positives from it, but right now I’m just really frustrated,” said the downcast Keys.
The cramping she blamed on exhaustion and nerves. “It was probably just a bad combination.”
Compatriot Coco Vandeweghe got taken to the woodshed 6-3, 6-3 by Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who pounded a rat-a-tat of blistering winner, advancing to the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time in her career.
About those Williams women: Venus, owner of five Wimbledon crowns, lost the first three games of her match against 12th seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain but ultimately a massive serve and maybe her nine-inch height advantage helped propel the oldest woman in the draw, at 36, into the quarters.
Serena, top-seed, No. 1 in the world, had zero problems with two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, banging off 14 aces and winners in the 7-5, 6-0 affair.
The siblings are on track for a possible head-to-head final — which no sane person should want because they put a cork in their killer instincts when facing each other.
“I saw this constantly,” observed Serena Monday night of her older sis. “I feel like she’s my best opponent, my toughest opponent.”
Could have fooled us.

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]The Morning Headlines Newsletter


[/COLOR]
 
gunner4ever said:
Thank you for your answer. Yes I have the same opinion, can't say for sure guilty or innocent, but based on the very small amount of "evidence" they had I also can't believe the jury found him guilty... I found the article you mentioned online and read it recently. This Rob Pope guy doesn't inspire me much. I may read the book Trial by trickery by Keith Hunter someday. But I was of the idea everything was great in NZ, but now not sure sure about the police.. It seems they may have found Scott Watson to be somewhat of a strange character and just went with it and convinced key witnesses they had their guy.

Last question on this off-topic, what is the general opinion of New Zealanders about this now? I'm curious because it seems like it was one of the big cases in NZ and I was wondering if people have changed their mind over time about this conviction. I've read even Gerald Hope is not convinced Watson did it, quite unusual for a parents victim to openly say that, says a lot about the investigation...
Click to expand...

I can't say what others think, apart from the fact those I know personally who've read that article share the same opinion. I've never had a high opinion of the police as an institution, as opposed to particular individuals within it (there are always more good cops then bad cops). But as an institution it is always under political pressure to get results, and this need filters down to the mindsets of those charged with directing the various divisions within the institution.
 
Halep has broken Kerber's first 3 service games, yet trailed 4-3. Horrible serving from her to start the match, where she held her first 4 service games against Keys (which shows the difference in quality of the grounds games between the American & the German).
 
Halep's service games are frankly unbelievably bad to this point. It's equally unbelieavble that as bad as she is on her own serve, she's been as lethal as she has on Kerber's serve. Inexplicable.
 
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