Tennis

[Guest wonderbang]

lol....no love for Danai UDOMCHOKE?

i forgot australia is playing a zonal tie....well i hope you guys win!

estoril isn't exactly exciting me too much so i'm apathetic.....even the master series aren't that great for me since they aren't broadcasted here in the states.....i can't believe i have to wait until roland garros for something exciting....oh well, at least the clay season isn't my favorite one anyhow.

[Guest dOotsiez]

Yeah none of them are broadcasted in Aus either, thank god for the internet.

Australia's 2-0 against Thailand today. Leyton Hewitt slaughtered some poor Thai player ranked 978th in the world, 6-0 6-0 6-1 in under an hour. I'll be damned if we dont win. *yawn*

Think France is gonna lose to the US though, Gasquet pulled out as well, I was looking forward to some great matches, but now it looks like a bit of a breeze for the US.

[Guest wonderbang]

Yeah...I guess I shouldn't be complaining if we win but I was looking forward to some good matches also. Oh well...

And when you say internet....are you talking about just news coverage or is it possible to stream the matches from somewhere?

[Guest dOotsiez]

Usually youtube has the matches up one or two days after it's played, but if the time difference isnt crazy, i usually just stream it on the billion chinese illegal websites

for anyone who cares, Aus is through to the World Group playoffs. The US seems to be doing well against France too. Boring. On a different note, Andy Roddick has been playing well so far this year. I'm impressed.

[Guest wonderbang]

oh really? i should check some day...i thought the videos would be taken down pretty fast. and i can't read chinese so i guess that option is out of the picture....thanks for the tips though

and a little bit of interesting news i read today.....kimiko date (does anyone remember her?) is making a comeback after 12 years of retirement ...i bring it up just because she's the most successful japanese player to date (no pun intended) plus it seems like a trend for older players to come back on the tour or something. heck, if navratilova can play at 49, i guess 37 is still young!

[Guest dOotsiez]

I dont think I was old enough to know kimiko date, seeing that i would have been 7 when she retired. but 37 is a little old to be making a come back. but the women's game is certainly very interesting at the moment, i dont think there's a single player that's dominant, so it'll be interesting to see how their rankings change in the months to come.

Anyway, with Estoril kicking off the clay season today, and both Fed and Nadal with no titles so far this year, Im actually gonna be watching this one closely. Seems like Fed's been practising with a new coach. Doesnt seem as confident as before does he. I really do hope he does well on clay tho.

http://au.sports.yahoo.com/news/article/-/...ad-estoril-open

[Guest wonderbang]

Actually I'm not old enough to remember Kimiko Date either but I thought it was interesting because you rarely see Asian tennis players at the top of tennis echelon. Talking about Asian tennis players, Federer's new coach or part time hitting partner (whatever the relationship is) is Jose Higueras, the coach of Michael Chang way back in the day. Thanks for the link dOotsiez!

[Guest dOotsiez]

yeah there are relatively few good asian players, the Chinese did well with women's doubles, and there seems to be some asian players creeping into the top 20 for both men and women's, but no 'stars' yet. Michael Chang's probably the best known asian player, but politically he's american. im expecting more asians to join the game though, i always thought tennis is one of the snobbier sports around , but all that's changing these days with some new countries dominating. american and Australian players are no longer the biggies.

[Guest wonderbang]

It's all about East Europeans now! muahaha

And I think people are trying hard to erase that conception that tennis is a "snobby sport." There's definitely a fair share of rich or upper class people playing it recreationally but I think more and more everyday people are picking it up. At least I hope so because I wish tennis gets more attention!

[Guest dOotsiez]

the Eastern Europeans certainly rule, I think the relative poverty of people in that area drives them far more.

hmmm it's interesting to see Maria Sharapova doing so well this year, 23 wins and one loss with 3 titles under her belt. the girl's on a roll It'll be interesting to see how the women's rankings evolve over the next few months.

[Guest wonderbang]

Yup, yup....Justine is in somewhat of a slump and so Maria's been picking it up. I'm surprised her ranking hasn't moved closer to the top but then again, Jankovic plays like 554445363 tournaments a year. But I think Maria has a really good chance to end the year number one, that is if she remains injury-free, which is a lot to ask for these days on the women's tour.

[Guest dOotsiez]

Yeah I'm also surprised that Maria is only no 4, she's been playing so well this year, and the top three girls have been mostly unimpressive so far. I never fully worked out how the ranking system works, lol, i mean fed's been losing his head off so far this year, and he's actually managed to widen the gap between him and nadal, wat the?

but isnt it ironic that as soon as i note how well Maria's been playing, she loses to Serena Williams, another player who seems to be on fire this year. lol. cant wait to the FO (we might have more people in this thread then, lol) all these small tournaments are so boring.

[Guest wonderbang]

I totally agree....Grand Slams usually bring more visitors here....but it's not like I can blame them...the smaller tournaments aren't very exciting. Even I, someone who's a pretty big tennis fan, can't seem to get riled up each week for these smaller tournies.

Oh and I think we jinxed Sharapova or something lol.....maybe we should hold off on our compliments next time

As for the ranking system....it is really a nightmare. I understand most of it but it's really convoluted and a major turn-off for the casual fan. In the case of Maria, since she got to the final last year of the AO, getting to the final this year again was basically only "defending" those points she already won last year. So technically she only earned real points in the final where she won. I think the whole "defending points" system is what confuses the heck out of people....took me awhile to figure out. Unfortunately, tennis is plagued with these kinds of nonsensical systems, which further alienate fans away from the sport.

[Guest dOotsiez]

hahahahaha so basically it's a snobby classist sport with a retarded points system that was only meant to be understood bya math nerd? lol i've chosen the wrong sport to follow!

anyway, the only exciting match all week - Federer v Davydenko in the Estoril final. the stats (9-0) are in Fed's favour, but these days, stats and winning streaks mean nothing, and Davydenko stands as a testament to that. he's another player that's been on a roll, 11 consecutive wins. *sigh* but really, I'm only complimenting Davydenko coz I REFUSE TO JINX FEDERER

[Guest wonderbang]

LOL. yeah, sometimes i wonder why the heck did i get into TENNIS of all sports? but i'm already sucked in....there's no turning back for me

i don't even remember when i seriously started liking tennis either....or WHY of all reasons. i guess it was love (no pun intended) at first sight?

P.S. good luck fedster! get your first title this year! (never thought i'd be saying that at this point in the year )

[Guest skye.]

WIMBLETON 08 ! I'M READY.

Haha. I was on vacation during the wimbleton's last year ... and I freaking stayed home in the mornings just to watch. Waste of my vacation. Hahah. Anyways.

I can't wait. <3

[Guest dOotsiez]

I'm gonna be on holidays during Wimbledon this year too, lucky the friend of mine who I'll be traveling with is also a tennis fan, though she and I hate each other's favourite players.... (what kinda person hates Federer? it's like being Christian and hating Jesus)

YAY Federer won his first title of the year. But nay he won it in a retarded way, I mean he didn't play against anyone in the top 50, and when we finally get to the finals, Davydenko retired after the first set. My faith in Fed is still not restored. I miss seeing him play aggressively and dominate the opponent, and he hasn't done that at all this year.

Monte Carlo starts on Monday, and all the big names will be there, so it should be interesting. Fed's draw sucks, he has Nalbandian in his quarter, Djoko's got Gasquet, Nadal has Ferrer, and Davydenko's got Youzhny, who I now affectionately dub 'the Nutter'.

[Guest wonderbang]

the Nutter? LOL. yeah he is a bit of a wacko after what happened in miami

i remember when i used to wake up at the ODDEST times to watch wimbledon...like 5 in the morning before school and so on. these days there is a magical device called a tivo haha

i don't need to drag myself out of bed now...it's wonderful! record, record, record...

[Guest dOotsiez]

yeah Wimbledon's on at odd times in Aus as well, not to mention it nearly always clashes with exams, lol.

Monte carlo started, but all the oldies are out already, but no surprises there i suppose. but still makes me a tad nostalgic. so looking forward to the next few rounds. wonder why Andy Roddick is not playing

and my god, what's wrong with the estoril cup!? it looks like my grandma's porcelain, lol. love davydenko's expression - 'I wish mine was that big'

[Guest wonderbang]

hahah....nice caption dOotsiez...and believe it or not i've seen uglier trophies than that!

here's a couple of examples courtesy of gasquet and safin:

what the hell right? A ROCK AND A TREE?!?! ....i rest my case....

and roddick never likes traveling to europe...especially to play on red clay so usually he misses out on most of the european clay court swing...i believe one year he tried playing the tournaments to be more prepared but still lost early at roland garros so i think this year he's back to his attitude of "screw it" it's not worth it to travel half way around the world to lose early again.