There were rumours that there wouldn't be a tournament preview for Wimbledon, but those have been proven to be false and sadly I can't take credit for the title. It was a comment from Mats Wilander and it makes sense, though more so during the days of Pete "Charisma Serving Machine" Sampras with the grass so short and huge serving bombs which passed for attacking tennis.
As for Wimbledon itself, it does bring out certain emotions in people and not always positive. Like the 2 week a year tennis fans who know Wimbledon and think it is the only tournament around on the circuit, this myth is propogated by the English-language media and then many act with outrage that there are players and fans on this planet who don't regard it as the be all, end all of tennis and these people aren't lesser beings because of it.
Now the grass has been slowed down and there have been some more watchable matches in the view of the blogger. The Ferrero and Koubek match of 2004 was a very exciting match and the only reason we saw it as Ferrero still had a reasonable ranking at the time and the TV stations decided to show it. Usually they show large amounts of crap and tedious matches even by grasscourt standards, though fortunately I won't have to listen to the Australian commentators too much wank on about Hewitt and show hilarious bias when it comes to the tournament, as there is an international feed available.
The thought of the 2002 Wimbledon is still fresh and it would be funny again if something like that carnage happened as long as Roddick doesn't win that is. He has gone backwards as a player and he is unsure of how he wants to play the game, but cause of the lack of quality grasscourters around he should be able to make the semi finals.
So hope some of the people labelled as claycourters, can win a few matches here and irritate the masses. Though the thought of Gaudio, Ferrer and PMK playing on grass has its own humorous value and there is a lot of seriousness around in tennis.
One funny memory as a the moody and chubby Austrian Horst Skoff had won the title in Athens on the Sunday before Wimbledon on clay and enjoyed it. Then he played John McEnroe in the first round and he clowned around as he normally did, though maybe a bit worse than usual. Horsti didn't care at all about the tournament, and McEnroe was getting shitty with Skoff.
I am sorry John McEnroe complaining about on-court behaviour is ludicrous and is like an alcoholic complaining being stuck in a brewery or distillery with an open key.
As for Federer winning, if he did win Wimbledon again, there would be only one natural reaction. If Federer wins Wimbledon then there will be collective SHOCK that he was able to win Wimbledon and that would send the tennis world into a huge tailspin.
Yay for Wimbledon.
13 comments:
I guess I can't complain I will escape that grass tennis propaganda, being myself not a fan of grass tennis. Wimby will be shown by several chanels, but the only one I get will stick to WTA matches. How great!! And to be honest, there's already enough grass shown on my tv every day with 22 boys running after a ball.....
Anyway, now that the draw is out, here it's all praise for Gasquet, especially now that he's won Nottingham again. I can imagine the earthquake effect if he defeats Fed in the 1st round.
Btw, I've always thought Mats was a true philosopher!!
I'm kind of skeptical to Mats the non-player. He has done basically nothing as Swedish DC captain, the Aussie tie the only exception. Admittedly he only has two reasonably good singles player to work with, ToJo and Pim-pim, of which the latter has been injured forever. And Sweden always get difficult away games on clay, their least favoured surface. Totally ironic considering the good old days of Swedish tennis. Even Edberg was a clay court giant compared to the guys today.
I saw a couple of his "video blogs" from RG. They were entertaining for sure but I don't think they were that original.
No Wimbledon for me. Perhaps SFs and Fs. I don't have that channel where I am now. Is there any online feed?
Seems Wimbledon will be on here, but I don't think I will be bothering too much as the World Cup is on.
Mats doesn't really have the cattle at the moment do as well as he can as DC captain, but that is more of a reflection of playing strength.
Too much Wimbledon on TV for me here in England - but I hate grass court tennis almost as much as I hate the World Cup - so won't be bothering with it much!!! Besides -it's been raining here for the last 24 hours - so maybe not so much play the first few days.
Love the rain it's good for the Wimbledon grass and Rosie it's a card for you with those comments about the World Cup.
Found some more info on Peter Lundgren and will do a write up during the week.
"I am sorry John McEnroe complaining about on-court behaviour is ludicrous and is like an alcoholic complaining being stuck in a brewery or distillery with an open key."
LMAO!!! Great lines, GWH! :)
So is my card red or yellow?
Yellow card Rosie.
YAY for the new title of this entry!!!
Wimbledon has been surprisingly entertaining.
Some good matches and the slowing down of the courts have made it more watchable.
Baghdatis almost losing to Mackin and now in the QFs and has a good chance against Hewitt.
Thunder Lips or Jonas in the semis of Wimbledon, who'd have thought.
I agree with Marc - I even went to SW19 a couple of times. I mean - David Ferrer ad Irakli Labadze in the 4th round - how could I not enjoy that?
Who would have predicted we're gonna have the same finalists in Wimby as in RG this year? I suppose I'm not the only one to start to find this boring. With all respect for the players and their achievements of course!!
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