Somehow Lou volunteered me to write a post on tennis despite me not knowing a lot about it. I know the basic rules etc but I am not up to date on the players or who is still in the tournament and who has lost already. When I look at something I am not familiar with I try to look it in terms I do understand. A good example of that is how I explained the effect of England’s disallowed goal in terms of Lewis Hamilton saving his brakes until his fuel load dropped.
Comparing tennis to F1 is not the most obvious thing to do but there are similarities. Grip and traction are just as important to tennis players as drivers but rather than suspension and aerodynamics they have shoes which sports companies pay them lots of money to wear. Rather than a car that cost millions the players have a bat that costs a good deal less but is a sophisticated design and construction that is as suited to its purpose as an F1 car is.
Maybe instead of F1 I should compare tennis to Cool Runnings. Obviously there is no Darth Vader at Wimbledon but there was an unfeasibly tall man in a hat who spent three days fighting to the death with a little French Luke Skywalker. Darth Vader won this match but another Jedi returned to beat him the following day. Fortunately at Wimbledon once you are out you are out so there is no way for the Empire to strike back.
This is not going so well so maybe rather than trying to explain tennis I should just tell you what is happening. On Monday Andy Murray won again and so far hasn’t dropped a set. Other winners included Djokovic, Soderling, Tsonga, Nadal and some bloke called Roger who has a habit of hogging the limelight at Wimbledon. The big shock of the day was Andy Roddick losing to someone called Lu who I have never heard of and know nothing about.
I was confused to read that two Williamses won but no mention of Rubens or the Hulk and not a single tweet from Claire. Apparently these Williamses are American and female and win a lot more than Frank’s cars do. The only other well known female winner was Kim Clijsters. The best known casualty of the day was Maria Sharapova who lost to one of the Williamses although I have no idea which as the site I was reading unhelpfully referred to both sisters simply as Williams.
Today all the women who won yesterday play again in the quarter finals. Kim Clijsters plays Vera Zvonareva followed by Serena Williams against Na Li on Centre Court while Tsevtana Pironkova plays Venus Williams followed by Petra Kvitova against Kaia Kanepi on court 1.
Most of the other matches scheduled are doubles games but there is also an invitational tournament which features past players. These seem to be doubles tournaments but amongst the big names to look out for are Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova, Greg Rusedski, Pat Cash, Tracy Austin (how old is she now?), Annabel Croft and Michael Stich. I am sure there will be TV coverage of some of these matches as well as the serious contests.
So there is my first tennis post and now I am an expert I should probably watch some of Wimbledon before it is over. Despite not having watched much tennis so far I think it is only fair that I do a few predictions. I expect both the Williamses to win and I think Kim Clijsters and Kvitova who I have never heard of to join them in the semis. In the invitational tournament I am going to predict that Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova will win if they can avoid a recurrence of their assorted collection of injuries.
I love this post.
Also, I watched the end of the Roddick match. It was some great tennis.
You say there is no Darth Vader, but there is http://thetenniscentre.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/darth-federer.jpg
Here is a video of the man himself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuRs_ZJBq64
I will also educate you with the news that the entire tennis world apparently hated that outfit, which is why it got a nickname.
Maybe it's the New Zealander in me but I thought it was fantastic :D
That's weird. It's just black. How can you hate just black?
I have no idea. The US Open ran with it though, it's the only slam where they play music when the players come on court and they played the Darth Vadery musicy thing for Roger.
Wow. Cos that wouldn't put you off at all! :)
Lots of black with a little bit of white. Very Apple. I approve :)
It's good that Steven doing this Wimbledon post means that Lou will now have to do a football post - yay :)
Is Anna K playing again?
Beeb says yes:
On Court Two, some fresh faces in the Ladies Invitation Doubles: Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova.
Clothilde de Bernardi is a fabulous name.
me too. i can't believe anna kournikova is a real person. i thought she was a computer virus.
also, annabel croft... from treasure hunt?
That's her.
small world.
For Mr C.
The BBC live commentary (Ms Cheese! ♥ ) said:
Murray has been on court for a total of seven hours and 19 minutes in four matches, 52 minutes less than the final set between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut.
Because everything in the whole world will be compared to that game now. Then they had a tweet:
And one hour, 19 minutes longer than England were on the pitch over a fortnight! Football's for wimps.
Ha! See, tennis > football.
you can't compare tennis to english footballers. that's like saying tennis is greater that hispania racing.
most things are.
I remember seeing a 24 hour game of football on Sky Sports News once.
Humph.
go Kimmy go!
little Johnny made it as a Letterman Top 10 list.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSuK-OH7opg
and only about one of them is funny, wooo.
One of them is funny? Wow, Letterman had a good day there then ;)
:D
How does Ben compare Pride and Prejudice wise?
That's gossamer touch at the net from Zvonareva, stooping and scooping over on the backhand wing, and she holds
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8772330.stm
yeah, not so bad. seems less lewd.
No knick-knacks yet.
Venus is down a break. That's surprising.
And Kimmy is up one
I quite like the way Wimbledon splits it into mens days and womens days from the QF onwards.
first set to Kiiiiim ♥
Venus drops one. Interesting.
the womans draw is scaring me, I haven't heard of half of these players!
Or so spell their names for that matter
I just clicked I shall be on those courts in 2 years. Woot!
come on Kimmy, break her back!
yaaaaay
Kimmy nooo
What what what?
she was serving to make it 5-5 but then she got broken so she lost the set. 3rd sets make me nervous.
match point for the one who isn't Venus
Wha? Crazy talk.
Venus loooooses. I like that it won't be an all Williams final.
It'll be a Williams vs *shrugs* final :)
Clijsters! CLIJSTERRRRRRS *crosses fingers*
Hmm. Not the rate this tournament is going!
in good news, my favourite old man Frenchman Henri Leconte is out on court in the invitational doubles. I loooove him.
it's not looking good for kim :(
From anon via text: "Spooky or what - both Roddick and Venus lost to the world number 82."
match point for not-kim :(
Madness.
looks like she's about to lose to the world number 81. 80s are where it's at.
oh no, shes the world 21. I'm getting confused.
That's close to being TOO spooky!
We seem to be doing quite well in the junior section. Three Brit girls through to whatever round is next for them.
Federer is on Centre first tomorrow, followed by Murray.
yay early sleep! Although its currently 2am and I'm not even watching tennis anymore but I'm still up. Fail.