6 hours ago, janea4old said:

That NYTimes opinion column says that an extraordinary 90 percent of Australians are fully vaccinated. (and it links its source).

So yeah Australians are angry that an antivax idiot felt entitled come to Australia to compete.

There's other stuff in that opinion column about politicians having unfirm rules.

But the 90% stood out to me.

This is from our daily paper in melbourne.

 

 

 

Rules are rules!  

I guess that means no more Australian Open titles for him.....

 

People are pissed at the awful coverage this year.

I never had any intention of subscribing to ESPN+, I always believed it to be a bad idea and an obvious money grab. On any matches not covered on ESPN3 (which is most), I just use a VPN.

I caved and got ESPN 2 for 7 bucks.  I've already canceled it but at least I get to see the Aussie Open.  I may have to get it back for the French Open.  

2 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I never had any intention of subscribing to ESPN+, I always believed it to be a bad idea and an obvious money grab. On any matches not covered on ESPN3 (which is most), I just use a VPN.

Here I was last night watching the conclusion of Nadal match on ESPN+...just ridiculous. All the matches from Gauff to Keys to Sascha were all on plus. 

5 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Here I was last night watching the conclusion of Nadal match on ESPN+...just ridiculous. All the matches from Gauff to Keys to Sascha were all on plus. 

I'm not sure how much ESPN is really willing to invest in tennis. Tennis Channel is no better, their produced pieces before matches still look low budget to me-- they need to zhuzh up their production values and they also seem to be doing their TC Plus as a kind of money grab. Tennis needs some new entity that can finance good seamless streaming of all matches. What the Challengers do, except for the major tournaments, like a Tennis-centric Netflix, of sorts, but focused on live as well as replay tennis matches. 

It's been decades since TC first aired and tennis viewing is still a jumble when it concerns the simple basics of where to watch a match. I wish they'd get it together. 

2 hours ago, ChitHappens said:

I caved and got ESPN 2 for 7 bucks.  I've already canceled it but at least I get to see the Aussie Open.  I may have to get it back for the French Open.  

That's the way a lot of people do it nowadays. Subscribe, cancel, repeat down the road with the next major.

 

Australian Open players respond after ball kid collapses during first-round match

 

7 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

Here I was last night watching the conclusion of Nadal match on ESPN+...just ridiculous. All the matches from Gauff to Keys to Sascha were all on plus. 

I don't understand ESPN at all.  At all.  They have the rights to this, so....how many Tennis fans do they think there are that are going to pay extra for this?  I don't really care because I have everything, but you take a look at ESPN and all through the night, when the Open is on - they're running SportsCenter on the usual loop they do every night.  All night long.  On and on.  LOLLLLLL. Like, you can't PUT the Open, which I GUESS you paid for....on your main network???  Do they think everyone is going to run out and permanently subscribe to extra ESPN2 or the whole package or whatever just to see the Australian Open????  I get that it couldn't start on time tonight on ESPN because of football overrun likely....but...what is the deal with running a re-run sports show all night long??????

I see the results from yesterday.  Or the day before.  So, let's place bets that Keys had the match of her tournament with the bouncing of Kenin.  I know she's been playing well coming into the tournament but how many times have we seen this from Keys.  I had to look her up to see her age and was surprised she's younger than I thought.  Still, for years now it's been about that time that if she's going to do something, now is the time.  I feel like we've been saying that for 5 years.  But let's just see if she did her usual good match of a tournament and then folds like a cheap card table.

I know it's still way early in her career but I'm starting to lean that way with Coco Gauff too.  Maybe we're just used to seeing young stars have a breakthrough early and make that move.  But it's starting to bother me a little with Coco.  She's creeping up on the age where girls stop growing, and grow into their bodies, etc. etc. etc.  Not the easiest of first round opponents when you look at that girl's record here and there that she lost to, but...not a great first round loss.  I'm watching Gauff this year specifically because the timing is there...I feel like a somewhat weaker field than a lot of young players dealt with...and something should be happening.  Quarters consistently reached, being constantly on the radar in later rounds, and this is a problem for me and her right now.  *itching over.  Glad to see there's actually a tournament going on after the Guiding Plight and As the World Burns of Djokovic.

It's time for Sloane to go sit down somewhere and have some babies.  There's no point in her playing matches at this time!  She may still be on a marriage high but this is just downright ridiculous!

8 minutes ago, ChitHappens said:

It's time for Sloane to go sit down somewhere and have some babies.  There's no point in her playing matches at this time!  She may still be on a marriage high but this is just downright ridiculous!

Agree for the most part.  Sloane falls in the Keys category for me with constantly badly mixed results, except that she did win a slam. I saw those results this morning.  But, while I don't think Raducanu is all that (at ALL), at least Sloane played someone.  Her opponent is a slam winner at least, as is she.  

1 minute ago, Fevuh said:

Agree for the most part.  Sloane falls in the Keys category for me with constantly badly mixed results, except that she did win a slam. I saw those results this morning.  But, while I don't think Raducanu is all that (at ALL), at least Sloane played someone.  Her opponent is a slam winner at least, as is she.  

I thought Sloane was going to win. It comes down to motivation with Sloane. I just think she's unmotivated. She's won a major and made the finals at the French. I honestly think she's satisfied with that.