The Tennis Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

Gotta keep a sense of humor (even Sharapova cracked a mini-joke durin her Press Conference), so I thought I'd post this.  Kind of cheeky but you can't help but giggle when you read this 

 

http://tenngrand.com/2016/03/09/facebook-chat-the-tennis-world-reacts-to-sharapova-announcement/

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2016 by DramatistDreamer

[Soapsuds]

Anyone watching Indian Wells tourney? Anyone see ML kiss FL on the neck after the win? Dimitrov would have been proud….LOL

[DramatistDreamer]

 

 

 

 

This seems to be quite common among European and Middle Eastern men.  For awhile, it seemed to be less prevalent among Western Europe (it never left Eastern Europe) but it now seems to have made a comeback.

Edited March 20, 2016 by DramatistDreamer

[Soapsuds]

@DramatistDreamer Ah so thats the creator of HTF…hmmmm…he is very handsome!

[DramatistDreamer]

Definitely not bad on the eyes.  Quite a few tennis bloggers seem to know him (and vice versa).

 

Since I don't get Tennis Channel, you'll have to let me know how his segment goes over

[Soapsuds]

The only one I recall is Dimitrov doing it and he did on the lips….teehee…..I recall another male player doing it as well but I can't recall who it was. I did a double take when I saw ML kiss FL. I am sure Judy Murray was jealous….LOL

I sure will. Right now they are showing tennis doubles championship from Indian Wells…the American women won  Up next is Pospisil and Sock in the men's double championship match.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Soapsuds

[DramatistDreamer]

Yeah, I heard Coco and Bethanie won, that's great, especially since they just started playing together at Fed Cup and I think this was their 1st full tournament playing as a team.

 

Well I know that Richard Gasquet and Monfils embrace at the net and it appeared that they kissed on the cheek (they've known each other since they were like 8 and 9 or something, I think).  I also remember the Russian Davis Cup team years ago, the captain Shamil Tarpischev always kissed the players on the cheeks.  I can't speak for Dimitrov but I think, most times I've seen it, it appeared to be cultural.  

Now, if I start to see tongue...

[DramatistDreamer]

Well, Serena had a down day on court and Azarenka played solid tennis but boy, did Milos ever get his ass handed to him c/o Djokovic!

[Soapsuds]

I can't stand Milos so I am glad he lost badly. Now on to the Miami tourney that starts on Wednesday.

Now that would be hot….teehee

[DramatistDreamer]

OMG, #tampons4Novak is going around on Twitter today!  I'm guessing it started circulating to mock his comments on women's hormones & tennis.  Can't say he doesn't deserve being dragged.

[Soapsuds]

What did he say?  Ive never cared for Novak. As for the Miami Tourney…..we could have a Roger vs Del Po 2nd round match

[Soapsuds]

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/15043194/why-novak-djokovic-comments-women-just-misguided-raymond-moores

 

Found what he said…ugh…seriously he is probably the worse number 1 we have had on the tour…he is so boring to watch and has no class. He wants more money….why? He doesn't bring in the ratings. He is disliked in the tournaments he plays…fans prefer Rafa and Roger over him who do bring in TV ratings. Novak doesn't come close to the popularity that is Serena Williams…..he only wishes and thus the jealousy.

[DramatistDreamer]

He tried to clarify his remarks in a Facebook post that says absolutely nothing.  

 

https://www.facebook.com/notes/novak-djokovic/better-game-for-all/1104463359606514

 

I think he expected other male players to fall in line and back him up (since many often bow down to him on the court) but Stan and Andy have already made statements that indicate that they disagree with Raymond and Novak, for that matter.    This so called clarification seems quite pointless.

 

And you're right, his remarks and his pointless Facebook post only gives credence to fans who say that he'll never be a beloved #1.  Personally, I've never understood why that was so important to him.  If he just kept playing and going about his business, winning matches, popularity might have been in the realm of possibility but he pushed it too hard and became way too ingratiating.  

 

I've always thought he was a bit disingenuous but I had to acknowledge what great strides he made in his game and I never begrudged him his success but these comments bring it all back as to why it took me so long to even come around to be able to even appreciate his climb to success.  I had little respect for him for that fake MTO he took at Wimbledon early in his career, which took me years to get past it.  Now these remarks are sending me straight back to how I used to feel about him.  Too bad Tsonga couldn't get himself together long enough to take Nolé out at IW, although Tsonga has annoyed me lately, with his shotty play at Davis Cup and his recent chauvinistic remarks.  

Edited March 22, 2016 by DramatistDreamer

[Toups]

I'm on two sides here.   On one side, I do think that for smaller tournaments where both men and women only have to play best of 3 sets, it should be equal pay.  But for Grandslams, men have to play best of 5 sets (I personally would like to see women play 5 sets in Grandslams too; I know they can handle it).   On the other side, it does make sense that whatever sex brings in the most ratings for that tournament, should get higher a pay. But ratings are dependent to what the matches are, so it would be hard to do it his way.  

[DramatistDreamer]

Well, Serena mentioned that last year's Women's U.S. Open Final outsold the Men's pretty handily.  When asked about it, Venus mentioned that her 2005 Final vs. Davenport was 45 minutes longer than the Men's Final that year.  An American player, Nicole Gibbs, tweeted that there 10 1st Round retirements among the Men at last year's U.S. Open.  So maybe the men can't handle best of 5 sets.

 

By the way, Martina Navratilova said that the Year End Championships used to be best of 5 and that the women offered to do best of 5 but were told No.  I'm making a guess that perhaps T.V. time dictated that no more time be allotted to an already tight schedule of matches.  Frankly, Wimbledon is already a mess when one match goes over, I couldn't imagine everyone doing best of 5!

 

I agree that the sport does go in cycles and sometimes one side carries the other.  There was a time when Women's tennis outpaced the Men's and the likes of the Williams Sisters, Capriati, Hingis and yes, even Kournikova were all bringing higher ratings, more press and more butts in the seats, and most of the articles I was reading about the Men's game were decrying the era of 'Wham Bam' servebot tennis and how supposedly boring it was to watch versus the Women's game that had greater variety.

Now that things are different people seem to want to dismiss all of it.

 

There was a great article on tennis.com talking about the history of the split between the men and women's game.  It's a very interesting backstory.  

Tennis is such a comparatively small-time sport compared to other sports but the fact that tennis, seemingly from the beginning, stressed egalitarianism sets it apart from most other sports and for that reason, I think equity makes sense for tennis.  Too bad, all these disparate groups (the players don't even have a true union) don't have any unity and basically can't agree on much because I think it would have benefitted the sport much more if there were greater unity.

 

If I have a chance between tickets to a best of 3 Simona Halep vs. Victoria Azarenka match or a best of 5 sets match between Gilles Simon vs. Sergei Stakhovsky, guess which match I'm going to pick?