Tennis

[Paul Clement]

The Tennis year is approaching it's end, and what a difference a year makes. On the 21st November 2005, the British players ATP Rankings looked like this:

Tim Henman 37th
Greg Rusedski 38th
Andy Murray 65th
Alex Bogdanovic 203rd

The November 20th 2006 ATP Rankings have the British players as:

Andy Murray 17th
Tim Henman 39th
Alex Bogdanovic 123rd
Greg Rusedski 193rd

What those fighures don't show is that Tim had a topsy turvy year dropping a number of places in the rankings before pulling himself back up again. Andy Murray has definitely taken pole position, having beaten Henman a couple of times this year. He did lose against Henman once, but that was after playing a lot of tournaments in a short space of time.

With Henman still on the fringes, Rusedski back from injury, and Murray now considered an established top twenty player, next year could be a good one for British tennis.

[Milky Tears]

Has anyone been watching The BlackRock Masters tournament thingy from the Albert Hall? It's on BBCTV all weekend.

McEnroe and Bates are already out, but it's Ivanisevic v Pioline coming up.

[Paul Clement]

Andy Murray has lost in the final of the first ATP Tournament of the season, in Doha Quatar. He beat Davydenko, the number one seed, on the way. He finally lost to the number two seed, Ljubicic.

[Milky Tears]

Moaning Murray did much better against Alberto Martin 6-0 6-0 6-1 in the First Round of the Australian Open the other day. He was gutted when he lost that single game.

He's back on court playing Fernando Verdasco round about 3:00am.

In the Men's Draw: Federer (good win against Bjorkman in the Second Round), Djokovic, Gasquet, Stepanek, Ancic, Safin and Roddick are already through to the Third Round. Other top seeds like Nalbandian, Haas, Berdych, Tursunov, Blake, Hewitt, Nadal, Nieminen and Gonzalez have still to play their Second Round matches

Great win for Monfils against Baghdatis.

In the Woman's Draw: Sharapova (survived a scare against Camille Pin in a First Round epic), Zvonareva, Schnyder, Clijsters, Hantuchova, Chakvetadze, Li Na, Peer, Serena Williams, Safina, Hingis, Petrova, Vaidisova, Jankovic, Kuznetsova, Dementieva and Mauresmo are all into the Second Round.


Great to see Alan Mackin qualify. Shame he lost 6-4 6-4 6-2 to Nicolas Lapentti in the First Round, but it was to be expected.

[Paul Clement]

Verdasco was losing when his opponent retired injured, so probably wouldn't have faced Murray in the second round. That may be a good sign for Murray to continue. Having said that, he'd have Nadal in two rounds time if both get through that far, so he may have to accept at earlier exit than he'd hope for.

[Milky Tears]

Federer v Roddick was even better than the Murray v Nadal match from the other day. Some sublime tennis.

It's Sharapova v Serena Williams in the Women's Final.

Edinburgh's Graeme Dyce and Finnish partner Harri Heliovaa have made the Boy's Doubles Final.

[Jonno]

And the young Scot won that final too.

So - what are the Scots putting in their tea of late?!

[Milky Tears]

Can't comment as I stopped drinking tea about eight years ago.


I'm still sad enough to stay up and watch Sharapova v Serena Williams.

Starts shortly...

[Paul Clement]

Federer carries on where he left off last year, he's a class above the rest of the tennis world at the moment.

[Jonno]

Making it a bit boring IMO - a bit like Sampras in the 90s.

[stuartdg]

At least Federer has more to his game then Sampras

[Paul Clement]

After helping Great Britain ensure victory in their Davis Cup competition with Holland, Greg Rusedski has announced his retirement from the game.
It's probably the right thing for him to do, his recent injuries have seen his rankings slide from in the top 100 to the late 200's, and that meant having to compete in the smaller Challenger events, with little chance of ever resurrecting the sort of form he had a few years back. It's also a shame though, as it's the end of the Henman/Rusedski era, and while Andy Murray is looking like he'll better than either of them, there still isn't much in the way of back up coming through the rank and file of British Tennis.

[Milky Tears]

I thought I'd posted a Rusedski reply last week. Shame to see him retire as he was a great player at his peak/before all the injuries. I look forward to seeing him working on the BBC's Wimbledon coverage. Well, I look forward to seeing Lucy doing some roving reporting.

Andy Murray has just made it into the Top 10 for the first time in his career. Moved up after Haas failed to make the US Clay Championship semis the other day.

[stuartdg]

The French Open is in full swing now-pick of tomorrow's matches has to be Henin v Serena Williams

Their last French Open match was controversial but Williams has beat Henin,the champ for the last 2years already in 07

[Milky Tears]

It should be a good match.

I almost dug up this thread last week and then on Sunday night...


but I was distracted by Sharapova's epic jiggling, er... match against Patty Schnyder.

http://img23.imagevenue.com/img.php?..._122_737lo.jpg

http://img9.imagevenue.com/view.php?..._122_919lo.jpg


Will she get beyond the quarters at Roland Garros this time?

WOMEN'S QUARTER-FINAL DRAW
(1) Justine Henin (Bel) v (8) Serena Williams (US)
(4) Jelena Jankovic (Ser) v (6) Nicole Vaidisova (Cze)
(7) Ana Ivanovic (Ser) v (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus)
(9) Anna Chakvetadze (Rus) v (2) Maria Sharapova (Rus)



Nalbandian, Baghdatis and Bjorkman are now gone, Federer equals McEnroe's record run of 11 consecutive straight-sets win in Grand Slams and Nadal sees of Hewitt 6-3 6-1 7-6 (7-5) to reach the quarter-finals.

MEN'S QUARTER-FINAL DRAW
(1) Roger Federer (Sui) v (9) Tommy Robredo (Spa)
(4) Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) v (19) Guillermo Canas (Arg)
(6) Novak Djokovic (Ser) v Igor Andreev (Rus)
(23) Carlos Moya (Spa) v (2) Rafael Nadal (Spa)

[stuartdg]

The Henin v Williams match was a letdown.Henin has now won 28 consecutive sets at Roland Garros.However she does face many peoples tip to be champion Jelena`Jankovic in the semis.

The other semi sees Sharapova v Anna Ivanovic

[Dave Tudor]

Well, Mazza didn't make it through, but good luck to Ana Ivanovic in the Ladies Final in Paris:





Wish I'd watched that semi-final, now.


Edited to add: Henin's going to win this easily, isn't she?

[Dirk Gently]

Trust Dave to turn up a picture like that.

[Dave Tudor]

Well, it was either going to be me or Jamesie, wasn't it?

[Milky Tears]

I'm too scared to repost those Anastasia Myskina scuddy modelling shots or Sharapova upskirt pics from last year.

Saving them for Wimbledon!

Will Federer beat Nadal?

It's going with serve so far...

[Dirk Gently]

Nadal won the first set 6-3. 1-1 in the second.

[Milky Tears]

It didn't go with serve for much longer.

[Milky Tears]

Roddick won at Queen's after surviving a great performance from Alex Bogdanovic in the Third Round (he's now on the verge of the top 100).

It's Henin v Mauresmo in the Eastbourne final right now.

Katie O'Brien is back at the top of the national rankings after Eastbourne, but Wimbledon isn't looking too good for the British women. Anne Keothavong faces Jankovic, it's South against Sugiyama and Baltacha has Katarina Srebotnik (seeded 19th) in the First Round. Even Naomi Cavaday has to play Hingis!

Not much better for the British men...

Andy Murray (if he makes it) will play Nicolas Lapentti, Alex Bogdanovic will meet Chris Guccione and it's Henman v Moya.

At least Lee Childs made it through the qualifying tournament at Roehampton.


Wimbledon Draw:

Men

Women

James - gutted that Myskina is injured...

[stuartdg]

Is Amelie Mauresmo the only player who can actually really give Justine Henin a contest?-this is the first time she's lost a set since before the start of the French Open

[Dave Tudor]

Has anyone actually been watching Wimbledon?

As usual, I've been at work, so I've missed most of the play*. Not that there seems to have been much, what with all the bloody rain.





*In other words, perving over the likes of Sharapova, Ivanovic, Jankovic and Dementieva...