Betfair Turbo Tennis

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Betfair Turbo Tennis

Sheddie · administrator

I totally agree John, I'm so pleased I didn't pay 30 quid to go and watch that...for me the worst thing about the afternoon was Jodie Kidd, actually managed to made Tony Hawks look talented as a presenter....was there one interesting question she asked the players ?

Also, was it necessary to keep switching back to Jodie and U10s in the audience mid-match, its cringworthy enough when they do that on the hill during Murray/Henman matches at Wimbledon.

Tennis-wise it was ok but the problem with holding it on an electric-fast court is that its so
serve-dominated it becomes a little monotonous. The Ivanisevic-Rusedski match at the start was a bit dire, neither could return each other's serve on that surface in a month of sundays. Andy's matches were entertaining because he's got the class to return the big serves even on a court that fast, and get into some rallies.

If they do this again, get some proper presenters, slow the court down a bit - (at least like the surface they have at the Albert Hall), and get more of a mix of players...so its like 50% baseliners, 50% serve-volleyers.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

btw andy earnt $1,666 per minuite on court today! not bad eh.

Jack · Intermediate Club Player

Just out of curiosity did anyone else get the impression James Blake was not trying his best and i would go as far as saying he deliberately lost the match, he should of comfortabely beat ivanisivic regardless of the surface.

Also if they was one positive to take from the event imo is that Jamie Murray can play singles on fast surfaces, maybe he should try and get a few singles ranking points so he could enter a few atp qualies and see how things go.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

thing is JM has no singles points at all now and as a world top 30 dubs guy is only playing atps. so he would either have to drop to challenger level (and hope for wc's in the md/qualies) or even futures!! but doing so would mean he loses doubles places as well. also as we have so few atps here he wont get singles wc's there either so its got to the situation where he has decided to only play doulbles. he is enjoying sucess there and can earn a good living off it.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i dont think blake would be too bothered, i am sure he had a decent apperance fee, and was probably stopping over in london on his was to sweden so though why not :)

cant see any of the players going all out in these type of events, its just not worth it.

john · Top national player

OK, here we go. I'm bored, so.

Reasons why Betfair Turbo Tennis was rubbish:

1) At least the first half hour of the program being highlights and delayed coverage. Either show the bloody games live or just tell us the results. We don't turn in for live tennis to sit there and watch delayed coverage.

2) No livescore. Maybe I'm wrong but I couldn't find any internet livescore for the non-live matches.

3) Choice of players. Putting guys with big serves on a court that ridiculously fast was silly. If we're trying to attract kids to the sport why was Pat Cash there??? James Blake was barely interested, Andy played some OK tennis. Surely with a $100k first prize for an hour's work and I'm sure appearance money too they could have attracted a top 50 player or 2.

4) Jodie Kidd

5) The fact that as you watched it you could almost hear the planning meetings that took place in your head. Where some muppet who I'm sure went to university but has never watched a tennis match in his life decided that this could do for tennis what 20/20 did for cricket. Except 20/20 is good. And turbo tennis is rubbish.

6) The court looked ridiculous without tramlines.

7) Were they playing with a sponge ball???

8) The speed of the court. Absolutely ridiculous. That was barely tennis they were playing. Superfast courts, with superfast balls and guys with big serves may = turbo i suppose but it does NOT equal entertainment

9) I'm sure at one point I actually saw the baseline lift off the court and Rusedski had to stomp it back down.

10) The camera angle was rubbish

11) Every time a game went to Deuce and someone shouted TURBO. Cringeworthy

12) The presenter introducing Jamie Murray as Jamie Blake

13) James Blake referring to Andy Murray as the English No. 1

14) The interviewer at end asking Andy what he was going to spend his prize money on before abruptly ending interview

15) At times the players didn't seem to know the rules. I'm pretty certain that Goran hardly knew what was happeing at times. Especially his interview after first match lol, I don't think he knew what had happened. Either that or he couldn't believe he'd agreed to get involved in this.

16) Greg Rusedski telling us that "That's why James is so exciting to watch. He really goes for his shots ESPECIALLY on his forehand and backhand". Err, cheers for that Gregory.

17) The umpire using the players first names to say the scores. ie Game Goran. WHYYYYY???

18) The tournament's own stupid rules weren't even followed. In the Goran-Blake game, Goran was due to serve the next game but Blake served in the sudden death point. According to rules:

1. Matches will last for 30 minutes.
After 27 minutes, a klaxon will sound signalling that the current game will be the last game of the match. If the score is tied after this game a sudden death point will be played to decide the winner. THE PLAYER WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN DUE TO SERVE IN THE NEXT GAME WILL SERVE THIS POINT The receiver will choose the court to receive into.

19) The crowd. They were rubbish

20) The ticket prices. Resulted in the crowd being rubbish

21) The presenter/MC guy saying that Murray beat "some rubbish player called FEDERER" when introducing him. Not funny. Not funny and pretty much not even funny. Just made me cringe even more.

22) The format. Absolutely sucks donkey dong. Takes away the essence of tennis. Ie the game isn't over til it's over. In this format, the last 3 or 4 minutes of the match are often going to be totally redundant. Considering this format is supposed to be more exciting than regular tennis, I can safely say they've badly misjudged it.

23) The fact that if anything that will have put more people off tennis than it attracted.

24) The fact they pointlessly changed a few rules "just because they could". At least I assume that's why because few of the various rule changes were any good.

I'll leave it there. Anyone have any more to add?

Sheddie · administrator

john wrote:

12) The presenter introducing Jamie Murray as Jamie Blake

That was bad, but not as bad as when he (Tony Hawks) referenced Andy's wrist injury and used it as an excuse to make a masturbation joke.

timmoore46 · Admin:moderator + Club Coach

Glad I didn't know it was on ! *LOL*

helki · Futures qualifying

timmoore46 wrote:

Glad I didn't know it was on ! *LOL*

I knew it was on but luckily biggrin

we had visitors, otherwise I might have been tempted!

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I was bored while doing the ironing so watched the recording.

Oh dear.

Eventually I found it was watchable if I leapt for the "mute" button for the interviews - they really were excruciating. I really didn't like the format, but then I like tennis, and this bore little relation to tennis.

One that John missed - the two "dancers" who pranced on the court just behind Andy as he came on - he looked a bit worried they were going to klonk him with whatever it was they were waving about! *cringe*

The crowd seemed to enjoy themselves, so I perhaps there was some point in it - as much as there ever is in Exhibitions I suppose. But I can't see anybody being attracted to "proper" tennis because of it.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

I watched it after coming back form a day of travelling and for a fall-asleep-in-front of thing it wasn't all that bad. Of course I wasn't more than half awake at the time so I'm not the most reliable judge!

One thing that really annoyed me though was the surprise everyone displayed when Andy was drawn to play Jamie. Maybe i'm just cynical but i can't believe that the organisers would pass on the chance for that to happen, nor am I convinced that Andy/James Blake would agree to play each other in anything less than a final given that they were the two players with a 'bye' in the first round. (not that James Blake seemed too bothered either way).

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Cynic!!!

Tutu · Club Coach

john wrote:

OK, here we go. I'm bored, so.

Reasons why Betfair Turbo Tennis was rubbish:

1) At least the first half hour of the program being highlights and delayed coverage. Either show the bloody games live or just tell us the results. We don't turn in for live tennis to sit there and watch delayed coverage.

2) No livescore. Maybe I'm wrong but I couldn't find any internet livescore for the non-live matches.

3) Choice of players. Putting guys with big serves on a court that ridiculously fast was silly. If we're trying to attract kids to the sport why was Pat Cash there??? James Blake was barely interested, Andy played some OK tennis. Surely with a $100k first prize for an hour's work and I'm sure appearance money too they could have attracted a top 50 player or 2.

4) Jodie Kidd

5) The fact that as you watched it you could almost hear the planning meetings that took place in your head. Where some muppet who I'm sure went to university but has never watched a tennis match in his life decided that this could do for tennis what 20/20 did for cricket. Except 20/20 is good. And turbo tennis is rubbish.

6) The court looked ridiculous without tramlines.

7) Were they playing with a sponge ball???

8) The speed of the court. Absolutely ridiculous. That was barely tennis they were playing. Superfast courts, with superfast balls and guys with big serves may = turbo i suppose but it does NOT equal entertainment

9) I'm sure at one point I actually saw the baseline lift off the court and Rusedski had to stomp it back down.

10) The camera angle was rubbish

11) Every time a game went to Deuce and someone shouted TURBO. Cringeworthy

12) The presenter introducing Jamie Murray as Jamie Blake

13) James Blake referring to Andy Murray as the English No. 1

14) The interviewer at end asking Andy what he was going to spend his prize money on before abruptly ending interview

15) At times the players didn't seem to know the rules. I'm pretty certain that Goran hardly knew what was happeing at times. Especially his interview after first match lol, I don't think he knew what had happened. Either that or he couldn't believe he'd agreed to get involved in this.

16) Greg Rusedski telling us that "That's why James is so exciting to watch. He really goes for his shots ESPECIALLY on his forehand and backhand". Err, cheers for that Gregory.

17) The umpire using the players first names to say the scores. ie Game Goran. WHYYYYY???

18) The tournament's own stupid rules weren't even followed. In the Goran-Blake game, Goran was due to serve the next game but Blake served in the sudden death point. According to rules:

1. Matches will last for 30 minutes.
After 27 minutes, a klaxon will sound signalling that the current game will be the last game of the match. If the score is tied after this game a sudden death point will be played to decide the winner. THE PLAYER WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN DUE TO SERVE IN THE NEXT GAME WILL SERVE THIS POINT The receiver will choose the court to receive into.

19) The crowd. They were rubbish

20) The ticket prices. Resulted in the crowd being rubbish

21) The presenter/MC guy saying that Murray beat "some rubbish player called FEDERER" when introducing him. Not funny. Not funny and pretty much not even funny. Just made me cringe even more.

22) The format. Absolutely sucks donkey dong. Takes away the essence of tennis. Ie the game isn't over til it's over. In this format, the last 3 or 4 minutes of the match are often going to be totally redundant. Considering this format is supposed to be more exciting than regular tennis, I can safely say they've badly misjudged it.

23) The fact that if anything that will have put more people off tennis than it attracted.

24) The fact they pointlessly changed a few rules "just because they could". At least I assume that's why because few of the various rule changes were any good.

I'll leave it there. Anyone have any more to add?

I agree with everything but especially the things in bold. It seriously was the worst it could have been. I'd say the only way it could have been worse is if annabel croft joined greg in the commentary box ashamed