The Times and other media

Count Zero · Tennis legend

RE: The Times

Ratty · County player

The accusation of "unprofessionalism" by unspecified people is so vague as to be completely meaningless.

What's the old saying? "Put up or shut up."

And since waging war via the Press is also rather "unprofessional", I would have thought that "shut up" is the better approach.

-- Edited by Ratty at 22:38, 2009-02-23

Count Zero · Tennis legend

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article5800223.ece

Stak chatting away to the times, bit of mind games as he expresses surprise that boggo and bloomers aren't in the playoffs and he is happy cause he thinks they are the tougher guys.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:

The accusation of "unprofessionalism" by unspecified people is so vague as to be completely meaningless.

What's the old saying? "Put up or shut up."

And since waging war via the Press is also rather "unprofessional", I would have thought that "shut up" is the better approach.

-- Edited by Ratty at 22:38, 2009-02-23

whistlt i see your point ratty, the lta are pretty happy to slag off their players in the press so i dont see why a player cant express their views when they are in a positon that someone may actually listen.

steven · Tennis legend

Count Zero wrote:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article5800223.ece

Stak chatting away to the times, bit of mind games as he expresses surprise that boggo and bloomers aren't in the playoffs and he is happy cause he thinks they are the tougher guys.

Plenty of laughs to start the day in that interview.

I notice another Times journo couldn't resist the chance to stick the boot into Boggo. doh

I think if Josh wins the playoffs, he'll have done morethan enough to seem worthy of a place, since he'll be GB no. 2 at the time as well unless Boggo has a great week, but I'm with Stakh on what the best team for a tie on indoor hard would probably have been - or at least that if JL's having playoffs at all, they should have been given a fair chance like everybody else.

Btw am I right in thinking that all 8 rubbers Boggo has played in DC have been outdoors?

-- Edited by steven at 11:03, 2009-02-25

Count Zero · Tennis legend

from a post i made on the bbc:

the players Boggo has faced, in order, in live Rubbers are:

Hewitt (away, clay)
Okun (away, Hard)
Okun (home, grass)
Calleri (away, clay)
Melzer (home, grass)
Peya (home, grass)

He also played 2 dead rubbers, both away on clay and beat Todd Woodbridge in one and lost to Jose Acasuso in another.

also i pointed out that all players boggo has faced have had higher career highs than him (and all CH's in the top 100, even if omly just in the case of peya and okun). plus at the time of the match they were either ranked higher or not significantly lower.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

also i think the author is not aware that Boggo has a 2-0 h2h over stak, and they both know each others games quite well, having played dubs often together so Stak is well aware fo what boggo can do.

-- Edited by Count Zero at 11:04, 2009-02-25

steven · Tennis legend

Count Zero wrote:
also i think the author is not aware that Boggo has a 2-0 h2h over stak, and they both know each others games quite well, having played dubs often together so Stak is well aware fo what boggo can do.

True. I've submitted that as a comment, wonder if it will appear.

steven · Tennis legend

There's http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article5827706.ece an article about Wimbledon and its apparent immunity to the 'credit crunch' in the Times today which seems to imply that tickets for the new Court 2 were not included in the ballot but "We will almost certainly be ticketing the new No2 Court in advance and I expect that will be sold out, too," which I assume means they'll go on sale through Ticketmaster at some point.

If so, it might turn out to be quite a good way of getting to see the Brits on the first couple of days - a ground pass + Court 2 ticket in advance, as it were!

steven · Tennis legend

The Net Post today http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article5829371.ece covers Sergei Bubka, Colin Fleming being possibly the lone Scot in the DC team at Braehead, Anne Keothavong regretting inadvertently tarring everyone with the same brush with her comments last week and. best of all, OEM being incredibly impressed with himself for recognising Rick Astley in a restaurant last week. biggrin

steven · Tennis legend

Today's Net Post at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article5872224.ece covers:

- a comeback for Kim Clijsters?
- Sharapova likely to return in Miami
- OEM tries to find out exactly what "on track" means (*) without much success
- why Wesley Moodie didn't play for S Africa at the weekend, with some interesting info about how different countries reward the players who play DC for them
- what happened when the US DC team walked into a Waffle House
- a bit of a grump about all the hand-touching and mock secrecy in doubles (I'm with OEM there, I must admit)

(*) Sounds like the "on track" lists would be interesting to see ... and knowing the criteria they use to complile them would be even more so. The sad thing about the reply he got is that it suggests the person giving the reply hasn't got a clue how it works themselves. cry

mjd · Challenger qualifying

Yes, some interesting stuff there especially Moodies bit. (I noticed last week that Stakhosky has said that their DC team was paid nothing by Ukraine).
I too will never understand in doubles the need to hit hands especially after screwing up a point (a punch - yes!), I can understand the occasional high five for an outstanding shot or a break, but after every shot seems pretty pointless to me and as was said a waste of energy.

freerider · Futures level

its all about psycing out the opposition though isn't it

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Mark Petchey's Commentary in today's paper calls for the LTA to be disbanded in its present form & for Tim Henman to be given a lead role in running the game in Britain. It makes a lot of, IMHO, valid points, including this one:

Too much of this money [i.e. that generated by Wimbledon & spent by the LTA, supposedly ploughed back into the game] is spent in areas where it isn't helping build tennis courts, subsidise coaching, putting rackets in the hands of kids and growing the sport from the bottom up. So what could be done? The time has come to disband the LTA in its present structure. In its place should be a group of about eight people who decide how best the money should be spent. In this group I would like to see Tim Henman, David Lloyd and Judy Murray. Not all the services and departments can be discarded, but the cost saving would be immense and would allow substantial investment in grassroots tennis. There would be job losses among administration staff as well as coaches, lower-ranked players would not be as well looked after, but the money flowing into infrastructure at the grassroots level would ensure jobs away from the National Tennis Centre.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

OEM's thoughts on yet another new squad system for British tennis (Team Aegon) & the professionalism (or lack of it!) "at head office"...