Week 22 - Challenger - Nottingham (Great Britain) €64,000 - Grass

spud · Challenger qualifying

Week 22 - Challenger - Nottingham (Great Britain) €64,000 - Grass

The Magician Santoro · Top national player

Cmon James lets add more names to my sig!

Silver · County player

ELLO! Now, I would apologise to steven for my HILARIOUS evolution of Smyczek's name... I tend to do that... but to be honest, I'm saying this from my gut instincts at the time: I actually didn't think that Wardy would lose that match. Genuinely. He looked the better player and save for his own mistakes, really, he should not have lost that match. GOOD THING HE DIDN'T THEN! ^__^

Amusing point to make, when Wardy walked onto court, my mum (bless her) said: "who's the lanky bloke?" - I told her it was James and she went: "he was NEVER that thin last year!"

Think you'll find he was... he is totally lacking in any body fat though. Abs through his shirt. I say no more. But either way, James was hitting groundstrokes very well today, couple of issues with the net (i.e. he kept hitting it) but only rarely long or wide. Serve working for him... Smyczek played very well too. Never seen him before. Very standard player, nothing particularly exciting about him, just consistency really.

James SHOULD have won it earlier in the third. A DREADFUL call at 15-15 (ish) at 5-4, serving for the match, inside the baseline by at least six inches or more. CALLED OUT. People behind me crying "that was in" - James was stunned, asking the umpire how far long it was. Umpire just said it "looked like it was on the other side of the line" - James argued: "that didn't answer my question, how FAR over the line was it? Can you not tell me that?"

Lost serve. Unhappy James cries: "always happens in this country where the home players get screwed!"

And then right at the end, he branded the umpire a disgrace for that call. Yes it was in. Yes it might have changed the scoreline. At least he bloody won.

Night all ^__^

Ratty · County player

Silver wrote:

James SHOULD have won it earlier in the third. A DREADFUL call at 15-15 (ish) at 5-4, serving for the match, inside the baseline by at least six inches or more. CALLED OUT. People behind me crying "that was in" - James was stunned, asking the umpire how far long it was. Umpire just said it "looked like it was on the other side of the line" - James argued: "that didn't answer my question, how FAR over the line was it? Can you not tell me that?"

Lost serve. Unhappy James cries: "always happens in this country where the home players get screwed!"

And then right at the end, he branded the umpire a disgrace for that call. Yes it was in. Yes it might have changed the scoreline. At least he bloody won.

Night all ^__^

The only disgrace is James Ward, who should be ashamed of himself.

Let's assume the umpire made a mistake. (He may of course have got it right - Hawkeye shows that most line decisions are in fact correct.)

Does James Ward never make a mistake? Should we now shout abuse at him every time he does so?

steven · Tennis legend

Thanks very much for all your tweets yesterday, Silver ... in fact, we were very spoilt with three different people tweeting from the tournament (thanks to the other two too if they read this forum) and that was even more welcome than the previous day given how erratic the live scoring was yesterday!

The umpires must get very fed up with all the abuse they get at the smaller events - it can't be an easy job without a full complement of line judges and without hawkeye, and while I understand players' frustration when a call is obviously wrong at an important stage of the match, claiming an umpire is biased against you when they are doing their best and have just made a genuine mistake is something players shouldn't be allowed to get away with.

indiana · Tennis legend

Very much agree with the comments re players, in this case James, abusing umpires. Well said, folk.

RJA · Hall of fame

It always bemuses me when players "ask how far out was that" when questioning a decision. It is completely irrelevant because umpires and judges do not consider such things when making a call. They either think the ball is in or out and whether they think it is 6 feet, 6 inches or a sixth of an inch is of no consequence.

There is no excuse for abusing the officials who have a really, really difficult job.

Silver · County player

I dare say I wasn't advocating James' behaviour at all. In fact if anything, at the end of the day, if he was going to win that match, he was going to win it. Don't complain if you win it. I mean, really, he won the match, he should have been happy. That he felt the need to berate the umpire after a match he won was silly. He bloody well won the match. He didn't look happy about it. Goodness knows why.

He won a match against a guy ranked roughly 100 places higher than him in the rankings. *ATTACH GRUMPY FACE HERE*

Odd really. I'd have been quite pleased to have got through it.

maddog · Improver

Blimey!!!! Some of you are so precious. So he abused an umpire. So what. Turning it around I am actually pleased that one of our players is showing his passion rather than meekly rolling over and having his tummy tickled like so many of our players seem to do.

He hasn't used bad language which would be unacceptable but simply asked a question and not had it answered properly. If a player thinks an umpire has made a mistake, especially as it seems an obvious one, then he has the right to say so.

Adrenalin pushes players to areas they might not normally go. Rooney swearing into a camera being an example. Nothing premeditated there but hey lets all over react and get pompous about it.

If an umpire cant stand criticism then dont get up in the chair.

Ask yourself this. Would you want a plucky loser who ocaasionally made a second round of a grand slam or a McEnroe? I know which I would go for.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

to be honest I'm surprised when players keep their cool when big points are called wrong. They are in an intense situation and under a lot of pressure, so if someone else makes a mistake that negatively effects you then i can understand the frustration boiling over. Winning doesn't always make that frustration go away either.

An example in Boggo v Walter Boggo played an passing shot, Walter when for a drive volley and totally missed the ball, complete airshot. however boggo's pass sailed long and he won the point anyhow, didn' stop him shouting something at the umpire and smacking his racquet into the ground! (and i met Walter b4 the match and he seemed like a nice chilled out guy).

As for Ward i agree he needs to put on some weight, he does look too thin, yes he's got good muscle definition etc but he he needs some fat to store energy too.
he's got a new fitness trianer though, a guy who used to be a 'Ultimate cage fighter', (in case you couldn't tell that fact just by looking at his face - which is missing half and ear - he also wears T-shirts which point this out, back and front) so maybe that's something he'll be working on.

I only saw a bit of his match vs Suzuki, which looked pretty easy but he seemed to be hitting the ball hard and clean so good signs for the grass season.

indiana · Tennis legend

maddog wrote:
Blimey!!!! Some of you are so precious. So he abused an umpire. So what. Turning it around I am actually pleased that one of our players is showing his passion rather than meekly rolling over and having his tummy tickled like so many of our players seem to do.
He hasn't used bad language which would be unacceptable but simply asked a question and not had it answered properly. If a player thinks an umpire has made a mistake, especially as it seems an obvious one, then he has the right to say so.
Adrenalin pushes players to areas they might not normally go. Rooney swearing into a camera being an example. Nothing premeditated there but hey lets all over react and get pompous about it.
If an umpire cant stand criticism then dont get up in the chair.
Ask yourself this. Would you want a plucky loser who ocaasionally made a second round of a grand slam or a McEnroe? I know which I would go for.

No, James didn't simply ask a question. The report is that he cried out that home players keep getting "screwed" and branded the umpire a disgrace.

I accept that it is a high pressure environment, but I still maintain that is unaceeptable.

Yes, I did find McEnroe's behavior unacceptable at times too and I don't get that we should have to put up with that behavior from anyone on this "do we want decent behavior or a winner ?" rubbish. It's most certainly not an either / or. How many other great champions apart from McEnroe have not been abusive towards officials ?? Roger Federer has acknowledged himself that he was a bit of a tennis brat as a young player. He clearly changed at some point and has kinda done OK since ! No, loutish behavior is simply loutish behavior from whoever whenever and in my view should be commented on adversely.

I am a huge Andy Murray supporter but apart from technical issues ( that I have the cheek to try and comment on smile ) I do comment adversely on his attitude at times, his swearing and how he comes so down on himself. In his case I really doubt whether his grumpy behavior periods help him, I think more likely the reverse. Yet at other times he simply shows real passion, eg. in his comeback win vs Gasquet at Wimbledon and got himself and the crowd really going.

You can show passion and spirit ( generally very much to be welcomed ) without being abusive and can question line calls similarly. I certainly don't want automatons, players with no personality, but abusing officialis is not the side of personalities I want to see. I personally reject that I am precious ( anything but I assure you ) or pompous for saying so. It's just my honest views on these matters.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 2nd of June 2011 03:02:26 PM

steven · Tennis legend

As I was trying to say before, I completely understand players getting frustrated with bad calls and getting into arguments with the officials from time to time (and I understand them swearing at themselves sometimes as well!) - where I think it becomes unacceptable is if they start to accuse the officials of deliberate bias against them.

Having done the job of an official (not in tennis) and made every possible effort to be scrupulously fair, I found I could put up with players getting very annoyed in the heat of the moment and even with my judgement or competence being questioned (of course, as with most officials, I sometimes got things wrong!), but if anyone ever questioned my character (i.e. by suggesting I was biased against them), they were lucky not to get sworn at and/or chucked out themselves.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Wardy 1-6 1-4 down to Tursunov

RJA · Hall of fame

johnnylad wrote:
Wardy 1-6 1-4 down to Tursunov

Disappointing but not that surprising. Tursunov is still a very dangerous opponent.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

1-6 2-5. Comeback time