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

indiana · Tennis legend

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

steven · Tennis legend

40-0 3 mps

James saves the first two ... but not the third, and the Prince of Darkness wins 1 & 5

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 2nd of June 2011 03:39:27 PM

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Hmm, maybe he thought he better finally behave and live down to this forum's expectations

Hard to be too disappointed with James, at least he didn't give up when he was 1-6 1-5 down in the 2nd ... but a real shame he wasn't able to see the 2nd set comeback through to a successful conclusion.

indiana · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
indiana wrote:
Hmm, maybe he thought he better finally behave and live down to this forum's expectations
Hard to be too disappointed with James, at least he didn't give up when he was 1-6 1-5 down in the 2nd ... but a real shame he wasn't able to see the 2nd set comeback through to a successful conclusion.

Quite agree. I wasn't commenting reallly on James but yea good auld British negativity being expressed here.

maddog · Improver

Whatto. Of course you are entitled to an opinion, never said you weren't and it would be a boring world if we all agreed.

James did ask a question though. He asked the umpire how far the ball was out. Perhaps if the umpire had handled that situation differently then maybe James would not have had his end of game outburst.

Perhaps when asked how far out the ball was the umpire could have answered with "not sure as I haven't got my glasses on". Probably would have got a laugh and difused a situation rather than inflamed it by seeming aloof.

Easy to say after the event but act more as a human rather than a robot and things can be easier.

To Steven, I have also been an officlal both ref and linesman at football. As you can imagine, I have got abuse. Sometimes justified (as I get things wrong) and adrenalin has taken over for the player but none the less it is how you handle it that counts. Easier to do as a ref than a linesman though.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Good to hear that James behaved badly. I don't know a single top player who's well behaved on court so he's doing it the right way.

steven · Tennis legend

maddog wrote:
Perhaps when asked how far out the ball was the umpire could have answered with "not sure as I haven't got my glasses on". Probably would have got a laugh and difused a situation rather than inflamed it by seeming aloof.
I like that idea

maddog wrote:
To Steven, I have also been an officlal both ref and linesman at football. As you can imagine, I have got abuse. Sometimes justified (as I get things wrong) and adrenalin has taken over for the player but none the less it is how you handle it that counts. Easier to do as a ref than a linesman though.

If you've officiated at football matches, you're braver than me! wink Always seems like the ultimate in thankless tasks, especially being a linesman.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

maybe James is suggesting that other countries favour their own players with home calls, but we don't here, perhaps the officials, in an attempt to seem fair and non biased in fact go too far and are more likely to call against our player as a result.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
steven wrote:
indiana wrote:
Hmm, maybe he thought he better finally behave and live down to this forum's expectations
Hard to be too disappointed with James, at least he didn't give up when he was 1-6 1-5 down in the 2nd ... but a real shame he wasn't able to see the 2nd set comeback through to a successful conclusion.

Quite agree. I wasn't commenting reallly on James but yea good auld British negativity being expressed here.

Sadly, 6 years as arguably the most positive board member

have got me nowhere. To be honest I'm getting a little sick of mens tennis in Britain being this poor.

Got to hope one out of Golding, Morgan, Broady, Edmund, Bambridge, Sapwell or Ashley can buck the trend because otherwise we will be stuck with Andy Murray in the top 150 by himself for another 5 years.

Spectator · All-time great

Not sure about that, Salmon. Can't really imagine Rafael Nadal being rude to an official on court (though that may be ignorance on my part, as I haven't often seen him play, so am going on his general character and remembrances of second-hand reports) And Federer historically has said that the point at which he stopped behaving badly on court was the point at which he started to see real results (though there has been some slippage of late) . . . .

PS (It's disagreement day here) -- I also think Ward's results, if not his behaviour, in this tournament are quite good . . . and top 150 material! Tursunov on grass is not to be underestimated.

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 2nd of June 2011 04:44:31 PM

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Nadal breaks the rules between every single point, and gets away with it

Ratty · County player

I think the issue is not so much gamesmanship, as control of one's emotions.

McEnroe was one of the very few exceptions to the rule that the angrier you get, the worse you play.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Nadal literally stretches the rules every game with his time wasting... And the guy is one of the biggest whiners I've seen. Two year ranking system... seriously???? Mind it, the complaining is probably what makes him a better player.

And do note how Federer stopped being the saint he was when he stopped winning like before? It's very easy to be nice when everything is going your way.

And the others in the top 5 right now are Djokovic, Soderling and Murray. No comments!!

I totally stand by my point. If you're a nice guy, you won't rise to the top in tennis. That doesn't mean that if you're a meanie you'll do well, obviously. But it's a start.

-- Edited by Salmon on Thursday 2nd of June 2011 05:14:26 PM

Count Zero · Tennis legend

it will be interesting to see if Ward can build on this next week (although it will be draw dependant), but i do think he made the best of his luck here, 2 pretty easy rounds in the qaulies then the Bozo pulling out in the 3rd round. Good win in the opening round, although sounds as if he made a meal of it. Hard to judge vs Dimitry though, effectively at one point he was 61 51 down, possibly Dimi just let his focus slip at that point.

Ratty · County player

Count Zero wrote:
it will be interesting to see if Ward can build on this next week

This is a frequent expression (*).

Would you be so kind as to allow me to challenge you to explain what you mean? Ward is probably about as good at tennis today as he was on Monday. So why should he do any better next week?

smile

(*) Ditto "kick on"