Week 23 - ATP 250 - AEGON Championships, Queen's Club

Drew · Jun 9, 2011

RE: Week 23 - ATP 250 - AEGON Championships, Queen's Club

indiana · Tennis legend

I did get the impression it was just starting to get a bit gloomy, they say TV always exagerrates the light.

BUT if there was probably light enough to a few games, you surely try and play a few games ( OK, if Querrey was going to take a medical timeout that lessens the time a bit, but it should not be a deciding factor unless you really think time is very short )

Think the call was by the tournament referree.

daisy · County player

Grrrrrrr ..........

evileye

Querrey queried how much longer they'd play on (instead of calling for the trainer as he should have done) and whaddya know the Umpire calls time for tonight because of 'darkness' . 10minutes later and they are still playing on Court 9!!!!!!!!!

It suits SQ to get off court and have shedloads of physio on that arm and he's going to come out fired up tomorrow.

Wardy will just have to put him in his place after this - and I really hope he dumps Querrey out of Queens.
He was playing incredibly well and challenged on every service game so far - and tomorrow there'll be less of a partisan crowd because it'll be the boozy lunch brigade.

disbelief

Very cross.

-- Edited by daisy on Thursday 9th of June 2011 07:58:22 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

At least James didn't cry out : "Always happens in this country where the home players get screwed" - ref : Notinghanm Challenger last week wink ( edit : or even Nottingham )

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 9th of June 2011 09:40:51 PM

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
At least James didn't cry out : "Always happens in this country where the home players get screwed" - ref : Notinghanm Challenger last week

No he didn't, but this time I was tempted! LOL

He's certainly showing the kind of form that we saw at Eastbourne (ATP and DC) last year and although there were a couple of lapses today (getting broken from 40-0 up in the 1st set and throwing away his first chance to win the 2nd set), he looked comfortable enough out there and he recovered from those setbacks really well.

Obviously he's not yet good enough to be beating top 30 players when they are playing their best (he was quick to point out himself that Wawrinka was not on top form, so hopefully I'm not saying anything controversial there!) but with the game he's got and pretty decent mental strength, I'm even more surprised now that he hasn't managed to kick on in the Challengers this year like so many of us were expecting him to.

Still, you can't change the past, and hopefully last week and this are setting him up perfectly for the rest of the year. Also, if his new fitness trainer can do even half of what Nino Severino (who also comes from a fight background) has done for Bally, that'll prove to be a very shrewd appointment!

Btw, I'm not sure who the commentators were for Wardy's match, but they came across as being a lot better informed (and willing to treat the audience as tennis fans instead of patronising them) than the usual BBC lot.

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 9th of June 2011 09:06:11 PM

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Andrew Cotter. He covered Davis Cup in Liverpool though I can't remember if Ward played there - think it was Murray and Evo.
He's generally a better journalist / commentator than the "I used to play so that's how I got this gig" lot, ad he has less of an axe to grind about every british player other than Murray living on LTA handouts.

I like him

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Continuation of the match seems to be scheduled for COurt 1 tomorrow from 1. Aren't they supposed to stay on the same court in situations like this? Or is the LTA site just playing silly beggars?

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
[...] Also, if [Ward's] new fitness trainer can do even half of what Nino Severino (who also comes from a fight background) has done for Bally, that'll prove to be a very shrewd appointment!
Btw, I'm not sure who the commentators were for Wardy's match, but they came across as being a lot better informed (and willing to treat the audience as tennis fans instead of patronising them) than the usual BBC lot.

I have to say, Visotzky looks a bit of a bruiser, judging by the Beeb shot of him I saw this evening. There's a bit more about the relationship in this article in today's Standard.

Were you watching the Beeb's red-button coverage, Steven? If so, the Scot was Andrew Cotter (of whom I'd never heard until he surfaced for the first time, I think, last year), while I'd swear that the Englishman was "Legs" Lloyd. wink

goldfish · Futures qualifying

I was annoyed last year when the match between Murray and Fish was stopped for bad light when it seemed fine to me but I was on centre court this evening and I'm sure there was not time to play a full set. It then becomes quite difficult to decide at which point to stop so 1 set all seems fair. It appeared quite a lot brighter on the court that was still playing and I think they were at 5 all in set 1 when play was stopped on centre. As Nadal was involved in that match, too much of a backlog with him makes the scheduling difficult so I'm sure they were keen to finish the set at least. Haven't checked yet when play stopped there. James was definitely on a roll so great pity that he wasn't allowed to continue. I blame Nadal - fancy not finishing off his match in 2! I'm sure there were a few heads in hands as he failed to serve it out the first time.

Must pass on a gem overheard on Wednesday by a 'knowledgeable' member of the great tennis public bringing her friend up to date -

'somebody Ward, the British no 2 - though that doesn't mean much - beat a seed yesterday. I think it was Wozniacki, the no 8 seed.'

indiana · Tennis legend

johnnylad wrote:
Continuation of the match seems to be scheduled for COurt 1 tomorrow from 1. Aren't they supposed to stay on the same court in situations like this? Or is the LTA site just playing silly beggars?

Yes, I noticed this and was thinking that I didn't like that. I don't know what there is in the way of general rules / guidelines, but I somehow just think if you start a match on a particular court you should finish it there if at all possible, and I am sure it was possible, put first on.

I do recall Muzza's 2008 US Open Semi final against Nadal starting one day on Louis Armstrong ( the No 2 court ) and finishing on Arthur Ashe ( the main court ) the next day, but there were I would say ticketing considerations there and but for the weather it wouild always have been on Arthur Ashe.

indiana · Tennis legend

goldfish wrote:
I was annoyed last year when the match between Murray and Fish was stopped for bad light when it seemed fine to me but I was on centre court this evening and I'm sure there was not time to play a full set. It then becomes quite difficult to decide at which point to stop so 1 set all seems fair. It appeared quite a lot brighter on the court that was still playing and I think they were at 5 all in set 1 when play was stopped on centre. As Nadal was involved in that match, too much of a backlog with him makes the scheduling difficult so I'm sure they were keen to finish the set at least. Haven't checked yet when play stopped there. James was definitely on a roll so great pity that he wasn't allowed to continue. I blame Nadal - fancy not finishing off his match in 2! I'm sure there were a few heads in hands as he failed to serve it out the first time.

Must pass on a gem overheard on Wednesday by a 'knowledgeable' member of the great tennis public bringing her friend up to date -

'somebody Ward, the British no 2 - though that doesn't mean much - beat a seed yesterday. I think it was Wozniacki, the no 8 seed.'

Interesting. As I said earlier I thought it might be more gloomy than appeared on TV though that there was maybe light for a few more games.

The fact that you say you are sure there was not going to be enough light for a full set ( it hadn't entered my head that there was ! ) actually makes me more annoyed, because reading between the lines it appears there was indeed enough light for a number of games.

If so, these should have been played !! I don't care how neat one set all was. Unless both players were perfectly happy to stop ( and James would of been foolish to be ) then it was a referee's call and to me that call should of been to play on.

Spectator · All-time great

Congratulations to Mr. Ward. Going way, way back to the beginning of the week, there's an article on tennis.com about Tim Smyczek's attempts to qualify. It has some quite complimentary things to say about Mr Bogdanovic's grass court game (though also repeats some of the old cliches)

steven · Tennis legend

I've never heard of a match being moved to a lesser court when it resumed at a big event - that's very odd. They might not have wanted to put it on first (though they're only starting it half an hour later than the programme on Centre, so it can't have been that much of a consideration), but I don't see why they couldn't have put it 2nd on Centre.

Of course, this means we won't get to see the final set on TV either.

I couldn't believe how few people had stayed to see the match (though I guess that's Queen's for you) - had I realised, I'd have dashed up there and tried to get a post-5 pm ticket and a CC resale pass.

Thank to JL & SC for IDing Andrew Cotter - yes, I did mean the Scottish commentator when I said he was good. I didn't hear him at Liverpool DC (which was indeed mainly Muzz and Evo) because I was in the arena myself.

steven · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
Congratulations to Mr. Ward. Going way, way back to the beginning of the week, there's an article on tennis.com about Tim Smyczek's attempts to qualify. It has some quite complimentary things to say about Mr Bogdanovic's grass court game (though also repeats some of the old cliches)

The person who wrote it came 257th in Roland Garros BOTB - she can be very funny, but isn't immune to the Boggo clichés.

indiana · Tennis legend

Andrew Cotter's becoming a bit of an all-rounder.

Liking a range of sports, I more used to know him as a golf and rugby union commentator ( which he still does ) , but he has increasingly been popping up at tennis.

Just reading his profile : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cotter I see he has also commentated on the boat race ( ( which I actually seem to remember, not that I go out of my way to watch that ! ) and different sports at the Olympics.

Seems to maybe be getting the reputation as a safe pair of hands, who is up in his sports and can actually just do basic commentary in a very competent way ( which as said is not something the ex-pros can be relied on for ! )