Davis Cup 2012 - E-A Zone I R1 - Great Britain v Slovak Republic, 10-12 Feb

johnnylad · Tennis legend

RE: Davis Cup 2012 - E-A Zone I R1 - Great Britain v Slovak Republic, 10-12 Feb

adz1983 · Intermediate Club Player

Was there on Friday. Saw Dan beat Lacko. Dan was soooooo consistent, he barely missed a ball.

Stirling Uni lot were drawing some exasperated shhhhhhhhhs from some sections of the crowd but I thought they did a cracking job of getting the atmosphere going. Particularly fave was getting the ball boy to dance! And also taking the mick out of Klizan when he made a stupid noise in second game of match against Wardy.

Lets hope Dan uses this as a springboard to greater things. Will be interesting to see how form goes before April. Leon surely has a tough choice for No 2 if Andy Murray plays... Do you pick Wardy over Evans just because of ranking?

Ward hit the ball a lot harder than Evans but just wasn't half as consistent.

RJA · Hall of fame

adz1983 wrote:
Ward hit the ball a lot harder than Evans but just wasn't half as consistent.

Think it's certainly fair to say that Evo's game matched up better against both Klizan and Lacko than Ward's did.

Jan · Hall of fame

johnnylad wrote:
RJA wrote:
Jan wrote:
Does anyone know if the last game/on-court interview are on youtube or the like? Would appreciate a link if you know of one. Thanks.
For Dan's sake I hope they don't put his interview on YouTube. Poor lad was rambling incoherently.
There's an unofficial video of the last point and celebrations here.

http://www.lta.org.uk/fans-major-events/Davis-Cup/Video/

Also a 10 second interview with Dan. Says nothing but it captures the delight

Thanks smile

Spectator · All-time great

Amazed by the win. Never expected that - and certainly never expected Mr Evans' astounding play! Hugely impressive.

But, while it's small in the grand scheme of things, am quite disappointed by coverage. OK, maybe better for Mr Evans. Those in the know are aware of what he did. Most importantly he knows what he did. And he isn't overburdened by media hype, as so many players have been.

But still. I looked online at the broadsheets (Guardian, Telegraph, Independent ... pace Mr Harman, for whom I have the highest respect, I won't pay for a Murdoch paper). Doubtless The Times was better (thanks to the aforementioned Mr Harman). But there was nothing on the main sports pages about the DC -- at all -- on the Guardian and Telegraph. I don't think sports are the most important thing in the world ... but if you're going to cover them in general, how did you miss this one? And isn't it ironic, after all these years in which they have hyped and then slammed UK players, to miss such a great success story?

And what was with the LTA?! Live feeds when Murray plays. When he doesn't, a paltry few bits of poor-quality video, which focus far more on fan reaction than on actual play? Surely they could have found someone who could have done better .....

End of rant. But it's really only a reflection of how wonderful the accomplishment was and how much one longs for it to be feted. Well done to all.

RJA · Hall of fame

Agree with Spectator about media coverage being very poor. I looked at some of the "serious" papers websites and was very disappointed. The Telegraph carried a a very poor article by Simon Briggs, the Guardian only carried a report from the Press Association and the Independent carried a decent, albeit short, article from Paul Newman. No doubt The Times would have carried a much better article for Neil Harman but I refuse to pay a subscription. Nothing against Murdoch but I won't pay for news when there is plenty of good stuff available for free.

adz1983 · Intermediate Club Player

RJA wrote:
Agree with Spectator about media coverage being very poor. I looked at some of the "serious" papers websites and was very disappointed. The Telegraph carried a a very poor article by Simon Briggs, the Guardian only carried a report from the Press Association and the Independent carried a decent, albeit short, article from Paul Newman. No doubt The Times would have carried a much better article for Neil Harman but I refuse to pay a subscription. Nothing against Murdoch but I won't pay for news when there is plenty of good stuff available for free.

You've just complained about the free stuff... But agreed not paying a subscription either!

RJA · Hall of fame

adz1983 wrote:
RJA wrote:
Agree with Spectator about media coverage being very poor. I looked at some of the "serious" papers websites and was very disappointed. The Telegraph carried a a very poor article by Simon Briggs, the Guardian only carried a report from the Press Association and the Independent carried a decent, albeit short, article from Paul Newman. No doubt The Times would have carried a much better article for Neil Harman but I refuse to pay a subscription. Nothing against Murdoch but I won't pay for news when there is plenty of good stuff available for free.
You've just complained about the free stuff... But agreed not paying a subscription either!

Two different things. In general I find the mainstream media to be very poor and much better news and analysis can be found elsewhere on the web free of charge. When it comes to Tennis the coverage in The Times is better than its rivals simply because Neil Harman writes for them and has nothing to do with the fact that they charge for their online content. Also, as with news, you can find far better tennis coverage on the web away from the mainstream media.

Ratty · County player

Oh, come on.

Newspapers and TV provide what their readership wants - and that isn't coverage of obscure minor leagues of the Davis Cup. It would be interesting to know Eurosport's viewing figures, but I would guess that they were extremely low.

The Davis Cup has always struck me as the most ridiculous competition. I'm a tennis fan, and I would have a hard time explaining what the hell GB was playing Slovakia for. And that is the main problem as regards media coverage - which is about what one might expect for a friendly rugby match between England B and Canada.

And don't forget that the not-very-large Braehead Arena did not sell out. I saw big blocks of empty seats on the Sunday. (Not surprisingly - I would avoid any event which those Stirling University students go to!)

seagull · Hall of fame

Ratty - I have been to many tennis events in my time & the Davis Cup matches have been some of the most memorable. Why would you have a hard time explaining why GB were playing Slovakia? If they were playing them in the World Cup how would that be any easier to explain??

You know that if Murray had been playing the newspapers would have had a lot more coverage so it's nothing to do with being in an obscure league. Unfortunately lack of coverage is probably down to the ridiculous Suarez/Evra domination of news and the 6 Nations being on. If Murray not playing then media have nothing to latch onto (apart from oh look how crap British Tennis is, and that was not an option this time).

And criticising the people in the stadium who had bothered to turn up for not cheering in the right way, while at the same time pointing out it did not sell out it a bit much.

RJA · Hall of fame

I don't completely disagree with what Ratty has to say but I seem to recall that Davis Cup matches against Poland and Lithuania resulted in rather more coverage.

adz1983 · Intermediate Club Player

seagull wrote:
Ratty - I have been to many tennis events in my time & the Davis Cup matches have been some of the most memorable. Why would you have a hard time explaining why GB were playing Slovakia? If they were playing them in the World Cup how would that be any easier to explain??

You know that if Murray had been playing the newspapers would have had a lot more coverage so it's nothing to do with being in an obscure league. Unfortunately lack of coverage is probably down to the ridiculous Suarez/Evra domination of news and the 6 Nations being on. If Murray not playing then media have nothing to latch onto (apart from oh look how crap British Tennis is, and that was not an option this time).

And criticising the people in the stadium who had bothered to turn up for not cheering in the right way, while at the same time pointing out it did not sell out it a bit much.

Breaking down the perception that tennis is a middle class/middle aged sport can only be helped by the likes of the Stirling Uni students. I for one enjoyed their chanting and was rather bored by the tutting from the over 60s brigade.

Scream from the rafters for all I care. Whip up the crowd. Have a couple of pints. Jeeeeeeez. Enjoy a good day out.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

The empty seats on Sunday are fairly easily accounted for - so often Sunday has only dead rubbers. Even when the Beeb was covering Davis Cup, they never bothered to show the dead rubbers: if you are having to pay for the travel, hotels and for the seats themselves, Friday and Saturday are much better bets! So the only "casual" trade you will get are locals. The only time I ever went to a DC tie, many years ago, I only booked for Friday and Saturday. And as it happened, the tie was over at the end of Saturday, so I didn't bother turning up to pay at the door on the last day.

I would now, I'm a lot more interested in tennis now plus I have a lot more spare time, but I didn't then. . .

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

To revert to the question of newspaper coverage of the Davis Cup, I buy the print edition of The Times on Mondays to Fridays & The Sunday Times, as, although I object to lining Murdoch's pockets by paying for Sky or subscribing to one of the new packages for the papers, none of which is of any use to me, I have less problem with paying a quid a day during the week for the daily paper & £2.20 on Sundays.

The Times really pushed the boat out with its tennis coverage last Friday, with a preview by OEM of the DC programme in Glasgow ("Slovakia encouraged by absence of main man") & a lovely article about Josh Ward-Hibbert ("Ward-Hibbert has the firepower to make rarest of breakthroughs", which draws parallels with JWT's rise to fame) plus two Matthew Syed offerings: a feature about Andy ("Andy: I've turned the corner in pursuit of grand-slam [sic]") & a lengthy interview with Judy Murray ("I know I am not hugely popular and letters say what a terrible example I am"), which discusses, inter alia, her relationship with Andy & Jamie (really can't believe so-called "fans" would actually write to her just to have a go! disbelief ).

Yesterday, OEM managed almost a full page on the outcome of the DC, accompanied by a colour photo of a smiling Evo being tossed in the air by his team mates ("Evans defies odds to show there is life beyond Murray").

All in all, well done The Times, I say.

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Wednesday 15th of February 2012 10:37:19 AM

helki · Futures qualifying

Had the bad luck to be ill over the weekend and confined to bed. cry On hearing Dino had lost his second match I feared the worst (oh ye of little faith). I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that Evo had gone 2 sets up, smile deflated when I heard SVK had pulled level. cry Amazed, but nonetheless delighted when Dan had taken the 5th. smile Well done to all concerned. biggrin