Week 31: Olympic tennis - Wimbledon (grass) - mixed doubles

philwrig · Hall of fame

Week 31: Olympic tennis - Wimbledon (grass) - mixed doubles

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

The draw's not up on the ITF site yet, but this snippet appeared on the Beeb's Day 4 of the Olympics page at 14.26 & proves earlier speculation on here correct wink :

Andy Murray, who is in action against Jarkko Nieminen in the singles at this very moment, will play mixed doubles with Laura Robson after Great Britain were awarded a wildcard place by the International Tennis Federation. The duo have Hopman Cup previous. They were beaten in the 2010 final.

murray_2k9 · Challenger qualifying

All draws were bound to be tough, I was impressed by Laura at Wimbledon and Murray in the Mens Dubs, so Im excited to see how they do here!

PS. Shame Hev and a partner couldnt have squeezed in!

RJA · Hall of fame

philwrig wrote:
Tough first round against Hradecka and Stepanek, not sure if those 2 have played together before. Winnable 2nd round though, and 2 wins I think would win a medal, decent outside shot of doing that I would have thought.

2 wins would not be enough to win a medal. The losing semi-finalists play for the Bronze.

philwrig · Hall of fame

RJA wrote:
philwrig wrote:
Tough first round against Hradecka and Stepanek, not sure if those 2 have played together before. Winnable 2nd round though, and 2 wins I think would win a medal, decent outside shot of doing that I would have thought.

2 wins would not be enough to win a medal. The losing semi-finalists play for the Bronze.

Thanks for that. For some reason I didn't think they had to play another match. Other sports I know boxing don't have a bronze medal match.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Beeb website say Hev was dissapointed at not being picked for this as she's no 1 Brit now. I can understand that, as she's won a dubs tourney a couple of weeks ago, but as Andy's playing I can understand the GB decision as they have played together before, and Laura's better equiped to deal with power.
Hope we can get another medal!

daisy · County player

philwrig wrote:
RJA wrote:
philwrig wrote:
Tough first round against Hradecka and Stepanek, not sure if those 2 have played together before. Winnable 2nd round though, and 2 wins I think would win a medal, decent outside shot of doing that I would have thought.

2 wins would not be enough to win a medal. The losing semi-finalists play for the Bronze.
Thanks for that. For some reason I didn't think they had to play another match. Other sports I know boxing don't have a bronze medal match.

There's deffo a bronze medal playoff; it takes place on Court 1 at the same time as the Mens Final on August 5th per the tournament schedule information on the ITF website or here for an easier view.

5th August: 12:0020:30 (Court 1)
Mens Singles: bronze medal match
Womens Doubles: bronze medal match

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Helen40 wrote:
Beeb website say Hev was dissapointed at not being picked for this as she's no 1 Brit now. I can understand that, as she's won a dubs tourney a couple of weeks ago, but as Andy's playing I can understand the GB decision as they have played together before, and Laura's better equiped to deal with power.
Hope we can get another medal!

I wonder who would make this decision, i.e. did Andy get to choose who he played with?

I think Laura is probably our best mixed doubles choice even though Heather is a better women's doubles player. In mixed, Laura's extra power on her groundstrokes and particularly her serve are more important - at Wimbledon she didn't drop serve in 3 rounds of mixed doubles which always gives you a good chance.

RJA · Hall of fame

tony_orient wrote:
Helen40 wrote:
Beeb website say Hev was dissapointed at not being picked for this as she's no 1 Brit now. I can understand that, as she's won a dubs tourney a couple of weeks ago, but as Andy's playing I can understand the GB decision as they have played together before, and Laura's better equiped to deal with power.
Hope we can get another medal!
I wonder who would make this decision, i.e. did Andy get to choose who he played with?
I think Laura is probably our best mixed doubles choice even though Heather is a better women's doubles player. In mixed, Laura's extra power on her groundstrokes and particularly her serve are more important - at Wimbledon she didn't drop serve in 3 rounds of mixed doubles which always gives you a good chance.

Add in the fact that Andy and Laura have played together a good few times before it is clearly a reasonable choice.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

daisy wrote:
There's deffo a bronze medal playoff; it takes place on Court 1 at the same time as the Mens Final on August 5th per the tournament schedule information on the ITF website or here for an easier view.
5th August: 12:0020:30 (Court 1)
Mens Singles: bronze medal match
Womens Doubles: bronze medal match

The Mixed Doubles bronze playoff is the day before, same day as the Women's singles final.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Heather is not happy at not getting selected based on the quote from her in the BBC Olympic updates:

"I thought I might have deserved a spot in the mixed because of my ranking, because of how well I've been doing, especially winning a title last week," said Watson.

"I mean... whatever... I'm just upset that I didn't get picked, but there's not much I can do."

Spectator · All-time great

Is it the case that Watson made her comments just after she came off the court? If so, yet another argument for not interviewing people at that point. Far too high a likelihood that they'll say something that, in a quieter moment, they might not.

That's not a criticism of her comment -- more a criticism of anyone who puts her in a situation where it's hard not to make it. Of course, she's upset, and one can understand why. Equally, all the points made about why Robson is probably the better choice under the particular circumstances make sense.

They are both fine young women and fine tennis players, and it's a pity that the situation arose. That said, Ms Watson can take comfort from the fact that she remains the first active GB woman with a WTA title ... and that it's probably the first of many. May she have many more Olympic opportunities, too!

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

From an article in the Express http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/336715/Andy-Murray-accepts-Laura-Robson-proposal

Murray had the pick of British women as Heather Watson also expressed an interest in partnering him, in an event that is returning to the Olympics for the first time since 1924. Heather Watson has played some very good doubles this year and is our No1 player as well, so obviously its tough for her, said Murray. But tough decisions have to be made sometimes. It was hard but I listened to what the coaches on the team had to say.

philwrig · Hall of fame

tony_orient wrote:
Helen40 wrote:
Beeb website say Hev was dissapointed at not being picked for this as she's no 1 Brit now. I can understand that, as she's won a dubs tourney a couple of weeks ago, but as Andy's playing I can understand the GB decision as they have played together before, and Laura's better equiped to deal with power.
Hope we can get another medal!
I wonder who would make this decision, i.e. did Andy get to choose who he played with?
I think Laura is probably our best mixed doubles choice even though Heather is a better women's doubles player. In mixed, Laura's extra power on her groundstrokes and particularly her serve are more important - at Wimbledon she didn't drop serve in 3 rounds of mixed doubles which always gives you a good chance.

Very good point, holding serve for the lady is paramount in mixed especially with Andy's serve. We lost the mens because Jamie wasn't able to serve much above 110mph and consequently was under pressure all the time. Laura's serve is not quite at the level that it was at Wimby but is still better than Hev's.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

I caNn't believe they nearly lost that match after being mutch the better team, but Laura seems to go through spells at the moment where she loses her service action. Excellent bettling back in the match tie-break from 2-5 down though.

You could tell that Stepanek and Hradecka were more of a doubles team but they couldn't compete with Andy and Laura for much of the match and but for missing a lot of break points in the 2nd set, the score would have been a lot more one sided.

Murray/Robson win 7-5 6-7 10-7

-- Edited by tony_orient on Thursday 2nd of August 2012 06:39:39 PM