Week 35-36: US Open - Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

Week 35-36: US Open - Hard

Count Zero · Tennis legend

it shows that really it's a bit silly, Greg won it for reaching a final (nothing to disrespect Greg was and still is a great achievement). Didn't Zara Phillips win it, along with Ryan Giggs recently? Yes it's an Olympics year, maybe they need to do 2 separate ones or something.

Possibly Murray needs a new wining 'trademark', the twin finger sky point just doesn't have the same panache as a mo-bot.

huntley93 · Strong Club Player

Count Zero wrote:
it shows that really it's a bit silly, Greg won it for reaching a final (nothing to disrespect Greg was and still is a great achievement). Didn't Zara Phillips win it, along with Ryan Giggs recently? Yes it's an Olympics year, maybe they need to do 2 separate ones or something.

Possibly Murray needs a new wining 'trademark', the twin finger sky point just doesn't have the same panache as a mo-bot.

or do a tsonga?

NotAClue · Lower Club Player

Hallelujah. Sir Andy. biggrin

indiana wrote:
Julia Carrot wrote:
As in Robson Green ?
Naa, who's got a first name Green ?

Green Gartside, lead singer of Scritti Politti

If the first name last name thing is true, then George Morgan's gonna be a world beater.

Hasn't Helped James Ward, Alex Ward, Josh Milton, Lewis Burton, Toby Martin etc though.

Perhaps they both have to be Scottish names?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Green wasn't his original real name though (according to Wiki anyway).

And are their people with the 1st name Ward?

anyway maybe it's not foolproof, but it's got to improve your odds.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Sadly Andy has zero chance of winning SPOTY, because the US open is not Wimby and not being popular with the masses.
It's either going to be Mo or Bradley Wiggins.

Still hasn't sunk in, probably going to take a few months. I actually started following Andy closely from June 2005 onwards, not as impressive as Maddy !

eblunt · Club Coach

Suddenly things seem to be opening up for Andy - the seemingly unpassable wall of the big 3 seems to be dispersing :

Fed - Winning Wimby might have been his last hurrah, certainly a gold medal and slam winning Andy won't have any fears now of an aging Fed who he whipped in 3 straight on Fed's home turf.

Rafa - Legs have gone. He'll pop up from time to time and keep winning RG of course, but I can't see him winning that many more non RG slams. He'd clearly not been fit for 2 of the 3 non clay slams this year.

Djoko - He's still the problem, but showing a few weak spots now after his near 4 slam run. Breaking his duck by beating Djok in a slam final certainly evens up up a bit against him now. Andy can go in against him feeling its an even match from now on.

Summary - it's now a big 4 now and once Andy gets the number 2 spot he'll have an easier run to GS finals where there's no one who he won't fancy beating now.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

huntley93 wrote:
Count Zero wrote:
it shows that really it's a bit silly, Greg won it for reaching a final (nothing to disrespect Greg was and still is a great achievement). Didn't Zara Phillips win it, along with Ryan Giggs recently? Yes it's an Olympics year, maybe they need to do 2 separate ones or something.

Possibly Murray needs a new wining 'trademark', the twin finger sky point just doesn't have the same panache as a mo-bot.

or do a tsonga?

God forbid. I like Tsonga, but every time he does that daft dance I want to slap him!

andyjmr · Intermediate Club Player

Madeline wrote:
As I watched in the small hours of last night, I couldn't help remember doing likewise for the Aptos and Binghampton Challengers, and that was only livescores.

Funny, i thought back to those aswell. shredded nerves, mixed with a feeling that he was on the cusp of something big... mixed with late night euphoria when he did it... happy days :)

Spectator · All-time great

What a day. What a lovely day, spent at least in part (when not working) reading story after story finally giving credit to Mr Murray. (Steven, if you read this, thanks for your tweets of various stories ... and if you have time, take a look at Le Monde, which has a fantastic article/set of photos, as does the New York Times, on the triumph of British sport overall this summer. Made me think of you, with all your Olympic, as well as tennis, experience!)

I don't follow tennis as much as many of you (though I've followed Murray ever since I wondered who this unknown team was that was beating Erlich and Ram in the Davis Cup ... and then through this website learned more about and began to follow GB's various men and women players). And I don't know as much as ... well pretty well any of you on this board. But it's been really lovely to share the amazing British Tennis accomplishments of this summer -- from Watson, Murray and Marray at Wimbledon to Murray and Robson at the Olympics to Robson, Konta, Broady, Edmund and Murray at the US Open -- with such a knowledgeable, witty and kind group of people, and to know when the fifth set ended this morning at 2:00 am that there were lots of other people equally (or more) excited. Even if the excitement is much wider now than it used to be ... the person with whom I share an office arrived this morning grinning from ear to ear and an elderly neighbour, when I said I'd had a long night, said "For the obvious reasons, I assume!" ... the board members who have been following players at all ranks and with a genuine respect for their talents and personality are the people with whom one can best rejoice. Thank you!

-- Edited by Spectator on Tuesday 11th of September 2012 11:04:28 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

andyjmr wrote:
Madeline wrote:
As I watched in the small hours of last night, I couldn't help remember doing likewise for the Aptos and Binghampton Challengers, and that was only livescores.

Funny, i thought back to those aswell. shredded nerves, mixed with a feeling that he was on the cusp of something big... mixed with late night euphoria when he did it... happy days :)

Those dedicated tournament threads with his current ranking and all the "what ifs" depending on how the players within a few places above and below him did, and following it round by round. Yes, folk he really might get to WR 46 this week, but only if... smile

huntley93 · Strong Club Player

indiana wrote:
philwrig wrote:
Sadly Andy has zero chance of winning SPOTY, because the US open is not Wimby and not being popular with the masses.
It's either going to be Mo or Bradley Wiggins.

Still hasn't sunk in, probably going to take a few months. I actually started following Andy closely from June 2005 onwards, not as impressive as Maddy !

I really do think Andy's got much more chance than you suggest, Phil. I think there was wide awareness that he was a non slam winner, including wide reasonable and unreasonable criticism. And now wide recognition that he has now got that monkey off his back on top of his Wimbledon final and Olympic gold, which of course were much more in the public eye.
In much more general forums i have been in I see that recognition and his name being quite generally banded with Wiggins and Farah. Of course, the US Open is far from Wimbledon in the overall general British mindeset, and I think he might well lose out, but I am sure that he will get a very strrong vote this year and I think top 3 more than likely.
I was pleasantly surprised that he came 5th last year, OK with Cav beating everyone by a mile, so even allowing for the tremedous general Olympic achievements ( including his own ! ), I put him right up there in the way I suggest.

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 11th of September 2012 04:36:43 PM

agree as well, most people on my facebook were talking about it and most i'd have though wern't tennis fans beyond wimbledon, i think 4 or 5 years ago this would have been the case but whenever murray is in a slam it seem the country now goes tennis crazy! (mind you i am from scotland and he is treated like a god up here!)

Armchair · County player

I've taken to watching Andy with Gaviscon, Valium and a cushion to shred (Thanks for the idea Madeline).

I started watching him in the juniors and it's fair to say he looked so much better than Nole for years.

So Nole's progression to Slam winner and his amazing year last year must have both been deeply frustrating for Andy but also a great spur to suceed.

We are incredibly lucky to have this quality at the top of the mens game and the ability to follow it year round with cable and livestream.

My first big tennis crush was Manuel Santana (dates me a bit !) but I haven't enjoyed the tour as much since the days of McEnroe & Borg.

So thanks guys, it's such a pleasure to watch the game at the moment.

RJA · Hall of fame

To be honest I expect Wiggins to win it and frankly I wouldn't have a problem with that. Winning the Tour de France was a massive achievement that is at least on par with Andy winning the US Open.

philwrig · Hall of fame

RJA wrote:
To be honest I expect Wiggins to win it and frankly I wouldn't have a problem with that. Winning the Tour de France was a massive achievement that is at least on par with Andy winning the US Open.

If I didn't vote for Andy I'd vote for Mo. I believe our cyclists success is primarily a by product of a world class system. We seem to have a plethora of world class cyclists which suggests to me we do not have individual brilliance rather a system headed by arguably the world's best coach in Brailsford achieving world class results.