Weeks 26 & 27: Wimbledon (grass) - Andy Murray matches

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Weeks 26 & 27: Wimbledon (grass) - Andy Murray matches

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

The enjoyable (?) diversions of trying to get things correct.
Thanks very much for the detailed reply

RJA · Hall of fame

Murray is dispatched out to court No1 for his second round match against Lu. Second match following Verdasco v Benneteau.

steven · Tennis legend

Top bit of sarcasm from Muzz this evening - somebody tweets him:

"I recon serena williams could beat u on grass.. And I'm not even joking."

... and he replies:

"me too! Maybe we can set it up one day and see how close I get"

indiana · Tennis legend

What start is Serena getting ? LOL

RJA · Hall of fame

indiana wrote:
What start is Serena getting ? LOL

Normally the way they do it is to limit the bloke to single serve on each point and for his end to be the size of a doubles court.

steven · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
On another note, something that I really don't understand. Mr Murray has always been sensible and gracious about the fact that Mr Federer is consistently on Centre Court and he is not ... pointing to Mr Federer's status as seven-time champion, etc. But surely consistently placing Mr Federer on Centre and not Mr Murray doesn't help the latter's sense of parity with Mr Federer, or his sense that people hold him in affection? I'm not saying that I think AELTC should do what other countries do, always putting their own first, but might they consider occasionally prioritising Mr Murray? All power to Mr Stakhovsky, but I don't think that's going to be the most exciting of matches .... (Tsonga/Gulbis, on the other hand, one can understand putting on Centre. Either fireworks or a damp squib, but definitely the chance of fireworks!)

I haven't noticed them favouring Fed over Andy in that way, unless having Fed play 1st on Centre and Andy 2nd or 3rd on Centre is counted as favouring Fed, but that's mainly done to get Andy on TV nearer prime time and probably helps with the crowd, in that the crowd tend to be more vocal (more resale queue people, less corporates) later in the day

Since 2009 they have tried to stop any player having all seven of their matches on Centre Court, and they have put both Andy and Fed on Court 1 once each in the first four rounds. Partly this is to avoid the perceived advantage of a player playing on the same court in every round, partly to give the Court 1 debenture holders a bit of value - those debenture holders who go every day, at least.

Last year, Fed was on Court 1 in R1 and Andy on Court 1 in R4
In 2011, Fed was on Court 1 in R4 and Andy on Court 1 in R2
In 2010, Fed was on Court 1 in R2 and Andy on Court 1 in R1
In 2009, Fed and Andy were both on Centre in every round they played

-- Edited by steven on Wednesday 26th of June 2013 06:59:32 AM

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

indiana wrote:
What start is Serena getting ? LOL

I remember her saying years ago when her and Venus were at the top of the women's game, far ahead of everyone else that she didn't see why they shouldn't be able to play with the men...

Spectator · All-time great

Thank you, Steven and Indiana, for the correction! Sorry to have been sloppy in my comment - and glad the AELTC is being fair all around.

-- Edited by Spectator on Wednesday 26th of June 2013 08:22:09 AM

Spectator · All-time great

Taking this more seriously than it was meant, I would think that Mr Murray would be one of the worst players for Ms Williams to play: his strength on return would neutralise her greatest weapon, and she probably wouldn't be used to having to return serves at his level. Would guess that she would be able to beat numerous male players, though ... and on equal terms, too!

On another note, something that I really don't understand. Mr Murray has always been sensible and gracious about the fact that Mr Federer is consistently on Centre Court and he is not ... pointing to Mr Federer's status as seven-time champion, etc. But surely consistently placing Mr Federer on Centre and not Mr Murray doesn't help the latter's sense of parity with Mr Federer, or his sense that people hold him in affection? I'm not saying that I think AELTC should do what other countries do, always putting their own first, but might they consider occasionally prioritising Mr Murray? All power to Mr Stakhovsky, but I don't think that's going to be the most exciting of matches .... (Tsonga/Gulbis, on the other hand, one can understand putting on Centre. Either fireworks or a damp squib, but definitely the chance of fireworks!)

indiana · Tennis legend

To be fair Andy doesn't do bad re Centre Court.

I think he only played one match on Court One last year and I am pretty sure one recent year he only played on Centre Court.

It was looking rather interesting for this year with Andy, Fed and Rafa meant to be playing on the same day. Rafa though.took pity on the schedulers !

Spectator · All-time great

I think at this point one is inclined simply to hope that Mr Murray makes it through the tournament as far as he gets injury free.

Who would have thought that the part of the bracket that was seeded to go: Nadal v Paire, Isner v Wawrinka would in fact read Kubot v (likely) Paire, Mannarino v Brown?!

-- Edited by Spectator on Wednesday 26th of June 2013 02:06:44 PM

RJA · Hall of fame

Murray should be on very soon as Verdasco is about to serve for the previous match

-- Edited by RJA on Wednesday 26th of June 2013 02:45:09 PM

RJA · Hall of fame

To be honest I find it extremely annoying the the top players play on centre court as much as they do. Firstly I don't see why anybody would pay for centre court tickets for day 1 or day 2, the chances of seeing a decent match are almost non-existent. Secondly there is something wonderful about sending the defending champion, and other top players, to play a match or two out in the sticks, on a smallish court. The old court 2 is celebrated as the "graveyard of champions" but short of a major scheduling problem you will never see one of the real top players playing on court 2 now and IMO view that is both sad and wrong.

Spectator · All-time great

Well (if I'm OK to express an opinion having blotted my copybook by being careless in first comments), I agree with you on that: suspect that Robredo/Mahut, Brown/Hewitt and a few other matches would be more exciting. Then again, a lot of people probably would pay money to see Federer play, whatever the match was like. And would add to your reasons the fact that in an era where the dominance of a few players is unusual, putting the same ones consistently on centre also tends to disadvantage the others against whom they might play in later rounds. (In which case, should probably modify my "fair all around" to "fairer than I thought." Hmmm. Can of worms. Yes, that's what this is. Can of worms. Why did I open it? )