Weeks 3-4 - Australian Open (women's)

wales1994 · County player

RE: Weeks 3-4 - Australian Open (women's)

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

wales1994 wrote:
steven wrote:
wales1994 wrote:
Any idea what channel's covering the Open?
Eurosport and Sky, I believe.
Damn! Thanks. Stayed up to watch it as I'm off tomorrow. Turned to BBC... nothing. Am I going crazy in thinking they used to cover the Aussie Open?

I think the cover a men's semi and the finals, but that's it.

steven · Tennis legend

wales1994 wrote:
steven wrote:
wales1994 wrote:
Any idea what channel's covering the Open?
Eurosport and Sky, I believe.
Damn! Thanks. Stayed up to watch it as I'm off tomorrow. Turned to BBC... nothing. Am I going crazy in thinking they used to cover the Aussie Open?

They did provide limited coverage for a few years, though there always seemed to be a correlation between more planned coverage and GB hopes going out early, usually just before the coverage was due to start!

This year, they are only showing the women's and men's finals on BBC TV. Given that they plan so little coverage this year, you'd have thought the Brits would have done better! I guess the BBC only showing the finals may be enough to get Andy through to the semis, where he'll fall one match before we would have seen him. However, semis would be a pretty good outcome under the circumstances, even if he would then fall below delPo, despite the Tower of Tandil's embarrassing (if relatively predictable) defeat yesterday!

5 Live is very good if you are happy to listen (the commentators are almost uniformly better than any of the ones on BBC TV) and of course there are various streams available online - try bet365 or drakulastream.eu (the latter at your own risk!) - I realise, of course, that if you had planned a fun night relaxing in front of the TV, radio commentary and live streams may not be what you had in mind!

My 'secret' is that we have a dish pointed at the satellite that carries all the German TV channels (I live with a German, so that's not quite as weird as it sounds!), which means we get free-to-air Eurosport - not British Eurosport, obviously, so they mainly cover matches involving Germans in the first week, but these days I can't get tooexcited by Andy matches until R4 and beyond anyway (in week 1, he either wins or plays so badly that I'd wish I hadn't watched anyway LOL), and there tends to be a good chance of seeing him after that. The German Eurosport commentators are also a level or two above most of the tennis commentators on UK TV, in terms of tennis knowledge, in particular.

steven · Tennis legend

Oh, are the BBC covering the men's semis on TV? It would make sense, but on their site it just schedules the last Saturday and Sunday. Maybe they have an option on the semis too.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

They say ONE of the men's semis. Presumably if Andy gets that far it will be his: dunno how they will choose which one if he doesn't.

philwrig · Hall of fame

steven wrote:
wales1994 wrote:
steven wrote:
wales1994 wrote:
Any idea what channel's covering the Open?
Eurosport and Sky, I believe.
Damn! Thanks. Stayed up to watch it as I'm off tomorrow. Turned to BBC... nothing. Am I going crazy in thinking they used to cover the Aussie Open?
They did provide limited coverage for a few years, though there always seemed to be a correlation between more planned coverage and GB hopes going out early, usually just before the coverage was due to start!
This year, they are only showing the women's and men's finals on BBC TV. Given that they plan so little coverage this year, you'd have thought the Brits would have done better! I guess the BBC only showing the finals may be enough to get Andy through to the semis, where he'll fall one match before we would have seen him. However, semis would be a pretty good outcome under the circumstances, even if he would then fall below delPo, despite the Tower of Tandil's embarrassing (if relatively predictable) defeat yesterday!
5 Live is very good if you are happy to listen (the commentators are almost uniformly better than any of the ones on BBC TV) and of course there are various streams available online - try bet365 or drakulastream.eu (the latter at your own risk!) - I realise, of course, that if you had planned a fun night relaxing in front of the TV, radio commentary and live streams may not be what you had in mind!
My 'secret' is that we have a dish pointed at the satellite that carries all the German TV channels (I live with a German, so that's not quite as weird as it sounds!), which means we get free-to-air Eurosport - not British Eurosport, obviously, so they mainly cover matches involving Germans in the first week, but these days I can't get tooexcited by Andy matches until R4 and beyond anyway (in week 1, he either wins or plays so badly that I'd wish I hadn't watched anyway LOL), and there tends to be a good chance of seeing him after that. The German Eurosport commentators are also a level or two above most of the tennis commentators on UK TV, in terms of tennis knowledge, in particular.

That sounds great Steven, but I'm assuming the German channel speak in German, great for your partner but not ideal for yourself, unless you have some hidden talent with regard to languages.

philwrig · Hall of fame

steven wrote:
wales1994 wrote:
Any idea what channel's covering the Open?
Eurosport and Sky, I believe.

Not on Sky, they only have coverage of the US open.

steven · Tennis legend

@philwrig I'm trying to improve (though she speaks perfect English, so I'm never going to get anywhere close to catching up LOL) but listening to another language as much as possible always helps in getting used to understanding people talking at full speed and it works much better if they're talking about something you're interested in, even better if there are visual cues too. So yes, they do speak German, but that means it serves a dual purpose

Even if I couldn't understand what they were saying, it would be like a decent quality full-size commentary-free stream that could be watched on TV free of charge.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
@philwrig I'm trying to improve (though she speaks perfect English, so I'm never going to get anywhere close to catching up LOL) but listening to another language as much as possible always helps in getting used to understanding people talking at full speed and it works much better if they're talking about something you're interested in, even better if there are visual cues too. So yes, they do speak German, but that means it serves a dual purpose

Even if I couldn't understand what they were saying, it would be like a decent quality full-size commentary-free stream that could be watched on TV free of charge.

I barely speak a word of German (though I understand a smattering) but I had German Eurosport for the last three years in France - coz it was free and showed the tennis. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't 'understand' the commentary (although it's amazing what you half understand just from context and I now know words for match point, set point etc. etc.) but the tennis was great and the 'tone' of the commentator was enough to make it interesting (and they didn't prattle incessantly).

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I'm watching at present on Eurosport Player - and I was delighted to find that you can get the tennis with background sounds but NO commentary. Bliss.

indiana · Tennis legend

Eugenie Bouchard, having emerged from the Italian top 16 seed depleted / Laura eighth of the draw, and then unexpectedly facing ( and defeating ) Ana Ivanovic rather than Serena in the QFs, finally succumbs to Li Na ( 6-2 6-4 ) in the SFs.

I wonder how Laura will view Eugenie's success, what motivation or otherwise she will take from it. Laura has already shown herself well capable of getting Eugenie's individual results, indeed has beaten Li Na at a Slam. It's putting them all together...

Anyway, Li plays Cibulkova in the final. Who'd have thunk ?!

korriban · Challenger level

indiana wrote:
Eugenie Bouchard, having emerged from the Italian top 16 seed depleted / Laura eighth of the draw, and then unexpectedly facing ( and defeating ) Ana Ivanovic rather than Serena in the QFs, finally succumbs to Li Na ( 6-2 6-4 ) in the SFs.

I wonder how Laura will view Eugenie's success, what motivation or otherwise she will take from it. Laura has already shown herself well capable of getting Eugenie's individual results, indeed has beaten Li Na at a Slam. It's putting them all together...

Anyway, Li plays Cibulkova in the final. Who'd have thunk ?!

Hard not to like Dominika. Popular with most of the women players, and most of the men too! Only 5 foot 3 so odds hugely stacked against her. I had a feeling either CiBulkova or Halep would come through to the final.

I'm afraid I simply can't see Laura ever coming close to matching Eugenie despite having more natural talent and more power. Put simply, there are such big issues with the basics of her game (speed, athleticism, fitness, footwork, anticipation) that she doesn't have a solid platform to build on. Which means the odd set or match of genius, but little chance of stringing too many matches together. Krajan appeared to have got furthest in tackling this, but that didn't seem to meet Laura's needs, so he was dumped. given her undoubted talent if she bumps along ranked 30 to 90 for another couple of years, the world press and big marketing companies will stRt to lose interest, the British press will get on her back and the appeal of other avenues will grow. Noone wants that. I hope the Eugenie rise will spur her to put in the hard yards

LordBrownof · Futures level

I don't think any of us can predict Laura's future - she's just too unpredictable.

What is interesting when comparing the two is not their senior results but their junior careers. Both won Wimbledon but at very different ages. Laura (14) won it and pretty much stepped up to seniors. Genie (18) stuck with juniors until the bitter end improving her game, her physicality, fitness, mentality, movement, agility - she let her body learn as she did mentally. Similarly, I think Heather too won junior slam quite late and if it wasn't for the GF, she'd probably be ranked higher than Laura now.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Congrats to Jordanne Whiley and partner for making the finals of the women's wheelchair doubles - good luck !

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

LordBrownof wrote:

What is interesting when comparing the two is not their senior results but their junior careers. Both won Wimbledon but at very different ages. Laura (14) won it and pretty much stepped up to seniors. Genie (18) stuck with juniors until the bitter end improving her game, her physicality, fitness, mentality, movement, agility - she let her body learn as she did mentally. Similarly, I think Heather too won junior slam quite late and if it wasn't for the GF, she'd probably be ranked higher than Laura now.

Think this is a really significant point. In GB we still seem to want our players to break through and step up to the senior ranks as young as possible. I don't see this so much in other countries. I think spending enough time in juniors really helps with mental attitude. It is easier for players to see junior tennis as a learning process where results are not the main criteria, whereas development is harder in the seniors as results are SO significant. That said, I also think a well planned junior schedule teaches players how to win and handle success. There is, however, clearly still a place for good juniors to be playing some pro events for experience and development, I'm just not sure it should be the main focus of the majority of youngsters.

Many questioned Katie Dunne's decision to stay so long in juniors, but look how quickly she is moving through the adult ranks - clearly started seniors only when she felt she had a good solid base to work from.