Weeks 21-22 - French Open - Roland Garros Men's Main Draw (Clay)

EddietheEagle · County player

RE: Weeks 21-22 - French Open - Roland Garros Men's Main Draw (Clay)

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Looks like Kyles got the day off, not much British activity today only Jammie Murray in the doubles

emma · Strong Club Player

yes, I really like Jim Courier as a commentator, a nice melodic voice too.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

emma wrote:

yes, I really like Jim Courier as a commentator, a nice melodic voice too.

Jim Courier gets my vote too - as said above, knowledgeable, not too GB-centric, not condescending, nor 'let-me-tell-you-MY-life-story' . . .

Mind you, I quite like John Inverdale too - doesn't pretend to be an expert, laughs at himself a bit, slight 'buffoon' stlye, but serving a pleasant enough purpose.

Nothing like the uninformed self-serving nonsense that comes from John Lloyd and Andrew Castle, which is impossible to listen to.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, Kyle is in the Andy top half and could of course meet him in R3, so is now on the Thu / Sat / Mon schedule.

With R1 spread over 3 days, Sunday to Tuesday, many of the top half played on Monday and thus are not playing again until 3 days later.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Coup Droit wrote:
emma wrote:

yes, I really like Jim Courier as a commentator, a nice melodic voice too.

Jim Courier gets my vote too - as said above, knowledgeable, not too GB-centric, not condescending, nor 'let-me-tell-you-MY-life-story' . . .
Mind you, I quite like John Inverdale too - doesn't pretend to be an expert, laughs at himself a bit, slight 'buffoon' stlye, but serving a pleasant enough purpose.
Nothing like the uninformed self-serving nonsense that comes from John Lloyd and Andrew Castle, which is impossible to listen to.

Quite like him as a DC captain as well ;)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Absolutely ! good point

inspired choice of clay courts . . .

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I have always liked John Inverdale as a presenter he is an expert and a good steel for Eurosport but not a great step forward for Women's tennis given his previous articulation of Frances most recent Wimbledon winners beauty.

This reflects my chipiness around the pseudocommarady Golf club/beer monster fusion culture found in urban Rugby Clubs of which he is a part and an unhealthy breeding ground for casual misogyny. That said I like Rugby and there are lots of positives to joining a club particularly if you change jobs regularly.

It just reinforces what a fantastic role model Murray is for UK tennis full stop.

Courier is an expert, the difference lies in that he was a great player when compared to Andrew Castle and John Lloyd and has a different level in depth of understanding of the game, for the statos out there these two fact are in no way independent variables. Quantify a rel......etc

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I don't hold his comment against John I - nor does Marion - although I completely agree that it was far from his finest hour ! He apologised, as he most certainly should, has not been guilty (as far as I know) of anything like it before or after, so I'm happy to put it down to a one-off (Of course, I can't help it - you're surrounded in France by so many more blatant and serious examples, all the time, as quite normal and acceptable, and no one minds, that it's difficult to take John's too seriously).

And I don't think it's because Courier is a great player and John and Andrew weren't that makes the difference. Some top players have a really lousy knowledge of tennis i.e. they know a lot about how to hit the ball but nothing about any player they've never played, or even the rules, or the governing bodies or anything. (Seb Grosjean, for instance, - admittedly not a GREAT player but not bad - by his own admission has NO idea about any of the players in the women's side or anything about women's tennis).

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Inverdale and mysogny perhaps you couldn't write a PhD thesis on it but, hiccup with Marion fine and she very gracefully accepted his apology. I do really like him as a broadcaster always loved his style and passion for sport.

In March he managed to insert a body part exclusively female, a boob it was not! Into a well known phrase while on air at the Cheltenham festival. Generally swearing is acceptable when in response to pain or frustration and I myself am partial to be a bit of Phillip Larkin, however it's usage in this case had no artistic merit and frustratingly he morphed a noun into a verb, common in the upper dockers stand next to the away fans but not amongst journalists at work. When however the swear word uttered has racist or mysognistic implictions, two immediately come to mind he morphed one into a noun, it becomes unacceptable and usually results in serious consequences...

One has to question how it happened ... Most of us could not of would not have made that slip even after a bottle of Pernod, and although admittedly the group of the Millwall faithful I have referenced are probably a lost cause and indeed the kids section a challenge, what hope do you have of preventing such words and their derogatory implications slipping into everyday usage unless serious action taken and the perpetrators delt with...

Restriction to Eurosport is probably an appropriate sanction one more slip and talksport beckons!

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Oakland2002 wrote:
Inverdale and mysogny perhaps you couldn't write a PhD thesis on it but, hiccup with Marion fine and she very gracefully accepted his apology. I do really like him as a broadcaster always loved his style and passion for sport.

In March he managed to insert a body part exclusively female, a boob it was not! Into a well known phrase while on air at the Cheltenham festival. Generally swearing is acceptable when in response to pain or frustration and I myself am partial to be a bit of Phillip Larkin, however it's usage in this case had no artistic merit and frustratingly he morphed a noun into a verb, common in the upper dockers stand next to the away fans but not amongst journalists at work. When however the swear word uttered has racist or mysognistic implictions, two immediately come to mind he morphed one into a noun, it becomes unacceptable and usually results in serious consequences...

One has to question how it happened ... Most of us could not of would not have made that slip even after a bottle of Pernod, and although admittedly the group of the Millwall faithful I have referenced are probably a lost cause and indeed the kids section a challenge, what hope do you have of preventing such words and their derogatory implications slipping into everyday usage unless serious action taken and the perpetrators delt with...

Restriction to Eurosport is probably an appropriate sanction one more slip and talksport beckons!

Disagree there. I thought people who made such gaffes became Director of Cricket working for the ECB. wink

TMH · Futures qualifying

Coup Droit wrote:
And I don't think it's because Courier is a great player and John and Andrew weren't that makes the difference. Some top players have a really lousy knowledge of tennis i.e. they know a lot about how to hit the ball but nothing about any player they've never played, or even the rules, or the governing bodies or anything. (Seb Grosjean, for instance, - admittedly not a GREAT player but not bad - by his own admission has NO idea about any of the players in the women's side or anything about women's tennis).

That is one of the (many) things I find so impressive about Murray - he's a fan of the game as much as any of us, and takes such a big interest in the sport in the same way we do - following the other British players, following the women's side, even keeping an eye on the top young players breaking through and training with the likes of Edmund and Kokkinakis. The latter on the other hand clearly doesn't follow the sport all that much, given he struggled to remember what year Murray won his first Slam (or even which Slam it was). I think it's also one of Murray's greatest strengths - he is usually very well informed about any opponent he faces, and if he's not he'll spend hours researching them and watching videos of them to learn their game. He's a brilliant tactician, and this knowledge of the other players is such a huge aid to that.

-- Edited by TMH on Wednesday 27th of May 2015 11:27:17 AM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

TMH Agreed!

BiS there is also a place for him in the premier league hierarchy! We joke, but it's really bad.

Sport however is the perfect setting to drive change and impact sterotypes, ie I thought the run like a girl Nike advert was very powerful , showed her language impacts attitude but simple attention to detail there (I have to check myself on occasions) can have significant impact as does overt demonstration of equality ie allowing players independent of sex to be picked for school teams on ability, ie a good girl plays for the male first team if she's good enough, no questions asked, it's the norm.

To achieve equality of pay in tennis was a phenomenal achievement, sets the sport apart really.... Anticipating great strides in the women's game in both football and cricket.

wimdledont · Challenger level

I think Bartoli is the best tennis co-commentator, wrt her comments on tactics, shot construction, etc, in the course of a match. Possibly McEnroe is still on his perch, but Bartoli is right up there.

She could still learn a bit from Richie Benaud. She does have a tendency to talk too much, but then she is a woman, poor old thing. And French.

Her two sous on Mauresmo are probably worth a lot more than that, given that she was also coached by Amelie...

www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/may/23/amelie-mauresmo-andy-murray-marion-bartoli-french-open

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Thanks for that enjoyed it!