indiana wrote:

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I believe Fed rather likes playing under the roof removing variables like wind. So could maybe do with the weather not being anything like as bad as forecast and no roof. If it remains dodgy even if dry they may though keep the roof closed

Either way, like paulisi I'd be surprise if Marcus gets more than 9 games. Double figures would be great.

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Fed's back to give way early in the 2nd set and Marcus to win by a knockout - oops, I mean retirement.

philwrig wrote:

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Bob in Spain wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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I believe Fed rather likes playing under the roof removing variables like wind. So could maybe do with the weather not being anything like as bad as forecast and no roof. If it remains dodgy even if dry they may though keep the roof closed

Either way, like paulisi I'd be surprise if Marcus gets more than 9 games. Double figures would be great.

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Fed's back to give way early in the 2nd set and Marcus to win by a knockout - oops, I mean retirement.

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 If Marcus can stay in the zone, I think he'll definitely get to double figures, he's not going to be overwhelmed by the CC experience either I don't think. With Marcus's low bouncing slices, Fed's back will certainly be tested, now I'd rather win without retirement, but... Just looked at the odds the bookies have him at 33/1 and a game total of 27.5 and handicap of 9.

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I am not a betting man and don't understand fully the "odds", but if Marcus is 33/1 in a two horse race, I don't think they are giving him much of a chance. Would they pay out on a win by retirement ?  Might be wirth a couple of quid in that case.

Bob in Spain wrote:

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philwrig wrote:

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Bob in Spain wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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I believe Fed rather likes playing under the roof removing variables like wind. So could maybe do with the weather not being anything like as bad as forecast and no roof. If it remains dodgy even if dry they may though keep the roof closed

Either way, like paulisi I'd be surprise if Marcus gets more than 9 games. Double figures would be great.

---

Fed's back to give way early in the 2nd set and Marcus to win by a knockout - oops, I mean retirement.

---

 If Marcus can stay in the zone, I think he'll definitely get to double figures, he's not going to be overwhelmed by the CC experience either I don't think. With Marcus's low bouncing slices, Fed's back will certainly be tested, now I'd rather win without retirement, but... Just looked at the odds the bookies have him at 33/1 and a game total of 27.5 and handicap of 9.

---

I am not a betting man and don't understand fully the "odds", but if Marcus is 33/1 in a two horse race, I don't think they are giving him much of a chance. Would they pay out on a win by retirement ?  Might be wirth a couple of quid in that case.

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 Yes if 1 set is completed, they usually will payout. I like the handicap bet, can't see many breaks of serve in the match at all.

www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2016/06/28/wimbledons-unlikely-star-marcus-willis-will-keep-smiling-through/

Wonderful article.

'I'm just going to keep my head down and enjoy it because I am happy, and I haven't always been happy.'

I am sure I speak for everyone when I say it couldn't happen to a better guy. So pleased for him.

RJA wrote:

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 Also this will be on centre or court 1 so there won't be a hyper partisan crowd cheering Marcus on.

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 I'm really hoping that Marcus can get those fans CC tickets for tomorrow, (and people will queue for returns). It would be awesome if we could have that same sort of DC atmosphere when he plays tomorrow. They so deserve it after their support on Monday. So hoping there won't be a roof to give Fed even more of an edge. Miracles have happened for Marcus so far - long may they continue.

PS: Scrolling down from the article to the box on WCs below - James Ward "the bad boy of British tennis," Telegraph? Please also get someone who knows tennis to write your boxes! (I'm happy with the rest of the sentence, though!)

"James Ward Age: 29 World ranking: 177

The bad boy of British tennis is now a household name after helping Great Britain to win the Davis Cup."

On which note, I watched some of Mr Ward's match - could we please hire top players to play him regularly? As philwrig said, haven't seen him play that well in some time. He really does rise to occasions.

 

An old (4th July 2007!) little gem unearthed as I was sorting through papers in preparation for an office move last December:  an article from The Times by Owen Slot, then its chief Sports Reporter, which I'd originally intended to post at the time because of the Pauffley angle, only for Stacey to drop off the latter's radar!

 

 

From Russia with love for the work ethic

On the subject of hunger and desire in tennis, it may seem something of an oxymoron to mention Anna Kournikova, but the following is a tale told yesterday by Victor Roubanov, her coach at the Spartak club in Moscow.  To join the elite at Spartak, you had to go for trials and roughly one child in 200 would make it.  The point about Kournikova, aged 6½, is that when her turn came, Roubanov asked her what she could do and she immediately pumped 50 press-ups on her knuckles.  That helped to win her a place and thereafter Roubanov recalls the girl badgering the other kids to play with her through the lunch breaks.  "Sometimes," he said, "she would play for eight hours without stopping."  And yes [I think that may be a typo for "yet"], we tend to think that of all the Russian girls, she was the soft one.  All of this is significant now because the word is that British kids are soft, too, and because Roubanov is over here and trying to find one that it not.  The news is that he believes he has cracked it.  At the LTA's invitation, he went to work at Bisham Abbey in 1989 with his wife, Olga Morozova, the 1974 Wimbledon singles finalist and former Soviet national coach.  After a number of years, though, he asked if he could run his own programme in his own way, exactly the way he saw it working in Moscow.

So his story is one of Russian ways applied to the United Kingdom.  His first products are at Wimbledon in the boys' singles, two 17-year-olds, Neil Pauffley and Marcus Willis, both of whom, he says, will make the world top 50.  They themselves tell you their sights are set somewhat higher, adding that their unusual grooming gives them an edge over their British peers.  There are other British hopefuls, Willis said, who "aren't prepared to try everything to win".  He and Pauffley, who have been waiting since Friday to open their Wimbledon campaigns, talk about how others will "find excuses".

If all this is beginning to sound familiar, Roubanov reinforces the idea that Russians are simply bred to want it more, but believes these intangibles are not beyond our own children.  "Russian parents are tougher," he said.  "They push children.  Everyone wants to see their child here in Wimbledon.  If British parents see their children's tennis dip, they say, 'OK, we'll concentrate on school instead.'  They are not ambitious.  There is a reason.  Life is more comfortable here; British children have more opportunities.  In Russia, with such a big gap between the rich and the poor, many have one opportunity:  to play tennis.  Sport is an opportunity to earn money.  Parents here do not pay for tennis.  Russian parents will sell their houses, cars, everything for their children's tennis."

Through the Spartak club, Roubanov has watched the progress not only of Kournikova, but also of Marat Safin, Mikhail Youzhny, Elena Dementieva and Anastasia Myskina and he has a Safin tale to demonstrate what Russians do and Britons don't.  He once watched a "young" Safin, who was told to paly cross-court to hit a cone ten times.  "After half an hour," Roubanov said, "he was still out there trying to hit it.  It was:  'Come on, do it, do it.'  But if that was here?  The maximum would be ten minutes.  'You can't do it?  OK, let's do something else.'."  Roubanov is honest, saying:  "You cant change the mentality here."

What he believes he can do is this:  first, he does not believe in scanning the country for talent, it has to be local; and he will not consider a drive-in time of more than 30 minutes.  The reason is that he demands of his six-, seven- and eight-year-olds three two-hour sessions a week.  "This is very unusual for British parents," he said, "because they are used to two and they also have horse-riding, swimming, piano, ballet dancing."  The parents, he says, are introduced to a culture that is unfailingly professional.  They are given certain windows in which they are allowed to holiday.  "I never cancel," Roubanov said.  "I only cancel if I die.  There is high discipline.  If children come and see everyone working, then they work, too.  Not playing, but working.  This all tells the children this is something serious."

Bottom line:  does this make Pauffley  and Willis as hungry as the Russians?  "I think they are more safe than the Russians, but they have to feel that I want it badly."  He tells them to model themselves on Nikolay Davidenko because what he lacks in talent he makes up for in work ethic.  Willis and Pauffley seem to like the sound of that.

I have a clear recollection of reading the article when it was first published & as a result I've tended to keep an eye out for Neil's & Marcus' results ever since, so I was quite pleased when I stumbled across it again, complete with little colour photo of the three men at Wimbledon.  In spite of his rather sweeping generalisations vis-à-vis British tennis parents (Judy Murray or Simon Broady anyone?), his thoughts about British kids being too soft & "not wanting it" enough were not exactly a revelation at the time.  I then began to wonder whether, eight years later, Roubanov was still in the tennis coaching business in this country, so I did some research, admittedly, not very extensive.  Something more specialised than Google is clearly needed, as all it threw up were stories of a similar vintage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2007/07/27/marcus_willis_070727_feature.shtml

http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/Sport/Other-Sports/Other-Sports/Disgraced-tennis-star-can-bounce-back-847.htm  (I vaguely remember that brouhaha because of the Times article)

 

At least Neil's Wiki profile is being kept pretty much up-to-date:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Pauffley

The Times article is there, too, but hidden behind the paywall, even after all this time!