Week 25 - ATP 500 - The Aegon Championships, The Queen's Club (grass)

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Week 25 - ATP 500 - The Aegon Championships, The Queen's Club (grass)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Wish i could have got there too. Not only was there plenty of action to see, a big GB win from Liam, but maybe I would have got to meet the legend that is CD as well. Thanks for the reports.

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

Sensational result for Liam biggrin biggrin

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

I notice that following the withdrawal of Jack Sock, there is already a LL spot available. Is it the ATP level where the top 4 eligible players go into a hat for the LL draw ? In this case it would be all those that lose in the FQR.

Madadman · Top national player

I think it's still the top two ranked players who lost in FQR in a hat. Or if there's more than one place then amount of withdrawals plus 1 in a hat.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Come on Liam !!

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Not to be. Shapovalov wins 6-4 6-4.

Madadman · Top national player

Kyle to play Denis in round one. On tomorrow's OOP

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Qualifiers placed:

L32: (1) Andy Murray WR 1 (= CH) vs Aljaz Bedene WR 59 (CH = 45 in November 2015)
L32: (WC) Cam Norrie WR 230 (= CH) vs Sam Querrey (USA) WR 27 (CH = 17 in January 2011)

L32: (Q) Julien Benneteau (FRA) WR 94 (CH = 25 in November 2015) vs (WC) James Ward WR 1070 (CH = 89 in July 2015) - can't see Dino winning that one

L32: Kyle Edmund WR 44 (CH = 40 last October) vs (Q) Denis Shapovalov (CAN) WR 195

The lucky loser's spot went to PHH & he plays Chardy.

indiana · Tennis legend

Madadman wrote:
Kyle to play Denis in round one. On tomorrow's OOP

Interesting, having not quite got to finish their previous match.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Poor Aljaz, Andy two years on the trot. The draw gods can be cruel at times.

Jeff Stelling · Club Coach

I was able to get along both Saturday and Sunday for a very enjoyable weekend of free tennis.

The Queen's qualifying weekend is certainly not the incredible experience it once was that was worth blocking the calendar out for months in advance. However it does remain worth attending if you happen to have the weekend free. It used to be a sparsely attended weekend with minimal/zero queues and a relaxed attitude where you could bring your own cans in to enjoy a beer in the sun and be one of about ten people watching pretty much anyone in the draw practising from a metre or two away.

There's been a definite sea change in the last 2/3 years in terms of numbers (and knowledge of those numbers, the snob in me would say, however I suppose new fans is a good thing). It does get a little draining over time listening to conversations between herds of people clogging up the gangways discussing their non-recognition of Tsonga, Raonic, Edmund etc and concluding they are "probably a coach". If I wanted that kind of experience I'd just book two weeks off work over Wimbledon fortnight and shoot down to SW19.

Indeed when I arrived at 10.30 on the Saturday there was already a chunky queue of about 150, whereas 5 years ago say you'd have needed locking up for even bothering to arrive that early. It meant that the limit of 650 in the grounds (rather than the 'official' limit of 500) was reached just after midday. This led to some bickering in the queue between tennis fans and security as those who had already entered were given wristbands that permitted instant re-entry and the staff had no means of knowing if people were leaving permanently or planning to return. This meant no new people were admitted for about a 90 minute spell in the early afternoon. Rumours reached me about 1.30pm of particularly robust exchanges between security and Liz C (who I know some on here know) as she was desperate to watch Stefan Kozlov presumably. I'm not going to comment on my views of the rights and wrongs of the situation however in the interests of diplomacy.

I watched quite a bit of Tiafoe - Broady. As others have said, Tiafoe's timing on grass looked all over the place and he spent a large part of the match spraying it around like a hosepipe. I found Liam's game a little frustrating on occasions as he often got on top in a rally through a clever angle or change of pace only to then play a "pretty" forehand with a modest amount of topspin when many would have been gunning to kill off the point there and then. On several occasions he let Tiafoe off the hook in this manner. This isn't to say Liam didn't play well, he showed some tremendous touches around the net and one particular hold from 0-40 stood out (although it was in a losing effort in the second set).

Chardy - Corrie also a decent watch. Ed played well and certainly battled hard, as you always get from him. He just strikes me as someone who is maximising every ounce his tennis ability as it is and there aren't many more gains to make, not dissimilar to Jamie Baker (a fairly lazy comparison from me, as I recall Baker winning a similar qualifying match versus James Duckworth on the same court a few years ago now). It felt to me that the main difference was weight of shot. When Chardy got ahead in a rally he completely mullered his forehand and took no prisoners. Corrie doesn't really have the gravy, mustard or pepper on his groundstrokes to do that and relies much more on wrong footing his opponent. Again, he can certainly be proud of the way he played and fought.

Moment of the Saturday was two of the casuals described above asking an injured Jack Sock for a photo, as he was watching Young/Monroe's doubles through a gap in the court 1 fencing. It quickly emerged that want they wanted was a photo of the two of them in front of the rope shielding the players area, rather than wanting any photo with Mr Sock in it. One hopes they were satisfied with his camera work.

-- Edited by Jeff Stelling on Monday 19th of June 2017 11:54:49 AM

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Jeff Stelling wrote:

It does get a little draining over time listening to conversations between herds of people clogging up the gangways discussing their non-recognition of Tsonga, Raonic, Edmund etc and concluding they are "probably a coach".

-- Edited by Jeff Stelling on Monday 19th of June 2017 10:53:04 AM

This comment did make me smile and think of a tweet that was flying around yesterday. It does appear to have been taken down now otherwise I would have posted the picture and caption on here.

The tweet basically said, "Many thanks @KyleEdmund for posing for a picture with me yesterday", and the picture was of a woman with Dom Inglot.

Jan · Hall of fame

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Following on from Jeff's great report, I wanted to make a comment not about the level of knowledge of the crowd (that doesn't upset me really, a lot of people barely know one player from another outside the top 5) but their sympathies and why, BUT WHY, do the 'posh' lot, in particular, somehow feel obliged to cheer for the foreigner?

Now, although I'm a mega fan of his, I assume that Tiafoe is not a particular crowd favourite (too young for most people to have heard of).
Also, he's quite a reserved young man, not the sort to instantly win over a crowd.
And he was not at all the underdog (I know the Brits love an underdog). In fact, quite the reverse.
And he didn't have any particular bad luck at the beginning to make people feel sorry for him.
And, not that I say this with authority, but from twitter etc. he doesn't seem to be in the 'eye candy' category of young male player.

So, why were the British SW1 women around me so gung-ho about everything Frances did? And rather dismissive of everything Liam did? Every possible dodgy call was 'horribly unfair' if it went against Tiafoe. Every good shot of his was 'wonderful'. And Liam was basically chopped liver.

Maybe the folks around Jeff were different. But there were two separate groups of women that I sat near. And I could have hung for them by the end.....Is it just the 'done thing' to let the guest win?