Weeks 3 & 4 - Australian Open, Melbourne (hard)

indiana · Tennis legend

Weeks 3 & 4 - Australian Open, Melbourne (hard)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Not before 8.30 am GMT start for Kyle, after a Hall of Fame thingy, well and assuming the ladies don't earlier go extending the Day Session, though I guess it still won't be before 8.30 am! Rather better UK time than Brazil time on this occasion

Tell me about it. A couple of hours delay due to rain would suit me just fine.

JonH · All-time great

Mind you Bob, 3.30 start your time, done by 7-7.30, shower, breakfast and into work. Job done.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

JonH wrote:
Mind you Bob, 3.30 start your time, done by 7-7.30, shower, breakfast and into work. Job done.

It's actually 5.30 am start time here so not quite that severe. Only a 3 hour difference from the UK in this part of Brazil. Heading off for an early sleep now. Got to give our lad some support in the morning.

indiana · Tennis legend

Standing outside for the last half hour was not part of my Plan A prep for the Kyle match.

The fire alarm went and some confused looking firemen have been going through the block of flats.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

For what it's worth, The Times yesterday devoted no fewer than FOUR (almost) whole pages to Kyle & the build-up to today's semi-final, including a profile of his local tennis club, the Beverley & East Riding Lawn Tennis Club, & some lovely quotes from his first proper coach, Richard Plews. Apparently, there was no competitive tennis played at the independent junior school in Pocklington he attended, but his hand-eye co-ordination came to the fore on the cricket pitch. The pitch had been built far enough away from the school buildings to ensure that an 11-year-old couldn't reach them. Kyle went in to bat & hit a ball through a first-floor window. He made 72 not out & then took three for one when he bowled! Mr Plews says they considered doing something about his unorthodox forehand ("His grip is pretty extreme", but "changing it [is the] sort of thing [that] can unravel a young player. "The crucial thing was that Kyle kept backing himself with it. He knew the way he wanted to play. He'd always been remarkably single-minded." Then, "I think we were right to stick with it,"Plews said. "He's now got the most destructive forehand in the world.").

There was a feature article in the main paper of Tuesday's Evening Standard in addition to a report on the match against Dimi in the sports pages. It included a colour photo of Kyle with his mum, dad & younger sister, Kelly, at what I presume was her graduation ceremony. Kyle doesn't half look like his dad!

Yesteday's Standard included Tin Pan's assessment of his chances in gthe match against Cilic.

indiana · Tennis legend

Possibly quite a good idea not to have muddled much with Kyle's forehand !

Anyway cuppa and bed. We didn't burn down !

indiana · Tennis legend

And at 4.10 am approx off goes the fire alarm again !!!

A reduced number have gathered.

And the firemen are having a less confused wander because they no doubt expect to find **** all.

indiana · Tennis legend

Back indoors. And after my earlier comments on the match time I am thinking that 4.30 am GMT would have been a fine start time for Kyle !

Julia Carrot · All-time great

Oops, well lets hope Kyle wins in straight sets or you're going to struggle to keep your eyes open for one of his five setters !

Oakland2002 · All-time great

As a Yorkshireman and for the greater good he should probably have stuck to Cricket. As a sporting nation our standing in Australia would be much higher if he managed to introduce his stubborn streak to the top end of our batting order unless of course he wins the whole thing.

Cricket is probably the major looser of talented athletes to other sport, indeed I remover watching a number of players who were duel sportsmen in the 70s as a kid. Worcestershire seemed to collect them! Jimmy Cumbes, Chris Balderstone, Ted Hemsley and Phil Neale were all pro footballers and indeed the mighty Paul Pridgeon who despite being the worst bat you have ever seen turned out for Kidderminster Hsrriers on a Saturday.

Gary Nevilles story about getting roasted and banned from playing makes me chortle. As a 16/17 year old he got found out when he was reported in the paper for an opening stand of close to 300 in a Lancashire league cricket match while a youth team player at United. How good could he have been? The young Australian who contributed to the stand was a little older .. and the club professional .... the guys name ...... Matthew Hayden. So arguably Gary could have been the best batsmen in Lancashire ...... well no, not even the best batsman in his own family as Phil Neville also got roasted at School by his head master for not being there as in the winter he was always captaining England at football and the summer England at cricket!!!

Dean Headley quite a few years back wrote an article about his guilty secret in the Telegraph which also made me chortle. His idea of a perfect day was a Rugby Imternational weekend, this is a test fast bowler who unbeknown to his employers was playing Rugby on a Saturday morning for Stourbridge thirds before hitting the bar for the big game. He also quoted his sporting role models as some lads from School who all went on to play high level Rugby at places like Northampton/England B, Worcester and Mosely. Bizarrely the guy who went to Moseley was a better schoolboy cricketer than Dean but interestingly chose to go Loughborough University to study only BiS would do that. Even more interestingly Loughborough students nearly won the Middlesex sevens crushing Wasps live on Rugby special not such a shock for those in the know ie Dean but a slightly unexpected choice of role models from a man a whose father was a local cricketing legend and whose grandad is mentioned in the same breath as Gareth Sobers and Viv Richards!

Back to the important business of this morning. I was quite confident he would beat Dimitrov but have butterflies for him today already.

Very frustratingly I have loads to do at work and cant bring myself to go in late but could tolerate the sleep deprivation of an early start as well trained in that respect. Arggggh.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, I am afraid I too had much better feelings about the Dimitov match than today's.

I hope and trust that Kyle and his corner only have positive thoughts.

Make some history, mate !

Jan · Hall of fame

Kyle has done a fabulous job this far. Any more would be a huge bonus - but you never know!

goldfish · Futures qualifying

I have a Bet365 account. Trying to get a livestream but the option doesn't come up. What do I need to do? I only have £5 in the account and I'm in Auckland. Any help or alternative stream that's not dodgy much appreciated. Can't believe they aren't showing it on NZ television.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

On a computer, if you are logged in it should show your user name in the top right corner and below that should say 'Live streaming' which click on and should bring up the live streaming window. It is a bit different on the phone App or iPad. You should get a 'watch' option, but then only if you are logged into your account.