The road to the Australian Open

Babfive · Pro player

RE: The road to the Australian Open

emmsie69 · ATP level

Now 6 after an alt above withdrew

indiana · Tennis legend

flamingowings wrote:
Michael D wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Andreescu withdrawn
Which is sad
It is indeed but not entirely unexpected. I think she will have a lot of injuries, maybe retire early on. The talent is there, but can the body handle it for a sustained period?

Such a pity. Superb record last year when she took to the match court.

Stll only 19 yo, hopefully with very good help and back up she can yet get on top of things, even if it needs an extended break.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

The Q draw is 3pm Melbourne time and as it's currently 3.30am there now, that's 12 hours - 4am here, so we should see who Harriet, Sam and Naiktha play when we wake up in the morning. Regarding Katie S, there could still be a very outside chance she sneaks in to quals, especially as she is currently in Australia - Tan retired with an eye injury last week, Tig gave a walkover in her Bendigo W25 final overnight, so they could be doubts, and Ostapenko has unfortunately just lost her father, so her AO invovlement could also be in doubt, although she'd have to withdraw before qualifying started for Katie to potentially benefit from. All this said, while the guaranteed significant prize money would come in very handy, I don't think it would be the worst thing if she were to just miss out here.

It seems that Eurosport are generally cutting back on their AO coverage, and the qualifying matches are only available on the Player, rather than either of their 2 flagship channels - despite them just showing BDO darts repeats in the early hours instead. Hopefully they'll have as much of the main draw as possible on the main channels, as I do prefer when you can actually record it, rather than watch it on demand, where it's a lot easier to gauge how a match went by the length of video - if a video lengh is say 55 mins then you pretty much know it's going to be a routine 2 sets win, so after the first set, all the suspense is effectively gone.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

HarryGem wrote:
Michael D wrote:
ROSAMUND wrote:
Well at least Jo was in good company in Brisbane because Barty, Sharapova, Stephens, Svitolina and Kerber all failed to win a match between them. No doubt their "A" games will appear at the Australian Open. Or will it be an Australian Open final between Collins and Brady. Re Jo and the knee problem which has been going on for a year is it possible that it is wear and tear for playing a fairly physical game over a long time and it is a problem that is not going to get any better? A bit like car mileage so to speak.
Yes for Jo it is a knee cartilage issue as I understand it. Unless you can afford a long rest, which Jo can't you either have to manage it or operate on it... but it's not the kind of thing that you want to operate on if you can avoid, and that would mean some time out for her if that was to happen..
Well it will depend upon which part of the knee is affected. A torn meniscus would normally take between 3 weeks and 2 months to heal. If surgery is required then full functioning capability can take up to 6 months to return though as Jo is young and fit it is possible her recovery time might be shorter. If her trouble is cartilage I'm surprised she isn't wearing some type of compression bandages around the knee. If she continues to play on it frankly it is unlikely to repair itself. She's already had around 3 months rest which doesn't seem to have cleared it up. If her condition has been aggravated by just 2 hours on court then it is hard to see her managing to play much this season. Let's hope the withdrawal from Adelaide is merely precautionary.

Well Luis Suarez has just had an operation on the external meniscus on his right knee and he is expected to be out of action for 4 months. However more happily you can see Jo practising in Melbourne on her Ellesse video within her instagram account.

HarryGem · Club Coach

Ace Ventura wrote:
The Q draw is 3pm Melbourne time and as it's currently 3.30am there now, that's 12 hours - 4am here, so we should see who Harriet, Sam and Naiktha play when we wake up in the morning. Regarding Katie S, there could still be a very outside chance she sneaks in to quals, especially as she is currently in Australia - Tan retired with an eye injury last week, Tig gave a walkover in her Bendigo W25 final overnight, so they could be doubts, and Ostapenko has unfortunately just lost her father, so her AO invovlement could also be in doubt, although she'd have to withdraw before qualifying started for Katie to potentially benefit from. All this said, while the guaranteed significant prize money would come in very handy, I don't think it would be the worst thing if she were to just miss out here.

It seems that Eurosport are generally cutting back on their AO coverage, and the qualifying matches are only available on the Player, rather than either of their 2 flagship channels - despite them just showing BDO darts repeats in the early hours instead. Hopefully they'll have as much of the main draw as possible on the main channels, as I do prefer when you can actually record it, rather than watch it on demand, where it's a lot easier to gauge how a match went by the length of video - if a video lengh is say 55 mins then you pretty much know it's going to be a routine 2 sets win, so after the first set, all the suspense is effectively gone.

I believe the majority of UK commentators will be in a studio in the UK rather than in Melbourne. I suspect Amazon will sweep this event up before long though their coverage is pretty poor.

seagull · Hall of fame

I hope so. Amazon can have everything as far as Im concerned (except Wimbledon)

SuperT · Futures qualifying

seagull wrote:
I hope so. Amazon can have everything as far as Im concerned (except Wimbledon)

Am I the only person who is unhappy at the way Amazon is hoovering up all the tennis coverage. I have enjoyed watching both Eurosport and BT Sport and personally I don't want to subscribe to Amazon's coffers.

seagull · Hall of fame

Yet you want to subscribe to Skys coffers?

Surely its best to have one platform rather than paying out for several? I had prime anyway so its no extra cost for me and their selection of matches is second to none. Both BT sport and Eurosport are decent but cant dedicate the resources that Amazon do.
Just my opinion.

DF · Tennis legend

Amazon seems to have disappeared from my smart tv , Eurosport has been brilliant but as you say they show other sports as well.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I'm still in 2 minds with Amazon, but probably more in favour. I do generally prefer watching tennis on normal TV where it's fully live (so you can check odds, scores, avoid notifications etc.) and I liked BTs commentators who we have been so used to over the years, rather than the more generic world feed commentators, who tend to cover multiple sports (it'll be interesting to see what they do for the P5s and PMs), and I also like the option to record, but at the same time, as an avid follower of the WTA tour, rather than just the Brits / big names, I love how I can watch pretty much any WTA match that I want, rather than just the centre courts (and Brits) that BT tended to show. The app works really well too, they upload matches straight away, and it's nice to be able to whizz through a lot of matches when you wake up when the tour is is Asia / Australia, or have match choice after work when it's in the US.

If you were just a pure tennis fan (I'm not, and have Sky and BT Sport as well, so it does get very expensive), then the ATP and WTA under one banner will be also good, and Amazon is significantly cheaper than Sky/BT, plus you get all the other stuff that people would purchase it for, even before they added tennis / other sports to their portfolio - I just hope we don't see a considerable price rise in the coming years, especially if they add more Premier League football than the 20 matches per year that they have for the next 2 years.

Michael D · All-time great

SuperT wrote:
seagull wrote:
I hope so. Amazon can have everything as far as Im concerned (except Wimbledon)
Am I the only person who is unhappy at the way Amazon is hoovering up all the tennis coverage. I have enjoyed watching both Eurosport and BT Sport and personally I don't want to subscribe to Amazon's coffers.

You're not the only one. I refuse to watch Amazon prime, and I regret the passing of a lot of women's tennis on Eurosport and BT.. which means I watch much less these days.

emmsie69 · ATP level

Both Harriet and Sam have good 1st round draws, Sam has Yue Yuan ranked just below her at 221 and Harriet V Elitsa Kostove (194)

HaHa forgot Naiktha who also has a good draw against Valeria Savinykh (205)

-- Edited by emmsie69 on Monday 13th of January 2020 08:13:23 AM

-- Edited by emmsie69 on Monday 13th of January 2020 08:24:52 AM

seagull · Hall of fame

Not so good for the lads. Jay has Kavcic who he lost to last week. Liam gets Ivashka.

emmsie69 · ATP level

Both Harriet and Naiktha are in decent sections of the draw, not easy as neither are seed but the highest seed either one of them could face is 14, Sam has the No.2 seed in her draw so fingers crossed for another couple of withdrawals from the main draw in the next 15 hours or so.