Hope mac shows some respect!

Let's get Mac on the way!

Considered Mac and Venus but went with Hevs sunny smile!

Some career background for the SHREWSBURY GROUP:

Victoria Azarenka - Victória Fyódorovna Azárenka (born 31 July 1989) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in singles and was the year-end No. 1 in 2012. Azarenka has won 20 WTA singles titles, eight WTA doubles titles, and three mixed-doubles titles. She has won two Australian Open singles titles (2012 and 2013), becoming the only Belarusian player, male or female, to win a Grand Slam singles title.Her other major achievements include winning six Premier Mandatory tournaments including the Sunshine Double in 2016, the singles bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, two mixed doubles Grand Slam titlesthe 2007 US Open with Max Mirnyi and the 2008 French Open with Bob Bryanand the gold medal in the mixed doubles at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Simona Halep - Simona Halep (born 27 September 1991) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles twice between 2017 and 2019. In total, she has been No. 1 for 64 weeks, which ranks tenth in the history of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings. Halep was the year-end No. 1 in 2017 and 2018. She has finished each year ranked no lower than No. 4 since 2014 and has the longest active streak of being ranked in the top 10. She has won 20 WTA singles titles and has finished runner-up 17 times. Halep has won two Grand Slam singles titles, at the 2018 French Open and the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.

The Jensens - Luke Jensen (born June 18, 1966) is an American former professional tennis player and Grand Slam doubles champion. Jensen won the 1993 French Open Doubles title with his younger brother Murphy Jensen (born October 30, 1968).

John McEnroe - John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American tennis player. He was known for his shot-making artistry and volleying skills, and for confrontational on-court behavior that frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities.
McEnroe attained the No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, finishing his career with 77 singles and 78 doubles titles; this remains the highest men's combined total of the Open Era. He won seven Grand Slam singles titles, four at the US Open and three at Wimbledon, and nine men's Grand Slam doubles titles. His singles match record of 823 in 1984 remains the best single season win rate of the Open Era. McEnroe also excelled at the year-end tournaments, winning eight singles and seven doubles titles, both of which are records. Three of his winning singles year-end championships were at the Masters Grand Prix (the ATP year-end event) and five were at the World Championship Tennis (WCT) Finals, an event which ended in 1989. Since 2000, there has been only one year-end men's singles event, the ATP Finals (the new name for the Masters Grand Prix). He was named the ATP Player of the Year and the ITF World Champion three times each: 1981, 1983 and 1984. McEnroe contributed to five Davis Cup titles for the U.S. and later was team captain. He has stayed active in retirement, often competing in senior events on the ATP Champions Tour. He has also worked as a television commentator during the majors.

Heather Watson - Heather Miriam Watson (born 19 May 1992) is a Guernsey-born British professional tennis player. The former British No. 1 won the mixed-doubles title at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships with Henri Kontinen. In October 2012, Watson won her first WTA singles title at the Japan Open, becoming the first British woman to win a WTA singles title since Sara Gomer in 1988. In her junior career, Watson won the US Open and gold at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games.[3] She reached No. 3 in the world on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Venus Williams - Venus Ebony Starr Williams[2] (born June 17, 1980)[3] is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1, Williams is generally regarded as one of the all-time greats of women's tennis and, along with younger sister Serena Williams, is credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour.Williams has been ranked world No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association on three occasions, for a total of 11 weeks. She first reached the No. 1 ranking on February 25, 2002, the first African American woman to do so in the Open Era, and the second all time since Althea Gibson. Williams' seven Grand Slam singles titles are tied for 12th on the all-time list, and 8th on the Open Era list, more than any other active female player except her sister. She has reached 16 Grand Slam finals, most recently at Wimbledon in 2017. She has also won 14 Grand Slam Women's doubles titles, all with Serena Williams; the pair is unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals.] Williams also has two Mixed Doubles titles. Her five Wimbledon singles titles tie her with two other women for eighth place on the all-time list, but give her sole possession of No. 4 on the Open Era List, trailing only the nine titles of Martina Navratilova and the seven of Serena Williams and Steffi Graf. From the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2001 US Open, Williams won four of the six Grand Slam singles tournaments in that span. At the 2020 Australian Open, Williams extended her record as the all-time leader, male or female, in Grand Slams played, with 85.[9] With her run to the 2017 Wimbledon singles final, she broke the record for longest time between first and most recent grand slam singles finals appearances. Williams was twice the season prize money leader in 2001 and 2017. Williams has won four Olympic gold medals, one in singles and three in women's doubles, along with a silver medal in mixed doubles,

In terms of H2H results, a lot in this group!!

Azarenka v Halep - 3-2 lead for Halep, incl 3 slam wins
Azarenka v Watson - 7-0 to Azarenka incl 1 Wimbledon win
Azarenka v Venus Williams - 5-2 record to Venus over Azarenka

Halep v Watson - 4-0 lead to Halep
Halep v Venus Williams - 4-3 lead to Halep

Watson v Venus Williams - 2-0 lead to Venus

In a round robin event between these 4, Halep would win! Just... but is she the favourite player?

Yes Venus and Simona both one vote ahead of John Mac, a slight surprise perhaps.

Current leaders:


1. Watson 10 votes
2. Venus 5 votes
3. Halep 4 votes
4. McEnroe 3 votes

Michael D wrote:

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JonH comes home wrote:

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Michael D wrote:

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Yes Venus and Simona both one vote ahead of John Mac, a slight surprise perhaps.

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 It is interesting - I imagine, possibly wrongly, that by and large we have a venn diagram of voting here. One circle is those that largely vote for one of the womens players, as their support is too the womens game and they will, the majority of the time, vote for one of the women. Ditto, you have someone on the mens game side who would do the same - I (being frank) would fall into that group; and then you have genuine "support all tennis" types who will pick and mix etc. 

I imagined in this group that the non British support would be distributed across the 3 "foreign" players and Mac would get the mens support and sort of mop up 2nd place behind Heather - that was my guess before the group started. But clearly my Venn diagram above (if it exists) is skewed towards the womens side - Mac won the recent foreign former mens poll and so clearly has support within the board, not enough to take votes in  this group. Or maybe Heather in fact is taking his votes away and diluting his performance? 

 

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Your idea of venn diagrams is interesting Jon and I think they probably do exist, but hard to know how they actually work! I tend to lean voting for the women rather than the men, and clearly that's where Mac's support has ebbed.. In respect of your last theory, I think that certainly explains quite a bit of the voting pattern, and it certainly explains mine!! 

I've probably over simplified it as well. I suspect there are many dimensions to consider, in reality. We all have a non fixed preference for mens game v womens , current v former players, British v foreign, entertainers v workers, maverick v consistent performers, hot heads v calm , etc etc and our position in a vote will be the outcome of weighing up (narratively) all those elements.