5 week Melbourne pocket for tennis season

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

5 week Melbourne pocket for tennis season

flamingowings · All-time great

JonH comes home wrote:
This may be mentioned elsewhere, noticed heather is into aus open doubles with Leylah fernandez, a
Pair has withdrawn

Heather was originally down to play with Alize Cornet. Playing with Leylah will be interesting, given how touted she is for big things.

the addict · Tennis legend

Also to be noted, Naiktha plays Tessah Andrianjafitrimo (FRA) WR254 in QR1, but has Babos Q7 in her section.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Report by Simon Briggs in Telegraph 9th Jan. entitled "Chardy hits out at favouritism for Australian Open. " 6 of the world's biggest names were to be sent to Adelaide for an exhibition tournament at the end of the month. The chosen ones will be part of an exclusive 50 person quarantine bubble ahead of the AO which starts on Feb 8. The names mentioned are Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem ,Halep,Osaka and Serena. One point is that they are allowed an entourage of 4 or more people whereas lesser players are allowed only 1 or 2 depending on what you read. I'm sure Covid does not distinguish between the world no1 player and the world no.100. You think that Brisbane went into 3 day lockdown because 1 person was infected. In view of what has happened in UK with sports such as football and rugby it would be amazing if somebody with the tennis isn't infected at some stage or other.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

PaulM wrote:
flamingowings wrote:
Fitting given how much Heather and Petra like their 3 setters

George Bellshaw
@BellshawGeorge
Heather Watson on her pre-Australian Open practice partners: 'For the first week I'm hitting with Johanna Konta and then for the second week we're pairing up with Anisimova and Kvitova.'
5:33 pm · 7 Jan 2021·Twitter Web App

That's great for Heather to be in that quad. I did wonder who Jo would pair with (Heather I'd assumed would have a number of options given her friendships on Tour so hadnt expected it to be Jo or a top 20 player), it would be nice to see them play doubles a couple of times this year with an eye on the Olympics if it goes ahead.

They might not want to/be able to practice with Anisimova as she pulled out of Dubai because she had tested positive . This was reported on the Tennis Forum but I don't think she picked it there.Florida seems more likely.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

ROSAMUND wrote:
PaulM wrote:
flamingowings wrote:
Fitting given how much Heather and Petra like their 3 setters

George Bellshaw
@BellshawGeorge
Heather Watson on her pre-Australian Open practice partners: 'For the first week I'm hitting with Johanna Konta and then for the second week we're pairing up with Anisimova and Kvitova.'
5:33 pm · 7 Jan 2021·Twitter Web App

That's great for Heather to be in that quad. I did wonder who Jo would pair with (Heather I'd assumed would have a number of options given her friendships on Tour so hadnt expected it to be Jo or a top 20 player), it would be nice to see them play doubles a couple of times this year with an eye on the Olympics if it goes ahead.
They might not want to/be able to practice with Anisimova as she pulled out of Dubai because she had tested positive . This was reported on the Tennis Forum but I don't think she picked it there.Florida seems more likely.

Yea agreed , unlikely she caught Covid from the tennis forum.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

JonH comes home wrote:
ROSAMUND wrote:
PaulM wrote:
flamingowings wrote:
Fitting given how much Heather and Petra like their 3 setters

George Bellshaw
@BellshawGeorge
Heather Watson on her pre-Australian Open practice partners: 'For the first week I'm hitting with Johanna Konta and then for the second week we're pairing up with Anisimova and Kvitova.'
5:33 pm · 7 Jan 2021·Twitter Web App

That's great for Heather to be in that quad. I did wonder who Jo would pair with (Heather I'd assumed would have a number of options given her friendships on Tour so hadnt expected it to be Jo or a top 20 player), it would be nice to see them play doubles a couple of times this year with an eye on the Olympics if it goes ahead.
They might not want to/be able to practice with Anisimova as she pulled out of Dubai because she had tested positive . This was reported on the Tennis Forum but I don't think she picked it there.Florida seems more likely.
Yea agreed , unlikely she caught Covid from the tennis forum.

No not the tennis forum but Dubai !

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

ROSAMUND wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
ROSAMUND wrote:
PaulM wrote:
flamingowings wrote:
Fitting given how much Heather and Petra like their 3 setters

George Bellshaw
@BellshawGeorge
Heather Watson on her pre-Australian Open practice partners: 'For the first week I'm hitting with Johanna Konta and then for the second week we're pairing up with Anisimova and Kvitova.'
5:33 pm · 7 Jan 2021·Twitter Web App

That's great for Heather to be in that quad. I did wonder who Jo would pair with (Heather I'd assumed would have a number of options given her friendships on Tour so hadnt expected it to be Jo or a top 20 player), it would be nice to see them play doubles a couple of times this year with an eye on the Olympics if it goes ahead.
They might not want to/be able to practice with Anisimova as she pulled out of Dubai because she had tested positive . This was reported on the Tennis Forum but I don't think she picked it there.Florida seems more likely.
Yea agreed , unlikely she caught Covid from the tennis forum.
No not the tennis forum but Dubai !

Dont worry it was a poor attempt at a joke!

the addict · Tennis legend

"Dont worry it was a poor attempt at a joke!" biggrin

I thought it was a good one actually wink

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
"Dont worry it was a poor attempt at a joke!"
I thought it was a good one actually

I try my best!

emmsie69 · Top national player

Random fact but pleased to note that the Australian Open has also increased the prize money in qualifying and opening rounds from ast yearand after the QF reduced it so winner takes home 33% less than 2020

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
Random fact but pleased to note that the Australian Open has also increased the prize money in qualifying and opening rounds from ast yearand after the QF reduced it so winner takes home 33% less than 2020

agreed, that is good and I think USO and FO last year did something similar didnt they? Pressure will therefore be on Wimbledon to change their structure to follow suit, presumably

emmsie69 · Top national player

JonH comes home wrote:
emmsie69 wrote:
Random fact but pleased to note that the Australian Open has also increased the prize money in qualifying and opening rounds from ast yearand after the QF reduced it so winner takes home 33% less than 2020
agreed, that is good and I think USO and FO last year did something similar didnt they? Pressure will therefore be on Wimbledon to change their structure to follow suit, presumably

Wimbledon allocated money to all scheduled participants last year, £25,000 to all players that would have been in the main draw and £12500 to all those in qualifying so they were pretty fair, doubls players and wheelchair participants also got money. i would imagine that all the grand slams will do the same this year and we can hope that it continues on like this.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Wimbledon was in a slightly fortunate position, though, of having cashed in huge on their insurance policy

(and all credit to them)

But it means they had the coffers to be able to do so.

Seemingly the others didn't have the same finance director (

) - which is one of the reasons that they were so keen to try and play the event, at any time of year, come what may.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

JonH comes home wrote:
ROSAMUND wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
ROSAMUND wrote:
PaulM wrote:
flamingowings wrote:
Fitting given how much Heather and Petra like their 3 setters

George Bellshaw
@BellshawGeorge
Heather Watson on her pre-Australian Open practice partners: 'For the first week I'm hitting with Johanna Konta and then for the second week we're pairing up with Anisimova and Kvitova.'
5:33 pm · 7 Jan 2021·Twitter Web App

That's great for Heather to be in that quad. I did wonder who Jo would pair with (Heather I'd assumed would have a number of options given her friendships on Tour so hadnt expected it to be Jo or a top 20 player), it would be nice to see them play doubles a couple of times this year with an eye on the Olympics if it goes ahead.
They might not want to/be able to practice with Anisimova as she pulled out of Dubai because she had tested positive . This was reported on the Tennis Forum but I don't think she picked it there.Florida seems more likely.
Yea agreed , unlikely she caught Covid from the tennis forum.
No not the tennis forum but Dubai !
Dont worry it was a poor attempt at a joke!

Unfortunately Heather will not be practising with Jo because of being quarantined. Anisimova is also out. Daresay there will be alot of hunting around for fresh practice partners.