I feel a bit sorry for the schedulers. Tennis is entertainment, to grow the sport you need your box office on at peak viewing time, Emma has been box office this Wimbledon and in all fairness tennis is not like football in that you can predict match length to within 5 minutes. It's hard to predict whether a match will be 90 mins or 5 hours. As for putting Emma on Court 2, the court wasn't the issue, she loved playing on that court Saturday. I think its a case of strike it up to experience and move on, it's a privilege to have a home slam and it brings both benefits and disadvantages, last week it played into Emmas hands, last night it didn't but she has an entire career in front of her and it won't be defined by this one match.

On a different note, was I the only one irritated by Clare Balding last night, pestering John Mcenroe about a wc for the US Open. I mean jesus 1st of all Paul Jubb won the NCAA which gets you a WC if you're American but they didn't give him one so there is a huge clue there. 2nd what a sense of entitlement, our players already get the massive benefit of a home slam and subsequent wc without trying to hoover up more. I'm on board with WC's as I understand their value in creating buzz in the nation but I do think there should be atleast 2 per grand slam specifically for players from other countries, 1 saved for a player that made a big gain in points in the lead up to the Slam particularly for wimbledon as that's showing not just current form but grasscourt form and a 2nd for either the previous junior winner or the WR1 junior.

newby wrote:

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Nothing wrong with what Mcenroe said...all very sensible comments

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 I have a major issue with what McEnroe said. But not so much about Emma (although that was clumsy and unnecessary).

But his comments that AT was lying, and she was delighted that Emma was ill, and she was purely going through polite motions by saying she was sorry it ended that way, were completely out of order, and spoke buckets about himself and nothing about AT (whom I expect he has never spoken to) 

emmsie69 wrote:

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On a different note, was I the only one irritated by Clare Balding last night, pestering John Mcenroe about a wc for the US Open. I mean jesus 1st of all Paul Jubb won the NCAA which gets you a WC if you're American but they didn't give him one so there is a huge clue there. 2nd what a sense of entitlement, our players already get the massive benefit of a home slam and subsequent wc without trying to hoover up more. I'm on board with WC's as I understand their value in creating buzz in the nation but I do think there should be atleast 2 per grand slam specifically for players from other countries, 1 saved for a player that made a big gain in points in the lead up to the Slam particularly for wimbledon as that's showing not just current form but grasscourt form and a 2nd for either the previous junior winner or the WR1 junior.

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 Clare Baldings pestering on that showed a lack of knowledge and a very British centric perspective. ie we dont have a deal with the US Open and have not had wildcards in the past; they give most to US players obviously as we do to Brits; and Emma R did well here to a British audience but the US organisers probably have several players ahead of her in their minds as possible box office interest to an american audience. 

It all adds up to being pretty obvious she wouldnt get, wouldnt expect to get, a wild card. I also didnt get the discussion going into the Aussie open and would she get one there - all the reasons above, we dont have deals with any of the other slams. 

 

emmsie69 wrote:

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Coup Droit wrote:

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newby wrote:

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Nothing wrong with what Mcenroe said...all very sensible comments

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 I have a major issue with what McEnroe said. But not so much about Emma (although that was clumsy and unnecessary).

But his comments that AT was lying, and she was delighted that Emma was ill, and she was purely going through polite motions by saying she was sorry it ended that way, were completely out of order, and spoke buckets about himself and nothing about AT (whom I expect he has never spoken to) 

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 Well given the start time of that match, I'd say that she probably was secretly delighted, not necessarily with the way it ended but certainly that it ended quickly, neither one of them would've wanted to get into a 3 hour marathon less than 24 hours before they have to play Ash Barty, yes he could've worded it better but thats the thing with live commentary, you have to come up with an answer immediately and sometimes the wording is blunter than would've been the case with a bit of time to think.

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 We might think she was secretly delighted but we don't know so, and he was so 'knowing', so accusatory, so OF COURSE she's lying, that it really goaded me.

Yes, there surely would have been a teeny bit of relief that she didn't have to serve it out, and - yes - got back to the showers quickly. BUT the way Mac was implying she was a lying cow, and Emma was a neurotic kid, and then went on to rant on about himself for the next 5 mins, it really stuck in my throat (as you can see )

Have I missed something, because I still don't know what was wrong with her apart from breathing difficulties, so I haven't even begun to have an opinion. I didn't think that the scheduling was bad although, I would have liked to have swapped her match for Gauff"s. The nature of tennis is that we don't know how long a match will take, which is one aspect that makes it so exciting.

I think the issue is that the women have to play again today whereas the men don't. That being the case it's normal to schedule the ladies matches earlier in the day to allow time for press conferences, recovery etc, rather than third after a mens match which always has the potential to go to 5 sets.