British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

sammmm · Club Coach

RE: Weeks 26-27 - The Championships, Wimbledon - Singles - grass

wolf · Tennis legend

R2:- Madison Keys (USA) WR22 [26] defeated Katie Swan (GBR) WR196 [WC] by 6-1 6-4

Neil Gee · County player

Katie still won more prize money and got more points than other British woman this year - so chin up. Here's to continuity, progress, positivity, and future success

-- Edited by Neil Gee on Thursday 2nd of July 2026 02:24:20 PM

foobarbaz · Club Coach

Just to back up what others are saying, Madison Keys waltzed through Eastbourne last week, without losing a set. Beating good players easily too, like Kessler who performed well in the 2Rd this week, Gibson, Maria, etc. None of them created as many break points, or broke Keys serve more than Swan did today.

indiana · Tennis legend

Jon has put up a thread with a vote about "Have your say regarding Player of the Month"

Please everyone go to this thread even if you generally have no interest in PoM.

Jon who does so much for the forum, is looking for overall feedback, and even if it is only for you to take a moment to tick in a vote box that it doesn't interest you really, that would be appreciated. Accompanying reasons all the more so.

Whatever PoM means to you, please do it.

britishtennis.activeboard.com/t73011295/have-your-say-regarding-player-of-the-month/

HarryGem · County player

Coup Droit wrote:
PaulM wrote:
For me that was a good outcome. A nice, competitive match, but Joint making it through. I hope she can finally get a bit of confidence flowing after such a horrible year.
Exactly
The crowd got a good match
I think telstar underestimates Serena's qualities - and Serena proved she's still got some
But the score was fair - Maya had to deal with her own demons - and slightly funny that Maya used to represent the US but switched because, supposedly, the federation didn't think she was worth supporting

Just back from a couple of days in London. I was watching on centre court on Tuesday and I thought that given the facts that one player hadn't played for four years and that the other had lost 11 matches in a row it was a more than decent match and was quite exciting. There were some good rallies and some good shot making, especially from Joint.

I thought Joint was the worthy winner. Williams was bailed out by her serve in the second set tie break and Joint could perhaps should have won in two sets but rather fell apart a bit in the two games after breaking William's serve.

The crowd was, frankly, ridiculous with their over the top celebrations when Williams won a game and when she won the second set there were groups of middle aged people literally hugging each other, kissing each other and jumping up and down. Even my son who is usually very accommodating of all this sort of thing thought it was completely over the top.

I'm glad Joint won. The whole thing had become a sort of freak show circus act. I understand Williams is now apparently injured. Hardly a surprise when you just turn up and expect to be able to play a two hour plus match with no preparation. Whilst her serve was still a weapon her movement was sluggish, especially the sideways movement. Also, quite how she didn't get a time violation warning was at the least puzzling. Many times Joint was ready to serve and Williams was just not there. Also on her own serve she exceeded the time limit quite a few times.

I guess the organisers feel justified in the wildcard but I wonder if Alcaraz had been fit whether a more deserving player may have got it.

HarryGem · County player

Var wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Var wrote:
GAMEOVER wrote:
sammmm wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
It is very unlikley that all three of the youngsters (Mimi, Hannah and Mika) will all become top-50 players.

Not impossible, and hopefully yes, but there are too many bumps in the road.
Would be wonderful if all 3 are able to reach top 100 qualifying for slams on rankings with one of them becoming top 30 and seeded. I would count that as successful
Well we can dream can't we?
You never know. Give them a bit of time and space. Who knows what could happen.
That's not the point, though
Of course, we can dream, and of course it's possible, and wouldn't it be lovely
But what I mean is a federation can't think everything will be alright because they'll soon have three players in the top-50, not when those three players are young and well outside the top-200, however promising they might be

Ok take your point. Insufficient depth to the talent at present. Therein perhaps lies the crux of the matter. Do we have the talent coming through? Are young sportsmen and women finding more attractive professional sports that appeal more than the drudgery of pro tennis? Nonetheless if they are good enough players can break through with great speed. However some will always never make the top 100. I think culturally tennis is still seen as a rich persons sport, especially in the North of the country. We must be overlooking a wealth of tennis talent north of Watford? Maybe we need, dare I say it, more devolution! More Manchesterism. Get to the grass roots. I do think the powers that be prefer to keep London centric.

-- Edited by Var on Wednesday 1st of July 2026 05:18:44 PM

-- Edited by Var on Wednesday 1st of July 2026 05:19:26 PM

I absolutely agree. Unfortunately we have downgraded one of the tournaments outside of London to fit in another London tournament also losing Surbiton at the same time. I recall when Venus Williams played Birmingham the make up of the crowd was the most diverse I can recall. Frankly we do nothing to encourage kids form diverse backgrounds in Birmingham, Manchester or any other place north of London to take an interest in tennis.

I know there are some lower level ITF events in other places but kids are inspired by seeing the best players play and right now that means an expensive trip to London.

It has been a pretty sobering Wimbledon for the GB women, especially, if you add in the doubles results from yesterday. yes, we've had some bad luck with injuries and some tough draws but there is quite a gap at the moment between the top players and the rest. Our 3 promising youngsters have big 18 months to come in my opinion. As you'd expect there is some good moments from them mixed with some bad ones but it would be good to see some improvements up the rankings in the next 18 months. The fact that Heather was the closest to getting through qualifying also highlight the gap between, what might be called our middle ranking women, and those higher up the rankings.

goldfish · Futures level

And now they have delayed her doubles match for a day to give her extra recovery time. Would they have done that for anyone else? Time to join a seniors tour Serena and give younger players a chance.

Peter too · Tennis legend

There are more chances to see good players if you live in the Midlands and North than down South. The only tournament within 60 miles of where I live is the W35 in Aldershot. I used to watch the $10K tournaments in Bournemouth but even those have packed up now. Where are the WTA or ITF tournaments for the residents of Oxford, Swindon, Reading, Southampton?

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 3rd of July 2026 08:29:50 AM

sammmm · Club Coach

Peter too wrote:
There are more chances to see good players if you live in the Midlands and North than down South. The only tournament within 60 miles of where I live is the W35 in Aldershot. I used to watch the $10K tournaments in Bournemouth but even those have packed up now. Where are the WTA or ITF tournaments for the residents of Oxford, Swindon, Reading, Southampton?

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 3rd of July 2026 08:29:50 AM

I guess the justification would be that the 4 towns and cities you mentioned are within 1.5 hours commute of london with direct trains to london stations. The area really lacking is the south-west Dorset/Devon/Somerset area where they either have to travel up to Birmingham or Wrexham, along the coast to Eastbourne or across to Aldershot as you mention and those are all long journeys. I believe there are very good grass courts in/near Cheltenham?

-- Edited by sammmm on Friday 3rd of July 2026 08:44:01 AM

Christine · Strong Club Player

sammmm wrote:
Peter too wrote:
There are more chances to see good players if you live in the Midlands and North than down South. The only tournament within 60 miles of where I live is the W35 in Aldershot. I used to watch the $10K tournaments in Bournemouth but even those have packed up now. Where are the WTA or ITF tournaments for the residents of Oxford, Swindon, Reading, Southampton?

-- Edited by Peter too on Friday 3rd of July 2026 08:29:50 AM
I guess the justification would be that the 4 towns and cities you mentioned are within 1.5 hours commute of london with direct trains to london stations. The area really lacking is the south-west Dorset/Devon/Somerset area where they either have to travel up to Birmingham or Wrexham, along the coast to Eastbourne or across to Aldershot as you mention and those are all long journeys. I believe there are very good grass courts in/near Cheltenham?

-- Edited by sammmm on Friday 3rd of July 2026 08:44:01 AM

As a resident of Exeter I'd concur with this. I've snuck into the odd British Tour event at the University, last proper tournament was in Barnstable - many, many years ago!

emmsie69 · Grand Slam Champion

B00thy wrote:
This match demonstrated her potential. I heard a commentator the other day saying he'd asked her about her injury and its impact on her power. She said she started playing to 80% power to protect her back Recently she said she'd seen Nadal saying he got used to playing with pain when he knew it wouldn't have a lasting impact. Now she is learning that she can start playing with some pain now, in the knowledge that it won't always have a direct impact on her back. But she's got to force herself out of the habit of playing too safe. During this match I think we saw her take the handbrake off quite a bit and she started to play with more power. She looks like she can kick on from here.

* corrected a couple of spelling mistakes

-- Edited by B00thy on Thursday 2nd of July 2026 01:59:11 PM

I think anyone who has had a chronic, long term injury, particularly a back injury, can relate to Katies desire to protect herself from creating more pain. It's taken me 10 years to have the confidence to do more than the bare minimum in my garden after prolapsing a disc. It sounds dramatic but it's a form of PTSD. The more Katie plays either pain free or with manageable pain the better she will be. The serve will gradually get stronger.

Brendan F · Strong Club Player

Is there a (contractual?) reason why the BBC never shows the beginning of the first match on centre in their normal tv coverage anymore?

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Yeah, it's annoying they don't show the warm ups either.

Jan · Hall of fame

If you can access the BBC sport website you can just pick a court and see the whole thing without the studio chat.