Keith wrote:

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YYYYYEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!

Keith wrote:

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For those watching -

Is Gonzo playing well? - In which case I will focus my mental energy on putting negative thoughts in his head.

Is Andy playing badly? - In which case positive thoughts to Andy.

Or is it just a very close match? - In which case I will drink whisky.

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To answer my own post, I went for negative thoughts about Gonzo combined with some whisky, it seems to have worked!!!! And was most enjoyable

Can I just ask (as I've had problems before), was the Eurosport streaming worth it? Did you get (reasonably) consistent pictures?

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yes it is for me. I have crystal clear pictures but i am on 8meg broad band. The only problem is that sometimes the server gets busy. They also loads of videos stored on their site so u can watch whenever u want. they're all matches that have been shown on arthur ashes, armstrong, grnadstand and courts 10 and 11. they are full matches!

What a match !!!!!!!!!!

He played some great stuff with the odd daft bits...but the way Gonzo lost it was fantastic !!

Bring on Saffin !!!

Madeline wrote:

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You should have seen the racquet he smashed. He didn't break it to his satisfaction the first time so had another few goes until it ended up looking like a piece of modern art!

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So Gonzo broke twice in the 5th set and still got beat

Madeline wrote:

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My pictures - well it depends, if you are prepared to watch it in a very small size it is crystal clear, full screen a bit fuzzy, and I can't find a way to get anything inbetween. It also freezes and goes dead sometimes, but hey! for less than 7 quid for a choice of 5 courts for the whole tournament, it has to be worth it.

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Thanks (mkk also), what's your connection speed Madeline?

I'm not worried about the money, but rather the possible effect on my blood pressure of a connection that keeps failing.

I've just been listening to the match on 5live sportsextra from 3-3 in the 2nd set:

In the 2nd and 3rd sets Andy was struggling as he was just waiting for Gonzalez to take the initiative, he was hitting too many short and mid-court balls. He was doing this in the 1st set but at that point Gonzalez hadn't found his radar and was missing a lot. In the 2nd and 3rd sets Gonzalez started going for broke on those mid-court balls off both sides and he was making approx 8/10 winners, some were truly spectacular. Particularly devastating was the inside-out forehand from Gonzalez when he gave himself room and just crunched it. As the commentators said, the short and mid-court ball with no pace is ok occasionally to bore Gonzalez but if you're doing it all the time he's going to punish you. Andy looked a bit listless and the commentators were speculating about whether he was injured. He appeared to be feeling some twinges in his lower back. Brad was pointing to his head, telling Andy to think more on the court. Gonzalez was serving really well, he hurt Andy throughout the first 4 sets with the sliced serve out wide really taking Andy out of the court. Andy was hitting a lot of sliced forehand returns and as a result he was struggling to win points on the Gonzo serve and Gonzalez was really mashing the 2nd shot for winners.

However, come the 4th set things changed. Andy was winning his service games a lot easier, getting a lot more 1st serves in. He used the body serve very effectively, jamming Gonzalez on the return and not giving him room to swing. More 1st serves meant that Andy got more cheap points and was able to dominate the rallies on his serve. However, Gonzalez was still winning his service games easily. Andy wasn't really attacking the returns which were landing too short. However, in the 7th game with Gonzo serving at 3-4 Andy played an excellent game. He really attacked several 2nd serves and hit a clean winner with a backhand return down the line. He pressurized Gonzalez and played several superbly constructed points to break and served out the set.

This resulted in a big change, Andy started to get more pumped up and his shot length improved a lot ! He wasn't floating as many slices and he was hitting the ball deeper and wider and forcing Gonzalez to go for attempted winners which were lower percentage shots and the Chilean started missing a lot more from the baseline particularly on the forehand. The 1st serves were coming a lot more and also at crucial times, Gonzalez had several 0-30s in the 5th which Murray recovered well from. The Murray forehand was superb after he'd opened the court up with a big serve and he hit many winners off that wing. Andy also started coming to the net a lot more and in the pressurized environment of a 5th set that started to tell on the big points and Gonzalez skewed several crucial passing shots.

After Gonzo went a double break down in the 5th, he slightly self-destructed but this was down to Murray's excellent play, frustrating him. Murray hit a couple of spectacular winners which may well make the ATP play of the week. On one points he returned a full-blooded Gonzalez smash for a clean winner with a backhand down the line despite standing at least 10 feet behind the baseline.

In the 5-1 game Gonzalez got a code violation costing him a point. The umpire had already warned him as he'd hit about 5 balls right out of court in frustration. Then he received an official warning for smashing his racket about 4 times on the court and completely destroying it [by the way, I think the racket abuse violation rule is a little daft]. He got a 2nd warning as Murray hit a forehand long making it 15-15 but Gonzalez was already 1-5 down and knew that he had probably lost and was feeling really frustrated so he half-volleyed the ball out of court. 2 warnings constitute a point penalty so that made it 15-30. The umpire then caused considerable confusion by calling it as 0-40. Gonzalez remonstrated with him about the point penalty for a long time. Gonzo showed considerable heart to save 3 mps in that game with some excellent volleying but Murray played the perfect service game at 5-2 to clinch an incredible win 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Fantastic performance, it warmed the heart to be able to listen to a British player completely outplaying one of the world's best. Gonzo came 2nd in the US Open series this summer.

UltimateFlemingFan wrote:

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Fantastic performance, it warmed the heart to be able to listen to a British player completely outplaying one of the world's best. Gonzo came 2nd in the US Open series this summer.

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DOnt forget murray came third

He's secured a $17,500 bonus already as a result. If he reaches the QF it'll rise to more than 31k  and then for a semi final place he'll get 62.5K. This is on top of his pay cheque for the us open itself and should help pay for gilbert!