Well we arrived. Met John and he is down courtside watching Andy and Jamie in a practice seesion. John has never seen live tennis and is excited ! "John" from here just in case you did not know he was coming.
just been told that Sky only dropped the live coverage 2 weeks ago "budget constraints" apparently.
Aucks ought to beat Jamie M at singles, and Katie should beat an Elena Baltacha who is drastically short of match practice and, I believe, not yet back to full fitness. If Andy doesn't beat Greg resoundingly it may be great for England's chances, but not good for British tennis! Lord knows what will happen in the junior matches.
I feel decidedly schizophrenic here. I'm English, so would like England to win, but I want Andy to win his matches (I could bear him being beaten in the doubles but I actually doubt that would happen, I don't think Greg has ever played with Aucks before)
Just spent 10mins with James Auckland....told him the good news of Boggos win and chatted about his chances v Jamie. He thinks it will be really close. He also says both girls maybe quite nervous and that Bally can beat Katie even though he wants Katie to win.
Told him about this messageboard and explained that its not just about Andy murray. He came with me to the media centre and I showed him the site and we had a browse together. We read the post showing Stoops win and he was really impressed with the site. He has my full name know and has the URL of this site. He seems such a good lad...half of me wouldnt mind if he beat Jamie !!! Only joking !!!!
So thats one 'captured' interview...he freely spoke and we also chatted about being with Andy in San Jose when he beat Hewitt...he was the one sitting next to kim !
Been chatting with john. He has read all todays papers. It appears that all the answers to my questions were in the sun / the mail etc....at not one credit !!! LOL !!!
I have drafted 5 questions to pass to Andys camp hopefulyl via James Auckland.
1 - What is your main goal for 2007 ? 2 - Who would you least like to face in an ATP final ? 3 - Of those players you have not faced who do you relish playing the most ? 4 - Which up and coming youngsters have caught your eye ? 5 - What time do you get up on match days ?
I have the livestream on now. I really wanted (sitting here in Newcastle) to know where the toilets are! They have just said the action will start in about 20 minutes (maybe Aucks is late again).
Unfortunately I have to go out for a while but will be back at 7.30 or a little later, so I should be available from then if the livescore/livestream fails.
The livestream is not very easy to navigate but I do seem to be connected to the stadium - vide the comment about the starting time. There seems to be a bit of a buffering problem but it should be a lot better than nothing.
In a tournament, I'd predict Aucks to beat Jamie in straights quite comfortably as Aucks has the bigger game and is more consistent from the baseline from what I've seen but given that this is on a fast court and is in Scotland, I think Jamie will get a set. However, Aucks to win the champions breaker.