TENNIS THREAD!- From the Road to Rio, to Flushing Meadows...

[Raahh]

before my phone decides to give up altogether, here's a new thread to get us on our way.

Andy Murray still in the Olympic Singles, as is Rafa,

Jo Konta through for the women.

Lots of missing names from the top players- but we are edging towards the US open- without Federer- and who knows, maybe even without Djokovic.

Could we be heading for all change at the top?

Can I just tell everyone something extremely cool and that is that DBro is at the APIA Tennis in Sydney, (according to him the last big tuneup before the Australian Open) with VIP tickets and access to the pro's area and everything!!

He got to see Wozniaki and then Bouchard play in the 44 degree heat!

Oh as if I need to tell you lot about tournaments

Hearts

I hope he had a good time. I'd love to be in Aus right now. South Manchester is wet. Ds is very disappointed - he was convinced we would get lots of snow (we hardly ever get snow in these parts, so I don't know why he got his hopes up.

Seedings are out for the AO- pretty much as expected. Will be interesting to the see the first round draws. I have everything crossed Rafa has a reasonable first couple of rounds at least. I

Yes me too.

It will be interesting trying to watch matches in Australia and follow the thread in the UK from a Canadian time zone. I am sure i will end up with spoilers all over the place. Good practice for the only tournament that matters Wimbledon in a few months.

Apparently someone in the stands passed out from the heat at one point and they had to delay play while they got the emergency services in or something like that. DBro works for one of the sponsors so they got treated very well.

Raahh chuck your DS over here for a week or two and i will get him shovelling, he will be sick of it!!

Some of you are up very early -- did you set your alarms for the AO draw ceremony?!

I am sooo looking forward to this next two weeks. After a s@#%&y 2016, it will be nice to turn to some 2017 tennis.

And there are a couple of "popcorn" matches in the first round: Bencic v. S. Williams and Verdasco v. Djoko .

Shall we start a fresh new thread for the new season? Or carry on until this one is full?

No, sorry -- you're up very late! I only the noticed the minutes and seconds in the time stamps.

I've been really messed up abut time zones since trying to follow the tennis down under....

Good win for Jo Konta n Sydney- beating Radwanska in the final. I hope she continues to do well this year- her efforts have been over shadowed by Murray, but are still impressive, given the jump in rankings she has made over the past 18 months.

Djok has drawn Verdasco in his first round match - who beat Rafa in the first round last year. So that's one to watch out for. Rafa has Florian Mayer, which should be o.k on paper, but a tricky one for Raonic- he's drawn Dustin Brown, who always seems to flourish briefly by beating big names on big stages and then promptly disappearing again. I like Dustin, but consistency is not his middle name.

Murray has got Illya Marchenko, which shouldn't cause any problems, but who knows? Slams are funny beasts- the underdog has very little to lose by going all out.

Not long to wait!

Dan Evans into Sydney final!

Great result for Dan.
I can't believe it's nearly time for the Australian Open. Woo hoo!

Dan Evans did so well- he is one of my favourite players. Loved both speeches at the ceremony too.

BBC do not seem to give Dan much coverage though

Pleased that Dan got to the final. Seems he's knuckling down a bit now, more focussed on his tennis

All set for two weeks of disrupted sleep and trying to stay awake at work

Aiming to make sure we've finished dinner early tonight -- 11:00 Monday Melbourne is 19:00 Sunday for me.

(desperately trying to get a handle on the time zone conversion. wishing China hosted more tennis -- only for the simplicity of a 12-hour time difference ... for the whole country)

Silver lining: I'll be able to deal with my usual 4am insomnia by watching tennis for the next two weeks.

Hoping for great tennis (...and maybe just a bit of drama?)

Where are you Barbara?

I'm watching from the US, and I've just seen local(-ish) Shelby Rogers win against Simona Halep. Kind of fun and also sad -- I really like Simona and she looked devastated.

I wonder if there will be any other upsets? Our buddy Ken is having a rough first round so far.

No wonder the timings are difficult

I'm watching Andy and wondering how I'll cope at work today

I do not like the new logo. It reminds me too much of the online electrical goods store A O, (although their's is green and hite, i think) which in turn means I have the annoying tune to their advert in my head.

Gutted for Halep

Just got back from the school run to watch Stan, who is struggling a bit against Klizan, who is a tricky opponent. - and am interested in seeing how Roger gets on.

Good result for Dan Evans- he is on a roll at the moment!

Oh for flips sake Stan! you are making this hard!

Klingon is a lot calmer about things than Stan though. My money is on Stan to pull through though.

I am not sure I like Roger's monochrome outfit. And I'd forgotten how good looking Melzer is

I am in Melbourne with tickets for tomorrow! Going to see Serena and Rafa!

Very saffron have a fab time!

I have everything crossed for Rafa. He has to do better than last year! vamos!

Good for you saffron!! Can you bring along a sign with "Hello, MN!" on it or something?

I woke up in time to watch the last two sets of RF's return, which was a nice way to start the day. I don't care for his outfit, though. I wish he'd further roll back the years to when he wore un-patterned tops. Missing the days of red, blue, even black. Thought this get-up looked a little too much like zebra print.

I'm going to watch the Vinci-Vandewegh match replay over lunch. CoCo is an American I am having a hard time warming to. I'll see if watching a match changes anything.

I'm really looking forward to some of the matches tonight/tomorrow morning. I'll be interested to see how some of the younger players get on. The last six months taught me I need to diversify.

Barbara Roger's shirt was migraine inducing. I really didn't like it.

There are some really great young players coming up. And some -kyrgios- who I will never warm to. He reminds me too much of Murray. And I'm no fan of him either, even if I am a Brit.

Murray is all class compared to Kyrgios, who takes petulance to a new dimension.

In position watching pliskova

Lucky you saffron! Hope you have a great day.