Tennis Thread:- The players are all on holiday, 2018 is coming to an end, but 2019 is around the corner and there will be lots to look forward to!

[Raahh]

Although I can't think about January yet...

I'm still in denial it's nearly December- which means ds will be 16 , and I will be 47 and another year will be over.

It was the "what should you never do if you are on TV/in films" thread
I asked for it to be deleted tho - chickened out instead of styling it out, sorry Raahh!

Did you see the write up about Norrie's win over Paire? Paire was falling asleep and being very, well, Benoit like in his antics. In his defence, he said he had travelled from India and wasn't meant to scheduled to play on the first day so was jet lagged.

A number of racquets may have suffered.

Private I'm expecting a big influx of new posters here on 19th February at 8 pm

yes now they'll all know where it's at on MN

Does anyone else look at Threads I'm On and think what the hell am I on that thread for and have to go back to check?

Oh, I didn't see that Raahh I was thinking of Norrie's win over Sousa, who's 49 places above him, apparently. Good old Paire, tho

Jane yes all the time re the random threads!

That's so funny about Paire! Love it. I'm not surprised he was jet lagged after that journey. Madness!

Oh don't say that about Andy Kazza's DS! I hope he gets a good draw/makes it through a round or two at least.

Did anyone read the interview with Simona Halep in the guardian? It's still on their website. V interesting. She talked about the Aus Open final when she had that awful dehydration you posted about Raahh. She was supposed to do a drugs test afterwards but she was too hydrated to give a sample, so they did a blood test and she passed out (I think) and had to go to hospital. Her mum told her to give up tennis afterwards as she was so worried absolutely awful for them. So glad they have changed that heat rule now.

Private I need to look up that interview-I did feel for Halep, losing in the way she did, (and she has form for that), and ending up so ill. I do think how the women's match was handled (compared to the men's final, - as well as a number of other matches last year) was really bad. Even players who had grown up used to the climate- our old mate Kyrgios , for example- complained about the conditions.

our old mate Kyrgios

Yes the interview with Simona is good - quite a few revelations in there!!

Andy has Busta Gut in the first round of the AO...

Gulbis v Stan!
Edmund v Berdych

Kygrios v Raonic.

COME ON, MILOS :D

Poor Andy...............

Meant to post rather than :D - but it's early and am just recovering from rushing out to put bins out as I heard the lorry coming. Our collection days have been all over the place since Xmas

magi ours is the same! Some of the worst words you can ever hear: revised refuse collection schedule

That is going to be a close match between Raonic and Kyrgios. Hopefully with the right result. I think the winner plays the winner of Stan v Ernests!!

Why does Stan have to be playing against Ernests?! I want them both to win.

Jane I know

Jane, I know .Stan has been unlucky with his draws in the past tournaments- I know his ranking means it is bound to be tough, but he has really been given tricky first rounds- even if he did get get the better of Grigor twice .

Unfortunately, I can't see Andy doing much against Busta Gut, esp after his apparently poor performance against Djok overnight
See Norrie won again and is in the Auckland semis. Evans and Dart both one win away from the main draw aswell.

No I can't either Kazza. That's a bugger of a first round for him tbh. I've seen some short clips of that practice match but couldn't really tell much from that. Very negative write up in the times though.

He probably would have been better playing the Hopman Cup instead of Brisbane as at least he would have had a few matches that way. Not that it would help him against RBA though, I just can't see him winning that - prove me wrong Andy! Feel a bit gutted about it all tbh.

My Kiwi MIL was at the tennis in Auckland yesterday - she still considers Norrie to be an NZer

Private Norrie totally confuses , his parents are Scottish and Welsh, and he was born in South Africa .

Busta Gut is on a bit of a roll at the moment.

Oh, I'm just watching the news, they are talking about match fixing in tennis on the news.

I'm not sure what the answer is for Murray- we've said on here so often that hips have been the end of many careers. I think a lot of people have seen the likes of Rafa, Fed and Djok come back from injury and think Murray will do the same. But not all injuries/illnesses are the same, and not all rehabilitation works.

Who would have expected Soderling to end his career because of mono/glandular fever, for example?

I saw the match fixing thing as well. The reporter just looked like he wanted to laugh throughout, it was odd!

Completely agree about the hip issue Raahh. They talked about it on the tennis podcast too. Eg Djok's elbow injury was a fixable thing, not a chronic condition to live with daily, let alone try and play tennis with.

Mind you, I see Hewitt is entered into the AO doubles!! So maybe Andy could have a revival in his later years?!

Private agree with Andy and Hopman Cup, as you say, he would have had a good few matches under his belt to ease him back in and assess his fitness and recovery, but maybe Norrie was already in for it, even if Andy wanted to do it.

I can't remember if it was Andrew Castle or John Lloyd who had a very similar hip problem to Andy's & who was really doubting that Andy would be able to make a return to top flight tennis. So sad for him. I'm a great Murray fan.

Me too magi. Although if it was AC that said it, can we just discount it immediately as rubbish?!

Poor Andy. The only good thing about this is that he will likely get a commentary job if he does have to retire. It's very tough mentally for the players dealing with career-changing injuries.