TENNIS THREAD -Sliding in the clay, on the journey to Roland Garros !

[Raahh]

Just had a slight panic when I saw the thread was nearly full.

I am now off to check the schedule properly- to see what I'll miss today

Yay well done Rafa!

kazza - how have you managed that?

I love Ikea - wish there was one nearer to me.

Me neither kazza

I am not even sure why we went to Ikea, actually. We bought 2 plates and a plant.

We had to eat, of course. The dc always have to have meatballs and daim cake.

Phew! So I'm not a complete social pariah then Jane
Flat packs, meatballs and hordes of people in a massive store doesn't really appeal, I'm afraid

Why was Spiderman there for the pre-match photos?! That's the most interested my DS has ever been in tennis

I am trying to watch Eurovision and keep track of the scores.
And rl is not going too well

So Vamos EL PEQUE !!!

Looks as if Diego’s taken the second set tie break - I’m just score watching as my DSis is a Eurovision fan so we’re watching that . Not impressed so far although I think there are a few Eurovision fans on this thread?

Hope you're ok Raahh

I cannot handle Eurovision! I've got the tennis on in the background - Diego is playing a great match. Djok really being tested.

X posted Raahh - sorry that things aren’t going too well.

Argh Djok broke in the last game so it's looking like he's going to wrap it up. They are playing some great rallies though but Djok seems to keep coming out on top.

Btw I saw earlier that Ferrer is already playing on the Seniors Tour!

Grrrr.

But good that Djok got a bit of a scare.

Yes. He's had two long matches, late finishes - that should favour Rafa. It better anyway!

Men's top seeds for RG.

Stan is seeded 28 so that should help for the first couple of rounds at least.

1. Djokovic
2. Rafa
3. Federer
4. Thiem
5. Zverev
6. Tsitsipas
7. Keith
8. Del Potro
9. Our Fabio

10. Khachanov 11. Cilic 12. Medvedev

Where did you find that, Private? I'm quite interested to see the womens' seeding as well.

Not in a critical way, but just wondering why we all concentrate so much more on the mens' game? Last year at Wimbledon there were some amazing womens matches.

It was on twitter magi. I didn't see the women's one but I will try and find/post it.

You're right about women's tennis - I love it but the reason I barely mention it is I never see any of it! Except at Slams/Eastbourne. Which makes it harder to keep up with the stories etc. Eg Maria Sakkari is this amazing young player having brilliant results and I don't think I've ever seen her play (maybe once at the US Open).

I do prefer men's tennis, truth be told, no idea what you mean about the phwoar factor though

I was thinking of your list of favourite players (which I agreed with, except Stan was missing obviously!). My other faves apart from your list are Fognini, Cilic, and Gulbis

In the women's side Kvitova, Kerber, Azarenka. You?

Apparently though, Amazon is getting the WTA soon as well. So it's good that tennis will all be in one place, but bad that it's all going to be hived off to Amazon rather than regular TV channels. Sigh.

I was just thinking maybe the men's side has more "characters" as well but actually, it's probably more like they're just promoted/written about more?....

And I remember when all I watched was womens' tennis, back in the days of Martina, Steffi, Chris Evert, Madlikova............

It was far more interesting than the men!

I always think that I’m not keen on women’s tennis but have seen some pretty good, close women’s matches more recently. I think I was put off the women’s game by the dominance of the Williams sisters and quite a few one sided matches but I guess you get that in men’s tennis too.

The phwoar factor is a thing though - my 74 year old DM was perving over Rafa taking his top off at the end of his match yesterday.

Hoping that Djok has enough seeds of self doubt for Rafa to win this afternoon. There’s also the Wimbledon thing on as well. Too much tennis (as if that could be possible!)

You got me interested in the women's seedings magi so I looked it up . I couldn't find it on twitter, and Google took me to a WTA page from 2014

Anyway, apparently RG usually just uses the rankings as their seeds, and the women's top 12 are:

1. Osaka
2. Halep
3. Kerber
4. Bertens
5. Kvitova
6. Svitolina
7. Pliskova
8. Stevens
9. Barty

10. Sabalenka 11. Serena 12. Wozniacki

Out of these, bertens has been playing well, clay is not really Osaka's surface, nor Barty's I would have thought. Other than that probably quite open? Not sure if Serena is playing.

What puts me off the women is the screeching. Thankfully there's a few on that list who don't do it.

I agree with you about the screeching - I just turn the box off if it starts.

Nothing wrong with 'phwoar' at 74!

yes there's that.

Btw Sharapova is out of RG apparently.

Good!

Thanks for that, Private. Would love to see Kivitova do well - I really like her.