Tennis Thread: the grass court season is here! Who will rule Birmingham? Be the King of Queen's? All your Wimbledon build-up chat this way!...

[PrivateIsles]

Best few weeks of the year starts here!

Can't beat a Christmas film. It's a shame it's June.

Briefly watching a bit of the qualifiers. Liam Broady is playing, he always seems like a decent chap so I hope he wins! I also want Sabine Lisicki to get to the main draw - she's had so many awful injuries over the years. I wish she'd won Wimbledon that year she beat Serena, she was playing brilliantly. Not sure when her next qualies match is though.

AC is talking about people getting married and who's friends with who etc. Obviously.

What I love about Sam Smith is that she takes commentating really seriously. In yesterday's Konta match Gigi Salmon was asking Sam about the Wimbledon seeding & Sam said: "I'm not replying to that now as this is a really crucial game to focus on".

Wish she commentated every match I watch.

"qualies" private ?

I'm surprised Raahh didn't pass comment

Old curtain twitcher AC is probably more knowledgeable about personal lives than tennis it's a low bar

I slipped up on the 'qualies' comment kazza

Sam is very good (mostly ) at keeping fellow commentators focused on the job in hand. Magi

Ooh go Sam! That's a brilliant response. Love her.

I've just tuned in to Halep - Kerber - looks a beautiful day in Eastbourne. Kerber playing really well.

I was just testing to see if qualies has become acceptable on the thread yet

Also - how come these two are playing each other already - what round of the tournament is this??!

It's the quarter finals, Private

thanks Raahh - it's finally popped up on the screen at the end of the set. It also says they are seeded 4 and 6 - but it still seems weird for this to a QF! Ah well I'll just accept it and carry on watching I suppose

Aw I love Angie. Fab match.

The quality of the hitting in the Halep/Kerber match was amazing. Best match of the tournament so far.

It was really good wasn't it magi - I think it's a really good match-up between those two.

I saw Lisicki didn't qualify for Wimbledon, @ despite winning the first set 6-0

There's a great picture on Rafa's fb page, of the European Laver Cp team, out for a pre-Wimbledon dinner. Thiem does looks so young though- more so than Sascha- and like he has been invited to the Big Boy's table for the first time .

Foggy looks very relaxed .

I now have to take the dog to the groomers. He hates going to the groomer. He even hates being brushed. He won't talk to me afterwards.

But he can't see, his eyebrows are getting that bushy.

It's very warm here now. Stupid weather. One extreme to the other. It will be snowing by Monday.

I saw that photo as well Raahh - there were some funny comments saying Roger was the dad, Rafa was the nice uncle and Fabio was the naughty uncle and Dom and Sascha were the kids. Made me laugh.

Good luck at the groomers! I don't think I would enjoy going either tbh - like the hairdresser

Wimbledon draw in a few minutes! I like how they don't mess about (usually anyway) and just get on with it. I hope Kyrgios and Djok play each other in R1.

Rafa's in the same half as Rog.

Projected men's last 16 as per seedings (courtesy of the tennis podcast)

Djokovic vs. Monfils
Medvedev vs. Tsitsipas
Anderson vs. Raonic
Khachanov vs. Zverev

Thiem vs. Fognini
Cilic vs. Nadal
Isner vs. Nishikori
Coric vs. Federer

Ha what are the chances of all of them getting there, let alone Keith beating Isner on grass?! (Keith's seeded higher.)

I just don't want to see Isner again or Anderson in the QFs - no offence Kev. But just short of 6 hrs last year was enough

Kev has got Pierre HH in R1. That's a tough one.

Sorry everyone - I know you've probably read all this yourselves already - am just too excited

So which top players are probably playing on Monday?

Yikes Sascha plays Vesely in R1 - I saw Vesely playing in qualies and he looked good. That's a tough one for Sascha imho.

Top half of the draw unique because Novak is defending champ so his half will play Monday.

So Djokovic, Tsitsipas, Anderson, Zverev...

They haven't done the women's draw yet

Rafa could play Kyrgios in R2! Do I not like that?!?

In R1, Rafa plays Sugita, Kyrgios plays Thompson (another Aussie?).