Tennis thread: looking forward to the new season

[PrivateSpidey]

While we dream up our Australian Open advent calendar, the chat continues!

Your Watership Down charade sound very entertaining Raahh

I realised that everything is ok after about 3 glasses of Prosecco (I didn’t care if the carrots were cooked by then) and everything takes a lot longer to cook than it says on the packet (pigs in blankets!)

Oh Fizzy, it was funny. I don't know how I left in one piece.

My new oven is scary. It cook everything about 25% quicker than it should. And I am using the right temperature, honest!

Raahh your whole post about Christmas day made me laugh. I am so crap at charades, if I had to act out Watership Down I would be hysterical!!

I went to see Little Women with my DM this afternoon - highly recommend if you like that kind of thing (which I do!).

I vaguely remember doing some sort of horse related charades thing one NYE - lots of trotting and snorting - can’t even remember what I was doing

I think I’m going to see Little Women with my DM over the next few days - it looks good

I watched QoS 50th Raahh
It made me quite nostalgic
I started watching when it was David Coleman, Gareth Edwards, then Bill Beaumont and Emlyn Hughes. I remember the Princess Anne episode very clearly. Poor old Emlyn
John Parrott and Ally McCoist were also very good value. Let's face it, Ally was gorgeous back then but, looking at him now, it's obvious he's enjoyed life

I used to really enjoy it. It was an institution in our house - we even had the board game (still got it, actually!) but although I like Matt and Phil a lot, we don't watch it very often these days. Don't know who half the guests are these days and some of the rounds have become more like silly games, rather than sporting knowledge. I used to know a lot more about sport in general than I do now aswell, and used to love trying to answer all the questions before the contestants

Still, it was a nostalgic way to spend an hour and to see how young everyone looked

Kazza I'm the same with QoS- growing up, I used to know lots of answers, seemed to know a lot more about general sports people than I do now. I suppose social media, and the fact we can watch so much more now means there are a lot more athletes etc 'in public' than there were around the early 80s when I first started watching- guests were repeated a lot.

I remember the Princess Anne episode very well, and I've said before that Bill Beaumont was a regular in the airport shop I worked in , in the 90s. He was lovely.

I saw a 'mystery guest ' slot being filmed at the Northern Lawn championships in Didsbury- it was Kevin Curran, who was in the final with Edberg. I was so chuffed when the episode aired!

I thought it was a shame when they said that the What happen next round is now not viable because , again, social media and more channels means anything unusual in sport would be too well known.

Like Dzumhur doing the 'luge' under the net at Queen's. .

I have always said I would love to see it filmed- which is possible, I suppose, as Media City are always offering tickets for stuff like that.

Might be the closest I get again to a tennis slam winner (Sue!).

I used to love What Happened Next. Emlyn used to spin a 10 minute yarn out of it

Just read that Murray has pulled out of the Australian Open due to his ongoing pelvic injury. He's not going to Oz at all, so does that mean that Kyle Edmund takes his place in the ATP Cup or what?

Keith Nishikori shares a birthday with my ds.

Happy birthday Keith. .

Happy birthday to your DS Raahh, and to Keith! I can't believe he (Keith) is 30!

I can't work out what's going on with the ATP cup
Apparently Kyle Edmund is not ranked highly enough to play (Andy was using his protected ranking) but the GB team is already in Aus and will "seek a replacement" for Andy according to the Guardian. But there's no-one higher than Edmund is there, other than Dan Evans, and he's already playing?? I'm confused.

Thank you Spidey!
I don't get the ATP cup thing at all. Really, should GB be allowed to continue playing, since it was Murray's attendance that got them the gig in the first place?

As you say, who can/should replace him, if not the next highest ranked player?

I think Norrie is ranked higher than Edmund currently, and he is already there, so I'm not sure who the elusive replacement can be. I think Jay Clarke is the next ranked player after Murray- I don't know if his ranking of 154 is too low to be allowed to play? But there are countries with much lower ranked players taking part, so that can't be it (as their number 2/3 players though). Take Greece- they go from Stef in the top 10, to players ranked in the 400s/700s for their other players!

Is Edmund injured?

So, many questions.

I've just read that James Ward will replace Murray. Maybe it's an availability thing- he's ranked in the 300s, there are 3 GB players above him, behind Murray.

It will be nice to have tennis on the tv so soon though (well, I'm assuming it's on Prime?). Will get me ready for the Australian swing and sitting around all morning to watch , instead of late into the evenings!

I know, I'm looking forward to it as well. Even if it is a random made up competition bring it on!

Yes I'm sure you're right Raahh about the availability issue, it's short notice to get someone in place for Andy.

So James Ward will play Dimitrov? I wonder if JW will wear one of his flowery shirts?!

Happy birthday to Raahh’s DS and Keith (also can’t believe he’s 30!)

I don’t really understand the ATP cup - I’m not convinced about all these new fangled things.

Poor Andy Murray - at least everyone is spared the embarrassment of him coming back to the AO after last years ‘farewell’

I also meant to ask if anyone had heard of the British tennis player who is (was) the boyfriend of Caroline Flack? I can’t remember his name but I’d never heard of him before.

Fizzy I'm not sure I've heard of him either. And yy- Murray returning to Melbourne after that 'obituary' and send off might have been a bit awkward.

Keith will most likely not be playing much for a while, as he is injured. He's grown on me, over the last year or so , and I do hope he makes it to Tokyo- that would be a massive thing for him and Japanese tennis.

Yes I’ve also warmed to Keith over the last year Raahh - hope he does manage to get to Tokyo.

I’ve just watched a video explaining what the ATP cup is and I’m none the wiser except that it’s going to be loud (I don’t really like loud tennis - I like Wimbledon!)

He's grown on me, over the last year or so

Me too, I really like him. I always used to find him quite boring to watch (sorry Keith) but I've really taken to him - partly since his match v Fed at Wimbledon, and how he made such a big effort in that match, won the first set, went after everything etc, I'd never really seen him play like that before.

Agree about Tokyo Raahh, he must be there!!

I still can't believe that retirement tribute to Andy last year in Melbourne Even at the time it seemed so OTT!

I don't like loud either.

I tried to get my head around the ranking points too. Players are given point that depend on their rankings, and the the ranking of the opponent.
It seems complicated.

Or maybe it's too early .

Loud?!?

I don't like the sound of that either Fizzy.

That does sound complicated Raahh. I can't be doing with this faffing around, it's just something else for commentators to witter on about!

Speaking of commentators, has anyone noticed the thread on here called something like "should AC contribute to Christmas?" It doesn't stand for our favourite commentator though, sadly (I checked hopefully)

I saw that thread Spidey and immediately thought of our favourite tennis commentator

I kept seeing that . Says a lot about us we all immediately thought about our favourite butterfly fancier .

(I haven't looked beyond the title though- was AC a typo for DC?

I think it was referring to adult children Raahh - I also had to click on it to make sure it wasn’t referring to you know who . Not sure if kazza has seen it!

Oh, adult children makes sense.