Tennis - waiting for Australian Open

[magimedi]

And longing for lots of chat!!

I was just looking at the schedule Raahh and seen that RBA is playing instead of Rafa - hope his back gets better soon

We have a lot of snow! I was looking forward to watching Rafa

Fizzy me too (except I have to do school stuff with DD2, and was meant be at a gp appointment at 10am- that's been cancelled though). I
I'm just watching PCB playing Milkman. Looks like PCB has been promoted to the Team shirt this year .

He who shall not be named Tree Hugger has won both his matches, funnily enough. No sign of any issues with blisters or anything, and he's so amazing for having won all 10 matches he has played across the 2 ATP cups so far. .

Oh dear- Spain might be regretting putting RBA in for Rafa .

Although, having said that, I think Rafa lost his first set to De Minaur in their first match last year iirc, so too early to panic .

That’s a surprise about Djok Raahh

I’ve just had a little glimpse of Rafa watching RBA - he was looking a bit worried. I hope his back injury isn’t too serious

Oh no it’s Jim Courier - I’m feeling sleepy already ...

I think the AO is on Five live extra or whatever it’s called tobee with highlights on bbc from 13 feb I think as well

RBA did well to pull that set back but not to be. Will be interesting to see how this goes. Of course, Australia have the advantage of the crowd. Which helps a lot when you are behind.

Doing a bit of score watching whilst keeping one eye on the tv, and one eye on dd2s online lesson (she's on mute and the tv is not in shot ).

Raonic has salvaged some pride for team Canada. Which is nice. Not 'seen' him, so don't know the state of his lockdown hair Wreck-it Ralph hair, or how short his short are, at the moment. (This is very important )

I was quite glad to see RBA win his match (nothing against De Minaur, though)- but I do like an RBA comeback. Plus, it takes the pressure off Rafa a little, even if they lose the doubles.

Looks like PCB is playing the doubles now too.

I've just seen on the BBC homepage an article on Ken Bruce, who apparently turns 67 today. One of the pieces is about when he went to Wimbledon in 2017 and meets AC to findout, and I quote, "what's the secret to the perfect Wimbledon commentary?"
He's asking the wrong person there.
The butterfly fancier wouldn't know about perfect commentary, Wimbledon or otherwise, if it hit him in the face

kazza I hope that AC had the insight to say ask someone else but I bet he didn’t!

The snow is really deep here so I can’t get out to the shops - I’ve ordered a Tesco delivery for tomorrow - hopefully we can survive on our current food supplies until then (I don’t think we’ll have to start eating each other yet!)

RBA did well to win that match - I wish there was more tennis on - I’m bored now and don’t know what to do with myself - I thought about cleaning out the fridge but really can’t be bothered

Of course not fizzy
Insight is another thing AC lacks.....

Have now read that Ken is 70 today, not 67!

Good win for Katie Boulter earlier. Apparently, she saved a match point in the second set to beat Gauff in three. Apparently (again ), this is the first time she has won consecutive WTA matches but next up is Osaka.

Thanks @Fizzywinegum !

Good news about Katie, kazza -if she can keep her nerve, she might have a slim chance against Naomi. By all accounts, she really didn't play well at all in her match against Serena in Adelaide, the commentators were shocked how badly.
Naomi is obviously several rungs up the ladder from Katie- but I think she is easily affected by 'off court' things, and she loses focus, on occasion.

Been looking up the over night scores- Canada have had a nightmare 2 days- I thought they might have a better chance than they have shown, but Raonic was Struffed, in 2 tight sets, and Shaggy lost to Zverev ( that went to 3 sets thought.).

Italy are through to the semis already though. .

Just watching a bit of Aus v Greece. Milkman has got set point and looks very bright in his vivid yellow shirt. And the sun is streaming into the stadium - looks lovely there (not at all envious, no....)

I would have thought Canada would do better than that as well Raahh

I had to start getting DD2 set up for her live lesson, so I missed most of Millman's match( think he's serving for it?), so I have jsut put Medvedev/Nishikori on. Seems like ages since I last saw Kei play! (Probably is!).

ooh - Tsitsipas/De Minaur up next then- that could be good.

So, DD2 hasn'r got a live lesson until this afternoon, so I thought that would be the ideal opportunity to watch tennis without any distractions- and it's cancelled. All the tournaments, because a hotel worker has tested positive (I tihnk). The organisers are not sure what is happening tomorrow.

All going well, down under.

Oh no, is that what's happened?? I was looking at Prime and couldn't find any matches for today, but I thought it was just a glitch.

It seems so. I can't find a lot more information really, but it looks like the players who were staying in the hotel have to be re-tested too, and re-isolate until their results come back- it's all a bit of a mess.

A headache for the organisers- but really, something that could probably have been predicted. And a nightmare, with the Open itself just around the corner. It was never really necessary to stage the ATP Cup (it's only the second year, and they've cut the number of teams/days anyway)- the longer the players are there, and all staying in the same place, the greater the risk, really.

Oh no that doesn’t sound good - I kept checking the schedule to see if Rafa was playing but it just said tbd for all the matches - what a nightmare!

Yesterday, Rafa was on the list, he was scheduled to play Stef, which would have been a good match.
Don't know how his back is though, they haven't mentioned it since Tuesday.

I know ehole days get wiped out of msny tournaments- but not when they are only 5/6 days long to start with, and just before a slam.

Be interesting to see if tomorrow goes ahead!

*whole

I've just read (having previously seen that Rafa was playing Stef) that Rafa withdrew from that match up, because he wasn't well enough to play, so that's a worry. I really hope he is ok for next week. In a way, he won't lose anything if he doesn't play, because they are still in the period where the ranking points are protected- but I think he will really want to be able to play. Especially having gone through all the quarantine stuff to be there.
So, the extra day is good for him, but at the same time it sounds like the back problem is more than just a bit of stiffness. He seemed to play ok in Adelaide- I hope he didn't pick up the injury there, be a bit of a blow if playing an exhibition causes him to have to forfeit everything else.

Morning all

Just been perusing the draw (and instantly forgotten nearly everything about it )

Well, I managed to remember Shapovolov v Sinner and PCB v Keith - could both be good. Rafa's draw looks decent. He could play Dan Evans early on! I was looking out for Milkman too as he must have only just missed out on being seeded. He could play Raonic in the second round but if he gets through that he might be ok - in Djok's section though. I think the Aussies will do well this year.

Katie Boulter has got Kasatkina in R1, that's a tough draw.

I see they've re-started the ATP cup...

Spidey yes, I was up really early, saw that Spain were through to the semi in the Cup, although they lost a match. Rafa hasn't been playing. I think Serbia are out though. that's a shame.

Rafa could potentially play Raonic, Rublev and Medvedev, at AO, from what I saw (so Rublev and Medvedev would be latter stages, I suppose). Djok has got Thiem in his half.
I'm a bit worried about Rafa's back injury- he clearly isn't taking any chances at the moment.