Tennis - waiting for Australian Open

[magimedi]

And longing for lots of chat!!

yes Stan won’t be happy with your insult to bears Science

Not sure if it’s the lockdown, quarantine or lack of crowds but there has been some strange behaviour at the AO

Medvedev’s coach picked up his bag and walked off after being yelled at in about 4 different languages by Medvedev - he finally won in 5 sets but had to be treated for buttock pain

Also did anyone see the argument that Foggy had at the end of his match with another Italian player the other day? It was all very strange!

I see that your favourite Norwegian is through though Raahh - that’s good!

I’ve booked my TV slot for this morning - there’s a lot of sport happening this weekend. Not sure if it will be a good match but hoping that Rafa wins (sorry Cam!)

Fizzy I was awake in the early hours- and score watching the Medvedev match- I wondered what was going on.

Was pleased to see Ruud was through .

Keeping an eye on the Shelby Rogers match, and hoping it is over soon- I don't think Rafa will want to be playing too late.

So weird with the empty seats.

It is very strange, Startup- doesn't seem so odd watching the matches on the smaller courts, but on Laver, is really does look wierd.

They were set up for it, at the US Open, and had big screens, and music to try to make up for the absence of people. They don't appear (at the moment anyway) to have that contingency in Melbourne.

It does look very strange

It’s rubbish watching with no crowd - must be so hard for the players with no atmosphere

Amazing isn't it, Djok was taking ages between points yesterday- and no-one was saying anything.

As soon as Rafa is playing- suddenly they can't shut up about time between points. .

Weirdly can't see any lines people. Watching Our Alex.

Both matches in play at the moment have been in play for the exactly the same amount of time- and have the same score.

.

Or did- just before Foggy won the set.

Fizzy I saw that argument between Foggy and his opponent 😳

Completely hilarious, like a Carry On stereotype of what an Italian argument should be like. Lots of dramatic gestures, getting in each other’s faces and volume rising. Apparently Foggy said his opponent was “fucking lucky” at a couple of points during the match!

I was waiting for one of them to say “va fa Napoli”!! (Sorry, another Friends reference).

@StartupRepair

Weirdly can't see any lines people. Watching Our Alex.

All the line judging is being done by HawkEye so that there are less people on the court.

It was bizarre wasn’t it Science? I thought they were going to come to blows!

Rafa is quite grumpy today - maybe it’s past his bedtime or Norrie is causing him more problems than he would like

I’m not really enjoying this - I think a lot of it is down to lack of crowds - I understand the reason why they’re not there but hope they’re allowed back soon

Uh oh Rafa’s ordered some dates

It's difficult to get into the match with no noise- the first few matches in FakeCincy took some getting used to - especially the ones that had no commentary as well .

Never underestimate the power of Rafa'a dates.

I was left in peace this morning to watch Berrettini v Khachanov and Ash Barty, then as soon as Rafa's match started people wanted to watch TV typical.

So I'm just listening on Five Live. Sounds like Norrie is doing well but Rafa just too good??

Private Norrie is doing well- Rafa made a lot of unforced errors in the first set, especially. He's not 100%, that's for sure, but Norrie is not letting him off the hook. I don't think we will see a 5 set come back from Norrie (well- I would be very surprised ), but he is not disgracing himself at all.
I did think Rafa would be more affected by the lack of crowds than Norrie. He's not been particularly happy this match.

Spidey I always give my family advance notice of when I’m watching tennis - Rafa’s matches are usually non negotiable!

Oh no the umpire’s having to tell someone in the non existent crowd to sit down

Yes I can imagine that. It must be hard to get used to the crowd not being there, when they weren't originally expecting it.

Sounds like Fognini played well v deMinaur.

Yes, I made it clear that I had a date with the Spaniard this morning, so I was not to be disturbed. Even the dog (eventually) got the message .

Rafa really is not a happy camper tonight. He will need to play better against Foggy- although Foggy is so temperamental, it's always difficult to know which version of Foggy will turn up .

Sorry my last post was replying to Raahh re Rafa

Fizzy I like that approach - maybe I need to get tougher on the TV access?!

Finally!

Vamos

But well done to Norrie - he played well.

Nice of them not to cut away whilst Rafa changes his top.

Phew! Rafa not at his best but Norrie played well

Rafa v Foggy should be interesting but yes it depends which Foggy turns up (hopefully not the argumentative one!)

Tomorrow will be interesting- before the Djok match (which may or may not happen, and if it does, I hope Milos is on good form)- Swiatek is playing Halep - she thrashed Simona at RG, so it will be interesting to see who comes out on top in that one.

Before that- Dimitrov is playing Thiem. Domi is not having an easy run really- Grigor has been playing well

It might end up being a late one for Djok - there are 5 matches on Laver, and they are all quite big looking ones.