Tennis: Enjoying the last throes of the grass court season

[kazzaD66]

I think PCB is quite taken with his flowery mascot.

I just thought they were flowers Raahh

I was wondering if they’d had to wake PCB up - aaah they all looked so proud - yes where is Goodie the Fish monster when we need him? Is there even a mascot at this Olympics? I know there’s no crowd but we still need a bit of fun!

Lots of photos! It’s like prom night!

Fizzy the fun element is what I'm missing, I think. I mean, it's Japan, home of kawaii- but it's absent and everything seems a bit serious.

Can't even say it's the heat - they've had Olympics in hot countries before, with mascots.

I've just read that apparently, the mascots are robots- and they were meant to be the face of the games- but the public don't like them much.
I remember the 2012 mascots were a bit at first, but everyone soon embraced them. We've got 2 somewhere (I think one of them met the dog when he was puppy, though).

Maybe it’s because of the COVID situation Raahh - they might think they need to be a bit more serious but I think a bit of fun is needed!

We had a few of the mascots as well - DS1 has probably still got all his Olympics 2012 memorabilia somewhere - he’s a bit of a hoarder!

Fizzy randomly, we had a 2012 paralympics oven glove. . It was being sold off cheap at the end of the games in Sainsbury's. We retired it , only last year, when it got way beyond washing. .

My kids had quite a few tracksuits and t-shirts - DS1 doesn’t like to throw anything away so I think he’s still got them somewhere!

Somewhere in my loft, I have a Manchester the Lion, that was produced in the 90s to promote one of the Manchester Olympic bids. 2000 , I think. I also have a few badges from the various (failed) bids that Manchester did, before they finally got the Commonwealth games in 2002.

Might be worth something. .

I think if it happened now Manchester's Mascot would be bee themed. everything else is round here . In the 90s, the bee emblem was really only found on lamposts and Boddingtons adverts .

I went to walk the dog- I forgot the mixed doubles was on- an all Russian affair.

I thought at the start of the tournament the Russians overall had the strongest team, and they haven't done too badly.

Well done Sascha. I'm delighted for him.

Casper won in Austria so that's his third trophy in three weeks!

Thanks for the heads up about the Eurosport channels Private. I didn't know they were there. This Olympics is very annoying! They keep chopping and changing. I got see Flo Jo's record being broken so that's something I suppose!

DS2 still has in his room a coloured paper and tinfoil Olympic torch he made at school when the UK kindly let us have a go at running around with it

For anyone with Virgin, the Eurosport channels are- 521 onwards- just keep clicking- they keep changing . The tennis, for example is on 537 at the moment. They do repeat things on different channels though.

I can't really get my head around the fact it is 9 years since 2012. In so many ways, it feels like yesterday.

And well done Casper!!

I knew I was onto a winner with my Norwegian mate .

He couldn't have done it without you Raahh

This mixed doubles could go on forever!

I am his biggest shortest fan Jane .

And it all started, the day Kyrgios chucked a chair into the court in Rome.

Well done all the Russians. I'm happy for Andrey especially.

Well- well done to Rublev and Pavlychenkova- she's not having a bad couple of months.

But I bet Karatsev never saw this coming a year ago- silver medalist at the Olympics.

I'm pleased for Andrey- he's really played a lot over the past year.

Jane we've still got the big Olympic torch that DS made at school for 2012, stuck behind the computer in the study. It's huge

He was very down over his losses so this will give him a boost.

DS had a really nice 2012 baseball cap which we bought when we went to the tennis at Wimbledon. Unfortunately, he was wearing it when he was looking too far over a bridge at the trout swimming below and the cap was last spotted drifting off down the River Test

Ah the 2012 Olympics - it seems so long ago now!

I wanted to watch the final of the mixed earlier, but DS wanted to watch something or other so I gave in. Will see if I can find a repeat on one of the mystery eurosport channels!

I see Washington starts tomorrow - although Rafa doesn't play until Wednesday I think.

Yes thanks for telling us about the mystery Eurosport channels Spidey - it would have been far too sensible to put them after the usual Eurosport channels

I’ve seen pictures of Rafa practising in Washington - he looks happy and relaxed - not sure if it’s on Prime? Unfortunately I think Kyrgios will be there - it was better when he was stuck in Australia!

Well done to Casper - for some reason there’s a lot of beef between Casper and Nick - I think it stems from the chair throwing incident in Rome. Casper seems like a fairly innocuous sort of person but I think Kyrgios could probably have an argument with himself! I think he also has beef with PCB - maybe it’s because both players have achieved more than he has?

Really looking forward to hopefully seeing Rafa later in the week (off to google times in Washington)