TENNIS: AO Men's Final and beyond

[JaneJeffer]

Poor Andrey It's not a great position to be in, when everywhere is calling for boycotts of Russian sporting events etc.

Zebedee

I have just got back from school, and the dreaded Bake off (that was Book day themed, just for a double whammy). It was actually nice to be in the school again for an event for the first time in 2 years. Our banana bread looked very dull compared to all the other entries . But it's the taking part etc etc .

Just ignore the show offs Raahh

I remember buying cup cakes and putting them in new cases and subtly bashing them a bit to look home made for some skule bake milarkey

magi it was very tempting to buy something- everyone else had really made an effort with the whole 'Book' theme. I couldn't even find the lid for the tupperware box, and just covered it with foil.

I am so glad dd2 is in year 6- and the youngest. The secondary doesn't do all this malarky .

I woke up in the early hours, thought the Rafa match was on, but saw that Norrie was winning instead. That's a good win for him, he is really on good form. And Rafa beat Daniil quite comfortably it seems- I was expecting a tough 3 set match. I was surprised to see the score.

Morning! Good wins for Norrie and Rafa - I’ve just been reading about Rafa’s match Raahh - it sounds as if the match was much closer than the score line suggests but yes I was a bit surprised that Rafa seemed to win so easily

Looks as if the final is on at about 3am uk time which is a shame as I’d really like to see it - hope that Rafa gets the sombrero and pear trophy

FIzzy I did wonder if the scoreline was deceptive with the Rafa match- despite the scoreline, the second set seemed to take longer.

I might be awake to score watch some of the final.

I’m usually awake around that time as well Raahh

I wonder if the Ukraine situation will affect Russian tennis players? F1 have already pulled out of Russia and some footy teams are talking about not playing Russia in the World cup qualifying matches. What a grim situation

I agree Fizzy it's a horrible situation really. The Russian players may feel vilified, and the Ukranians (like Svitolina) will be -and she is- worried to death.
Having said that, congratulations to Rublev, who has won the interesting ship thing trophy in Dubai.

Yes well done to Rublev - I’m just watching a replay of the trophy ceremony - there were fluorescent acrobats, a woman singing and a bloke playing a keyboard thing - I’ve not even got to the boat trophy yet!

Blue Peter

Now there’s a raffle to win a BMW - bizarre!

Did number 11 get picked Fizzy?

Jane - poor Andrey looked very confused by the whole thing!

Rafa won the sombrero - yay! I’m definitely going to watch that trophy ceremony!

The boat thing did sound confusing!
So pleased for Rafa- Norrie has done well though ( and goes to IW as defending champion, even though it was about 6 months ago).

Great start to the year for Rafa- I do wonder if he actually will go to IW and Miami as planned. I think he wants to scale down the number of tournaments, and he won't want to jeopardise his clay season.

I've just seen a clip of the trophy ceremony in Acapulco- nice to see him back in the sombrero-with his pear trophy .

@Raahh

I've just seen a clip of the trophy ceremony in Acapulco- nice to see him back in the sombrero-with his pear trophy .

The sombrero and pear trophy combo is entertaining!?!? I don't know any of the history behind it... But so pleased for Rafa, what a brilliant start of the year so far. Shame for Norrie obviously.

Tottie it's not so much entertaining- as nice to see Rafa regaining his title there . The sombrero is funny- I am not sure why the trophy is a pear .

I’ve just had a look at the Laver cup tickets - the cheapest ones are almost £700 for all three days going up to about £2,500

I think I’ll just watch it on the telly! Single tickets are supposed to be released later but not sure how much they will be

The cheaper seats are likely to be high up as well - the last time I went I couldn’t look at the court as I had vertigo

I was all set to buy Laver Cup tickets this morning, across all five sessions to guarantee that I’d see Rafa. Bloody hell. The tickets are up to £3100, so that would be up to £6200 for two seats. They are transferable, so the same two people don’t have to go to all five sessions but I didn’t think they’d be that much . The O2 is so big that you’d need decent sets to be able to see the trajectory of the ball, I think.

I wasn’t expecting them to be that expensive WellTidy - especially if you factor in travel and hotels etc if you don’t live in London

I’ll probably never get to see Rafa

I know - I’ve never seen Rafa either and I’m wondering if this will be my last guaranteed chance. Maybe he could lend us a few quid? A session of tennis at the O2 has always seemed more expensive to me than, say, a whole day at Wimbledon, which, although pricey, is decent value I think with the roof on centre court.

Yes I think Rafa should reward his devoted fans . Wimbledon does seem like better value - I’ve been a few times but Rafa’s always been on the other court

Just seen that Serghey Stackovsky (sp?) has signed up to fight in Ukraine - he says he hope he doesn’t have to use a gun