Tennis: Here we go again, all the slams ahead of us.

[magimedi]

Uninspired title but looking forward to the new year.............. as long as a certain cock does not win 'em all!

Well done to Daniil. Such a shame that Murray gave away that break at 4-4 in the second set, he was up 40-0!

Meanwhile Krejcikova beat Swiatek in the Dubai final, that’s quite an upset.

Never mind. It’s good to see Murray playing relatively well annd being injury and pain free. Every game is a bonus.

Murray really played v well. I hope his season continues like this! I agree with PP - a shame that he gave away that break as I think it might have produced a different result.

Well, Andy certainly had his chances but he's had a good week and has moved up the rankings again. Yes, that game when he was 40-0 and lost was poor but, as you say, at least all seems well on the fitness front!

I haven't had chance to watch anything this week and next week is looking a bit hit and miss .
I am a big fan of Barbora (though I love Iga) so glad to see her do well- she's an excellent doubles player, obviously, but since winning RG maybe hasn't shown the same form in singles.

Rio still only at the semi final stages- I think Carlos has a good chance against Jarry.

Annoyingly, even if Carlos wins the title there and draws level on ranking points with Djok- Djok stays at number 1, because he has more points from the mandatory 'higher' level tournaments.

Which is annoying .

The only match I've seen this week is Baez v Bellucci which was Thomaz Bellucci's last match before he retired. He didn't get a presentation as far as I saw which seems very slack. Baez wrote Bellucci's name on the camera which was something I suppose!

I suppose they can't have big presentations for everyone, Jane- but it is kind of becoming more of a 'thing' .

Talking of retirements- or rather none -retirements- I saw that Nicolas Mahut (who I have always had a soft spot for) is in the doubles finals in Marseille. I keep thinking Mahut has retired He might have stopped playing singles...

I just thought as he is Brazilian they would make a bit of fuss of him. Poor Thomaz 

The French love retiring but not actually retiring didn't Benneteau retire but then play Wimbledon a couple of years later? I think it was him.

Jane I agree- maybe they gave him a cake later?

And yes, retiring/not retiring is a thing with some players, I'm sure
I keep losing track of who Nicolas plays with these days- since PHH is/was unvaccinated, so that limited their partnership last year . I think it's Martin.

I think I'd like to see him win another RG- then they can have a big on court /retirement celebration for him. Lots more 'This is You LIfe' moments. He's an emotional chap- there would be more tears than Tsonga (and Jo-Willy cried a lot ).

On a completely different subject, has anyone seen the Radio 2 Piano Room sessions on the red button? Some of them have been really good. Currently watching Pink, who's fantastic. Also had Haircut 100 (for those of us of a certain vintage ) doing a session. They were great and Nick Heywood has matured very nicely

Haven't seen them kazza but I love Nick Hayward!

You should take a look Jane
Search* *Radio 2 Piano Room on BBC red button. There's 20 sessions for the whole of February, last one yesterday. Three songs each, usually a new one, an old song and a cover. Haircut 100 played Love Plus One, Fantastic Day and covered Harry Styles. It was really good!! I've still got Pelican West but only on vinyl and the record deck no longer works

I see Norrie has beaten Alcaraz to win in Rio!

kazza I was score watching most of that- annoyingly, I actually tried to watch it, and everything was glitching so only got bits and pieces- which is typical. Well done, to Cam, revenge for last week

Carlos had a fair few chances - but he had a leg injury, which didnt really help, and that was obviously causing a few issues by the second set- although his 'never give up' Spanish genes kept him in til the bitter end . Hopefully nothing too serious, with IW coming up- and Miami to defend.

I read this morning that Djok has overtaken Steffi's recod for weeks at number 1. Which irks me . His smug face was leering at from the ATP page.

I watched the first set of the Rio final and it looked like Carlos was going to take it, so well done to Cam for turning it around. It looked incredibly hot and humid in Rio so Cam's fitness may have helped him.

I've been out most of the day - just had a quick look at the scores. Djok has just dropped the second set in his match against Machac-I'm not convinced that means anything though. He's probably conserving energy or something.
Wasn't surprised to see Murray had withdrawn.
Felix beat the lovely Maxime earlier, fairly easy win for Daniil, Coric beat Dan Evans.

The Evans thing was weird. Dan had taping above his right ankle, which I think he injured last week. At 2-2, he had the physio out, even though it wasn't a change of ends. The physio didn't do anything. Dan then served one point and called it a day. The physio then returned for a few minutes, still didn't do anything, left and Dan sat on his own for another few minutes before packing up and leaving. Weird! And no commentary on Prime, so no idea what happened

Sometimes, I like no commentary kazza (depending on who is playing)- but sometimes you do need things explaining! .

I 'm not watching- but I saw that Djok did his thing and raced off with the 3rd set- but Machac has pulled it back and has drawn level.

Grrr. Looks like Djok is going to take this on a tie break.

I hate tie breaks.

I see Djok won the tiebreak.

Rafa has withdrawn from Indian Wells and Miami. Hopefully he'll be ok for the European clay court swing.

bloody Djok.

No surprise re- Rafa. it was a 6-8 week recovery period for his injury, which always put IW/Miami in doubt.
Hopefully, he will be fit for Monte Carlo/Barca - where he didn't play last year, so can pick up points.

At least we know Djok won't be in the US either- despite all the efforts to find loop holes for him. Djoks exclusion from certain events has been one of the bonuses of Covid, really. (The downside has been having to listen to him and all the sycophants moaning about the unfairness of a situation of his own making).

I keep reading that Djok is hopeful that he will be allowed to enter the US and play, as are the tournament directors

kazza it's infuriating.

So much for 'accepting the situation and not playing tournaments because of it' which is the rubbish he kept spouting last year- whilst also trying to get the rules changed .

Why should he get preferential treatment. Knobhead

Because he's special, and such a record breaker and everyone wants to see him play Jane.

Except the recent viewing figures for Australia tell a different story.

It's a shame that Rafa will now fall from the top 10- because this will become a big deal- even though the fact he stayed there so long (even with so many periods of injury) should be the real story.

It's sad to think that just a couple of extra wins in the summer and he could have got back to the top spot, though. Very much a year of 2 halves, 2022.