TENNIS- The hard court season is in full swing on the run up to the US Open.

[Raahh]

This match is very up and down.

Fiona Crawley is doing her best to qualify. I wonder if His Lordship approves? Probably not but Cora will set him straight.

Won't you Fizzy

She's a noisy creature

Gaston had a nasty fall

You know what His Lordship is like Jane - he doesn’t really approve of these new fangled sports but I’m sure he’ll come round when Fiona brings home the US Open trophy (maybe they’ll make a film about it?)

I haven't been watching much tennis , as I have been watching the athletics and drooling over Michael Johnson . I can listen to him forever. There is the added bonus that Andrew Cotter does the commentary and he dry as a bone on that, and very funny, and Iove him too.

I have been score watching, and did see that Seb Korda beat Gasquet in WS- but Lehecka has a walkover against him in the next match. so not sure what has happened there.

The draw is out for next week, and there's nothing too exciting in the first round really- although there is Ru-Ru match up (Rublev and Ruusuvuori).

Closest thing to a possible upset is maybe Raonic/Tsitsipas (given Stef's extra curricular activity at the moment) Holger is playing RCB, he gets feisty against Spaniards Djok's half, at first glance, looks really pretty straight forward, annoyingy.

I could just picture that film Fizzy

I watched some of the athletics. Mark English was unfortunate that he got hobbled by the Jamaican runner but he made it to the semifinal.

Kevin Anderson didn't get through qualifying and it looks like Millkman won't either.

It's really annoying they have a cutoff point even though there's loads of tennis going on

Does anyone know exactly which Sky packages you can watch the US Open on? All the courts (or at least all the courts they're showing) rather than just the one or two they put on their channels? I've spent the last few days trying to figure it out and it's really stressing me out!! Bring back Discovery+ and just signing up for £6.99 a month!

@GetTheGoodLookingGuy there's a whole spiel about it here www.skysports.com/amp/tennis/news/12110/12946554/us-open-tennis-on-sky-sports-how-to-watch-all-courts-streamed-live-and-all-star-line-up-of-experts. I need to download the app if everyone could stop watching football for 5 minutes!

Thanks. I've just read that and downloaded the app, but I still can't figure out exactly which package I need to subscribe to (and if there's multiple which would work, whichever the cheapest one is!). The one it links at the bottom (£26) doesn't say anything about watching all the courts when you click on it. Why does this have to be so confusing?!?

It's Sky Sports Extra as far as I can remember

I don’t have Sky but have bought a monthly subscription to NOW TV, not clear exactly what I’m going to be able to watch, but it seem to give access to all existing Sky channels. I wish there was a way to purchase access to the tennis only, I get irritated having to pay £26 when I’m not interested in football, F1 etc.

Paula Badosa has withdrawn from the US Open, and won't play for the rest of the season- so it will be interesting to see how Stef is affected by this (because I do think his 'off court' activitities have been a bit of a distraction lately). I wonder if she will travel to watch him- or will that be too tempting ? (and they will end up doing videos with fruit up the Empire State Building).

Looking at the Tsitsidosa insta Raahh I think they’re both in New York - some of the comments aren’t very complimentary!

Stef always seems to have some drama going on - if it’s not his crazy family or some weird fruit based Instagram posts it’s a woman in the crowd imitating a bee - still can’t get my head around that! Maybe Mark Philipoussis will sort him out (although didn’t he once appear on a dating show? )

Can’t believe the us open starts tomorrow - I still need to work out how I’m going to watch it - wish it was still on Prime!

It’s raining again here - I got absolutely soaked going for a walk yesterday - fed up of it now!

The rain here has been dreadful- last night there was a concert nearby (well, just over 3 miles away) but we could still hear it- but there was thunder and lightning and torrential rain.

Drama does follow Stef around, and if he's not careful, his tennis career may take a back seat. He might not be bothered about this. He's made enough money already, and will probably still be able to cash in even without picking up a racquet. But he us capable of winning big- he might miss opportunities. And it won't be Paula's fault (which will be the media's take on it) because he seems to find ways to distract himself quite easily.

Jack Sock is also retiring - apparently to play pickle ball (I’m still not quite sure what pickle ball is!)

I saw his post thanking everyone. How strange!

What a shame about Jack (Sock will always be one of my favourite tennis surnames) . He's playing doubles with Isner, so I suppose that gives them a chance to retire together and get a bigger send off . Jack has had a pretty solid career, really, especially in doubles, a number of slams and a Olympic medals and he's been a top 10 player.

I've looked up pickle ball before- and always forget what it is . I know it is played with one of those plastic balls with holes in we used at primary school- and you hit it over the net til someone misses. There is probably a bit more to it .

The Sky app is very confusing!

Seems I have to watch Johanna Konta whether I want to or not

Aah Martina that's better

Beggars can't be choosers so I should be glad to be able to watch something- I am in the same position as with RG really- I have a choice of 2 matches- the sound qaulity is terrible, and the picture quality is really fuzzy. It's like the when Prime first took over.

I have Thiem/Bublik, so that's not too bad out of the matches to choose from I suppose!
(I think Marion Bartoli is being paid by how many times she can say 'Andy Murray' in a minute).

I'm running around doing stuff because I didn't time my day properly as per.

Do you have a Sky remote Raahh? If you press the red button on the main event channel it gives you a choice of courts. The ads are annoying!

Marion sounds a bit strange.