TENNIS: Never mind the snow, make like a seagull and catch some rays at the AO

[JaneJeffer]

I don't know what country I'm watching half the time

Yes it's very annoying paying so much for Sky daylight robbery

I keep wondering if Gael is planning to retire this year- I thought I read he was planning to , but I may have made that up

That was a pretty swift first set.

Fun fact I have just discovered (that they have probably mentioned , but the sound is so bad I missed it) = Jakub and Gael both have the same birthday- September 1st- but 19 years apart.

(I think that is something Robbie would have told us Jane - so I feel obliged to fill in, in his absence).

Gael seems to have got the measure of Jakub this set though- Jakub needs a serious re-think of his tactics now.

Rightly so Raahh

Great shot to get the break.

Well done Jakub!

Lovely hug at the net.

I skipped over to Emmerdale! Well done Jakub

Looks like Rafa is sharing a private plane to the US with Djok. I don't envy him. Photo on ATP insta.

I’ve just seen that kazza - poor Rafa! Imagine being stuck on a plane for thst long with Djok - I would have pretended to be asleep

Poor Rafa

Definitely what noise cancelling headphones was invented for

I would be sleeping with one eye open

I've just realised that-to confuse me further - the men are in Dubai next week.

(I was wondering when IW starts-it's the week of the 3rd- it is one of those extended tournaments, I think).

Interesting results over night- Casper beat Stef, and Jordan Thompson beat Sascha - Joao Fonseca's run came to an end in Rio though- didn't do badly for a 17 year old.

Grrr.

The women's final in Dubai clashes with the men in Doha- I really wanted to watch the Mensik /Khachanov final (and both have started now).

I had hoped the Doha final was this evening- give me something to watch now the Masked Singer has finished!

Kalinskaya seems to have control of this match-1 set up and 3-1 in the second.
Score watching the men's match and they are into a tie break in the first- maybe they will show some of it, if this match ends soon (and they don't waffle with trophies for hours)

Tight tie break in the Mensik match(making me more miffed I can't watch )

Karen took the first set- 14-12 in the tie break, be interesting to see how Jakub is affected by that. He's had a lot of tight matches this week.

Well, I was wrong about Anna- Paolini has now taken the second set.

Not to be for Jakub - but great effort this week and well done Karen.
Jakub will be in the top 100 so will find it easier to get into draws now on merit.

I did not see this coming earlier - but well done to Jasmine, amazing win. Kalinskaya has had a great week , just made too many errors today when it mattered.