TENNIS: Hard court season continues. Scream if you want to go faster.

[JaneJeffer]

I do wonder if he's injured at all, he lost early in Shanghai, did play the 6 Kings thing, but hasn't played any other indoor tournaments. Maybe it's lack of practice.

Casper said Carlos has a cold. It did seem
like he was lacking in energy.

It was nice that Casper acknowledged that Carlos was not 100%- though I'm sure he is happy with the win.

Laura is starting on stats and percentages already of qualifying for the semis.

It's only Monday. I'm not ready for this .

Even Casper's agent had no faith in him winning.
Poor Casper!

Everyone is apologising to Casper now.

I am half hoping Casper and Andrey will be the two that qualify from this group, since the media coverage has been so disrespectful to them.

Ice I feel the same way. It was the same with Barbora last week- you would have thought Laura would have learnt from how dismissive she was of her- but apparently not!

It's the top 8(9) players in the race. They have all won enough points to get there. It's not like Casper or Andrey are wild card qualifiers from outside the top 100. But you would have thought Casper was, the way they spoke about him at times, before the match and during it.

Listening to Laura, Tim and Gigi before tonight's match, and they were talking about Daniil and how he had said he wasn't happy. And they touched on how in one of the post match interviews someone said to him, 'but you've won this' - and he pointed out it was in 2020- when, effectively, the season didn't really start again til September/October. There was no Asian swing. He was relatively fresh at the end of the year.

Coincidentally, 2020 was also the year Rafa did quite well at the WTFs - and threw away points against Daniil that would have taken him to the final. Maybe, the shorter season is the key for some players.

Jannik getting his year end number 1 trophy. Looks a bit lost.

Stay cool Andrey.

I've missed most of this.

Come on Andrey!

I don’t know if you have the same commentary team I have Raahh but they’re going on and on about his inability to manage his emotions, even though he seems to be keeping things in check. It’s tedious.

I actually think Andrey has played well, Sascha is just unbreakable on serve.

Well done Sascha.

Wel done Sascha,

They are going to start talking complicated maths scenarios, aren't they?

Fortunately, I wasn't really listening (dd2 decided to talk to me )- but I can well imagine the commentary was similar.

I get the feeling they all come into these things with a set script for each player- and get totally thrown of they go off course. So they stick to the script, even if the player doesn't!

Oh I hope so (rubs hands in glee).

Ice

It's quite sad about Danill - I think quite a lot of players seem to be having MH issues - I suppose on the surface it seems like a charmed life but I I think it must get quite lonely and relentless

The season is definitely too long (in fact I don't think there are any proper breaks?) but I can't see that changing any time soon

At least Andy seems to be living his best life now he's retired. He's found time between the golf and the school run to do four theatre shows with Andrew Cotter next summer

I've just switched on, and they had dancers.

Just get on with it.

I hope Daniil is in a better headspace today. He doesn't look too happy in the tunnel.

Nice smile for the little boy with him though.

That sounds exciting about Andy kazza - hopefully he'll do some venues between London and Scotland!

I missed the dancers!

Hopefully we won't get another Meddy meltdown

Fizzy I'd go and watch the Andys, if Andrew Cotter took his dogs.

Andrew Cotter really should take over at Crufts. He would be great.