TENNIS - green, green grass, blue, blue sky, wide, wide seats as we head towards July

[JaneJeffer]

Come on Jasmine- what are you doing!

Another tie break- blimey.

Come on Jasmine, you should have won this ages ago.

Well done Jasmine! She made that harder than it needed to be .

Boisson is out of the Wimbledon qualies - just flicking between Eastbourne and Bad Homburg - the weather is a lot nicer in Germany

Well done Jasmine!

There seems to be a lot of tennis in this pre Wimbledon week

It always makes me smile when Italian people say Mama Mia or French people say Ooh La La

What could possibly go wrong?

www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jun/24/andy-murray-to-be-honoured-with-statue-at-wimbledon-but-not-until-2027

Sasha Bublik has pulled out of Eastbourne, which is not surprising.

Now, I liked the Fred Perry statue (and having only ever seen it on tv, was surprised when I saw it in person, because it's quite small)- but I like that about it.

I hope they steer clear of gaudy metal monstrosities.

I think the Rafa plaque will be hard to beat, because it suits his personality, really. Such a simple, but effective idea. But not one that can be accessed by the general public , though .

And well done Barbora- very hard won match against Harriet Dart, but I'm glad she came through in the end.

I just feel like these sorts of statues are hardly ever good (and some of them are frankly terrifying).

I agree- I think the big mistake they made with the Rafa one , was making it a full-on action figure. And also the fact it looks nothing like him.

Realism has fallen out of favour- and strange abstract things are 'art'.

So Andy will probably be represented by a surreal lump of rock and glass. With googly eyes. Or something.

I can’t see Andy wanting a statue of himself at all. I think he’ll be mortified!

Is there no shot clock?

Well done Iga

Apparently Andy is going to have some input into his statue - they very rarely turn out well

I’ve just finished Christopher Clary’s book about Rafa where the scary RG statue gets a mention - Rafa said that he liked it but I suppose he couldn’t say anything else could he?

I quite like the idea of an abstract Andy Murray with googly eyes

Didn't Maggi Hambling paint Andy's portrait. It was quite abstract. I meant, it was a tennis player in a white kit. I suppose you could tell it was him.
Maggi is quite eccentric.

No, if anyone would prefer a nice plaque covered in clay dust somewhere, it's Andy.

Maybe they can hide one on Henman Hill.

The face on the left ruins it IMO!

The plaque was perfect. I love the clip of the ball boy reverently dusting the clay off when he was kneeling beside it.

RG should dedicate spider cam to Andy

Yes he would love that!

Maggi Hambling is quite eccentric but I do like her - she did the controversial nude statue of Mary Wollstonecraft so could be interesting - this is how she defended it ‘There are plenty of schlongs in art'

Don’t think Wimbledon would be up for any nudity!

Ha ha, definitely not. Maybe some strategically placed strawberries?

Jacob is going well against Flavio in Eastbourne.

Robbie!

I've only seen bits and pieces today.
I was glad Barbora won.
and ADF.

Tomic (!) is playing RBA