TENNIS: all to clay for

[JaneJeffer]

sorry

Thanks Ice. He's a terrible patient .

It's a good thing we live minutes away (but the parking is dreadful.).

Things are not looking good for Stef- Tomas Short-Shorts is a very tricky first opponent.

Trouble is, if he continues to lose early in tournaments, he will find it more more difficult to gain ranking points and get away from playing dangerous 'floaters' like this.

Stef is obviously ranked a lot lower than Tomas at the moment- but really, he should be capabel of beating him.

Tomas's shorts always make me laugh. Has no-one told him how bad they look?

Not over yet...

Tomas having a wobble serving out the match.

I need to go and vote, but now Stef is threatening to make a match of this.

Machac's shorts give me the ick (not envy!)
He may as well play in his jocks or a nappy and be done with it! It's really off-putting!!

Sorry to hear about your DH Raahh Hope he recovers quickly.

kazza thank you.

The shorts are awful. They don't even look comfortable.

I have been to vote, combined it with walking the dog (dd2 stood out side with him). Had to do a proxy vote for DD1. Dh is annoyed because obviously he now can't vote.

Well done Tomas.

Well Tomas (please sort out the shorts).

Poor Stef.

Stef was doing well in Madrid- until the tough match against Casper (which could have easily gone his way).
It will be tough to dust himself down again and move on to RG.
Maybe he will try and get a wc for Geneva/ Hamburg.

That was some comeback for Kalinskaya - Siniakova losing 9 match points over the last 2 sets. Ouch.

Barbora has unfortunately got Aryna in round 2. Unfortunate in 2 ways- she's only beaten her once, and also because I will find it hard to watch due to the noise from the Sabalenka end.

Come on Barbora!

Not going well for Barbora.

I can't work out if there is actually a doubles event this year(nothing is listed) but it would be nice if she was at least involved in that.

Wishing your DH a speedy recovery Raahh. My DH is also bored stuck here with his leg in a cast and interrupting my tennis viewing 😩

Hope your respective DHs recover soon Raahh and Jane!

I’ve just turned on the tennis. Aryna looks strangely pissed off considering the scoreline.

Shame for Barbora that she got Aryna at such an early stage.

Oh no, Jane !

Dh keeps sending me lists of things to take to the hospital. I think he's moving in.

It really was, because I don't think she played too badly- certainly not in her first match. She's had a lot of injuries, and this just sets her back. I like Barbora- she isn't flashy but when she plays well, she is really good. I would like her to get a decent doubles partner again, because she is obviously good at that.

First match of the tournament for NuRafa today- playing Nuno Borges, so that's a tough opener.

Hasn't started well for Jodar- maybe he is taking it slowly.

The conditions are a lot slower in Rome than Madrid (according to Casper)- and ao course, no altitude. .

Yes I think it's quite a big adjustment from Madrid to Rome, particularly for the younger players. Alexander Blockx was talking about it in his post-match interview yesterday. He said it took him a set to find his range. Probably NuRafa is having the same issue. Also Nuno Borges is a very solid player.

Lol, literally while I was writing that Nuno hit a terrible smash into the net. And then got broken to love.

Back on serve, so that's good.

I had managed to pause my tv, and wondered why no-one was moving.
I think I'm losing the plot this week.
It's true about the change in conditions- also, it's good to get the feel of conditions in Rome, because (spposedly) they are the closest to the courts at RG.

And Vamos! NuRafa is ahead.

Well, not ahead, it's on serve, but it's the same thing.

Things going as normal for Iga, I see.

Tie break. Vamos! Jodar.