Some other big news here: Wimbledon is going to move its start date back by one week. While the rapid turnaround between the French and Wimbledon is part of the fun, it’s true there is no grass court season to speak of and I think that’s too bad. So this is probably good for tennis. It’s definitely good for me: my girlfriend’s birthday is always around the finals of Wimbledon, which makes it a little difficult to commit several hours to watching tennis that weekend. I guess that won’t be a problem anymore in 2015, especially since they don’t play on middle Sunday.
HOLY CRAP!
Wow, what a shocker. A bunch of fellas just got a way better chance at some color of medal.
Since Federer and Djokovic will be the top seeds, they can’t meet until the (best-of-five) final. With Nadal out of the tournament, one of them will have a chance to get to the finals without playing Nadal or Murray. That has to be a serious bonus. The draw will be held on July 26, two days before the tournament starts. Feliciano Lopez is replacing Nadal in the draw. Since Elena Dementieva retired a while ago, there will be new gold medalists on both the men’s and women’s side.
Something else I just noticed: mixed doubles is a medal event this year, which hasn’t been the case since 1924. Tennis was not an Olympic event for most of the 20th century. I am not sure who is participating, but my guess is that means some extra medals for the Williams and Bryan families.
You know, I’m no tennis expert or even a player, but I really dislike Marion Bartoli’s playstyle. There’s just something about it that makes not want to look at her during her matches, especially when she’s serving. Though her legs make sure I do actually watch her, well, parts of her.
Am I alone at all in regards to the first part at least? About being so put off by her playstyle? If you’d prefer to talk about how awesome her legs are though, I’m totally up for that conversation too.
Her unconventional playing style can be both jarring and fascinating. She’s definitely a fighter. I find the relationship with her father to be a bit odd, kind of like Sharapova’s. With both of them, I wonder if having their father serve as their coach hurts or harms them. Certainly, it must be strange.
Bartoli’s unconventional serve is a great weapon against most players. However, when she meets an opponent who can wail on the ball (e.g. Azarenka), that half a second where she’s off balance is a huge detriment. I also think that having a two-handed forehand AND backhand works against her because it forces her to take an extra step (in order to turn her shoulder) on the fly. So if I played against her, I’d run her from one side to another as often as I could.
The only players whose playing style distracts me to the point of being annoyed are the the shriekers, Azarenka and Sharapova. On the other hand, I love Schiavone even though she grunts a lot, especially after her serve. If you’ve ever seen her play live, listen to her when she’s serving. I swear she screams out the “f” word.
It’s not even just her play style but everything she does between points as well. Jumping up with her legs extended and taking a few quick hops forwards after she lands, spreading her legs almost as wide as possible as her opponent is serving then bringing them back to a more normal amount of space apart, the way she moves her racquet (racket?) in a perfect vertical line up and down in front her before serve returns. And so on and so forth.
I haven’t seen Bartoli play very much, but most of what you’re describing sounds normal. She doesn’t pull her shorts out of her ass crack between each point, does she?
No trust me, she’s visually a ton different than other players. And no she doesn’t have a chronic wardrobe malfunction between every point, though I wouldn’t put it passed her to adopt something like that too.
She’s definitely an odd nut. If you’ve ever seen her live, she takes a lot of tennis swings in between points – shadow boxing for tennis, if you will. I’m talking full swings, knees bent, etc. She also talks to herself a lot, though not as much as Andy Roddick. And she turns around and glares in the direction of her father if she either misses or makes a great shot. I made the mistake of sitting directly in front of her father a few years ago, and I thought she hated me.
Isn’t this normal for a lot of players though?
Well of course she hated you, you were sitting in front of her dad.
I was there first. 
The Olympic singles draws are out. The toughest first-round draw might belong to Andy Murray, who plays Stan Wawrinka. It’s a match he should win, but still. Federer starts against Falla, the guy who took a two-set lead against him in the first round a few years ago. Djokovic starts with Fognini. And this is kind of awesome: John Isner (6’9") will play Oli Rochus (5’5"). I think they’ve played twice and Isner has won both. Serena will play Jankovic in the first round, and Venus starts against the #9 seed, Sara Errani.
Interesting to note: three different men have won the first three majors of 2012 (Djokovic, Nadal, Federer). Once upon a time that wasn’t so unusual, but it hadn’t happened since 2005. And of course in the event that Andy Murray or someone else other than the Big Three wins the U.S. Open - I’m sure not a lot of people are going to put money on that, but I’ll throw the idea out there because it has to happen eventually, doesn’t it? - this could be the first year since 2003 that four different guys win the Slam titles. Meanwhile everybody seems to agree that Federer is a significant favorite in London, but the best-of-three format makes it that somewhat easier for a lesser player to score an upset. An Olympic gold in singles is practically the only major accomplishment Federer hasn’t pulled off other than winning the Grand Slam.
I know Fed is the favorite to win the gold in London, but if by some miracle, Murray were to take the gold, would that be enough to get the monkey off his back? I think mentally it would make a big difference for him, but will it be enough for the British public?
It wouldn’t be winning Wimbledon and it would not technically end the seven-decade drought of Slam wins by British players, but yes, it woudl be a huge achievement. I think he won over a lot of people with his performance at Wimbledon this year and I hope they give him a decent shake from now on.
Player is under way and we already have one big upset: Tomas Berdych lost to Steve Darcis of Belgium. Isner and Serena Williams won, but Americans Ryan Harrison and Christina McHale are out. Kim Clijsters won her first match. Tipsarevic and Almagro both had difficult draws but they each won in straight sets. Federer and Falla are on serve in the first set, 4-3 Federer. It’s a little weird seeing all this color on the Wimbledon courts, but I like it - not so much for the Olympic purple shade.
EDIT: And Federer gets the break with a little help from the net cord and serves out the set.
The first match I watched was Ivanovic/McHale. I thought, “wow, they are making them continue the white clothes only tradition”. Turns out, they are just both sponsored by Adidas so were wearing the same outfit. I like seeing colors at Wimbledon!
When Murray first started playing I couldn’t stand him. Hated the petulant brat nonsense, but he has matured over the years and I really like watching him play now. I think if he can just get his head out of the way, he can be a great player. I want to see Fed win the gold to complete his career, but I also want to see Murray finally win something so that he can relax and just play.
Call me a sentimental fool, but I loved hearing the story about how Roger and Mirka met and how much in love with her he was (is),
So, I now feel even more ancient. I recall when some guy got into strife for having a motif on his t shirt rather than all white. I think he was South African. Moore?
Several tennis players carried their national flags in the parade last night, including Djokovic, Sharapova, Baghdatis, Mirnyi, and Stan Wawrinka. Here’s why it was Wawrinka and not Federer. Since Nadal was not around to carry the flag for Spain, Pau Gasol did the honors. I liked seeing Mirnyi get a second chance at the Belarusian flag. He was supposed to be the flag bearer in 2004, but it was taken away from him after… well, to quote Wikipedia, “Belarusian sport officials changed their minds after they found out that Mirnyi let one Belarusian glamour magazine publish erotic images of himself and his wife.” I’m still a big fan of the Beast even though he is now a doubles specialist and his singles career never quite got to where I thought it would.
I don’t remember that, but it sounds about right. Wimbledon has relaxed its rules a little bit over the years: the rule used to be that your clothes had to be all white, and now you can include a little bit of other color as long as the clothes are predominantly white. That doesn’t apply at the Olympics since this tournament isn’t being run by the All England Club. I see Federer and Falla are showing off their national colors, and I like that.
Just had a look. I think the guy wasRay Moore even though his “outrage” is not mentioned on Wiki. From what i recall he had a Mickey Mouse motif on his shirt.