:haha:

It's fucking funny all the same ha ha!

Fair enough because the rules are the rules but further highlights my unpopular opinion that tennis has such a pussy culture. I think football is pretty soft these days, but there wouldn't be the same fallout if a player booted a ball and it happened to smash a ball boy in the face. Obviously there would be a bit of an uproar but it'd disappear.

She went down like a sack of potatoes and really embellished it. You'd swear that Mike Tyson landed a trademark uppercut on her after that shriek.

There are too many ridiculous elements to that.

A pussy culture - it’s tennis FFS. Also, if you get hit on the throat by a ball it will hurt. You’ll not need hospital, but it will hurt.

Football wise I forget which player it was (Arsenal) but they got suspended for a few games for pushing over a ball boy.

Every sport needs rules.

Except if Serena does it, she will cry sexism and racism and half of the world will turn on the officials. Huge double standard.

If you read my comments I say, that I agree due to the nature of the rules. Just think the sports takes itself too seriously.

In terms of it being soft, I mean the culture of the sport overall. The need for quiet, the apologising for hitting the ball off the net etc. It's unnecessarily sanitised, harden up. Imagine telling the opposition not not sledge you in cricket or the crowd to not make a noise, a sport where concentration is 100 times more essential than tennis (batting wise anyway).

I've teed off in golf with my mates making a racket behind me and belted 250m+ drives straight down the line. I'm not a great golfer, but if I can concentrate with that, how can Djokovic not serve if one person in attendance starts coughing ffs... :haha:

The player would be sent off. And banned.

No disrespect to your golf level, but it’s not as far as I’m aware elite level so you can’t really compare you and your mates with Djokovic. Plus. They ask for people to be quiet at golf as well.

I don’t have any issues with culture in Tennis personally and it’s about as physically demanding a sport to excel in as you can find.

Would depend on the intent. As I say, it's far from conclusive that this incident was intentional.

I'm an awful golfer and was obviously eluding more to the concentration than the level, but fair enough. Not sure why you're so up in arms about it, I believe that it's a soft sport and therefore creates entitled, petulant competitors. I know that my opinion is unpopular (as initially stated) and I'll continue to believe it.

I’m not up in arms FFS - I just disagree!

It definitely wasn’t intentional.

But. You cant let someone away with it no matter what the level. He hit it hard enough to someone paying no intention. You could hit someone in the eye and that would cause a lot of damage. There is no level of blame at the line judge the ball wasn’t in play.

It’s a rule. He knows the rule. He was being petulant again and he was unlucky. But there isn’t a single person from within the sport that thinks he got anything other than what he deserved. He would have been cautioned for a code violation if he hadn’t hit the line judge and apparently should have already received on earlier which ironically may have stopped this event happening.

A costly mistake but a mistake nonetheless, that is written into the rules.

I play tennis a lot (or used to pre Covid) so know the personalities, and yes, a lot of them are annoying as fuck. But it’s a great game :handshake:

:haha: :handshake: I agree with the decision (stated for the third time now). Just feel this is a storm in a teacup and that people are making too much of it. I also feel that the lady who was hit with the ball did the same.

I watch/played cricket, boxing, football and rugby traditionally. Perhaps these are more 'working class' minus the cricket. I enjoy the grandslams so have tuned in over the last 15 or 20 years. I don't claim to be an expert or familiar with the nuances but this is how it comes across to me.

We’ve sucked the life out of this conversation now I reckon!

Murray absolutely tonked in the French open first round.

Wonder how much longer he’ll give it a go

I really want him to pack it in :sigh:

Nadal currently battering Djokovic in the French open final. 6-0 and 4-1 currently in the second set

Nadal serving for the Championship. He is soooo good on clay.

Wins it.

The three at the top are ridiculous. Two on 20 slams and Djokovic on 17, just ridiculously good.

Good to see Novak get spanked.

Joins Fed on 20 and will probably add at least another one.

Only caught the last set but Rafa was probably unplayable.

Always cracks me up how shit Rafa's French is despite winning so many titles there. :D

Yeah, never been a fan and he’s certainly done himself no favours this year.

Rafa, Federer and Djokovic are all unbelievable players, when they finally fuck off it’ll be interesting to see if someone steps up or it becomes a little more unpredictable as to where the Slams will be headed

:handshake:

That was Nadal’s 13th French Open title :haha:

Truly ridiculous level of domination.

Even if he overtakes Fed, to me that is why Rafa will never be the GOAT, maybe just the GOAT(OC).

No question he is the clay goat.

:handshake:

Him overtaking Fed for slams bothers me, i'm not sure why really, it's two fellas i've never met :D It's made more annoying by his ridiculous number of French Open titles. Just too much grunting and arse picking going on for him to be GOAT. Fed is much classier :rock:

Tbh I reckon in 2-3 years Federer will be 3rd in the list with his 20 slams. Crazy really.

Think you're right. Federer must hate Djokovic..he'd probably have 25+ slams if it wasn't for him

As good as Fed is/was, we must acknowledge that his timing is unfortunate - he won most of his honours between eras. He was a young kid in the Sampras/Agassi era and didn't beat them. When Federer started dominating in his prime he was beating glorified journeymen. Hewitt, Roddick, Baghdattis, Safin etc. Obviously he did well, but as Nadal and Novak grew up a bit around 2010, he hasn't won very much. It's unfortunate but pretty much every final he's won (I think he beat Rafa and Djokovic both once or twice when they were 18/19) is against a pretty ordinary opponent. I went through the list, even in the later years it was the likes of Murray and Cilic rather than the other two.

Due to timing, I don't think he can feel hard done by if they surpass him. They've won more against each other (and him) and didn't have the luxury of beating journeymen (maybe more gatekeepers to steal a boxing team) for grandslam titles.

Based on that logic (and there is merit to it) we will eventually have to acknowledge Djokovic as the GOAT, not only will he probably end up with the most titles but he will also have the most across all surfaces against the most difficult opponents.

If Rogers figures are skewed by some easier finals early on then Rafa's figures are skewed by clay-court dominance. With 'only' seven slams coming away from RG.

The most hard done too is Murray for sure, as his Slam Final presence is impressive (9) but only once did he get to a slam final and not have one of the big three staring him down from the other side of the net.

I know people hate Djokovic for various reasons but I don't think it would be an unfair argument. I don't believe in necessary having the need to compare and rank players in terms of greatness and legacy etc. because obviously they're all excellent. More my thoughts on Federer perhaps (or not) being aggrieved with his records being shattered.

Murray (among others) is a prime example of the era debate, imagine we lived in an alternative universe and he were 5 years older. Would he have shared some of Federer's slams? Given his consistency surely he could have beaten the likes of Mark Philippoussis and avoided Federer on some draws? Would people still wanking over Roger each time he took a piss? Not sure. Obviously irrelevant but worth thinking about as that's where Federer's reputation is based.

Yeah, I don't disagree with that.

For me the beef with Djokovic is his 'mentality' :haha:. He should receive minus points for the finals where he has faked injury to regather momentum. Was always so annoying to (a) see it coming (b) watch it happen and (c) watch it work! Andy was such a purist he never would have tried the same.

I'd agree Novak will go down as the GOAT, he has the grace of Federer (surely the most beautiful game in the history of Tennis) and the grit and determination of Nadal. Back when it was nominally a big 4 at the peak of their powers, Novak was the only one who had the game to beat all of the other 3. Nobody will topple Federer (and to a lesser extent Nadal) in the housewifes choice awards, even my Mum struggled to support Andy against them.

I think Any Murrays Slams and titles (Olympics) have been so hard earned that they will prove him to be a great player who could at times live with the 3 greatest we have ever seen. He basically killed himself to get to number one in the World, and was in the form of his life when struck down by injury. He may well have had the chance to add another 2 or three to his total if it werent for injury, and even more if it werent for era.

Also he was always fucked in the seed, he had 2 US Open Finals where he had beaten Nadal in epic semi finals only to face Roger who had sauntered through to the Final in a straight sets semi.

We have been totally spoiled for the last decade with the mens game providing these epic battles, and it has been great to have a vested interest I would say for most brits.

Just watched Andy Murray: Resurfacing on Prime. Anyone seen it? I absolutely loved it, and had tears in my eyes a few times. It dawned on me that no individual sportsman has ever reduced me to tears as much as Murray - albeit, obviously, nowhere near the amount of times he's done the same to Buzzo.

Just found this and remembered it. :D

It's taken me nearly a year to watch it.

That answer to the question "why is tennis important to you" was incredible. He's a real sporting hero.

fantastic doc and murray at wimbledon is prob the only thing that has ever got me as involved as watching the reds

Same. Maybe the Ryder Cup at times.

So many great Murray memories - staying up late to watch him in the US Open, losing finals and winning his first GS, countless Aussie Open finals and all the memories at Wimbledon.

I remember that backhand down the line during a tie-break against Richard Gasquet when he ended up almost in the crowd...that must have been 2008 or 09 when he was about 21 ish. I recall I didn't like him before that match - I'd bought into all the crap about him without really finding out for myself. Love him. :D

Here's that shot :rock:

never really got it with henman too much of the toff about him :haha:

Yep :haha:

:haha: I’d say equal amounts. I can always remember you posting about how much you love Andy on here. And recall posting through the night when he won the US - that’ll be on here somewhere!

It’s really good isn’t it :handshake:

I was just re-reading the quote to remind myself his answer to ‘why does tennis mean so much to you’. And when you know the answer and then watch the roar after the likes of that shot vs Gasquet it makes a lot of sense. He has an inner rage.

When he explains about his brother moving away it breaks your heart a little bit knowing he’s been through Dunblane and then his parents splitting.

I think we’ve all suffered watching Andy over the years, but that’s why the celebrations mean so much more when he achieved something and won titles and slams, and olympics and Davis cups.

When you really like someone in sport and watch them fail and the. Succeed it’s an amazing feeling. A bit like a certain team we all follow.

Bloody good egg. Plucky too.

Wimbledon is weird. Some epic moments with Murray, but too often it seems like half the crowd are either on the London summer circuit (with Lords and Chelsea Flower Show to follow) or thrilled to have got a ticket in the ballot to tell their friends.

Fucks sake. Didn't notice Buzzo's emotionally literate post above. Now I look like a cold bastard :shake:

:haha: I’ve never been to be honest. Not to the tennis anyway. I’ve been to Wimbledon and it is incredibly posh. I’ve not played this year but a lot of the people who play tennis that I’ve met are absolute weapons.

My moments with Wimbledon tennis tend to be alone in front of the TV :eyebrow:

And I’d say it would be reasonably safe to say I’d not fit in massively well with the Hoi Polloi.