Tennis Anyone?

My tennis watch
Maybe the next to come out of retirement?
Brothers vs sisters doubles?

FAA first Canadian to make quarters of all the majors. Hopefully he can take down Cobolli who is certainly on a run. Lots of Italians still in! FAA was not playing particularly well coming into this, but he has shown some good tenacity in these matches.

Played my men's league doubles last night. On the 2nd from top court so playing with a lot of very skilled players. We have a system where you play one set with each of the other thee players on your court. You move up or down courts by either being the top on court of the lowest on court, so I had worked my way up to the second highest court early this year (I also got there last year but it was later in the season).

Right near the end of the second set my opponent (who up until that moment had been hitting firm but mostly spin-type serves) hit a flat bullet serve to the body. I thought I had a handle on it until it hit the service line and skipped instead of coming up to belly button height, where my racquet was ready to take the serve. Hit me square in the frank and beans. The frank was stinging like crazy from a direct hit, and after about 30 seconds the beans started to really ache. They immediately called a time out as I was doubled over for a time...I've been hit in this area 2 times previous, but this was by far the most direct and significant impact.

I recovered, sort of, and we played on. In the 3rd set I was at the net and got tagged squarely in the chest. I admit my footwork was lagging a bit more than normal since the beans (particularly the left one) were aching and no doubt swollen. Then on what turned out to be the last point of the night, I was poaching a shot through the middle, it caught my racquet a bit wrong, and hit me squarely in the right eye. Thankfully my glasses took the brunt of it. Rough night on the body, but it was good competitive tennis! Beans still aching today, but the swelling has gone down...

How much added stoppage time?

Well, that was interesting - FAA is very good indoors, but won the first set in some hellish wind. Once the roof closed, Cobolli took over. I certainly didn't expect that...

So many interesting results in this tournament! It has been very entertaining, though I wish FAA would have made the final. Chwalinska put on a tactics masterclass yesterday.... I don't think she can pull that off against Andreeva, but boy would I like to see it.

@Archer - hope you have fully recovered.

Thanks - it's all good now. The shot to my right chest has left a good sized bruise, but other than that I'm good.

This has been a strange event for sure. Chwalinska was throwing everything at her opponent - it was very fun to watch. The kind of player I hate playing against! She is my hope to win the final, but it will be tough against Andreeva. I see so many try to hit Andreeva off the court without success, so maybe this style of play is what will upset her, not give her any rhythm, etc.. Andreeva also has a ton of expectations on her, so we'll see if the mental side holds up.

Pretty interesting that Chwalinska was running out of money for her hotel bills part way through the event!

Ladies final was okay. Chwalinska had Andreeva quite out of sorts to start the match, but more and more started to play Andreeva’s game instead of her own, and it went downhill from there.

Men’s final was good but far from the epic of last year. I’m not a huge Zverev fan, but kind of happy to see him finally get a slam. Cobolli struggled first set but found his footing, but ran out of gas in the 5th.

Now grass season starts!!!

Crazy how in a professional sport, the no 117 ranked player in the world (I think that was her ranking, pre tournament) can be in that financial position.... it's not like the WTA is hurting for money. I read that the Polish sports drink company, Oshee, had to step in and pay her hotel bill. She'll be good on funds for a quite while now though! 😀

Not a big Zverev fan either, but not too upset about him winning. I hope Cobolli gets another shot at some point; he's still pretty young. I would have said that this would be Zverev's only chance, but now that Sinner's weakness in heat seems evident and Alcaraz is dealing with injury, perhaps he will have more chances soon.

Serena and Mboko playing doubles at Wimbledon!! I would think they have a good chance at winning.