Wimbledon tennis 2017

[TeresaFoodie]

Does anyone have tickets? Are you a tennis fan, playing and/or watching? Any special memories, favorite players?

I am watching a programme on BBC showing historic moments at this wonderful tournament. It reminded me of so many occasions where I have watched on TV.

My Nan loved tennis, my Granddad grew up in Wimbledon and was a ball boy, so I have been told, so I was brought up watching and getting very excited since the seventies. In my last job I had an agreement with my manager that if GB got through to QF's, SF's or indeed the final that she would allow me to last minute book half a day annual leave then race home to watch. Invariably I would end up disappointed!

Nan's favorite player was Jimmy Connors, me as a kid and present day John McEnroe. I love his game, his fiery temperament, the theatre. I had a huge crush on Boris Becker. I was that sort of age. I could barely watch Tim Henman. Andy Murray is such an exciting player and I hope he does well again this year. As I am currently out of work I can watch the whole fortnight for the first time if I can sit still long enough.

Strawberries and cream for tea tonight!

Enjoy if you are watching.

[Catherine]

I'm going Men's semi finals. I do actually get several ground passes as a coach but I have to take 10 kids with me and I'm not prepared to take charge of 10 kids on my own there specially as the grounds have got so big in recent years. 15 years ago it was a lot easier to keep an eye on kids
I've taken Luca a couple of times and also to the Veterans at the albert hall at Christmas

[Ratatouille]

When I was at college in SW15 we used to go almost every day (!!!!) We sloped off at lunch time and, by wearing our college scarves,all sorts of people gave us tickets. Innocent days My biggest moment was seeing Maria Bueno wearing the famous gold knickers.

[scullion]

thankfully we have lots of programmes, recorded, to catch up on - sorry and all that.

[Zosherooney]

Ditto, paint drying and all that.... yawn....

[TeresaFoodie]

thankfully we have lots of programmes, recorded, to catch up on - sorry and all that.

Each to their own.

I know my family now think it is utter boredom, apart from my Dad who I have found out is a big fan.

I was never a fit or active kid at school and hated PE/Games, cross country etc, but when tennis was first introduced I fell in love with playing and made lots of new friends and like to think I am a bit of a natural. I have been in love with the game ever since.

[Catherine]

My biggest moment was seeing Maria Bueno wearing the famous gold knickers

I remember working for a week with her when I was about 14. A great coach who worked me really hard and thankfully didn't wear gold knickers but boy does she soeak really fast. At first it completely threw me and I caught about every 4th word.

[mum-at-the-oven]

OH really isn't a sports fan so I have struggled to watch Wimbledon (and just about every other sport ) over the years. I only went once - couldn't get tickets in the ballot although I tried many times before I met OH - so queued for hours one year and finally got in to the outside courts. I loved it but I suppose age has taught me that I can view all the top matches better on TV in comfort.
A bit like 2012 Olympic tickets. We applied for so many but got none - other than one Son who managed to get Para tickets- due to lack of interest at the time. A case of who you know etc.
I could walk to The White Water rafting centre - but hardly anyone I know (1 person) got tickets.

[TeresaFoodie]

I have often been tempted to sit on Henman Hill/Murray Mound as I think the atmosphere would be utterly superb. Lots of people not able to get tickets but making their own way of enjoying the occasion 'live' and on a big screen. I still want to make it my mission to get to Centre Court one day!

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/tennis/wi ... -1-4173491

[mum-at-the-oven]

Very commendable Tezza - but there is still an awful lot of queueing so be prepared!

[Catherine]

Very commendable Tezza - but there is still an awful lot of queueing so be prepared!

Indeed there is. Often people with court 1 or 2 tickets will sit on the hill if a Brit is playing on centre and its a big match. It is harder to get tickets these day. I am very fortunate to be able to get them and I know that so am very grateful but I used to be able to get them a lot easier for friends and I can't do that any more. They are really tight on security and the tickets I get are with phot ID so I can't give them away. The problem is I still get asked a lot if I can get people tickets and I feel bad when I have to tell them I can't. Even the players only get a limited number of passes for their family.

Tezza why don't you go and visit the Wimbledon museum when the championships are over. You get to see centre court then I used to train there a lot and when the championships are not on it looks totally different. Friends used to ask if they could come and watch me play whenever I was there and ended up being a bit disappointed. Its like a ghost town. Mind you the players dressing room is quite something. There is a beautiful hand painted mural on the ceiling which never failed to blow me away. Of the grass courts, I can honestly say I think the grass is better at Queens. Centre court at Wimbledon is not used at all apart from the championships and occasionally davis cup if we have a home tie and play it there and I think that actually has a detrimental effect on it. By the end of the fortnight the base and service line areas are looking very hard and worn

[TeresaFoodie]

I have just been made aware of the museum and am very up for that!

I personally think that Queens, the French, US etc do not get as much airtime when they come round as Wimbledon does, so when they come round they sometimes get missed by those of us brought up on Wmbledon mainly.

Still very excited about making a pot of tea tomorrow and settling down in front of it.

[Pepper Pig]

I personally think that Queens, the French, US etc do not get as much airtime when they come round as Wimbledon does, so when they come round they sometimes get missed by those of us brought up on Wmbledon mainly.

They do if you have the Eurosport channel.

[TeresaFoodie]

I personally think that Queens, the French, US etc do not get as much airtime when they come round as Wimbledon does, so when they come round they sometimes get missed by those of us brought up on Wmbledon mainly.

They do if you have the Eurosport channel.

Ah well I don't but I wish I did!

[Ratatouille]

Pepper Pig. What were you doing this morning on Today without telling us???? I hope it helps though

[StokeySue]

Yes , I watched a lot of the French Open, it was on ITV 4 as well as Eurosport, nearly missed the finals as they moved them to ITV 1
ITV 4 currently all Tour de France.
I notice that the BBC are again running Today at Wimbledon into the end of the live coverage, I much preferred it when they did it separately later in the evening, then if you were out and missed the live action you (and your recording device) knew where you are.

Looking forward to it all anyway. No predictions

[TeresaFoodie]

Oh no. Rain. Didn't see that coming, she lies. Good start for GB without holding my breath. Some good aces, I do love a good ace. The strawbs are coming into the living room again having had a bit of room temperature in the kitchen. I saw Pimms on sale in my local shop earlier but resisted! I look at that base line and wonder what that will look like mid July. I hope Andy can keep concentration. I have faith.

[TeresaFoodie]

Murray
Nadal

Looking at you both as inspiration for my sport loving nephews. Love your work. Keep it up.

And well done.

[StokeySue]

Is it just me, or is the Beeb delivering very poor sound levels from Wimbledon? Andrew Castle was almost impossible to hear earlier, although I turned up the volume....

[TeresaFoodie]

I thought my deafness was worse and had the volume up higher than usual. Then after the event and on Food Network and especially adverts had to turn it all the way down. Too loud!

[Pepper Pig]

We have Virgin and find every channel has a different volume. Didn't have to adjust for the Beeb though.

[StokeySue]

I think there may have been an issue with the outside broadcast, as soon as they went to Today at Wimbledon, same commentary, same channel, volume back to normal

[TeresaFoodie]

That explains it. My deaf ears say thank you.

[Pepper Pig]

Not here.

[TeresaFoodie]

Well maybe you have good ears. And I wouldn't wish deaf ones on anyone. Even my Granddad couldn't understand my Nan because his ears were clear. A horrible thing, which tainted by bad eye sight is not easy.

[Pepper Pig]

Well maybe you have good ears.

Nope. I have the normal ears of someone who has spent 50% of her life sitting in front of the percussion and brass section of the orchestra. 70% hearing in one ear, 60% in the other. I'm just trying to say that there was not a volume problem on either of the televisions I watched Wimbledon on today.

[Ratatouille]

Blinking boring today. Tour de France much more interesting, lots of crashes and one of our least favourite rider being thrown out for obstruction, and , having seen it , quite right too.

Let's hope for better tennis tomorrow

[suffolk]

the Babos v Wozniacki match was fascinating ... Wozniacki annoying the crowd by bossing the ball boys and girls around got them going too.
And Djokovic using John McEnroe for target practice... well worth watching

[Pepper Pig]

Elder son was there on a corporate thingy today. Said the best thing was lunch supervised by Michel Roux Junior.

[mum-at-the-oven]

Catherine - could you please reiterate to an imbecile about the grass on centre court?

I always assumed it was the best in the planet - on day one at least! Why is Queens better?

[Catherine]

Catherine - could you please reiterate to an imbecile about the grass on centre court?

I always assumed it was the best in the planet - on day one at least! Why is Queens better?

Because I think centre court needs to be played on a bit. it is only used for the championships. Having played on the grass at Queens, I feel as do many other payers the grass is better at Queens. The bounces are more consistent and the areas around the base and service lines are more even with the rest of the court

[suffolk]

Yay! Go Heather Watson!!!

[StokeySue]

Her opponent did play more like the 81st than the 18th seed, but Heather succeeded in not psyching herself out

[Ratatouille]

Brilliant

Now it's Jo's turn

[mum-at-the-oven]

[quote="Catherine"]ecause I think centre court needs to be played on a bit. it is only used for the championships. Having played on the grass at Queens, I feel as do many other payers the grass is better at Queens. The bounces are more consistent and the areas around the base and service lines are more even with the rest of the court


Ah - Thanks for that Catherine

[suffolk]

Her opponent did play more like the 81st than the 18th seed, but Heather succeeded in not psyching herself out

Yes, if she's learnt to hold her nerve at last things could be looking up

[StokeySue]

Jo Konta just won a game from deuce via AD, and the imbecile commentator said the game was never in doubt. Very diubtful once you've got to deuce surely?

[suffolk]

Wow! What a battle that was!!!

[TeresaFoodie]

I am quite nervous about Murray's 2nd round opponent. I haven't watched him play live tennis before but from clips I have seen he seems to be quite a challenging player. So we'll see!

[suffolk]

Dustin Brown is great to watch (and he looks so much like my SIL, even the same skinny legs ... but at 6' 5" Brown is not quite as tall as SIL ) ... but as we've just seen he's not in Murray's league ... but it was great entertainment for the crowd and played in such a good spirit ... today's tennis has been really good so far

Looking forward to watching Nadal now

[Luca]

There was a swarm of flying ants traversing my garden and heading towards the Club today. Very glad they didn't land in my garden although there were about 100 which appeared to have risen from a crack in the paving.

I haven't managed to catch much tennis as both busy at work and then Ill but looking forward to catching up a bit.

[suffolk]

Oh dear ... Petra Kvitova seems to be having a medical problem ... BP being taken and chest being listened to on court. Now she's up and receiving serve ... poor lass ... she can hardly be match fit ... having had to take so much time out ... it's so sad.

And as I was typing that she lost the match but it was brilliant that she was playing at all and she'll be back

[Ratatouille]

Several phew moments this afternooon. I feel really sorry for Petra - so brave

[suffolk]

And now the Nadal v Young match is a real sizzler

[StokeySue]

Not all US Donalds are useless

Going back to my previous post is it just me?
Sam Smith has always been tediously banal, but today she was so offensively partisan I was surprised Kim Clijsters didn't walk, IMHO anyway

[suffolk]

There were some long silences weren't there, as if Kim Clijsters was sitting there open mouthed at Smith's comments ... I thought it was a terrible commentary, Clijsters would have done better on her own.

[suffolk]

Just recovering from Heather Watson's match

[StokeySue]

Me too
But at least we now know Aljaz isn't just the cute one who makes up the Davis Cup numbers, he has done well. No shame in going out to the #18 seed when you are ranked outside the top 50 and his first match was

[Pepper Pig]

He's not in the Davis Cup team for GB as he's already represented Slovenia. The powers that be rejected his application. He's considering reapplying to be Slovenian.

[StokeySue]

He's not in the Davis Cup team for GB as he's already represented Slovenia. The powers that be rejected his application. He's considering reapplying to be Slovenian.

Ah, I thought they finally let him in