Monday 4 July 2016

Wimbledon Tennis 2016

We had fun trying to watch Wimbledon tennis. They have a complex website, with live scores and schedules.  There are issues, trying to figure out who is playing when and where on @TSNSports. I finally sent a tweet and they told me Bouchard, for example, was on TSN4! It does distract one from the crows fighting over poor Lil Orphan Annie in the ditch.

I am irked with the US commentators. TSN takes time to cover some of the fans. They like to focus on US stars. Sometimes we don't have a clue who they are featuring.
TSN focuses on the big names, but they are terribly biased towards the American players. It is terribly disconcerting, as they have international viewers, including the Australians who have a 248th-ranked player, Mathew Barton (248), who won his first Grand Slam match against France's Olivetti (773) .

"How much longer will Radwanska hang on here?" says the biased commentator. She lasted 10 min, going back and forth. She ended up winning the point, and the game against Cibulkova (below). Do they hear themselves? Cibulkova has taken a penalty for taking too much time between serves. Three warnings, but the commentators are still on her side!


Rain Delays

Add to that, the rain delays last week. We usually tape them if we aren't going to be home, plus the 5-hour time difference, but that is tricky! This screen grabs show them about to cover the courts. It is a choreographed dance! Drizzley rain for days. What we couldn't figure out is why they didn't just close the roof and leave it closed.

Canada had two players in the finals, Genie Bouchard (48), and Milos Raonic (7th) [MILOSE RAYONICH]. Raonic had back surgery last year, as well as hip and foot issues. He's playing well this year. He's earned nearly $1.9 million this year.

Bouchard has had issues with pressure, nerves and stress in 2015, and had lost some weight, trying to keep food down before matches. She fell in a dark shower after a late game at the US Open in September 2015, and had a mild concussion.  She had an off-year in 2015, after a stellar 2014 (she was ranked 4th).

We taped the Bouchard/Konta game. I had to not go on Social Media, as they give way the scores. She challenged the very last play, which she won, and won the game. Bouchard is now out. She earned herself $309,000 for 2016, though!
They have had some controversy regarding the Nike shift sponsored ladies are wearing. Wimbledon has strict rules about white clothes, no off-white. Williams wore a black bra under her whites one year. She was fined for that, too! (They just deduct it from their winnings!)

Federer and Willis

The highlight of the event, to my mind, was the game between Federer and Willis. Roger Federer is ranked 3rd. He came up against Marcus Willis, ranked 575th in the world. He was a great junior player, who sunk into a bit of a lazy funk as a senior. He's lost weight, however, and made a good showing against Federer. It was a good game, with some humour.
@Willbomb90 had fans, as well as family, cheering him on. @rogerfedere said it was a game to be remembered.



The grounds crews are amazing. The ball boys and girls are well-trained and disciplined.

Poor conduct

There were fines for temper tantrums!

  • Heather Watson: $12,000 (unsportsmanlike conduct)
  • Serena Williams $10,000 (unsportsmanlike conduct)
  • Victor Troicki $10,000 (unsportsmanlike conduct)
  • Nick Kyrgios $6500 (bad language)

The No. 1-seeded Williams' fine was from her second-round victory over Christina McHale at Centre Court on Friday. She smashed her racket repeatedly against the turf while sitting in her sideline chair after dropping the first set, then flung the piece of equipment so far behind her that it landed in the lap of a TV cameraman. Considering yer YTD winnings are $3.9 million, she's doing OK! Career winnings are at $77 million.

Snappy fans

Then there are the fans...fascinators, fancy-dancy hats, suits, and dangly earrings.

6 comments:

William Kendall said...

Wearing white's a prerequisite?

Well, sufficed to say, I'm out. :)

Red said...

I understand your interest in tennis. My son was nuts about tennis. However, this cowboy doesn't watch sports.

Nancy J said...

And what do their racquets cost? How can they throw away what seems to me to be very hard worked for earnings on a temper tantrum. Down here, live play starts at MIDNIGHT. Try that, till 6 a.m. and still be bright and smiling for breakfast...Enjoy the rest of the matches.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Have always been a bit ambivalent about tennis; was forced to play at school and didn't have the shoulder power even then... there is something a little special about Wimbledon though and have dropped in to watch only a handful of matches - Andy Murray of course, JW Tsonga and Kyrgios (who played Murray yesterday but seemed to have lost all interest for some reason, so I got bored and switched off before the obvious result). It's background stuff for me. Commentators are always biased to their own country. Just the way it is. I for one am glad that the Keepers of Wimbledon enforce the tradition of courtesy and dress code; discipline adds to professionalism. I have a problem on Wednesday; Tsonga v Murray; I actually am a Tsonga fan... hey ho &*> YAM xx

Anvilcloud said...

They were really dissing that Aussie yesterday, Kyprios (I think). You'd have thought that he hadn't reached the fourth round and lost to the top remaining player.

Raonic will be on shortly this morning. Loved his comeback win the other day.

Jenn Jilks said...

Yes, @Anvilcloud, Nick Kyrgios. He does have an attitude. He shuts down when he gets beaten. Mails it in, as they say.
Tennis is a lovely break from our real life.