Tennis Chat

Well, the women's draw at the French just keeps opening up

I was hugely disapointed to hear of Justine Henin's retirement, she was such a beautiful player to watch, and so classy in terms of footwork and timing, and gave hope to all the smaller women that there was a way to beat the sheer power of for example the Williams sisters

she is particularly missed at the french open, having won, what 3 times (I think?!)

And yesterday, both Venus and Serena were knocked out in shock exits; I didnt see any of Serena's match, I did however see quite a lot of Venus' match as they played until almost 9.45pm at night! She didnt look the player of the past, and it was either straight winners, or shots that were a way off the mark. I certainly dont think i have ever seen her look so negative in her body language

I am loving Flavia Pennette though, and you could see that win meant a lot to her, her best show at the French, and possibly at any slam

But the draw is now wide open, and in some ways, I think it puts more pressure and self expectation on the women, as they know it really is anyone's tournament to take; for sure its going to be an interesting second week!

Frou Mcmillan, commentating on Andy Murray's third round match...

"It was a winning shot had it gone over"

good grief ;0)))))

well, they said that Nicolas Almagro had won more matches on clay this year than anyone, (even Nadal), I knew that didnt bode well

It didnt take long to see why his record is so good

Murray's tennis at times (first set aside), was superb, but at times, to me he looked a bit flakey, his attempts at the drop shot veered from genius to poor shot making, often in the space of a game

He looked soooooo frustrated, you have to wonder how he's ever going to get a grip on his temper??

He was heard to be shouting "why are you playing so passive", "I've never returned this bad" and "I've never felt like this"; seems to me it's just no good for an opponent to be hearing all of this!!

At times I felt confident, but Murray was so up and down, its hard to get fully behind him at times, maybe thats just me dealing with the loss of Tim Henman still ;0))

So that's it, onto the grass, and the Stella (I think he is playing), and wimbledon, I will look forward to seeing how he copes with the pressure of Wimbledon well and truly on his shoulders

Kudos to almagro tho, very solid player

And I suppose really, not a bad effort on the red clay of the French, and his best effort to date, but feel sure the faster courts are going to suit him far better

Well, we all have high hopes of Andy at least making the second week

So far, two rounds down, the first one was a bit of a hit and miss match, but his second round against Jose Asacuso was a far more impressive match, and showed all the flair and promise that we know Andy possesses

I know nothing about his opponent today, but the pundits all had high hopes so fingers crossed for another good match. Nalbandian had a shock exit yesterday, and this opens up the draw for Andy, great stuff

Well, it's that time of year, the French has begun, and Wimbeldon is just around the corner

I will not be making my usual trek to wimbledon this year to brave the queues, so limited to the TV coverage; thankfully the next two majors are on UK time, and so it is, the telly gets repositioned in order that i can have non stop tennis whilst i work at the computer. Sadly, I cant stop work completely, but at least I am able to get some viewing in during my working week, and can listen eagerly to the commentary