Who Is Third Favourite To Win The Wimbledon Men’s Title?
I suppose it’s fairly obvious, that the two favourites for the men’s final at Wimbledon are Djokovic and Murray, who are pretty closely matched at just over two to one.
But who is favourite after them?
It’s Juan Martin Del Potro at over twenty to one.
What A Performance!
I’ve watched tennis and especially at Wimbledon for over fifty years. I can remember the dominance of the Australian men in the 1960s and in all that time since, I’ve been waiting for good British players with a chance to come along. We had a few possibilities in those years, but only recently have we had anybody good enough to win the men’s title. I’ve seen a couple of British women win, but that was all a long time ago.
But never in those years have I seen a performance by an up and coming British player, like that I saw yesterday from Laura Robson. She didn’t just defeat Maria Kirilenko, she demolished her. British players don’t do that!
Afterwards, Virginia Wade said this.
She can do something really incredible in this tournament!
Virginia also lost her cool and showed a lot of emotion.
In some ways, Robson’s performance, reminded me of that amazing run and win by Boris Becker in 1985, when he won unseeded. Winning at the highest level in sport, depends a lot on confidence and Robson showed that in bucketfuls yesterday.
As I do in situations like this, I decided to waste four pounds on a bet, she wins the Championship. I got odds of 90-1. Let’s face it, the bet is only a couple of drinks in a cafe and if it comes off, I’ll have the last laugh.
But then I had Terimon each way for the Derby at 500-1. And he came second!
A Boring Day
There is not much sport to see today. Live, I’ve the choice of Barnet, Gillingham or Wimbledon close to London, but I’ve more important things to do now, as the e-mail has got corrupted on my computer. Scanpst may work well, but it’s rather slow.
Hopefully it’ll get better. Even Andy Murray didn’t help, by disposing of Roger Federer rather quickly.
Play Interrupted By A Cockroach
I’m just watching the Murray-Federer tennis on the television.
the play was momentarily halted because of a cockroach or another large insect.
One commentator said it had escaped from their hotel or something like that!
Murray Celebrates Like A True Sober Scot – Irn-Bru And HobNobs
The Times has reported this is how Andy Murray has celebrated his victory in the US Open.
I suppose deep-fried Mars Bars are difficult to get in New York. But then he doesn’t look like he eats many!
Has Murray Cracked it?
Does Andy Murray’s gold medal mean that he’ll now go on and be a more consistent player and win a grand slam tournament?
I would hope so! But then being a tennis player, is a solitary existence and does his performance in the Olympics come down to being surrounded by other British winners. He doesn’t exactly get this when he’s playing at Flushing Meadows! I keep getting drawn back to an interview given by Julian Golding at Wimbledon, which I mentioned in this post. The important part is this.
Golding said that he had been invited by the LTA, as he was encouraging youngsters in London to take part in sport. Golding disclosed that he had been a promising tennis player, but had found the life very lonely, when travelling to overseas tournaments. So he had turned to his other sporting asset, athletics, mainly because of the cameraderie of his fellow athletes.
So did the cameraderie effect help Murray in the Olympics?
Anyone For Tennis?
This seems to me to a good way to promote tennis courts.
Anyone For Tennis?
The adverts have been seen as far north as Islington.
I Didn’t Have A Bad Weekend
It could have been better, if Murray had won, instead of lost to Federer, but I doubt there is any player, who on his best form could have beaten Federer on Sunday. But as Jeff Tarango predicted, the roof issue was against Murray.
But then we did have the wonderful victory of Marray and Neilsen winning the Mens Doubles.
We did at least thrash the Aussies again, during breaks in the rain at Chester-le-Street.
I did enjoy the cable-car in the rain too.
And especially, the pop-up museum about Crossrail and the archaeology.
But otherwise I was just reading the papers, feeding myself and watching television.
At least we have the Olympics coming up.
And Now For The Olympic Tennis
Out of curiosity, I looked up the Swiss performance in the 2008 Olympics. I found this informing report on the Swiss in the 2008 and 2004 games, where they got 6 and 5 medals respectively. The report is both ambitious and optimistic and I suspect that Roger Federer is looking to improve on the doubles gold he got in Beijing. After all, he will be carrying the Swiss flag in the opening ceremony, but he hasn’t won an Olympic gold in the singles.
So Federer must start favourite on his favourite surface. He will also be carrying a lot of the weight of the Swiss nation, to get a medal.
So who will meet him in the final?
Jeff Tarango Gets It Right
I sent this in an e-mail to a friend last night, after hearing Jeff Tarango on BBC Radio 5.
Jeff Tarango has made an interesting point about the match tomorrow.
Murray played his semi-final with the roof open and Federer played with it closed. Tarango also said Federer may prefer the roof closed as it’s more like an indoor court. So the weather could have a big effect on the match.
I watched the match today, and both players were very different after the rain break, when the roof was closed.
There could be a case for not changing the position of the roof, once a match starts.
So how do the Welsh handle their roof at the Millenium stadium in Cardiff? This extract from a report here, shows it not all plain sailing.
The French coach’s stance led Wales coach Warren Gatland to demand Six Nations power-brokers change tournament rules and back Wales over the issue of the roof.
As it stands, both participating teams have to be in agreement for the roof to be closed.
If they cannot agree, it stays open unless there are exceptional weather conditions and the match is in danger of being postponed.
“If it’s our stadium and we have the ability to open and close the roof, then maybe we should be the team that decides,” said Gatland.
“I would hate to think that on Saturday, if it is pouring down with rain and we’ve got the chance to close the roof that we don’t.
But the row was because it interfered with a French player-tracking system, that seems to be a bit close to the rules to me.
It strikes me though that the fairest system, is that in any sport, if the roof is closed at the start it should stay closed and vice-versa.
The Anonymous Widower 