TENNIS: Transitions
Jun. 9th, 2014 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllI saw most of the men’s final live and then had to pick up most of the fourth set through ITV Player, by which time I knew what the outcome was. It’s not often that you can say that the women’s final was better than the men’s when it comes the quality of tennis, but you could about the French this year. That is not to say that there wasn’t great tennis or excellent shots, but tension got to both men, who were playing for the same cup, but it meant different things. It was gripping in its own way, especially as they were fighting their own physical condition in the heat as much as a ferocious competitor.
I can’t help it, I was supporting Nadal, although not so much that I wanted Djokovic to lose the final with a double (although it was one of many errors he made towards the end). What an achievement this is. Again. (And yet, THE story is Murray turning to Mauresmo to be his coach, with ridiculously sexist headlines.)
As for the controversy, yes, ITV handled the transition to ITV4 spectacularly badly, especially if you think of how the BBC handles this and would never switch over a singles final from BBC 1, yes even though Andy Murray wasn’t in it. They didn’t give enough warning, frankly. Cutting over a couple of points into what turned out to be the deciding game was a bad call.
However, those who dub themselves or are described as ‘outraged tennis fans’ are pushing it. If they were tennis fans, instead of people who quite like tennis, they’d have been watching the coverage for the past two weeks and be used to switching from ITV to ITV4 to ITV3 and know how to find the required channel.
Some thoughts about the French as a whole: any player who can’t learn to say ‘merci beaucoup’ in Paris is letting themselves down. (Brava to the women’s finalists who strung together a few sentences. Which Nadal can do also – his strong Spanish accent sets me off giggling. Most points to Djokovic.)
It seems to me that Fabrice Santoro is better at translating English responses to French ones than Guy Forget.
If we must have Inverdale, who sometimes talks a lot of guff, can he please not say ‘game’ when he means ‘match’? Please. Fine him euros or something.
But more seriously, promising signs of breakthroughs in the women’s game. I probably won’t feel any more confident about predicting the winner when Wimbledon starts, although I would be extremely impressed if Sharapova managed to win both slams back to back after such a draining, if successful, run on the clay.
And then tonight, the transition to grass, which is always surprising. Of course the green grass at Queen’s may be a shock for the eyes, but I’m sure it’s more so for the players’ feet.
I saw Feliciano Lopez’s first set and listened to Castle and Lloyd’s commentary. With the curtailment to best of three and the inescapable ‘club’ feel of Queen’s (as opposed to Roland Garros feeling like the serious location of a grand slam) it all feels a bit more amateurish.
I can’t help it, I was supporting Nadal, although not so much that I wanted Djokovic to lose the final with a double (although it was one of many errors he made towards the end). What an achievement this is. Again. (And yet, THE story is Murray turning to Mauresmo to be his coach, with ridiculously sexist headlines.)
As for the controversy, yes, ITV handled the transition to ITV4 spectacularly badly, especially if you think of how the BBC handles this and would never switch over a singles final from BBC 1, yes even though Andy Murray wasn’t in it. They didn’t give enough warning, frankly. Cutting over a couple of points into what turned out to be the deciding game was a bad call.
However, those who dub themselves or are described as ‘outraged tennis fans’ are pushing it. If they were tennis fans, instead of people who quite like tennis, they’d have been watching the coverage for the past two weeks and be used to switching from ITV to ITV4 to ITV3 and know how to find the required channel.
Some thoughts about the French as a whole: any player who can’t learn to say ‘merci beaucoup’ in Paris is letting themselves down. (Brava to the women’s finalists who strung together a few sentences. Which Nadal can do also – his strong Spanish accent sets me off giggling. Most points to Djokovic.)
It seems to me that Fabrice Santoro is better at translating English responses to French ones than Guy Forget.
If we must have Inverdale, who sometimes talks a lot of guff, can he please not say ‘game’ when he means ‘match’? Please. Fine him euros or something.
But more seriously, promising signs of breakthroughs in the women’s game. I probably won’t feel any more confident about predicting the winner when Wimbledon starts, although I would be extremely impressed if Sharapova managed to win both slams back to back after such a draining, if successful, run on the clay.
And then tonight, the transition to grass, which is always surprising. Of course the green grass at Queen’s may be a shock for the eyes, but I’m sure it’s more so for the players’ feet.
I saw Feliciano Lopez’s first set and listened to Castle and Lloyd’s commentary. With the curtailment to best of three and the inescapable ‘club’ feel of Queen’s (as opposed to Roland Garros feeling like the serious location of a grand slam) it all feels a bit more amateurish.
