TENNIS: Queen's 2019
Jun. 21st, 2019 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllI have heard rumours that tennis is happening on these shores, but sports news attention has unaccountably been drawn by world cups. Anyway, last night, I had an opportunity to catch quite a lot of tennis at Queen’s, starting with Tsitsipas vs. Chardy. It ebbed and it flowed. Chardy seemed more settled in the first, and could have served for the second. He blinked. Tsitsipas played a better tiebreak. The third set veered one way and the other.
The generalist sports commentator (Andrew Cotter?) seemed irritated that the first seed wasn’t playing better, while Peter Fleming knew that he’d got his high ranking partly after a good ranking on clay, while grass is pretty new to him. Chardy had done very well at last year’s Queen’s. Tsitispas’s timing (and serving) was off, but he was willing to come in to the net, if not always effectively. He won, having already played half a match that day, but so had his opponent.
More experienced grass-court players aren’t going to be terrified of him as of yet, especially as other seeds have fallen. But how rankings don’t quite convey nous on grass is why Wimbledon has a seeding committee.
Anyway, that increased the expectation of the big match: Andy Murray’s first since his hip operation. Playing in a scratch pairing with former Queen’s champion Lopez, they’d been drawn against the no. 1 seeds, a far more established team who’d had a good year so far. The first set was dominated by serve, with Murray’s actually being the weakest, but in the tiebreak, the net cord decided to join the Scottish-Spanish team, and there was nothing the others could do.
In the second set, the classy singles players had moments of brilliance, Murray had got his deadly returning eye in, and they were less liable to leave the middle of the court open. Best of all, he was as quick as ever, he got up after one wobble on slippery late-evening grass and he seemed so very happy to be back playing. It was also entertaining to watch. I don’t think he’s going to find it difficult to get a partner for Wimbledon if he wants.
As I post this, Raonic and Lopez are playing now, but I hadn't planned my weekend with Queen's in my mind, so I don't know how much more I'm going to catch.
The generalist sports commentator (Andrew Cotter?) seemed irritated that the first seed wasn’t playing better, while Peter Fleming knew that he’d got his high ranking partly after a good ranking on clay, while grass is pretty new to him. Chardy had done very well at last year’s Queen’s. Tsitispas’s timing (and serving) was off, but he was willing to come in to the net, if not always effectively. He won, having already played half a match that day, but so had his opponent.
More experienced grass-court players aren’t going to be terrified of him as of yet, especially as other seeds have fallen. But how rankings don’t quite convey nous on grass is why Wimbledon has a seeding committee.
Anyway, that increased the expectation of the big match: Andy Murray’s first since his hip operation. Playing in a scratch pairing with former Queen’s champion Lopez, they’d been drawn against the no. 1 seeds, a far more established team who’d had a good year so far. The first set was dominated by serve, with Murray’s actually being the weakest, but in the tiebreak, the net cord decided to join the Scottish-Spanish team, and there was nothing the others could do.
In the second set, the classy singles players had moments of brilliance, Murray had got his deadly returning eye in, and they were less liable to leave the middle of the court open. Best of all, he was as quick as ever, he got up after one wobble on slippery late-evening grass and he seemed so very happy to be back playing. It was also entertaining to watch. I don’t think he’s going to find it difficult to get a partner for Wimbledon if he wants.
As I post this, Raonic and Lopez are playing now, but I hadn't planned my weekend with Queen's in my mind, so I don't know how much more I'm going to catch.
