feather_ghyll

I got Discovery+ (grumbling at the greed of the IOC) to be sure I got to see the tennis, basically. But I watched the opening ceremony on the BBC. ( Read more... )

But to the tennis:

Day one: ( Read more... )

Day two: ( Read more... )

Day thirteen

First of all, if Medvedev said what he was reported to have said (my source is Andy Roddick’s podcast Served), then they should have defaulted him or why have the rule about being abusive of umpires? It won’t be fair to apply it to a lower ranked player being equally abusive of an umpire during a less high-profile match. I couldn’t hear what was said when I watched it.

Women’s final – ( Read more... )

Quarter-finals

Day nine (Tuesday) - ( Read more... )

Day ten (Wednesday) - ( Read more... )

Day eleven – Women’s semi-finals ( Read more... )

Second round

Day three – ( Read more... )

Day four - ( Read more... )

Third round

Day five – ( Read more... )

Day six (or middle Saturday) - ( Read more... )

( Mainly the women's singles )

For Wimbledon, I think the women’s side is harder to call than the men's. Swiatek has yet to prove herself on the grass, Sabalenka and all the former Wimbledon champions (I think three will be playing) have done better. I'm sure there will be a lot of talk about the psychodrama of Ons Jabeur and the Grand Slam she should win. Alcaraz and Sinner are somehow on the same half of the men's draw, so whoever comes through it is probably the favourite. Superhuman he may be, but Djokovic can’t come back to slam-winning levels so soon after such an injury. (Can he? Remember Nadal's last two Slam wins...) It will be interesting to see how Draper copes with the Weight of British Expectations. He must be hoping that Raducanu and Boulter can help give him cover.

After having been distracted by the European Athletics Championship, I got to watch some liveish tennis for the first time this year! ( Quarter-finals to finals of the women's singles. )

I haven’t been able to do much other than follow tennis via news reports and highlights on YouTube so far this year so, personally, I cannot wait for the grass-court season and the Olympics. But before that is the small matter of the French Open. ( Read more... )

I see I'm getting round to this a day earlier than last year. Perhaps 'summary' is a better description than 'highlights.'

I read 49 books in 2023, a decent increase on last year, thanks in part to the Good Thing that happened at the end of April. The vast majority were by women and new to me, and had mainly been bought (mostly online) in 2020. But I returned properly to charity shops and bookshops, so I bought more random books, which have gone on my 'to be read' pile.

Most of the children’s books I read were Girls Own books, although a lot were mediocre and some subpar, and I didn’t bother posting about them (be grateful I didn’t review ‘A Girl Governess’ by A.E. Ward.) ( Read more... )

Here's hoping the best for 2024.

I forgot to mention in my last post, but I did watch most of the men’s doubles final at the ATP Finals, where Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram defended their title.

On Thursday came the belated Davis Cup quarter final between Great Britain and Serbia ( Read more... )

The WTA finals were held in Cancun, which meant that the timing of matches weren’t great for me. I caught up with a couple of matches in the group stages, but the conditions were terrible, meaning that the tennis wasn’t great.

It turned out the conditions were so bad that they paused Sabalenka and Swiatek’s semi-final and played most of it the next day, which had knock-on effects on the final. Apparently, Swiatek dominated Sabalenka and then beat Pegula (who’d been on her own dominant run in the tournament) to end the year as world no. 1. (Displacing Sabalenka. Could the WTA finally be getting its rivalry?)

There’s a good round-up of this year in women’s tennis here.