2016 Tennis Thread

[Mango]

I'll call a spade a spade. Serena was very gracious in today's defeat. Nice to see that level of sportsmanship and camaraderie on the court.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Serena's excellent post-match reaction I think shows that Kerber is a very popular player in the locker room. Kerber was down match point in round one, and 13 days later is the champion, a rather amazing run to the title.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Stupid Murrays...

Awesome for Kerber though! No disrespect to Williams, but it's nice to get rid of that calendar slam hype early.

Kerber for the calendar slam!!

[formulate]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

you still there right now? it's encouraged, nay mandatory for CP members who attend tennis events to share stories and/or pictures...

I'll be in Melbourne for another few months, but I've been watching from the couch since the quarterfinals.

We had originally purchased the full second day of QF right as the tickets were released, thinking it was the best chance of seeing Federer play a tough match. Really misjudged the difficulty of finding tickets last-minute, which we found to be generally quite easy.

Sold back our tickets through the fan marketplace (face value is all that's allowed) losing only the fees, which are tiny compared to ticketmaster. Ended up buying 3 sessions just as the schedule was released, the night before the matches:

RLA Night 1: Fed vs. Basilashvili and Stosur vs. Plishkova. My girlfriend is absolutely IN LOVE with Roger and admits to tearing up as he was announced coming down the walkway. Pretty cool moment for her (and me) seeing him live for the first time. She's South African originally, so her whole family have been lifelong fans due to his SA background. His first round match took just 1:12 but it was awesome nonetheless.

RLA Day 5: Bencic-Bondarenko, Sharapova-Davis and Fed against Dmitrov. Seeing the 18-year-old Swiss was cool and the pro-Swiss crowd of Federer fans got really into it as she came back to win in 3 sets. Sharapova was even louder than I imagined and annoyed everyone by losing a second set tiebreak to delay Roger's match. She did end up winning the third set quickly so all was forgiven. Federer's third round match was much more interesting, I've always enjoyed Dmitrov's play. Some intrigue when he dropped a set but then came back and played beautiful tennis to take it in 4.

RLA Day 9 (QF): Radwanska-Suarez, Williams-Sharapova, Federer-Berdych. The best day by far. First match was pretty terrible to be honest as Suarez played awful tennis to be beaten handily. Williams was dominant of course against Maria and seeing 2 of the biggest names in women's tennis was very memorable. And of course Federer played a brilliant match! Best moment might have been the centre linesman getting a groin shot off a missed serve. Replay was shown causing a huge commotion in the crowd, delaying the second serve.

All in all it was a great experience, some times I won't soon forget!

[formulate]

PC crapped out so I can't upload my (very few) camera photos. Struggling with posting a couple photos from my phone via tapatalk but I'll get there eventually.

[formulate]

No idea if that's going to work.

[CofR]

Question for Formulate and others who have attended slams or 1000 level tournaments... What would you say would be the best tournament to travel to and see for atmosphere? I know that the slams are the easy choices but I wonder what other tournaments people have been to. I've never seen tennis live and would like to make a trip out of it next year.

[GirlySports]

What time of year are you considering. The one closest to us is Indian Wells which is the only one other than Montreal I've been to. It was very hot.

[Mango]

Originally Posted by CofR

I've never seen tennis live and would like to make a trip out of it next year.

Put Davis Cup at the top of your list. There's something to be said about the patriotic atmosphere. It's an absolute blast! The television coverage doesn't do it justice.

The Rogers Cup will be in Toronto this year for the men. I really enjoyed the women's tournament there last summer.

The only other tournament I've been to is the US Open and that speaks for itself. Night sessions are what dreams are made of and Flushing Meadows exceeded my expectations. But you already know that about the Slams

My close friend went to Cincinnati Masters and raved about the atmosphere last year. She said it felt electric during the final between Federer and Djokovic.

[CofR]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

What time of year are you considering. The one closest to us is Indian Wells which is the only one other than Montreal I've been to. It was very hot.

Don't really have any time of year in mind or a preference of surface. It will most likely have to be next year as I'm already going on one sports trip this year (Final Four on Houston)

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by CofR

Question for Formulate and others who have attended slams or 1000 level tournaments... What would you say would be the best tournament to travel to and see for atmosphere? I know that the slams are the easy choices but I wonder what other tournaments people have been to. I've never seen tennis live and would like to make a trip out of it next year.

+1 for Indian Wells...next time I get a hankering for some top level ATP/WTA action, it will be first on my list. being right near Palm Springs/Palm Desert where I can inhale fine Tex-Mex cuisine poolside is just icing on the cake.

here's my full review from a couple years back
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...21#post4678921

[CofR]

This match is turning into a disaster for Murray

[CofR]

Entertaining second set so far

[nemanja2306]

I didn't like the way Djokovic played that second set. Too passive.

Sent from my D2005 using Tapatalk

[Inglewood Jack]

[Mango]

Did Novak even break out a sweat?

[albertGQ]

For all you tennis fans out there. You think Novak's current dominance is almost as great as, just as great as or even greater than Roger's and/or Rapha's dominance when they were winning grand slams eight ease?

[Senator Clay Davis]

It's pretty much on par with Roger 2005-2008. No matter what the situation in a match, you just expect him to win. Even when he was atrocious in the Simon match, you knew he'd find a way to get it done. Rafa never truly had a consistent stretch like either Fed or Novak, injuries always derailed any chance for him to do that. Ultimately they're three of the top four ever with Sampras. Pretty nice to be alive for this stretch no matter who you think is the greatest.

But I expect Novak to ultimately be the greatest and to break Federer's record, maybe even by a lot. If he stays healthy, he's got 2 more prime years and 1-3 more great years after that. Hard to not see him getting the 7 majors he needs in that time. No one is close right now without playing match of their life type stuff in five sets, and there's really no one on the horizon for a few years unless someone takes a huge leap (like say Milos or Nishikori).

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Even if he breaks the record, having watched both of them in their prime, Novak's definitely not on the same tier for me. Novak is a clear step above the current level of the rest of the tour, but Roger in his prime basically looked like he was playing a video game with cheat codes. He is really in that Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky conversation. So he probably will end up winning more majors, because there's really no one who can step up and challenge him, but that's a matter of timing, in my view.

[GirlySports]

That 2nd set....