Ooh another chance for me to say āI was there when nadal won thatā unlike Mr Wayne
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4 year ban for Halep. Thatās pretty damning. Bit sad, was my favourite player for a while back there
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Is it cynical of me to say that she was just unlucky to be caught and that loads more havenāt been (yet)?
Nah thatās not cynical.
I donāt get too into sports doping chat generally cos it always ends up being weaponised by fans against athletes or teams they donāt like and I find that really tedious, and also for my own enjoyment I prefer to bury my head in the sand and pretend that everyoneās innocent until proven guilty. Am sure itās fairly widespread though
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Enjoyed this piece on Carlitos. Anyone else read it?
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This is great
https://twitter.com/olly_tennis_/status/1707737268058812864?s=48&t=Cw74uedvVLggm9P-2wPLcw
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Beijing mens final being on a Wednesday has thrown me. Canāt remember ever seeing a midweek tennis final before
Wimbledon public ballot closes at midnight tonight sports fans
https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/tickets/the_wimbledon_public_ballot.html
whoās been before? Me and my dad have been into tennis for ages but never got round to this - think next year could be the time to try it. I think a grounds pass is actually what Id be most into (for range and value) but you can only get that by joining The Queue and ā¦ bleh
I queued once many many years ago and it rained almost all day. Got to see literally one game of Mary pierce and then some mixed doubles on centre when they took pity on us at the end of the day and let everyone in
If you just want a Grounds Pass then you donāt have to queue overnight. Turning up early in the morning (7-ish) should be early enough to get you in the grounds for lunchtime. One big advantage of queueing is that you can suss out the weather the day before and decide whether it is worth it.
I have been going every year recently with show court tickets. Both my partner and I are members of a tennis club (I am a member of two as I also play padel at a different club to my main club), so we get tickets one way or another through that. With a tennis club member ballot you also get to choose which day and court you want, unlike the Public Ballot. You canāt buy a grounds pass with a membersā ballot either, but you can get a cheap ticket for something like Court 2 and then just treat it as a grounds pass that you have paid a premium for so you donāt need to queue if that makes sense. A Court 2 ticket for Day 1 is Ā£50, vs Ā£30 for a Grounds Pass.
Saying that, the safety net of Centre or Court 1 tickets are very handy in case of rain. We tend to go for Court 1 or Centre then get there at 11 for a couple of hours of outside court play before moving to our show court.
If I didnāt have relatively reliable access to tickets I would definitely do the early morning queue for Grounds Passes. Watching tennis on the outside courts is better than the show courts in my opinion, assuming you can get a seat for a decent match.
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Would maybe disagree with this.
I did it last year and it was pretty difficult/stressful to get seats on any of the outside courts with decent games on them - at least until later in the day once a few people had left.
Think we got to the queue just after 7am and didnāt get in until 2ish which was pretty brutal in a field without any shade. Didnāt help that there were huge queues for the toilets and the queue for coffee was 2 hours long! Did actually end up seeing Boulter play doubles but I wouldnāt do it again - fingers crossed for the ballot this year.
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Or you can just buy tickets for Queens and have the full posho experience whilst also probably seeing some really good players,
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Fair point. I have only tried to get on outside courts either first thing at 11am or on a rainy day where waiting under an umbrella can get you a seat when play starts up again.
Didnāt realise it was quite so difficult to get a seat later on at Wimbledon. I went to the French Open this year and I only had to wait for one change of ends before getting in to an outside court. Admittedly I had chosen a fairly random match between two unknown unseeded players, some of the other courts had big queues.
For people who are really keen to get ballot tickets it is worth thinking about joining a tennis club if you have one locally with a relatively cheap fee. This year, between my partner and I we get 5 chances:
Public Ballot (1 entry as only one per household)
Membersā Ballot (2 entries)
Volunteer Ballot (1 - my partner is on the committee)
Membersā Ballot for my Padel club (1 entry)
Membersā resale (2 chances)
Also with a membersā ticket you are allowed to use one each on top of the Public Ballot. So in theory if we were lucky we could go 3 times if I wanted to. This year we got two pairs - one pair in the Volunteer ballot, and another pair in the Membersā resale.
Great shout. Queens or Eastbourne are great bang for your buck. We did Queens in 2022 and had a superb day, all competitive matches as it is pretty much either all top players or Brits (or both) on the main court.
I entered the ballot for Wimbledon internationally on a whim and am expecting nothing. Would be hard to go if I got it to be honest but I would love to go.
Also I came on here to comment on Alcaraz coming back in that set which was incredible
Literally just caught the last few points but another unexpected masters title for Hurkacz! Thatās nice
WTA finals have been a total shambles of underprepared courts and terrible weather
https://twitter.com/hsangelus/status/1721174344917729477
hope Iga wins anyway
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Kyrgios commentating for the tennis channel in the ATP tour final and heās really good at it.
So unused to male commentators actually talking tennis and giving insights instead of talking shite.
They all start out that way. When McEnroe and Becker first started commentating they were full of interesting insight. But as their career grows they get more invested in their own persona and the information drops off. I guess in fairness the further you get from the day to day of playing the game the less you probably think about the technical stuff