Queen's

[Sir David Gray]

Now that the French Open is done and dusted it's now over to the grass court season and Queen's has started again.

Andy Murray was making his first appearance on a grass court for 2 years today and it was over in a blink of an eye. He was up against the Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean today and he only needed 2 games to progress to the 3rd round as Grosjean retired with an injury.

[Sir David Gray]

Rafael Nadal began his grass court season in fine fashion by demolishing the Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-2 6-2 just 3 days after winning at Roland Garros.

2nd seed Novak Djokovic was also in action for the first time since the French Open and he progressed past the Croatian Roko Karanusic 6-2 7-6.

Defending champion Andy Roddick beat his American compatriot Robby Ginepri 6-7 6-1 6-1 and 4 times champion Lleyton Hewitt also got through by beating Xavier Malisse 6-3 6-2.

Andy Murray will face the Latvian Ernests Gulbis in round 3 after he beat Andreas Seppi.

There were also wins for David Nalbandian, Richard Gasquet, Fernando Gonzalez and last year's finalist Nicolas Mahut.

[lyonhibs]

Is Queens on the BBC?

I love the grass court season, but will miss most of Wimbledon being on holiday

[majorhibs]

Is Andy Murray made of glass? No way he is goin to do anything at wimbledon, in 2 sets so far the day he's had an ankle strapped, treatment on his thumb, treatment on his groin & keeps on playin with his dodgy wrist. Hibbie or no, he does not seem to me to be robust enough for the life of a sportsman. Keepin the money away fi the bookies on him, much as I wanted him to do well.

[hibby19]

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Is Queens on the BBC?

I love the grass court season, but will miss most of Wimbledon being on holiday

BBC2 mostly

[Sir David Gray]

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Is Queens on the BBC?

I love the grass court season, but will miss most of Wimbledon being on holiday

Yeah it's on BBC 2. Coverage starts at 1:25pm tomorrow and it's on til 6pm.

[Sir David Gray]

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Is Andy Murray made of glass? No way he is goin to do anything at wimbledon, in 2 sets so far the day he's had an ankle strapped, treatment on his thumb, treatment on his groin & keeps on playin with his dodgy wrist. Hibbie or no, he does not seem to me to be robust enough for the life of a sportsman. Keepin the money away fi the bookies on him, much as I wanted him to do well.

To be fair I think his fragility is mainly in the past. He always has his ankle strapped up from a couple of years ago. His thumb injury came after quite a nasty fall today which could have been a lot more serious and his wrist injury happened last year.

[Sir David Gray]

Andy Murray is through to the 1/4 finals where he will meet defending champion Andy Roddick tomorrow. Murray beat the young Latvian Ernests Gulbis in 3 sets.

The other quarter finals due to be played tomorrow are;

Rafael Nadal v Ivo Karlovic
Lleyton Hewitt v Novak Djokovic
David Nalbandian v Richard Gasquet

[lyonhibs]

Is it just me, or does men's tennis - as with women's tennis - seem to simply be a carve up (more than in the past, though this has always been the case to some degree) between the same 3 or 4 people.

I mean, is ANYONE putting money on anyone except Nadal or Djokovic winning Queens??

Or looking to Wimbledon, can ANYONE see beyond the Swiss master. Or, if he loses his first match at Wimbledon in 5 (?) years, either of the previously mentioned duet winning it.

I certainly can't - not necessarily a bad thing, as the three mentioned players are absolutely genius, just a observation.

They'll still not top Andre Agassi - or even further back Stefan Edberg - in my personal estimation. That man's backhand volley (or return of serve for Agassi) at their respective peaks were just absolutely beautiful. No other word for it.

[Sir David Gray]

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Is it just me, or does men's tennis - as with women's tennis - seem to simply be a carve up (more than in the past, though this has always been the case to some degree) between the same 3 or 4 people.

I mean, is ANYONE putting money on anyone except Nadal or Djokovic winning Queens??

Or looking to Wimbledon, can ANYONE see beyond the Swiss master. Or, if he loses his first match at Wimbledon in 5 (?) years, either of the previously mentioned duet winning it.

I certainly can't - not necessarily a bad thing, as the three mentioned players are absolutely genius, just a observation.

They'll still not top Andre Agassi - or even further back Stefan Edberg - in my personal estimation. That man's backhand volley (or return of serve for Agassi) at their respective peaks were just absolutely beautiful. No other word for it.

Those three are winning just about everything but that's because they are the 3 best players in the world, and by quite some distance too. Nikolay Davydenko is the world number four and is obviously a very good player but he is miles behind Novak Djokovic in 3rd place (more than 2000 points behind him in fact.)

Since the 2005 Australian Open, no men other than the current top three have won a Grand Slam title and out of the last 20 Grand Slams, 17 of them have been won by either Federer, Nadal or Djokovic.

I don't think any women have been quite so dominant and it will be even more the case now that Henin has retired. In the same timeframe (i.e. in the last 20 Grand Slams) there have been nine different female winners.

Justine Henin-6
Maria Sharapova-3
Serena Williams-3
Amelie Mauresmo-2
Venus Williams-2
Kim Clijsters-1
Ana Ivanovic-1
Svetlana Kuznetsova-1
Anastasia Myskina-1

[Sir David Gray]

Rafael Nadal came through a tough encounter against the Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic 6-7 7-6 7-6 after almost 2 and a half hours on court.

He will now face the defending champion Andy Roddick in the semi finals after he received a walkover following Andy Murray's withdrawal due to a thumb injury that he sustained in yesterday's win over Ernests Gulbis.

Novak Djokovic is currently on court against Lleyton Hewitt and the second seed has just taken the first set 6-2.

[lyonhibs]

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Those three are winning just about everything but that's because they are the 3 best players in the world, and by quite some distance too. Nikolay Davydenko is the world number four and is obviously a very good player but he is miles behind Novak Djokovic in 3rd place (more than 2000 points behind him in fact.)

Since the 2005 Australian Open, no men other than the current top three have won a Grand Slam title and out of the last 20 Grand Slams, 17 of them have been won by either Federer, Nadal or Djokovic.

I don't think any women have been quite so dominant and it will be even more the case now that Henin has retired. In the same timeframe (i.e. in the last 20 Grand Slams) there have been nine different female winners.

Justine Henin-6
Maria Sharapova-3
Serena Williams-3
Amelie Mauresmo-2
Venus Williams-2
Kim Clijsters-1
Ana Ivanovic-1
Svetlana Kuznetsova-1
Anastasia Myskina-1

For women's tennis, I'd say it's more becoming a case of a country dominating. What odds on the winner of Wimbledon being of Russian extraction??

Fairly short I'd have said.

I forget which on of the leggy beauties it was that said that she feels at times as if she's playing at a "Russian Open" at the French Open.

Where is David Nalbandian in the world rankings - he's a cracking player, capable of beating Federer on his day IMO.

[Sir David Gray]

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For women's tennis, I'd say it's more becoming a case of a country dominating. What odds on the winner of Wimbledon being of Russian extraction??

Fairly short I'd have said.

I forget which on of the leggy beauties it was that said that she feels at times as if she's playing at a "Russian Open" at the French Open.

Where is David Nalbandian in the world rankings - he's a cracking player, capable of beating Federer on his day IMO.

It's probably a decent bet although clearly the 2 Serbians Jankovic and Ivanovic can't be ruled out either. There are 15 Russians in the top 100 of the current women's rankings and there's 5 in the top 10. We have 1 female in the top 100. And our 15th best female is 636th in the world.

That tells you quite a bit about the state of British tennis in comparison to Russia.

As for Nalbandian he's 8th in the world rankings. He is a very good player and had an excellent run at the end of last year when he was playing out of his skin. He won the Madrid Masters after beating Nadal then Djokovic and then Federer in the final.

He is also a very capable player on grass as his final appearance at Wimbledon in 2002 proves.

Although he got hammered today by Novak Djokovic 6-1 6-0.

Djokovic will face Rafael Nadal in the final tomorrow after he beat defending champion Andy Roddick 7-5 6-4.

Hopefully Djokovic will give Nadal a better match than Federer gave him in Paris last week.