Wimbledon Day 6, Saturday 6th July

On we grind. CC tickets will see Barty, Nadal, and Federer. Lucky them. Let’s hope Fed takes his jim jams off and brushes his teeth before too long.

No. 1 court has Williams S and too many players whose main qualification is being British. Why is two time winner and recoveree Kvitova on No. 2 please?

Otherwise this less than stellar slam moves on. Personally, if you were to offer me a ticket for Wimbledon it would always be CC on the second Monday or Wednesday. This year I am not expecting too many of the usually storied fixtures on either of those days.

I am on South coast for love supreme festival, so not much posting.

Ps, well done Gauff

I am in London, but didnt know it was so hard to get ground tickets. Is there a way to avoid hours of queue? With children thats is not an option.

Enjoy, Barry!

I'm on CC on Tuesday....I knoooow...

Dart looking like a girl playing a bloke.

Can Tsonga upset Nadal?

DEC1M8 wrote:Can Tsonga upset Nadal?

With that BH of his? Not in a million years...

Nadal has been bery aggressive for sure, no

DEC1M8-ed Brain wrote:Nadal has been bery aggressive for sure, no

He can only be aggressive on slow courts. He has power no aggressivity...it's different.

If you hit shots that are deep, have pace, and mean you are controlling the point, you are playing aggressive.
What’s your definition?

Beautiful forehand to take the set, nice!

Tsonga is not winning today, is he?

Don’t think so, Nadal is playing very well.

From what I could see Tsonga is playing shit, just giving it away with shots into the net after a service return. Granted just tuned in for a few points of the 3rd set, maybe the trajectory before was different, either way got an underwhelming vibe.

Men's tennis seems to be pretty garbage at the moment. Actually watching the Konta match instead. Also switched over to the Gauff match from the Auger-Aliassime match yesterday. Can't remember the last time I watched women's tennis over men's.

Kyrgios was disappointing af as well. How can you be worse than you were 5 years ago? Nadal's declined since they last played and he's supposed to be exponentially better yet can't win ralleys longer than 5 shots. Came on the scene with exciting flat shots and traded them for top spin rubbish. 

For all the talk of Federer's shit competition from 04-07, Nadal and Djokovic have had shit competition for at least twice as long, 12-19 now...

Also why is Murray embarassing himself with the doubles tedium, singles or gtfo...

Since 2012 though, Nadal and Djokovic have had to play each other in a lot of semis and finals, Murray had had good periods, and Fed had his comeback too.
Big difference between 1 world class player and rest being crap, and 2-3 with rest being crap. Although I do agree the young gen are terrible

Although in the interests of fairness I must add, even if you take out Federer there were some decent players around his age: Nalbandian had talent, Rodrick had a genius serve, Hewitt had fighting spirit etc.
Meanwhile the current players aged 22-29 have nothing, they’re hapless.

There's a difference between greats your own age and those younger. The younger players in theory always have the advantage, a more current game, less pressure of it being their last chance etc. Murray is pretty inconsequential when the others are on form. 

Nadal and Djokovic effectively have each other as competition. I'm not sure Federer's contemporaries were as useless as the current generation; I'd say they were far better. That's a long drawn out argument in itself but I reckon more people than not share that sentiment.

Fair points. Only thing I’d say is ‘Nadal and Djokovic have easy competition’ is a bit weirdly worded as it doesn’t acknowledge themselves.

Let’s not forget many Federer fans, including many on OTF, vehemently argued that analysing competition is inherently invalid.

Oooooh down my neck of the woods barry! 

Enjoy all that Sussex has to offer

Haha fair enough, I'm not trying to start another one of those. I was just bringing up the irony as a way of expressing dismay at the current level of the younger players more than anything.

Nadal was extremely beatable in that Kyrgios match, he's produced much better tennis to fend off his opponents when being taken to 5 by journeymen during his 2010 win, and even in his losing performances other years. Felt like we were being sold that match as a decent match because of the contrived controversy between them. If Kyrgios had played properly and Nadal had raised his level accordingly to deal with it then ok, but that's not what I saw.

Tsonga proving the challenge he never was!

@BITF
I interpreted the Nadal Kyrgios match as high quality from both, and both players said that in post match conference. Nick is normally honest with this stuff.
The stats, with many winners and low UE count, did indicate that too, but I’m aware stats don’t always paint the whole story.

What’s more relevant now I guess is how Nadal’s level compares to Federer and Djokovic.

So the question is has Kyrgyos declined or has Nadal improved since last time they played on grass? Or has that grass slowed down even further?

High quality set there from both! Good match

Very good first set. Cat and mouse affair for sure. Evans up a break in his match with Sousa. 

Fognini bit the dust meaning that Nadal will get to the semi's without facing a seed. Now should Verdasco beat Goffin, Djokovic will experience the same fortune. Can't recall ever that situation at a Slam surely post the seed number increase?

Wow. Federer was fiddling about terribly up to 5-6 then suddenly flicked God Mode and is suddenly recognisable.

bogbrush wrote:Wow. Federer was fiddling about terribly up to 5-6 then suddenly flicked God Mode and is suddenly recognisable.

I think it was more Pouille giving Federer no rhythm at all. 

Pouille was mixing it up well. Pouille missing lots of 1st serves in that 6-5 service game cost him.

I can think of three separate points that were unbelievable, though I’m not arguing Pouilles standard.

Grass really shows how much game one has.

Both Tsonga and Lucas look relatively 1D compared to Rafa and Fed. There is just this inexplicable need to rush the point and hit the lines.
I could partly understand Tsonga but Lucas?

Thing is, Feds now got a backhand and is returning serves.

To think I hit with Puilles ex-coach in Boodles back in 2014....wow, unreal.
Good news is I'm still just as crazy!

Evans takes the first set against Sousa. Amazing how underwhelming the press has been in covering his progress in the tournament so far.

Gone a bit exho though, flashy.

Fed gifts a break back. Will have to knock that complacency on the head when the tournament gets to the nitty gritty.

legendkillar wrote:Fed gifts a break back. Will have to knock that complacency on the head when the tournament gets to the nitty gritty.

He got too showy there. Still, he enjoys playing that level so why not so long as he takes care of business.

Pouille had a chance there. Fed still in control.

Fed wins the 2nd. He will look to motor on and finish in 3. 

Evans up a break in the second. A mullering against Nadal awaits.

OK, he may be Swiss, but he is still one helluva player...

Evans to serve for set 3!

Awful 10 minutes

If only Evans put the same effort into winning the match than losing it. He'd win in straights!

That ended up being a good standard from Federer. He’ll need it, this W will definitely require beating both Nadal and Djokovic who have virtual byes now to the semi for Nadal and final for Djokovic.

Evans and Sousa into a 5th. I imagine the roof will come into action.

Alas we get to see the roof on Court 1! In 10 minutes. If only Centre Court roof moved quicker!

What will be good for Wimbledon is having all the singles matches completed prior to week 2 which makes all things equal for all the players. The weather certainly has played its part and been fantastic. Later next week we see potentially wetter weather and no doubt the roofs coming into place.

Nadal would love Evans in the next round.  Get hit with slice, slice, slice and then hit back with bish bash bosh!

Evans with a break. Sousa capitulated there suggesting a let should've been called.

There's just something about having cocktails, watching grass court tennis on a Saturday night. Life's small pleasures.