Wimbledon...

[EricSD]

Hard to see Djokovic being topped on the Men's side. Women is more interesting. Madison & Sloane are far too inconsistent in their game, but would love to see a run from one of them. I think it will come down to a Serena/Kvitova final.

Kvitova seems like she's been out of sorts for a while now. She's dropped down to #11, but is making a nice run in Eastbourne this week. She faces Konta today - a nice player but one who makes a lot of unforced errors (so does Kvitova for that matter when she's not "on").

I could see Muguruza making a deep run. Maybe another hard hitter like Keys or Pliskova. It's great to see Coco up to 29 in the rankings - she should be seeded at Wimbledon along with Stevens, Keys, Serena and Venus.

 

[wire chief]

The previous 2-time W champ should be in contention, as Eric says, for Petra is the power player it seems to take to win today.
More interesting for speculation is #2 seed Garbine, who you may not recall was the finalist vs. Serena last year. Now that Garbine took the French, the question is, can a 22 year old take the French and W back to back. It would be one hell of a deed.

 

[wire chief]

Victoria Azaranka is a scratch. The 2 time Aussie champ had to concede a match at the French and her knee is not sufficiently restored.

 

[wire chief]

Bellow are the seeds for women and men. W reserves the right to adjust the seeds vs. rankings on the basis of expected results on a grass surface. This year there are no discrepancies.

Wimbledon: Seeds revealed for the Ladies’ tournament

Wimbledon 2016 Seeds Announced | ATP World Tour | Tennis

 

[wire chief]

We're finally here...W starts at 7am tomorrow on ESPN.
Extra attention will be paid to Novak because 2016 is an Olympic year. No man has ever won a GOLDEN SLAM,
taking all 4 Majors and Olympic Gold in a calendar year. Few would doubt that Novak could pull it off.
Steffi in 1988 did it on the women's side.

 

[EricSD]

So happy to see Coco seeded. She had a great spring and deserves it. A good number of seeded Americans. Nice to see.

 

[wire chief]

As is the custom, the defending men's champ starts (8am EST) on center court on grass-that-will-never-again-look-so-pristine.
Elsewhere Venus plays at the same time and Ms. Keys has a 9:30 start. ESPN
Tennis Channel announces recaps at 4 and 8.

 

[wire chief]

One 1st round upset as Ana Ivanovic goes down, with a troubled wrist.
Venus and Madison earn the 2nd round. Meyers is delirious.

 

[Rocket009]

First round upset on the men's side Marcus Willis (ranked 772) beats Ricardas Berankis world number 54

 

[wire chief]

First round upset on the men's side Marcus Willis (ranked 772) beats Ricardas Berankis world number 54

Not since 1988 has such a low ranked player tasted first round success at W. Now the Brits have had to come to terms with, often unevenly, being a former colonial power. The Brexit may stem, in part, from resistance to being only one of many equal partners.
Now not only has the pound declined but its national team has been tournament-ousted in a 1-0 defeat by Iceland's soccer bunch.
Iceland!!!!?
No wonder the fans went crazy, when their native son excelled unexpectantly on the hallowed grass. Uh oh. he next meets Roger.

We can see Serena at 8am. No other Americans are scheduled on TV friendly courts. E.g, Coco is on court 17. Is that even in London?

 

[DaddyChoc]

Not since 1988 has such a low ranked player tasted first round success at W. Now the Brits have had to come to terms with, often unevenly, being a former colonial power. The Brexit may stem, in part, from resistance to being only one of many equal partners.
Now not only has the pound declined but its national team has been tournament-ousted in a 1-0 defeat by Iceland's soccer bunch.
Iceland!!!!?
No wonder the fans went crazy, when their native son excelled unexpectantly on the hallowed grass. Uh oh. he next meets Roger.

We can see Serena at 8am. No other Americans are scheduled on TV friendly courts. E.g, Coco is on court 17. Is that even in London?

thanks, hopefully it starts on time... I'll be just about ready to nap at that time

 

[BigBird]

Ah karma! You are such a pain!

I was going to post a tongue-in-cheek and quasi-snarky comment about the excess of tennis coverage (for me, any amount at all is excessive), and how it messes up the morning schedule on ESPN. But then today, my roofer dropped my dismounted satellite dish two and a half stories to the ground. Kersplat! So, I guess that for awhile, the tennis thing isn't going to be such a problem after all.

 

[wire chief]

Heavyweight Stan Wawrinka has a 2-1 set lead vs. Taylor Fritz. Fritz is an American, just 18, who was a finalist in last year's
Junior French and won the US Open. Stan needed a tiebreaker in set 1, then lost a tiebreaker in set 3.
Is this guy a hope for American male tennis?

 

[Rocket009]

Not since 1988 has such a low ranked player tasted first round success at W. Now the Brits have had to come to terms with, often unevenly, being a former colonial power. The Brexit may stem, in part, from resistance to being only one of many equal partners.
Now not only has the pound declined but its national team has been tournament-ousted in a 1-0 defeat by Iceland's soccer bunch.
Iceland!!!!?
No wonder the fans went crazy, when their native son excelled unexpectantly on the hallowed grass. Uh oh. he next meets Roger.

We can see Serena at 8am. No other Americans are scheduled on TV friendly courts. E.g, Coco is on court 17. Is that even in London?

After the Iceland game I texted my English friends that even the soccer team wanted out of Europe. They, in British style, were not amused.

 

[Uconnsdabest]

2nd round of Wawrinka vs Del Potro should be great!

 

[wire chief]

An ESPN graphic announces that Coco's match will be shown next.

 

[wire chief]

As I write it is close to 11am in London and partly sunny. Favorable weather is unlikely to persist, particularly in late afternoon and evening.
Players on roofed centre court are unconcerned. Viewers get Radwanska, then Novak, then Roger there.
Yesterday's rain led to unfinished 1st round matches, including Americans Donald Young and Julia Boserop. Like them John Isner will get
an 8 am (UConn time) start for his 2nd round contest.
The later Americans on tap, if the crick don't rise, include Vavara Lapchenko, Steve Johnson, Jack Sock, Sam Querry, Sloane, Madison & Venus.

 

[easttexastrash]

Can you say ex post facto? Any test for a newly banned substance before said substance has a chance to clear one's system is patently unfair.

As far as obeying proposed rules before they are enacted, Good Grief! Don't we have enough crap in our lives already without worrying whether what we're doing this morning will get us into trouble this afternoon?

These are professionals. It is their job to know the rules and follow them. If you take a banned substance you pay the fine. Sharapova tried to circumvent the rules and got busted.

 

[easttexastrash]

I love Coco's game. I think she is only going to get better and better and will do some damage at Wimbledon and the US Open. She has a nice bloodline (She is the granddaughter of 1952 Miss America Colleen Kay Hutchins and former New York Knick Ernie Vandeweghe, the niece of basketball player Kiki Vandeweghe and the daughter of former Olympic swimmer Tauna Vandeweghe.)

 

[RegisteredUconn]

These are professionals. It is their job to know the rules and follow them. If you take a banned substance you pay the fine. Sharapova tried to circumvent the rules and got busted.

I don't have an issue with anything you've said except that I don't know what that has to do with my point.

 

[Rocket009]

I don't have an issue with anything you've said except that I don't know what that has to do with my point.

The change was not really a surprise. You can read the history of what actually happened in http://www.itftennis.com/media/231178/231178.pdf which details the Sharapova case. Section 33+ talks about the steps that they went through prior to placing it on the list. The drug was placed on the monitoring program in 2015, which should have been something that raised a flag for anyone who was taking it.

There is a lot of other interesting data about the case, such as:

"The underlying factual puzzle in this case is how an elite player in the position of Ms Sharapova, with the assistance of a professional team including the very best sporting and medical advice obtainable, could ever have placed herself in the position of taking a Prohibited Substance, as is admitted, before each of the five matches she played at the Australian Open. "

While there is no evidence that Sharapova was trying to cheat, and it very likely was a mistake that she continued to take it after the ban went into effect, there is certainly plenty of evidence that makes you wonder why she was taking it at all - and why so few of her team were aware of it when they were aware of all the other things she was taking.

Interesting case in the bizarre world of athletes and performance enhancing substances.

 

[wire chief]

The 3 above-named contestants on center court made it through, but otherwise the day was a near washout. Players, like Donald Young and John Isner have yet to complete a 1st round match. The weather is predicted better today, and the center court-TV-likely matches include Kei Nishikori, Andy Murray and Canada's Bouchard.
Venus and Sloane are on outer courts, Venus second scheduled and Sloane 4th scheduled. The Sisters are playing doubles also, that late in the W day. Our Coco is also late in the day. Happy viewing.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

The change was not really a surprise. You can read the history of what actually happened in http://www.itftennis.com/media/231178/231178.pdf which details the Sharapova case. Section 33+ talks about the steps that they went through prior to placing it on the list. The drug was placed on the monitoring program in 2015, which should have been something that raised a flag for anyone who was taking it.

There is a lot of other interesting data about the case, such as:

"The underlying factual puzzle in this case is how an elite player in the position of Ms Sharapova, with the assistance of a professional team including the very best sporting and medical advice obtainable, could ever have placed herself in the position of taking a Prohibited Substance, as is admitted, before each of the five matches she played at the Australian Open. "

While there is no evidence that Sharapova was trying to cheat, and it very likely was a mistake that she continued to take it after the ban went into effect, there is certainly plenty of evidence that makes you wonder why she was taking it at all - and why so few of her team were aware of it when they were aware of all the other things she was taking.

Interesting case in the bizarre world of athletes and performance enhancing substances.

My point had nothing to do with whether or not Sharapova took a substance after it was banned. If substance X was banned on Jan 1 and Maria took it on or after Jan. 1 she should suffer the consequences. Period. However, if she (or anyone took the substance on Dec. 31, she should suffer no consequences. Period. Testing is simply a mechanism to determine whether a player is cheating. If the test isn't sufficiently precise to determine whether or not substance X was taken before or after the ban date, said test is invalid for the purpose of determining whether a player has violated a ban.

 

[wire chief]

The British as adoring hosts...

Williams sisters feel the Wimbledon love

 

[Rocket009]

My point had nothing to do with whether or not Sharapova took a substance after it was banned. If substance X was banned on Jan 1 and Maria took it on or after Jan. 1 she should suffer the consequences. Period. However, if she (or anyone took the substance on Dec. 31, she should suffer no consequences. Period. Testing is simply a mechanism to determine whether a player is cheating. If the test isn't sufficiently precise to determine whether or not substance X was taken before or after the ban date, said test is invalid for the purpose of determining whether a player has violated a ban.

I'm not sure of the exact wording of the rule, but if it says that testing for this substance will start on Jan 1st, then it really doesn't matter when the athlete took the drug.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

I'm not sure of the exact wording of the rule, but if it says that testing for this substance will start on Jan 1st, then it really doesn't matter when the athlete took the drug.

"Notice: Beginning January 1, parking on Elm Street Tuesdays and Thursdays is prohibited. The city will use surveillance cameras to identify and ticket illegally parked cars beginning December 15."

I don't care how the substance regulation was worded the notion of punishing someone for legal behavior is offensive and wrong. I'm not even saying the governing body can't do what they did. All I'm saying is that if the Sharapova took the substance during a time when the substance was legal, the governing body has no business employing monitoring methods incapable of discerning that.

 

[wire chief]

As I write Stan Wawrinka has begun a duel with one-time US Open champ Juan del Potro. Following will be Serena, also on centre
court. That court will finish with Roger's match.
Many upsets yesterday, as a great deal of make-up games occurred. Biggest is #2 Garbine going down.
On court #1, Venus goes vs. a seeded(#29) foe and is likely to get much TV time over the Wawrinka match. She'll be followed by Novak. American Jock Sack will be given prominent space, completing court #1, vs. #6 Milos Raonic.
Other Americans in action include Isner, Keys, Sloane, Steve Johnson & Donald Young.
Go ahead; be a couch potato.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Venus... match point, ummm rain delay! Serena struggling but tied AR 4 in the 1st

 

[wire chief]

Thus is the stuff of motion pictures. Venus in her 19th year as a pro. Her opponent Daria Kasatkina of Russia is in
her 19th year of...life. Geezer vs. New kid on the block.
So they try to warm up, oops, no good, rain. Then with clearer skies, they begin. Venus races to 5-1. Uh oh, rain & a 20 minute delay.
A new Venus emerges to drop the next 4 games. But she recovers enough to win 6-4.
Still, recovery is temporary and another rain delay in the 2nd. Venus is at the wrong end of 6-4.
The 3rd features 6 games without a service break, Then Venus loses serve. But then Daria gives it back. Same scenario follows, as Venus responds with back vs. the wall, and it is 6-6.
No tiebreaker in the deciding set. Venus goes up on her serve. Daria is now at 30-40 with Ms. Williams chomping at the bit. They line up for the break point, and ...deluge. Yup, chased off the court. We don't yet know the outcome, just like when the projector breaks down.

As I write you can see Serena vs, American Christina McHale in the domed centre court.

 

[wire chief]

And Christina take the 1st set in a tiebreaker.