Wimbledon: Classic Or Dud?

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I'd have to go with classic, for the mere fact that in Britain at least, everyone decides they love tennis for two weeks of the year, go out to play it, and then as soon as it finishes, forgot all about it until next year. Dud: For the way we pin our (very large and normally unrealistic) hopes on any British player in with a shot at winning. It just gets too ridiculous sometimes.

Bill

― Bill, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The town looks very close on the map, it's got frequent bus service from Tooting and by gum, they've got a GIANT common. I shall visit it soon and let you know whether it's worth a trip to South London.

― masonic boom, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You bugger, I was about 5 minutes away from posting this myself.
DG verdict: DUD! Aside from the fact I have no interest in any sport whatsoever, it fucks up the TV schedules, Daily Mail reader-types love it, everyone goes mad over the Brit players, even though they *always* lose. Dud, dud, dud.

― DG, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does anyone else think Lindsay Davenport is hot or is it just me?

I'd have to say tennis is classic. Womens tennis is better for reasons like above and its got better rallys as mens tennis has become all about big serves.

― Michael, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dude, it's tennis. Of COURSE it's classic!

Three cheers for Virginia Ruano, by the way. Down with Mecha-Hingis!

― Dan Perry, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

tennis itself is weak, but the high school girlz who play rule.

― JM, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Biff Baff lovely shot! oh wonderful!...God, I despise Wimbledon, the sooner Sky get exclusive rights the better!...DG is so right about the TV schedules, no Neighbours on today!! WTF?!!...Hmmmm...DUD!...if you like Tennis that's cool, but I'll never understand it's appeal...

― james e l, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The appeal of tennis can be summed up thusly:

Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Lindsey Davenport, and Jennifer Capriati ROOL. USA! USA!

― Dan Perry, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's good fun seeing our British losers come a cropper every year. I also enjoy being spiteful about Sue Barker and Barry Davies.

― Johnathan, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tennis?!?!? My god, this is even worse than the footie threads...

― masonic boom, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nothing wrong with a footie thread.

― Johnathan, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tennis is great, though not as good as badminton or ping-pong. Wimbledon is dud this year, since Anna Kournikova had to withdraw. Anna Kournikova: goddamned classic. "I've never said, 'I wish I was her'. Honestly, I wish I was me." Dating hockey players when you're 15: classic.

― Otis Wheeler, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anna K = Dud, I'm afraid. I've never managed to see the attraction there. (I saw her play doubles once and half the men there must have proposed marriage...dear dear dear.) it is worth going at the end of the day if you get in with a ground pass (usually loads left) and then get a £6ish debenture ticket onto one of the big courts (all the hospitality people leave early and give them in) and see a nice match in the fading light. also good if it rained all day and the big matches are still on...

Bill

― Bill, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The town itself looks a bit of a dump, though.

just thought, wimbledon also has a croquet lawn, and croquet is bizarrely great.

Bill

― Bill, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dan, as usual, speaks True Wisdom re: the Four Tennis Players of the Apocalypse. And Lindsay is one of the few useful people to have ever emerged from Orange County, reason enough to celebrate.

Anna K -- *YAWN*.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anna K: She goes around calling herself "beautiful, famous and gorgeous" and dates the Russian Keanu Reeves. There's something kind of admirable about that level of tackiness -- I like her the same way I admire Mecha-Christina's style.

Tennis itself? Meh.

― Nicole, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic, I like tennis.

― Jeff, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mecha-Christina has the attitude and nothing else, Anna K. has the attitude and plenty else. She's one of the best Lolitas ever. There are better looking tennis players than Anna Kournikova, but they don't have the attitude. Plus they're all from Eastern Europe and I can't spell their names.

― Otis Wheeler, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

BBC2 have replaced The Simpsons with tennis. Dud.

(Anna K: classic.)

― DavidM, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anna Kournikova may reapply for classic status once she WINS A FRICKIN' MATCH. Until then, begone overrated harridan. Amalie Mauresmo and Justine Henin can kick her ass anyday. Hell, Lisa Raymond and Chanda Rubin can kick her ass.

Is it wrong to be inordinately gleeful that Hingis is mostly likely going to LOSE her #1 ranking after this current fiasco? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

― Dan Perry, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Neither classic nor dud: the tournament itself, likewise Wimbledon the place.

Dud: everything that *surrounds* the tournament. All the bullshit about "Englishness", the crap about "fair play", that arsehole Cliff Richard, and the whole timewarped Majoresque idea of this country that is always invoked by the right-wing papers when they cover it, a vision of outer London trapped somewhere around 1962, back before even the 01 code, let alone 0208. Their failure to build a roof over Centre Court when it was redeveloped recently, compared to the tennis courts in Germany which *have* had a roof built, says everything about the clinging to a reassuring never-never land and denial of the modern world that still dominates official Britain.

― Robin Carmody, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"denial of the modern world":
BUT modern world = t.blair supporting gwbush re non-signing of greenhouse gas thingy = record sweltering summer = no need for silly roof as per german fiasco = result for brit know-how and je ne sais kwah, what?!

― mark s, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All Real Sports (except basketball) are about tradition and nostalgia - that is their raison. Air conditioning and radio get invented, nanobots groom our armhair, but the dimensions of the field remain the same, the rulebook remains as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. In this New Age of Constant Revolution sport is one of the few reliable comforts to be found in the newspaper. God bless Wimbledon and their white tennis balls, silly rules, etc. (btw I just saw the whole Parliament-opening thing on C-SPAN -- the door getting slammed in "black rood"'s face (?) totally emblematic of the England's unthreatening tradition of Traditions)

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have never quite understood the absence of roofs. It's as though they *want* rain to stop everything. Even Lynam couldn't really redeem that for too long.

Slagging off Barry Davies: dud, of the lowest order.

― the pinefox, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anna K. looks like a chipmunk and has no style or grace or even really the entertaining psychosis of Christina Aguilera. Indeed, it's a wicked insult to Christina to compare the two. Anna K. is just sort of ....there. The only reason I give her any points is for calling Liz Hurley a hag faced jerkoff crap head (or whatever she said, who the hell can understand the girl), which was classic. Otherwise, she's a total dud: boring, unattractive and untalented all in one neat package.

But I fucking hate tennis anyhow. White clothes: dud.

― Ally, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's all very well for you to say that, Tracer, but it doesn't seem so "unthreatening" when you have lived much of your life with the dead hand of such practices hanging over you. Believe me, it doesn't feel that way close up.

Mark: I was thinking more of an article I once saw in a Murdoch broadsheet which referred to Wimbledon as emblematic of "The Way We Were (And We Wish We Still Are)". And Blair licks Murdoch's arse as enthusiastically as Bush's. Case dismissed, I think.

― Robin Carmody, Monday, 25 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

White clothes are dead goddamned hot.

― Otis Wheeler, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Women's tennis is a good spectator sport; it's all about legs and nipple poke. Jelena Dokic is the new Anna Kournikova. Erm, apparently.

― AP, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There is a pub in Wimbledon called the Emma Hamilton. Hurray.

But tennis is very very boring.

― Emma, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh come on, it's not as boring as a game like cricket, that other bastion of 'englishness', is it? and what would be the point of building a roof over a nice grass court intended for bright summer days. admittedly, they could then play if it rained, but that would turn one court into an indoor court, which surely would totally change the dynamics of the tournament seeing as everyone else would still be playing outside?

Bill

― Bill, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jelena Dokic can't be the new Anna Kournikova, as she's actually won a few tournaments. Anna has won NOTHING. She is USELESS.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cricket is NOT boring.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

White clothes AREN'T dead goddamned hot, in fact I recall two very specific young gentlemen taking up residence in the Boston Ritz telling me to "never wear that [white] shirt again, white is awful". Not that I'm not wearing said shirt today mind you.

― Ally, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

White clothes are not hot - proved by science. White is white because it reflects all colours of the spectrum. Hence white clothes absorb less heat by radiation. Black clothes - now there you are on a hiding to nothing.

Ironically though white clothes show sweat marks terribly, wheras black - where you sweat more - don't. Ain't science crazy?

Tennis = tedium. Even shares two letters with it.

― Pete, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

White's a hard look to pull off, you can't just do a t-shirt and jeans and expect white to be dead goddamned hot. There are other variables, such as exposed legs and nipple poke.

― Otis Wheeler, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Robin - where's the threat?? A dead hand isn't going to be cracking any heads...

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't need to do anything to expect to be hot, jesus fucking christ.

I have exposed legs today and a skirt that WON'T STOP BLOWING UP, but it doesn't make the same white t-shirt any hotter, I don't think

― Ally, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Three letters.

― Tom, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Reading Tom's response immediately after Ally's + forgetting what the actual topic was = SCREAMING LAUGH RIOT.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, could someone explain it to me cos I'm dead confused. Must be the loss of oxygen to my brain for eating POWER BARS instead of a proper lunch consisting of ice cream.

― Ally, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It looks like Tom is giving a three-letter answer for what could make a white t-shirt hot. T-I-T, N-I-P, and so on...

Oh look, the juvenile joke thread is calling me.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tracer, I'd agree with you that that culture is pretty much dead, so I can understand your bafflement.

But what gets me is people not understanding my pluralism: people finding it strange that I like, say, Redman, while also being interested in, say, radical ideas on how British farming should evolve. However I would agree with you that this is people being narrow-minded and thinking in stereotypes, not a dead culture in itself.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Um no, I was pedantically correcting Pete who said that tennis and tedium had two letters in common. Sorry.

Robin - everyone knows this about you and believes it, not least because you keep saying it, but also because there's obviously no inherent contradiction. However, it seems on occasion that any general statement about the UK countryside made on this forum which does not have a caveat about progressive ruralism attached comes under fire from you. I think to be honest it's time we had a countryside thread and talked the issues through once and for all.

― Tom, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mecha-Hingis gone in first round. Dan Perry pops champagne cork. Hingis poor form coincides with wearing dippy one-armed-shirt.

― AP, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, I know. Actually what I got wrong, quite a while ago now, was reading too much of the right-wing papers for the usual "check what the enemy is doing" reasons, and therefore got the idea in my head that most people thought there is an inherent contradiction. Obviously I've realised now that most people *don't* think that way, not least thanks to all I've learned on this and related forums, but I think I can still imagine right-wing sentiments when people say *nothing*, when in fact, in most cases, they just don't find it *necessary* to say something quite similar to what I think.

Thanks for starting that thread, Tom. I actually suspected such a thread would have been started before now. I think I'm getting over my phase of assuming that people thought of the countryside in the terms of the Mail / Telegraph / Spectator unless they specifically said that they didn't.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

How happy am I that Mecha-Hingis is gone??????

In other happy Wimbledon news, Andy Roddick and Serena Williams have both made the third round. ROCK!

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 27 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wimbledon means no Buffy repeats for three weeks = dud of duds...

― mark s, Wednesday, 27 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There's an Israeli tennis player called Anna Smashnova. Lost in the first round. But the name Anna Smashnova!? That's like some kind of a joke. It's like she's taking the piss.

― AP, Wednesday, 27 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Without Jana Novotna I just can't care any more. My bad-attitude ice queen.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 28 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

NEWS FLASH: Sampras loses to Federer! Sampras loses! No Wimbledon title for you!

Damn, this truly is the best Wimbledon EVER.

― Dan Perry, Monday, 2 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Skipping 54 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

DG takes a keen pleasure in bowls, darts and snooker.

― mark s, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cookie: yesterday.

Sharp-eyed Scousers: yes - CLINTON - MAGNIFICENT! TELEVISION EVENT TOWERING ABOVE ALL OTHERS IN HISTORY OF TELEVISION AS MEDIUM!!!!

― the pinefox, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well they're pretty boring too Mark, but the BBC doesn't cancel 10 hours worth of programming in order to show them, unlike the incomparable shite-fest that is Wimbledon.

― DG, Saturday, 7 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What, am I the first one here today? Strange. Anyway, Henin shows she can at least take a set in the final but Venus is Venus still. El rock. I'll let Dan do the rest of the slavering. ;-)

Oh yeah, apparently a men's semi-final was finished today. My head says it's Rafter's match to lose tomorrow but my heart says Ivanisevic wins and then immediately explodes due to sheer delight. I want him to be the first Wimbledon winner who accepts the award wearing nothing but his boxers.

No Pete Sampras (heh heh heh...I hope he's off somewhere beating his head against his racket still) and Henman still loses. Somewhere, out there, there is a perverse sort of justice.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Henman's Hill" and "If it weren't for the rain..." reported as VERIFIABLE SCIENTIFIC FACT by BBC news. Except it's no longer Henman's Hill, that's too casual, it's now Henman Hill, y'know, like an actual regular place name. Thank god it's nearly over.

― Graham, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

World Cup next year!

― james e l, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was pulled away from my Wimbledon fix yesterday by enforced entertaining of out-of-town guests. Still, GIVE IT UP FOR MY GIRL VENUS! She rocks da booty, yo! Booya! In de face!

In other dominant American news, Raymond/Stubbs win women's doubles and Johnson/Palmer win men's doubles. Gimme a Goran win tomorrow and I will be insufferable.

― Dan Perry, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't wait for the ILE analysis of the World Cup. I am oh so there.

Oh yeah, in case anyone cared -- in America, NBC has McEnroe and Evert as commentators as well, and while they don't call the games together (what a dream!), they do handle various wrap-ups in tandem, such fun. And of course Bud Collins, who I used to think was insane and is now clearly just himself and in his own universe.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh yeah, for US viewers, which commercials are you now heartily sick of? My vote -- "Coming this fall..._UC: Undercover_ and/or _Crossing Jordan_!" What the fuck. The one looks like humorless police fascism a la _The Hat Squad_ and the other is a _Profiler_ ripoff, apparently. I thought they just cancelled that show recently! Did they want to keep the idea but fire the cast?

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DG: You hate the tennis - fair enough. But I'm not sure the BBC actually *cancel* 10 hours of programming to fit it in - it's *always* occupied that much of the schedules (4-hr chunk on BBC1, two 3-hr chunks on BBC2, highlights show) for every year I can remember. Y'know, it's *planned* coverage - it's not like they pulled a Potter season and a few Kurosawa flicks in order to fit in this wholly unexpected splurge of live sport.

Anyways, the HenmanWuzRobbed myth is already ossifying in British headspace. Terrif. Impressed by Venus in the third (from the resumption in the second, to be honest) beyond all expectations - all I recall from last year were error-strewn stuttering slugfests with Hingis, Serena and Davenport (which she won by keeping the ball in court a little more often), this year she was dazzling when required. Something to do with being given angles to play with - Henin's fluid game played straight into Williams' hands.

Dan: Rennae Stubbs is an Aussie, mate. Also, Aussie teams won the Over-35s and Over-45s Men's Doubles. And the First Test by an innings and 3,455 runs. And some rugby match. It all points to Rafter.

― Michael Jones, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As did I on, um - ooh - July 03, 2001.

Cue hilarious Greavsie / Brooking "That's the kiss of death for him, then" banter.

― the pinefox, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Cancel' as in not showing stuff that would be on at that time any other time of the year. It's dickheaded scheduling like that that has made me look elsewhere for my TV thrills. I mean, it's like "We've lost practically everything else to BSkyB, so if we give them 10 hours a day of tennis no-one can moan about the lack of sport on the BBC, right?" I'm not a violent man but if I were to get my hands on whoever's on charge of the scheduling...ooh...the results would be unfit to print. Same goes for whoever invented the poxy game in the first place.
10 hours of tennis is not big or clever, it's very very dull. So there.

― DG, Sunday, 8 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DG: Whatever, mate. It's still not a working definition of 'cancel', is it? Presumably, you're such an anti-fan of the sport, that the sudden appearance of wall-to-wall lawn tennis for a fortnight in June/July comes as a nasty surprise every year (rather than completely expected and a fundamental part of the BBC's summer schedules since the year dot) and you have to re-arrange your viewing habits. I've loved it since I was knee-high to Olivier Rochus, so I'm having difficulty empathising. The weather's been lovely - you could always Turn Off Your Television And Go And Do Something Less Boring Instead?

Weather report for non-UK thread-followers: like a spring day - high 60s, breezy, broken cloud. Looks like they'll finish today (and, yes DG, you can certainly use the word 'cancel' for this unplanned Third Monday. I expect we've lost 'Big Strong Girls', 'Going For A Song' and 'Esther'. Oh, and also 'The Phil Silvers Show', 'The Simpsons' and a 1939 Cary Grant film. I take it all back.)

― Michael Jones, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh for goodness' sake, I'm not going to start arguing about the definition of the word 'cancel', I might as well be back in year 9 arguing with the geeks, they enjoyed picking holes in what people said in the most irritating way imaginable.
Wimbledon is shit, tennis is shit and the BBC are a bunch of date rapists for putting 10 hours of it on my telly.

― DG, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And getting back to tennis -- it's been just a couple of minutes after Goran's explosion in the fourth set, and whoever predicted this would be a boring match is *WRONG*. Holy fuck, I'm glad I got up early (like 4 AM my time early) -- now I'm just hoping I can get to work on time! And the crowd! Insane!

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

AAAGH. I should have had someone tape this for me!!!!!!

Goran has just broken Rafter in the fifth set to go up 8-7. If he holds serve, HE WINS.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

― Dan Perry, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Geeez, DG. Did tennis steal your lunch money when you were younger?

― Dan Perry, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

IVANISEVIC WINS! IVANISEVIC WINS! OHMIGOD! YEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

I was thinking about calling in sick today. Now I really wish I had...

― Dan Perry, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DG's evaluation of tennis is just and proportionate.

― mark s, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dan, Rafter's being a patronising twunt about LOSING as I write: "A few years ago I'd written Goran off."

Goran: pure class.

BTW noticed you are from Mpls. Which HS you go to?

― suzy, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I too will stick up for DG. Tennis is about as exciting a prospect to me as a night of listening to nothing but Matchbox 20.

― Nicole, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I used to like Rafter, but for some reason he's really gotten on my nerves this year. The only player I can think of that comes across as smugger are Pete Sampras (whom I hate irrationally).

I can understand disliking tennis, I guess, but I don't understand unbridled vitriol. It's not like it's golf (which I do enjoy watching, thank you very much, but is extremely static and not a spectator sport for a good 98% of the population).

Suzy, I grew up in the woods on the edge of the TC metro area, 15 minutes south of Hastings (about 10 miles from where 316 splits off from 61). Hastings is famous for being Craig Kilborn's hometown and being the site of a string of bizarre murders/maimings/accidental deaths from approximately 1986 through 1993. I haven't been back since 1999 (more for financial reasons; when I go home, I try to spend as little time in Hastings as possible).

― Dan Perry, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not to rub it, Dan, but yes, you wish you stayed home. ;-) I found myself waking up just in time for it to start and just got to see it end before taking the quickest morning shower I've ever had and then catching the bus with thirty seconds to spare. Amazing, amazing ending -- it's all about the sheer tension that builds and builds, and that was one of the best men's championship matches I've seen. Beats the hell out of RoboSampras winning again.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Both finalists had BEARDS. Albeit Goran's more pseudo-beard. Just by the way and all.

― AP, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well tennis is eee-vil and the finalists (the Masters of the Black Art) having beards only serves my point. About tennis and beards.

― Nicole, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Goran Ivanisevic has the best beard in the world. (Even better than Tom Cruise before the split - meow.)

― Dan Perry, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My god, you're onto something. It was indeed beardmania. No wonder Tom's on vacation, he's off laughing at how his grand scheme is working, about how he loves it when a good plan comes together.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DG is entitled to dislike tennis like I'm entitled to dislike the crap he's probably into. But his attack on Steady Mike was pathetic, like watching a crippled horsefly flapping at a well-read jaguar. For that - not for disliking tennis - he deserves what for.

I was the one who said this final was, on paper, boring: and I was wrong. I was also wrong to say that Rafter would win. Astounding scenes.

[Oh, but Mike - did you have to nominate a 1939 Cary Grant picture as something OK to lose from the schedules? I really like those. (Saw MY FAVOURITE WIFE a few weeks ago - Grant and Irene Dunne - 1940!!)]

― the pinefox, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pfffffffff. Come on then piney boy, do your worst.

― DG, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm still marvelling at the "10 hours of tennis = date rape" comment (not for predictable liberal reasons, but because I always appreciate inappropriate hyperbole and that is one of the best examples of it I've ever seen). I reserve the right to use that in some future conversation.

Gotta go get lunch. Go, go, GORAN!

― Dan Perry, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I didn't actually say that Dan, I merely said that the scheduling staff at the BBC were a bunch of date rapists. Same goes for whoever let Ricky Gervais onto BBC2.

― DG, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Goran's beard has gone, I'm afraid.

― Emma, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, I can't predict my way out of a paper bag - got the result wrong, misjudged the whole thing as a spectacle. Final twist when Goran served at 6-7, 0/30 - I mean, to complete the parallel with the semi (practically the same scores, Rafter getting back into it midway thru 4th thanks to dodgy calls and opponent's subsequent mini-breakdown), Rafter had to win it there. But it didn't happen. And I was confused.

Pinefox: no, the dropping of a '39 Grant film is a bad thing. Thought I made that clear. Obviously, I'm having enormous difficulty making things clear just now.

DG: That's it - I'm cancelling our date.

― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

micheal takes the first set 6-3. it'll be interesting to see if DG can come back after having his serve broken like that in the 6th

― gareth, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You cannot be serious!

― DG, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eleven months pass...

Well where the fuck should I start. Ive seen so many stupid answers on this topic, I cannot beleive my eyes... People who say tennis is boring, well morons, what the fuck u watching, baseball??? Tennis is the most intense sport played ... ever... each point has a final, each point is played till the end... so, look in the mirror, and if u have a lot of pimples and big glasses, think 20 times before u let a thought out. And now my own thoughts, THOSE TWO FUCKING MONKIES < SERENA AND VENUS> should fucking loose, they are full of steroids, and the YELL when the hit the fucking ball.

― Sebastian Bunescu, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

so, look in the mirror, and if u have a lot of pimples and big glasses, think 20 times before u let a thought out.

Oh dear. See Seb, you should have followed your own advice here...

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay, Henin is currently BEATING THE PANTS OFF of Capriati. I tell you, it's the greatest Wimbledon EVER.
AH I FEKKING KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN! Grrr, typing out interviews. BAH! But at least ILE keeps me updated. MALISSE was also GREAT yesterday!!! Les Belges sont fantastiques!

― nathalie, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Er, Natalie - Henin-Capriati was last year. There is a 2002 Wimbledon thread, y'know...

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Strawberries with cream is altogether classic. The inclusion of Wimbledon with your strawberries and cream does not impair their classic qualities - but they don't suffer when you leave out the Wimbledon, either.

― Little Nipper, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ten months pass...

I have just realized that Wimbledon is only 4 weeks away!

I'm looking forward to it, wisely or no.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 28 May 2003 11:16 (twenty-two years ago)

This thread is strange cos it shows how much so many of us like tennis, even though most of us don't talk about it for 11 months of the year.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 28 May 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

This thread was good.

Wimbledon is coming back soon. Will Henman still be on form?

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

God, this was the original wasn't it? I think we should start a separate Wimb 2004 thread nearer the time and/or, perhaps, a pre-Wimb thread for ruminative banter without the burden of constant multi-court info splurge.

My greatest concern this year remains the complete overlap with Euro2004. I need two heads.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

2001 was the best Wimbledon I can remember.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:10 (twenty-one years ago)

dud. nearly had to phone the bbc again last night to complain about totp2 being cancelled to make way for 'tiger' tim's latest escapade and wimbledon is just this for two solid weeks.

― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:14 (twenty-one years ago)

So classic. But grass court tennis is not superior to clay or hard court (especially not clay) and the BBC should show some fucking highlights at night.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:18 (twenty-one years ago)

TOTP2 = a bunch of old pop footage that could be shown any time without any great loss of 'the moment'; Henman-Chela = an event taking place yesterday evening in Paris of some significance in the annals of British sport. You're a national public-service broadcaster with a tradition of unparalleled sports coverage - what do you screen?

(I understand your point though, Koogs and sympathise with anyone who's ever had something they look forward to pulled due to blanket/overrunning coverage of TOTAL NONSENSE.)

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:22 (twenty-one years ago)

and if i was a cameraman and he came at my expensive lens with an indelible marker pen i'd chin him.

― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

sixteen years pass...

Classic

baller move @Wimbledon

was wondering if they’d do it. Massive. pic.twitter.com/iTWp5QSKek
— Courtney Nguyen (@FortyDeuceTwits) July 10, 2020

― xyzzzz__, Friday, 10 July 2020 15:36 (five years ago)

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