Anyone for Tennis?

[johnofgwent]

Lo, we all know exactly who you mean.

As for the woman who won, I take nothing away from her personal achievement. She was probably mostly playing for herself more than for any particular country and I think the same is true for most individual, non-team, sports. I do not begrudge her her victory.

My understanding is that she took up Kazahk citizenship in 2018, well before the Ukraine invasion. If this was a flag of convenience situation it must have been planned well in advance without any foreknowledge of sanctions to come. I have my doubts whether Putin would devote so much forethought to a mere tennis tournament. The fact that a Russian playing under a Kazahk flag won Wimbledon this year of all years - when those playing under a Russian flag were excluded - is just another one of life's strange coincidences. Putin will no doubt make some propaganda use of it, but it is only a tennis tournament so it will soon drop off the radar.

Her rather interesting situation was explained by whichever commentator had nothing better to do while the players were warming up.

It was a matter of money. Russia stopped funding her so she became a citizen of Kazackstan in order to receive funding from that state. Why the hell Russia chose to do this was not discussed.

[srb7677]

Well, a certain Putin apologist will no doubt be wetting himself.

Lo, we all know exactly who you mean.

As for the woman who won, I take nothing away from her personal achievement. She was probably mostly playing for herself more than for any particular country and I think the same is true for most individual, non-team, sports. I do not begrudge her her victory.

My understanding is that she took up Kazahk citizenship in 2018, well before the Ukraine invasion. If this was a flag of convenience situation it must have been planned well in advance without any foreknowledge of sanctions to come. I have my doubts whether Putin would devote so much forethought to a mere tennis tournament. The fact that a Russian playing under a Kazahk flag won Wimbledon this year of all years - when those playing under a Russian flag were excluded - is just another one of life's strange coincidences. Putin will no doubt make some propaganda use of it, but it is only a tennis tournament so it will soon drop off the radar.

[johnofgwent]

Well, a certain Putin apologist will no doubt be wetting himself.

For those not aware, Wimbledon was forced to ban Russian and pro Russian country's competitors on pain of a huge fine if they did not.

Yet a few years ago Putin's fiefdom removed the financial largesse lavished upon those it sent to try to steal the trophies of the most prestigious tennis event in the whole of the capitalist west.

Forcing one of their best players to renounce her citizenship and take up the kind offer of funding made to her by Kazackstan

Yesterday a Russian wearing a flag of convenience lifted the women's championship plate above her head.

Probably the finest Soviet sporting achievement since the Press Sisters.

My reaction ? 

I'm surprised she didn't play barefoot

[morayloon]

I shamelessly connected to BBC iPlayer pretending I was paying for the license. The only TV I watch these days is GBNews.
On another note, why do they let a Canadian/Romanian mongrel like that Raducanu girl playing for England, a good British lass would have served us better.

As Scotland is, for the moment, still part of the UK she represents 'Great Britain' not England. Having said that, Andy Murray, being a good YES supporter, did represent Scotland:). He had to go to Spain as the LTA were not doing a lot to encourage and further the careers of up and coming players.

[Streetwalker]

I've grown to like bitter too since graduating from the obligatory Red Stripe of my youth. Now, ESB is good as an indulgence, but for normal pub sessions, I find Abbot is one of the more acceptable with taste and body — rather like Liyanne, who served me the last one...


PS — I like watching Wimbledon too...

Heres one that that will get you in the mood for the tennis

 Strawberry IPA | Birds Fly South Ale Project (bfsbeer.com)

[patman post]

I've grown to like bitter too since graduating from the obligatory Red Stripe of my youth. Now, ESB is good as an indulgence, but for normal pub sessions, I find Abbot is one of the more acceptable with taste and body — rather like Liyanne, who served me the last one...


PS — I like watching Wimbledon too...

[Streetwalker]

I lost sight of that. But maybe there will be a point buggering of up the pub to watch on the eighty odd inch screen then. Moira's been a fanatic since the days when we had a 12 inch black and white TV but never won the public lottery even when jennifer was a playing member of the club up the road and a registered LTA member with the equivalent of a golfing handicap that gave us a chance in the internal lottery too.

For me i've never been a fan of squinting at the screen. But if matches are on the huge plasma thingy with pints of directors on tap i might just start to practice shouting "come on, Tim" again

Hang on !  The perennial Heather first week drop out Watson has finnally made it through to the second week . Get your drinking goggles on 

Never been a fan of bitters , used to drink gallons of strong lagers when I was younger but since they diluted them to under 5% abv  to somewhere between 3-4%  Ive been on the IPA's .

[johnofgwent]

Still 3 players waving the Brit flag JoG as we move into the 3rd round , Katie Boulter the new heroine having knocked out last years beaten  finalist  Pliskova .

I lost sight of that. But maybe there will be a point buggering of up the pub to watch on the eighty odd inch screen then. Moira's been a fanatic since the days when we had a 12 inch black and white TV but never won the public lottery even when jennifer was a playing member of the club up the road and a registered LTA member with the equivalent of a golfing handicap that gave us a chance in the internal lottery too.

For me i've never been a fan of squinting at the screen. But if matches are on the huge plasma thingy with pints of directors on tap i might just start to practice shouting "come on, Tim" again

[Streetwalker]

I see from the BBC sport site a steady stream of British players have exited. Nothing to see now then.

Still 3 players waving the Brit flag JoG as we move into the 3rd round , Katie Boulter the new heroine having knocked out last years beaten  finalist  Pliskova . 

[johnofgwent]

Am I on my own watching Wimbledon? I normally try to stay away from week 1 but yesterday binged all afternoon with Djockovic, Raducanu and Murray winning. Today I'm waiting for Williams and Nadal. Bliss! I just wish I had remembered the strawberries and cream. Such bad planning!

I see from the BBC sport site a steady stream of British players have exited. Nothing to see now then.

[cromwell]

I shamelessly connected to BBC iPlayer pretending I was paying for the license. The only TV I watch these days is GBNews.
On another note, why do they let a Canadian/Romanian mongrel like that Raducanu girl playing for England, a good British lass would have served us better.

A mongrel eh? did you deliberately pick Nuremberg as your IP address?
Perhaps you'd prefer a nice aryan specimen.

[patman post]

Yeah rankings count far more than origin. Look at the case of that splendid British Runner ... Zola Budd.

I think the last time they cared about how you claimed to be British, Fred Perry won...

I doubt that's true.

Over the years, several countries' bigots and politicians have complained that their national players aren't totally of their local ethnicity. And there have been a number of successful British sports men and women since Perry. Bannister, Chataway, Fury are just a few...

[Streetwalker]

Just watching a game with my great niece who forced me to turn it on the telly . Im thinking this is boring and asked if it would get any better , she replied it would if they used collie dogs instead of ball boys . 

 well she is only 6 

[johnofgwent]

I guess because Raducanu is currently ranked No. 11 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and is the current British No. 1.

She is the reigning US Open champion and the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade in the 1977 Wimbledon Championships — which probably carries a bit of weight.

And being Chinese-Romanian with British and Canadian nationality makes her kind of modern and cute...

Yeah rankings count far more than origin. Look at the case of that splendid British Runner ... Zola Budd.

I think the last time they cared about how you claimed to be British, Fred Perry won...

[patman post]

I shamelessly connected to BBC iPlayer pretending I was paying for the license. The only TV I watch these days is GBNews.
On another note, why do they let a Canadian/Romanian mongrel like that Raducanu girl playing for England, a good British lass would have served us better.

I guess because Raducanu is currently ranked No. 11 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and is the current British No. 1.

She is the reigning US Open champion and the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade in the 1977 Wimbledon Championships — which probably carries a bit of weight.

And being Chinese-Romanian with British and Canadian nationality makes her kind of modern and cute...