After a weekend off, Badge returns on Saturday with Our Ladies 2 Team and Mens’ 2 and 3 Teams playing late matches at home.The early matches sees our Mens 5 and 7 Teams playing to stay in the top 4 on the ladder. Rain is predicted for Saturday so I will inform the captains if the courts become too wet for play.
Hugo is recovering at home after the stabbing incident on Friday. He will be out of action for about 6 weeks and he wishes to thank everyone who sent him messages of support. He thought he was back in South Africa for a moment there on Friday. However if his left arm is slow to recover he might try using his right arm and maybe he will play better! But seriously he was lucky that the cut was not too severe and all members wish him a speedy recovery. Hurry back Hugo.
Denis Crowley
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-news-e1555388843470.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-06-16 07:38:592021-06-16 07:48:46MLTC Newsletter 15 June 2021
Novak Djokovic won his 19th career grand slam title on Sunday, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open final.
The 22-year-old Greek looked poised in his first grand slam final, going two sets up before it all fell apart against the world No.1.
Tsitsipas won the first set after erasing a set point in the tie-breaker with a difficult forehand winner. In the second set he looked fresher than the 34-year-old Djokovic, who is coming off an epic semifinal against Rafael Nadal.
But Djokovic steadied his game in the third set, which turned in the fourth game, when he converted his fifth break-point chance of the game.
After that, Tsitsipas appeared to lose his way, while Djokovic found his form.
During the changeover before the fourth set, Tsitsipas laid on his back and was stretched out by the trainer, a back injury apparently hindering his movement.
Fifth seed Tsitsipas appeared to be struggling physically but valiantly tried to dig in at the start of the fifth set as the shadows spread across a sun-lit Court Philippe Chatrier.
But Djokovic got the early break in the decider and although he was pushed hard, he was never threatened again.
There were nerves as he served at 5-4, netting an easy volley and then seeing a Tsitsipas backhand flash past him on championship point. However, Djokovic would not be denied at the second time of asking after four hours 11 minutes.
It was the sixth time in his career Djokovic had overcome a two-set deficit to win – and he did it in front of a vocal Roland-Garros crowd that was very much weighted in favour of the Greek.
In moving just one behind the record of 20 shared by Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer, Djokovic became the first player in the professional era to win each grand slam title twice. “It was again an electric atmosphere. Nine hours of tennis in less than 48 hours,” Djokovic said on court.
“It’s not easy; physically and mentally it was very, very difficult for me. I believed in my capacities and in my game. It’s a dream come true.”
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-goss-e1555388932669.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-06-14 09:03:412021-06-14 09:03:41Djokovic comes from two sets down to beat Tsitsipas in French Open final
The unseeded Krejcikova, 25, whose name was on no one’s mind at the start of the French Open, was crowned its champion after a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 victory.
The brilliant Justine Henin and Martina Navratilova, with 25 Grand Slam singles titles between them, looked on from the stands.
Her late coach, Jana Novotna, surely watched from above. And following along from home in the Czech Republic was Barbora Krejcikova’s mother, who gave her daughter the courage to knock on Novotna’s door as a teenager and ask the 1998 Wimbledon champion for help with her tennis. Krejcikova, 25, had drawn inspiration and strength from all these women since childhood — and never more so than Saturday at Roland Garros, where she weathered a tough patch midway through the French Open final to claim her first Grand Slam title with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Paris.
It was only fitting that Krejcikova used the glorious moment, microphone in hand, to honor all the mentors and role models whose presence — whether in body or spirit — gave her strength and inspiration. “Pretty much her last words to me were, ‘Just enjoy and just try to go win a Grand Slam,’”
Krejcikova told the crowd during her on-court interview, recalling the difficult time she spent with Novotna, losing her battle with cancer, as she slipped away in 2017 at age 49. “I know somewhere, she is looking out for me. This happened pretty much because she is looking out for me.” Krejcikova’s name was on no one’s mind at the start of the French Open.
Nor was Pavlyuchenkova’s, apart from avid tennis fans who might have remembered her promise as the world’s top-ranked junior at age 14. But a tennis lifetime had come and gone since then. One month shy of her 30th birthday, the 31st-seeded Pavlyuchenkova was as unlikely a French Open finalist as the unseeded Krejcikova, known until recently as strictly a doubles specialist.
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-goss-e1555388932669.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-06-13 14:18:332021-06-13 14:18:33[The Washington Post] Barbora Krejcikova honors late coach and wins a French Open filled with twists and upsets
Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1, outlasted Rafael Nadal, the “King of Clay,” in four sets, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2, in a match that felt like it should have been a final.
PARIS — “He brings out the best in me.”
That’s what Novak Djokovic said the other night about Rafael Nadal, the 13-time winner of the French Open and the man he would be facing in the semifinal in just under 48 hours.
Djokovic needed his best, and then some, Friday night as he beat Nadal on the court he has treated like his living room since 2005. The score, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3, reflected a wild match that produced some of the most remarkable tennis in years.
In beating Nadal at the French Open, Djokovic pulled off what known as the hardest feat in tennis. Nadal was 105-2 at Roland-Garros and had not lost there since 2015. Djokovic had his number that time too. There is a statue of Nadal outside Court Phillippe Chatrier. During this tournament, his fellow players speak of him with a kind of reverence usually reserved for legends of the past.
And that was how Djokovic spoke of his longtime rival moments after Nadal’s final backhand sailed wide.
“The first thing I want to say was it was my privilege also to be on the court with Rafa for this incredible match,” Djokovic said. “It is surely the greatest match I have played here in Paris.”
Djokovic will face Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the final on Sunday. Tsitsipas will be playing in his first Grand Slam singles final. Djokovic will be playing for his 19th Grand Slam singles title. A win would bring him within one of Nadal and Roger Federer, who are tied with 20.
It would also put him in solid position to win all four Grand Slams in a single year, something that no man has accomplished in more than 50 years. He won the Australian Open in February and he is the defending champion at Wimbledon, which begins in two weeks. It is a title he has won five times, and he has won 12 Grand Slam titles on hard courts, including three at the United States Open, which will take place in New York at the end of the summer.
It was a match that had everything, even a looming curfew of 11 p.m. that threatened to send the crowd of 5,000 people home in the middle of an epic duel.
Instead, at the conclusion of the third-set tiebreaker, French officials delivered one of the great moments of the pandemic. As the set ended, an announcement was made that an exception had been granted and the fans could remain to see the conclusion of what would either be an upset for the ages or one of the great escapes in the history of the game.
Suddenly, a crowd of 5,000 sounded like one 10 times as large. There was chanting and dancing in the aisles — “Merci Macron” they sang, showing their gratitude to the French president — there were hugs and high-fives, which have been in short supply during a mostly miserable year and a half for sports and much of the rest of the world.
In truth, forcing the crowd to leave would have been cruel after what it had witnessed during the previous three-and-a-half-hours, including a 91-minute third set, in which Nadal seemed to have mounted the beginning of his great escape before Djokovic snuffed it out.
Matches between Djokovic and Nadal are unlike anything else in the sport. Every moment has a crucial feel to it because they both provide so little margin for error for their opponents.
Miss a first serve and the second one is likely to come back down your throat. Leave that deep volley just slightly too far inside the baseline and there’s an unseeable crosscourt angle they will find on a point that looked over just a second before.
Diego Schwartzman, who had lost to Nadal in the quarterfinals, tweeted a question as he watched: “Do we tennis players play the same sport as the two of them?”
This match, the 58th time the two have met, was a four-hour display of tennis one-upmanship.
A near-perfect, running lob from Djokovic was met with a wild sky hook overhead from Nadal. Forehands hit on impossibly tight angles were returned by backhands on even tighter ones. Nadal would hit a drop shot that would settle within three feet of the net. Djokovic would send it back nearly parallel to the net a foot closer. Violently slicing serves met untouchable crosscourt returns.
Nadal had the initial edge, surging to a 5-0 lead that felt eerily familiar to the start of his blowout win over Djokovic in the French Open last year.
Early on, Nadal returned two overheads then won a duel at the net. The crowd exploded as it always does when Nadal is doing his thing at Roland-Garros. Djokovic appeared staggered, but he dug in and began to battle, even saving set point after set point.
As the second set began, Djokovic grew more comfortable with every game. If the hardest thing in tennis is to beat Nadal at Roland-Garros, the second hardest may be dealing with Djokovic’s return of serve. All night long he pelted it at Nadal’s feet, forcing him back as he tried to push forward.
But with Djokovic sprinting ahead and serving at 5-4 in the third set, and needing just two points for a commanding lead, Nadal made two down-the-line winners that seemed to foretell a great escape. He broke Djokovic, and he had a set point two games later, but he frittered away a golden opportunity on Djokovic’s second serve. Then in the tiebreaker, he missed a wide-open forehand volley to give Djokovic a 5-3 lead.
“I had the big chance,” Nadal said when it was over. “I missed it and an easy volley in the tie break. These kinds of mistakes can happen but if you want to win you can’t make these mistakes.”
Nadal mounted one last attempt to rescue himself from the rarest sort of loss for him, breaking Djokovic in the first game of the fourth set and grabbing a 2-0 lead. He pumped his fists at the crowd, urging them to give him some intangible edge. Instead, Djokovic played his most dominant tennis of the night, winning the final six games.
When Nadal’s last backhand sailed wide, Djokovic looked to the sky, bent over and grabbed a bit of red clay and rubbed it on his shirt.
Nadal has made very few mistakes like that missed volley over the years at Roland-Garros. Djokovic said the pressure of playing Nadal on what he described as “his court” is unlike anything he has ever felt. “Each time you step on the court with him you know you have to basically climb Mount Everest to win against him,” said Djokovic, who was 1-7 against Nadal at the French Open before Friday night.
That pressure though is the sort of sensation that keeps both him and Nadal pushing each other on the court in their mid-30s, an age when tennis greats of a previous era have called it a career.
“It was one of those matches, that we really play tennis for,” he said. “It inspires us.”
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-goss-e1555388932669.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-06-12 10:33:182021-06-12 10:33:18French Open 2021: Djokovic Beats Nadal in Men’s Semifinal
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-askthepro-e1555388900760.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-06-06 08:17:442021-06-06 08:17:44ATP: Nadal Lesson-Two Eyes on the Ball
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-news-e1555388843470.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-06-02 08:23:232021-06-02 08:27:03MLTC Member Survey
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-goss-e1555388932669.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-05-31 09:33:282021-05-31 09:43:32Leunig-Origin of Tennis
The French Open will begin Sunday at Roland Garros in Paris, and the draw was announced Thursday. Three American men were among the 32 seeds. Taylor Fritz was No. 30, John Isner was No. 31, and Reilly Opelka was No. 32. If all of the world’s top 32 players were taking part, here’s how many American men would have been seeded: zero.
Fritz is the highest-ranked American man in the world — at No. 33. A new low came earlier this month: For the first time in the 48-year history of the computerized world rankings, no American man was in the top 30.
By contrast, seven of the top 30 women in the world are Americans, led by No. 5 Sofia Kenin. Serena Williams, who has hardly played this year, is No. 8. Ten Americans are in the top 50, and that doesn’t include Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, or seven-time major champion Venus Williams. Kenin is also a major champion; she won the Australian Open in 2020. There’s also 17-year-old Coco Gauff, who is ranked 25th and may be the next big American tennis star.
The current crop of American men has won zero major championships. It has played in zero major finals. Only Isner, who is 36, and Sam Querrey, who is 33 and ranked 67th, have reached a major semifinal.
Being seeded means a player doesn’t have to face another seed any earlier than the third round. If Fritz can win two matches, he’s likely to play Roger Federer, who has played little this year and might be beatable in a long clay-court match. It’s a long shot but not impossible. Isner and Querrey drew each other in the first round. If the winner prevails in his second-round match, he probably will face fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in the round of 32. Opelka would get second-seeded Daniil Medvedev should he get that far. If any of those four Americans reach the round of 16, it will be an accomplishment.
The last time an American man claimed a major title was 2003, when Andy Roddick won the U.S. Open. Roddick is also the last American man to reach a major final; he lost a classic five-set match to Federer at Wimbledon in 2009.
It is still almost impossible to comprehend the notion of American men being irrelevant during the second week at a major, but it has been a fact for 11 years and counting. This is the country that produced Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. All were major champions — and all but Gerulaitis and Chang were multiple major champions, led by Sampras, who won 14.
How is this possible?
“I wish that was an easy question to answer,” said Patrick McEnroe, younger brother of John and the captain of the last American Davis Cup team to win the premier team event in men’s tennis — in 2007. “We’ve had guys who are good tennis players, even very good tennis players. But we haven’t had guys who are great athletes. The guys who win majors are very good tennis players and great athletes. You have to be both — especially now when so many great athletes in Europe have become tennis players.”
The men who have dominated this century are Switzerland’s Federer (20 major titles), Spain’s Rafael Nadal (also 20) and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic (18). Stan Wawrinka, also Swiss, has won three majors. So has Great Britain’s Andy Murray. That list doesn’t include young Europeans such as 2020 U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem of Austria, Alexander Zverev of Germany, Medvedev of Russia or Tsitsipas of Greece.
McEnroe was general manager of the USTA’s player development program for six years, and it was never difficult to find up-and-coming female players — Gauff is just the latest example. In 2017, all four semifinalists in women’s singles at the U.S. Open were Americans.
“A lot of it, honestly, has to do with money,” he said. “Great athletes from here often want to play basketball, football or even baseball. Women athletes don’t make nearly as much in team sports, but they can make a lot in tennis — even more than in golf, the other major individual sport. The more youngsters who want to play the game — and I mean really want to play it — the better off you’re going to be.”
While McEnroe doesn’t believe someone who comes from a comfortable financial background can’t become a star — he and his brother were the sons of a New York lawyer — he thinks the sport needs to find and recruit more players who would need financial help to compete.
“When I was running the USTA junior programs, I called one of the coaches working for me who was at a junior tournament and asked him what he was seeing,” he said. “His answer was direct: a lot of Rolex watches in the stands. His point was, we need more kids whose parents don’t own Rolexes.”
Mary Carillo, the distinguished longtime tennis commentator (and 1977 French Open mixed doubles champion with John McEnroe as her partner), answered with one word when asked to explain why American men have had so much trouble competing for the past decade-plus.
“Oy,” she said.
After a pause and a sigh, she continued: “This isn’t just a passing thing. Europeans dominating has been going on for a hell of a long time now. A lot of it goes back to the fact that the Europeans learn to play on clay most of the time. Clay is like the classroom for a young tennis player. You have to learn that a big serve isn’t enough. When you play on clay, the ball’s coming back at you no matter how hard you serve. The rallies are going to be long. The matches are going to be long. Agassi, [Jim] Courier, Chang all knew how to win on clay.
“It’s a lot easier to learn to play on a faster court [such as hard courts or grass] than it is to learn how to play on a slower court. American women have always been able to play a more varied game. Even Serena and Martina [Navratilova], who were more comfortable on faster courts, have been able to win the French.”
A couple of years ago, Frances Tiafoe, who grew up in Prince George’s County, was the Great American Hope. At 21, he reached the 2019 Australian Open quarterfinals and was ranked as high as 29th. He has slid to 73rd. The current Great American Hope is 20-year-old Sebastian Korda, son of Petr Korda, the 1996 Australian Open champion from the Czech Republic who was ranked as high as No. 2. If Sebastian Korda, ranked 63rd, wins his opening match in Paris, he probably would play Tsitsipas, who is two years older and ranked 58 spots higher.
Korda’s older sisters, Nelly and Jessica, are fourth and 12th in the women’s golf rankings. He is 6-foot-5 and — according to Patrick McEnroe — athletic enough to compete with the world’s best players eventually.
“He has a chance,” McEnroe said. “I haven’t said that about a lot of guys the last few years, but I think he’s got the physical ability to be a great player. The question will be — as with anyone — how does he handle it when he starts to compete against the very top guys? There are just so many good players right now, it isn’t going to be easy.”
The McEnroe brothers run a tennis academy on Randall’s Island in New York. They try to encourage minority kids to learn the game, and both believe the sport needs more minority representation — especially on the men’s side. As John McEnroe once said, “I worry that the greatest player in history may never pick up a racket because he won’t have the opportunity to play the sport.”
Right now, the McEnroes — like everyone else involved in U.S. tennis — would like to see an American man show something approaching greatness.
Until then, as Carillo so eloquently put it, “Oy.”
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-goss-e1555388932669.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-05-30 08:36:212021-05-30 08:36:21For American men’s tennis, this is as bad as it has ever been
Barty is just shaded in betting by Swiatek but did beat the teen at the Madrid Open earlier this month. The pair, however, are due to meet in the semi-finals should they make it that far with world No.2 Naomi Osaka looming as the beneficiary of the draw. It would take an optimistic fan to predict anything but another Nadal cakewalk in the men’s tournament, but Popyrin will be the first man attempting to prevent a record 21st major for the Spaniard.
WHO ARE THE FAVOURITES?
Unsurprisingly, Nadal heads the men’s hopes at $1.83, ahead of Djokovic ($4.50), Stefanos Tsitsipas ($6), Dominic Thiem ($10) and Alexander Zverev ($12). It seems you can put a price on a fairytale – and in the case of Roger Federer it’s $67. In the women’s draw Swiatek is at $3.75 to go back to back, ahead of Barty ($6), Aryna Sabalenka ($7.50), 2016 winner Garbine Muguruza ($13) and Osaka ($15).
WHO DO THEY FACE?
While Popyrin is due to face Nadal, Duckworth (world No.99) may fancy himself against Italy’s Salvatore Caruso (No.81), whose countryman Stefano Travaglia will play De Minaur. The Italian connection continues with Millman drawn against Gianluca Mager. O’Connell and Thompson face Tommy Paul of the US and Spain’s Jaume Munar respectively. Barty gets under way against American world No.70 Bernarda Pera, Sharma will face a qualifier and Tomljanovic is up against Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova.
BY THE NUMBERS
Prizemoney: Men’s winner €2.2 million ($3.5m), women’s winner €1.12m.
Most titles: Nadal (13), Chris Evert (7).
Past Australian men’s winners: 8 – Jack Crawford (1933), Lew Hoad (1956), Mervyn Rose (1958), Rod Laver (1962, 1969), Roy Emerson (1963, 1967), Fred Stolle (1965), Tony Roche (1966), Ken Rosewall (1968).
Past Australian women’s winners: 4 – Margaret Court (1962, 1964, 1969, 1970), Lesley Turner (1963, 1965), Evonne Goolagong (1971), Ashleigh Bary (2019).
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-goss-e1555388932669.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-05-28 14:44:242021-05-28 14:44:24Everything you need to know about the 2021 French Open at Roland Garros
We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to participate in our Howe Park Tennis Club Seniors tennis event on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd May. Located in the Upper Hunter, Singleton is a great spot to get away too.
Entries close Monday 17th May so don’t delay.
We would love for you to be part of our event and hope to see you there.
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-seniors-e1555388790419.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2021-05-11 06:01:012021-05-11 06:01:48Howe Park Tennis Club-Seniors Event Sat & Sun 22-23 May