Re: Tennis
 

Rafael Nadal falls to shock Wimbledon defeat by Lukas Rosol.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/18627648

Re: Tennis
 

ohhh looks like there's someone else who can knock Murray out in the later rounds then!

Re: Tennis
 

Well if he emulates the England football team, having a much easier pathway to the final will mean he never gets there.

Re: Tennis
 

I am at a RNIB forum next week and I am going to be trying out blind tennis :)

No idea how it works yet but I'm sure it'll be fun.

Re: Tennis
 

It'd be very interesting to learn how it works. Please let us know won't you.

Re: Tennis
 

Certainly will :tu: I may try to get them to take a little video of me playing :)

Re: Tennis
 

Federer survives a scare.

Can someone explain to me though why Boris Becker is on the commentary team? The man is a nightmare. The quintessential humourless German. No personality whatsoever in reporting, coupled with an accent that's so thick that anyone that isn't German will struggle to understand what he's reporting on?

Re: Tennis
 

Well done Murray...

Re: Tennis
 

A great match, one which Wimbledon tried it's best to ruin with their stupid 11pm rule. You have matches that go on until well after 12am at the US Open and to think if they'd gone off at 11pm with a result reachable in the next few minutes would've been stupid to make them come back in 40 hours for just a handful of games potentially. Which takes me to my next point about Wimbledon, why not play on the 1st Sunday like every other major tournament to ease the pressure on the timetable? I don't care that it may be because of tradition, the tournament needs to get with the times.

Re: Tennis
 

Yeah, well done, reluctantly. I found him rather petulant tonight.

---------- Post added at 23:54 ---------- Previous post was at 23:53 ----------

They got a bloody roof!

Re: Tennis
 

They have indeed so no need for an 11pm cut off is there?

Still doesn't explain the reluctance for play on the 1st Sunday like everywhere else.

Re: Tennis
 

The claim is that the cut off is there so people can still get home on the tube. Supposedly, it's a council rule, not a club rule.

It doesn't indeed, and that one is rather silly.

Re: Tennis
 

Ah yes probably does have a lot to do with the council, something I didn't think about until you mentioned it in your post, but does sound very plausible knowing what most councils are like in this country. It seems the commentary team tonight didn't think about the council either as they were sure like me it was the club calling the shots.

I'd like to see this get weekend in future years because for me the lateness of a match just adds to the excitement!

Re: Tennis
 

The commentary team were very clear the 11:00pm cut off would be "an authorities" requirement. Indeed Tim Henman's comments suggested it was the Council (Merton?) and the Police. That would be a health and safety thing of those who would be stranded without transport - note that public transport in the UK is geared around work hours, and not leisure so when people might most need it after an evenings entertainment when they could have had a drink and can't drive it isn't there (but that is off topic). Wimbledon is also in a residential area and of course the planners will have placed restrictions that you can't disturb the affluent neighbours.

Of course before the roof Wimbledon was finished for the day when there was no light. Indeed the BBC, by scheduling their BBC2 today at wimbledon for 8:00pm expects most play to have ceased by then. The Murray match was still at it's beginning.

The roof creates a safety net for an overrun. But the real problem here was not the 11:00pm curfew, but that Centre Court play did not start early enough to allow for three full length matches to be played within normal play hours.

Re: Tennis
 

That is another good point about the time they start play. 13:00 is too late in the day to start play esp when 2 out of the 3 matches scheduled for centre could potentially go 5 sets and last for a few hours each, therefore starting at 11am or even just a 12pm start would help a lot.