Henman

[darkswan]

Well that was an underwhelming performance (1st day v Moya).

Via a bit of cunning arbitrage I'll be up �18 if he wins tomorrow (no risk), but . .
really the standard of tennis was very poor. So many second serves not punished.

I cannot believe that Macenroe can lower himself to be so obsequious in his commentary on such a match. But hey. Tennis is not my game.

 

[Entropy]

I thought he was inconsistent, but in part played some superb shots. For a player that hasn't had much match tennis recently, and who was playing the 25th seed, I thought he did very well.

 

[Galias]

Once he finished I wish they had just cut away to 20th Century Battlefields.

When the football has over run GaryL has about 15 seconds to sign off and generally they cut the feed halfway through him saying "good night". After the tennis had gone over by 15 mins last night we had 10 mins of analysis, about 2 mins of film of the stands emptying, a run down of all the games coming up the next day, highlights from today and then a film covering 70 years of the BBC at Wimbledon. WTF!?

 

[Ky]

Tennis is teh gay.

 

[MarkS]

As opposed to squash which is only played by bouncers, boxers and ex SAS soldiers?

 

[Ky]

We weren't talking about Squash, just Tennis. Which is gay. You big homo

 

[MarkS]

You derailed the topic onto one of sports being gay, of which squash is king of the gay, you dirty donut punching bum slapper

 

[Ky]

Dude, clearly Tennis is gayer than Squash. Tennis in this country is played by posh people who frequent country clubs and drive Range Rovers and are called Jeremy and Piers and went to Eton.

Henman is a prime example of this. The best UK Squash player is Peter Nicol and he's anything but posh.

Ergo, you're talking shite, you big fudgepacking rimlord

 

[MarkS]

I present 1 fact to settle this.

Female tennis players.

Game set and match i believe Gerald

 

[Ky]

Women play squash too numbnuts and also, apart from Sharapova and that other foxy burd, they generally look like men anyway.

I mean, you LIKE watching the Williams sisters, Henin-Harden, Mauresmo? Each to their own mate but I think that makes you gayer than Gay JackMcGay of 4 Chocolate Road, Pansyville, Gaylordshire.

 

[MarkS]

No, i hate tennis, i think its gay.. Squash is just more gay

 

[Ky]

Dude, Tennis is SO much more gay. You never hear of anyone dropping down dead from a game of fucking Tennis do you? Happens in Squash quite regularly. Tennis is for pansies.

It'd be an ideal sport for Tom, if he ever managed to get some hand eye co-ordination together.

 

[Janie]

Dude, Tennis is SO much more gay. You never hear of anyone dropping down dead from a game of fucking Tennis do you? Happens in Squash quite regularly. Tennis is for pansies.

That's because Squash is mostly played by fat overweight balding sweaty businessmen who drive lexuses, any exercise is likely to cause a heartattack.

Statistically your point is about a useful as more people die from shark attacks in the water than on land.

 

[MarkS]

Janie beat me to it

 

[Chick]

is he out and crying yet?

Grrrr, i'm a tiger!

 

[Ky]

That's because Squash is mostly played by fat overweight balding sweaty businessmen who drive lexuses, any exercise is likely to cause a heartattack.

Statistically your point is about a useful as more people die from shark attacks in the water than on land.

That's just the stereotype which of course, you had to use

You cannot be unfit to play Squash. Unless you want to be beaten 9 - 0 every single time you play. Its one of the hardest high impact sports and gets your heartbeat up very, very high. That's why people can die.

I haven't played for a couple of years, simply because I'm not fit enough and I don't fancy having a heart attack.

I could manage a game of Tennis though, not that I want to, because its a gay-assed lame sport.

Its also supported by the biggest bunch of wankers ever to walk this Earth. I mean, Cliff Richard LOVES Tennis.

Wimbledon is full of stupid twats with their fucking Union Jacks and painted faces shouting "C'mon Tim or C'mon Andy". Wimbledon being blown up would make a significant dent in the wanker population in London.

 

[darkswan]

I thought he was inconsistent, but in part played some superb shots. For a player that hasn't had much match tennis recently, and who was playing the 25th seed, I thought he did very well.

Well now that would be the voice of reason.

As I said tennis is not my game, but I do sit next to a tennis encyclopedia at work and he's been telling me in the run-up to W how awful Henman has been performing. When I informed him that Ladbrokes had him as favourite to win that one 1.6 vs 2.2 ish we thought wtf? (Not so daft though are they?)

So anyway having actually watched this game so far we agreed that H basically has lost it mentally. He just can't kill the game off.

As I write, I haven't watched todays highlights yet, but IIRC Henman won due to a Moya double fault after SEVEN match points?!!!!

If this actually does something for his CONFIDENCE then he may crack on, because that's where the main problem seems to lie.

 

[McHoff H. McChrist]

Dude, Tennis is SO much more gay. You never hear of anyone dropping down dead from a game of fucking Tennis do you? Happens in Squash quite regularly. Tennis is for pansies.

It'd be an ideal sport for Tom, if he ever managed to get some hand eye co-ordination together.

Actually, I'm quite good at tennis. Kinda shoots down the "it's for posh people" argument.
Unfortunately, it does reinforce the "lots of sexy men play tennis, which confuses me and makes me question my sexuality" arguement.

 

[Flight]

You derailed the topic onto one of sports being gay, of which squash is king of the gay

"I like to see young men receive it in tight spaces" - Ray Wilkins enjoys the young Under-21s on Sky Sports last week, to win the Football Quote of the Year before Summer has even hit us.

 

[Entropy]

Well now that would be the voice of reason.

As I said tennis is not my game, but I do sit next to a tennis encyclopedia at work and he's been telling me in the run-up to W how awful Henman has been performing. When I informed him that Ladbrokes had him as favourite to win that one 1.6 vs 2.2 ish we thought wtf? (Not so daft though are they?)

So anyway having actually watched this game so far we agreed that H basically has lost it mentally. He just can't kill the game off.

As I write, I haven't watched todays highlights yet, but IIRC Henman won due to a Moya double fault after SEVEN match points?!!!!

If this actually does something for his CONFIDENCE then he may crack on, because that's where the main problem seems to lie.

Well Tim is very good on grass, and his lack of seeding isn't representative of his lack of ability, so that's probably why he was favourite. But you're being a bit unfair to him with regards the match points. Henman put a lot more pressure on Moya in his service games, despite the fact that Moya was serving some very well placed high 120s / 130s. Additionally, Henman only had to save 3 break points or so, whilst as you've pointed out, Moya had to save 6 match points (indicative of his relative dominance of today's play). He did win on a double fault, but that ignores the fact that a superb lob gave him the opportunity of closing the match out AND that I think on 5 out of the 6 match points that Henman had, Moya made a blinding first serve!

When you're under massive pressure, and the other guy is making powerful first serves, it's very difficult to close a match out. Everyone said that they both played really well, and imo it's definitely the best game of Wimbledon so far. Sure Henman is inconsistent, but I think people tend to criticise the negatives without praising the positives (namely that he does sometimes fuck up a bit within a game, but when he's playing well, he's very, very strong).

Additionally, if you look at his play on aggregate, he's ironically a very consistent player. Off the top of my head, I think he's been in the top 20 for 8 years of his career, and top 10 for 5 years, which is a fantastic record.