Tag Archive for 'Isner Mahut match'

Broken records

Published by Rebecca on July 12, 2010 in Fun & Games and WTA. 2 Comments

Tennis keeps making history this summer.

First in June there was the infamous Isner-Mahut match that went on for a staggering 11 hours and 5 minutes at Wimbledon defying all previous historic matches. Shame now they have the roof on Centre Court, BBC will never get to replay the Isner-Mahut match like they did the 1969 Gonzales-Pasarell  encounter, coming in a mere 5 hours 12 minutes.

Then this month in July there has been the attempt at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels to break the record for the largest audience at a tennis match.

The previous record held by Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs was a monumental exhibition in more ways than one.

It was referred to as the Battle of the Sexes in 1973 when King took on the challenge from male chauvinist Riggs who believed that the women’s game was inferior to the men’s. A 1939 Wimbledon Champion, Riggs claimed he could beat the current top player’s in the women’s game even though he was retired by some decades.

Pomp & Ceremony - Billie Jean King arrives like a Queen in Houston 1973

The exhibition was played at the Houston Astrodome in Texas, USA in front of then record 30, 492 spectators and a massive worldwide TV audience estimated at 50 million people across 37 countries. (FYI: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne 16,820; Court Philippe Chatrier, Paris 15,166; Centre Court, Wimbledon 15,000; Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York 22,547).

King entered the Astrodome Cleopatra style, carried aloft in a chair held by four bare-chested muscle men dressed in the garb of ancient slaves. Riggs followed in a rickshaw drawn by a bevy of gorgeous scantily-clad models.

The final score? King beat Riggs 6-4 6-3 6-3. This was a huge leap for women’s tennis helping it to gain worldwide recognition and respect thanks to Billie Jean’s persistent and determination to win the match for all womankind.

The 2010 Battle of the Belgians hasn’t had the same global following as perhaps hoped for. Belgian’s tennis stars Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin were to play off on home soil and given their previous head to heads, it was likely to be a battle indeed.

The event turned out a bit of a disaster (title billing wise) when Henin had to pull out due to injury sustained at Wimbledon (ironically during her fourth round encounter with Clijsters).

Step in Wimbledon Champion Miss Serena Williams which considering her dramatic and controversial US Open Semi final clash last summer with Kim Clijsters, this 8th July exhibition could have been billed as a grudge match on Kim’s back yard.

Serena Williams, smiles as she poses with Belgium's Kim Clijsters, Italy's Francesca Schiavone and Martina Navratilova in Brussels, Thursday July 8, 2010

However the energy and mental toughness that it takes to win a Slam bore on Serena and she was not able to give her best performance and a lack-lustre 6-3 6-2 score saw Kim victorious once again over Serena.

Could they not have even played best of 5 sets to make things interesting and a bit longer for the fans? Despite the scoreline, with 5,189 extra spectators than the Battle of the Sexes, a new world record was written in Brussels. 

The world’s media, albeit still in World Cup fever, did not ignite this story to the level the Battle of the Sexes created 37 years ago. In one sense, it is a shame that historic match now loses its world record status to a match that wasn’t even what it was supposed to be billed as.

BJK remains a strong stalwart of women’s tennis saluting the magnificence of Serena’s talent during a BBC interview at Wimbledon but one wonders what she really thought of this match up in Belgium. My research for this post showed that BJK was supposed to be the chair umpire but reports and pics from the match revealed that Martina Navratilova kept score.

With the rules in women’s tennis only allowing best of 3 sets, its highly unlikely mathematically that we’ll ever see a women’s match make or even break Isner-Mahut’s record. At least Women’s tennis can hold their own in the world record books for audience figures.

Who said women’s tennis wasn’t popular? 35, 681 in Brussels were true fans. Go girl Power!!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Wimble-done & Dusted

Published by Rebecca on July 5, 2010 in Feature and Fun & Games. 0 Comments

If you awoke today with a sad feeling in the pit your stomach, that’s because it’s not just Monday morning, oh no folks, even worse, its Monday morning post-Wimbledon 2010.

Sue Barker will not be on your screens today, you will not see Rafa (The Champ once again!) pull his shorts again, you won’t catch a glimpse of Serena’s fancy Nike Shrug or be tempted by that tall jug of Pimms on the BBC highlight show because it’s all over, ladies and gentlemen. Tennis has left the building at SW19 for another 50 weeks…

To help you get through this tough time as a tennis fan, we at LTB have put together a list of the top 10 things to do this week:

  1. Play the game! You have been watching some of the best serves, forehands, backhands, lobs, volleys, smashes and you have seen them all in slow motion to appreciate them so just get out there and see if you can do the same. Practice makes perfect you know.
  2. Get on the Wii! So it’s hard to book courts at this time of year? Then get yourself the Grand Slam tennis game on Nintendo, move away any precious ornaments on your mantelpiece and get your wii racket out and play some balls man.
  3. Plan your next tennis trip. Ah there’s nothing quite like watching live tennis. The atmosphere, the opportunity for unique pics and autographs not to mention the Facebook gloating to friends that aren’t there. So get on the net, (big hint, if you’re reading this you are already half way there on this one) and book yourself some flights to New York City for the US Open in late August or any of the hard court warm ups in the US Open series.
  4. Book a trip to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. If flight prices to the States are too expensive, get yourself to London and check out the Wimbledon Museum. It has won awards for its clever features and has everything you ever needed to know about the game. Apparently John McEnroe appears like a ghost showing you inside the men’s locker room. Spooky indeed. Why not kill two birds with one stone and go late November when you can catch the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 in London.
  5. Go to the cinema. Those friends you have been ignoring for the past few weeks would like to see you again so make a date and go to the flicks. After the drama that has been Wimbledon 2010, relax in front of the big screen with kids favourite Shrek Forever After or the new Twilight: Eclipse. 
  6. Catch up on DVDs. As if you haven’t spent enough time in front of the telly this past fortnight, and if it is too much to leave the sofa, then wean yourself off the TV with some films. The Great Escape should take your mind off tennis for 172 minutes or so. Other epics include Casablanca and Titanic for the more romantic types.
  7. Re-watch the Isner-Mahut match. This 11 hour blockbuster will soon be available on DVD one thinks, well several DVDs I guess. In the meantime, buy the Wimbledon 2008 Final DVD featuring a couple of guys called Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. Coming in short at only five hours long, this double edition DVD has been dubbed by some as THE best Wimbledon tennis final in the history of the game.
  8. Order a new tennis book. Reading will get you through those long nights and give you an insight into the fabulous world of tennis. Venus Williams has just launched a new book ‘Come to Win’ which is aimed at business leaders, artists, doctors and I quote from the cover, ‘other visionaries’. There is also plenty to choose from in terms of player autobiographies and biographies. Just remember that most of the tennis history books are being re-written as we speak with reference to the Isner-Mahut marathon match.
  9. Watch the  FIFA World Cup. Sports fans are in their element this summer and with football’s greatest tournament coming to a climax this weekend, there is still plenty of action to watch from South Africa.
  10. Go back to work. This is the most sobering and perhaps depressing of all options but it will help you pay for some of the aforementioned ideas so just grin and bear it. Remember, we can’t all be tennis pros.
Tags: , , , , , , , .

Courtside v Couch potato

Published by Rebecca on June 26, 2010 in Feature and Fun & Games. 3 Comments

It’s been a tough week for me, working during Wimbledon. It’s not an ideal combination, but it has to be done sometimes. I grabbed as much tennis at I could watch during lunchtimes and in the evenings, but it’s not quite the same as being there. Wimbledon is such an amazing place you have to feel it to believe it. 

This Wimbledon of all Wimbledon’s has been so special in the first week alone. What with Roger’s Fed Express almost being de-railed on the opening day, to quite simply the most remarkable tennis match ever played in the long history of the game by John Isner & Nicolas Mahut, to the Royal visit by HM Queen Elizabeth II, it’s been quite a week for The Championships. 

As I watched the matches on Centre Court, I could see the very seat I sat in last year watching the ladies final and I thought ‘Wow! I was there!’ 

To console myself for not being there this year and for any LOVEtennisBlog readers who can’t be there this year either, here’s my top ten things you CAN do watching Wimbledon at home on TV that you can’t do being there at the AELTC: 

  1. Watch tennis in your PJs with a duvet. You could try, but I don’t think security would let you in.
  2. Choose your own seat. You get to choose if the armchair is more comfortable than the sofa and if the bean bag is even closer to the telly, then all you have to worry about is getting their before anyone else does.
  3. Eat whenever and whatever you like. Make sure your TV s within 10 yards of your TV. Tip: turn up the volume when you need to make a cup of tea or have multiple TVs on around your home to make sure you don’t miss any action.
  4. Watch replays. This was perhaps the biggest thing I noticed on my first visit to watch live tennis. After a great backhand or an amazing volley, you don’t get to see the beauty of it in slow motion if you are courtside. At home and now with the advent of Sky Plus, you can pause and rewind and watch shots again and again.

    Courts at your finger tips!

  5. Select which match you want to watch. Digital TV has given us so many more options and if the match playing on BBC 1 or BBC 2 doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can change courts by switch of a button rather than have to haul yourself around the grounds from one end to the other. What a great way to get value out of your TV licence.
  6. Go to the toilet whenever you like. Making a quick dash to the bathroom is so much easier at home and you don’t have to wait till the umpire calls games, you can come and go as you need to. No long queues either. Way Hey!
  7. Enjoy commentary ear phone free. If you are used to people guiding through the match and getting the odd piece of gossip in, then live tennis isn’t quite the same without commentary.
  8. Fall asleep without the prospect of getting on TV. You know the shots that the Beeb play at the end of a today’s play; do you really want them to capture you nodding off for your daily snooze in the sun or scoffing crisps? No chance of this in your own living room.

    Serena's inspirational pretty nails

  9. Paint your nails. Ok, so the boys won’t want to do this anyways but girls, you can treat yourselves to a mini manicure and/or pedicure as you catch the matches. Be inspired by Serena’s sparkling nail art for an extra challenge. Once again, the close up shots that the TV produce allow you to see exactly what design she is modelling. The only beauty treatment you’ll find on Centre Court is Eddie Seaward’s manicured lawn.  

    Jolly good shot young man!

  10. Do the ironing. Getting your ironing board past security would be quite difficult unless perhaps you have a pass to iron Rafa Nadal’s shirts! (Cherish the thought). At home, you can get through the arduous task of ironing your whites watching the pros playing in their tennis whites.

 Enjoy the tennis today where ever you watch it from!

Tags: , , , , , , , , .