Oh wow, you guys. Australian Open already started and no one told me? I had to find out from a headline in my Guardian feed that said Serena Williams lost in the first round.
WHAT?
I can’t believe I missed it. My parents are out of the country, but I’m watering their plants and starting their cars while they’re gone. I could have totally switched on the TV and set up the DVR to record yesterday if I’d known!
I haven’t followed tennis much during Fed’s hiatus. Sadly, my interest in the sport at this moment pretty much waxes and wanes with his chances. Which is a problem since he’s at most 2 years from retirement, probably.
Yeah, I also felt my interest waning when Djokovic was taking over from Federer and Nadal. But now that he’s floundering, I have a renewed interest. I’m so happy to Del Potro doing well again.
Plus I really, really want to see Serena break some of Stefi Graf’s records, but she’s stalled at absolutely the worst time. Damn it Serena, come on! I hope she wins the French and Wimbledon and US Open.
Oh also, looking it up right now, the Aussie Open doesn’t start until January 16. So I don’t know what was up with that Guardian headline. They got me good with their false news!
Probably meant that it was an Open tune up.
It was the ASB Classic in New Zealand. Both Williams sisters are out - Serena lost and Venus had to withdraw with an arm injury.
Every time I see a Venus result I think ‘wow, she hasn’t retired yet?’
/feels old man
Williams vs Williams
Federer vs Nadal
What year is this?
Wait, what? What’s going on? Has the Australian Open started?
Ummm… spoiler alert?
Sorry.
No that’s fine. I don’t have it on DVR or anything. I wasn’t aware Australian Open had started.
Unfortunately I have no way of watching this year anyway.
Unless it’s available to watch online somewhere without subscribing to ESPN?
Yeah, kinda bummed I won’t be able to watch the final.
Go Fed!!!
I know I can only do this once, but I do have the option of signing up for a free week of Playstation Vue on the PS4.
To watch Fed win another major might be worth cashing in that one time free week.
Is the final going to be on ESPN, I’m assuming?
Ok, I got the free trial of Playstation Vue and I’m all set. I’m not going to watch the matches live. I’m not going to be up at 2am (I hope). But they are repeating it on ESPN2 at 8am, so I can watch that before going to work tomorrow.
So how did this happen anyway? What happened to Djerkovic and Andy Murray?
Djokovic: Went down to a wild card in the second round!
Murray: Went down to World #50 German player in the fourth round (who was then beaten by Federer)
Tsonga was beaten by Wawrinka.
Mon Fils was beaten by Nadal.
Nadal also beat Raonic and Dimitrov.
Federer also beat Nishikori in an epic 5-set match, and beat Berdych and Wawrinka too in another 5 set match. Phew. It hasn’t been an easy road for either player.
I’m so glad Mr_Bismarck posted something before the whole tournament was over. It’s crazy that Tennis doesn’t even make the news in any way here in the U.S. any more. Even just a few years ago Djokovic getting beaten in the second round would have made some big headlines here.
Though to be fair, the news is fairly drowned out by Donald Trump these days.
Women’s side: Apparently an American player named Coco Vandeweghe beat both Kerber and Muguruza. And then lost to Venus Williams. Vandeweghe sounds familiar, I think I saw her play in the U.S. Open, but I had no idea she was in the round with the best players in the world already.
If there aren’t top American players I think tennis doesn’t get much coverage in the U.S. Obviously in the women’s game you still have Serena and (amazingly) Venus, but in the men’s game Americans are practically nonexistent. (I know, Querrey and Sock and Isner… whatevs dude.)
Also: trumptrumptrumptrumptrumptrumptrumptrump
I’m going to view today as a test run for what to do and what not to do tomorrow.
When I awoke this morning, I had a notification from my Guardian app. Did it start off with benign words like “Australian Open…”, allowing me to avert my eyes from reading the rest before I watched the match?
No, it read Serena beats Venus… and that’s the point at which I averted my eyes but it was too late! Damn it headline writers.
I still watched the first set, but it was a pretty lifeless match, as most Williams sisters finals over the years have tended to be, sadly.
Still, here’s the gameplan for tomorrow:
I’ll wake up, NOT glance at my phone or look at Qt3, or Yahoo or anything. I’ll go down and start watching ESPN 2 and watch the match with virgin eyes and ears.
I couldn’t resist watching it live. I set my alarm for 3:30 am, which did mean that I missed the first hour and 1.5 sets. But I got to watch a classic final that was really tense and amazing to watch. For those that haven’t seen it yet, ESPN 2 should start at 8am Central.
I didn’t really think about it and didn’t realize I was watching a recorded match, so I watched the first two sets and took a break and sat down in front of my PC and promptly saw that Fed had won.
Oh well, I still watched the final set. Great match. High level tennis between two champions.