All England Lawn Tennis Championship 2003 - Wimbledon

[cD]

Really hope Tim Henman wins. So many semi-final losses. He really deserves a title, he is the most consistent grass-courter since Pete Sampras. I'd also like to see the crowd's favourite to win and I'd really like English men's tennis to have something to be proud of since 1936.

Hope Henin wins the womens title - she's the most interesting player on the circuit and seems to have the measure of Serena Williams - have to wait and see how those tactics work on grass. Seedings should put her above Venus based on current form and ranking, but Venus is a past winner. If Venus is seeded 4th - then the Williams would have to meet before the final.

 

[MelvinYeo]

Its about a fecking week before it starts

 

[Piersifal]

Henman? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> Only a sad loser...

 

[Jesper]

Originally posted by Piersifal:
<strong>Henman? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> Only a sad loser...</strong><hr></blockquote>

You got that right; he's got all them semi-final losses for a reason...

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Piersifal:
<strong>Henman? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> Only a sad loser...</strong><hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/nono.gif" border="0" alt="[No No]" />
I wouldnt talk if I was you. It isnt as if Italy have any half-decent players. Your probably one of those ignorant idiots who have never seen Henman play on grass and base your opinion on his clay court performances. Bloody Nazio supporters.

 

[MelvinYeo]

Goran Ivanisevic is not participating
He said something about if he couldn't play,he would cut the grass or serve strawberries

 

[Raoul]

Originally posted by cd:
<strong>
<img src="graemlins/nono.gif" border="0" alt="[No No]" />
I wouldnt talk if I was you. It isnt as if Italy have any half-decent players. Your probably one of those ignorant idiots who have never seen Henman play on grass and base your opinion on his clay court performances. Bloody Nazio supporters.</strong><hr></blockquote>

<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> I think we've found a Henman fan....and you have the nerve to call the Williams sisters boring.

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Raoul:
<strong>

<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> I think we've found a Henman fan....and you have the nerve to call the Williams sisters boring.</strong><hr></blockquote>

They are boring. Henman plays a good serve and volley game and is strong at the net and that does take a fair amount of talent on his part. In case you hadnt realised, that is how grass court tennis is played.

He doesnt overpower the opponents like they do. And I am not a Henman fan. I just want him to win Wimbledon once because I feel he deserves it. I did not support him at the Aus Open and French Open and I will not support him at the US open.

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Melvinyeo:
<strong>Goran Ivanisevic is not participating
He said something about if he couldn't play,he would cut the grass or serve strawberries</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well neither is your buddy Anna Kournikova. Maybe she'll wear the grass .
Neither is Richard Krajcek as a matter of fact. Maybe he'll smoke the grass.

 

[MelvinYeo]

Originally posted by cd:
<strong>
Well neither is your buddy Anna Kournikova. Maybe she'll wear the grass .
Neither is Richard Krajcek as a matter of fact. Maybe he'll smoke the grass.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Who said that Kournikova is my buddy?


Or as Bobby Carlos says:Who is my buddy?My buddy is my father

 

[Plechazunga]

I saw Boris Becker yesterday.

 

[Dans]

First and last time I agree with the spunk monkey.

 

[mjdj]

henman <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" />

i dont like lleyton's draw.
not ver appealing reading although krajicek out is good.
cmon lleyton

 

[Jesper]

Originally posted by cd:
<strong>

Henman plays a good serve and volley game and is strong at the net and that does take a fair amount of talent on his part. In case you hadnt realised, that is how grass court tennis is played.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Still there are loads of players that have been more successful than Henman with another style - Borg, Agassi, etc. So there's hardly one way of playing grass court tennis. Henman's style IS boring. He reminds me of Edberg, only difference being that Edberg had some talent and played the serve and volley a bit more successfully.

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Jesper:
<strong>

Still there are loads of players that have been more successful than Henman with another style - Borg, Agassi, etc. So there's hardly one way of playing grass court tennis. Henman's style IS boring. He reminds me of Edberg, only difference being that Edberg had some talent and played the serve and volley a bit more successfully.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Oh, no doubting that. Edberg was definately a better player but Henman does have talent. People would find him more interesting if he used the crowd to his advantage.

 

[Raoul]

<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" />

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Piersifal:
<strong>Henman? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> Only a sad loser...</strong><hr></blockquote>

Lazio? <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> What more do I need to say?

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Raoul:
<strong> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>

Who are you backing Raoul? Agassi? Roddick?

Personally, I think Roddick will win if he keeps up his form from Stella Artois - he bashed Agassi, esp. first set. Wouldnt be too bad, he seems quite a decent chap and plays quite nicely. Still prefer Henman tho'.

 

[Raoul]

I'm backing Federer and Roddick. Andy seems to be peaking at this time so there's a good chance he could break through at Wimbledon this year.

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Raoul:
<strong>I'm backing Federer and Roddick. Andy seems to be peaking at this time so there's a good chance he could break through at Wimbledon this year.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I like Federer as well. But I think you're right about Roddick.

Who are you backing in the Ladies draw? Williams and Williams???

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Melvinyeo:
<strong>

Or as Bobby Carlos says:Who is my buddy?My buddy is my father </strong><hr></blockquote>

 

[sidsutton]

Check out what the players say about Henman, then get back to me about whether he is considered talented or not. He may have a boring personality but his tennis isn't. If playing shots from all areas of the court is boring, what is to be considered exciting? Hitting a big serve, getting a short reply and then ripping a huge forehand? The style that 90% of the men's tour adopts?

Roddick will not win Wimbledon IMO. He served out of his mind to beat Agassi in a 3rd set tiebreak with Agassi way below par. I don't think he can carry that form through 7 best-of-5 matches.

 

[cD]

The draw then:
Ladies:

S. Williams V Craybas
Callens V Rittner
Q V Perebiynis
Jidkova V Granville

Shaughnessy V Q
Leon Garcia V Q
Q V Ondraskova
Roesch V Dementieva

Myskina V Nagyova
Krasnoroutskaya V Pullin
Schett V Marrero
Q V Martinez

Tanasugarn V Morigami
Sprem V Benesova
Irvin V Mikaelian
Casanova V Capriati

Men's draw
(1) Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) v Ivo Karlovic (Cro)
Ivo Heuberger (Swi) v Paul Baccanello (Aus)
Taylor Dent (USA) v Ivan Ljubicic (Cro)
Max Mirnyi (Blr) v (31) Vincent Spadea (USA)

(19) Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) v Jurgen Melzer(Aut)
Petr Luxa (Cze) v Jonas Bjorkman (Swe)
Irakli Labadze (Geo) v Justin Gimelstob (USA)
Robby Ginepri (USA) v (15) Arnaud Clement (Fra)

(12) Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) v Dominik Hrbaty (Svk)
Olivier Mutis (Fra) v Franco Squillari (Arg)
Rafael Nadal-Parera (Spa) v Mario Ancic (Cro)
Lee Childs (Gbr) v (33) Nikolay Davydenko (Rus)

(25) Tommy Robredo (Spa) v Jose Acasuso (Arg)
Brian Vahaly (USA) v Filippo Volandri (Ita)
Alexander Waske (Ger) v Greg Rusedski (Gbr)
Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) v (5) Andy Roddick (USA)

(4) Roger Federer (Swi) v Hyung-Taik Lee (Kor)
Stefan Koubek (Aut) v Christophe Rochus (Bel)
Jan-Michael Gambill (USA) v Magnus Norman (Swe)
Mardy Fish (USA) v (29) Gaston Gaudio (Arg)

(23) Agustin Calleri (Arg) v Adrian Voinea (Rom)
Flavio Saretta (Bra) v Alan Mackin (Gbr)
Feliciano Lopez (Spa) v Robert Kendrick (USA)
Karol Beck (Svk) v (16) Mikhail Youzhny (Rus)

(9) Rainer Schuettler (Ger) v Michel Kratochvil (Swi)
Andreas Vinciguerra (Swe) v Fabrice Santoro (Fra)
Fernando Vicente (Spa) v Todd Martin (USA)
John Van Lottum (Ned) v (17) Gustavo Kuerten (Bra)

(32) Juan Ignacio Chela (Arg) v Tomas Behrend (Ger)
Victor Hanescu (Rom) v Albert Portas (Spa)
Kenneth Carlsen (Den) v Nicolas Lapentti (Ecu)
Arvind Parmar (Gbr) v (8) Sjeng Schalken (Ned)

(6) David Nalbandian (Arg) v Vladimir Voltchkov (Blr)
Andre Sa (Bra) v Mariano Puerta (Arg)
Dick Norman (Bel) v Takao Suzuki (Jap)
Karol Kucera (Svk) v (28) Wayne Ferreira (Rsa)

(21) Martin Verkerk (Ned) v Robin Soderling (Swe)
Gilles Elseneer (Bel) v Nicolas Kiefer (Ger)
David Sanchez (Spa) v Michael Llodra (Fra)
Tomas Zib (Cze) v (10) Tim Henman (Gbr)

(13) Sebastien Grosjean (Fra) v Thomas Enqvist (Swe)
Alberto Martin (Spa) v Wayne Arthurs (Aus)
Wesley Moodie (Rsa) v Marc Rosset (Swi)
Frederic Niemeyer (Can) v (22) Felix Mantilla (Spa)

(26) James Blake (USA) v Todd Larkham (Aus)
Sargis Sargsian (Arm) v Alex Bogdanovic (Gbr)
Nicolas Escude (Fra) v Konstantinos Economidis (Gre)
Jean-Rene Lisnard (Fra) v (3) Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa)

(7) Guillermo Coria (Arg) v Olivier Rochus (Bel)
Richard Bloomfield (Gbr) v Anthony Dupuis (Fra)
Stefano Galvani (Ita) v Julien Boutter (Fra)
Fernando Verdasco (Spa) v (30) Jarkko Nieminen (Fin)

(20) Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Rus) v Raemon Sluiter (Ned)
Hicham Arazi (Mor) v Alexander Popp (Ger)
David Ferrer (Spa) v Martin Lee (Gbr)
Luis Horna (Per) v (11) Jiri Novak (Cze)

(14) Xavier Malisse (Bel) v Cyril Saulnier (Fra)
Mariano Zabaleta (Arg) v Mark Philippoussis (Aus)
Scott Draper (Aus) v Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra)
Michal Mertinak (Slo) v (35) Radek Stepanek (Cze)

(27) Younes El Aynaoui (Mor) v Mark Hilton (Gbr)
Zeljko Krajan (Cro) v Nicolas Massu (Chi)
Lars Burgsmuller (Ger) v Albert Montanes (Spa)
Jamie Delgado (Gbr) v (2) Andre Agassi (USA)

 

[Raoul]

Originally posted by cd:
<strong>

I like Federer as well. But I think you're right about Roddick.

Who are you backing in the Ladies draw? Williams and Williams??? </strong><hr></blockquote>

Capriati, but she's fallen off in the past couple of years. <img src="graemlins/annoyed.gif" border="0" alt="[Annoyed]" />

 

[Rams]

I rekcon John Lloyd Evert Navaratiola McEnroe Connors will beat Stephan Becker Stich Lendle Borg in the final.

 

[wolf man]

Rodick to win the mens .

I'm praying dokic and sarena williams dont even make it on the court

 

[rOnaldo[7]]

yeah..i'm betting on roddick..but there's always a few surprises in grand slam..hope it will be a good final..not a one sided match as in Aussie and French open..

really hope the william sister will lose out again!..

 

[Raoul]

Grass suits Andy's hard serving game well. Its only a matter of time before he hits a serve 150mph or more.

 

[sidsutton]

A lot of you sure have some new found faith in Roddick. Is this based purely on his win at Queens? He was a point away from losing to a below par Agassi. If he had lost, would you all still be so confident? Agassi is still the man to beat.

 

[Raoul]

Originally posted by sidsutton:
<strong>A lot of you sure have faith in Roddick. Is this based purely on his win at Queens? He was a point away from losing to Agassi. If he had lost, would you all still be so confident? Agassi is still the man to beat.</strong><hr></blockquote>

He'll break through eventually. The Talent is there. He just needs to get his mind in order and he's there. His game is best suited for grass so we'll see.

 

[sidsutton]

Originally posted by Raoul:
<strong>

He'll break through eventually. The Talent is there. He just needs to get his mind in order and he's there. His game is best suited for grass so we'll see.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I disagree. His game is still best suited to hardcourts. Although saying that, the new grass is playing more like a hardcourt. I still think he is vulnerable to someone like a Rusedski(who he could meet in Round 2) chipping and charging to his backhand.

 

[Raoul]

Originally posted by sidsutton:
<strong>

I disagree. His game is still best suited to hardcourts. Although saying that, the new grass is playing more like a hardcourt. I still think he is vulnerable to someone like a Rusedski(who he could meet in Round 2) chipping and charging to his backhand.</strong><hr></blockquote>

That's because there aren't alot of Grass tournaments and he hasn't broken through on Grass until this year. I've yet to see a player who serves as fast as him not use the skid on the grass courts to their advantage.

 

[cD]

Originally posted by sidsutton:
<strong>

I disagree. His game is still best suited to hardcourts. Although saying that, the new grass is playing more like a hardcourt. I still think he is vulnerable to someone like a Rusedski(who he could meet in Round 2) chipping and charging to his backhand.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Rusedski v Roddick - should be a good match, but I fear Roddick will pull through eventually.

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Raoul:
<strong>

That's because there aren't alot of Grass tournaments and he hasn't broken through on Grass until this year. I've yet to see a player who serves as fast as him not use the skid on the grass courts to their advantage.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Hardcourt would still be his strong point though but he does have an all court game. Needs to keep his mind on the game and improve temprament though.

 

[cD]

Originally posted by Raoul:
<strong>

Capriati, but she's fallen off in the past couple of years. <img src="graemlins/annoyed.gif" border="0" alt="[Annoyed]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>

Well she is doing better than the 8 or so years in between.

 

[sidsutton]

Well I bit the bullet and put my money on Agassi at 4/1. I think he is in the easier half of the draw and the other main contenders all have bigger question marks on them.

For the women, I don't see any value in Serena at odds on. I thought about Henin again but she had an injury scare and it's too hard to call her semi with Serena, so I plumped for a little each way bet on Chanda Rubin. She is in the other half of the draw with an uninspired Venus and Clijsters isn't comfortable on the surface yet. I don't think she'll win it but she's in good form and I'll get half my 40/1 if she makes the final.

 

[sidsutton]

I've put a bit on Hrbaty to beat Srichaphan tomorrow @ 2/1. They both suck at the moment so I don't see how they made Paradorn such an odds on favourite. I'm ummming and ahhing over whether to pick Hantuchova to lose.

 

[cD]

Originally posted by sidsutton:
<strong>I've put a bit on Hrbaty to beat Srichaphan tomorrow @ 2/1. They both suck at the moment so I don't see how they made Paradorn such an odds on favourite. I'm ummming and ahhing over whether to pick Hantuchova to lose.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Hantuchova will win, straight sets, trust me.

 

[Gillespie]

Originally posted by sidsutton:
<strong>Well I bit the bullet and put my money on Agassi at 4/1. I think he is in the easier half of the draw and the other main contenders all have bigger question marks on them.

For the women, I don't see any value in Serena at odds on. I thought about Henin again but she had an injury scare and it's too hard to call her semi with Serena, so I plumped for a little each way bet on Chanda Rubin. She is in the other half of the draw with an uninspired Venus and Clijsters isn't comfortable on the surface yet. I don't think she'll win it but she's in good form and I'll get half my 40/1 if she makes the final.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Sid,I'm with you.Agassi to win.Roddick played brilliantly,especially serving those bullets,at Queens but could still have lost to Agassi final set.Over 5 sets,I can't see Roddick win.Agassi has to be the favourite for me,though I haven't ruled out Henman just yet.

I must say though,Federer looks like he should win it one year,but what an enigma ??!!

 

[sidsutton]

Federer really has an easy draw up until the semis. But he has a rep for flaking out in the Slams. He's bound to break through one of these years.