Sakkari playing really well.
Tennis 2021
- Thread starter Sean_RedDevil
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Man, the caf seems to be in love with this Radacanu person.
Djokovic is the GOAT, period
Yeah shame about that. Men's semis will be amazing though. Djoko vs Zverev and Medvedev vs FAA
Women's semifinals could be epic too. Sabalenka vs Fernandez and Raducanu vs Sakkari. Could have two teenagers in the final.
let’s put it this way then, since UK lockdown she hardly played any competitive junior tennis let alone professional tennis and now she’s in a semi final of a Grand Slam.
Ahhh yes the girl born to Romanian and Chinese parents in (checks notes) Canada... but she's good so rule Britaina right...
She's lived in Britain since she was two, went to school here and trained here. Of course she's British.
Unless she says differently, but that would be her choice.
Let me just put my Union Jack away then. According to this thread you can only really be a proper fan if you watched her in the qualifiers, or maybe it’ll help if you’re Canadian. But even then, you’ll be called a Stan.
The views are almost as elitist as the sport itself.
What’s not to love apart from her voice?
Some of us are proud to be a multicultural nation.
So she's the David Beckham of tennis then.
Looks that way
Enough of those wonderful union Jack wavey types seem to think my son can't be British even though he's born here because he's a "slanty eyed chink"... so yeah let's just say that ones britishness does seem to depend if your seen as an immugrunt or one of the good immigrants...
(For clarity I'm born in UK to two immigrants parents .... married to another immigrant (of mixed ethnicity) with my son born in UK so yeah I'm not exactly anti multiculturalism but I've encountered Enough in the UK who are to know its not exactly a tiny minority
That's a funny juxtaposition.
So it only makes sense for you to turn into exactly the same
Even if the press and some anti immigrants are celebrating/using her for ulterior motives, it's still an overall positive that someone born in Canada to Chinese and Romanian parents can be the face of British tennis. She will motivate the next generation and raise the level of discussion on other important things like race and immigration. I can relate to your wariness around these things but let's celebrate the positives.
Obviously it’s ok to support athletes of your nationality unless you’re British. Not that my judgement has anything to do with being British or not, I just haven’t seen a female tennisser as talented as this in a very long time and she still has so much to improve. And that’s without even considering she’s the first ever qualifier to reach the semis at the US Open, only the 3rd player outside the top 100 to do so AND she’s only just started playing on the ladies tour… go figure..
I'm just waiting for her to loose a match and then see her torn apart like the players who missed penalties... who knows perhaps she's white enough to pass the immigrant / immigrunt test
Looks like she will be around for a while and like Andy Murray when she wins she will be British and when she looses she will be Scottish/ Canadian... though hopefully she won't do something stupid like say she supports whoever is playing against England
She's a Londoner. I think I said earlier in this thread certain people will immediately try and discredit her heritage as a Brit rather than admire her talent.
Exactly this
She has multicultural parents, but all she knows is being brought up in Britain.
she’s as British as any of us born here in that respect
To say someone isn’t British because they weren’t born here or “jumping on the bandwagon” just because she’s “good”…..isn’t that abit old fashioned in thinking? Or moronic, or perhaps both I think
besides, no one is jumping on that bandwagon claiming her as ours because she’s good, she’s ours because she identifies as British, and she’s good because of her coaching and training in Britain, we haven’t snatched her
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That poster is attacking the old fashioned thinking as he's been the victim of it. Celebrating one uber-achiever (maybe one day) probably doesn't mask the bullshit he and his family face regularly.
Of course not and we'd all rather no-one had to go through it and were treated as the British people they are. That doesn't mean that the majority of us who just see her as as a talented young tennis player shouldn't talk about her as British though.
It hadn't even crossed my mind until it was brought up here although I had read about her upbringing at Wimbledon.
It like your speaking for the entire nation
your talking utter drivel
of course there are people out there with this mindset, but not the majority
Andy is British when he wins, he’s still British when he loses, same for Emma
People are drawn to a story, and to a personality - or at least to what we see of their personality. My favourite male player is Rafael Nadal - but not because some bars in Mallorca sell full English breakfasts.
Sections of the racist and massively hypocritical British press prey on nationalism with loaded phrases and even mask their racism with praise for black athletes - as long as they conform and as long as they are successful. So I get the frustration with that.
However, it also doesn't mean that British fans who watched her at Wimbledon, and who saw her at her (winning) happiest and then at her (losing) most stressed, won't have a particular soft spot for her. But then, that won't actually change if she now tells me she's a Chinese/Romanian who wants to play for Canada.
I'm old enough to remember Evonne Goolagong and alert enough to have seen them fawn over Roger Federer
Wimbledon crowds (including the TV watching variant) have favourites.
And an 18 year old who looks like she's loving playing? What's not to love.
Sections of the racist and massively hypocritical British press prey on nationalism with loaded phrases and even mask their racism with praise for black athletes - as long as they conform and as long as they are successful. So I get the frustration with that.
However, it also doesn't mean that British fans who watched her at Wimbledon, and who saw her at her (winning) happiest and then at her (losing) most stressed, won't have a particular soft spot for her. But then, that won't actually change if she now tells me she's a Chinese/Romanian who wants to play for Canada.
I'm old enough to remember Evonne Goolagong and alert enough to have seen them fawn over Roger Federer
Wimbledon crowds (including the TV watching variant) have favourites.And an 18 year old who looks like she's loving playing? What's not to love.
She's the anti-Murray
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I think the whole 'British when they're winning, Scottish when they're losing' etc is largely overblown. Where are the examples of it? I was thinking about it in the Olympics where the commentators were referring to athletes as Welsh/Scottish and British interchangeably in the same way they might refer to some an athlete as Yorkshireman etc. They do this if they are winning or losing.
Every single slam this thread degenerates into some form of boring shite.
In actual tennis chat, for some reason I think Zverev is more likely to take out Djokovic than Medvedev. I think he’ll beat either in either straights or for the loss of a set, though.
I can't handle these midnight matches
so I didn't see Djokovic yesterday (this morning). Is he really looking that beatable?I watched him at the Olympics and he looked (mentally) all over the place - but I couldn't work out if that was because of the weird playing conditions, because he wasn't taking it seriously, or something else.
Shit. I didn’t phrase that well. What I meant was, Zverev is more likely than Medvedev to beat him but I still think Djokovic probably beats either. Zverev looks really switched on this fortnight. Not sure I’ve seen him quite so efficient and untroubled before.I can't handle these midnight matches
I watched him at the Olympics and he looked (mentally) all over the place - but I couldn't work out if that was because of the weird playing conditions, because he wasn't taking it seriously, or something else.
I think this is basically Slam Djokovic now. He can win in second gear mainly and every so often there’s an iffy set, but you always feel that, even if only mentally, he’ll just have too much in the big moments.
The only thing I'd point out is that Zverev seems to have a mental block that stops him from breaking through. He could be 2 sets up in a slam final and as soon as a finish line emerges on the horizon, he proceeds go capitulate. I just wouldn't trust him to beat someone like Djokovic in a semi final until he actually does it.
Medvedev is hit or mess, but at his best is as tricky as anyone.
Unless her ancestors arrived on these isles with the Anglo-Saxon invasions, then she's an imposter and not one of us
Zverev is definitely a tougher match-up for Djokovic than Medvedev. I see Zverev winning in 4 sets. His serve down the middle has been on point and his backhand is super crisp and accurate.
Winning the CYGS is impressive in any circumstance, however if Djokovic does it, his run at all 4 slams has been incredible.
Australian Open - beat Zverev in the QF and faced Medvedev who was the form player in the final
French Open - beat Nadal and also beat Tsistispas who was the the form player on clay from the younger players
Wimbledon - relatively straightforward path to the final but he played Berrettini who was the form player (probably the only realistic threat) on grass in the final
US Open* - faces Zverev in the SF who beat him in the Olympics a few weeks ago and potentially faces Medvedev in the final who is the form player on hard courts
I wouldn't be surprised if one of them beats him, but if he can do it, I think this kind of achievement would cement his status as the GOAT (as it stands I think he is leading in that regard anyway).
Australian Open - beat Zverev in the QF and faced Medvedev who was the form player in the final
French Open - beat Nadal and also beat Tsistispas who was the the form player on clay from the younger players
Wimbledon - relatively straightforward path to the final but he played Berrettini who was the form player (probably the only realistic threat) on grass in the final
US Open* - faces Zverev in the SF who beat him in the Olympics a few weeks ago and potentially faces Medvedev in the final who is the form player on hard courts
I wouldn't be surprised if one of them beats him, but if he can do it, I think this kind of achievement would cement his status as the GOAT (as it stands I think he is leading in that regard anyway).
Bullshit - I just don't find it "absolutely glorious following a future superstar at the start of their career." Glorious, heroic, brave - this type of language associated with an armchair fan is so over the top I find it grating. But feel free to misquote/misrepresent me in the future.
Exactly - the juxtaposition is hilarious. Not quite Daily Express levels mind, but funny.
*checks notes*
The general tenor of your posts in this thread is borderline racist.
If you have seen any of her interviews she speaks with a cut glass British accent. If she says she's British, she is British end of story. And it's none of your business whichever way.
For what it's worth, Chris Froome is by dint of birthplace Kenyan, Boris Johnson is by the same token American with Turkish ancestry. No-one has any issue with them being deemed British.
Take your bigotry elsewhere.
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That fine, I’ll take that at face value, but you might want to bold the part you’re actually referring too. I’m still not reading it back as you taking issue with using the word glorious in your original post, more with people jumping on a bandwagon. Even more so when referring to Coco Gauff further down.
You can't be serious.
He's lamenting the fact that even though his kids were born in the UK to two UK-born parents they are still considered by some as "slanty eyed chinks" whereas the uber-achieving teenage phenom who's half Chinese and born in Toronto is embraced by the media and public as a Brit. Surely you can see his/her point.