The Tennis Thread
Discussion
Derek Smith said:
You are using good sense and logic. For some reason, it doesn't always work that way.
If there is little or ineffectual oversight, some will cheat or look to other ways of increasing their income. If it was need that generated such behaviour one might feel sympathetic. However, it is greed.
If you look at other sports, some sports had endemic drugs taking because the regulators and disciplinary bodies refuse to take action.
If there was no oversight in a sport, it would be remarkable if there was no cheating.
I would be astonished if Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray have been involved in match fixing (and collectively they have been the dominant players at the top of the men's game for the last 10 years). However, you don't have to go too far down the rankings to get to a stage where tennis doesn't pay especially well as a career and therefore I can see why some could be tempted down that route (wrong though it is). It will be interesting to see how this unfolds but if the origins of the report go back to 2008 I imagine at least some of the alleged offenders will have retired by now; however, without suitable policing they may have been replaced by others who are prepared to throw matches for a suitable reward and hence for the good of the game the authorities need to get a hold of this and quickly.If there is little or ineffectual oversight, some will cheat or look to other ways of increasing their income. If it was need that generated such behaviour one might feel sympathetic. However, it is greed.
If you look at other sports, some sports had endemic drugs taking because the regulators and disciplinary bodies refuse to take action.
If there was no oversight in a sport, it would be remarkable if there was no cheating.
BlackLabel said:
If they aren't fixing they are doping (allegedly).
This has got to be on the womans side of the game surely? beeb said:
Secret files exposing evidence of widespread suspected match fixing at the top level of world tennis, including at Wimbledon, can be revealed by the BBC and BuzzFeed News.
Over the last decade 16 players who have ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the tennis integrity unit over suspicions they have thrown matches.
All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/35319202Over the last decade 16 players who have ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the tennis integrity unit over suspicions they have thrown matches.
All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing.
The Big Four have been dominating the sport for the last decade and they've all got far more to lose than to gain with this kind of rubbish.
How many other men have won Slams in the last decade outside those 4? Stan? Ferrer? Safin? It's definitely single figures.
Wheras the womens game is all over the place.
Certainly going to be an interesting developing story!
MiniMan64 said:
This has got to be on the womans side of the game surely?
The Big Four have been dominating the sport for the last decade and they've all got far more to lose than to gain with this kind of rubbish.
How many other men have won Slams in the last decade outside those 4? Stan? Ferrer? Safin? It's definitely single figures.
Wheras the womens game is all over the place.
Certainly going to be an interesting developing story!
I get the impression it's the men's tour that's more under the spotlight but the report people are referring to is quite old (2008 I believe). However, outside the current top 4 you're quite right when you say there have been very few GS winners in the last decade; Del Potro, Wawrinka and Cilic are the only ones I can think of (also Safin if you go back a little further?).The Big Four have been dominating the sport for the last decade and they've all got far more to lose than to gain with this kind of rubbish.
How many other men have won Slams in the last decade outside those 4? Stan? Ferrer? Safin? It's definitely single figures.
Wheras the womens game is all over the place.
Certainly going to be an interesting developing story!
Back to the tennis and an impressive display by Verdasco this morning; from what I saw Nadal didn't play that badly but when your opponent is belting groundstrokes at almost 120mph there's not much you can do! Question is whether Verdasco will be able to maintain that level or will inconsistency be his undoing yet again and after beating Rafa he ends-up losing to a relative unknown in a subsequent round.....
Sadly these days, it would appear that most sports need to ask themselves what might make them so special that doping, gambling abuse and corruption might have mysteriously ignored their existence.
Perhaps only Horse Racing, with it's history of interference, is properly organized to tackle the threats to integrity that sport faces today (which of course is not to say they can prevent it).
Perhaps only Horse Racing, with it's history of interference, is properly organized to tackle the threats to integrity that sport faces today (which of course is not to say they can prevent it).
anonymous said:
[redacted]
This one :-https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/2jw3qe/c_...
And this blog starts to analyse the public data set to list names :-
http://showlegend.tumblr.com/post/137644525409/the...
Edited by tvrforever on Wednesday 20th January 18:10
Konta is as British as vegemite. Given on the Davis Cup, Hopman Cup and the Olympics are the only national tennis events of any relevance, whether she registers as 'British' or from Mars is pretty irrelevant - though having a 'British' woman getting to a final might help promote the game to girls here, which is a good thing.
johnfm said:
Konta is as British as vegemite. Given on the Davis Cup, Hopman Cup and the Olympics are the only national tennis events of any relevance, whether she registers as 'British' or from Mars is pretty irrelevant - though having a 'British' woman getting to a final might help promote the game to girls here, which is a good thing.
I saw the thread was last updated by johnfm and as I clicked thought to myself "I bet he's posted about Konta's nationality". Thanks for meeting expectations 
As you say, nationality is mostly irrelevant in tennis anyway, although I'm sure the LTA and UK Sport/Sport England would disagree. If her success can encourage others then that's great.
Great pic of Monfils on BBC just now, not so much for the fact that it captures the squashed ball at the moment of impact as for the fact that Monfils is not looking at it, or anywhere near it. Admittedly Monfils is clearly stretching for it but still an interesting comparison with Fed.
ewenm said:
I saw the thread was last updated by johnfm and as I clicked thought to myself "I bet he's posted about Konta's nationality". Thanks for meeting expectations
As you say, nationality is mostly irrelevant in tennis anyway, although I'm sure the LTA and UK Sport/Sport England would disagree. If her success can encourage others then that's great.
When Australian tennis is getting the wrong headlines thanks to Greek-Malaysian bad-boy Nick Kyrgios they can't but help look at the good ones that got away.As you say, nationality is mostly irrelevant in tennis anyway, although I'm sure the LTA and UK Sport/Sport England would disagree. If her success can encourage others then that's great.
True enough but I bet there are no pics anywhere of Fed not watching it. I reckon he must have remarkable peripheral vision, given that he can focus so intently on the ball but also see where he's about to place it on the opponent's court. Blackpuddin said:
Women's tennis is getting slightly more watchable these days but the fact that there were only about eight people in the stadium for the Konta quarter-final makes you wonder about the equal prize money thing.
Looked quite full to me from the TV clips.Are you thinking of her previous match where there weren't many there because an Aussie was playing on the other court?
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