Wellers, I am not sure that is true to be honest . Milions watch on TV in the UK, and hundreds of millions worldwide. Then there are the 40,000 spectators who visit it everyday- most don't live in SW19
And people who live in SW19 are mostly not excited , as the place almost grinds to a halt. Save those who rent their home out at 3/4 times the usual market rent.
Yes Ebit have a contact who takes me to the Hurlingham every year. Watched Auger-Allassime and Kevin Anderson which was good but a bit of a competition to see who serve hardest.
Tricky it kinda does grind to a halt. Roads diverted or closed . People and bars ten deep taking half hour to get served . No seats to be had in eataries of any description, then you have to be out in an hour. Takeaways 2 hour wait minimum . Buses tubes and teams rammed all day and night, and the traffic doesn’t move anywhere, for the whole of the day.
Golf is different from tennis because tennis is exercise whereas golf is a walk in a park (you never get breathless and need a little pause before you start another point - a 'shot' in golf).
Golf is also different as there's so much time to talk about different things as you walk about. You can talk about whatever, but you often talk about other sports since you are playing sport, and are likely to have golf partners and friends who are like minded.
Ebit it depends how they do coverage. If Sky sold a sailing package in France and the UK then they'd make a fortune in France which would cover the low take up here.
Guy they're getting better as they've made the boats much faster and sorted the graphics so it's easy to see the differences between teams in terms of distance to the finish, etc. The current Sail GP stuff looks exciting but can only find stuff about it on their web site.
I play loads of sport, and I also watch loads of sport. So that's that theory out of the window. I don't watch tennis because it's dull. Generally I prefer team sports, to play and to watch.
One thing that certainly is true, is it's hard to explain why nobody cares about professional tennis doubles.
I think it's because the singles is perceived to be the ultimate battle, and that ultimately tennis is not a team sport, however ultimately it really is a very good team sport.
He's very much not alone in this effort, but perhaps Andy Murray can use his fame (and his relationship with his brother) to improve the reputation of doubles. It's going to take a lot more than that of course, not least as I don't see how you can ever change the career path that first you try to make it as a singles player, and only second do you play doubles...
I hope he wins the doubles. I hope he competes in the men's and mixed.
He's not a complete charlatan in this because he did lead the effort to win the Davis Cup. That's another tournament sinking in the modern world. Maybe he'll try win the Hopman Cup sometime.
Personally he's become rather over feted as a star, as evidenced by his multiple SPOTY crowns, when someone like Chris Froome can't seem to win just one. To all his UK critics I would say embrace him, because internationally it looks bad on us as a nation that we don't champion him when he's had so much success. Naturally internationally he'll be seen as 'lucky' to ever have been World #1 in this crazy era of other people's greatness, but we should know that he wasn't lucky at all. He worked incredibly hard to get it, and it was very much deserved. In fact he only lost it because the injuries became too much.
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I'm looking backward to the tennis fortnight that started nearly 50 weeks ago.
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Unless you live in Wimbers it is hard to see how anyone is more than tuglite about it tbh
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I am so excited!! got centre court tix for first thurs
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Wellers, I am not sure that is true to be honest . Milions watch on TV in the UK, and hundreds of millions worldwide. Then there are the 40,000 spectators who visit it everyday- most don't live in SW19
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And people who live in SW19 are mostly not excited , as the place almost grinds to a halt. Save those who rent their home out at 3/4 times the usual market rent.
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I'm off to the Hurlingham this afternoon to watch their warm up tournament.
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Judo, I dont thing boing boing boing boing boing OUT
is the one buzz prefers
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Ah nice sails,have you been before?
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Tennis is a right load of shyte tbf
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Amen ZeeGee. I got subbed in to a corp hosp once - tbe most boring (and sweaty) day ever
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No, tennis is sport for people that are not interested in sport
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No, that's darts or snooker.
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I would much rather watch darts or snooker than tennis. i would rather watch crown green bowls than tennis. not hockey, obv
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Well no one is forcing you! Well, I guess the Beeb are a bit...
I quite enjoyed the snooker this year. I felt sad for that Chinese kid who won literally no frames whatsoever.
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what ZG said.
This is going to ruin my daytime TV schedule when I am on leave
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I love watching hockey.
Yes Ebit have a contact who takes me to the Hurlingham every year. Watched Auger-Allassime and Kevin Anderson which was good but a bit of a competition to see who serve hardest.
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Looking forward to a big two weeks of sport. Knockout phases of AFCON and Copa America, AND the cricket world cup.
Is there tennis on?
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I’d have thought as a professional sports journalist you would have clocked that there was.
What is the guardian paying you for?
I mean, you did become a professional sports journalist with a regular column in the guardian by the end of 2018 like you said you would didn’t you?
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The neighbourhood does not grind to a halt. The private army of rah’s in range rovers takes care of that.
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Tennis is alright, but Wimbledon is absolutely unbearable.
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Both the tournament and the place, faod
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I live a few stops on the train from Wimbledon, but in thirty years of living here I have never been to it.
It puzzles some of my American and Aussie friends who are into tennis and would love to go, but the whole thing has no real appeal.
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Spectator sports are popular with people who don't currently play sport (not much in that sport at the time anyway)
Tennis is different because you can participate in it until a relatively mature age, and indeed a lot of people play it more in later life
This might go some way to explain the perception that tennis is popular with people who don't like sport
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Tricky it kinda does grind to a halt. Roads diverted or closed . People and bars ten deep taking half hour to get served . No seats to be had in eataries of any description, then you have to be out in an hour. Takeaways 2 hour wait minimum . Buses tubes and teams rammed all day and night, and the traffic doesn’t move anywhere, for the whole of the day.
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Lolz, that is even more true of golf but golf fans follow the usual pattern i.e tend to like watching loads of different sports.
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I like tennis but don't really play because I'm crap.
I've never understood the appeal of watching golf let alone playing it.
We need more televised sailing so I can enjoy that.
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Sails the viewing figures would be shit though, it isn’t commercially viable for a broadcaster to air it very often.
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Sails I have enjoyed the odd yacht race in my time but sailing is really not a good spectator sport. Far too hard to work out what is going on.
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Golf is different from tennis because tennis is exercise whereas golf is a walk in a park (you never get breathless and need a little pause before you start another point - a 'shot' in golf).
Golf is also different as there's so much time to talk about different things as you walk about. You can talk about whatever, but you often talk about other sports since you are playing sport, and are likely to have golf partners and friends who are like minded.
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Lets face it real sport in this country is Football, Rugby, Cricket Golf. All other sport is a but meh... (and hence generally free to air)
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Tennis is better than golf, and I like golf
I wouldn't include snooker in that list either, though I also like snooker
Hockey is popular too, though not with me
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Ebit it depends how they do coverage. If Sky sold a sailing package in France and the UK then they'd make a fortune in France which would cover the low take up here.
Guy they're getting better as they've made the boats much faster and sorted the graphics so it's easy to see the differences between teams in terms of distance to the finish, etc. The current Sail GP stuff looks exciting but can only find stuff about it on their web site.
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Couldn't give a tinker's cuss about the tennis. Is there anyone worth perving at in the women's matches though?
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It's an enjoyable day out if the weather is good, pretty rank if it's cold or wet.
Prefer watching on Court 1 to Centre.
They charge very high process for the food and drink, but it's all done quite stylishly so that you somehow don't begrudge too much paying for it.
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I play loads of sport, and I also watch loads of sport. So that's that theory out of the window. I don't watch tennis because it's dull. Generally I prefer team sports, to play and to watch.
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It's Sue Barker 24/7 fortnight.
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One thing that certainly is true, is it's hard to explain why nobody cares about professional tennis doubles.
I think it's because the singles is perceived to be the ultimate battle, and that ultimately tennis is not a team sport, however ultimately it really is a very good team sport.
He's very much not alone in this effort, but perhaps Andy Murray can use his fame (and his relationship with his brother) to improve the reputation of doubles. It's going to take a lot more than that of course, not least as I don't see how you can ever change the career path that first you try to make it as a singles player, and only second do you play doubles...
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I hope he wins the doubles. I hope he competes in the men's and mixed.
He's not a complete charlatan in this because he did lead the effort to win the Davis Cup. That's another tournament sinking in the modern world. Maybe he'll try win the Hopman Cup sometime.
Personally he's become rather over feted as a star, as evidenced by his multiple SPOTY crowns, when someone like Chris Froome can't seem to win just one. To all his UK critics I would say embrace him, because internationally it looks bad on us as a nation that we don't champion him when he's had so much success. Naturally internationally he'll be seen as 'lucky' to ever have been World #1 in this crazy era of other people's greatness, but we should know that he wasn't lucky at all. He worked incredibly hard to get it, and it was very much deserved. In fact he only lost it because the injuries became too much.
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