In awe of a narky Scottish God

[Jimski]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

Djokovic wins. I'm hoping Nadal can finally win his 50th clay title here though, pulling him ahead of Vilas.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

But Serena has done so many incredible things, one wouldn't rule out another.

One such amazing thing being, if some reports are correct on the timing, having won the Aussie Open this year while already several weeks pregnant.

[Jimski]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

The increasingly impressive Goffin beats Djokovic in a titanic struggle, including a 16 point final game. It took his 5th match point to do it.

[Etienne]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

Ilie Nastase being Ilie Nastase at the Fed Cup, making racist comments about Serena's baby and sexually harassing Anne Keothavong.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

He is the very model of a racist major general.

[Etienne]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

On court, Watson led Halep 4-3, then lost 6-4, 6-1.

[Arturo]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

Nastase sent from the stands, allegedly for making remarks at Konta which has left her in tears. Sounds like chaos. God only knows what he said this time.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

I wonder if we'll find out. Anyway, shouldn't this discussion be on the Salad Bowl thread?

[Jimski]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

Nadal wins Monte Carlo. First man in the open era to win 10 titles at the same tournament. Also the first male open era player to 50 clay court titles.

[Janik]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

Wrapping up last week, Jamie Murray only lasted a few hours beyond my pointing out he was still going in Monte Carlo before he and Soares lost their QF to Arneodo/Nys, a wild-carded pair that includes a (the only?) Monegasque player. Of course if all Tennis players resident in Monaco opted to play for them (which does appear to be the limit of Arneodo’s association), the Davis and Fed Cups would never be a contest...
As for the two young/youngish Brits that were left hanging in Santa Margherita Di Pula, Emily Appleton and Appleton in tandem with Nicholls, they also went out within hours of my last name check. This happens a lot. But then, that is natural enough when you think about it; nearly every active Tennis player loses at some point each week. I think it was Wayne Ferreria who remarked on that, that he had only had 15 working weeks in a 15 year career that didn’t end in failure, i.e. with a loss (the fifteen when he won titles!). Tennis is a hard-knock lifestyle in some ways...

On events at the weekend, I’m taking the Linda Smith line: no oxygen of publicity combined with a general disappointment that said individual has the oxygen of oxygen.

That doesn’t refer to Rafa Nadal, of course. Having won his tenth in Monte Carlo, he can double his money this week (not literally) by becoming champion for a tenth time in Barcelona as well. Rafa isn’t the top seed, though. That is Andy Murray, who has taken a late wild card following his early elimination in Monaco. Some form is desperately overdue, with the first hurdle being either Bernard Tomic or Dustin Brown (on clay that should be Tomic, but you never know with Bernie).
It isn’t always wise to write players off as so unadapted to clay as a surface that they will always lose on it. Take Dan Evans, for example. He had never won a Tour match on a clay court prior to today when he was up against an opponent, Thiago Monteiro, whose only tour level wins are on clay, where he possesses an overall winning record. And yet Evo beat him, just, in a deciding set breaker. Evans faces Mischa Zverev in R2, which will feature three Britons as Kyle Edmund gained some revenge on Jeremy Chardy for his recent Davis Cup defeat by winning in straight sets. Someone may well have hit a backhand in that match, though rumours of this remain unconfirmed. Edmund plays Dominic Thiem next up, which will also likely see both players camped at the left hand extreme of their respective baselines.
Both Edmund-Thiem and Evans-M.Zverev are due up tomorrow, as in Brown-Tomic with A.Murray not facing the winner until Wednesday. No further British interest in the Barcelona Doubles, either tomorrow or in the rest of the week after J.Murray/Soares (the no.2 seeds for the event) lost in R1 to Martin/ Roger-Vasselin today.

Barcelona is an ATP500, with a lower level ATP250 event happening concurrently in Budapest. This features just the one Brit in the singles, Aljaz Bedene. He was the top seed in qualifying, and made it through to a main draw R1 meeting with Federico Delbonis unscathed. Hopefully Aljaz will have more luck than in his last World Tour main draw match, when he had to retire hurt.
The other Brit in Hungary is Inglot, playing this week w/ Haase. They face Pouille/Simon in R1 sometime later in the week, with Bedene-Delbonis happening tomorrow.

The WTA similarly has one mid-level and one basic level tournament. The mid-level event is the Premier in Stuttgart, which will be dominated by the week’s big (and extremely controversial) story about the hurried return of a certain someone after over a year out following her confessing to using performance enhancing drugs. Again, I don’t really need or want to say her name.
However this particular Voldemort isn’t the only player of interest to enter via a wild card, because Jo Konta is also in via that method. That Konta is able to obtain a wild card for an event in Germany is something that comes with her status as one of the top ten players in the 2016 end-of-season rankings; the WTA reserves WCs in Premier events for such players to have first dibs on, a situation which Jo has taken advantage of to replace the missed tournament in Charleston that came too soon after hr Miami title. She gets to wait until Wednesday to play her opening round singles match, which will be a toughie against the dangerous Naomi Osaka.
This segues nicely into another Naomi, Ms Broady, who tried to qualify for the singles but fell at the first hurdle. She has, however, had more success in the doubles as she and Smith beat Konjuh/Lepchenko this evening. That was apparently Anna Smith’s first tour level match win of 2017. She was the best player on court (BT Sport screened the match live), so deserved it. The win was worth 100 doubles ranking points each and just shy of €5000 to split, so pretty valuable. Their QF opponent is TBC.

The other WTA Tour event is in Istanbul. British involvement here was limited to Tara Moore losing in the opening round of qualifying.

Dropping down a level to the Challengers, where the biggest event is a combined Men’s and Women’s tournament in Anning, China. No British Men entered, but one Woman did – Suzy Larkin. I think Larkin got a mention in this thread last year when she undertook an immensely long stand of (Futures) events in Antalya, having returned to the sport in her mid-20s after giving it up as a teenager and not playing a tournament for nearly a decade. Seven events/nearly two months in Turkey was followed after a few weeks break by a jaw-dropping 17 straight weeks in Sharm-El-Sheik and then directly on for a further three in Cairo. That took Larkin from early August to just prior to Christmas and a ranking of ~700-odd to end the year. 2017 has been a little less extreme, with some events actually in Britain and just the five weeks in Sharm back-to-back and now this – a flight to China for her first go at a Challenger-level. It went... OKish, Larkin winning a round in qualifying before going out to the World No. 438. She is obviously giving it both barrels so it will be interesting to see if she can make a proper go of this second attempt at a career.
Everything else on the Women’s side is pretty standard fare in comparison. Freya Christie and Harriet Dart are somewhat off the beaten track in Uzbekistan mind, Karshi to be precise, where both have opened their main draw singles campaigns with wins over Yasmina Karimjanova and Alina Silich respectively. They are also teaming up for the Doubles. Dominique Covington lost in q1 in Santa Margherita Di Pula but will play the Dubs here. And Maia Lumsden lost in q1 of Tunis. She won’t play the Doubles of that, though an all-British pair are involved in the persons of Anane/Hillyer.

On the Men’s side, the only event with Brits is in Tallahassee. Luke Bambridge lost in q1 of the singles of this, so just has the doubles w/ Krueger left to earn his corn, with their opening match later today. N.Skupski is also in Florida for the Dubs, playing with Polansky. They don’t start until tomorrow at the earliest.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

Good unexpected win for Evans against M Zverev in the Barcelona R32. In the R16 he'll face Thiem, who beat Edmund earlier today.

I so, so, so hope Vinci wins against the wild card drugs cheat in Stuttgart tomorrow, but I don't expect her to. It should be a frosty match, given that Vinci is one of the ones who've publicly criticised the WC.

[Janik]

In awe of a narky Scottish God

Blimey, two clay court wins in a row for Dan Evans as he beats Mischa Zverev in two. Whoda thunk it... Evo will face Dominic Thiem in R3, which those paying attention will clock means Kyle Edmund lost in R2 as he was facing the Austrian. Andy Murray, meanwhile, will face Bernard Tomic in R2.
Federico Delbonis was a late scratch from R1 of Budapest, leaving Aljaz Bedene to face a lucky loser. This turned out to be Marcus Copil, which is precisely who Bedene beat in the final round of qualifying. That one went to three, but today's rematch proved more straightforward for Aljaz as he won in two to set up a R2 encounter with Robin Haase.

The only development regarding Brits on the WTA Tour today was N.Broady/Smith finding out their QF opponents in Stuttgart will be #3 Atawo/Ostapenko. In non-Brit news, the pinkification count in the match I'm currently watching is: Radwanska's dress, Makarova's shoes and the paint job on the Porsche that the winner of the singles can opt for as her prize.

Little happening in D2, with one doubles win (Christie/Dart in Karshi) and one defeat (Anane/Hillyer in Tunis) on the Women's side, and nothing on the Men's.

[Janik]

Ah, here it is, lurking on page 2. We appear to have lost some updates in the transfer, but no matter...

What has been happening this week, whilst we were all forced to deal with the non-virtual world?

Let’s start with the ATP World Tour.
Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares are through to their third final of the year in Stuttgart, after winning their Semi against Matkowski/Mirnyi. Their opponents in the title match are yet to be decided. In no-Brit news, veteran Roger Federer lost to super-Veteran Tommy Haas in R2 of the singles.
Talking of Singles, the only Brit involved in this format at this level was Aljaz Bedene, who was in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Bedene was the 8th seed, and lived precisely up to that billing with wins over Denis Istomin and Ernesto Escobedo before losing in the QFs to #4 Gilles Muller in three. Also in action in Holland were Inglot w/ Haase. They lost in R1 to the #2 seeds.

‘s-Hertogenbosch is a joint ATP/WTA tournament. On the Women’s side the only British involvement was Smith/Melichar, who were seeded #4 but went out in the QFs to the Kichenok twins. This is probably because there was also a joint WTA/ATP Challenger event in Britain (Nottingham), which attracted many more entries.
Jo Konta is far and away the most prominent player involved in either event. She is the only top ten player and there was just one other ranked inside the top 20 involved. In fact Konta would have been ineligible for Nottingham in some recent seasons as top 10 players from the previous campaign are very restricted in the number of International level events they can enter (on the grounds of being too good!). She is living up to the billing so far, through to the Semis without dropping a set, with a good win today against Ash Barty. Her opponent in the last four is Magdalena Rybarikova, who we know (or at least knew) is in form on grass.
No other British Women survived past R1. Indeed no other Brits would even have made the event but for wild cards. Tara Moore lost to Konta, which was a bad draw for Moore as she had QF points to defend from last year. Heather Watson and Laura Robson lost to Alison Riske and Julia Boserup respectively, neither of which is an easy match on grass, but still, disappointing. There were also three qualifiying wild cards given to Eden Silva, Freya Christie and Laura Deigman. Silva did win a match, but then went out in final q. The other two lost first up.
The Women’s Doubles Final in Nottingham could have as many as three Brits on the court; the SF line-up tomorrow is Konta/Wickmayer vs Adamczak/Sanders and Rae/Robson vs Watson/McHale. Given that those pairings were the only ones with Brits in them entered into the event, this has been pretty successful. Now watch the Aussies (Adamczak/Sanders) walk off with the crown!

The Men’s event in Nottingham is a Challenger, rather than full Tour. Dan Evans was meant to be the top seed for this, but withdrew at the last minute as the calf injury that ended his run at Surbiton hadn’t healed in time (he has also withdrawn from Queens next week and must be a doubt for Wimbledon). Jay Clarke, Liam Broady and Cameron Norrie all got wild cards, but all lost in R1 to Yuki Bhambri, Illya Marchenko and Kenny de Schepper respectively. However there was one Brit involved past the first round as Lloyd Glasspool won three matches to qualify (including beating Alejandro Falla) and then backed that up with main draw wins over #5 Go Soeda and Marc Polmans before his run ended against #3 Dudi Sela today. There were loads of other Brits in qualifying, the only others to win a match being Barnaby Smith (and his victim was a fellow Brit) and Finn Bass (piscine). Both lost in q2. q1 losers were Max Stewart, Sean Hodkin (to Smith), Daniel Bennett, Jonny O’Mara, Josh Paris, Ryan James Storrie, Luke Bambridge, Alex Ward, Curtis Clark, James Ward, Ed Corrie and Neil Pauffley (to Glasspool). *phew*, that is quite a long list.
One all-British pair are into the Men’s Doubles final in Nottingham which was certain when the Semi pitched Klein/Salisbury vs K.Skupski/N.Skupski. The Skupskis came out on top and now play Aussies Reid/Smith in the final. Two other all-British pairs also played, but both Clayton/O’Mara and Bambridge/Norrie lost in R1.

And finally, what of the Women’s ITF events? Well, the week’s highest value one is in Manchester. This was an emotional home-coming for Stockport girl Naomi Broady following the recent terror attack, and she is laying it out so far making the Semis after wins over Ankita Raina, Maria Sanchez and #1 Kai-Chen Chang. Broady, the 6th seed, plays Zarina Diyas in the Semis.
Gabriella Taylor made the QFs after wins over Lesley Kerkhove and #2 Maryna Zanevska (Zanevska admittedly by retirement) but lost today to Aleksandra Krunic. Krunic had beaten Katie Boulter in R2, which Boulter reached after beating Sam Murray in an all-British R1 match. One other R1 encounter took things a step further as we got an all-British, all-Kate match, Katy Dunne topping Katie Swan. Dunne lost to Chang in R2.
Other Brits who played the Manchester main draw were Harriet Dart, Emily Webley-Smith and Emily Appleton. All lost first up. However it should be noted that Sam Murray and Emily Webley-Smith had to negotiate qualifying (and a lucky loser draw in Webley-Smith’s case) to be involved in the main show at all. Again the qualies were replete with British entries. In addition to Murray and Webley-Smith, Alicia Barnett made q3, beating Aleksandra Pitak in R2 (both beat non-Brits in q1). Three others also made q2, but that was a bare minimum as Olivia Nicholls, Olivia Peet and Louise Holtum won local matches first up. Brits to lose in q1 were Mollie Crouch, Hannah McColgan, Chloe Hughes, Ella Taylor, Katarzyna Pitak, Sarah Beth Grey, Hollie Staff and Olivia French.
7 of the 16 doubles pairs were either part- of fully-British. Boulter/Swan got the furthest, to the SFs but they didn’t actually play it handing a walkover to their opponents instead. Others to win a round were Dart/Dunne, who beat #1 Broady/Sanchez in R1, and Murray/Lao who beat Pitak/Pitak. Webley-Smith/Raina and Grey/Nicholls lost to non-British pairs.
Finally, just a nod to two more adventurous types. Or possible more likely US-based ones. Lauren Hewett and Daneika Borthwick played in the qualifying draws, in the singles and doubles respectively, of the event in Sumter, South Carolina. Both lost their sole match.

[Janik]

And what of those still standing today? Well, Jo Konta made the Nottingham (singles) Final after a somewhat scratchy two set win over Magdalena Rybarikova. Helped along the way by some dodgy line calls, and despite looking at one stage as if the sweltering conditions were going to make her overheat again (who on earth would have believed that could happen in Nottingham?!?). She plays Donna Vekic in tomorrow’s final, in what will be Konta’s first home and first grass court WTA title match. She is also the first British woman to play a WTA final on home soil since Jo Durie in 1983, I think. And the first to play one on grass since Durie in 1990. As Johanna the younger has indicated, whenever Durie’s name comes up Konta knows she has done something good.

The reason for the qualifier about the singles final is that Konta/Wickmayer later lost in the Doubles Semi to Adamczak/Sanders. The Aussie pair will play Rae/Robson in the title match, after the all-British team beat Watson/McHale in the other Semi. Both Doubles matches needed a match-breaker to decide. Britain vs Australia. Obviously the biggest sporting confrontation between traditional and fierce taking place in Britain tomorrow...* Robson’s Semi win was something of a poisoned chalice, as it meant she had to forego the wild card into next week’s Edgbaston singles. Making the sign-in deadline was already nearly impossible by the start of the match breaker mind, so winning that was better than losing it.
The Men’s Doubles final in Nottingham was also Britain vs Australia, the Skupskis vs Reid/Smith. And Britain won! GO has popped a champagne cork, I’m sure.

On the ITF circuit, Naomi Broady lost the Semi in Manchester to Zarina Diyas.


* - actually there are two India vs Pakistan matches happening in London on Sunday. Along with the Cricket at the Oval, the two nations play each other in the Hockey World League Semi-Finals at Lee Valley. India is possibly an even stronger favourite to win the Hockey than the Cricket, seeing as Pakistan lost 6-0 to Canada on Friday. Yes, this is field Hockey.

[Janik]

Play is already underway for next week as well, with Queens (ATP500) and Edgbaston (WTA Premier) taking the spotlight.

Both events initially had enormously strong entry lists, but have suffered a string of withdrawals. They remain pretty high level, though not as stratospheric as at first blush.
The headline scratches from Queens were Rafael Nadal, Juan Martin del Potro and Dan Evans. I think Evans was only ever a wild card, but even so his backing out let James Ward take that spot. Evans would actually not have needed a wild card anyway, as both Kyle Edmund and Aljaz Bedene are in by right. That meant the other wild cards could go to Cameron Norrie, and in a reaching out gesture to Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Bedene has drawn... Andy Murray in R1. Just like last year. Bedene won’t win this time around, either. I doubt Norrie will find Sam Querrey too easy to handle on a grass court. If he were to somehow come through though, he would play the winner of Murray-Bedene in R2. Both Ward and Edmund will face a qualifier or lucky loser (of which there will be at least one). In Edmund’s case that could mean a rematch with Denis Shapovalov, as he is due to play Liam Broady for a spot in the main draw tomorrow. Broady got a good win today in q1 against the top seed, Frances Tiafoe. The other Brit in the Queens qualies was Ed Corrie, but he lost to Jeremy Chardy. In three, though, which is respectable.
J.Murray/Soares will be the #3 seeds in the Queen’s Doubles, once they get their responsibilities in Stuttgart tomorrow out of the way (their final is against Marach/Pavic). They play Muller/Querrey. The only other Brits in the doubles draw are there via wild cards; Edmund/Kokkinakis play Bopanna/Dodig and Inglot/Kyrgios play Cilic/Matkowski.

Notable names absent from Edgbaston are Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Jelena Ostapenko and Maria Sharapova. Among others. It’s a testament to the strength of the original entry list that all 8 seeds are in top 20 even after so many (7) top 20 players from the event. This has been helped by Sharapova’s planned wild card being re-directed to Petra Kvitova, who is infinitely more deserving of it. The other wild cards have gone to Heather Watson and Naomi Broady.
Broady plays Alize Cornet in R1. Watson has a very tough drawn against #2 Elina Svitolina. Jo Konta (seeded #4) also faces an Ukranian, Lesia Tsurenko. Tsurenko made the Semis in ‘s-Hertogenbosch this week.
The chances of any Brits joining Konta, Watson and Broady are slim. In fact all hopes rest with Katie Boulter, after she beat Jodie Burrage in q1 today. Burrage was a wild card, but Boulter was in by right. Also in off their ranking were Tara Moore and Katy Dunne, but they lost to Petra Krejsova and Ankita Raina respectively. Emily Appleton, Sam Murray, Burrage and Katie Swan all had wild cards and were eliminated straight away.
The Doubles draw for this is not yet out.


The joint ATP/ITF Challenger in Ilkley has drawn a number of entries, of course. All those who could have got into the Men’s by right are in London, leaving it to Jay Clarke, Lloyd Glasspool and Marcus Willis to keep up British honour via wild card entries. They might yet be joined by any of Neil Pauffley, Ryan James Storrie, Finn Bass, Julian Cash, Baranby Smith or Jonny O’Mara as these six all play qualifying (all needing wild cards to be involved as well).
The Women in Ilkley are almost all wild cards as well. I think, by a process of elimination, the main draw ones have gone to Harriet Dart, Gabriella Taylor, Freya Christie and Maia Lumsden. The only one in qualifying who got in by right was Emily Webley-Smith, with Alicia Barnett, Francesca Jones, Laura Deigman, Sarah Beth Grey, Eden Silva and Hannah McColgan joining her by invite.

[Janik]

Forgot to mention regarding Konta that she can climb back to World No.6 if she beats Vekic tomorrow. That final starts at 3pm, and is live on Eurosport.

[KGR]

Forgot to mention regarding Konta that she can climb back to World No.6 if she beats Vekic tomorrow. That final starts at 3pm, and is live on Eurosport.

Taking the family to our first tennis live experience tomorrow - 27 degrees expected! The doubles a total bonus too. I go armed with plenty of knowledge, of course, just from my regular dips into this thread.

[Janik]

Not a very successful day for the Brits in Nottingham - Konta lost to Vekic from a set up, so remains without a grass court title and is the World No.7 this morning rather than No.6, and Rae/Robson lost to Adamczak/Sanders. That means Joss Rae (who, despite representing Scotland is Nottinghamshire based), is now 0/4 in WTA Finals. And Laura Robson is 0/2 in doubles to go with 0/1 in singles. Rae did climb back into the doubles top 100 with runner-up points, which is something at least.

The news from Stuttgart was better, as J.Murray/Soares beat Marrach/Pavic.


As for the coming week, Liam Broady lost to Denis Shapovalov in Queens final q. And Shapovalov has indeed drawn Kyle Edmund in R1! I wonder if Arnau Gabas is available to Umpire, or would that be trolling Shapovalov too much? James Ward has also found out his R1 opponent:- Julien Benneteau
Edmund-Shapovalov takes pride of place on the Day 1 schedule, being the last match on Centre. Kyle will be the only Brit in action at Queens today.

Up in the Midlands, where British interest in the Birmingham qualifiers ended when Katie Boulter lost to Sachia Vickery in q2. The final qualifiers are this morning on the outside courts, with the Ann Jones Centre Court given over to main draw matches. Again pride of place in these goes to the local players, with Watson-Svitolina the third match on, followed by Broady-Cornet.
As well as the singles wild cards, Watson and Broady also have one for the doubles (as a pair). They will play Atawo/McHale in R1, but not today.
Talking of the doubles, there is one Brit in full tour action in an event outside the UK - Anna Smith (now the British No.1 doubles player) continues her burgeoning partnership with Nicole Melichar in Mallorca. They play Pavlyuchenkova/Wickmayer in R1.


And what of the Ilkley Challenger? Well it was a massacre amongst the qualifying wild cards. On the Men's side all six of Neil Pauffley, Ryan James Storrie, Finn Bass, Julian Cash, Baranby Smith or Jonny O’Mara went out in their opening match. Just as bad on the Women's, with only Alicia Barnett winning, but that was against fellow British WC Francesca Jones. Laura Deigman, Sarah Beth Grey, Eden Silva and Hannah McColgan all lost first up, as did non-wild card Emily Webley-Smith.
Will the doubles bring more joy? Err, maybe, though once again all British entries are by wild cards. On the Men's side the teams involved are Clarke/Willis, Klein/Salisbury and the Skupskis. The Women's doubesl draw in Yorkshire has not yet been published (on the ITF website).

There are also a tiny handful playing second tier events outside the UK/on surfaces other than grass. Joshua Oxley entered the qualifying of a clay event in Todi, Italy, but lost in q1. The same was true for Hannah Keeling on hard in Baton Rouge. And Luke Purser is playing doubles with a local, Thomas Rodrigues, in the clay event in Blois, France.

[Janik]

Three set defeats for Heather Watson against Elina Svitolina (as ranking) and Kyle Edmund against Denis Shapovalov (erm, not, and rather a choke to hand it away in the final game). Naomi Broady has just gone a set up on Alize Cornet. Can she be the one to get over the line? She is currently playing well enough to do it...

[Janik]

Get over the line? She sprinted over, 6-0 in the second set. Helped, it must be said, by Cornet imploding mentally.
Just Naomi's third win at Tour level this year. And because Birmingham has Premier status these days, worth a good chunk of points (55 to be exact). Lifts her back within touching distance of the top 100...

[delicatemoth]

Nick Kyrgios has retired from Queens after aggravating a hip injury. I can't believe people play tennis in weather like this.

[Janik]

It's bloody hot for sure. But it's still some way short of the temps and humidities reached in Melbourne. And that takes place on a hard court that reflects the heat back up again, rather than on a grass one with something of localised cooling effect. I bet the soles of the players shoes were not melting, as they can do at the Aussie Open.

[Gerontophile]

Bye-bye Andy.

[Janik]

It's a good job for the organisers that Queens is basically a sell out ahead of time, as they have lost nearly every big name in the event by Tuesday! And every Brit, for that matter. It began beforehand with the with the withdrawal of Nadal, Del Potro and Dan Evans. Then Kyrgios hurt his hip and sloped off to the pub yesterday after playing just one set (he was joking about that... or at least I hope he was joking), followed by Kyle Edmund folding at the death.
And now today we have lost all of the top three seeds, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Milos Raonic. Indeed none of them won a set. Raonic was the first to fall, losing two breakers to Thanasi Kokkinaks, followed by Wawrinka being beaten by Feliciano Lopez (not the greatest shock on grass). And then the big one, Murray gone to Jordan Thompson, who only got in as a Lucky Loser after being beaten by Jeremy Chardy in qualifying! That improved form from Paris didn't last long... All those matches were on Centre Court, with the last of the day now underway featuring the #4 seed Marin Cilic vs John Isner. Cilic had better concentrate...
Talking of Chardy, he beat Liam Broady in R1 (who, like Thomson, had got in as a Lucky Loser). James Ward was thrashed by Julian Benneteau, as was Cameron Norris by Sam Querrey. As for Aljaz Bedene, he was the player who withdrew injured to let Thompson in to play Murray! Wrist injury, apparently.
It could lead to a no-mark Final to match Scott Draper vs Laurence Tieleman back in '98.

Better news for Jo Konta up in Birmingham, as she beat Lesia Tsurenko in two. She will play Coco Vandeweghe in R2, whilst Naomi Broady has one of the biggest matches of her career coming against Petra Kvitova. I don't rate her chances, and only give Konta a 55-45 advantage against Vandeweghe.

[Janik]

Wonder if Murray will follow Djokovic's example and enquire about a wild card for Eastbourne? That would be some coup for their revived Men's tournament...