WIMBLEDON 2012

I'm surprising myself with how torn I am about today. It's the Lendl factor. His defeats vs Becker in '86 and '89 in particular were hugely painful to watch and today would be some kind of redemption for him, I suppose.

I'm particularly keen for Fed to overhaul Sampras's weeks-at-#1 record but I suspect that will happen sometime next month anyway, with all the points Nole has to defend.

Oh, I dunno. Just lots of winners, a bit of drama and no interruptions (choose what to do with the roof and stick with it).

Do Scottish people have the ability to choke at the big moments or is that a uniquely English thing?

Potro was the one guy I thought would be a multiple slam winner and maybe be up to the top 3. As it is hes on course to match Safin, if that.

Michael I was wondering where your allegiances would lie today..

(choose what to do with the roof and stick with it)

oh god I bet it's open right now

There will be an inevitable lull in the men's game - its a cycle, seen in most sports really.

yup. from the mid-90s through the early 00s, the women's game was so much better than the men's. The past 8-9 years or so, the other way round. In a few years, it might have switched again...

Yep, roof open. Now it's raining and they've recovered the court. Just close the fucker.

"Heavy, thundery, slow-moving showers". Supposedly dry 3pm-5pm. Close it.

I mean it's not like there have been any indications today that rain might occur oh wait

Ok, the Trainspotting piece has swung it for me. It's Federer.

holy shitballs... why in all that is holy is the roof open?!

lol, the trainspotting thing ws awful.

cuz god is british and he wants to see his progeny win

sun is shining now, the heavens have opened so that means andy is going to win.

wtf has steve redgrave got to do with tennis

Redgrave ws actually good on the relation between sleep and performance in a game tho.

Ha ha, Sue Barker just called the First Minister of Scotland Alex Ferguson. ANOTHER VOTE FOR FEDERER.

yeah i searched that thinking he must be some coalition hack of the same name?

I haven't watched any of the build-up deliberately. If my laptop wasn't so shit I'd probably be tempted to watch this off a dodgy stream with Russian commentary

ha i might do that actually, seems like there is at least one hd russian stream

I wasn't going to watch any of this. I wasn't going to look at this thread even! I have a lot to do around the house, y'know. But I seemed to be glued to the sofa.

(any of this = the build up; obviously I'm not missing a point)

Streamers - better stay out of here, we'll be 30-60 seconds ahead of you.

Matt smith, Becks...you know Andy fkn hates this noise on some level, a reason why he is v likeable.

SD is 2-3 secs ahead of HD ime

why are there soldiers/raf ppl or whatever

There's Cameron. Mind is made up now. Sorry, Andy. Go win the US Open, yeah?

(Cozen: true, and analogue would be ahead of digital generally, but web streams are super-laggy).

re: streaming - anyone care to share a good site?

I usually use http://www.sportlemon.tv/ or http://www.lshunter.tv/tennis-live-streaming-video.html for streams

w1z1w1g . eu

I've decided to play some Sly Stone over the warm-up.

lol "its not about the money, fame, etc." my god.

Crowd noise is ridiculous.

Nice of Fed to donate the first break!

Challenging at 30/30 in the first game on a first-serve? Roger will never get the hang of this.

this is exhausting already

Murray actually being aggressive in a Slam final!

Federer avoids the bagel.

I really miss those Wimbledon men's finals of the '80s and '90s where the average rally was 2.7 shots and both players held to love or fifteen and then you had a tie-break. NOT.

and the interminable debate about the rising speeds of serves

26min for 5 games. Oh, this is marvellous. Add in the inevitable rain breaks and we're here all day, folks.

Murray seems to have pretty much stopped being aggressive now. Oh well!

aaah so many people!

ugh @ murray of course not being able to hold onto that break, especially when fed is clearly only now just settling in. first set is so important for andy

oh murray, this defensive play

learn from fed

Forecast is now clear through to at least 7pm. So what do we/I know?

Love every time Fed gets drawn into the net and he makes Murray look like he has the reflexes of a sloth.

I can do a broadcast-signal killfile on Cameron's face? Like, it just pixellates if they show him?

fed can just so effortlessly turn his aggression up a gear midway through a neutral rally

Lendl body-pass!

Meh. I've had a horrible day, this doesn't look like it's abt to get any better.

Federer can be really bad when he puts his mind to it