Weeks 27 & 28 - The Championships, Wimbledon - women's doubles (grass)

Michael D · All-time great

RE: Weeks 27 & 28 - The Championships, Wimbledon - women's doubles (grass)

Sim · County player

Including the walkover Hev and Tatjana now have a win-loss record of 8-1 in 2018.

wolf · Tennis legend

Hmm, the Czech's are ruthlessly efficient.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Currently on Court 2 in the Ladies Invitational doubles: Li Na & Ai Sugiyama vs. Annie K & Tracy Austin
I might well have hand picked three of those (sorry Tracy) - I shall record this to play back in small doses on bad days. The sight of Ai & Li beaming constantly at one another has already brightened up the day.

But, back to the Dart & Clarke show, for now.

Sim · County player

Hev and Tatjana take the first set 6-3

PaulM · Tennis legend

Drop the second 76(5) and a break down

Michael D · All-time great

Heather loses too. Not a good few minutes. cry

QF: Tatjana Maria/ Heather Watson (GER/GBR) 165 (106+59) lost to Barbora Krejcikova/ Katerina Siniakova (CZE/CZE) [3] 16 (10+6) 6-3 6-7(5) 4-6

flamingowings · All-time great

Bit of controversy in Heather's match where the line judge went to the umpire to report Heather swearing. She and Maria say she said "stupid".

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I hate this snitching by linespeople.
Audible obscenity should mean audible to the umpire.
And what about national discrimination?
Do the linespeople know every eastern European swear word? So they can swear obscenely but not Anglophones?

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Coup Droit wrote:
[...]
Do the linespeople know every eastern European swear word? So they can swear obscenely but not Anglophones?

They are given lists of obscenities in the languages of the players for the matches at which they are going to officiate.
Obviously, they can't cover every eventuality, especially for some of the more multilingual players, but they go make more than a reasonable effort to level the playing field.

Just don't swear

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

AliBlahBlah wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
[...]
Do the linespeople know every eastern European swear word? So they can swear obscenely but not Anglophones?
They are given lists of obscenities in the languages of the players for the matches at which they are going to officiate.
Obviously, they can't cover every eventuality, especially for some of the more multilingual players, but they go make more than a reasonable effort to level the playing field.
Just don't swear

Yes. I was given the same when i umpired a national match in France. Including phonetic pronouciation guide. Problem is no one who doesn't speak the language can possibly remember the swear words or check the list each time or account for regional accents or allow for more trendy, modern swear words (often worse) that aren't on the list.... i dont really like swearing but at the moment it is a complete lottery and english speakers are penalised.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Coup Droit wrote:
AliBlahBlah wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
[...]
Do the linespeople know every eastern European swear word? So they can swear obscenely but not Anglophones?
They are given lists of obscenities in the languages of the players for the matches at which they are going to officiate.
Obviously, they can't cover every eventuality, especially for some of the more multilingual players, but they go make more than a reasonable effort to level the playing field.
Just don't swear
Yes. I was given the same when i umpired a national match in France. Including phonetic pronouciation guide. Problem is no one who doesn't speak the language can possibly remember the swear words or check the list each time or account for regional accents or allow for more trendy, modern swear words (often worse) that aren't on the list.... i dont really like swearing but at the moment it is a complete lottery and english speakers are penalised.

In counter to that, and native English speakers, are rewarded in so many other ways though. The rules are English, all the announcements, the press conferences, the drug testing, the entire lingua franca of the tour and tennis as and when you play it at a high level is invariably English. If that's your native language, then you always understand everything in those regards immediately, and completely (or, at least, you should!); you don't have to expend any time, energy or expense in making it understood to you. Everything is given to you.

Perhaps there's something in that and why most of the best players are not native English speakers. If you are having to work all the time to put things into 'your' language as part of being a top class professional, perhgaps that is some small element that creates the work ethic required to be the best, and one of the many strands that imperceptibly actually aid you?

However, given all that, I think English speakers come out, at worst, even in terms of the negatives/positives of being an English speaker; when everything is taken in the round.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Oh yes, I wasn't trying to create a sob story for English speakers :::)))
I'm not thinking they are hard done by, far from it.
I just meant that the rulemakers have a problem with this rule.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the odd utterance by elite athletes under duress, they should just take the penalty and move on. I am glad Hev cares enough to get into the ocasdional bit of lukewarm water.

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

This is another example of tennis snobbery, I wonder if its a Wimbledon thing. We know how they like a bit of snobbery, maybe its a directive thats been pushed by the All England Club. The linespeople at Wimbledon have a different demeanour than those at other Slams. Probably hand picked with background checks. Have a Brexiter Tory vibe going on, perhaps out of touch. Its a disgrace what happened to Heather yesterday, it probably had a major outcome on the result I feel. As we know Doubles matches ride on the odd point as to who wins. Ive watched the clip and sections before and after loads of times it seems really harsh on Heather. Hope she doesnt get fined for it. Shes had a hard time recently, hope she finds some focus to her singles game but this is a real kick in the teeth and really not fair.

Also read Liam Broady got fined £2,000 a few years ago as well. That doesnt surprise me either in some respects. The issue is the lack of consistency in how these rules are applied. Some players get away with just about anything, others seem to be harshly treated.