LordBrownof wrote:

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And Henry is up to live WR4, too, which encapsulates what a wacky and brilliant 18-24 months he's had. Truly meteoric. So glad I stayed up until 1:30am for that. 

-- Edited by LordBrownof on Thursday 23rd of January 2025 06:32:29 AM

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 Win the final and that will be 3rd - although lose it and the Italians will both pass him and Henry and he will be 6th at the end of the tournie.

either way, impressive rise ! 

Great news to wake up to. Well done Henry and Harri!

Brilliant!!!

LordBrownof wrote:

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And Henry is up to live WR4, too, which encapsulates what a wacky and brilliant 18-24 months he's had. Truly meteoric. So glad I stayed up until 1:30am for that. 

-- Edited by LordBrownof on Thursday 23rd of January 2025 06:32:29 AM

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 I did see that wolf, who knows his doubles much better than most, seems to have little doubt that Henry is currently the best doubles player in the world.

LPats wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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Super to see Henry & Harri into the final

It has been a pity to see such low crowds for the doubles on Margaret Court Arena yesterday when it was basically a doubles latter stages court and here today even on Rod Laver.

It is though a commentary on the relative interest in doubles in most parts of the world even in the biggest tournaments, and I used to see it in the ATP tour finals at the O2 when very many folk paid for doubles amd singles and just turned up for the singles.To a large extent, like it or not, singles does carry doubles and, for ongoing variety, good that it continues to do so.

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I'll admit that I had to leave the room when the tiebreak was going on (Can't be there live).

I do think a part of it is the pure lack of anything social media from the ATP or advertising etc. It's very much a chicken and egg situation. 250's aren't televised because there isn't that much interest but you're never going to grow interest if you don't advertise or televise as much. As a casual tennis fan you'd be surprised that there actually were doubles tourneys and matches on going because there's no advertisement whatsoever, even with the BBC etc.

What I would say, is I've always loved going to Wimbledon with a ground pass, It would be pretty miserable in the first week if there was no doubles on those courts, it's all a massive part of it.

I am biased for obvious reasons, but I don't think the ATP help themselves with regards to the low popularity of doubles. Pretty much all tennis is carried by Men's singles in terms of money and viewing, but imagine rocking up to a grand slam and there only being that event, it would be rubbish.

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 I agree, it is a core part of the overall eco system, but never could survive on its own. The whole tennis financial structure is driven by singles at the top events - ITF events get close to no spectators or coverage, Challengers is a mixed bag, depending on country, heritage of the event etc but would probably struggle to make a profit in most events, and doubles couldnt survive as a separate event. But top tennis needs all those feeder events to make the top events viable in themselves in terms of the feed through of new players, creation of the narrative, a rounded spectacle.

It wasnt always that way - doubles used to have a really big doubles only event under the WCT banner in the 80's and 90s - it was held variously at Olympia, ALbert Hall, Birmingham NEC as well - I used to go as a kid and it was always very well attended, wall to wall TV on the BBC and had real kudos with all the top players of the time playing - top doubles players and pairs of course but also some of those were top singles players as well. Same sort of tournie format as the ATP Finals, 8 pair round robin, and the events eventually got morphed into the Tour Finals when the WCT Tour closed down and the circuit joined back up to eventually become the ATP TOur we have today     

Heliovaara was superb in that semi, having finally caught up on highlights but Patten has been the standout performer in previous rounds from what I have seen. Everything crossed now for the final.

JonH comes home wrote:

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Henry and Harri are on after the womens singles final tomorrow at what should be quite a late start. Womens is on 7.30 local time, could well be a 10pm start for the men, maybe 11 am GMT?

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 Seems to me all surprisingly and unnecessarily late. Why schedule to start around the normal night session start time when these are the only 2 matches?