ATP
Wimbledon: Game, Set and Chatbot (without Andy)
WIMBLEDON has been in the news this last week – for all the wrong reasons.
And they only have themselves to blame.
First up, they sparked a backlash after leaving an image if Andy Murray out of their promotional campaign for this year’s Championships.
OK, so Andy is a ‘former’ winner – and some may argue ‘yesterday’s hero’, but hell, he’s the only Brit to win the event since before World War 2 – fred Perry in 1936.
The two prominent characters this year are Carlos Alcaraz and, wait for it … Jannik Sinner.
Serena and Venus Williams, who have twelve Wimbledon singles titles between them, are even pushed to the background.
To leave out arguably Britain’s greatest player is a disgrace.
Next up, AI generated commentary of some matches. Is this for real?
Apparently it is.
According to the Guardian newspaper, it’s Game, Set and Chatbot!
Wimbledon has teamed up with IBM to introduce AI-generated audio commentary and captions in its online highlights videos.
IBM’s watsonx AI platform has been trained in the “unique language of tennis”, and will also offer so-called expert analysis of player performance.
Both male and female-sounding commentators will be used, although the voices will have no human input.
Tradition out of the window, in favour of a very dangerous trend.
As one commentator put it, “You cannot replace John McEnroe doing commentary, that human element always needs to be there.”
What’s next – of course, AI generated images of players – no need for humans. Replacing humans with machines is a dangerous option.
AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, or is it Artificial Intervention?
SECURITY at Wimbledon will need to be at its very best in a couple of weeks as reports surface that this eco terrorists Just Stop Oil are planning a protest or two at the event.
The ragtag mob of idiots, who have been disrupting British life for a while, threw orange powder across the table at the World Snooker Championships recently.
The Sun newspaper, Britain’s biggest circulation daily, reported last week that this group may glue themselves to Centre Court, or to the umpire’s chair.
AND talking of the umpire’s chair, Wimbledon’s courts will have a different look this year with Barclays Bank branding on each of the eighteen umpires’ chairs as part of a new £20 million per year sponsorship.
Sadly, the traditional Slazenger and Robinsons barley water signage is no more, in favour of yet another globalist corporate entity taking over sport.
Barclays will host a clubhouse and fanzone during the tournament, and have signed up American Frances Tiafoe to star in a TV advert.
TENNIS legend John McEnroe made an extraordinary statement last week when he said ‘winning isn’t everything’.
At Stanford University’s commencement ceremony, McEnroe told students that the lasting memory for most sports fans wasn’t always the result of the game they had watched but the intensity and thrill they had experienced during it.
McEnroe, in cap and gown, reminded students of his epic match against Bjorn Borg in 1980.
“The truth is most people don’t remember who won that match,” he said.
“The lesson here is you don’t have to win to be part of something that is truly magical.
“In sports, you often hear the phrase, ‘Winning is everything.’ But in reality, it’s not … After you succeed at something, you expect the skies to open and happiness to rain down on you.
“But that rarely happens. The truth is victory can be isolating.”
Victory also brings untold riches and open doors to a life outside sport most of us could only dream of.
If a J. McEnroe had been nothing more than a journeyman tennis player 40-odd years would any of us remember him? Of course not.
In sport winning IS everything – losers are quickly forgotten.
Winners take the prizes, attract the big endorsements and sponsorships. Losers don’t.
In terms of life, maybe winning isn’t ‘everything’ – but it helps. It helps big time.
OF all the wildcard entries to be named for Wimbledon last week, one name stands out … Venus Williams.
The older of the siblings, Venus will make her 24th appearance in the singles draw after the 43-year-old was given a wildcard entry on Wednesday.
A five-time Wimbledon singles champion who reached the final in 2017, she is now ranked 697th in the world.
BREAK Point is back – with its fly on the wall look at the world of tennis with the new season showing world No.1 Iga Swiatek getting her haircut.
All good so far, until, wait for it, her psychologist jumps in and suggesting how her hair should be cut.
Swiatek has often credited her sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz for helping her, but ruining over a hair cut?
Abramowicz :”We just have to make sure that she is able to tie it back up.”
Swiatek: “I refuse to sacrifice my hair for the sport when everything else is.”
Tne scene prompted a big response with one comment asking why a psychologist should be present for a haircut.
“Why is your sports psychologist at your hair appointment????”
Why indeed.
EMMA Raducanu made a surprising, yet refreshing, admission last week that sometimes she wishes she had never won the 2021 US Open.
“Since then I’ve had a lot of setbacks, one after the other. I am resilient, and my tolerance is high, but it’s not easy, she told the London Times.
“Sometimes I think to myself I wish I’d never won the US Open, I wish that didn’t happen. I was under so much pressure to perform, people had no idea what was going on and I had to have this facade, to keep everything inside. It has been really hard.”
Injuries and the lack of stability in her coaching team has been a major drawback for the young Brit – five coaches since that win in New York.
But she’s not giving up, battling back from surgery and looking to play a number WTA-1000 events before the US Open in September.
ONE player who has sadly decided to call it a day is Estonian Anett Kontaveit.
The former world No. 2, still only 27, will retire from professional tennis after Wimbledon after a series of injuries.
Kontaveit won six titles in her career after turning professional in 2010 and reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in 2020.
AND FINALLY…
Britain’s Princess of Wales played a winner last week as she beat tennis legend Roger Federer.
Kate, 41, beat the eight-times champion when they had a quick game at Wimbledon as they were filming a training video for ball boys and girls ahead of this year’s Wimbledon.
The Princess had nothing but praise for the ball boys and girls: “The amount of work it takes, it is incredible to see,” she said.
Watch below…
Two-time champion Casper Ruud had to work for more than two and a half hours to overcome Jaime Faria, the Portuguese who put out Stan Wawrinka in the first round at the Gstaad Swiss Open on Thursday.
Faria was riding the momentum from Tuesday’s defeat of three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka, set to retire this season and beaten in an opening match at his home venue.
Faria had his eye on a second upset as he faced Ruud, who lifted the trophy at this elite alpine village in 2021 and 2022.
Ruud ahd to dodge a bullet and mount a comeback to get through the second-round test against the Portuguese.
After dropping the opening set in a tiebreaker, Ruud played patiently as Faria saved five break points in the sixth game of the second set before failing on the sixth.
Ruud then pulled away for a 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2 victory, his first since Roland Garros.
“Sometimes it is hard to say when you get a good feeling and you start to win some games in a row,” the winner said.
“You try from the first game to the last, but suddenly something clicked in the middle of the second for me, luckily.”
He added: “I had to really fight hard and if I played one bad game in the second and he serves well, it could be over and it would be time to go home. But luckily I can extend the stay.”
The Scandinavian could join Spaniards Sergi Bruguera and Alex Corretja as three-time winners in the Alps, with Ruud now standing 10-1 here over his career.
Stefanost Tsitsipas said he slept soundly prior to finishing off a darkness-interrupted match on Thursday as he eliminated local Jerome Kym at the Gstaad Swiss Open.
The Greek who once cracked third in the world and the 186th-ranked Swiss returned to the clay after darkness on Wednesday night left them hanging at 5-all in the third set.
Tsitsipas revved up his game from the resumption to emerge into the quarter-finals 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5).
The second seed now standing 85th in the world after several poor seasons and a split with his father as his coach, said getting his rest was not a problem after the interruption.
“It was strange going to bed and not being finished. I visualised what I wanted to do, my shot patterns.
“It worked out pretty well.
“I had a good night’s sleep, I was not too stressed and I recovered to get ready for the continuation.”
After saving break points in the first game on Thursday, Tsitsipas triumphed in the final-set tiebreaker
“I’m relieved I was able to save a couple of break points.. I put my game together and made it )victory) happen again.”
The Greek now faces off against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech for a semi-final spot.
“I’m expecting a lot of big serves, the altitude (1050m) helps. I’ll try to build consistency around my own serve.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas was handed a reprieve due to fading light with his second round match at the Swiss Open Gstaad stopped with the Greek deadlocked with local Jerome Kym 6-4, 6-7 (2), 5-5.
The math had to be halted as night fell and electronic linecalling computers could not read the path of the ball on the clay in contrast to humans who could have carried on for a few additional minutes..
The 27-year-old Tsitsipas was taking the worst of it in the concluding stage after a promising start.against a journeyman opponent ranked 186.
Tsitsipas, his ranking down to 85th after once standing third in the world, lashed out verbally in the last few games, apparently frustrated with his racquet reactions.
The Greek was quick to make his point of an overnight stoppage to the chair umpire while Kym – who reached 5-all with a love service hold – left the court with a defiant fist pump for his public in this alpine resort village.
The cutoff came after just over two hours of play, with the contest to be concluded on Thursday. The winner reaches the Friday quarter-finals.
Tsitsipas produced his last notable result in April with a fourth-round showing at the Madrid Masters,
He is aiming for his second quarter-final of the season after Doha in February and his 2025 Barcelona 15 months ago.
Tsitsipas stands 10-1 vs. players ranked outside the top 100 this season with a sole loss to No. 104 Italian Matteo Arnaldi at the Roland Garros second round.
History repeats for Argentine spoiler in Gstaad
Ruud survives a scare to secure Gstaad quarters
Tsitsipas finishes off Kym after overnight pause
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