Tennis Discussion Thread

From a human perspective my view on what Murray achieved in Melbourne is rather more forgiving.
Yes in tennis terms he did come up short admittedly against the best player on the planet.
But he played the whole tournament under a deal of emotional strain and battled his way to the final.
His pregnant wife on one side of the world.
He and his wife's father on the other with the latter collapsing on site in Melbourne. It is safe to say Murray had a lot on his mind at this years event. To focus wholly on tennis given what was going on would have been incredibly tough and he performed admirably given the circumstances.
The after match speech from Murray spoke volumes in paying tribute to his wife and her support and loyalty.
Looking straight down the camera and saying with love and sincerity "I'll be on the next flight home".
At the end of the day what is more important?
New life brought into the world or a tennis match?
His answer was obvious and he wanted to just get home and be there for his wife as the birth of their first child approaches.
I wish he and Kim all the very best in the coming weeks and hope that family life brings them both much joy and contentment .

Katie Swan become GB's youngest Fed Cup player after replacing an injured Jo Konta in the. team
She has won both her single matches as GB beat South Africa 3-0 and are beating Georgia 2-0 with Heather Watson winning both her singles matches, Anna Smith and Jo Rae lost but GB won 2-1.

They play Belgium on Saturday to get into a play off match to get in World Group 2

Katie Swan and Heather unfortunately most their single matches to lose to Belguim in play off.

Naomi Broady broke into top 100 at 96 after winning Don Corning Tennis Classic beating Robin Anderson 6-7, 6-2, 6-0.
Kyle Edmund beat fellow Britain Dan Evans 6-3, 6-2 in Dallas Challenger final

Jo Konta on Claire Balding show tonight(Thursday) 10pm and Jonathan Ross show Saturday at 9.45pm

Seems Laura Robson has had another injury setback, really hope her luck changes as I miss watching her play

Heather Watson makes Mexico tournament final beating Caroline Wozniacki along the way

Watson beat Kirsten Flipkens in 3 sets to WIN the Monterrey Open

Whoa Sharapova has failed a drugs test at Australian open

Seems she has been taking medication for 10 years part of which was not on the banned list for those years but seems it became banned in Jan 2016 so sh has failed the test

Didn't check her e-mail late last year informing her of the revised banned list to apply from January 1st 2016.
As a Sharapova fan I must admit I am disappointed in her.
All athletes are ultimately responsible for what substances they take and she is no different.
She has at least openly admitted this, her own error and that she has let herself, her fans and her sport down.
Credit to her for that but she will get a ban and rightly so.

For someone with a reputation for paying such attention to detail in every respect down the years this is a huge error on her part but should act as a valuable lesson for all sports professionals to be constantly vigilant about medications that appear on banned lists.

Rookie mistake she should have known better