Monzanator

Katie Boulter defended the Nottingham title last week. Liudmila Samsonova won the Den Bosch title.

Defending Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova suffered a bad slip vs Anna Kalinskaya in Berlin today and retired injured. Let's see how bad this turns out to be...

The Kosovar reporter who made the Albanian eagle sign to Serbian fans after the England game has been kicked out of the Euros

Yeah, but Group B is suddenly looking like only two teams will qualify. Albania beating Spain would be the biggest shock here and while Croatia can beat Italy I don't think that's the most expected result.

You know it's going down when even Polish commentator screams "To je vyborne!"

That was junk. Portugal in slow motion as if Santos was back on the bench.

Empty net goal in the end. That was quite a match alright.

Georgia hits the bar. This game has had 30 shots already!

Georgia hits back against the run of play. 1-1.

Turkey scores and has another goal disallowed by VAR (offside).

Turkey hits the post in 10th minute and enjoy a better start so far.

Shapes up to be a memorable Euro debut for Georgia then...

16 minutes ago, konig said:

He is from my city Bahia Blanca, the only international referee from here, a good match to make his debut 

That kinda follows the first choice for Rapallini at the last Euro (Ukraine vs N.Macedonia) - a tricky game between South/Eastern nations of Europe.

I also think Tello could get two group stage games + one knockout phase like Rapallini in 2021 - since he won't be doing Copa America.

Looks like a lot of people picked Belgium vs Slovakia for the joker... and missed

17 minutes ago, Epic Failure said:

I agree about the ranking points issue but I think the bigger issue is the fact that the tours themselves continue to hold events during the Olympics.

 

If we want tennis players to treat the Olympics as more important than normal events, then we should treat them as more important. Don't schedule a hard court event in DC the same week. It's literally tempting players to make the 'professional' choice.

Tours are doing as best as they can. Olympics are mainly held in July these days and July is full of clay 250s which all the top players would skip anyway. The post-Wimbledon clay events are usually for lower ranked players or clay speciallists (some higher ranked players could enter them if they did bad on grass). Most top players are HC speciallists these days (Nadal who is on his last rites anyway and Świątek are exceptions from the rule). The two most important events during August are Canadian Open and Cincinnati. They are not getting moved and the week before USO is another 250 and new 500 in Mexico for women. Again, top players don't want to overplay one week before US Open. The entry list cut-off will be much higher than in Canada & Cincinnati.

The days of 2000 when Sydney OG were in September and there was a two week break between US Open and the Olympics will not return. Back then the season ended in mid-November (YEC date) or late November for Fed Cup final. These days women end their season in mid-October and they still complain they play too much.

ATP had their 2000 YEC in the last week of November. This year it's held in the second week of November.

The overall schedule issue is that Olympics are held in the same year as European Football Championships which is getting longer with more teams allowed. The days of 8/16 teams Euro ending in the last weekend of June are over. You won't see UEFA Euro overlapping the Olympics anytime soon and NEVER if Olympics are held in Europe as well. Everyone has to fall behind, even Athletics ECh which literally ended on a Wednesday this year not to mess up with the UEFA event. As big as World Athletics are, they are third string compared to UEFA.

The ideal Olympics schedule for tennis would be the second and third week of July. But that's not gonna happen with UEFA Euro stretching to mid-July these days. The 2008 schedule when Beijing was held in mid-August was also a killer, you had the USO swing either side of the OG (and most of it was front-loaded before OG anyway including all the Tier I events as they were called back then). Same thing happened in 2004 with Athens (also held in mid-August).

In 2024 to have ONE 500 event in DC during the Olympics is as good as it gets. It saves them having to split the USO swing into two halves if the OG would be held in August all the time. That 500 will be a good chance for lower ranked players or those who didn't make the OG cut due to nations quota to get an event result on their ranking. And Sabalenka would be a bigger favorite to win Washington than she would be of making the OG final for instance IMO.

Sorry for the long post but I do have an extended history of watching tennis so I'm not talking out of context here

Facundo Tello has been chosen as the referee for today's match between and

It could be a bad temper match alright here. @LDOG@konig

1 hour ago, thepharoah said:

Mbappe had his nose fractured and will have a surgery

Now the claim is he won't have a surgery and they will "manage" this injury.

And he got booked for entering the field without consent. I'm sure he will love Manzano in Primera Division?

wins 1-0!!!

VAR 2 Lukaku 0. Clear hand ball in the buld-up.

Belgium press on and Slovakia clears off the line.

And Lukaku is a chance killer again.

scores!!!  No offside!!!

@kungshamra71That statue could become a prolific meme by the time Holland plays their second game.

We need some Germans to establish whether it's actually Bismarck or not 

Overall England vs Serbia was the worst game so far. Even the one-sided Germany & Spain wins were more fun (not for their opponents ofc).

I have zero expectatons for Romania vs Ukraine. I don't recall when was the last time I watched the Romanian NT in action