I know you are all dearly missing my World Tennis News emails so for nostalgia’s sake here’s a round up of this year.

Well I can’t believe it’s that time again, the tennis season has come to a close. Most women I know are relieved when the football season is over, but I doubt most people even know when the tennis season is. Well I’ll tell you, it runs from January to October with a big end of season tournament in November.

Speaking of said tournament, that was played this week where the worlds best 8 players from the season come head to head for one final showdown. It involved the like of Roger Federer, new world no.1 Rafael Nadal, and for the first time Britain’s Andy Murray. The eventual winner was Novak Djokovic in an unexpected final with my least favourite player Nikolay Davydenko. Murray had a descent run too, winning all of 3 his group games (including Federer), only to go out in the next round.

I have been playing a fantasy tennis league this year and I finished 12th from 23,033 players so hopefully when I make a tennis prediction now it carries some sort of credibility, and next year I’m gonna predict the following. Andy Murray has a lot of points to gain in the first half of next season, with poor efforts in the aus open, early masters series and clay court season this year. He is ranked 4th in the world, which will mean being seeded to make at least semi finals in big tournaments which should make it easier for him to progress through the draw, instead of having to face the likes of Nadal in the 4th round! I expect more of the same from rafa, dominating on clay, and trying to be more competitive on hard court. I think Djokovic will always be a danger, but I think he lacks the legend factor that Nadal and Federer clearly have. Speaking of Roger - I wouldn’t write him off just yet, he will not be pleased with how things have went this season, and he will want to prove everyone wrong, and get back to no.1, and I think he certainly could do it. Lastly my one to look out for next season - well there are a few. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and David Nalbandian (if he ever shrugs off that false dawn syndrome!).

Chris

IV Coordinator

Yesterday, QUBTC descended on the odyssey like a blistering wind! All be it…. a wind without much finances. We tore the bowling lane apart with our awesome skill and finesse….ohhh wait that must have been a dream haha. Well it started well anyways…bar James getting lost? How did he manage that you may ask, i dont think we shall ever truly discover the reason…but like X-files always said…The truth is out there.

 There was a decent crowd of us, roughly around 19… we all had some good banter, warming up the drinking muscles before the box…a good athlete always warms up, even for a session of drinking. I would definitely question the health and safety aspect of 10 kilogram bowling balls and drunken lunatics…but i guess we were blissfully unaware of the impending foot breakages, go team us!

 The bowling just didnt last long enough though….i guess time flies when your having a good time! and before we knew it, it was 10 oclock and we then migrated the box. Im gonna say 3 words…. Tequila Supersoaking Stripping…Ill let your mind ponder on that one lol. We all merrily boarded the boat of Steam…adequately helped by Tequila shots and £2 drinks! Then we all had a wee go shaking our buttocks’ on the stage, in what we hoped was a stylish and seductive manner….lets just hope photography doesnt rear its ugly head in that instance and we can all hold the treasured memory in our heads, as a lesson for the future at any rate.

I would just like to thank everyone that came out, i know it does involve a bit of courage, but i hope you seen it was well rewarded and it might entice those other shy people to have a bash it, we dont bite! hard haha

Id like to share a few tips for all future Outings!

1) Alcohol tastes much better when its being shot at you

2) If someones running at you covering there mouth, stand well back lol

3) Have a bottle of water beside your bed, as well as a Sachet of Dioralyte, and 2 C0-Codamol tablets.

4) Consider never consuming alcohol ever ever again….at least until next wednesday.

 These headache saving tips were brought to you by McDave, who is still on that scenic route called..The road to recovery.

Hey everyone, Hope everyone is doin well, courses goin grand, hating our light and refreshing weather aka Rain!

The first two weeks have went fairly well, our coach couldnt make it last week, so i would like to thank Brian and the rest of the commitee for helping out! So i just want to point out some short notices!

1. People playing matches on the spare courts, can you please limit matches to best of 4 games, if there are other people waiting for courts. And if we have alot of people can you refrain from playing singles and play doubles please.

2. Chris Sanlon is selling cheap tennis rackets, bags and various tennis related equipment, and you can generally find him on wednesday coaching at the boat club! This is a good time to pick up a cheap racket if your using one of the spares.

3. Tennis Social events will be every fortnight, and Naomi will be organising these and i shall post them on the events section of the site and Aidan should keep you all updated via email. I believe this weeks social is Bowling =D, check the events page for the info!

4. The Ladder was started last week, but we are still taking down names for people who want to join it. If you wish to play on the ladder please contact either Aidan or I (Dave). Either via emails/on the forums/ on wednesday!

 And finally if anyone has any questions at all on the club, dont hesistate to fire an email off to us and to those people still wondering whether to join or not, we are still recruiting and its never too late! So get yourself down to the boat club! you wont regret it!

Well today was the great Freshers Bazaar! (Besides the fire alarm at 3pm!) Id like to thank James, Steven, Naomi, Mary-Louise, Mark, Andrew, and Aidan for helping out…even if some of you did just lounge around eating pizzas, the company was appreciated! oh and id like to say a real special thank you to….ME =D…id like to thank my agent, etc who all helped me reach such a pinacle of greatness…..oh and i really want world peace and extra dolphins please.

Secondly id like to say a big massive thank you to all the people that signed up, a mind boggling 132 of you! it was a very successful bazaar which in no way will contribute to a crazy night on the town haha. Sorry…i promise it will all go towards…err dolphins! Tennis playing dolphins… you may begin to wonder who let me loose on this tennis site….i wonder also..your not alone haha

Just to remind everyone that next week is the first week of tennis, for anyone who doesnt know where the Belfast Boat club is, Me and Naomi will be walking from the union down to the boat club next wednesday leaving about 1:30pm, and we will be there from around 1:20pm.

For anyone who doesnt currently own a racket, we will have a couple of spares for the first few weeks. Id strongly recommend buying your own racket as we wont always have spares and you dont want to be left out of the fun. The spares will be on a first come, first served basis. If there isnt enough we can perhaps create a rota on the day, but hopefully it wont come to that.

Heres a map to the Boat Club

Were still in negogiations about a further club night, and ill keep you all posted about it, so stay tuned!

 Hello everyone! yes, as you might have guessed, QUB Tennis club is back in business for a brand new year of thrills and spills.

Firstly id like to introduce myself, our new Webmaster in chief…like spiderman…only cooler… plus i dont look good in red. My name is Dave, you may refer to me as such…but  “Spiderman”  “My hero”  “that guy who writes boring stuff on the site ” is all equally acceptable. I’ll be the one who will be bringing you hot new action straight, slap bang from the courts to your computer.

Secondly id like to usher in our newest commitee members, i know you might be thinking “i wanna hear more about that dave guy” dont worry..that time will come, you’ll grow to love dont worry.

Our Mens captain is Steven Smyth, a very dedicated tennis player and will hopefully lead us to victory in the upcoming leagues and intervarsity, we shall have to give him our undivided support.

Our Ladies Captain is Mary-Louise Boyle, a fun loving leader, which all you ladies will hope to gain valuable experience and inspiration from.

Our Secretary is that devilishly charming rogue, better known as Aidan Malone. Some have suggested that his ribbed body has boosted up membership by 10%! Cough mary louise? Unfortunately we cannot get him to wear a mini skirt and a nice blouse, but he will be in charge of organising all our matches, and events so we thank him for a stirling job, which is not the easiest!

Treasurer this year is James Spencer, fresh blood some might say into our tennis fold, his job is to take your loot unfortunately *cry* i know, its not a pretty job but someones gotta do it! But when you think of the excellent coaching, brilliant tournaments, and insane social events… Can you really put a price on that? i dont think so… *Pardon the cheesy prose..it needed to be done*

Social this year is Naomi Hughes, a real wild child if her house parties are anything to go by, and whats even better has sweet fire extinguishing skills in case…you know…anyone goes on fire? We can be guaranteed to have our socks completely and utterly rocked off by the end of the year. For those about to rock! We salute you!

Intervarsity Manager, a unique role which was created specifically for this year, is Chris Scorah. Chris some might ponder…is like those beings that seem to be around forever.. a being of pure QUB Tennis knowledge, a spirit guide for the rest of the commitee. Im pretty sure hes been around since the dawn of time…just biding his time for queens to be founded…but its pure speculation, which can be discussed further on the Tennis Forum. His Job will be to organise the hectic intervarsity tournament which will be hosted by Queens! In the tournament, Players of all skills levels will be able to compete in what will be an extremely exciting time, imagine a Battle Royale with tennis rackets, combined with regular social events throughout in which you’ll meet new people from other universities and gel with your new friends from queens!! Which you definitely wont want to miss!

And finally there is me, your run of the mill, friendly neighbourhood spidermanwebguy… I hope to keep up interesting news and you never know what scandalous juicy pieces you might come across! so Stay Tuned

A note to the freshers! Freshers Bazaar will be this Wednesday 1st of October, We will have a stall were you can meet us and sign up! I know…QUB tennis in the flesh…i can feel the awed silence… Anyways when your there feel free to ask us any questions about the club, or any concerns you have! Signing up with us will get your first day free so you can get a taste of what its like, which i can guarantee will be excellent!

We will also be trying to get signatures for a petition, which has been two years running, lobbying queens to build us new tennis courts, we hope you will help us in this endevour as it will benefit not only QUBTC but also the wider queens and belfast community and could eventually be tied into a PEC membership package, so its in your favour to sign!

So fondly i will sign off for the first post of 2008-09, and hopefully this year will bring us success! I’ll see you at the Bazaar!

A dodgy picture of the Queens wimbledon trip of  08! Im back row 3rd from the left with the grey jumper (complete with the spanish flag! Vamos Rafa indeed!), Chris is 2nd from the right, James is back row 3rd from the right, Naomi is the the girl in the middle of the 1st row with the dark cap on and Steven is beside her.  This will give you an idea of who to look out for!

If doesn’t work click the link below

Watch US Open Live!

Click here to see interactive scores

I must admit I have usually cringed at this statement this year as Roger Federer has had an incredibly difficult year battling with mononucleus (aka Glandular fever). People started writing him off months ago when Novak Djokovic beat him in the Australian open semi’s, and after which having some shock losses. I couldn’t believe this because this is Roger Federer, who has been (and still is for that matter) world no.1 since January 2004! Yes his year has not been up to his usual impeccable standards but even after that, the rest of the pack still haven’t caught up.

This is reflected in the fact the Rafael Nadal won Wimbledon yesterday, and now owns 2 of the 4 grand slams in comparison to Federer’s one, and is still behind him in the rankings! However, after Nadal beating Federer at Wimbledon (Federer’s favourite surface where he had a 64 match unbeaten run), it would be difficult to argue now that Rafa is indeed the best player in the world at the moment. It leaves Federer needing to retain his US Open title in September, and have a great end-of-season run to have any hope of holding on to his no.1 spot, and perhaps more importantly for him, a chance of equalling Pete Sampras’ record of 14 career grand slams to be considered the best player ever (Federer is on 12).

Yesterdays final was amazing, probably one of the best tennis matches I’ve watched ever, and I watch a lot of tennis! I am traditionally a Nadal fan, but I was won over by Federer’s incredible heart to come back from 2 sets down, and facing championship points. Two of the best points you will ever see was Nadal’s pass to get championship point in the 4th set tiebreak from an almost perfect approach shot from federer. Then only to have Federer save it with an equally as amazing pass from practically in the spectator stands. It was heart breaking to see him lose after such a fightback, and I felt so sorry for him when I saw his face at the prize-giving. I do hope he doesn’t lose motivation like Borg did after such a demoralising defeat.

I think the match was more lost by Federer than won by Nadal, that is no disrespect to Nadal for he too played extremely well.  Coming into the net is grass court tennis 101 and as the kind of grass, Federer should know that only too well, but he seemed reluctant to do this. In fact the whole first two sets he seemed scared to play his best shots. This is because Nadal is in his head and has been ever since that 5 set comeback in Rome 2006. Perhaps this rivalry would have a completely different look if Federer had won that. I said before the beginning of the match that Federer’s serve would be key and I was proved right, for when he served well, Nadal could not get close to his service games, but in each of the 1st, 2nd and 5th set Federer lost his focus and played some mindless points which cost him the sets. What did work for Federer was playing the dangerous yet if done right, successful tactic of playing wide to Nadals’s forehand to open up a show at the backhand wing. Perhaps this will be a feature in a future Federer comeback?

We have returned from our  fantastic trip to wimbledon. It has to be said it was brilliantly enjoyed and the tennis was of the highest quality (except for maria sharapova!). We caught glimpses of a new british star in chris eaton on court one, while watching the swiss maestro federer, who made things look effortless on centre. We also got a chance to just walk around the grounds and enjoy the general ambience of wimbledon. You could watch some doubles on the outside courts, or you could take part in the different activities about, or simply go for a well deserved snooze on henman hill! We even managed to make the best of the queuing from 5:15am!! Click here for the full story and read peoples experiences and also check out the bebo for the pictures.

Hi folks just got an email (see below about the tennis ireland level one qualification coming to belfast. We need a response by 4th July if you’re interested in taking it and you can do this by either dropping us an email or clicking on the “# comments” link below and leave a comment/

I need you to identify people interested in doing this Level One course.  As you will be aware this is a fantastic opportunity that will not be available again for at least 5-years.  We have places for 8 people at £200 per person (they will offer BCSDN 10 hours of voluntary coaching as the actual cost per person is over £1,000).

What I need each of you to do is identify people who are interested and send back details to me - Name, Address, Mobile number and email address.  The selection process will take place at Ozone Tennis Arena on Wednesday 6th August from 7-9pm.

At present we have 4 people interested, but I know not all people will pass the assessment. Jim Watt is aware that the people we are identifying are not necessarily involved with Tennis Clubs, but if they have played a bit of tennis and have good hand eye co-ordination they may still get through the assessment.  The course will start 27th Sept 08 involve 16 Sundays up to the end of June 09.

From a development perspective, we plan to roll out Park Tennis across Belfast over the summer 2009 and these guys will be the core coaches involved, hopefully registered through sportopps.

Get back with information re people for Friday 4th July.

In a recent poll we asked was our club unattractive to females, and encouragingly 66% of you said no. None the less 33% said it was, and if half of all the voters were female then there’s a chance that over 60% of females think the club is unattractive to them and that is not good. We need to find out why that is and what we can do about it, so please leave a comment to this messae with your thoughts by clicking on the “No Comments” link below this post, or by emailing them to us.