Down the Lane

I don't like him but advice get rid of your female coach, no wonder he lost having to look at her miserable and unsupporting face in the stand.

Maggie.

Dont watch it, so have no idea about his coach. LOL

So byebye England, bye bye Andy, come on Lewis

Felt sorry for him today - he seemed really out of sorts. I guess we all have days like that - so much of tennis is in the head, kept thinking he'd come back but it wasn't to be bless him.

For a tennis fan, it was heart breaking to watch. Dimitrov did play well but he had the feeling that Andy was out of sorts. Whether it was to do with his new coach we will probably never know but just watch this space so to speak. He played well the first week although he wasn't stretched. There are some very powerful youngsters coming up and it showed by the way all the top guys have struggled this week.

Why do they call it 'love' in the score when no one has a point?

This is what wiki says - after reading it I decided they dont really know - it made my brain hurt

The origins of the 15, 30, and 40 scores are believed to be medieval French. The earliest reference is in a ballad by Charles D'Orleans in 1435 which refers to quarante cinque (which gave rise to our 40) and in 1522 there is a sentence in Latin "we are winning thirty, we are winning forty-five". Nonetheless the origins of this convention remains obscure.[3]

It is possible that a clock face was used on court, with a quarter move of the hand to indicate a score of 15, 30, and 45. When the hand moved to 60, the game was over. However, in order to ensure that the game could not be won by a one-point difference in players' scores, the idea of "deuce" was introduced. To make the score stay within the "60" ticks on the clock face, the 45 was changed to 40. Therefore, if both players have 40, the first player to score receives ten and that moves the clock to 50. If the player scores a second time before the opponent is able to score, they are awarded another ten and the clock moves to 60. The 60 signifies the end of the game. However, if a player fails to score twice in a row, then the clock would move back to 40 to establish another "deuce".[4][5][6]

Another theory is that the scoring nomenclature came from the French game jeu de paume (a precursor to tennis which initially used the hand instead of a racket). Jeu de paume was very popular before the French revolution, with more than 1,000 courts in Paris alone. The traditional court was 90 ft in total with 45 ft on each side. When the server scored, he moved forward 15 ft. If he scored again, he would move another 15 ft. If he scored a third time, he could only move 10 ft closer.[7]

The origin of the use of "love" for zero is also disputed. It is possible that it derives from the French expression for "the egg" (l'œuf) because an egg looks like the number zero.[8][9] This is similar to the origin of the term "duck" in cricket, supposedly from "duck's egg", referring to a batsman who has been called out without completing a run. One possibility comes from the Dutch expression iets voor lof doen, which means to do something for praise, implying no monetary stakes.[10] Another theory on the origins of the use of "love" comes from the acceptance that, at the start of any match, when scores are at zero, players still have "love for each other".[11]

Blimey, now there's food for thought

Thank you for looking it up Julie.

Strange how we've just taken it all on board really, as in why is the difference between 30 and 40 only ten rather than 15, is it less important!

Think I'll stick with understanding cricket, much easier !!

Richard

Now that made my brain hurt too, Julie and I am even more confused now than before.

Thanks for asking that question, Richard. LOL

There may have been a time when I could have followed all that - now i don't seem to be able to. Furthermore, I believe that life's too short to read these long wiki entries. I don't understand the off side rule either and can imagine the wiki entry for that.

I do understand the laws of cricket, possibly not the most recent changes to playing conditions, and that will do for me. It's the only sport I really follow.

I think Andy Murray rang the Brazilian Football Team to wish them luck before tonights game.

Richard wrote:I think Andy Murray rang the Brazilian Football Team to wish them luck before tonights game.

Ooh funny