Tennis has been on my mind this weekend as I should be in Paris right now for the French Open. The last few months have been bizarre to say the least. I’m missing live tennis but it’s given me a rare opportunity to explore new hobbies. I’ve started learning French and have taken up gardening. I’m growing my own herbs and have just bought some roses for my garden – I am obsessed with them and they are the highlight of my week! I continue to bake although am doing everything in smaller portions as I have to eat it all and can’t take it into work. I’ve learnt to appreciate the small things in life such as being able to actually buy bread flour. I also managed to get back on the tennis court last week with the bro. Not much beats hitting a tennis ball for me, even though i’m dreadful. I was quite proud of being able to completely shank a volley out of the court last week.
The weather forecast for Paris looks amazing for the next two weeks. Hey ho! I will miss my annual trip to the seaside for Eastbourne and of course, Wimbledon. The Wimby news, while inevitable, hit me because it is always one of the highlights of the year. It will make next year even more special. I’ll be surprised if we see the return of the tours this year and I think it will be a long time before the tennis gets back to any sense of normality. I think I’ll be craving tennis in the next month so I was pleased to read that the BBC in the UK are planning to air some Wimbledon classics. I’m enjoying the weekly Tennis United episodes, hosted by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Vasek Pospisil. If you haven’t watched any, i’d definitely recommend them. When tennis does come back, I think i will be rejuvenated and want to start blogging again!
I hope that you are all doing well and staying safe in these unprecedented times. Please do leave a comment to share what you have been up to and how you are coping during Lockdown π.
Moo's Tennis Blog 
Stay safe James! Hope you are doing well there! Cant wait for tennis to return and hopefully things will be much better and under control by then ππ»
PS It will be kind of an ironic twist if the weather at RG this year turns out fantastic as forecasted π
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Nice to hear from you, Silas! Hope you are doing well and staying safe π. It will be a special moment when tennis finally returns!
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Hi James,
I’ve been tidying up the garden and watching highlights of old matches; I saw both of Aga Radwanska and Madison Keys’s matches from 2015 (Wimbledon and the US Open) and it’s good to see, once again, their contrasting styles on the court. I like roses too – I was lucky enough to inherit a couple of bushes when I took over the small property I’m living in now and I like the smell of the flowers during the short time they’re in bloom.
I’m missing the French Open too. Just thinking of the time four years ago when the courts were waterlogged with heavy rain – now Paris is getting the weather the players wish they had back then, which I agree is ironic. We’ll be into the all too short grass court season after that which is normally my favourite part of the tennis calendar – it could be tough when that’s not happening if the weather stays fine.
The players haven’t been idle; I’ve seen some of them (Petra in particular) have found a way to play each other in Prague, some players including Sabine Lisicki have been launching exercise videos, and Dayana Yastremska has launched a parallel career as a pop singer with her song “Thousands Of Me” (all proceeds rto charity). I think she’s got quite a good voice;
https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/videos/Tennis_Stories/87639/dayana-yastremska-debuts-singing-career-with-thousands-of-me-song/
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Nice to hear from you, Graham! Iβve been starting to watch more tennis, Wimbledon have been playing a classic match every Sunday afternoon on their YouTube page – enjoyed watching Kerber-Lisicki QF! I saw a bit of Muchova-Strycova from the Prague exhibition and have been listening to Jo Kontaβs new podcast.
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Hi James! So nice to hear from you again:)
It’s been a very weird couple of month π
I just remember the evening I read that Indian Wells is gonna be cancelled. I really couldn’t process it tbh. I was already kind of sad that Angie had to withdraw and the cancellation was the “cherry on top”.Also, I literally couldn’t believe that there was a pandemic just around the corner. I had no time to adapt though as I had more work than ever (working as a civil servant in a “relevant” area) due to Covid-19.
The last few weeks I was able to take a little break though and “restarted” playing tennis again. I’m still very bad at it π
… sooo, as for the remaining season I’m kind of curious if they restart, if there’s still two grand slams played, if there are ranking points and if there are players outside the TOP 100 participating
…and to end on a philosophical site note: I cherish my life more than ever as I had a lot of luck so far in life, I’m healthy and living in a democratic country with an amazing health care system and I have a proper well paid job. This is a lot to be thankful about and this is definitely what Covid-19 has taught me.
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Hi Murphy, great to hear from you too! I like your philosophical note at the end. I’m fortunate to stil be in employment too and trying to be positive about all the good things right now. I remember thinking at the time when Indian Wells was cancelled that this was all a bit OTT but they got it spot on. I think I read there’s going to be an announcement about the US Open soon so I am equally curious. I’m back playing tennis again and feeling fitter already :-).
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Congrats are due to both Aga and Domi, who have become mothers very recently (joining Lucie, who gave birth to her daughter Lea back in December).
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π
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Are people watching Cincinatti (/New York)?
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I am! Really enjoying the resumption of the tennis :-). I thought Osaka-Muchova was a high quality match, Osaka looked really sharp for her first match back. Serena-Rus was dramatic! While Serena’s level obviously still not there yet and particularly the footwork towards the end, her pure desire to fight and get the win was noteworthy.
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Konta on fire. Should get the win over Azarenka. Winner of this will beat Mertens.
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