THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL IS ONE OF THE FINEST SETTINGS FOR TENNIS IN THE WORLD, REVIEW OF SATURDAY’S MATCHES AND NEW “TIE BREAK TENS” TENNIS FORMAT

Written by: Staff on 6th December 2015

THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL IS ONE OF THE FINEST SETTINGS FOR TENNIS IN THE WORLD, REVIEW OF SATURDAY'S MATCHES AND NEW "TIE BREAK TENS" TENNIS FORMAT |

Tie Break Tens, Fernando Gonzalez & Tiger Tim Entertain The Royal Albert Hall Tennis Fans

Saturday evening at the Champions Tennis saw the introduction of a new format of tennis with some surprising results! Tie Break Tens made its debut at the Champions Tennis, and the crowd lapped up the sight of John McEnroe relishing the chance to go toe-to-toe with younger rivals.

Using the Match Tie Break format doubles fans will be familiar with from the regular tour, six players in two round robin groups battled in a tie-break with a winner takes all purse of $250,000.

Talking ahead of the event, there was some good natured joshing between John McEnroe who last faced Andy Murray when he was a fresh faced 17-year-old, and taught him a thing or two about life back then!

However, Mac would only face Murray in the semi-final, being placed in the group with Tim Henman and with Champions Tennis qualifier Xavier Malisse. There was a ton of fun to be had, especially when Malisse and McEnroe took to the court. The Belgian has been quite the hit in the Hall, enjoying bantering with the crowds, and confessed his hands had been quite clammy with the prospect of playing McEnroe, who raced ahead to a 7-1 lead as Malisse had the crowd in stitches, at one stage telling him to take it easy, before playfully pretending to drop his shorts.

But revenge was not far behind. So much for McEnroe saying in the press conference before hand that he would have a chance with an early lead over his group-mates as Malisse reeled off 9 points in a row, beating McEnroe 10-7.

There was more banter as the Belgian ended up facing Britain’s young Kyle Edmund in the semi-final quipping that it was just like the Davis Cup with two Brits taking on a Belgian, but we began to see what potential Edmund has as he advanced to the final.

It certainly was a little more competitive a treat than Murray against Henman as the World No. 2 ripped past Henman 10-1 in about six minutes!

But were we about to see a changing of the guard? Edmund got off to a quick start in the final, as well as adding to the already impressing target of £50,000 for every ace hit by Murray as part of his Andy’s Aces for Unicef initiative. At the start of the evening it was announced the organisers would donate £50 for any ace hit by any player in the evening’s session.

The youngster stole a march on the ‘old hand’ winning the inaugural event 10-7, and picked up a cheque for $250,000 which was more than half of his career prize money to date! Murray was on hand thankfully to give him some good advice, telling him to invest in his team around him. That’s good advice – surely few will forget the change in Murray’s stature as he filled out and really was able to work on his stamina – we all know the results. While controversy continues to swirl around the LTA and how they capitalise on Murray’s success, his successor could well have been victorious over the net from him.

Onto the Champions Tennis final on Sunday, and we thought we were in for another Brit success as Henman took on defending champion Fernando Gonzalez.

#RoyalAlbertHall our sensational venue this evening @Champions_Tennis @atpworldtour – Photo by @tiebreaktens via Instagram.

Henman ran away with the first set wrapping it up 6-1, but could be seen stretching his hamstring in the changeover, before actually leaving the court to go get it strapped. From then on it was really a different match, nice and competitive and the crowd loved their chance to get involved once more with the ‘Aegon Crowd Call’ and as for the ball Gonzalez hoofed into one of the iconic sound ‘mushrooms’ in the Royal Albert Hall – well the less said about that the better!

Gonzalez fought back to take the second set on the tie-break pitching Henman and his creaking hamstring onto one more 10-point tie-break! After an initial mini-break Gonzalez started to dictate as Henman struggled, as he successfully defending his Champions Tennis title 1-6 7-6 10-6.

It has been a great few days of tennis, and chatting to fans in the box next door, this was the equivalent to Wimbledon for one spectator, who has never even been to SW19, yet wouldn’t miss this. It is easy to see why. Accessible tennis, in the heart of London’s Museum row.

With the exception of IPTL still going strong in Asian capitals, tennis deserves a decet rest for a month, but never fear … Australia is just around the corner. Second star to the right, and straight on ‘til morning.

Ros Satar is a contributor to 10sballs.com and runs Britwatch Sports (@britwatchsports), because we Brits like watching sport. Occasionally we’re good at it.

Topics: Champions Tennis, Royal Albert Hall, Sports, Tennis News, Tie Break Tens

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10sBalls_com says:

December 6, 2015 at 11:23 am

The #RoyalAlbertHall Is One Of The Finest Settings For #Tennis In The World, Review Of Saturday’s Matches…
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