Quintus

I don't follow the men's tournament, but I'm looking forward to watching: Emma Raducanu in the hope that she gets through a couple of rounds and thereby re-achieves the confidence to start building her 'normal' development path over this year Yulia Putintseva for the sheer entertainment when something annoys her (search her GIFs....) Paula Badosa because it's good to see hard work paying off big time Iga Swiatek because since winning RG so young she's done what Emma R now needs to do, and is on a steady upward trajectory from a really strong base. I'd love to see her in the final, though it's unlikely Camila Giorgi for unrelenting speed and aggression Ons Jabeur for being endearingly unconventional and awkward .....and probably Ash winning it on her home turf.

...and his visa has now been withdrawn. Hawkeye said 'out'...

In my home town, there is a Victorian museum partly preserved in its original layout with stuffed animals, colonial weapons etc, far from today's sensibilities. It is however visited as an example of a Victorian museum, a kind of meta museum - so as well as looking at the exhibits, you can consider the attitudes and values of the time. I suggest that we are all intelligent enough to watch period ballets and plays in the same way, contextualising and understanding past fads for orientalism, demonising contemporary enemies etc. Taking these elements out is removing interesting historical information.

We saw her dance there too, a long, long time ago - she was absolutely phenomenal. I remember after a certain point the orchestra was playing to her movements, rather than her dancing to their music, like an all-body conductor..

Daniela Neugebauer and Rebecca Bassett Graham of CWM

You're right (and now I think of it, I saw Fuki smoking outside Sadler's before the show and assumed she was French - I plead guilty to cultural stereotyping 😂). That would have been where I first saw her but I'm sure I've also seen her alongside the RB. When CWM moved to Stratford I was lucky to stumble across a couple of the dancers giving a short performance and an audience workshop, so I can say I've danced with them

Branching slightly off - when Company Wayne McGregor used to complement the Royal Ballet for some of his pieces, such as Tree of Codes, I noticed Fukiko Takase as a stand-out contemporary dancer, and started following her in other events. The Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation had her on a Zoom webinar last year talking about her move back to Japan and into freelancing, which was fascinating. I particularly like the video she did with Thom Yorke of Radiohead fame for Ingenue - well worth looking up on Youtube.

I read about a comparable scheme in France that Macron launched earlier this year - can't remember the precise details but again something like 300 euros each was to be made available to 18 year olds to be spent on various loosely culture-related things, including films, books and music. It did also include being able to spend the money to purchase musical instruments, which I thought might prompt a rash of 300 euro violins being converted on eBay into ready cash!

The papers are reporting that she's in line for either an MBE or an OBE, which isn't a bad way of capping off her A levels!

Imagine waking up this morning a bit groggy in a hotel bed, with a bandage on your leg and a trophy on the pillow. And a bit of crumpled paper next to the kettle with some writing on it starting with $2,5…

and to Prime for agreeing to reinvest the 7 figure fees from that into British women's tennis. A good result all round!

I wasn't planning to watch it, and expected her to lose, but ended up waking up because it was so hot in the house and saw the match. She played absolutely superb tennis and was a delight in the interview afterwards. Fingers crossed for tomorrow! btw the replay is still on Prime for those who have it.

oh, and she gets $675,000 for getting this far, which should keep her in iTunes downloads for a while.......

Yes, it followed the same pattern .... nervous start, then built up steam , learned her opponent very quickly and tactically stopped her playing to her strengths. There was then the usual point in the second set where her opponent's face is saying 'what on earth is happening to me here?', and then on to close. I think she's the first qualifier ever to get this far at the US Open, one of only a handful of Brits and I also think the rating jump will make her British number 1. She has a decent shot in the semi too, it's all playing out like a film script...

Indeed, they need a 'phlegmatic' approach to the sch !

Not to mention Joe Salisbury and Jaimie Murray in the doubles, now through to the quarter finals. The fanfare is only going to get louder for Emma after last night's superb performance though. I just hope she can cope with the mounting pressure and expectation.

Putting sports commentators / pundits into Room 101. There are two tennis commentators who still pronounce 'Swiatek' as 'shivontek' rather than 'shveeontek' - that's just lazy and disrespectful** . Mark Petchey last night during the Raducanu-Rogers match said something like “it’s always entertaining when these two meet”. They’d never met before. Sally on GMTV just now spoke about the same match happening overnight while we were asleep. It was on at 730pm. Can we please either have technically proficient commentators like Daniela Hantuchova or just go with Alan Partridge! **by the way there's a great site called Forvo.com that has native speakers pronouncing most names and words - useful for getting the stress right for Russian dancers!

She beat Barty in the Olympics, and Osaka somewhere - has a reputation of being a very awkward player. I only discovered Emma in the 'Battle of the Brits', as we've been disconnected from the juniors since our lads grew up, but thought then that she looked a completely different proposition to other recent hopefuls. She needs to keep some distance from her media coverage, as they love to build up an unrealistic fairy story only to tear it down again, and ideally put in a year or two of hard slog round the circuit, playing as many different styles of player as possible and building up physical resilience. Hard to avoid the hype machine now though - she's young, personable, photogenic and her game is exciting to watch, so the media and sponsors will be queuing at her door!

Emma Raducanu is giving us a pretty thrilling ride at the US Open and seems set to become our biggest female tennis star for a long time. The way she turned round her recent defeat by Zhang to a solid victory in the second round shows that she is an impressive learner. Fingers crossed for her encounter with Sorribes Tormo.

Is it too much to hope that Robert Webb will be filmed using SnorriCam like his character Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar ?

Thanks Sabine, I've seen On The Edge but have never come across At Work & Portrait, will have to look it out.

Ditto and I'd love to see more of her ballet; other than a dvd of Cinderella, the recordings that are most easily found are of her contemporary dance, and a few wonderful but short clips on Youtube. Are there any other substantive recordings of her ballet? It does just underline how ephemeral performance is ..... did nobody watch her at the time and think 'we must preserve this prodigy for posterity to enjoy'?

I just discovered the Combined Sports Climbing - that's well worth a look, as climbers either race up walls or find a route up fingertip holds on a 35 degree overhang till they fall off through muscle exhaustion. Some sports 'just' involve doing something we can all do but a lot faster or heavier, others require a completely different skillset, and this event seems to require the physical attributes of a spider. It's interesting too how events generate different body characteristics (like ballet uniquely seems to build those big lumps of muscle around the hip flexors) - the climbing seems to require long, lean limbs and then builds a very powerful upper back and lats, and fingertips like a gecko!

I just did my morning workout with the first session of karate kumite on TV, which it turned out one of my old instructors was commentating. My Pavlovian response was to do another set before he asked..

I've been watching quite a lot - enjoyed the judo and taekwondo in particular, and will be glued to the karate when it starts on Thursday, as that was my main sport. It's the women's hockey that has had us on the edge of our seats though as one of the top goal scorers was a playmate of our sons when they were little. Hope they get through the semi tomorrow but I suspect the Netherlands are too tough a draw. Also discovered the Gadirova twins via their interview on breakfast TV today - as well as being very talented gymnasts, they are an absolute delight and seem to be Nature's apology for giving us Jedward..