Rio 2016 - tennis

Tennis - a newcomer to post-war Olympics : brings in the professional highly paid players who have their own Grandslams to the greatest competition on earth.

So how did Rio do? I cannot comment on Centre Court. I made it to No.1 with a quick entry into No. 3.

First and foremost, Wimbledon it ain't. I always knew the Wimbledon ball boys & girls were good but not how good! Umpires were continually having to chase up balls and there were a few agility issues but maybe the heat got to some of them! Players don't wear whites but their national colours. Are they playing for themselves or their country? I suspect the former.

The tennis itself was what you would expect from first round matches. Certainly unbalanced when it came to Cillic & Dimitrov. heather Watson was doing very nicely until I came along & then lost the 2nd set. I kept saying to myself no dramatics, sensible points but the thoughts didn't work. The match between Gilles Simon & Borma Coric was certainly entertaining. No one explained that if you had a ticket for the show courts you could also watch the outside ones which meant that there few for the Watson match.

Above : Cilic wins the toss and elects to serve while Watson feels the heat.

The Olympic Park has some superb buildings. I'd love to see more of them. The way the arenas flow into each other are stunning and I rather liked the orange of Centre Court.

I found the transportation impressive & there was a lot less further to walk than London. No issues with security other than walking the long way round when there were no queues! The issues that people feared I found to be no problem but it was the details that mattered.

There was very little shade other than picnic tables and boy was it hot which led to the major issue I did have was food and water. Food - you weren't supposed to leave the tennis area but they ran out of snack food - little choice & expensive. You weren't permitted to bring liquids into the grounds but the water fountains were few and far between. They also pointed upwards with variable water pressure so it took forever. I thought I might witness murder when one guy took out a cup after filling 3 bottles!

If you bought a bottle then it was served with the lid off. A cynical way of making money from the sustainable games?

People were loving being there. A warm and friendly atmosphere which grew as the day wore on as more people came. A good day out but maybe not a great one.