Pubs opening

I’d add horse racing into that

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I watched the final set of the 1992 Wimbledon men’s final in a pub in Stepaside.

There was a chap in his 20s who was watching it on his own who was going through the agonies, he was fervently supporting Andre Agassi. He looked like his life rested on the outcome. I was up for Ivanisevic but I wasn’t cheering or anything.

Yer man went mental when Ivanisevic hit the net to hand the title to Agassi.

I watched the latter stages of the first set of the 1995 final between Sampras and Becker in a pub in Navan. The Dubs crowd were well behind Becker.

When Ivanisevic eventually won it against Pat Rafter in 2001, I was scrambling around Portrush on a Monday afternoon looking for a place to see the end of it having listened to most of the final on the radio on a bus up through Armagh, Dungannon, Cookstown, and Coleraine. I eventually found a hotel, which seemed to be only place open in the whole of the town, and saw around the last three games of the match.

I saw the last few games of the 2009 final between Federer and Roddick in the front bar in Quinn’s. I assumed it was a fourth set tiebreak or something when I saw it was 14-14 or whatever it was.

I watched some of the 2015 women’s final in Hayes’s Hotel in Thurles.

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Only weirdos and odd balls go out late at night I find.

And to be young

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He had a big bet on Agassi, the fucker probably had no more interest in tennis than the man in the moon

I might go out for the 4th test but I won’t be out for the fifth test.

Galway and goodwood are too close and that’s the best drinking week of the year.

Lads are seriously triggered here :sweat_smile:

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You wouldn’t know. People were actually genuinely into tennis in those days, they knew about it, they knew the players. They knew about tennis in the same way they knew about cycling and motor racing and golf. Agassi playing at Wimbledon in 1991 was a massive deal. The previous day I’d flunked off playing a hurling match so I could see the women’s final between Graf and Seles. The previous year I’d have been keeping an ear on the radio during the fourth Dublin v Meath game to know how the women’s final between Graf and Sabatini was going. Wimbledon was a massive deal.

Now nobody gives a fuck and nobody knows the names of the players. In recent years people knew the names of Federer, Nadal, Murray, Novax and the Williams sisters and that was it. Now they’re all gone apart from Djokovic who everybody hates anyway and nobody gives a fuck. Tennis is a sport that has lost out big time in the informational revolution.

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In fairness Djokovic has inspired a love of tennis in the awkward squad :man_shrugging:

Djokovic winning tournaments these days is like Michael Owen beating that 13 year old goalkeeper in that skills video. Nobody takes it seriously.

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Tennis imo is pound for pound the best sport.

Since the destruction of the boxing off course.

For a few years the Munster final used to always clash with the Wimbledon final.

The gaa had to move the Munster final because everyone was glued to the tennis.

TNH

2007 and 2016 the only times in the 21st century the Munster hurling final has clashed with the Wimbledon final.

It definitely clashed with one of the nadal and federar finals unless it was the Leinster final.

That’s the one final I remember most vividly for some reason. I was in Canada for the summer and Sunday night was our big night out every week as it was free entry and all drinks for a dollar as long as you had a payslip from a bar or restaurant. Absolute carnage. Woke up in an absolute hape, looked out the window at the pissing rain and fired on the tennis.

The second Federer-Nadal final in 2007 clashed with Waterford v Limerick in Thurles.

As I said 2016 the only other time it has happened in this century.

It used be a regular occurrence in the 1990s alright.

1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999 all were a clash between the Wimbledon men’s final and the Munster hurling final.

I’m nearly sure the 08 clashed with a big hurling game. It went on all evening.

It was played on a Monday and I think there was free entry and people had to queue on a first come first served basis to get in. Every Croatian and Aussie expat in London queued all night and there was a football match atmosphere. I think when you take everything in the round it might be the greatest Wimbledon final. I was fucking glued to the highlights that night in Ballycastle.

Definitely is an interesting choice in that sentence