Berdych out of Queens in two. Lost to Cilic .
That the main crux of it for me. I’ll look for the link.
The reason people are convinced he did it on purpose is I don’t see how he could possibly have thought the mark he circled was the correct one. It was so blatantly obvious that it wasn’t the correct mark and then he kept arguing with the umpire. It was really bad and left a sour taste in my mouth for him after.
Always happy to hear.
That doesn’t surprise me at all - judging by some of Berdych’s actions on court, I can’t imagine he’s much different off.
I can see that about Fognini, but I have to admit a small fondness for him. He’s fun to watch on the court.
I’ve heard the same (re. Nadal & Federer). I have a friend that also watches a lot of tennis and he believes that Nadal’s modesty in interviews and such is faked - I told him I don’t think so as I’ve heard he’s really that nice.
Re. Nole - who knows. But I’m with you - I like him.
Missed the edit window.
Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CnX6k0snxA
He walks towards the mark, and then turns around and circles something behind him. The commentators are speaking French and but you can tell even they are amazed by his actions. They laughed when he first circled the mark. I’d forgotten how outrageous this was. I have a fresh wave of dislike for him.
Not for the first time, Lleyton Hewitt is playing well at Queens. He beat del Potro today. And at Halle Federer beat Zverev 6-0, 6-0. ATP says it’s the second 0&0 win of Federer’s career. The other was at the 2005 World Finals event - over Gaston Gaudio, who was a last-minute replacement but was a top-ten player at the time. I remember watching part of that match and being in awe of Federer. For the #1 player to beat the crap out of the #10 guy like that? Talk about a gap.
Speaking of Monfils - this popped up on my FB feed this afternoon:
He lost the point, right? You can’t touch the ball or the other guy gets the point.
He did lose the point, but not because he touched the ball, but because his passing shot went wide. He didn’t touch the ball - it actually bounced between his legs.
Thanks, I had thought he had kicked it in the air for the smash.
In other news, Venus pulls out of Wimbledon. Going to retire soon?
That’s a bummer. She says she is trying to recover from a back injury and doesn’t blame her autoimmune condition. She has really been struggling. The sisters talked about playing at the 2016 Olympics last year, and whether they get there or not you’d at least like Venus to be able to go out on her own terms.
OK, listen to this guy’s impression of 6 of the top 10 players. His Rafa is spot on, especially the blasts of nose air, so to speak.
His Murray was superb too. Almost all of them were brilliant - I did feel his Federer was a bit weak, vocally, at least.
So, Wimbledon seeded Rafa 5th at Wimbledon. Sometimes, I wonder if these decision makers even follow tennis.
There are no decision makers. The seedings are assigned according to a formula that includes their ranking and their play on grass courts over the last two years. Ferrer is ranked just ahead of Nadal, and Nadal didn’t do well on grass last year while Ferrer did OK.
What minute/second marker is his Federer?
Is 2:19 him? It isn’t very good if it is.
I feel bad being the one to bring this up because I like talking about tennis much more than I like tennis gossip, but since this is getting a fair amount of attention around the sports world, here’s the Serena Williams Rolling Stone piece. What I took away from the first three pages is that Serena is exactly who she appears to be. What you get from page four is ‘wait, did she really just say that about the Steubenville rape case?’ For the most part it’s half-assed speculation that just makes her sound callous. She both wonders if the sentence was fair to the football playing rapists, kind of suggests the victim shares some of the blame, and says something about “maybe she wasn’t a virgin” that makes Serena sound like a judgmental religious nut. It’s true that parents should tell their kids not to drink or to be very careful when drinking because bad things can happen, but otherwise, shit. Naturally she’s already put out a press release backing away from a lot of - I think this was the phrase she used - “what was written.”
Yep, it starts at 2:16, right after his Murray. Vocally very weak, but the mannerisms are there.
His Gasquet may be weak too, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak.
Yeah, I saw that yesterday and as hard as I try to like Serena (because she is an incredible player) she keeps doing stupid shit that makes it impossible. Her backtrack was lame - it was like she was trying to blame the writers for putting words in her mouth she didn’t speak. Whatever, Serena. Go ahead and “reach out” to the rape victim and her family, that’ll make it all better. :rolleyes:
So I’m just reading this now and I couldn’t get past the first two paragraphs without being annoyed by the author.
Wow - maybe it’s less because Maria is “tall, white, & blond” and more Serena
and that’s not who sponsors want to represent them in public.
No, I think he’s mostly got that one right- although it’s fair to point out that Sharapova is a natural on TV and seems to really enjoy doing that brand stuff and I don’t know if Serena feels that way. When he says she runs women’s tennis like Kim he is talking about her dominance over other players and not her personality. Sponsors are fine with ruthless winners representing them in public. Kobe Bryant still get tons of endorsements even though he was put on trial for rape and Tiger Woods is still a big endorser even though he hasn’t won a big event in years and years. It’s kind of an abstract argument because I’m sure they both make plenty of money from endorsements even though Sharapova does make more than Serena, who has unquestionably been a much more successful player.