A serious upset.
Props to Serena for what’s reported to be very classy behavior in defeat.
I watched it live, and Serena was genuinely, unfakeably, happy for Angie Kerber at the end of the match. That’s the mark of a true champion, a champion who needs a house extension to keep all the trophies in of course, but a champion who has grown to realise that it isn’t always about the winning, but how you handle the losses too.
I’ve always had enormous respect for Serena’s ability, but I used to have issues with her attitude. When she lost it was always seemed it was down to her having a bad day, rather than her opponent having a good one ( which honestly may have often been true, but was hardly diplomatic or kind ). But she seems to have matured a lot in that respect the last few years. Could just be confirmation bias on my part ( in either direction ), but for whatever reason she appears to be a lot more gracious than she used to be. Maybe becoming besties with perennial Grand Slam runner up Wozniacki opened her eyes a bit.
Djokovic cruises to the men’s title in straight sets over Murray.
You tend to think this outcome was close to inevitable, unless Murray came out on fire and Djokovic was off his game.
I have the same impression as you, though I don’t follow women’s tennis very closely.
True. I saw the highlights, except the first set, and Murray was more competitive than straight sets would suggest. He just made unforced errors at crucial times (either when he had a good chance to break, or was broken himself). Novak just makes so few errors and is so fit that he’s extremely hard to beat. This in turn means I don’t really like his style of play - it’s very attritional, a lot of the time he doesn’t bother going for big shots because he knows his opponent will get fatigued/bored and make an error before he does.
Maria Sharapova is set to make a major announcement.
Retirement? I hope not. Perhaps she has suffered a career ending injury?
Pregnant? I have no idea about her personal life so this is a complete WAG.
Did anyone see Murray vs Nishikori in the Davis Cup yesterday? I caught the last few games of the match, which contained some amazing shots. The (admittedly rather Brit-biased) commentators were describing it as one of the matches of the year already (as in, they don’t expect to see a better match all season). Nishikori came back from 2 sets down to level it, and broke back twice in the final set, but eventually succumbed. The fitness of both men is outstanding - they were on court for 5 hours!
At first I found it a bit annoying how Nishikori would wait for absolute silence before serving, but I quickly came to respect him for that and the crowd did also. He was the ‘away’ player and the crowd was heavily partisan, though it seemed he was getting quite a lot of love as well so there must have been quite a few Japan supporters present. The incessant calling out between points is really irritating to me and I think he found a decent way to bring it to a close.
She failed a drug test at the Australian Open. It’s a medicine she’s been taking for ten years, that just made it on to the banned list this year. Ouch.
I guess we’ll see what happens.
I think trust but verify is a good attitude to have in these situations.
Looks to me like she was taking a performance enhancing drug, for no legitimate medical reason, which was presumably supplied by some shady Russian doctor.
And WADA in their glorious incompetence have finally twigged to it being a PED, ten years on.
No sympathy.
More likely a shady American doctor, seeing as she’s lived in the US since she was seven.
Nope. And this is pretty much the point.
You’d think someone living in the US since age seven would have an American doctor prescribe her something for her ‘magnesium deficiency’. But an American doctor couldn’t prescribe meldonium, because it isn’t FDA approved.
From here:
So she would have had to find a guy back in Russia to get her hands on the stuff.
At the moment I tend to believe here story, which seems to be she has been taking this stuff for 10 years for medical reasons, from 1/1/16 it got on the banned list and she didn’t realise. Of course, it could be this is a convenient after the fact explanation, but in the circumstances I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt that she is telling the truth. She should still be sanctioned, of course, but perhaps not as severely as someone who is more obviously cheating.
Thanks for the link. Sharapova was quoted in another link as saying something along the lines of “her family doctor” had prescibed this drug for her. It shall be interesting to find out if it was indeed her long-term* family doctor* who prescribed her these drugs or a convenient doctor.
Ah, hadn’t read that. Oh dear.
The company that makes the drug says that a typical treatment lasts 4 to 6 weeks, not 10 years.
Meldonium? If are going to name a drug Meldonium it better give the power of flight or telekinesis or something.
I think this has all the hallmarks of a predetermined attempt to enhance performance. She was using the substance in an unorthodox way through an as yet unexplained medical practitioner. She’s taken it for years so this is either a chronic condition for which there will be a lengthy medical history or it is a supplement. In either case, as a top level sportsperson she must have intimate knowledge of what it is, what it does, why she takes it.
Sure it was all perfectly legal before but now it isn’t, she had months of warning and her carelessness has cost her.
At any point did she think “I’m taking an unlicensed drug from eastern Europe in a non-standard dosage program…I think I’d better get some clarity on this”
The standard is that each athlete takes responsibility for everything that enters their body.
I think the current climate regarding doping in sports is going to mean a healthy ban for her and quite rightly. I don’t believe in second chances. First offences without any reasonable excuse should mean a life ban and records struck from the books. The equivalent of being a doctor, lawyer etc. and being struck-off. Better find another career if you can’t be trusted in this one.
A reasonable excuse in this case would be a real medical condition with all the associated records dating back over that period. And not with the ink wet either.
Under those circumstances a ban for a couple of years would be appropriate.
I agree this is quite possible. Perhaps I am too quick to attempt to see the best in people.
She should know, or inform herself. But I think it perfectly possible that she takes dozens of different supplements on the advice of her medical team, and simply trusts them to keep track of it all so she can focus on practising and playing.
Agreed, in fact I think even she agrees.
See above - it’s not like she sorts all her pills herself, any more than she strings her own racquets.
Agreed, and she has admitted this.
I agree. I’m not arguing that she shouldn’t be banned. The only way you can enforce anti-doping is to stick to the letter of the law, no excuses. It appears this hasn’t happened recently in Russia, Kenya, and no doubt many other regions.
This is probably worthy of a separate thread, but I’m not sure exactly where I stand on this so probably won’t participate in this particular debate. I do have a lot of sympathy with your view.
I think we have moved from discussing what will happen to what “should” happen. I don’t consider myself sufficiently knowledgeable to comment in either regard. I am merely putting the point that I think it more likely than not that Sharapova has made a foolish mistake rather than deliberately cheated. In my view, the truth of the matter is that she was taking a performance enhancer and knew it, she didn’t realise it had got on the banned list, and now has to face the consequences. In other words, she broke the rules accidentally (and carelessly). The talk about it being for a medical condition I think is probably a smokescreen to try and help her case. Of course, if I am right it suggests she hasn’t been completely honest after all, which doesn’t help my argument.
Either way, I agree she deserves a ban, but I don’t think she deserves comments like I saw on Facebook yesterday to the effect of “well what a surprise, a Russian athlete is on the juice”.
Incidentally, when I saw the above comment without knowing what it was, then heard she was the top earner in her sport for the last 11 years, my mind jumped to the pole vaulter Yelena Isanbayeva.
Fair enough, I think we are both edging towards different sides of this debate but certainly there should be an unbiased application of the rules and then let the chips fall as they may.
I can’t help but wonder if her carefully staged mea-culpa will end up harming her case in the long run. A straightforward admission of taking it as a supplement (which was legitimate) and saying that she was simply clumsy in forgetting to stop taking it…well that might work better with the WTA than cooking up a medical condition. (which, of course, may be legitimate as well)
The Russian sporting system is corrupt to a farcical extent but I don’t think she was a part of the official structure to the same extent as many others. She has lived and trained in the states for ages now.
And who amongst us would be in the slightest bit surprised if she were outed as taking PED’s. At least the Russian team won’t be in Rio (and I be surprised if Kenya don’t follow them into the wilderness)