YEAH ANDY!

UPDATE: Roddick loses as Federer cruises 6-2, 7-5, 7-5. So much for turning a new leaf. At least the world can revel in another Federer-Nadal final. (as long as Verdasco doesn’t pull the upset, which shouldn’t happen because Rafa is rolling.)

MY BOY Andy Roddick pulled off a great upset yesterday, defeating his rival Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of the Australian open. Djokovic is definitely a rising star and was the winner of last year’s Australian open. I think most people would consider him as the player closest to breaking the Nadal-Federer lock, although there’s still probably a huge gap between those two players and everyone else. Some would consider Djokovic to be one of the more abrasive players on tour..especially after his pleasant encounter with the crowd at last year’s US Open

Also, this isn’t really his fault, but check out what some of his fans did. SH&% gets thrown son.

Granted, Roddick’s upset was aided by the extreme heat during the match. Temperatures reached 130 degrees and Djokovic appeared to tire. Djokovic retired trailing 2 sets to 1, and down 2-1 in the 4th set. Meh. Having Djokovic retire takes a little bit out of Roddick’s win, but still a great effort. As big of a Roddick fan as I am, I’m not sure how he’ll do against Federer. Federer appears to be rolling following an earlier 5 set scare, winning 6-3, 6-0, and 6-0 in quarterfinal. Here’s hoping that Andy can continue his great run and work back to the top.

Those fightin mountaineers

Saw this article on espn.com today. Players face underaged drinking, resisting arrest charges. Not really that big of a story (sadly), since these incidents seem to be very commonly reported during the off-season. The players involved though? Joe “he’s like Jason Kidd” Mazzulla and Cameron Thoroughman.

In other news, Nadal’s roll just keeps on going. He started off the hard court series with a great win at the Rogers Masters Tennis tournament in Toronto. What makes this tournament interesting is that Federer lost in the 3rd round of the tournament. The ATP tennis tour has really got to change its ranking system. Federer’s still ranked #1 in the world, even though Nadal has only won the past two grand slams. Most experts think that hard courts are Nadal’s weakest surface. But there aren’t that many other legit contenders out there. I’m not sure if you can still pencil Federer in as the man to beat, especially if he has some more early exits over the hard court season. Djokovic would appear to be a contender, but it’ll be interesting to see how he regroups after his loss to Safin at Wimbledon. Roddick and Blake are the best hopes for the Americans, and I’m not sure if I even want to get my hopes up for them. Nadal might be able to continue his breakthrough year at the US Open.

oh yeah..omgz batman was awesome.

Wow…that was unbelievable

I hate to knock off the dare post because I really want to see these supposed “readers” I keep seeing in our stats. Hope you guys had a chance to watch today’s Wimbledon – a lot of people are calling it one of the greatest matches they’ve ever seen. Nadal finally beat Federer in an epic five set final that spanned several rain delays. Nadal jumped out to an early 2 set lead, but Federer clawed back to win 2 straight tiebreakers. Nadal won the 5th set, 9-7. The level of play was absolutely amazing, and in the post-game interviews, John McEnroe kept saying what an honor it was just to bee able to watch the game. Tennis is also interesting because as soon as the match is over, the 2 finalists have to stand right next to each other. The loser’s gotta stand there, faking a smile and talking nicely about the dude who just beat him. Pretty awkward. Great, great match though.

Dear Andy

(Note – this is the first in a three-part series (if I’m not lazy). Here’s a “letter” to Andy Roddick.)
Dear Andy,

WTF MAN!?!??! You’ve disappointed me again. I’m sure you’re pretty bummed out about your latest early loss at Wimbledon. You lost in the 3rd round to this dude named Tipsarevic. Sure it was in 4 sets (and 2 of them went to tiebreaker) but you’re Andy FREAKIN Roddick. You can’t let some of these unseeded guys continually beat you in the first week of grand slams. This loss really sucks considering I had just started following you again. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but with Federer looking as vulnerable as he’s ever been and with Safin stunning Djokovic, I thought you had a chance to make a great run at Wimbledon. Things were looking up for you – you were finally recovered from that shoulder injury and you didn’t have to play the grueling clay at Roland Garros. And all of that for was naught (hope that’s not too Plaschke-sounding).

Maaaaan, sh@&. Andy, you were the man back in the day. You had that sweet babolat racquet that all the crazy-good junior players had. Your style of play was awesome, you would dominate every single service game. You would routinely hold players at love, and have 2, 3 >130 mph aces a game. I mean, with a serve like this you were unstoppable. That was awesome. You would yell, scream, and curse out rowdy fans, umpires, and other players. You would argue bad calls and when it wasn’t corrected, you’d pull one of those: “Screw you, I’m serving this as hard as I can/hitting the ball right at you next time you come to the net.” And then you’d give them a brutal stare down, just to say “yeah…you’re my b@^#”. Umm…as I was saying, you were a great tennis player. You were world #1 in 2003, and you were the U.S. Open Champion. You were even dating Mandy Moore.

It’s not like you’ve fallen off the face of the tennis world or anything. You’re still a solid top 10 world tennis player, and millions of people would die to be in your position. You led the U.S. to a Davis Cup Championship, a huge accomplishment. You were probably responsible for a mini-surge in tennis popularity in the U.S. and have been a boon for the USTA. Maybe you’ve just had some bad luck? Your losses can’t be attributed solely to effort. I still remember that Wimbledon final you had against Federer, when you were leading 1 set to none and up in the second set. And then there was a long, long rain delay, followed by Federer coming back to win the championship (and setting him on a course to become one of the most confident/cocky sports figures alive). Your power game has never been suited for clay, and maybe Federer really is one of the best of all time. But you beat Federer once this year, and you’ve made some huge improvements. Hopefully you can make a great run in the US Open, and begin to reestablish yourself as one of the best players in the game.
What’s that? You married Brooklyn Decker? A Sports Illustrated swimsuit model?? Umm..ignore everything I just said. Andy…you’re definitely the man.

I’m sorry Bill Simmons but…

I’m a huge sports guy fan. For instance, I think that shammgod’s last post was an elaborate reverse-jinx on the Lakers. I think I’ve read every single one of his espn columns and I’ve listened to many of his podcasts. Kind sad, but whatever. My 2 goals for this summer (I’ve given on up on the and1 thing. I have no hope) are to: 1) read Now I can die in Peace (Simmons’ book) and 2) read every single article on firejoemorgan.com. Right now I’m on 08.05. We’ll see how that goes. As you can see, I have no life.

Had some issue with sections from his latest column from espn the magazine about Tennis:

If I guaranteed you that the 2008 Wimbledon men’s final would be the best tennis match of the past 20 years, would you watch it?

Umm. Yes. I think I would. And I think even casual tennis fans would watch the best tennis match in the past 20 years of their life.

Amazingly, many sports fans would say no. Maybe they’d flick over to NBC a few times to “monitor the action.” Maybe they’d swing by for the fifth set. Maybe they’d watch a few games and get bored, then allow themselves to be sucked in by Under Siege or a Tila Tequila marathon. But I don’t have a single friend who’d watch four hours of tennis on a Sunday morning and, I’m guessing, neither do you.

Once a successful mainstream sport, tennis now matters twice a year—during Wimbledon and the U.S. Open—and even then it’s not like America shakes with Racket Fever or anything. The mainstream media still cover tennis, and the ratings for majors are still okay. But when was the last time you watched a big match from start to finish? When was the last time you attended one? When did you last have an argument about something tennis-related that didn’t boil down to “Who do you think is hotter?”

Hmm..you’re making the hotter argument sound like it’s a bad thing. In fact, there’s an entire blog devoted to it: Hot Female Tennis Players. (The url for the site is umm…very direct). You’ve got your Sharapova fans

And you can also make a strong case for Ivanovic:

But back to the post:

Unlike golf, another time-sucking sport that appeals to a specific audience, tennis lacks a Tiger to keep it relevant. When tennis develops its own version of Tiger—first Pete Sampras, then Roger Federer—the guys do almost more damage than good. We see the best tennis stars as the Ping-Pong player at a family gathering who destroys all the uncles and cousins, and eventually kills everyone’s interest in playing Ping-Pong for the day. Golf is a sport that hinges on luck and timing, streaks and slumps, and the quirks of different courses. So it’s almost inconceivable for a golfer to dominate as Tiger has. But for Federer to dominate, it’s completely conceivable. And boring.

It definitely is interesting that Tiger is as popular as he is considering he’s absolutely dominated golf (as he did again today with a very clutch performance). He’s also 1)mad rich 2) has an attractive wife 3) dominates his sport 4)has his own gatorade drink named after him and 5) is smart. Great. But I’m not sure if you can argue the same for Roger Federer. He’s had a solid stretch of being the #1 player in the world and has won many grand slams and ATP tour titles. But Nadal’s the first player capable of consistently beating Federer. Andy Roddick was the world #1 back in 2003, but I think he has 1 or 2 career wins against Federer. Nadal has owned Federer on clay, capped off his by flat out beatdown in this year’s French Open Final. Nadal’s showing signs that he ‘s narrowed the gap on grass and hardcourts as well, so I don’t know if Federer’s dominance is a clear fact.

That’s not the only side effect of the speed thing. Not to sound like Grumpy Old Man, but back when I fell for tennis, they played with wooden rackets—and we liked it! When John McEnroe and Björn Borg had their “Battle of 18-16″ at Wimbledon, it wasn’t serve-and-volley, serve-and-volley, serve-and-volley; some of the points lasted for 45 or 50 seconds, and they always seemed to end with McEnroe just missing a winner, then sagging in disbelief. Now, I’m not saying tennis should return to wood rackets. You can’t go backward. The game has evolved to a faster version of itself, and that’s that. But we’ll never see anything like Borg-McEnroe again. The equipment prevents it.

I don’t really buy this argument – you’re saying that faster serves and groundstrokes are bad for the game? Sure this may result in some shorter rallies (although there still are some pretty long rallies – like this 45 shot rally between Federer and Hewitt:

Simmons does give some interesting suggestions to help tennis.

Fix No. 1
Allow cheering, booing, hooting, chanting—anything short of hooliganism—during matches. If you want to keep one “quiet” major, fine, take Wimbledon. For every other tournament, fans should be allowed to act like—hold on, novel concept approaching—fans. If A-Rod can hit a 101 mph fastball at Fenway with fans yelling about his sexual preference, Venus and Roger can handle a second serve amid some background noise.

(Seriously, have you been to a tournament? Tennis and golf are the only sporting events at which you’re expected to drink liquor and not make noise. How does that make sense? I don’t like being anyplace where I might be shushed. It’s just one of my rules in life.)

I agree with this one. If basketball players, baseball players, football players, and many other athletes can play through cheers and taunts, tennis players should too. It would definitely make the matches a lot more engaging and interesting for the fans, although there’s always those crazy fans who try to get the last shout in before the umpire warns the audience for the millionth time.

Fix No. 2
You can’t have four “majors” when absolutely nobody cares about one of them. (I believe not even The Schwab could name the last 10 Australian Open winners.) Why not make the Australian a major mixed-doubles event? Wouldn’t it be fun to see who pairs with whom? It would be like waiting to see who’s taking whom to the prom, right? How would they play together? Would they fall in love, like they do in Dancing With the Stars? You’re interested already, I can tell.

No. Wrong. Un-Fact. Although the mixed-doubles idea (which already exists) is somewhat intriguing, these majors do matter. They’re 4 different styles of courts, and each surface presents advantages for different types of players. Perhaps he’s right and Americans really only care about 2 majors. But that’s kind of a big assumption to make for the rest of the world.

And, I’ve gotta close with this line: ELITE PLAYERS HAVE A SHORTER SHELF LIFE THAN PORN STARS.

I’ll uhh..take your word for that. Come on Sports Guy – I expected better.

More Indian Athletes

apparently, they play more than just cricket.

Doubles trouble

No one cares much about doubles in the United States, but in India it’s a very big deal.

The country’s two best doubles players, who won three Grand Slams together and once held the No. 1 ranking, have long since separated because of the ubiquitous “personal differences.”

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi don’t really like each other, and their volley of words has caused a controversy of massive proportions in their home country. You see, the All-India Tennis Association (AITA) would like them to play doubles together in the Beijing Olympics. Really, it might be India’s best shot at a medal.

When Paes won a bronze in singles in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, it was the first medal for India since 1908 and the first individual medal since 1952.

Bhupathi, in an e-mail to the AITA, declared that he could not, and would not play with Paes.

Paes has begged him to reconsider.

“I urge him to think hard and change his decision,” Paes said recently. “It’s both of us who are losers here. The whole thing has become extremely childish — it’s petty, it’s rubbish.

“Right now, I can’t read the man at all.”

Adding spice to the controversy was this first-round mixed doubles match on Sunday: Paes and Nadia Petrova versus Bhupathi and Jie Zheng. There they were, two of the highest-profile athletes in India, on opposite sides of the net. They warmed up, awkwardly, together and yet somehow seemed to avoid establishing any meaningful eye contact.

We are happy to report that everyone was civil and well-behaved; there was no head-hunting when the two traded overheads and practiced serves. Ditto for the match. Bhupathi-Zheng won 7-5, 6-4, in a tidy 72 minutes, and there was even a tepid handshake after the match.

Neither player, however, will address the issue. This one bears watching.

– Greg Garber

India will have a pretty good shot at medalling this summer in Beijing if these two just manage to work out their differences. I’m guessing one of them’s an Aamir Khan fan while the other one lives and dies by SRK.

French Open Update

We’re into the second week of the French Open, and my pick for the women’s final was completely destroyed. Sharapova lost a close 3 set match to Safina. Although Safina was a 13 seed, this wasn’t as big of an upset as it seems. Sharapova lost to Safina in 2006. This match was crazy though because Sharapova had a match point…and promptly lost the next 2 sets. The third set wasn’t even close, as Safina took it 6-2. Not a clutch performance there by Sharapova, and she misses out again on a chance to complete her career grand slam. Things could be worse though – she’s still probably the biggest women’s tennis player in the world, and has commercials with ESPN, Gatorade, Nike, and Cannon. {BTW…i’m sorry to discuss clutchness because I know that’s a very popular topic with our blog but…why is Peyton Manning in those clutch gatorade commercials? I think I’ll take Tom Brady over Peyton Manning in clutch situations every single time. That’s fine though..Peyton’s lead some game winning drives and is a super bowl champion and all now. But this is just ridiculous. ELI FREAKIN MANNING? IN THE LEAGUE OF CLUTCH? That was not a clutch play. The catch was a MIRACLE. That’s what you do in madden/ncaa08 when there’s a mad blitz…you run backwards about 10 yards, and then lob a high pass to your receiver. I don’t think Eli Manning’s clutch skills caused that pass. Fact. For evidence, watch any end game situation Eli Manning plays next season (except against the Redskins – their D’s awful) . Guaranteed to throw for >1 interception.}

But back to the Open. Both of the Williams sisters lost on the same day, in the second round of the French Open. That was pretty surprising considering they seem to be taking tennis seriously right now. I really believe that when on their games, the Williams sisters are the best tennis players in the world. Henin was the only one who could consistently compete and beat them; Sharapova still has to prove that. One thing that is cool about this suddenly wide-open French Open is that there are 4 possible overall #1′s at the end of the tournament: Sharapova, Ivanovic, Jankovic and Kuznetsova. Updated Prediction: Ivanovic will beat Jankovic in the semifinals and go on to win the French.

Men’s Draw

Most of the top players are still intact on the men’s side of the draw. Ginepri was the last American player standing and he was also recently eliminated. Hopefully the Americans work on their clay court games because their next Davis Cup matches (kinda like the world cup of tennis) will be on clay, at Spain. Nadal appears to be peaking at the right time – he absolutely dominated his quarterfinals match, winning 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. His next match should be a great one, as he faces Djokovic in the semifinals. The last Frenchman standing is Gael Monfils. He’s making his breakthrough. This kid’s a baller, and a lotta people like his chances in the years to come. Prediction: Everything’s still pointing to a Nadal-Federer final, and Nadal’s my predicted winner.

French Open Preview

The French Open begins this weekend, with matches featuring Novak Djokovic and James Blake starting tomorrow. Here’s a pseudo preview of the year’s second grand slam:

Men’s Draw

First of all, the big surprise on the men’s side has got to be the #1 seed for Roger Federer. I’m not disputing Federer’s status as the overall #1 player on the planet (although Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic can definitely take issue with they; they have significantly narrowed the gap). However, Federer getting a #1 seed for the French Open is an absolute joke. Nadal had >100 match win streak on clay courts spanning over 3 years. He’s the winner of the past 3 French Opens, and a 4th win this year would tie Bjorg’s record. And it’s not like Federer has dominated Nadal on clay courts this year or anything. Although Federer somehow lucked into a #1 seed and a significantly easier draw than the other half of the bracket, Nadal is definitely the favorite to repeat (again) for the French Open. Nadal’s definitely going to have to work to make it to another final this year; hes battled through some injuries this year and always plays a grueling schedule. He may also have to face Djokovic, winner of this year’s Australian Open.

Andy Roddick recently pulled out of this year’s French Open, citing a shoulder injury. Not really a big deal. I’m a huge Roddick fan, but at least this spares us from hearing Andy struggle through yet another press conference after a “stunning first-round upset”. His power game is absolutely unsuited for for clay. This leaves James Blake, the #5 seed, as U.S.’s best chance for a slam. Well…this gives me the excuse to link some of Sampras’s best overheads. These are pretty sick, especially considering Sampras was one of the quietest guys to ever play the game.

Prediction: Nadal denies Federer (again) in his efforts to complete the career grand slam.

Women’s Draw

Justin Henin was last year’s French Open champion, but her retirement leaves the field pretty open this year. Maria Sharapova is one of the top seeds for this year’s tournament, but her power game is also not the best match for the clay of Roland Garros. America’s best chance comes in Serena Williams. The Williams sisters are the ultimate X-factors for any grand slam – when they’re on, very few can play with them. Now the Henin’s gone, Serena’s definitely got the chance to repeat. And I’m liking her chances.

Prediction: Sharapova’s improving clay court game and a wide-open field leads to a finals appearance, but Serena Williams proves too strong.