The rantings of a sports fan and gadget junkie suffering from societal vertigo. Think of it as the space-age polymer of the blog world.
Beijing Olympics: Second Spanish team photographed making ’slit-eyed’ gesture – Telegraph
The photo was discovered on the official website of the Spanish Tennis Federation
The latest photo to emerge shows Spanish women tennis players pulling the pose, apparently in anticipation of their Federation Cup match against China in April.
This coming after the flack over the Spanish Basketball Team’s similar gesture.
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Wow – this came as a shock. She was very much in form last I remember. She’d won the last 3 French Opens – but she did go through a dip a few years ago. Maybe she just needs some time away. At 25, she’s old but not too old.
One of the many things I’ll remember about Justine Henin, who retired unexpectedly from tennis on Wednesday, is how she would talk about her mother taking her to the French Open when she was a young girl, and years after her mother passed away, how she won the event in her honor. It always struck an emotional chord with me when she would look skyward at Roland Garros in memory of her mother.
And just a day after Annika Sorenstam retired from golf. Who’s going to take the mantle for women’s sports now? Danica Patrick? Maria Sharapova? Marta from Brazil?
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Andy Murray defeated world #1 Roger Federer 6-7 6-3 6-4 in the first round in Dubai. Federer fresh off his loss in the Australian open to Novak Djokovic and near loss to Tipsarevic sure has some doubts to answer now. Perhaps he’s hurt. Perhaps he’s peaked.
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One day after unseeded Jo-Wilfred Tsonga beat #2 Rafael Nadal in the other Australian Open semifinal, Rod Laver Arena saw another giant-killing as Novak Djokovic took out the undisputed #1 Roger Federer, he of the infinite match streak at non-clay majors and chasing down Pete Sampras’ record of majors wins:
Novak Djokovic reached his first grand-slam final with a stunning upset of Roger Federer, the top seed and reigning champion, at the Australian Open.
The Serbian triumphed 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 and will play Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, the 22-year-old Frenchman in Sunday’s final. Tsonga put out Andy Murray, the British hope, in the opening round.
Defeat ended Federer’s hopes of winning the Melbourne tournament for the third consecutive year and, similarly, he will have to wait to move within one of Pete Sampras’s record of 14 grand-slam titles.
Serbia might bag this Aussie Open with Ana Ivanovic and Djokovic both in the mens and womens finals, respectively.
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Yet another classic Aussie Open match. 49th ranked Janko Tipsarevic pushed top seed Roger Federer to the absolute limit in their third (yes third) round match.
Janko made the top seed work for his 6-7 (5), 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 win. Yep, that’s someone not named Rafa Nadal taking Roger to five.
This match started at around 1am ET and didn’t finish until after 5am. 4 and a half hours!! It pushed back the other matches scheduled for Rod Laver Arena a quick win by Venus over Sania Mirza and another 5 setter between Hewitt and Baghdatis (or Paghdatis as my Greek friend would say) that ended at 4:36am local time. I sure hope those ballboys and ballgirls got paid overtime!
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Pictures of the Midwest Ice Storm – and a pouting Maria Sharapova (just because).
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Tennis starlet Martina Hingis and Eagles head coach Andy Reid may both be seeing the end of the line – and both because of drugs.
Reid has almost always managed to put a good product on the field. But after last season, and on the same day, 2 of his sons were arrested – and not on the first time. Now it seems both will spend more than a year in jail. And of course a publicity seeking judge was there to pile on
A judge who sentenced Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid’s sons to jail on Thursday likened the coach’s home to “a drug emporium” and questioned whether his adult sons should live there.
“There isn’t any structure there that this court can depend upon,” Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill said before sentencing 22-year-old Britt Reid to up to 23 months in jail plus probation.
“I’m saying this is a family in crisis,” O’Neill said.
Then there’s the Swiss Miss. She dominated women’s tennis for a period in the late 90’s and had to retire early because of injuries to her leg. She started a comeback but it seems to have abruptly ended both on news of her retirement and of a positive test for cocaine.
Hingis then asked the reporter whether he thought she could get back close to the top. “Only if you are 100 percent committed, because the way things sound from you now, you already have one foot out the door and teenagers will blow right past you,” the reporter responded.
“That’s a problem,” she said. “Some days I just don’t know where the fire is.”
It’s very possible that, at that time, Hingis already knew that she had failed her drug test at Wimbledon, testing positive for cocaine.
On Thursday, the former No. 1 player announced her retirement, saying that “I have no desire to spend the next several years of my life reduced to fighting against the doping officials.” She added, “I’m now 27 years old, and realistically too old to play top class tennis.”
She also strenuously denied that she had used cocaine and said she had never taken drugs. “They say that cocaine increases self-confidence and creates a type of euphoria,” she said. “I don’t know. I only know that if I were to try to hit the ball while in any state of euphoria, it simply wouldn’t work. I would think that it would be impossible for anyone to maintain the coordination required to play top class tennis while under the influence of drugs. And I know one other thing — I would personally be terrified of taking drugs.”
Meanwhile – someone who isn’t terrified of taking drugs – Barry Bonds, it seems, may boycott the Hall of Fame over the whole asterisk on the 756 ball thing. Which is funny, because I’m pretty sure the Hall of Fame may boycott Barry Bonds for the exact same reason!
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Oh no – Martina Hingis might be a cocaine user?
Damn, to think back in the days I used to have a small crush on homegirl
I had a crush on homegirl too. Especially that ass of hers that she didn’t have a problem hiding.
Maria Sharapova’s ass is less prominent but she’s still tennis’ reigning #1 hottie amongst a few competitors
But it’s nothing like Martina.
We’re gonna miss you, Swiss Miss.
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