Federer vs Roddick in the finals is at least intriguing right? posted by Brandon Richardson

If I had bet on every sporting event in which I just knew in my gut what the outcome was going to be, I would be even more broke than I am now.  We all know that Roddick is 2-15 against Federer lifetime and that Roger is playing some tennis right now that could be better than I have ever seen him play.  That is why sports are so entertaining!  Especially those decided by one game or match as opposed to a "best of" series.  On any day, at any time, there is an opportunity for an upset.  That's why the Confederation Cup final was even slightly exciting to me.  I knew Brazil had a much better team, but on any given day.....              I knew that the Patriots were going to clobber the Giants and finish a historic season 19-0.  I knew that Tyson was going to knock out Buster Douglas and continue his tear through anyone who got in his way.  And without a doubt, I KNEW that my Florida Gators were going to destroy a Michigan team that had lost to a division II school earlier in the year.   And Sunday...  I will be watching a cheering for the American Andy Roddick, even though I KNOW that Federer is going to win.............................. 

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Grumblings of a Senseless Insomniac/ Breaking Down Wimbledon posted by Charles Bisbee

There's been a less-than-pleasant bed bug infestation at the humble chateau de Bisbee/Duah. It began, as these things so often do, as a minor disturbance, a hole in the screen we thought, undoubtedly allowing in some pesky mosquitos. My negligence to nip the problem at the bud resulted in the realization of great bed bug civilizations, though, and a few nights ago I was roundly bludgeoned into a schizophrenic mess. I've remained this way since, basically-- sleeping on the living room floor while visions of human-sized arthropods and Hanley Ramirez dance through my head...

Anyway, forgive me if I write in a somewhat more-scatterbrained-than-usual fashion today. I've gotten enough sleep over the past three nights to be legally admitted into an asylum. This being said, here are some thoughts that, God-willing, might have something to do with tennis. 

As I lounged on the sofa today like a beached whale, awaiting the arrival of the dastardly and unreliable exterminator, I had the good fortune of stumbling upon Wimbledon tennis on NBC. I watched parts of four matches: V. Williams vs. Safina, S. Williams vs. Dementieva, Roddick vs. Hewitt and a bit of a re-run from yesterday's Federer/Karlovic match. I was struck by the mind-boggling contrast between the men's and women's game. Women's tennis is so much more enjoyable to watch! 

Williams/Dementieva was a three-set classic that, with some different wind patterns or a slightly adjusted net height, could have gone Dementieva's way just as easily. Each player consistently hit well-placed, deep ground strokes. Granted, there was the occasional unforced error but, compared to the men, Williams and Dementieva were paragons of steadiness. 

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Wimbledon Women's Quarters Fizzle posted by Erik Siwak

The women took center stage at Wimbledon today as all four quarterfinals took to the lawns of Centre Court and Court 1. Unfortunately, the clashes of the last eight women failed to provide much in the way of compelling tennis matches.

Each match-up featured one of the top four seeds. In each case, the higher seeded woman advanced to Thursday's semifinals. Three of the matches were routes as Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Elena Dementieva continued their romps through the tournament. None of these three were really tested in their matches which was a little surprising since Serena was up against Victoria Azarenka who has emerged as the most exciting new star of 2009. Venus dispatched Agnieszka Radwanska while Dementieva straight-setted Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone.

Only the match-up between top-ranked Dinara Safina and unseeded Sabine Lisicki provided any suspense. Lisicki won the first set and kept it close in the second. By the time Safina pulled out that second set, Lisicki was showing obvious signs of fatigue on an unusually warm day. Safina had no troubles wrapping up the victory despite a streak where she missed seven serves in a row.

Today's matches highlighted what has been a less-than-exciting Wimbledon for the ladies. From the moment the draw came out, it looked like Venus and Serena were on a collision course for the finals. Through five rounds of play, an all-Williams final is looking more and more inevitable. While it's always great to see two bona fide stars battle it out in the finals, it would have been nice to see either Williams sister pushed a little bit. There's very little drama in a pre-ordained final.
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The Best Day of Tennis You Won’t Get to See posted by Erik Siwak

The second Monday of Wimbledon is traditionally hyped as one of the best single days of tennis each year. That reputation is warranted as the day usually features all of the final 16 men and 16 women slugging it out for spots in the quarterfinals. For tennis fans, it's a great day to plop down in front of the TV and wallow in all the grasscourt greatness.

Unfortunately, many of us won't get to see much of what transpired on the lawns of Wimbledon today. The networks, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that tennis fans really don't need to see live tennis on this, the best single day of tennis. Go figure.

To be fair, ESPN2 has done a good job with their Wimbledon coverage throughout the first week. I wasn't too enthusiastic about their French Open coverage a few weeks ago, but they have been handling the Big W quite nicely. They have been beginning their live coverage at the crack of dawn--actually before dawn for those of us on the West Coast--and have continued right up through the end of play each day. What more could you want?

Well now, NBC has gone and mucked everything up. ESPN had to end their live coverage at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time so NBC could take over. That may not have been a big deal for East Coasters, but for West Coasters it was a disaster. You see, NBC was still showing the Today Show when ESPN2 stopped broadcasting. And they would continue to show Matt Lauer, Al Roker and company for the next three hours. When NBC started broadcasting the tennis at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time, it was a crappy old tape of the earlier East Coast broadcast. Nice way to muff it, NBC.
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Hollow Victory for Roger Federer? posted by Daniel Doyle

Some claim that Roger Federer's clay conquest was a hollow victory since he did not beat Rafael Nadal.

As soon as Roger Federer dried his last tear of joy, the backlash began. Reporters and columnists quickly started dismissing his championship in the French Open because of something Roger could not control. Federer had no part in determining who he played in the final at Roland Garros. He simply did what he had done 13 times before- win a Grand Slam.

It isn't as if Rafael Nadal wasn't in the field. He was there. The number one seed in fact. It was his tournament to lose and he did. Federer made it through the draw he was given as the two seed. In the final Federer beat Robin Soderling in straight sets. Soderling defeated Nadal in four sets earlier in the tournament.

I am not making the argument that Federer would have beaten Nadal had they met Sunday for the French Open Championship. If history is any indication, Nadal probably would have won. However, that didn't happen. The only thing we know for certain is Roger Federer was the one in a fetal position, emotion flowing out of his eyes, victorious on Sunday afternoon. He has completed his goal of a career Grand Slam. Roger Federer has greatly improved his resume and is now one Slam short of owning the record for most Grand Slam titles of all time. So, instead of finding ways to discredit his most recent win, relish having had the opportunity to see one of the greatest tennis players of all time conquer a surface that became more of a nemisis to him than Rafael Nadal ever had.

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Theresa Earnhardt Has To Have It Her Way posted by The Sports Point

http://thesportspoint.blogspot.com/2008/02/theresa-earnhardt-has-to-have-it-her.html

Texas Motor Speedway is running an marketing campaign to promote its April race, but Theresa Earnhardt made them change part of it. The campaign focuses on drivers numbers and reasons why you should attend the race, but Dale Earnhardt, Jr's stepmother took offense to the reason given next to the popular driver: "Reason #88: Step-Mom."

Theresa already ran Junior off to Hendrick Motorsports from his late father's team, where he will drive the #88 Mountain Dew Amp Chevrolet. Now she can't even laugh at a humorous billboard. Junior was entertained when he heard about it, but had his sister, who also acts as his business manager, file a complaint to suffice Theresa.

Boogity, Boogity, Boogity! NASCAR has to be loving the storylines heading into this season, so much so that they've neglected updating the driver section of their website. This must be where we make the point that NASCAR fans don't have access to the internet, so it doesn't really matter right? 

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After 2 Year Anti-Doping Ban , Sesil Karatancheva Storms Through The ITF Circuit, Now On Verge Of Returning To WTA posted by Justin Horowitz

On January 11th, Bulgarian Teen Sesil Karatancheva was once again eligible by the ITF for competition . Wasting no time to get back on track, she entered a $25k ITF tournament in Arizona and won 3 matches (in a day!!) to qualify into the main draw. She won the tournament and entered another 25k tournament in La Quinta, California the following week, and once again won 3 matches to qualify for the tournament and eventually going onto win as well. After only 2 weeks back in tennis with a 16-0 record already , she has recieved legal pressure from the Bulgarian Sports Federation for not reporting to national duty for Bulgaria in their Fed Cup tie against Hungary . That would have been heroic of her to have played and won the tie for her nation but it is understandable that she needed to re gain rankings and earnings. 

Although Karatacheva plays in a 75k tournament in Michigan this week which will yield tougher competition with players like Hsu Su Sweih of Taiwan and German up and comer Sabine Lisciki, a return to the WTA is almost inevitable for her. Everyone deserves a second chance in life and we wish her the best of luck.

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Unappealing Behavior posted by Macklen Jackson

Andy Roddick is a fun player to watch and I was rooting for him as much as anybody in the Australian Open, but I was disappointed to see him sink to the level he reached when he taunted the umpire during his match with Philipp Kohlschreiber in today’s effort. Despite dishing out a career best 42 aces, Roddick fell to the German 6-4 3-6 7-6 6-7 8-6. 

After his shot was originally called out, 29th seed Kohlschreiber challenged the ruling and it was overturned, prompting an irate Roddick to argue that he would have attempted a return, but didn’t due to the stoppage in play. When his appeal went unfulfilled, he proceeded to ridicule the umpire’s intelligence, shouting insinuation that he was never educated after the second grade. He made one final dig by yelling out: “You’re an idiot! Stay in school kids or you’ll end up being an umpire.”

 Roddick’s juvenile behavior aside, he makes a valid point. It is this very reason that some things are not reviewable in NFL football. Once the whistle blows a play dead, that’s it. If forward progress is ruled to have been stopped, but a running back breaks free and scores a touchdown, it’s called back because the whistle blew. If a runner is whistled down even though he has simultaneously fumbled the football, the runner will retain possession because the whistle supersedes all ensuing action. And rightfully so. Whether the whistle was correct or incorrect in the first place, the point is: when the whistle blows, people stop trying and you can’t let a game change after play is halted. The same applies to tennis where a player has no incentive to wear out his arm by returning a serve that has been called out. However, just because Roddick has a point, doesn’t mean there isn’t a flip side to the matter. Firstly, he knows darn well that if he were on the benefiting end of an overturned call, he’d be thrilled about the ruling. Secondly, the replay component to tennis isn’t new. It has to have occurred to him by now that such a situation is plausible and he might as well play every ball through. Until a perfect replay system is instituted and until there no longer exists a human error component to officiating sports, Roddick needs to expect such circumstances to unfold. And lastly, Andy Roddick ended up winning that game! If that was break point on the final game in a match, perhaps a bigger deal would need to have been made. But he fought back despite the controversial call and came out on top. So what was that all for anyway? 

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Who's the Greatest Men's Player of the Open Era? posted by Gene Desrochers

The Greatest Open Era Men's Tennis Player
By Gene Desrochers


Since we have the 2008 Australian Open coming up in January, I've decided to ask, who's the greatest male tennis player of the Open Era (1968-Present)?  I ask this question of an individual sport that I know a little something about.  Although I will not be very scientific, I will begin the debate and hopefully the rest of you will continue it.  Let's get started.

Let’s start with the obvious stat of who's won the most majors in his career.  Here is a list of contenders.  By my standards, if you are not on this short list, you get no consideration.  Sure, there are guys who were immensely talented, who only won one, or two, or zero titles, but we are not discussing talent.  We are discussing the actualization of work ethic plus talent plus mental fortitude, and career achievements.  To that end, I offer in order, with the number of grand slam singles titles to their name the following:

John McEnroe, 7
Mats Wilander
Jimmy Connors, 8
Ivan Lendl, 8
Andre Agassi, 8
Rod Laver, 11**
Bjorn Borg, 11
Roger Federer, 12*
Pete Sampras, 14

I know, there are names not on the list that you might feel have been slighted, such as Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Arthur Ashe, Jim Courier (you should be ashamed of yourself), Gustavo Kuerten, Guillermo Vilas, etc. However, as great as these men were, they are not worthy.  Furthermore, you might ask, where the heck is Roy Emerson, with twelve grand slams?  Well folks, since Roy won his last title in 1967, and won none in the Open Era, he does not qualify. 
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Is Nascar Headed In The Right Direction? posted by Kenneth Watkins

Over the last few years of watching Nascar racing I'm beginning to wonder if they are headed in the right directon. It seems that Nascaris always changing and trying to reinvent themselves and in the process has done nothing but drive fans, sponsors, and even drivers away from the sport. Let's address some of these issues first starting with the drivers who are the backbone of the sport.

Over the past few years some drivers have retired from the sport and many have cited the direction Nascar is headed for their early departure. Nascar has decided to promote their younger drivers which is fine, but you can't forget the people that paved the way for these younger drivers. People like Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, Harry Gant, Dave Marcis have all been basically not applauded or recognized for the contribution they have made to the sport. This doesn't sit very well with the fans and believe me they do take notice.

Sponsors are another issue that Nascar in recent years have had a hard time keeping it seems. After a long time Winston decided it was time to leave the sport. Busch has also exited and now the Truck Series only sponsor Craftsman is leaving. Now many still have a small hand in Nascar, but the big dollars they provided are gone. The main reason in my eyes is the direction that Nascar is going. Gone our the days when Nascar would remember their roots as now it's coming more to the mighty dollar over the fans, and the drivers.

Last are the fans who for a number of years have seen the shift and aren't happy with it. I've talked to many who don't even watch Nascar racing and they use to be die-hard racing fans. They have said Nascar has taken the fun away and made it something they don't even know anymore. Fans are supportive as long as you do things the right way, and right now Nascar isn't and they are losing fan base and it's now showing up at the track and in the ratings. Hopefully Nascar will make a u-turn and get back on the right path so Nascar can getting it rolling in the right direction.

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Murray comes up short in bid for Wimbledon title

With an often boisterous crowd fully behind Andy Murray, it was the man in front of him that kept the third-ranked Scot from becoming the first British man to reach the Wimbledon final in 71 years.Murray didn't play poorly in his 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) loss to Andy Roddick, far from it. He even gave the thousands of fans on Centre Court plenty to scream and cheer about throughout the match. But when it came to the few points that mattered the most, Roddick was the one who stepped up. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for TENNIS

Federer, Roddick to meet in Wimbledon final

Roger Federer reached his seventh straight Wimbledon final Friday by beating Tommy Haas of Germany 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-3.Federer won five consecutive titles at the All England Club before losing to Rafael Nadal in last year's final. At this year's tournament, the second-seeded Swiss is trying to win his record 15th Grand Slam title.Federer played excellent tennis Friday, holding serve easily and breaking Haas late in the second and third sets. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for TENNIS

Breaking down the Wimbledon finals

Venus-Serena. Roddick-Federer. We must be dreaming. Get ready for a pair of fun Wimbledon finals, Brian Webber says. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for TENNIS

Venus-Serena final for fourth time (AP)

Venus Williams is just about the perfect older sibling: She supports Serena endlessly, protects her fiercely and even lets her pick which bedroom she wants when they're on the road. Where does Venus draw the line? At Grand Slam championships. The sisters face each other again in a major final, meeting Saturday for the Wimbledon title for the fourth time. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

Haas plays well, but falls to Federer (AP)

Against almost any other player, Tommy Haas would have had a fighting chance in the Wimbledon semifinals. Instead, the German's solid play on Centre Court ended up in a relatively tame 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-3 loss to five-time champion Roger Federer on Friday. "I served extremely well," Haas said. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports