Sports - Tennis Talk.

**-Bianca-** · 07-02-2005, 01:41 PM

New thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NikNak

Unfortunately, now, my grandfather won't be able to shut up about her winning today.

That's going to be me tomorrow with my dad and his precious Fed.

amusic20 · 07-02-2005, 03:09 PM

I'm very excited that Venus Williams won -- I guess she hasn't won in a couple years...I wish I had seen the match, though! My friend Emily was telling me about it, & how intense it was

**NikNak** · 07-02-2005, 04:07 PM

It was so friggin' good.

I was extremely disappointed Lindsay lost, though.

Can't wait for the men's tomorrow.

Peanut · 07-02-2005, 09:58 PM

I was rotting for Lindsay as well. Venus acted like a five year old. Ok you won and it's okay to be excited and all but sheesh when the award presentation begins it's time to stop jumping up and down like and idiot.

I hope we get a Roddick victory in the mens final but whoever I root for seems to lose so maybe I should root for Roger.

**-Bianca-** · 07-03-2005, 05:55 AM

Andy's got no shot today, so I don't really think any bad sports karma is going to matter.

Although he has yet to play his best tennis this tournament. His groundstrokes have pretty much ranged from 'meh' to 'suck' (for him) all fortnight. If he could just have one day where the Solid!Backcourt!Roddick! comes out to play with Improved!Net!Play!Roddick! and Serves!80%!Roddick!... he'll at least get a set off of the Fed, I think.

I just don't know if that can happen on short rest with Fed being fully rested.

***Strider*** · 07-03-2005, 12:29 PM

Every time Wimbledon ends, I get a feeling of nostalgia and the old "here we go again...got to wait 1 more year".

Andy Roddick. Right now, I'm not angry. I'm not frustrated. Why? Andy played well. At this point, only a Pete Sampras, in his prime, could defeat a Roger Federer on grass. BTW, for those who say that Federer maybe the best ever...slow down a bit. Sure he looks superhuman right now, but I want to see the 7 titles first. I want to see a French Open Clay championship. The scary thing...Federer is 23 and doesn't appear to be "bored" or "lazy". He seems determined to improve. Second serve, a few little things...the gap between 1 and 2 will be widening, and somewhere in the Swiss Alps, Federer will be collecting more grand slam title trophies in a dusty glass case.

As a fan of tennis, I think it's good for the game if there isn't just one man dominating the tour. However, greatness must be appreciated. Am I tired of Federer seemgly winning everything and beating everyone? Sure. It gets old. Then comes a time, when I look on and see the second coming of Pete Sampras. Pete dominated. He was underappreciated, still is by many, who say "well he never won a French Open"...blah, blah, blah. Federer maybe as good, before it's all said and done we'll compare the two and make arguments for and against. Sometimes I feel sorry for Andy Roddick. He is my favorite player alongside Andre Agassi, but I wonder if Andy would want his fans to feel sorry for him? My guess is no. He would want us to continue believing. I've read several articles today...how he managed to put a "good spin" on a grand slam finals defeat. Maybe it's not "spin"...maybe it's the truth. I'll post an article in a minute

Speaking of underdogs...I watched something special happen yesterday. It happened not on the grass of Wimbledon, but on the sand court of a womens' beach volleyball event. Why would I ever compare the two? Well, Elaine Youngs is one of the most decorated Beach Volleyball Players on the planet. She won the bronze medal at the olympics with then partner McPeak. She carried a 20 plus match losing streak against the team of Misty May and Kerri Walsh, who are as dominating on their tour as any team can be. Guess what happened? The team of Youngs and her new partner Rachel I'll butcher the spelling of her last name so I won't attempt it pulled out a 3 set match against the world's number one team and ended that 2 plus years losing streak. So Andy Roddick fans, NEVER stop believing. Do not give up on Andy. I don't know what will take for Andy to overcome Roger at Wimbledon, or any other GS tournament, but I do know this - NOBODY wins them all. Roger maybe the greatest ever, but even the greatest ever lost matches. Hang on...with the grass court season behind us...US Open is just around the corner

Andy...keep your head up and keep on trying to improve. Why? You just know that somewhere, Federer will be trying to improve...probably starting Monday!

On a side note...Venus acted borderline weird when she won her finals match. I understand the emotions for her were running high, but it's not like that's the first time she's won that title. I wish that Lindsay could have pulled that match out...it's a shame, she fought so hard through the whole tournament and had the match won in the second set but blew it by rushing her service game up 6-5.
Speaking of Venus...why doesn't anyone say something about her and Serena's grunting? I'm puzzled here...she's just as loud or louder than Maria and yet Maria gets all the ridiculous headlines about that?
Go figure

From ESPN.com
WIMBLEDON, England – Andy Roddick was soaking wet. His white Lacoste polo was stuck to his shoulders. His thin nylon hat was saturated with sweat. And every time he pulled his racket back and swung as hard as he could, tiny beads of sweat leapt off his brow.

He had absolutely, positively nothing more to give. And yet it wasn't enough. The 135-mile-an-hour serve, the laser-like forehand, the new wrinkle of serving and volleying, none of it mattered.

Andy Roddick simply wasn't good enough. And he knew it.

When it was all said and done, when top-seeded Roger Federer finished asserting himself as one of the greatest players in Wimbledon history, disposing of Roddick 6-2, 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the men's final, the second-seeded American returned to his typical, post-match honest self.

"I need a beer," he said.

It was completely understandable. He had done everything he could, mixing up his game to confuse the defending champion, but for the second straight year walked off Centre Court a loser
Afterward, Roddick refused to hang his head. Sure he was upset, sure it was frustrating to again lose to a player he has no idea how to beat, but he wasn't going to sulk. He wasn't going to cry. So, after walking into the interview room in a backwards mesh Mississippi cap, he reverted to the man of many one-liners. Only this time they were directed at himself.

Where does he go from here? "Home. Fast."

Mentally, what's it like to have an opponent tease with you like that? "Sounds like my life in high school."

The highlight came when Roddick answered a reporter's question about how he stayed confident when Federer was dominating.

Said Roddick: "It's not like I'm sitting there down two sets thinking, 'I've got this one,' " Roddick quipped.

That got a laugh out of the stone-faced moderator, who had yet to smile during any of Roddick's belly-busting post-match media sessions the entire tournament.

"I finally got a laugh out of you!" Roddick said, smiling and shaking his head in disbelief. "They're not easy, but I got one."

On court, Roddick's ploys weren't nearly as successful. He tried everything he and coach Dean Goldfine could come up with, going to Federer's forehand, his backhand. Coming in, staying back. Mixing the pace on his first serve, his second serve. But nothing worked.

Everything Roddick tried invariably ended with Federer lacing the ball past him. It left Roddick shrugging, throwing his hands in the air and heading back to the drawing board for a new plan come U.S. Open time.

"There's not much you can do," he said. "I'm not going to sit around and sulk and cry. Sometimes you have to sit back and say, 'too good.' Hope he gets bored or something. I don't know."

Last year, Roddick dominated Federer for a set and a half and then, after a rain delay, collapsed, losing to Federer in four sets. This year, even though Roddick failed to win a single set, he rated his performance as significantly better than 2004.

The only problem? Federer improved that much more.

"If I played the way I did this year versus the way he played last year, I'd probably win," Roddick said. "But he played head and shoulders above that."

And because of it, Sunday felt like a Federer coronation from the beginning. The world's No. 1 broke Roddick in the sixth game of the first set, needing just 22 minutes to take a one-set-to-love lead. It wasn't so much that Roddick played poorly, but rather that Federer dominated, hitting 15 winners compared to one unforced error.

In the second set, Roddick built some momentum early, pumping his fists and screaming, "Come on!" after breaking Federer's serve in the third game, but the defending champion responded to the challenge, breaking Roddick's serve three games later.

The set eventually went to a tiebreaker, leaving Roddick a crack of hope to get in the match. But Federer slammed that door shut, cruising to a 3-0 lead before winning the tiebreaker 7-2. In the third set, Federer broke Roddick in the seventh game and held for the championship.

"It's hard for him because I played a fantastic match – maybe the best I've ever played," Federer said. "But I won't get bored so quickly. So I'm sorry."

At no singular moment did Roddick play poorly. Sure, there was an errant shot here or a moment out of position there, but the reality is against any other player on tour, his game was good enough Sunday to squeak out a five-set victory. Just not against the world No. 1. And unfortunately for Roddick, that's where the bar has been set. Roddick, world No. 2 Lleyton Hewitt, French Open champion Rafael Nadal, Australian Open champion Marat Safin, they all know. Want to be the best? Want to be the No. 1 ranked player in the world? You have to go through Federer, a 23-year-old who some are already whispering could be the best ever.

Basketball players such as Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing can relate, watching their NBA careers end without a title after playing at the same time as a guy named Jordan. Roddick's timing, it may turn out, could be just as bad. But he says he wouldn't have it any other way.

"If you can't compete against the best and beat the best, then you don't deserve to win these titles," Roddick said. "Either figure it out, find a way and step up or I don't deserve it. And right now I just don't deserve it."

Despite the loss, plenty of positives came out of Roddick's fortnight. The 22-year-old snapped his streak of five straight losses in five match sets, going the distance to defeat both Daniele Bracciali and Sebastian Grosjean. And he cleared a self-described "mental hurdle," by reaching his first Grand Slam final since losing to Federer here last year.

Now he just needs to get over the giant Swiss hump. Which is exactly what he plans to do.

"Listen," he said. "I want another crack at him until my record is 1-31. I still want to go against him again. He's the measuring stick."

Alex

**-Bianca-** · 07-03-2005, 01:12 PM

Andy’s still got probably about 5/6 years of good tennis left and he’s a contender at 3 out 4 slams every year. He’ll win another one eventually… I’m not too worried about it at this point.

I really think though that Wimbledon this year was more of a success for him than last year’s ended up being because of where he was at heading into grass season and how he had to fight way more for what he got this year. It was one of those tournaments where he never seemed to be able to get his best tennis going (not today, not against ToJo, not against Seb, certainly not against Brocciali), but somehow, he still managed to win anyway and go as deep as a guy can go without actually winning the whole shebang.

That was huge because he hadn’t shown the ability to fight the way he did and leave it all out there the way he did in a very long time. Unfortunately, because of all that giving and leaving (along with the damn raining – Find a new whipping boy next year, Mother Nature. I beg!), he just had very little left to give today. (BTW I'm not saying he would have won if he was fully rested... but he clearly would have challenged The Fed a little more than what he did and it just sucks that he couldn't.)

He seems from his post-match comments to realize that he's on his way to getting on the right road mentally and getting back some of his confidence though. Combine that with the hard work he's finally (after slagging off for most of last year by his own admission) putting in, he'll get where he wants to go eventually. It may not happen more than once and it may take a bit, but it will.

***Strider*** · 07-03-2005, 04:17 PM

**NikNak** · 07-03-2005, 06:31 PM

Andy will be fine. His time will come at Wimbledon.

I loved when he said, "I need a beer." I drank a few of them myself watching that match!

**Ruby_Slippers** · 07-05-2005, 10:46 PM

Oh whatever, now people are dictating how people should act when they are happy?

She jumped up and down because everyone had ruled her out and that match was a fight. Didn't you guys watch?

I swear some people...

crazymike4 · 07-06-2005, 08:09 AM

I'm with you, Ruby. I saw nothing wrong in Venus' actions. She had to fight to come back that entire match. She's had an unimpressive two years. Having not made it past the QF in her past four grand slam appearances. Losing to Serena in the finals of four different slams. Her drought from 2001 was finally over. I was thrilled for her.

I was rooting for Lindsay though. She had her chances to close Venus out several times but couldn't pull it off. I'm glad that she's doing so well in the slams though.

Federer Won! All is good in the world!

**NikNak** · 07-06-2005, 09:43 AM

Alex- Nobody should be in the headlines about their grunting, LOL. They all need to quiet down, for real.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruby_Slippers

Oh whatever, now people are dictating how people should act when they are happy?

She jumped up and down because everyone had ruled her out and that match was a fight. Didn't you guys watch?

Yes, we did. But only two people here commented (so far) on how Venus' acted. They didn't like it. You did. It's a matter of opinion and not that serious.

***Strider*** · 07-07-2005, 06:41 PM

I know, but for some reason the "grunting" is focused only on Maria Sharapova. I guess I remember when Monica used to do it, she was the only one back then. Now several players are doing it.

Alex

**NikNak** · 07-07-2005, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strifer

I know, but for some reason the "grunting" is focused only on Maria Sharapova. I guess I remember when Monica used to do it, she was the only one back then. Now several players are doing it.

True, true.

Seles was one of my favorite players. She never truly came back from the stabbing incident, unfortunately.

crazymike4 · 07-08-2005, 01:17 PM

I barely ever saw Seles play. I wasn't a real dedicated tennis fan until about 2002. I might've seen a match or two. I know her more from the American Express commercial she did when she's in the grocery story and grunting upon each action.