lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Aug 28, 2012 13:29:40 GMT
Absolutely. Tennis and hockey were the two sports that gained the most with HD. Like falafaclese, I can't even watch in SD anymore. The difference is ridiculous.
harry, Feli had a five o'clock shadow (which makes sense since he didn't get on the court until 10:30 pm) but was pretty clean shaven. His hair is at a good length too--short, but not so short that it's that curly mop he can end up with. I'll try to post some photos later today if I get the time.
Now that I'm a big fan of Matthew Ebden (yes, the Rafter influence is key but Matthew is adorable so it's not hard) I went to his match when I left the beatdown that was the Fer/Machado match. Pat Rafter and Todd Woodbridge! I felt like an idiot taking pictures facing the wrong way but oh well. The best was when Ebden hit a beautiful volley winner and gave the most chagrined look to Rafter. I can just imagine the conversations where Patrick would tell him to play the net more and Matthew wouldn't want to. . .
Oh, I did see some of the women's matches so here's my take: Lepchenko really isn't very good. Maybe she was having a bad day (?) but it was nearly impossible for her to hold serve. (Yes, she won but Johannson was just that bad.) They were both in the bash-the-ball-no-matter-what school that I dislike so much on the women's side. I only saw the third set of Cirstea/Lisicki but Cirstea exploited every fault that Lisicki had. Sorana is a big hitter too, but at least she has a destination in mind when she hits it. Laura Robson was playing an American I've never heard of (Samantha Crawford) who also hits big (boy, am I getting tired of that) but I've completely changed my mind about Laura--I thought she was over-hyped as a junior but she hit some winners out of nowhere that were just beauties. She does whine to herself on court though. . . Judy Murray was there and there was one really funny moment: a couple were taking a picture in front of her and, judging by their expression, I think Judy and the guy next to here thought they were photobombing the picture but then it turned out the couple knew she was there and were trying to get her in the picture. She was super gracious and took individual pictures with both of them.
eta: oh, and very important: now that I've seen a couple of different outfits from the adidas women's line I can say they are overly fascinated with things only being on one side. Where Sorana's dress looked nice from the front, from the back you could see that they had a strap on one side where the other side had full coverage. Laura was wearing the shirt/skirt combo and there was a vent in the back--but only going across one shoulder. Also, for both of them, there wasn't enough fabric. It wasn't that they were wearing the wrong size, but for Cirstea I could see every outline of what she was wearing underneath and Laura's shirt kept riding up so that when she was serving her lower back kept making an appearance--and their skirts ride really low so the combination wasn't great. She had to keep tugging the shirt down.
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Post by GrandSlamGuru on Aug 28, 2012 14:03:26 GMT
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Post by falafaclese on Aug 28, 2012 14:34:06 GMT
Very interesting angle in that article, guru, thanks.
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Post by oopssorry on Aug 28, 2012 15:17:46 GMT
Thanks, guru. To provide more contrast to the character of the McEnroes, the Sky commentators on my stream referenced Roger's reflection on his own late-stage growing pains in relation to Young's. Here was the article - online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444327204577613512763592978.html?mod=googlenews_wsjI dream of a press that holds the McEnroes to their hypocrisy (among other things). For the record, I'm no huge fan of Young's - though I saw him play several times locally here when he was growing up. But I disagree with the insta-fame approach to developing young people, whatever the arena. (why am I so cranky today? sheesh.) |
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Aug 28, 2012 15:32:01 GMT
But isn't it perception on the part of the athlete as well? Something we've been talking about a lot at work since the Olympics is how "winning is the only thing" has become prevalent in sports and sportsmanship has gone by the wayside because of it. How many people did we see pouting on the podium because they were holding silver or bronze instead of gold? The events I liked best were the ones where the commentators were talking about the athletes who were happy because they had beaten their own expectations. I saw it the most in track and field--athletes who were thrilled to get out of the first round because that was their goal. Seems to me that was Duval's attitude--do her best and be proud of herself. Young wasn't going to win--but if he did his best and was proud of what he did achieve (breaking Fed and hanging in there for a while) then the pissy attitude wouldn't show up.
They can talk now about how Patrick and John touted him--but no one ever thought he was going to get to the top. He just didn't have the height. But his great talent wasn't realized because of stupid decisions by his family/management. That's what pisses the McEnroe brothers off, and I don't blame them but of course it isn't their place because the Young family took them out of the equation. John and Patrick have to deal with that and just let it go at this point.
eta: I just read the article that oops posted. Looks like Fed agrees with me about Olympic glory:
I truly love that Fed seems to realize that what he has now is wonderful and that he can have goals for his career future but that enjoying his life now is the most important thing.
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Post by GrandSlamGuru on Aug 28, 2012 16:02:38 GMT
Well said. I've never been an athlete but I would kill to be on an Olympic podium -- even just to get the bouquet of flowers, let alone a medal. Roger has perspective and counts his blessings, as we all should. DY played under the lights at the USO and should have been thrilled, just as Duval was. Methinks DY's parents think they're like the Williams' parents, except they're not. As the recent NYT Magazine article shows, the parents Williams studied and played the game themselves. nyti.ms/PYDClW The results speak for themselves. |
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Post by harry24 on Aug 28, 2012 17:24:01 GMT
I thought the commentators last night said that Young's parents were tennis teachers.
I remember a quote years ago from some article about Michael Chang saying that he was criticized because his game stopped growing but that what actually happened was that he stopped growing as a man. (Not emotionally, but physically.)
Although I thought when they met at net that Young was closer in height to Roger than I thought. It could have been the angle of the camera, though.
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Aug 28, 2012 18:06:36 GMT
Self-proclaimed tennis teachers. Not exactly Judy Murray there. . .
btw: Thanks, skyz, for the reminder about the USOpen site streaming matches. I would never remember on my own. Of course I turned it on just in time to watch my bud Mahut go from two sets up to needing a fifth set. eta: dang, scratch that. I just got a plug in error and now I can't get it to load again. *sigh* eta2: got the stream back but he lost in the 5th set tiebreak. Now I'm sad.
I didn't realize that 1) Ryan Harrison has a tennis-playing brother and 2) they're playing in the US Open doubles. They won their first-round match today against Matkowski/Frystenberg, who are a very good team (and seeded 4th).
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Post by GrandSlamGuru on Aug 28, 2012 20:30:22 GMT
Venus is playing well and looking sharp today. Hope she goes far.
eta: Frannie just served 5 double faults -- why is she so nervous?
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Post by oopssorry on Aug 28, 2012 22:18:37 GMT
My favorite part of that WSJ article was that Roger uses colloquialisms like "are you for real?" - ha.
As for DY - I also wish he'd been more gracious throughout his playing career. But he certainly had more at stake last night than a brand new up-and-comer, as the article stated. What I feel most sad about is that there seem to have been few psychological supports for DY in these key years. And I don't mean just psych suppports so that he could win more - I mean, in general, so that whatever became of his time on the tour he would feel proud of it. I go all googly when Roger starts talking about dealing with expectations and inner demons and returning to the pure joy of the work and of the game. Seriously. I contemplate playing recordings of this for my grad students.
DY has seemed to me have been chewed up in the US mode of "oooh! Shiny new player! Get the PR machine going!", etc.... I will defer on specifics, but I think that general MO doesn't help us grow good people, let alone star athletes....
Or I am wrong - Tiger Woods, I guess. Though maybe he proves my former point, ha.
Missed all action today. I have the usopen.org live streaming committed to memory! It's my slam with straightforward access!!!
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Post by skyz on Aug 28, 2012 23:06:21 GMT
Thanks, guys, for the HD reviews. I'll probably end up getting it and I think it comes with On Demand so that's a bonus.
DY still wears his hat sideways, that speaks for itself. Mentally he still seems stuck in that entitlement phase, but it's slowly wearing off. It's odd though that he didn't really start taking things seriously until last year, I suppose he felt he was "gifted enough", where he didn't need to practice his craft. He reminds me of a rookie hotshot for the NBA or NFL and lets the fame go to his head before he's proven himself. Of course he didn't really have any role models to emulate as far as another black man leading the way. His parents seemed to have kept him isolated and fed his ego healthily for years and it's all coming to a head now. He needs to learn how to fight and actually seek out ways to be better, a la David Ferrer. Use what you got and make it work.
And Sloane's looking good and didn't get too down on herself in this 2nd set. I'm looking for more of a killer instinct from her, she can go the distance but then fades, she's gotta dig her claws in and go for the throat.
And Venus looked very good and served so well even at 55%.
Enjoyable day of tennis.
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Aug 28, 2012 23:31:52 GMT
Congrats to both Sloane and Venus. I had Mattek-Sands winning because I thought Venus might have played a bit too much tennis this summer. I switched Sloane at the last second and I'm glad I did.
Someone needs to tell John that Djoker can't be #1 at the end of the Open. He said it tonight and he said it during one of the preview shows. I keep thinking I must have done my math wrong but Roger mentioned that his #1 was safe no matter the outcome of the Open so I'm going with Roger instead of John.
eta: Young might not have done so well last night but he won his doubles match against Llodra/Zimonjic. That's a HUGE upset. And right now Max and Daniel are down a break in the deciding set. I can't remember the last time I didn't get to see Max at the Open and I'm going to be quite upset if it happens with that pairing as the #1 seed.
Dolgo is down a set and a break and Monaco lost to Garcia Lopez after being up two sets. This has been one weird day. . .
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Post by mooncreek on Aug 29, 2012 0:28:08 GMT
I had Sloane winning the match as well, based on the guess that Schiavone was going to withdraw.
American Doubles Blasting Off! We already have the Harrison brothers beating Fyrstenberg/Matkowski and Donald Young(time to give props!)/Nicholas Monroe beating Llodra/Zimonjic. Now Jack Sock and Steve Johnson are up 4-1 in the 3rd on Mirnyi/Nestor!
ETA: Make that the #1 seed is gone! Wow.
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Aug 29, 2012 0:40:09 GMT
ARGH! What am I going to do? No Max! Well, I just won't look at Liezel. . . I hadn't heard that story about Djoker taking an axe to his racquets after losing the Bronze-medal match. I'm glad I didn't since I could hear Novak say it wasn't true (and that article makes it seem like USA Today never believed it either). I believe him. I mean, where would he get a hold of an axe in the locker room at Wimbledon? Hmmm, judging by the score, Woz is going down pretty meekly. eta: oh, she was injured. Poor thing. |
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Post by mooncreek on Aug 29, 2012 0:43:09 GMT
Now we have to root for Liezel.  Also apparently on the underdog-American push: Jesse Levine up 2 sets and a double break on Dolgopolov. ETA: Levine was up 4-love in the third. Dolgopolov won the next 6 games. |
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