Category Archives: Grand Slams
An Awfully Nice Curse
Roland Garros, Day Three (Q) Kubot d. (11) Almagro, 3/6 2/6 7/6 7/6 6/4 Of all the practical jokes recently inflicted on Nicolas Almagro, two in particular were humdingers, and it’s a nice question which of them has proved funnier. … Continue reading
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Grass-Bound
French Open, Day Two Berrer d. Raonic, 6/4 4/6 6/3 6/4 Darcis d. Llodra, 6/7 6/3 6/3 6/3 As a journeyman drawing a seed first up, you’d rather face Milos Raonic than Novak Djokovic, probably anywhere, but especially on clay … Continue reading
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Flag Waving Maniacs
French Open, Day One Following an inevitably slow week of stuttering build-up and sphincter-collapsingly dull press conferences, the Babolat Ultimate Tennis Experience got underway today, having usefully appended itself to the French Open. Although the press releases hinted at a … Continue reading
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Luck of the Draw: Roland Garros
The Roland Garros draw has been released, and can be viewed here. If for whatever reason you’re interested in someone else’s thoughts on it, there are plenty floating around, because this is the kind of self-generating, low-overhead content that can … Continue reading
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An Ever Expanding Category
Babolat and Roland Garros, the ‘Ultimate Tennis Experience’. As exercises in synergy go, a partnership between a tennis tournament and a manufacturer of tennis equipment is not a bad fit, especially if they’re both ‘driven by a unifying, common value: … Continue reading
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Valuable Lessons
With the year’s first major concluded, the annual diaspora has commenced, with the haves retiring to their palaces, and the hoi-polloi spreading to South America, South Africa, and West Croatia. As an Australian, this signals the end of tennis being … Continue reading
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A Second Stamp
Australian Open, Final Djokovic d. Murray, 6/4 6/2 6/3 Channel 7 didn’t exactly redeem itself at the eleventh hour – we’re way beyond that – but it could have been worse. Of course there was the usual ear-jarring nonsense – … Continue reading
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A Tennis Player
Australian Open, Semifinal Murray d. Ferrer, 4/6 7/6 6/1 7/6 The crowd in Rod Laver Arena was particularly rowdy this evening, a fact I quickly surmised from the noise they were generating, which was considerable. Lest I misinterpreted it, a … Continue reading
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Blinking First
Australian Open, Semifinal Djokovic d. Federer, 7/6 7/5 6/4 Ever since the 2007 US Open final, when Novak Djokovic augmented the biomass at the elite end of men’s tennis by roughly half, the Serb and Roger Federer have constructed a … Continue reading
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The More Things Change
Australian Open, Quarterfinals Rashly, I started this article prior to the last men’s quarterfinal, in which a hamstrung Rafael Nadal was overwhelmed in straight sets by a sporadically inspired and always-solid David Ferrer. Of the four quarterfinals, that was the … Continue reading
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