Posts Tagged ‘tennis’




Murray wins U.S. Open–is he now among the world’s best?

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

Andy Murray (Wikimedia Commons)

Andy Murray of Great Britain is finally a grand slam champion. On Monday he defeated Novak Djokovic of Serbia in five grueling sets, 7-6, 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 in the men’s final of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York.

The term finally is used here because Murray has received an immense amount of hype the last couple of years but has never seemed to close it out. Monday was his fifth final and until Monday was never really been able to play the necessary tennis in the championship required to be a grand slam champion.

Things yesterday however. Murray was dominant in the fifth and final set, when it mattered the very most. He becomes the first man from Great Britain to win a grand slam tennis tournament since Fred Perry won the U.S. Open in 1936.

There were also two interesting statistics. Murray’s win came in four hours and fifty-three minutes. That ties the longest match in U.S. Open history for a men’s final. Also, Murray’s 12-10 win in the first set tiebreak was also the longest tiebreaker for the men’s final at the U.S. Open.

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Posted in ATP World Tour, More |

Kvitova wins 2012 Rogers Cup

Tuesday, August 14th, 2012

Petra Kvitova (Pavel Lebeda, Wikimedia Commons)

Despite playing very poor tennis for the majority of the second set, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic defeated China’s Li Na Monday night in Montreal to win the 2012 Rogers Cup 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

Th first and third sets were highly contested tennis with Kvoitova winning the sets each time. But Na deserves some credit for destroying Kvitova in the second set, winning the first twelve points in the set en route to an easy set win that lasted only 32 minutes.

Kvitova might have won the Rogers Cup, but in how many sports are you allowed to take a break, and then return to win the match. Kvitova and Na each won 192 total points from the match, but Kvitova won because she won her points at the right time.

The problem with tennis is that the sport rewards timing, unlike golf, where if a player is horrible for a  particular time during a round, the result is reflected in the final score much better. Tennis does not award consistency enough by the way its scoring system works.

It was Kvitova’s first win in 2012 and her first victory in North America.

 

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Posted in ATP World Tour, More |

China dominates in the pool on day one

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

The Chinese have made major strides in the sport of swimming. That wasn’t more evident than on day one of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Shiwen Ye, who is only 16 years of age, won the Olympic Gold medal in the women’s 400m individual medley in World Record time of 4:28.43. Meanwhile in the men’s 400m freestyle, Sun Yang won a Gold medal.

China leads the medal standings with six medals overall, one more medal than Italy and the United States.

In Saturday’s other high profile event, Kazakhstan’s Alexandre Vinokourov, at the age of 38, surprised many by winning Olympic Gold in the men’s cycling road race.

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Posted in Amateur Sports, ATP World Tour, More |

Weekend Recap September 11-12

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Kim Clijsters (Andrew Huse, Wikimedia Commons)

Thank-you tennis gods.

On the weekend I had a hockey pool, which I thought would make me miss the Men’s final at New York’s Flushing Meadows. But it got rained out yesterday, and I should be able to watch first seed Rafael Nadal of Spain take on third seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia this afternoon. This will be Nadal’s first U.S. Open Final. He is going for his ninth grand slam title having won the French Open five times,Wimbledon twice and Australian Open once. A victory would also mean he will join elite company by joining Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Rod Laver, Don Budge, Fred Perry and Roy Emerson as the only players with a career grand slam.

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Posted in ATP World Tour, CFL, More, NFL |

Weekend Preview September 11-12

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Vera Zvonareva (Christian Mesiano, Wikimedia Commons)

This is one of my favourite times of year. The U.S. Open takes place, the NFL season begins, and there are USUALLY some interesting football games Canadian style, with this year being an exception, Eskimo fans.

Here is what I’ll be watching over the next 24 hours. Unfortunately, my first hockey pool of the year is scheduled for Sunday afternoon, so I’m hoping I won’t miss too much of a potential Federer/Nadal dream final on American soil.

Saturday–U.S. Open Men’s Semi-Final–(1) Rafael Nadal–Spain vs. (12) Mikhail Youzhny–Russia–CBS–10AM–Super Saturday kicks off with the world’s number one trying to advance to his first U.S. Open final, the only grand slam he has never won. This is Youzhny’s second U.S. Open semi-final appearance, as he lost to Andy Roddick in 2006. Head-to-head Nadal has the 7-4 edge, with their last meeting being in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2008 with Nadal winning in straight sets. Youzhny however upset Nadal in the only previous match at the U.S. Open in the 2006 quarterfinals–6-3, 5-7, 7-6, 6-1. I give Nadal the edge because his serve has been remarkable over the last two weeks.  He has consistently been clocked 134 miles per hour.

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Posted in ATP World Tour, CFL, More, NFL |

Federer and Woods Have Gretzky in Common

Monday, September 6th, 2010

Every time I watch Roger Federer play these days, I think of Tiger Woods.

And every time I think of the terrible time Woods has built for himself, I think of Wayne Gretzky.

I’m sure you can hardly wait for me to tell you why, so here goes.

Remember the world championship when Gretzky was not invited to participate in a shootout? His goal-scoring records have not been touched by any of the other great players in hockey history but his coach — Marc Crawford? — elected to leave him on the bench with a championship on the line. (more…)

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Posted in ATP World Tour, NHL, PGA |

How will this help women’s tennis?

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Caroline Wozniacki (Edwin Martinez, Wikimedia Commons)

Ok, I am a grumpy tennis fan, who needs to use the Any Sport Any Time forum to release.

If you haven’t heard, this will be the final season that the Men’s and Women’s tennis tournaments on the ATP and WTA tour will be played on separate weeks.

Starting in 2011, the Rogers Men’s Cup and Rogers Women’s Cup will be played at the exact same time!

Ok, I understand if the tennis tournaments were played at the same venue, as we see at Wimbledon, the French Open, the U.S. Open, Australian Open, Tennis Masters Series Indian Wells and Tennis Masters Series Miami, but in Canada they’re not.

The Rogers Cup events for men and women alternate each year between Montreal and Toronto. In 2010, the men were in Toronto last week and the women are in Montreal this week. Next year, the men will be in Montreal and the women in Toronto during the same week.

Who loses? I think the WTA will lose more than the ATP. I will be surprised if the Rogers Women’s Cup will be shown at the high level it is shown this week, when they will have to go head-to-head against the men. The bottom line is more people want to see Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray than Jelena Jankovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Elena Dementieva and Kim Clijsters. Sponsors know that. Viewers know that.

Which at the end of the day, it is too bad. We only live in one country, and will make things mighty challenging for tennis organizers in Canada to host two significant events– at the same time. Canadian fans who go from Montreal to Toronto or vice versa every summer now don’t have the chance to do so.

Another group that will lose are existing Canadian female tennis players. They will receive significant less media attention as they have to share the stage with the men. Female players at the grass roots level will also lose as they won’t be able to see their role models as often. This is not to say that the men and women won’t be seen on two separate channels– there is a likelihood that will happen. But women’s action will be recognized at a lower pedestal.

Women’s tennis fans across the country lose– and that’s the bottom line.

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Posted in ATP World Tour, More |

Weekend Recap August 13-15

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Dustin Johnson (Jeff Gordon, Wikimedia Commons)

As we hit into the dog days of summer for all sports fans, I always get really excited about the middle Sunday of the month.

This is the day of the fourth round of the PGA Championship and the men’s final of the Rogers Cup. For a major fan of golf and tennis, you have these two critical events on the sports calendar played on the same day.

Stories related to American Dustin Johnson will dominate the PGA Tour headlines for 2010. At the U.S. Open in June, Johnson had a three stroke lead after 54 holes on Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell at -6, then shot a 82 in the fourth round to lose by 5 strokes. Then yesterday, Johnson was in the lead by a stroke over German Martin Kaymer and American Bubba Watson after 71 holes of the PGA Championship, when he recorded a bogey. Or as we all thought it was a bogey? Apparently, Johnson grounded his club in a bunker that was located in a gallery. That’s a two-stroke penalty. An absolute no no in golf circles. Johnson would not be in the PGA Championship playoff after all, which in turn led to the Martin Kaymer win.

Kaymer continues the recent strong play of German golfers as of late. Bernhard Langer won the British Senior Open and U.S. Senior Open over the summer.

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Posted in ATP World Tour, CFL, MLB, More, PGA |