Nike sighs relief: You know the folks at Nike won’t have their panties in a wad after Rafa Nadal owns up to his butt-picking ways. He blames the bad habit on just that — a habit — and not Nike’s inability to tailor clothes:
“It’s not the fault of the clothes. It’s a habit that I picked up when I was competing when I was young. I am trying to break the habit, but it’s not easy.” (Time)
Get it right: The announcer at Rogers Cup trophy ceremony said that Nole was from Croatia and not Serbia, which caused an uproar and a subsequent apology from Tennis Canada. Djokovic handled the mistake with class, but there are some who want the announcer fired.
Calm down folks. I can think of at least two other people who would be in line to get fired before this guy, and I’m sure they still have their jobs. Besides, after being corrected by Nole in front of the entire tennis-watching world, I’m sure the announcer will make sure to do better research for next year’s tourney.
Novak’s record: Roger and Rafa aren’t the only one breaking tennis records. Djokovic is the first player since Boris Becker in Stockholm ’94 to beat the top three seeds in the same tournament. He’s also the first player to beat Roger and Rafa in the same tournament.
Djokovic’s sausage: The next best thing to a shirtless Nole is him cooking and consuming a huge amount of “mixed meat”. (Fagistan)
Video from the fashion show: Butter provides us video from the ATP Fashion Show in Montreal. Alas, it doesn’t include this.
“College is overrated:” Some guy waiting with me at the bus stop had that written on his shirt (how appropriate). Peter Bodo, fortch, thinks otherwise. Because of the successes of John Isner and James Blake, he’s pushing to make college tennis a viable segue into pro tennis, and ZooTennis agrees.
How Courier plays on the green stuff: Jim Courier reveals his secret to playing on grass: “I don’t transition for (it). I try to make grass bend to my will… I have no intention of becoming a serve and volleyer; I’m going to dance with the date I brought, as the saying goes, and look for my forehand and follow it to net when appropriate.” Note to the USTA: don’t let Jim coach any of our kids during the grass season! (Outback Series)
Kalamazoo winner: Michael McClune wins the Boys’ 18 singles title and Tennys Sandgren wins the Boys’ 16 at Kalamazoo. Congrats. McClune also makes it into the main draw of the Open with a wild card. (Zoo Tennis)
Kids’ Day: The USTA has announced the line-up for this year’s Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day.
Joshua says
I like how Novak says that “it’s the same thing.” Because it’s true! Sure, Serbia is a distinct country from Croatia, but not all that long ago, Novak was an aspiring young Yugoslav tennis player. Serbs and Croats speak the same language, despite their protests otherwise (Susan Sontag has a very amusing, if sad, riff on this subject in her essay “Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo” regarding a decision by Bosnian theater producers to translate “Godot” into “Bosnian” since the existing, accepted translation was in “Serbian” — meaning only that a Serb was the translator.) And only recently a whole bunch of athletes in various sports have suddenly had to decide whether they were to be Serbians or Montenegrans.
coaks says
Jimmy Conors is the man!!!
http://www.drunkenpanda.com
butter says
video of Nole in undies is here:
http://www.rds.ca/video/visionneuse.html
click on the top 10 click “les meilleurs moments de la coupe rogers 2007”
butter says
dang college…..it’s getting tougher!