Love, Balls and Courting: Tennis V

[peibeck]

Flavia takes out Petra in 3 to reach the semis in New York for the second time.

@my little pony at your Johnny Mac comment in the last thread. I was totally rolling my eyes about his comments about Serena and Venus during the Novak match. Obviously he was too busy schmoozing with Donald Trump to be watching it.

 

[oleada]

Johnny Mac was so irritating during the Novak match I had to turn it off. Also saying how Feliciano had no business being there over Fish, etc. He sounded so bitter.

Also, I'm happy for Penetta. I love her

 

[peibeck]

I noticed that too during the Djokovic/Lopez match, although he had to eat a bit of crow during the second set. I stopped watching shortly after the third set started to get some sleep.

Johnny Mac certainly doesn't have much love for anyone who is a "lucky loser." It's not Lopez' fault that Fish cramped up and lost that round. Also Fish and Johnny Mac are playing opposite each other in exhibition doubles tonight. Make of that what you will.

 

[aftershocks]

http://nypost.com/2015/09/09/tennis-star-james-blake-wrongly-cuffed-detained-by-cops-in-midtown/

Wow, why did it take NYC cops a half hour to determine that former tennis player, James Blake, is not a criminal member of a stolen cell phone ring!?

 

[oleada]

He's black and they're cops. Black = criminal to most NYPD

 

[jenny12]

Also, even if it wasn't mistaken identity, how is it being surrounded by five cops, being handcuffed, and getting pinned against a wall an appropriate response for buying cell phones with a phony card?

 

[peibeck]

Sad for Vika, but I think it's a benefit for Serena to be playing Halep or Panetta in the final and reach that calendar year Slam, which would make me happy.

 

[my little pony]

i considered taking my betterer t shirt out of the museum case for tonight's match. but as usual, i chickened out.

 

[peibeck]

Well those were two rather lopsided, dull men's quarterfinals.

 

[Rottie]

What happened to James Blake is .

I expect both women's semifinals to be lopsided affairs.

 

[Vash01]

It seems that to a lot of police a black man is guilty/criminal until proven innocent. James Blake was lucky that the officer didn't just shoot him in the head. Now the police chief and the city mayor want to apologize to him. They need to fix their police department. They are lucky that Blake didn't bring a law suit. He was not even going to publicly discuss the incident but his wife insisted that he does.

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/i...sioner-william-bratton-apologizes-james-blake

 

[Seerek]

The nominations for Davis Cup semifinals next week (both ties are indoor hardcourt):

Belgium
David Goffin, Steve Darcis, Ruben Bemelmans, Kimmer Coppejans
vs.
Argentina
Leo Mayer, Federico Delbonis, Diego Schwartzman, Carlos Berlocq

Great Britain
Andy Murray, Kyle Edmund, Jamie Murray, Dominic Inglot
vs.
Australia
Bernard Tomic, Sam Groth, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Lleyton Hewitt

 

[aftershocks]

He's black and they're cops. Black = criminal to most NYPD

Duh! And clearly NYPD aren't the only police personnel demonstrating erroneous belief in your equation. Maybe if James had pleaded for them to ask Johnny Mac or indeed Andre Agassi to ID him, they might have only held him handcuffed against the building for 20 minutes.

BTW, James Blake, although clearly of black ancestry also has a white mother (similar to President Obama). James to me seems very easygoing and a blissful soul. Despite being unfairly targeted and roughed up, James was probably very polite to the officers in question and he likely has no interest in further discussing the incident. ETA: And I wrote that last sentence before I read @Vash01's post, which apparently confirms my observations about James' temperament. Although, I see that James was disturbed and upset about the unfair harassment, and he has not returned calls to NYC police commish.

Unfortunately though, not only are cops known to harass and/or to kill black males (whether or not they are law-abiding black males) at an unprecedented rate, clearly it has become such a commonplace occurrence as to be expected. Fortunately there are poets like Jericho Brown (see his books, The New Testament, and Peace) who question and damn such expectations. And yes, further comments on this topic are more appropriate to be posted in Politically Incorrect.

 

[topaz]

It seems that to a lot of police a black man is guilty/criminal until proven innocent. James Blake was lucky that the officer didn't just shoot him in the head. Now the police chief and the city mayor want to apologize to him. They need to fix their police department. They are lucky that Blake didn't bring a law suit. He was not even going to publicly discuss the incident but his wife insisted that he does.

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/i...sioner-william-bratton-apologizes-james-blake

@aftershocks. you are correct too regarding commonplace. Unfortunately, most of the America(outside the african-american/black/latino communties) were completely unaware that this is common practice. Many unaware that black parents have to tell their children(mostly male) how to conduct themselves when being stopped by a law enforcement person. It is best to keep conservation at a minimum, answer questions, keeps hands where they can them use to be the motto. Now, that does not matter. A person can do everything right and the first action by the LE person to handcuff you first. A few years ago, a former manager of mine was pulled over in Milwaukee. My former manager dresses extremely well(dress shirts, sports jacket, slacks, dress shoes) and drives a 2012 Range Rover. He was pulled over once on, the officer approached the car asked said to him VERBATIM "where you going G"(aka gangster).

 

[topaz]

Back to tennis, looks like the women's semis have been rescheduled due to rain

 

[allezfred]

I think that's God's way of saying women's tennis sucks.

 

[peibeck]

I don't get that comment, other than Serena who has dominated for the last year, there is a lot of great depth and variety in the women's game right now.

 

[allezfred]

You've just contradicted yourself.

Besides Serena has dominated for a lot longer than the past year. With the men's game coming into any tournament you have no idea who will win. That's great depth and variety there. It's not one player and the also-rans.

 

[Seerek]

It's not one player and the also-rans.

Which brings up how dominating Steffi Graf's Grand Slam year of 1988 really was. In the 27 matches in majors that year (1 walkover as Chris Evert withdrew from their U.S. Open semifinal), Graf lost only 2 sets (Martina Navratilova in the Wimbledon final, Gabriela Sabatini in the U.S. Open final). I'd say the Graf 1988-1989 era (8 finals made, 7 titles) is the closest comparison in dominance in majors to Serena Williams in 2015.

 

[oleada]

Nadia Comaneci looks rough

 

[peibeck]

Flavia! Whee!!!

Allezfred, I think women's tennis is more than just the number one player.

 

[Rottie]

Good grief. I just went online thinking I'd catch the second part of Halep vs. Panetta, but it's over—and how! That result, and score, are not what I was expecting.

 

[liv]

Poor James Blake. No one should be accosted like that by the police, no matter what. He was just standing there!!! You'd think police would only "launch" themselves at someone if they were actually trying to flee or something... I always liked Blake. Very nice, well spoken, polite, and a good player on top of it. I wish he'd been able to achieve more success in his career.

The stars have aligned for Serena. No top 10 ranked opponent to face to win the true Grand Slam. If she loses it will be like Conchita Martinez defeating Martina in 1994 at Wimbledon. No one predicted that. I mean, how lucky is she to have faced low ranked rivals for the finals (other than Sharapova) in this year's slams so far? Wonder if Steffi will be around to give the trophy...she's so private, but Andre is in town, so maybe.

Excited for the men today... don't know who will win, although I know who I want to win....

 

[tamuno]

Sometimes I wish Blake would make an issue of these kind of things. His over conciliatory attitude grates at times. His privilege and stature in society as Harvard graduate and professional former no. 4 Tennis player allows him to be outspoken on these kind of issues that affect no only him but others just like him. Yet he always seems apologetic and 'understanding'. Urgh! Though I suppose if a whole professor like Henry Gates can be harassed by police on a somewhat similar situation of mistaken identity, why not any one else regardless of your position in society? As a player I never enjoyed watching him. His game had the edge to succeed if only his attitude wasn't so 'nice guy, let someone else shine not I' attitude.

 

[allezfred]

Which brings up how dominating Steffi Graf's Grand Slam year of 1988 really was. In the 27 matches in majors that year (1 walkover as Chris Evert withdrew from their U.S. Open semifinal), Graf lost only 2 sets (Martina Navratilova in the Wimbledon final, Gabriela Sabatini in the U.S. Open final). I'd say the Graf 1988-1989 era (8 finals made, 7 titles) is the closest comparison in dominance in majors to Serena Williams in 2015.

I'm sure that year was very boring for people who weren't fans of Graf's (gorgeous ) game too.

Allezfred, I think women's tennis is more than just the number one player.

Not at the moment it's not.

 

[peibeck]

Not at the moment it's not.

Come again?

What a win for Vinci. Serena caved to the pressure.

 

[her grace]

Viva Italy!!!!!

 

[Jimena]

Oh my. Totally and completely unexpected. I feel bad for Serena.

 

[oleada]

What an upset!!!
Sorry for Serena but congratulations to Vinci

 

[Lorac]

OMG Serena beaten at the penultimate hurdle in her calendar GS hunt by an unseeded Roberta Vinci. I did not see that coming

ETA: So we get an all Italian final. The heads of the network that have the ladies final must be crying into their beer