The womens side is so much more of tossup this year than the mens. Pencil in Federer already. He'll probably play (and beat) Roddick in the final. But the ladies draw...who knows? Davenport-Clijsters? Pierce-Venus? Can Myskina beat Mauresmo? Sharapova is for sure in the semis, and most likely the final, but Clijsters or Davenport could beat her. Im really looking forward to this next week.

I caught the last two hours of the NBC Middle Sunday coverage. They showed the final set of Roger's win against Kiefer. Of course, I wanted to see the set Federer lost. Not because I don't like Roger but because that's where the tennis got tight. Supposedly Roger was quite irked he'd lost that set and showed some disgust about it. (But I don't know that for certain cause it was never shown.)

John McEnroe thinks Sharapova will win. He also is optimistic about Taylor Dent's (read: my second favorite player) chances against Lleyton Hewitt. Is it wrong that I want Taylor to do well here for his father's sake, not his own? Yeah, that is wrong.

Oh, and I left the room for Bud Collins' segment. I just. can't. do. Bud Collins. I've even stopped reading his msnbc.com analysis.

Bud Collins could be Roddick's publicist he gushes about him so much. I remember last year he predicted Roddick would beat Federer at both the US Open and Wimbledon. Bud has been off his rocker for a while now, he was one of Anna Kournikova's big cheerleaders.

ETA: I enjoyed the Keifer/Federer match but I too wish they had shown the 2nd set. I really like Federer's hair at it's current length.

It's nice that NBC aired some of the Serena-Craybas match. Serena looked worn out and tired. It's too bad. I really would have liked to see her play Venus. Venus seems to be resurgent. She's played a really good tournament so far. I'm hoping it continues. She's had a lot of hard luck lately.

On the men's side... eh. I don't really care for the men's side so much because as always it seems like a foregone conclusion that my most hated player Roger Federer will be in the finals and win. It only gets interesting to me once he gets knocked out.

Think back. That sounds a lot like last year, doesn't it?


Unless I've gone crazy (no jokes), ESPN showed the 2nd-set tiebreak. Federer was up 5-2 or 5-3 and began making some careless mistakes. They showed it a little while after it happened (breaking into another match).


This can't be said enough. I'm straight and all, but I was so relieved when Roger went to this new hairstyle. He still has bitter-beer face, but at least he's much easier on the eyes now.

Eventually, players are going to revolt against being scheduled on the so-called "graveyard" court.

I wonder if Federer would be good in bed. Is it revealing that his girlfriend is not a model-type? Roddick goes out with models and that makes him less attractive to me somehow.

Well, mmmmmmmmMax is relegated to Court 13 and I'm not sure that one's even set up for TV. *sigh* There are two women's singles matches and on men's singles on Court 18. Is Court 18 bigger than I think it is?

Also, mmmmmmMax and Jonas are all tied up at 4 sets all in the fifth set against an unseeded doubles pair I've never heard of (doesn't mean a lot given its doubles but ... you guys know what I mean.) He has to turn around after his singles match and finish the doubles match, also on Court 13. He'll have 90 minutes or longer while the Myskina/Kuznetsova match plays out. Poor mmmmmmMax. That's a raw deal.

DistantSun: I think you are right re: ESPN showing the tie-break in the Federer/Kiefer match but that was ALL they showed. It is so frustrating hearing about 100 hours of tennis and having to wait for taped coverage to be aired. /the famous broken record of this thread

ot: Does anyone know how I can email Wertheim? I can't find an email address or an online email form for SI and I want to vent about the TV coverage to someone who feels me/us.

Also, what's up re: tennisTWoPCon?

Did anyone see an explanation of that "jumping jack" move that Kiefer did before that Federer smash that Carillo and McEnroe went so crazy about?

I don't understand why we get so little of Federer's matches. It seems to me they should concentrate coverage on people who actually have a chance to win the tournament, which, in the men's side means pretty much showing anything but a Federer match is a waste of time. Seriously, if Federer is cruising it's worth seeing because you're seeing the eventual champ playing tennis at an unbelievable high level, and even in a route there's some entertainment in that. But if Federer is having difficulty, even if he eventually pulls it out, it is a huge story just to see him struggling at this point. I realize they can't show All Roger all the time, and I'm not really a fan of his, but since he's far and away the number one player in the world, and it would be a miracle if he doesn't win this tournament, it makes no sense to me that they almost ignore him until they get to the semis. They showed a lot of Pete Sampras' and Boris Becker's early matches when they were dominating this thing.

I wonder if ESPN2 is planning to screw us (we?) West Coast viewers again like they did last year the second week. My TiVo tells me both NBC and ESPN2 will be having tennis M-W at 10:00 AM but I'm not holding my breath. Anyone know anything for sure?

NBC showed the last two sets of Federer/Kiefer. A letdown since I knew the result, but then I do have to consider that I have ESPN and ESPN2, so understanding about marquee names and scheduling I'll just let the piss pass this time. At least I got to see some of it. With my idiot filter on, there was actually some decent info from JMac. Like how Kiefer defaulted suddenly out of the French when just minutes earlier he'd seen him in the locker room and he was pumped to play. Somehow I find the Kiefer's instability charming, but that's just because I would do him. He also mentioned the high service toss at the very moment I was noticing how high it was. So JMac and I had a moment. [Silence. Moving on.]

Go to the first page of the Mailbag and there is a section where you can enter in your question and send him an email. It worked for me in April when I got one of my questions in that week's Mailbag. Woo hoo! (My question was about my lil' Rafa of course.)



Yep- looks like there is going to be some overlap. I know that there will be an hour overlap here in central time. Sigh.

I am happy that I will finally be able to see Coria on tv since he will be playing Roddick. For those of you who are not too familiar with him, might I recommend watching him between the points. He really has a lot of personality out there- one of my favorites to watch. I know he has no chance against Andy but I am so proud of the little fellow for doing well here. He is one of the best craftsman out there.



Court 18 does tend to have the larger matches of the outside courts. Looks like Ancic/Lopez will be out there tomorrow. Hope we can catch some glimpses...for both the tennis and the pretty.

Is a shame that we likely won't be able to see any of Mmmmmax. Don't imagine that we will see much or any of the Nalby/Gasquet match (which should be really good) or the Gonzalez/Youzhny match-which I want to see because I always love watching Fernando. I am so jealous of my brother and sister-in-law who live in the UK, where they have this interactive tv thing where you can choose which court you want to watch. How fabulous would that be?

I had to let out an "aargh" yesterday when they were asking Brad which matches he was most interested in and he talked about how the Tursenov/Popp match would be very entertaining. The match was going on at that time, but did ESPN show it? Of course not. Realized yesterday that Trusenov is the same fellow who beat Safin here last year. Tursenov has been involved in a long process of attaining US citizenship and I hope he gets it soon so we can at least see more of his matches. And then maybe he can play for the US Davis Cup. ;)




No but that thing was hilarious, even more so in slow motion. I was hooting when Mary and JMac kept talking about Kiefer's bad karma after that.

I hate that Kim and Lindsay have to meet so early, but should be a good match, and one of those that I will be happy for the winner and sad for the loser when it is over.

Don't get me started on ESPN2's coverage of the Federer/Kiefer match. Yeah, they showed the 2nd set tiebreak, but once Kiefer won that, that suddenly became the most compelling match of the day, bar none. The number one player and the virtual lock to win the whole thing suddenly in trouble in a third round match? They had to give us the rest of that match, live, right then and there. But no, they went away to something a lot less important (I forget what). They lucked out sort of because Federer cruised on the third set, but then only went back to it when they thought Federer was about to lose set 4. Amazingly, he pulled out that game and then the set. But it would sure would have been nice to see the game Federer blew on his serve to set up Kiefer serving for the 4th set. Of course, they didn't show that. The bastards. Finally saw it today when NBC showed it, only a day too late. Way to go, ESPN!

Apparently, they only showed part of the fourth set of that match on NBC. They didn't even show the whole fourth set. And JMac was saying that Federer played brilliant tennis during the third set and we got to see zilch! Aaaaaaargh!

I'm sad that Ferrero plays Federer tomorrow. Two of my favorites. Sniff. Im also sad that Coria has to play Roddick, against whom he probably as no chance on grass. It doesn't matter, Guille! You've done really well this year!

And why does Nalbandian have to play Gasquet? I hate the draw.

So. Anybody want to take a bet as to which match is going to be on which station? Does anyone know?

The only bet I would take is that, as Juanita and Chesty already mentioned, we won't see mmmmmmmmMax. Probably won't see Lopez/Ancic either. You know, the two matches I really want to see. Oh wait, I'd also really love to see Nalbandian/Gasquet and Federer/Ferrero and I like Youzhny too. Probably won't see any of them either. Well, at least I'll get to see Coria.

That's right! We'll get to see Coria! Something to be happy about, I guess...

Thrilled! Sorry to be so late to the party but I've been in Boston all weekend and had little time near a TV. I set my ReplayTV for the morning ESPN session then the afternoon NBC one. Hoowee, 35 minutes of Nalby/Murray, how generous. I had no idea that ESPN would be back at 3pm. Oh well.


See, what also annoys me is, every now and then, the studio commentators will say re: Nalbandian, "Here's a guy you don't hear much about..." Gee, I wonder if you know how to remedy that? Jebus.

Anyway, a couple more late comments. I did not know that Radio Wimbledon was on Sirius. I just might have to look into that for next year. Do they have other Slam coverage too?

And I hope the overlapping coverage on the networks tomorrow isn't their usual tactic of skipping over a big live match completely on ESPN so that NBC can show it taped later. Because that? Would blow.

I'm looking forward to the match between Clijsters and Lindsay. I want Lindsay to win this one so badly. Clijsters will probably win it though and maybe win her first slam. There are only a few players that own Clijsters and those are already out of the tournament (JHH and Serena). The only one left is Venus, she can trouble Clijsters imo but she needs to make it to the final for that and I can't see that happening.

I have a feeling this is what will happen. Which really sucks b/c even though I have a few complaints about ESPN's coverage, on a whole I think they are doing great. They've been good about switching between matches, keeping the audience updated about the status of every court and showing live - not taped matches.

I find NBC's coverage so boring. And not just the choice of matches. The commentating is also boring. During the Roddick match, they kept mentioning all the noise that was coming from Centre Court for the Murray/Nalby match but never updating what the score of that match was!

I also hate that you have to switch from ESPN to NBC back to ESPN this week for a full day's matches. I liked it so much better last week when ESPN2 had a full day's coverage. My TiVo liked it better too.

Word to everything that Watts says above. ESPN really has done a commendable job for this tournament. I wonder what the money looks like that NBC gets its choice of matches and ESPN gets everything else.

mmmmmmmmMax is down two sets to love. *sigh*

Wertheim's column (hee hee):

I double that word to Watts's post.


This made me curious as well so I checked Sirius's and the US Open's sites but couldn't find anything. I think we are out of luck, at least for the US Open, because Sirius is just picking up Radio Wimbledon from England and not paying for their own commentary. Is there any dedicated radio for the Open?

I have no coverage for an hour now until NBC picks it up at 10am (whatever time zone). I'll have to avoid scores and pretend.

ESPN2 did show some of Nalbandian/Gasquet and Lopez/Ancic this morning, that was nice--and surprising. Not even one shot of Max, though *sigh*squared.

ETA: OH! I forgot to write the reason I came to post: ESPN2 has GOT to get rid of Sue Mott. Not only do I not care about the bachelor(ette) party that she went to (heck, she made BRAD uncomfortable) but what she said about Serena and Tim was uncalled for. RE: Serena: saying that you think Serena losing was because she is jealous and insecure because of how pretty Maria is? I'm no fan of Serena's, but I'm sticking up for her on that one. I do not get the impression Serena has a bad self-image at all. Did they say that Marat lost to Lopez because Feliciano has nicer cheekbones? I do not think so. (I do realize people will disagree on whose prettier, but it's just the point that the commentators don't go there for the men and they shouldn't for the women.) As for Tim: saying that he should just quit because the English are sick of rooting for him and then having him lose? Oh, that makes me mad. I don't think the Brit fan on the street would agree with her either.

Castallack: Sirius was late coming to the table for the Wimbledon coverage. It was announced maybe two weeks before the tournament. It's just for this tournament.

I don't think the US Open has a radio program like Wimbledon does. USA (TV network) does pretty extensive coverage of that Slam and they do much better job of it than the parent network NBC does of its Wimbledon picks.

You'll have more words than my computer's thesaurus, Watts, with those comments.

I am trying hard to justify not yet going into work while I wait for the return of tennis on NBC. But I'll have to leave soon after that starts, and so am gambling on ESPN being live and just offering up Hewitt-Dent to NBC. So I'll direct TiVo back to ESPN when they come back on, despite the overlap. And if that match takes long enough, I'll have gambled right. Of course, this could all go awry so many different ways it makes my head hurt.

I, too, looked into Sirius this week-end, so any info from you guys is really appreciated. I'm pretty much an NPR junkie, so I think it's probably not money well spent, but it sure is tempting after all the comments here about Radio Wimbledon.

Before ESPN gets too comfy with all of our preference for it over NBC, keep that short leash on Gilbert, ESPNfolks. They let him loose this morning in commentating and it was painful.

And Amen to your whole added footnote about Sue Mott, LT. Are they trying to let us know how bad it could be???? That was hideous TV, and set women back a good decade or two - as far back as her hairdo goes, I am guessing. (Sorry, catty comments bring them out in me, too.)

On a side note, I appreciate that Roger isn't everyone's cup of tea, blackwing but I don't get the looking like Amelie Mauresmo thing....;)

Not to turn all Sirius-happy over here but they have two NPR stations.

Speaking of Gilbert and his not-so-good commentary--does anyone else not mind PMac as much when he is surrounded by less-than-stellar other commentators? I'm really not liking Pam Shriver as a match commentator.

Thaks for the info on Sirius. Oh well, it was worth a shot. I'd actually be most interested in the Aussie Open as they show most of the US Open live. Plenty of time to find out about that, I suppose.

Re: Serena, I saw an interview with her where she was asked what Craybas did right in their match. Serena answered something like "She just had to show up today." How very, very gracious, biotch.

However, I do think Feliciano has magical cheekbones which help him win. Mmm hmm, so true.

Yeah, and her postmatch with the coughing and snuffling and "excuse me, I need some water" was a good acting workshop. However, I've really come to blame Richard for the fact Serena and Venus never give props to their opponent. I think he drilled it in to them that it would be showing weakness to congratulate an opponent on a well-deserved victory--of course I think he is wrong.

Word. I had a similar reaction when I heard that. Doesn't she have a habit of doing that -- always downplaying her opponents? Yes, Ms. Thang, a 30 year-old, six+ inches shorter than you, never cracked the top 50 player whom you should be beating EVEN ON YOUR WORST DAY did a helluva lot more than "just showing up" -- she showed YOU up. Get over it and acknowledge that she played well even if you didn't.

[/rant]

Predictions for Pierce v. Williams? It could go either way.

I gotta like Venus' chances. She seems resurgent. She seems to have the focus that Serena had two years ago.

When we were talking about Clijsters' and Davenport's tendency to choke in the big matches we forgot about another WTA player who fits that bill: Amelie Mauresmo.

No, that was understood. Poor Amelie. I'm beginning to think she and Clijsters won't win a Slam unless they play each other in the final.

As a fan of Venus and Serena, I'll readily admit they should be more gracious when they lose. That being said, their style of play is such that the vast majority of their losses are self inflicted (or, as Brad would say, they self inflict themselves). For instance, when Venus lost to Zvonareva at the French in '03, 87 of the 100 points Venus lost were on unforced errors. IMO, honesty shouldn't give way to humility in cases like that. She gave away that match and it didn't matter who was on the other side of the net. Venus and Serena need to learn the "she did what she had to do" response, because that's the one they'll probably need to explain any losses to players outside the top 10 or 20.

I totally agree Rainmaker. Roddick, the Williams sisters and now Sharapova are about the only players who aggressively market themselves in the US. With any sport in the US, you have to market yourself to get people to watch you and your sport.
It makes sense that NBC ratings are based on getting the channel switcher to stop and watch a match. It's a lot easier to do with a player that is in the public eye all year.

One big problem with tennis in the last decade or so has been the lack of top players who go out of their way to market the game and increase interest in the sport. McEnroe likes to bitch about this-and I agree with him.
The top men's player efforts to attract new fans has consisted of appearing in Vogue and chat about clothing.

The reason NASCAR is huge is due to NASCAR and it's drivers agressive marketing campaign to attract new fans. It's not like that sport has changed, it's still driving cars around in circles.


I find myself pulling for Venus this time around. Can she beat Davenport in a final ?
I noticed after NBC showed the Serena thrashing, one of the commentators( can't remember which one) was alluding to Serena taking a dive in her match to give Venus a chance at the title.
Is it possible for Bud Collins to find Dick Buttons, his figure skating counterpart, and for the both of them to go away.
The let's humor the old guy 'cause he is some kind of institution, blah blah thang is old.

I've never really minded PMac. I think he's normally pretty good. My issue is his constant fawning over Roddick and inability to criticize him at all. And I'm a fan of Andy's. But JMac said during the NBC coverage the other day that PMac won't say anything against Andy b/c of the Davis Cup connection.

My other issue with the ESPN commentators is how they keep repeating the same info everyday and in the same way. "Well, Andy grew up in Nebraska and now lives in Austin," blah blah blah. They need to find some other things to talk about. Like, say, the tennis. Sometimes I just want to mute the tv. They also tend to talk more about the "favorite" of a match. If someone like Federer is playing the number 80 player in the world, I want to hear a little about the number 80 player since usually I don't know much about that person.

I also hate those little cutaways to Luke Jensen that have nothing to do with the match itself. And did anyone watch ESPN2's Wimbledon Middle Sunday coverage? Luke Jensen asking people how to spell players names and such. Incredibly stupid and pointless.

Clijsters was in 4 (!!) major finals and lost all 4 of them. The first one was back in 2001 at RG vs Capriati. I believe the score was something like 10-8 in the third set. I would hardly call that a choke. She just gets outplayed. The same way she got outplayed today by Lindsay. The choke only came in the final game in which she hit 3 double faults.

Her game is actually very defensive. She waits until her opponent goes for too much and makes an error. This works against lower ranked players but when you face top players you need to go for your shots. If not, you end up losing.

I'm sorry, did Brad Gilbert just say "until the real match, Roddick vs. Federer?" The hell? I'm not saying that's not going to happen but there are a few martches to go.

That was so disrespectful of the other players.

He was once again very dismissve of Lopez (hey Brad, I thought that you said that Lopez would lose to Ancic?) And when he said that it was a toss up between Nalby and ToJo but it didn't matter anyway because they would just lose to Roddick was so incredibly disrespectful.

Brad can be such an unbelievable ass sometimes.

It's funny he said that, because I'm following the match on the bbc site(reading not listening) and they are making this Federer match sound pretty damn awesome.
I hopped over here to see if it was just bbc hype, or what.

I'll give you that one, but her other 3 performances were all chokes. Remember the French against Henin where she didn't even show up? She's famous for double-faulting away crucial points. Remember her semifinal loss to Serena in Australia when she was up 5-1 in the third? She seems like a really nice girl and all, but she is a choker.

I assume ESPN2 isn't showing the score of the Davenport/Clijsters match so they can show it on tape delay later. I'd like to see more of it since I missed some today, but it'd also be nice to see some mixed doubles.

Don't you love how "vamos" sounds so much like "come on"?

It is pretty awesome. Without Tivo at the office, I can't be sure he really said it, but that's what it sounded like to me.

I was listening to Radio Wimbledon whilst watching on mute but it was slightly unsynchronized, enough to be really distracting.

He sure did. And oh, that just increased my desire to watch someone kick Roddick's ass, like, a hundred fold.

Besides, how is that "the real match" when we all know Federer would win? :)

She definitely is a choker. She also lost in the USO finals after her opponent had just played a 3 hour plus match less than 24 hrs before. Of course losing in finals could also be the Henin factor. Both being from a small country and trying to be the country's best. I bet she would fair better against someone other than Henin in the final. I hope she does win one though, she is just way too good not to. Same for Mauresmo.

ETA: Is it just me or does even Cliff seem annoyed by some of Brad's comments? He seemed to snark on some of Brad's suggestions. Heh.

The real match is Federer vs. Sampras in his prime. When will that be happening?

That's terrible for NBC to even say that. I don't really believe it either, because if Serena was really trying to advance Venus, wouldn't it have made more sense for Serena to lose to Venus? I mean, what would have been the point if Serena lost to Craybas on purpose only to have Craybas beat Venus in the next round? I know the sisters don't like playing each other, but I believe they still are competitive and have the drive to want to win.

I loathe the Jensens. Both of them. Never liked them when they were a mediocre team. I think they had one unexplained Michael Chang-like Grand Slam win, and did nothing else. Mainly I remember them for their long hair and showboat antics. I don't know if both of them are commentators, but every time I see a Jensen I find myself wondering how he of all people got to be a commentator considering how mediocre of a player he was.

I was home for lunch and saw the majority of the Davenport/Clijsters match. I got home and it looked like Lindsay was going to win it in two but Clijsters won the second set.

Mary Joe Fernandez (pretty sure it was her but might've been Shriver calling the match) made the comment that both players have a problem with their mental game. I gotta tell you guys, it seems like somebody might be reading this board. If Shriver gets a haircut and Brad takes off the jacket, I will be convinced of it.

Speaking of which, Brad is much more tolerable paired with someone I adore like Cliffy than with Fowler in the studio. And it really seems like he has been told to tone down the predictions because I heard him say, "I can't predict this one" twice today.

The NotChrisFowler guy at NBC (name?) actually made this comment to Roger during the Middle Sunday coverage saying that if Roger wins Wimbledon and wins Halle in '06 and wins one match at Wimbledon in '06, he will beat Borg's grass court win record. Obnoxious comeback from me: And if Roger wins every major he plays for the next three years, he will beat Sampras' record. At some point, these talking heads need to learn something about sportsmanship themselves. My God. When does it end? Roger, of course, was very gracious about the whole thing. I was rolling my eyes on the couch.

At least mmmmmmmMax and Jonas advance to r3 of the Doubles.
Murphy Jensen works for The Tennis Channel. He's pretty funny but his voice is exactly like Luke's and I can't abide Luke Jensen. He's a bit too WWF Randy Savage "snap into a Slim Jim" for me.

Does anyone have a time machine that works? I can only imagine what kind of match that would be. Federer did defeat Sampras at the 2001 Wimbledon I believe. Sampras may not have been in his prime but he wasn't exactly chopped liver either.

Federer/Ferraro third set was awesome, but I really wish Gilbert would stop calling Ferraro "JCF".

Yes she did choke against Serena in that semifinal. But I don't agree with your assessment that she choked at RG in 2003. Maybe we have different definitions of what choking is. To me choking is what she did against Serena in that semifinal. She had absolutely no reason not to win that one. But those finals against Henin? Clijsters was never in a position to win those matches. It wasn't a matter of not being able to close out a match like at the AO, she just got spanked hard by Justine. 6-0 6-4 isn't choking imo, it's getting outplayed. I definitely think she has all kinds of issues with Henin but that's a different mental problem entirely. She needs to seek some help if she wants to get over that, the same way Justine did.

I'm not saying Clijsters isn't a choker because she is and she's proved that again today in that last game but not all her losses are chokes. Sometimes her opponent just exposes the weaknesses in her game, the way Lindsay did today.

Kim's game is all about defense. Anyone who watched today's match could see that easily. She kept scrambling to get the ball back and then she would play it right into the middle of the court and let Lindsay completely dictate play. Again, you don't win matches against top players that way.

Oh, and another thing, there was some serious tension between Coria and Roddick during that match. Apparently they were purposely hitting the balls at one another. JMac was all over it and fired up about it. Mary Carillo says, "they're going to take this into the locker room."

But then when the match ended, Coria hurriedly packed up his stuff but hung back to walk to the locker room with Roddick. Roddick walked with him but stopped to sign autographs.

I can't believe that at this time last year I actually liked Sharapova and was rooting for her. Now it is an entirely different story, and it isn't even really her fault, but jeez I am sick of her and I can only imagine what kind of gushing she'll get if she repeats at Wimbledon. And the girl really needs a haircut, her hair is so limp and thin. And I hate her laugh.

There has been hardly any mention of Myskina/Dementieva. They had a good match today. Dementieva ran away with the first set but the final two were very competitive, or so I hear, because I didn't even get to see a smidgen of that match. Or Kuznetsova.

ETA: Memo to NBC/ESPN, in the age of TIVO and DVR there is no need to show the same matches on NBC and then again on ESPN later in the day. Try showing a different match.

Anyone who missed that can see for themselves now. ESPN is re-showing it.

I don't really think it's wrong for NBC to report/suggest that it may have happened. The only person that will know is Serena, and since we can't read her mind, we'll never really know. The tv analysts are there to tell the action. And if taking a dive is part of the action, then it's fair for them to bring it up if the perception is there. I remember when Shaq criticized that arrogant asswipe Kobe of taking too many shots, he went out and took only one shot at the very end of the first half. The media was all over that story. Couldn't prove it, but still widely reported.

I will agree that it makes no sense for Serena to throw the match for the very reason you listed above. If she did do it, I think that she didn't do it to help Venus advance, but because she knew that she wouldn't be able to beat her suddenly resurgent and more powerful older sis. All about the ego.


Count me in on some Jensen hate. I think they see Leno and Letterman doing these kind of things and somehow think they would be just as funny.

HA! I had the biggest crush on Luke in the early 90s.


[sarcasm]And so nice to see he is as much of a slut as he was 15 years ago.[/sarcasm]

Did anyone else crack up when Brad was talking about staying with Dick Enberg--and Chris Fowler? Did ESPN2 put them all up in the same (I'm guessing) house? All I could think was that would be the best Odd Couple ever. I loved the idea of Enberg sneaking onto Fowler's computer when Fowler goes for a run. And I agree with Enberg about cell phones. I hate being reachable all the time.

Bwah! I missed that but I foresee a new reality show on TTC.