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Wimbledon 2014.


The Natural

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Wimbledon 2014 starts tomorrow. Wimbledon last year was a classic for various reasons. Andy Murray ends the 77 year wait for a homegrown Wimbledon Men’s Champion and Marion Bartoli winning the Women’s Championship, the upsets with Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova losing to opposition you wouldn’t expect them to and the amount of retirements in one day, six or seven. Also to mention Bartoli's great putdown to John Inverdale's crass comments.

 

The past two years I picked Rafael Nadal to win the Wimbledon Men’s Title. Knowing my luck the year I don’t pick him, Nadal will win it! I’ll go with Nadal for that reason and Sharapova to become the Ladies Champion.

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I think it's Djokovic's to lose. Would love to see Federer get one more, but I can't convince myself it will happen.

 

As for the women's side, it depends if Motivated Serena Williams showed up this year. Fuck, for the French Open she lost, gave zero shits, and was back in Miami the next day. If that's what her focus is for Wimbledon, she's gone by round three. If Serena is motivated, she wins. If not, then it's a toss up. I think the French Open run took a lot out of Sharapova, so I don't think she's going to win.

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I should have bet on my predictions. Serena gone by round three, Sharapova out before the quarters, and Nadal gone home before the quarters as well. :)

 

Two Canadians into the quarterfinals, Milos Raonic on the men's side, and Eugenie Bouchard on the ladies. The women's draw is wide open now, I think Bouchard has a chance to win it.

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Something may be seriously wrong with Serena.  She retired from her doubles match after she tried to serve and looked confused and disoriented.  She tried to serve and missed badly 8 times in a row. 

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More about Serena: her coach/boyfriend (allegedly) didn't see her between getting knocked out of the singles on Saturday and today before the doubles match. They are claiming she's sick with some kind of bug. I wonder if she went on a bender after the loss on Saturday.

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Serena had something more than just a hangover wrong with her. She looked borderline delusional. It was really troublesome.

The men's side is now REALLY interesting. I love the game of that kid who beat Nadal yesterday. I mean, he BEAT Nadal. It wasn't like Nadal was unhealthy and was missing his serves and wracked up errors in some awful game that pops up to even the all-time best. Nadal played really well -- obviously not his best, because when he's at his best there's not too many people in tennis history who have even much of a chance against him -- but still well enough to win 95% of the time. But that kid had a terrific serve down the middle, was running down anything crafty Nadal through at him, out muscled Nadal on a lot of points and made a bunch of absolutely wonderful shots. He's just 19, too. I think he's got a few majors in him.

Then Andy went down! I didn't see that match, though.

Djokovic is down 2 sets to 1. Federer is down one set.

When was the last time any of the Big Four didn't make a semi at a major?

It's been 12 years since some combination of Fed/Nadal/Djokovic/Murray didn't win Wimbledon.

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To be honest, it's more a "Big Three plus Andy Murray" than a Big Four. Murray has only won two slams in his career, while the other three all have at least six. I guess if you want to count Olympic gold as a slam, he's still only halfway to Djokovic, not even a quarter of the way to Rafa, and barely a sixth of the way to Federer's Grand Slam total (Nadal has an Olympic gold as well).

 

I'm pulling for the Canadian folk. Eugenie Bouchard didn't look tremendous this morning,  but still won in straight sets to move into the semis. Pulling hard for Raonic this afternoon, because who the hell doesn't want to say "Another game for Milos!!!!!" :lol:

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Murray has made 14 out of 23 semis since reaching his maiden major final, including 7 finals. He was just a little later to bloom than Nadal and Djoko, and is obviously much younger than Federer. It may not be a big four anymore, but it definitely was.

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He's only got two majors, and never made it to the #1 ranking in the world. I realize it's tough, when you have to pass Djokovic, Nadal and Federer to get to #1, but that's why I call it the Big Three. Andy Murray is basically Leyton Hewitt at his peak, but with the British media hyping him up. They have the same number of grand slams, Hewitt still has one more career tour title (Murray will clearly blow past him in that category), and he was number one in the world on more than one occasion.

 

I should know better than to argue with Brits about Andy Murray though. I will stop now. :)

 

Federer is through to the semifinal on Friday, and the young guns match (Raonic/Kyrgios) is tied at one set apiece. Really fun tournament this year, with plenty of surprises, and the old guy (Federer) making one last charge at a Grand Slam title.

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I don't like Murray because he's British (and really, he's Scottish and I'm English anyway), I like him because he plays great tennis, and is way more fun to watch than Nadal or Nole. Federer is my favourite anyway.

 

Hewitt at his peak was the best player in the world.

 

I think Dmitrov beating Murray is kinda like when Fed beat Sampras. Obviously Murray is not equal to Sampras, but you get the feeling that beating the defending champ at Wimbledon is Dmitrov's big break-out moment. I can definitely see him racking up the majors in years to come.

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I think the Hewitt/Murray comparison really undersells Lleyton. There were a ton of great players at different points in their careers when he came of age, and he was clearly the best player in the world for a pretty long time. Hewitt's legacy is hurt by him being rather caustic when he was good, and only opening up and being a little more light hearted after he was clearly on the downside of his career. Everyone wanted him to keep his intensity on the court but act like Pat Rafter off it, and judged him unfairly because of it. 

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Really? I like Hewitt a lot, but I think a comparison to Murray is really generous. Yeah, they have the same amount of slams, but Hewitt only reached 2 other finals, and 4 other semis. He didn't have anything like the level of sustained success that Murray did at the slams, and Murray did it in a much harder era.

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I really don't want to be THAT guy, I mean, I tried to be a nice guy, I tried to play by the rules and I don't mean to undermine her talent and athleticism as a tennis player but...Eugenie Bouchard. 

 

Yeah.

 

So it's equal opportunities objectifying, here's a picture of Ilie Nastase:

 

tenis-ilie-nastase-02.jpg

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