Wimbledon Running Thread. *Updated--Isner wins 70-68 in 5th*

Worst development in tennis the past 5 years, the asking for the towel after every point. Just use your sweat band (or sawdust per Lendl) and get on with it.

 

The towel is up there, though I'd vote for men's players asking for four or five balls before every serve. I long for the day when the server took the first two and played, and didn't send the ball boys scurrying after the ones he discards.

As a former ball boy myself, I feel for those kids.

 

Pironkova upsets Venus the other day, and the L.A. Times' Diane Pucin quotes . . . Pam Shriver.

Tomas Berdych upsets Roger Federer. and Pucin quotes . . . Mary Carillo and John McEnroe.

WTF?

 

Mats Wilander gets quoted an awful lot, too.

 

Federer has just been so good for so long that the standards are unreasonable. He's actually human!!

Gosh, can't stand the thought of Serena Williams in another final. Least favorite player of all time in women's tennis. At least the World Cup is on Saturday morning.

 

I hope Berdych can give Nadal a match Sunday, but I have my doubts. Nadal really has developed into a fantastic grass-court player.

NBC/ESPN or whoever really should be embarrassed that neither of the men's semis were shown live -- the Berdych/Djokovic match not at all. It's just absurd.

 

ESPN did show the Berdych-Djokovic match live. I caught the end of it, flipping over from the World Cup.

The way the contract is now, NBC and ESPN each get one semifinal. They can show the other one later on tape if they wish, but not until after it has been aired. ESPN usually goes first and takes the first semifinal, unless it is clearly the better one (NBC gets first pick). For the last 7-8 years NBC has gone 10-1 Mon-Wed and noon-5 pm Thurs and Friday, meaning the semifinals are on tape. This enables them not to preempt their daytime lineup in one spot for an entire week.

No way in Hades will NBC ever bump the Today show or other morning programs to show live coverage. The audience -- particularly in this day and age -- isn't anywhere close to justifying it. In fact, when the current contract is up, I wouldn't be surprised to see NBC go back to weekends only. Leave the rest to cable and those who want to watch (admittedly a very small percentage of the total TV audience) can do so live.

 

Serena brought a Howitzer to a fist fight today.

 

Rafa wins in straight sets.

That's eight majors now, halfway to Roger's total, and he has to be the favorite at the Open even though he's never been to the final there.

If his body holds up, Rafa may well be the all-time Slam champ by the time he's done.

 

anybody watch the bit on the borg - mcenroe 1980 wimbledon final 4th-set tiebreak?

with bjorn and john watching and providing commentary

fascinasting stuff

 

NBC would be wise to just air that every year unless an American is in the final or it is Federer-Nadal. I think The Borg-Mac match will always be the most tennis I watch in one sitting for the rest of my life.

 

One thing that worries me about Rafa isn't the lack of success on hard courts in Slams but rather the fact that the other guys that had great success on Clay completely went under once their clay dominance was stopped. It's like clay is some sort of enhancement that carries them through the rest of the season.

That being said I think Nadal is good for a few more years but we'll see.

He isn't winning in Flushing Meadows though.