Olympic Tennis Day 9 OoP & Discussion

[morct]

Yay Maria! So happy she could get the bronze! Hopefully she continues to do well on hard courts this fall and keeps playing aggressively.

I'm delighted for Nadia too.

[omess]

Raymond

[omess]

Nice 9 days

[Edmond Dantès]

Does this mean I need to change my avatar? (for a few weeks anyway)

[Miles]

Does this mean I need to change my avatar? (for a few weeks anyway)

Yes, please give us an entertaining one of Petra.

[Miles]

For fans of Max, Vika and the rest of the mixed doubles medalists, you can watch the medal ceremony here:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/201...s-mxd-mds.html

You will have to fast forward to the 9-hour mark for the ceremony.

[Edmond Dantès]

Yes, please give us an entertaining one of Petra.

Sounds like a lot of work searching through many many photos of confused/bemused expressions. I'll have a look

[Ribbons]

I'm awfully fond of this one (between her and Mahut, I'm tempted to set up a pinboard for "Tennis Players with Towels"):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pict....html?image=18

[Edmond Dantès]

*Fed up ball kid has enough of towel demanding tennis players. Exacts revenge*

From back in the days when she could actually take a 6-0 set off of Maria K (though Maria did retire from that match).

[Miles]

I'm awfully fond of this one (between her and Mahut, I'm tempted to set up a pinboard for "Tennis Players with Towels"):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pict....html?image=18

Oh, that is hilarious. Thanks for sharing!

[Woody]

I don't think so. Watching the match I had an impression that Roger was not physically ready whatever the reason.

Whatever the reason:

http://i.imgur.com/q8p5w.png

A 5-hour, 6-setter. Even with a day off, that's going to be tough to fully recover. And when your opponent is younger, played only 2 sets, and is playing at home in the Olympics, I don't think this was a huge shocker. I didn't expect straights though

[James7]

Does his win have to be qualified? Can't we just let him have the fact that he won a big title (finally)? JMDP was in the same match and won his next one. Not saying it's completely irrelevant, but it's kind of slighting to the other guy.

[MJ2004]

Not saying it's completely irrelevant, but it's kind of slighting to the other guy.

I really wish something would be done to change the scoring system. Please please please no more final sets ending in 70-68, 25-23, or 19-17. Players go into their next match having played a ridiculous amount more than their opponent and it just leads to conversations like these. Besides almost guaranteeing the winner won't progress (in most cases) it hurts the opponent in the next round too who deserve the chance to get full credit for their win. Murray might very well have beat Roger under any circumstance and we shouldn't be having this conversation.

I don't buy the argument that a player is rewarded by being able to finish their match quickly. It's true enough with most matches, but the whole no tie-break final set sets up such extreme situations that the sport just shoots itself in the foot. Tennis is so much more demanding than when scoring was first introduced that to blindly adhere to ancient rules is frankly insane. The governing bodies should be trying to extend the careers of athletes, not potentially shortening them with these ridiculous matches that could lead to injury.

I'm not against long matches, I'm just saying there should be a reasonable end point.

I'd like to see something like if you reach 12-12 then you play a tie-break, or along those lines.

[Woody]

Oh, I give full credit to Murray. But if there are smart fans like omess out there thinking "This is more devastating. Absolute zero chance at the French against Nadal(the score is secondary). The big question is how/if he will recover from this." then I think some post-match analysis if justified. I'm not trying to put an asterisk on the gold medal, I'm just suggesting that Federer won't be questioning his abilities as a result of this one.

[Woody]

I'm not against long matches, I'm just saying there should be a reasonable end point.

I would be in favor of something like this. What if the players could decide? Like at 6-6 the default is to play it out, but if both players agree to a tiebreak at 10-10 or right away then they can do that.