The Annual Madness Begins

I actually enjoy Wimbeldon myself, i’m a huge fan of most sports but Tennis is pretty much pigeonholed for around the end of the NBA Finals but before the All Star Break.

On the Men’s side i’d love to see Tim Henman (my favorite from Virtua Tennis by the way) finally end the drought of Englishmen at Wimbeldon. As for the far more interesting ladies bracket Maria Sharapova came sorta out of nowhere to win last year. I wouldn’t mind seeing her win it all again; it’s also nice that she’s quite attractive.

I would normally come in here and start pledging my support for the Australian teams, but quite frankly, they all suck at the moment. Our rugby team has been been lacklustre ever since we changed captains and coaches, our cricket team - once completely dominant - has, over the past few days, collapsed into a bundle of shame, and our tennis players… I can’t stand them. Every time I see Hewitt on TV, I instinctively change the channel.

I will say though, sometimes crap teams can achieve the impossible. Like when our Australian soccer team beat the English, on English soil, not that long ago. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Brit win Wimbledon if only to see the impossible happening again.

I have never followed tennis. My knowledge of most sports stops are how to play the game. However I did enjoy Virtua Tennis for the dreamcast and a new version of Virtua Tennis is coming to my PSP soon. Many many many hours will go to that no doubt.

I’ve always felt the whole idea of “sports games” is rather strange. Since my original feeling with the point of sports being “talent” at the game itself. In a basketball video game there is little talent involved in sinking a shot, you press and release a button and the computer decides whether or not it goes in based on variables.

I am aware sports games have become more advanced than just tap a button but the overall point is lost to me. Perhaps Vermouth can shed light on the attraction of sports titles; I know he plays quite a few.

When it comes down to sports games there are very few that I play for the simple reason that they rarely seem to bare much resemblance to the game itself and you’re generally better off just watching a match. Basketball, as a sport, generally bores me but this disinterest is nothing compared to the level generated by basketball games. Football, on the other hand, I love to watch (when it’s a good match - a bad match will send me to sleep) but the games themselves typically don’t compare because they don’t allow for the forms of improvisation/brilliance that distinguishes great teams/players. The Pro Evolution series of games have really advanced football games in terms of being able to generate a flowing experience but they’re still not a patch on the real thing and hence why I normally only play them when I can’t watch a game or am still excited by one just watched.

Of all sports games that I have played, Virtual Tennis on the old Dreamcast was the best one but it still isn’t a patch on the real game when it’s played well. The mens’ game tends to have a lot of big servers these days (hell, I think Croatia manufactures them) so games can degenerate into a parade of aces and the person who get their first serve in most consistently, but it’s still great to watch when the rallys get going. The women’s game, for me, tends to more enjoyable to watch since it’s not dominated to the same degree by the serve. Both beat the pants off a video game version…

Incidentally, anyone else noticed how quickly Anna Kournikova has dropped off the radar since Maria Sharapova arrived? Now there’s a Russian that looks great and, crickey!, can actually win a few games…

I’m exactly the same with tennis.

I both play it and love watching it/

So Wimbledon is always enjoyable - to be honest the lack of a British winner doesn’t bother me I just enjoy watching it.

Sure it would be nice but it isn’t necessary.

One thing I always enjoy is the doubles - sometimes it is far more entertaining than the singles.

I’d like to actually go one year, I’d really enjoy that.

—-

And now time for a bit of nationalistic ranting.

Kelmon kept going on about football and Rugby and referring to “the” team and “we won.” The only team that is “the British tem” is the British Lions in Rugby. We didn’t ewin the Rugby World cup - England did (and it was bloody depressing too).

Otherwise there’s that little country called Scotland (and Wales and Northern Ireland too of course).

No wonder some foreigners think Scotland is part of England!

Ofcourse all of Scotland’s teams are awful but there you go. Watching Scotland play football is one of the rare things more depressing than seeing England win the Rugby world cup.

So be careful - or you’ll have some angry Scotsmen on your back.

Anyway - I’m off to enjoy some tennis.

Oddly, in complete contrast to my position on real vs. virtual sports (i.e. I’d rather watch the real thing), the New York Times posted an article today stating that American kids feel completely the opposite. Spooky…

I only ever watch Tennis during Wimbledon. Im watching Tim getting knocked out right now. God…it always ends in tears.

As for other sports, the Lions may be a bit rubbish but the Welsh rugby team is doing very well at the moment! Grand Slam winners, just demolished Canada despite our best players being in New Zealand and we have a great coach. We are on the up!

Our football team is pretty sucky though.

I read a pretty good article in the Guardian today about just why people like Tin Henman. Essentially, they said, the whole point of Tim Henman is that he’s not just some hapless underdog, perenially losing out just before he goes all the way.

No, instead he’s a hapless underdog, who’s only a mediocre player at best, raising his game every year for Wimbledon, playing above himself against competition he realistically he has no chance against. And that is, apparently, why the British love him.

As silly justifications go, it’s not bad.

Link: http://sport.guardian.co.uk/wimbledon2005/story/0,16055,1511070,00.html

Well Timmy looked like he was going to come a cropper yesterday but he got away with it.

He’s not going to win though.

And Spider, Henman is far from a mediocre player. He’s had long spells as one of the top ten players in the world (best ranking was 4), has won quite a few tournaments, and has got to the semi finals of a couple of grand slams.

That is not mediocre.

Oh and his career earnings lie at nearly 11 million dollars.

But by now he’s getting older and has got less chance of winning.

And so the reins of great British hope will be passed (all to early) on the shoulders of young Andrew Murray (who may well be a good player in a few years).

Any bets on Henman Hill soon becoming Mount Murray?

Mount Murray? Let’s not go there…

I think part of the magic of Wimbledon and Tim is the fact that most people like to see the underdog win. The Guardian article makes a lot of sense in that respect. We know that Tim is never likely to become a top player but he usually seems to play better at Wimbledon, for some odd reason (the crowd might be a factor but his Queen’s Club performance a couple of weeks ago didn’t add credibility to that suggestion). Ultimately, I think the appeal is some form of false hope…

Anyway, while I missed out on watching Tim put the country through hell (again), I did get to watch Willams vs. Haynes last night and I was really cheering for the new girl. OK, she looks a bit silly with a handkerchief on here head, pumps her fist when here opponent loses a point through an unforced error (rather than having won it herself), and got a bit pissy about some good line calls, but I really wanted her to win. Shame as at one point it looked like she was going to do it, particularly when Serena’s old injuries started acting up.

Anyway, I can look forwards to Greg and Davis Sherwood getting knocked out today…

I miss getting as much exposure to Tennis as I did in Europe, I remembered staying glued to the Roland Garros (it’s on free TV over there). I guess I’ll have to stick to Top Spin.

“One order of humble pie?”

..Oh, yeah, that’d be for me then…

OK, so I was right about Henman being past it and most of the rest of the British squad, but I wholeheartedly admit to being COMPLETELY wrong about Andrew Murray. Last night was the first time that I’ve actually been able to watch him play (not unusual since, as the commentators kept banging on about, it was only his 4th ATP Tour match) but, bloody hell, can he play well. I’m not sure what he’ll be like against a big serving player (although we’ll probably find out when he plays David Nalbandian next), but he completely outplayed the 14th Seed, Radek Stepanek in straight sets. Amazing.

It’ll be interesting to see how good he becomes over the coming years, or even how far he manages to get in this year’s championship (I’m expecting him to win or anything, just getting into the 3rd Round was a major achievement beyond expectations). Whatever way, I was completely out of order with the suggestion that he might just be able to hold a racquet.

…hmmm, humble pie…

The first I heard of Murray was at the last US open where he won the junior title there.

I started getting mildly interested at that point.

Now I’m excitable!

I just hope Murray doesnt become another false tennis Messiah.

Hes gone. Murray is out. Damn it. He did his best though. Went 2 sets to love up, but then crumbled.

Yeah, it was a shame as he could have beaten Nalbandian in the 4th set given that he had a break of serve and only needed to hold his own to serve out the match (hell, he had the opportunity to break Nalbandian’s serve again). Unfortunately, it looks like, at the moment, he hasn’t got the stamina to go through 5 sets. It’s certainly something that can be worked on over the next few years (as the commentators noted, you can work on fitness but talent is something that you can’t really learn) so I’m pretty hopeful that we can look forwards to greater things.

One thing to remember is that if this had been a “normal” Best of 3 sets match, he’d have won. That’s still pretty amazing.

Dunno who I want to win now. I generally root for the players that put out ours since at least the likes of Henman can say that they lost to the winner…