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tarons-thighs-ad-infinitum · 3 years ago

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Little John Goes to Nottingham Fair

Spring and Summer had passed since the Sheriff’s feast in Sherwood and it was now the mellow month of October. The air was cool and fresh; the crops were harvested, the young birds had grown, the wheat was milled, and apples were ripe. And even though enough time had smoothed things over and men no longer talked about the ‘horned beasts’ that the Sheriff tried to buy, he was still angry about it and couldn’t stand to hear Robin Hood’s name spoken around him.

October was also the time the Great Fair was every five years in Nottingham Town. People came from near and far throughout the country. Archery was always the main event for the day because the common Nottinghamshire men were the best longbowmen in all of England. This year, however, the Sheriff hesitated a long time before he announced the Fair because he was afraid Robin and his men might show up. At first, he didn’t want to announce the fair at all, but then he realized men would laugh and say that he was afraid of Robin Hood, so he decided to go through with it. He thought he would just offer a dumb prize that no one would care to want. The tradition was to offer 10 bucks or a barrel of ale so instead, this year, he set the best bowman prize as two fat bulls.

When Robin Hood heard what the prize was, he was angry and said “Sham on the Sheriff for offering a prize no one but shepards would want! I wanted so much to have another match in Nottingham. If I win the prize, I’d get no pleasure or profit from it.”

Then Little John spoke up and said “No, listen here, Boss. Earlier today, Will Stutely, Young David of Doncaster, and I were at the Blue Boar and we heard about this fair. But we also heard that the Sheriff offered this specific prize so that the men of Sherwood wouldn’t care to try for it. So, Boss, if you want; I think we should go and try to win this stupid prize.”

“Nah, Little John,” Said Robin, “You’re a good strong man but you’re not as smart as Stutely. And I’d rather destroy Nottingham than let you get hurt. Nevertheless, if you want to go, at least take a disguise in case someone there would know you.”

“You’re right, Boss,” Said Little John. “But all the disguise I need is a Scarlet suit instead of this Lincoln Green. I’ll pull the hood up and hide my hair and beard and then, I’m sure no one will know me.”

“I still dont think you should go,” Said Robin Hood, “But if you want to go, then go now. But don’t act a fool, Little John, because you’re my right hand man and I would be so upset if you got into trouble.”

So Little John dressed himself all in scarlet and started off to the Fair at Nottingham Town.

Fair days at Nottingham were fun and beautiful. The green grass in front of the big town gate was dotted with booths in rows and multicolored tents and there were streamers and garlands of flowers hanging everywhere and people from all around came, both upper and lower classes. Some booths played upbeat music to dance to and others had beer and ale and others had sweet cakes and candies for sale. There were sports happening outside the booths too. Some singers sang songs about the old days and played the harp. There were wrestling matches in a sawdust ring. But mostly, people gathered around a raised platform where strong men fought with staffs.

So Little John showed up to the fair. His pants and jacket were scarlet red and his hood was red and there was a red feather stuck into the side of the material. Over his shoulders, he slung a strong wooden bow and he hung a quiver of a good round of arrows across his back. Many people turned to watch a man as big as him walk past because he was broader across the shoulders than any other man there. And he was a foot taller than all the other men too. The ladies looked at him with lust because they’d never seen a more attractive young man.

First, he went to the booth with the beer and stood on a bench there. He called to anyone nearby to come drink with him. “Hey my dudes!” he cried “Who wants to drink with a big strong man like me? Come one, come all! Lets drink because the day is nice and the beer is strong. Come here my good dudes and you and you and you too! Because this round is on me. No dont look around. I mean you! You the jolly handyman and yes you too healthy beggar. Everyone should drink and be merry with me!”

As he shouted, everyone crowded around laughing while they drank. They called Little John a brave fellow and everyone swore they loved him like their brother because when entertainment is free, you love the one who deals it out.

Then he strolled to the platform where they were play fighting because he loved to fight with his staff as much as he loved to eat and drink. And here is the adventure that was sun in ballads throughout the area for a long time.

One man who was in these fights ended up knocking out anyone who tried to fight him. This man’s name was Eric of Lincoln. He was very famous and sang about in ballads. When Little John reached the stand he found that no one was fighting because Eric was boldly walking up and down the platform, swinging his staff and boasting loudly: “Now who wants to come and fight for the girl he loves most against a good Lincolnshire man like me? How about you boys? Come on! Or else your girls aren’t that pretty and you have no need to fight for them. Or your young men are lazy and chicken. Lets battle! Lincoln against Nottingham! No one who’s stepped up against me today would count as a wrestler back home.”

This made the crowd nudge one another with their elbows and say “Ned! Its your turn!” or “Go on Thomas!” but no one really wanted to take a beating for no reason.

So Eric saw Little John in the crowd, a foot taller than everyone else and he called to him “Hey, You giant dude in red! Youre built like a linebacker and gotta thick head. Is your girl not good enough to fight for her sake? Honestly? I think nottingham men are spineless. So come on you giant bug. Wanna twirl with me for Nottinghams sake?”

“I would” said Little John. “But I dont have my favorite staff with me. Though it would made me so happy to crack your skull, you pompous loudmouth. It would do you good to be knocked down a few pegs.” He spoke slowly at first but his anger grew as fast and strong as a bolder rolling down a hill and at the end of it, he was raging.

Then Eric o' Lincoln laughed aloud. “Big talk for a man who wont fight me fairly.” He said “you’re clearly just as pompous. And if you’d dare to step up here, I’ll make your tongue rattle in your teeth.”

“Now,” Said Little John, “Can someone lend me a good strong staff o try and beat the snot outta this dude?” and about ten men held their staffs toward him. He picked the strongest and heaviest of the all. He sized up the staff and said “Its barely a splinter or straw of wheat compared to what I’m used to, but it’ll have to do. So here goes nothing.” So he threw the staff up onto the platform and jumped easily up after it, picking the staff up again when he was straight.

They took their places and looked each other up and down until the referee said “Fight!” They stepped forward, holding their staffs tightly in the center. Then the crowd say the most impressive quarterstaff match to ever happen in Nottingham.

At first Eric o' Lincoln thought that he would gain an easy advantage, so he said to the audience; “Watch how fast I destroy this dude.” But he didn’t find it to be all that quick after all. He struck with force and skill but he was evenly matched with Little John. He struck three times and three times Little John turned the blows away from himself. Then with a graceful backhand, he knocked Eric beneath his guard so hard that it made his head ring. Eric stepped back to clear his head and the crowd roared with pride that Nottingham had cracked Lincoln’s crown. And thats how the first round of the fight went. So the Ref yelled “Fight” again. Now Eric knew what he was up against and was wary. He was disgusted by the blow he’d taken and so in this round, neither Little John nor the Lincoln man caught a single blow under their guard. Then, after a while, they parted again, and that was round two.

For the third round, Eric tried to stay wary but he began to get mad at himself for being evenly matched. So he lost his wits and started to strike fast and fierce. It made a sound like hail on a tin roof. But in spite of everything, he couldn’t break through Little John’s guard. Finally, Little John saw his chance and took it. One more time with a quick blow, he knocked Eric upside the head, giving himself enough time to lower his right hand next to his left. Little John swung the staff like a baseball bat and struck Eric so hard across the face that he fell down and it looked like he would never move again.

People shouted so loud that everyone came running to see what the fuss was about. Little John hopped off the platform and gave the staff he borrowed back to the man that had given it to him. And that was the end of the famous fight between Little John and the famous Eric of Lincoln.

Now it was time for the archery shoot. Everyone took their places and the crowd ran to the range where the shooting was to take place. The Sheriff sat near the target on a raised platform with many powerful people around him. When the archers took their places, the referee gave the rules of the match. Each would shoot three times and whoever shot the best would win two fat steers. Twenty archers were lined up, some of them the best at the longbow in all of lincoln and nottingham, and Little John. He was taller than all the others. “Who is that stranger wearing all red?” Some said and some others answered “Its the guy who just knocked out Eric of Lincoln.” And thats how the crowd went on talking until the Sheriff heard it.

Now each man stepped forward and took their turn shooting and even though each shot well, Little John was the best of them all. He got the center circle all three times and the last shot he was only a millimeter from a dead center bullseye. “Hurray for the Tall Dude!” the crowd hooted and hollered. “Hurray for Reynold Greenleaf!" because this was the name Little John had called himself that day.

Then the Sheriff stepped down from his platform and came to where the archers were and the archers all tipped their hats respectfully as he passed by. He looked curiously at Little John but couldn’t recognize him. So he said “Hey man, there’s something familiar about your face.”

“Yeah probably.” said Little John. “I’ve seen Your Worship often.” and as he spoke, he looked steadily into the Sheriff’s eyes so that he did not suspect him.

“You’re cool my man.” Said the Sheriff. “I heard you showed Lincoln how skillful Nottingham could be today. Whats your name?”

“People call me Reynold Greenleaf, Sir.” said Little John. The old ballads that mention this say “He wasn’t lying. He was a ‘green leaf’ but the sheriff never asked from which tree.”

"Now, Reynold Greenleaf," said the Sheriff, "You’re the best Longbowman i’ve ever seen. Except for that jerk Robin Hood, who keeps getting away from me. Do you want to join my service? You’ll be paid well. Three suits of clothes a year and as much good food and beer as you want. And also a 40 dollar Christmas bonus.”

“Sure! I will gladly be part of your service!” Said Little John because he thought it would be funny to work for the Sheriff.

“You won the two fat steers fairly.” Said the sheriff. “and since I like you, I’ll add a whole barrell of good beer. I think you shoot as well as Robin Hood himself.”

"Then," said Little John, "for joy of having gotten myself into your service, I will give fat steers and brown ale to all these good folk, because I don’t need it and it’ll make them happy." Then there arose a great shout, many throwing their hats into the air, for joy of the gift.

Then they had a barbecue and roasted the steers and drank the barell of beer and they were all happy and drunk. Then when they had all eaten and drank as much as they could, and the day faded. The moon rose, all red and round, over the spires of the towers of Nottingham, they all joined hands and danced around the fires while others played bagpipes and harps. But before any of this could happen, the Sheriff and his new servant Reynold Greenleaf were already in the Castle of Nottingham.

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your-dietician · 3 years ago

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Our breakdown from the most exciting day in tennis

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/tennis/our-breakdown-from-the-most-exciting-day-in-tennis/

Our breakdown from the most exciting day in tennis

It was the premier tennis day of the year. On Monday, all 16 players left in the Wimbledon singles draw took the court.

An exciting lineup without question, but we admit, it was a challenge to follow all the action. But not to worry, if you missed anything, we had you covered from first ball to last.

Here’s a snapshot of everything that went down Monday at the All England Club, courtesy of Courtney Nguyen and Greg Garber.

Ajla Tomljanovic def. Emma Raducanu, 6-4, 3-0 ret

Key takeaway: After a close opening set, Raducanu, the 18-year-old Brit, was forced to retire from their match. She appeared to be struggling to breathe and went off court before retiring. Tomljanovic showed her veteran mettle late in the first set. Raducanu was fired up and the No.1 Court crowd was right there with her every swing and fist pump. She had her chances. With Tomljanovic serving at 4-4, Raducanu had two break points come and go before Tomljanovic held serve. Then, with Raducanu serving at 4-5, Tomljanovic played a physical game – there were two 10-shot rallies, one 21-shot lung-buster and a 20-shot back-breaker – to save three game points and ultimately break for the set.

Raducanu remains a name to watch. It was a heartbreaking way for her Cinderella run to end, but the win was well-earned by Tomljanovic, who at 28, is into her first major quarterfinal.

Quotable: “As for the quarterfinal, I wouldn’t say I didn’t believe in my career I would ever get it, but just the way my season was,” Tomljanovic said. “The year before I had a lot of heartbreaking moments where I thought this was my week, against Simona, Garbiñe, Sloane a long time ago. All of a sudden everything felt really far from me even though I did feel like I’m playing well just because mentally those matches took a little bit of a toll. It got to me a little bit. It got in my head.

“But I had to put my head down and keep working and not think about those matches, think in a positive way. It’s not easy.”

What’s next: Tomljanovic takes on No.1 Ashleigh Barty. This will be the first all-Aussie meeting in a Slam quarterfinal since 1980 Wimbledon, when Evonne Goolagong Cawley defeated Wendy Turnbull in straight sets.

No.25 Angelique Kerber def. No.20 Coco Gauff, 6-4, 6-4

Key takeaway: The 2018 Champion is on a mission. Kerber, a former No.1, has found a new level over the past two weeks, starting with her run to the Bad Homburg title the week before Wimbledon and now booking her first major quarterfinal since winning the title here three years ago.

In a battle between the oldest player remaining in the draw and the youngest, Kerber played a veteran match; there was wind to manage and a talented 17-year-old to solve. The Centre Court crowd was vocally behind the American. Kerber, 33, kept her head and took her chances. She won four of five break points (and saved four of six), finishing with 22 winners to 20 unforced errors.

Quotable: “I really enjoy to play on grass,” Kerber said. “I think this is always really special for me. Playing two tournaments in Germany starting the grass-court season like this, then winning my tournament in Germany, playing in front of the crowd again, this give me again, new energy to go out there and enjoy my tennis. I really worked hard in the last few months. Being able now to playing matches like this, winning close matches, going out there and enjoying it, feeling my tennis, it’s always a good sign.”

What’s next: Kerber will face Karolina Muchova for a spot in her fifth Wimbledon semifinal. The German has won their two previous meetings, both on hard courts.

Viktorija Golubic def. No.23 Madison Keys, 7-6 (3), 6-3

Key takeaway: It’s been a remarkable transformation for the 28-year-old from Switzerland. In her 18th Grand Slam singles main-draw event, she and that pure one-hand backhand are through to a first major quarterfinal; her previous best was the third round to years ago at Wimbledon. Hard to believe Golubic failed to qualify earlier this year at the Australian Open and lost in the first round at Roland Garros. Golubic has now won eight of her past nine matches on grass.

Viktorija Golubic’s march to her 1st #Wimbledon quarterfinal:

d. Kudermetova 36 61 11-9 d. Collins 62 60 d. Brengle 62 61 d. Keys 76 63

Faces Karolina Pliskova next. Won their only prior meeting, at Fed Cup in 2016, 36 64 64. pic.twitter.com/atVftZIPMO

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) July 5, 2021

Quotable: “Yeah, I feel like especially mentally that I feel that I am more confident in my skills and actually realizing more what I can do on court,” Golubic said.” So while I’m playing, I think I can just be more focused on my part of the game. It’s more like to really be more clear in your head, like what your skills are and how you want to play.”

What’s next: A match against No.8 Karolina Pliskova, who has quietly been working her way through the draw without dropping a set. Golubic won the only match between them, coming back from a set and 2-4 down in a 2016 Fed Cup semifinal, but that was in Switzerland and on a hardcourt.

No.19 Karolina Muchova def. No.30 Paula Badosa, 7-6 (6), 6-4

Key takeaway: The 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, playing in only her second Wimbledon singles main draw, is through to her second quarterfinal. This after reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open back in February, where she beat No.1 Ashleigh Barty along the way.

Muchova and Badosa played a fairly even match. Badosa was up 3-0 in the first set and held a break of serve until 5-2. But Muchova turned it around, winning three straight games before prevailing in a taut tiebreaker. In the end, Muchova played a little cleaner, finishing the match with 24 unforced errors, six fewer than Badosa.

Quotable: “I’m focusing mostly on the Grand Slams and on big events,” Muchova said. “So definitely that’s where I’m trying to be the most focused and going for it. I didn’t play that many tournaments this year, so I can’t really tell [my level], because I was struggling with injuries and everything. Yeah, for now it’s going good and I appreciate it.”

What’s next: Two years ago, Muchova lost to Elina Svitolina here in the quarterfinals. Now she’ll be looking to take the next step – and raise her career Wimbledon record to 9-1 – against Angelique Kerber.

No.1 Ashleigh Barty def. No.14 Barbora Krejcikova, 7-5, 6-3

Key takeaway: In a battle between the No.1 and No.2 players in the Porsche Race to Shenzhen, Barty, the only former junior champion left in the draw, ended Krejcikova’s 15-match winning streak. Barty won her 32nd match of the year (only Ons Jabeur and Aryna Sabalenka have more). She is now 11-1 this year against Top 20 players.

Quotable: “An incredibly tough match,” Barty said. “I was excited for the challenge today. Just happy to come through in the end. Feel like I found some pretty good stuff when I needed it most, which is great. I love coming out here and testing myself against the best in the world, and there’s certainly no place I’d rather be at the moment.”

What’s next: Since winning the 2019 French Open, Barty has gone 0-for-5 in majors. This year, the 25-year-old Australian lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian and retired from her second-round match at Roland Garros. Given that Aryna Sabalenka is the only other Top 10 player left in the draw, this is a huge opportunity for Barty to win her second Grand Slam singles title.

No.8 Karolina Pliskova def. Liudmila Samsonova, 6-2, 6-3

Key takeaway: Pliskova has to appreciate the irony. The Czech’s 230-week streak inside the Top 10 ended on the first Monday at Wimbledon. So what does she do? The 29-year-old quietly makes her way to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal and first major quarterfinal since making the 2019 Australian Open semifinals.

Pliskova has had a rocky relationship with the grass at the All England Club, even though she’s had great success on grass. She’s a two-time Eastbourne champion but has never replicated those results at Wimbledon. Pliskova has not faced a Top 50 opponent yet, but she’s been serving better than she has all season. She fired 10 aces in both her first and fourth rounds – and has not lost a set.

Quotable: “Super happy that I made [the quarterfinals] in singles, because I had the last eight only in doubles, which I thought is horrible,” Pliskova said. “So now finally it’s my last Grand Slam which I was missing to go to quarters.”

What’s next: Pliskova will face either Madison Keys or Viktorija Golubic.

No.21 Ons Jabeur def. No.7 Iga Swiatek, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1

Key takeaway: Coming off the two fantastic sets of tennis she played to beat Garbiñe Muguruza on Center Court in the last round, Jabeur showed no signs of a letdown against Swiatek. This should have been a straight-sets win for the Tunisian, who dominated the opening set before Swiatek played a resplendent three consecutive games to steal it. Down a set with her first Wimbledon quarterfinal on the line, the 26-year-old Jabeur played free and loose. She served at 70% in the final two sets and was 7 for 7 on break points in the match, dominating through the final two sets. With the win, Jabeur becomes the first Arab – man or woman – to make the Wimbledon quarterfinals since 1974.

READ: Kerber stops Gauff, Jabeur blazes past Swiatek to reach Wimbledon quarters

Jabeur is now 10-1 on grass this season, having won her first WTA title in Birmingham. Her only loss came to eventual champion Jelena Ostapenko in three sets in Eastbourne. She has beaten three consecutive major champions – Swiatek, Muguruza and Venus Williams – to reach her second career major quarterfinal.

Quotable: “Actually I got congratulated by Roger after my match, which was amazing,” Jabeur said. “I think now I’m good in my tennis career [laughter]. He was very nice. He took the time to say congrats. That inspires me a lot and gives me the hunger to win more.”

No.2 Aryna Sabalenka def. No.18 Elena Rybakina, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3

Key takeaway: In her 15th Grand Slam singles appearance, the 23-year-old from Belarus advanced to her first quarterfinal. She entered the tournament as the only Top 20 ranked player not to reach a major quarterfinal and now she has a chance to make her first Grand Slam semifinal. Rybakina, whose serve had been broken only once in three matches, was broken five times.

Sabalenka is tied with Jabeur for the most match-wins on tour this season (33). Sabalenka is one of only three Top 18 seeds still left in the draw.

Quotable: “Of course I’m really happy I finally broke this wall,” Sabalenka said. “Yeah, I’m in the quarterfinals. But this is not my final goal. I’m trying to be happy, but at the same time be focused and be ready for the next one because it’s also not easy match.”

What’s next: Sabalenka will face Jabeur on Tuesday, with both women looking to make their first major semifinal. They split their previous two meetings. Sabalenka won their most recent match in straight sets on the hardcourts of Abu Dhabi in January.

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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Australian Open 2020: Margaret Court to be 'recognised' - why is she such a divisive figure?

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/australian-open-2020-margaret-court-to-be-recognised-why-is-she-such-a-divisive-figure/

Australian Open 2020: Margaret Court to be 'recognised' - why is she such a divisive figure?

In 2017, Court said tennis was “full of lesbians” and transgender children were the work of “the devil”

Margaret Court’s tennis achievements are unmatched. So is the level of controversy surrounding her.

The Australian holds the record for all-time Grand Slam singles titles and 2020 is the 50th anniversary of when she won all four major titles in a calendar year.

But her views on gay marriage and transgender athletes have split opinion on how these successes should be marked.

Tennis Australia says it plans to “recognise” – rather than “celebrate” – her 1970 sweep of the Slams at this month’s Australian Open, while reiterating its stance against the 77-year-old’s “demeaning” personal views.

Court was a quiet champion, dominant over her sporting rivals but shy and retiring in public life. Now she finds herself at the centre of a long-running polemic set to play out its latest chapter. She is a divisive figure, branded “homophobic”, “ignorant” and “dangerous” for her very publicly expressed beliefs.

So just how did a women with 64 Grand Slam singles and doubles trophies get to this point?

There was a time when Margaret Court was simply a “great champion”.

Her haul of 192 career singles titles between 1960 and 1977 is a women’s record and her 24 Grand Slam singles titles is an all-time record. She also shares the record with Belgium’s Kim Clijsters for major titles won as a mother (three).

Her calendar Grand Slam 50 years ago came in a season where she won 21 of 27 tournaments, and 104 of 110 matches.

“She was a great athlete and an all-court player,” says former French Open and Australian Open champion Nancy Richey, who reached the doubles final with Court at Roland Garros in 1969.

Court, pictured here at Wimbledon in 1973. Months later she would win her final Grand Slam singles title, with victory at the US Open

“She was as good on the baseline as she was at the net, which is a rarity. She had good groundstrokes, a good forehand, a good backhand – she was just tough.

“Most of the players were about my height – 5ft 6in or 5ft 7in – but she was about 5ft 10in or so. There were so few that had a lot of height, she was very imposing.

“She was the first one really to lift weights and she had really built up her right shoulder and arm. She had long arms, in fact her nickname was ‘Arms’. She went about it almost like they do today as far as lifting weights and that kind of thing.”

Court’s Grand Slam singles record is close to being equalled – Serena Williams is one title away from drawing level and will get her next chance to do so at the Australian Open, which starts on Monday.

The American, 38, has been stuck on 23 for three years, with her last major victory the 2017 Australian Open, which she won while eight weeks pregnant. Since coming back from having her daughter, she has reached four Grand Slam finals but failed at the final hurdle each time, most recently in September’s US Open defeat by Canadian Bianca Andreescu.

Many will point out that Court’s record was set in a different period – spanning the amateur and professional eras, with only 11 of her major titles coming in the Open era. Many will argue that some of the fields were not as competitive as today. Still, the Australian’s record is one Williams covets.

This milestone is “why she came back to playing tennis after having a baby and so many medical complications”, Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou said before last year’s Wimbledon final, which she lost to Simona Halep.

Court’s achievements earned her multiple honours, including an induction to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, an MBE and her face on an Australian postage stamp.

She also had the Margaret Court Arena named after her at the Australian Open’s Melbourne Park in 2003 – but less than a decade later there were calls for it to be renamed.

What has Court said?

Towards the end of her tennis career Court, who was brought up as a Catholic, became involved in the Pentecostal church. She was ordained as a Pentecostal minister in 1991 and went on to found her own church – the Victory Life Centre in Perth – where she is the senior minister.

Her stance against gay marriage – which was legalised in Australia in 2017 – comes from her religious beliefs, she says, and is voiced regularly in her sermons.

In 2017 she wrote an open letter to Australian airline Qantas, saying she would be boycotting it because it had become an active promoter of same-sex marriage.

“I believe in marriage as a union between a man and a woman as stated in the Bible,” she wrote. “Your statement leaves me no option but to use other airlines where possible for my extensive travelling.”

That same year she also said tennis was “full of lesbians”, while she has also spoken against transgender athletes and branded the teaching of LGBT rights as “of the devil”.

Court finds herself in the centre of controversy these days. Yet as a player, she had a reputation for being quiet and disliking the limelight.

Former champions (from left to right) Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Steffi Graf, Margaret Court and Maria Bueno are honoured at Wimbledon in July 2006

Describing how she sealed her 1970 calendar Grand Slam with victory over American Rosie Casals in the US Open final, the International Tennis Hall of Fame writes: “There was no triumphant tossing of the racquet or leaping the net or falling on the court in disbelief. Court methodically and calmly walked to the net and shook Casals’ hand.

“She retreated to her seat courtside $7,500 richer – which was the biggest monetary prize in women’s tennis at the time – and had become a calendar year Grand Slam champion, fulfilling a dream long in the making. Court was calm, cool and composed.”

She was also a nervous public speaker. Richey recalls watching the Australian having to address the Wimbledon winners’ ball in 1966.

“She was petrified of doing any public speaking and she broke out in big red blotches on her chest and back,” Richey says. “She got through and did it but it was not what she was comfortable doing.”

Contrast that with the Reverend Margaret Court, who stands and speaks in front of her congregations – her services are also streamed online – with unwavering confidence in both herself and her views.

Only a month before this year’s Australian Open, she again hit the headlines with a sermon declaring: “You know, even that LGBT in the schools, it’s the devil, it’s not of God.”

And it reopened the debate about the country’s most decorated female tennis player.

‘Hiding behind her Bible’- what has the response been?

Court’s opinions have been widely condemned, with 18-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Navratilova labelling her most recent outburst “pathetic” before going on to say it was “amazing how strong her homophobia truly is”.

She added: “It’s outrageous and so wrong. We don’t need to change or rewrite history when it comes to anyone’s accomplishments but we do not need to celebrate them. Margaret Court is hiding behind her Bible as many have done before her and will do after her. Let’s not keep elevating it.”

Fellow great Billie Jean King, who like Navratilova is gay, is among those who have called for the Margaret Court Arena to be renamed. She says if she were competing today she would not play at the stadium.

British player Laura Robson wore a rainbow headband on the court in 2012, while in 2018 players faced repeated questions about whether they would boycott it.

No-one shunned the court in protest – in fact it was Court herself who did not attend the Australian Open two years ago, saying she had decided to go crabbing with her family instead and implying it had nothing to do with the furore surrounding her. “I don’t run from things, I face them,” she told the Australian Herald Sun at the time.

Martina Navratilova, in a BBC documentary, called on sport to change its rules so trans athletes are not excluded

Australian former doubles specialist Rennae Stubbs describes Court and her views as “ignorant and dangerous”. LGBT rights group Stonewall says it is “sad” that she continues to voice “offensive and prejudiced” views.

“Sportspeople are considered role models to many and so anti-LGBT comments can have a hugely negative impact, particularly on younger lesbian, gay, bi and trans people,” Stonewall’s director of sport Robbie de Santos says.

“They make clear that LGBT people are unwelcome and so they feel they have to either hide who they are, or not take part in sport.

“Court’s remarks also show us how faith is often used to justify anti-LGBT views and attitudes. This is wrong and perpetuates a myth that faith and LGBT inclusion cannot coexist.

“Faith is a big part of many LGBT people’s lives, and acceptance as part of a faith community can be incredibly powerful.”

Court does, though, have her supporters.

Nancy Richey – who won the Australian Open in 1967 and the French Open in 1968 but lost two US Open finals to Court, in 1966 and 1969

Nancy Richey had just opened a Christmas card from Court when she spoke to BBC Sport. She said the Australian had included a note about “how they have twisted her words and what-not in the press”.

The American, who lost in two Grand Slam finals to Court, has sympathy for her former rival. She holds the same views on gay marriage. She even wrote to Tennis Australia a couple of years ago to urge them not to rename the stadium.

“It is so wrong, they put her name on there because of her great tennis career – and end of story,” she says now.

“I believe, like she does, [that] marriage is between a man and a woman, that the lesbian thing is against what the Bible says it should be.

“Where she and I both come from is that that’s a sin and we love the sinner. That’s no different than sex before marriage, sex outside marriage – sin is a sin in God’s eyes.

“I feel like her words have been twisted on occasion and what I’m telling you is the way we both think on the thing and I guess where I know I come from is you can’t say anything about what we believe without having all hell break loose.

“We can’t say how we feel about it, our belief about it – that to me is wrong, I should be allowed to voice my opinion and the way I see it and the way I believe and that’s where she is coming from.”

Television debates in Australia have been heated on the issue, while the Australian Christian Lobby has gathered more than 22,000 signatures since December on a public letter that says it stands with her and thanks her for her “boldness, despite overwhelming pressure, in speaking God’s truth and standing with Christ as a public figure and Aussie icon”.

And as Melbourne Park prepares to host Court for her anniversary, the debate about the player versus the person is likely to surface again.

Marking anniversary is ‘no-win’ situation

When Australian great Rod Laver celebrated 50 years since the second of his own Grand Slams in 2019, it was much more straightforward. He was honoured at all four of the majors, receiving replica trophies and ovations.

Before plans were announced for her own big year, Court had asked to be recognised in the same way as Laver, saying: “I think I should be invited [to the Australian Open]. I hope they [Tennis Australia] would pay my way to come like they paid for him, and honour me. If they are not going to do that, I don’t really want to come.”

When Tennis Australia eventually announced it would be recognising her achievements it took the unusual step of distancing itself from her views at the same time – effectively tagging a disclaimer on the end of the press release, saying: “We cannot condone views that fracture our incredible tennis community, nor indeed, the wider community.”

Court, pictured in January 2003, when the ground at Melbourne Park was re-named after her

It added there was “an important distinction” between “recognising champions and celebrating heroes”.

That led to Court’s four children releasing a joint statement, saying: “It is hard for her family to understand how her current lifestyle would possibly affect her tennis career in any way.

“It is disappointing to see Tennis Australia in the open letter amalgamating her sporting career which she won for the nation.”

It should, perhaps, be pointed out that Court herself does not necessarily keep her tennis and her other life separate – her profile page on her church website includes an invitation to buy her autobiography about “the greatest tennis player of all time”.

Tennis Australia has yet to detail exactly how it will be marking the 1970 Grand Slam 50-year anniversary. It says a mini-documentary will be released during the Australian Open, there will be a feature on her achievements in the tournament programme and some “in-stadium entertainment that takes the audience back to 1970 and Margaret’s historic win”.

Whatever the governing body does, it is hard to see it happening without criticism or debate.

“Tennis Australia was in a no-win situation in some respects,” Stubbs tells BBC Sport.

“I would have loved for them to not have honoured her as a respect for all the people that she has denigrated over the years, including some of our own players, but I understand they were in a difficult situation. I hope it’s the last one they have to make when it comes to Margaret.”

The other three Grand Slams have yet to decide what they will do, with only Wimbledon saying: “We will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of her win across our content plans as we did with Rod.”

They all have the luxury of waiting to see what the reaction is in Melbourne first.

What will the reaction be at the Australian Open?

The plans for marking her anniversary have been so vague that it is not even clear if Court will be presented to the public and so it is hard to know what kind of reception she might get.

“The public may yet be taken out of the equation if Tennis Australia feel nervous enough about any potential reaction,” says Mike Hytner, sports editor of Australian newspaper The Guardian.

Police officers attempt to stop protesters from storming the back entrance to Melbourne’s Athenaeum club, where Court was the keynote speaker on 22 June 2017

“I can’t imagine her getting booed, to be honest, certainly not on Rod Laver Arena, which is generally less rowdy than the outer courts can be.

“There were strong feelings about renaming the arena but there is more of a pervading sense now that her views are irrelevant. Most of the country is ambivalent to her.”

Asked last month whether the Australian Open was bracing itself for controversy, Tennis Australia chief Craig Tiley told reporters: “That’s going to be up to the Australian fans. There are no fans in the world that are like Australian fans. I’ll leave their response up to them.”

Tiley, though, did say Court would not be presenting the women’s singles trophy – although Laver also had no trophy-presenting duties in Melbourne in his anniversary year, so it cannot be viewed as a snub as such.

Stubbs says some people may well choose to do just that, though.

“I think the people that want to honour her on that day have every right to,” she says. “I also suspect there will be many people and players that will not be there to honour her and that is their right also.”

#divisive #figure

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the-independent-spt-yahoopa-blog · 8 years ago

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A clash of styles, techniques and cultures - the tale of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer's rivalry

As Roger Federer contemplated the challenge of returning to competition after six months on the sidelines, even the best player in history needed to look for inspiration. He found it when he travelled to Majorca in October to help launch Rafael Nadal’s new academy.

“You’ve done it a million times, so I can be inspired by the way you made it look so easy when you came back,” Federer told his greatest rival at the opening ceremony. “You came back to the world’s top 10, top five, even world No 1. That’s something that I’m going to be thinking about when I come back to the tour in January.”

At the time, with Federer recovering from a knee injury and Nadal about to curtail his 2016 campaign because of a wrist problem, the 35-year-old Swiss and the 30-year-old Spaniard joked that all they were fit for was a brief game of mini tennis with the academy’s juniors.

Three months on, however, the two biggest names in tennis are preparing to rekindle their rivalry on one of the sport’s great stages. When they contest the Australian Open final here on Sunday it will be their ninth meeting in Grand Slam finals, with Federer aiming to add to his lone two victories, at Wimbledon in 2006 and 2007. Federer will be the oldest men’s Grand Slam singles finalist for 43 years.

Men’s tennis has been dominated by the so-called “Big Four” for more than a decade now, but in truth it is a two-division super league. Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are currently the world No 1 and No 2 respectively, but in terms of global appeal, Federer and Nadal have remained the sport’s greatest attractions, despite their comparative lack of success in recent times.

Federer has won 17 Grand Slam titles but has added just one (Wimbledon in 2012) since he claimed his fourth Australian Open seven years ago. Nadal, with 14 Grand Slam titles to his name, has not made a major final since he won his ninth French Open in 2014.

While Nadal is closer in age to Murray and Djokovic, who are only a year younger than him, the Spaniard’s greatest rivalry has always been with Federer, despite their five-year age gap. Because of Nadal’s precocity and Federer’s comparatively late development, their careers have largely followed parallel lines. Federer did not win his first Grand Slam title (at Wimbledon) until a month before his 22nd birthday, while Nadal won his first (at Roland Garros) just days after his 19th.

From the earliest days there was the greatest respect between the two men. They met for the first time in the Miami Masters in 2003, when 16-year-old Nadal won 6-3, 6-3. Federer’s post-match analysis of his opponent that day neatly summed up the qualities that would soon make him a great champion.

“He doesn’t hit the ball flat and hard,” Federer said. “It’s more with a lot of spin, which makes the ball bounce high, and that’s a struggle I had today. His forehand is for sure his biggest shot in his game, and his all-court speed.”

Federer might have already appreciated the difficulty he would have for years to come coping with Nadal’s crunching forehand, struck with such vicious top spin. That one stroke alone is probably the biggest reason why Nadal has won 23 of his 34 meetings with Federer. Particularly on clay, where the top spin helps the ball bounce up to shoulder height, the Nadal forehand causes Federer problems on his backhand which the Swiss has never seemed quite able to resolve.

Federer lost nine of their first 10 meetings on clay and won a total of just three sets in losing all four of their finals at the French Open between 2006 and 2011. His 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 defeat in the Roland Garros final of 2008 was his heaviest in the 364 matches he has played in Grand Slam competition and he admitted this week that the hidings he took from Nadal on clay affected their matches on other surfaces.

“Maybe that was why I lost the Wimbledon final in 2008,” Federer said. “He crushed me at the French Open final and I think it affected my first two sets at Wimbledon. Maybe that’s why I ended up losing. Rafa played great in that final. I actually ended up playing great too, but I wasn’t fighting the right way. I think that was the effect of being crushed at the French Open.”

Even if you strip out their results on clay Nadal has the upper hand in their head-to-head record, having won 10 of their 19 meetings on grass or hard courts. Federer, nevertheless, thinks that any mental advantage the Spaniard enjoyed in the past is no longer relevant, particularly on the quick courts here at Melbourne Park. “Now it’s a different time,” Federer said. “A lot of time has gone by. I know this court allows me to play a certain game against Rafa that I cannot do on centre court at the French Open.”

The contrast of the two players’ styles and personalities has helped to capture the worldwide public’s imagination. Federer, who glides across the court, is the ultimate attacking player, always looking to be the aggressor, ready to attack the net and to impose his game on his opponent.

The left-handed Nadal, meanwhile, has been a classic counter-puncher who pounds across the court to chase down balls as if his life depends on it and then turns brick-wall defence into razor-sharp attack with one huge swing of his racket. Given his intensely physical game, it is no surprise that Nadal’s career has been frequently interrupted by injuries.

Perhaps the only similarities between the two men on court are their ferocious competitiveness and coolness under pressure, though they also clearly share a deep love of competition. The joy both have shown in winning their matches here over the last fortnight has lit up the tournament.

“It’s the combination of two different styles that makes our matches really special,” Nadal said. “They are different ways to play tennis and we’ve both had a lot of success playing in these two different styles.”

In many respects Nadal and Federer are unlikely soul-mates. Nadal enjoys a simple life and simple pleasures. He has lived all his life in the unpretentious town of Manacor on the island of Majorca. Away from tennis he loves nothing more than to be back home with his family and friends, playing golf and fishing.

Federer, in contrast, is suave and sophisticated. He was named GQ’s “Most Stylish Man” of 2016, despite the fact that he spent half the year out of the limelight because of injury. Fluent in German, French and English, he is comfortable in any company. When the Queen visited Wimbledon it was no surprise when Federer was invited to sit next to her at lunch.

Meanwhile Nadal’s humility contrasts with Federer’s appreciation – in a realistic rather than an arrogant way – of his own stature. When he met Diego Maradona back stage at the World Tour Finals in London Federer said the Argentinian was “a big fan of mine” and added: “I think he was almost more excited to meet me than I was to meet him – and I was very excited.”

Federer described Nadal as “an incredible tennis player”. He added: “He’s got shots that no other player has. When you have that, you are unique and special. Plus he’s got the grit. He’s got the mental and physical ability to sustain a super high level of play for years and for hours and for weeks. He's proven that time and time again. He's come back from many injuries, time and time again. He made it seem easy - and it’s not. I think he’s been tremendous for the game. I have a lot of respect for him on many levels.”

Nadal said it would be “very special” to meet his great rival again in a Grand Slam final. “It’s exciting for me and for both of us that we still there and still fighting for important events,” he said.

#_category:yct:001000922 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000G9V3uEAF #_uuid:3f81bbda-2fda-330c-81eb-632552fec0b3 #_category:yct:001000001 #_author:Paul Newman #sport #tennis #_revsp:the_independent_577

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thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

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Ramblings: Ovechkin Clicking at Career-Rate, Rantanen On Another Planet, Meier, & Johnsson (Dec 12)

Alex Ovechkin – USA Today Sports Images

William Nylander hit the scoresheet for the first time this season. The 22-year-old led the way for the Leafs with two even-strength assists as they beat the Hurricanes 4-1 on Tuesday evening. Nylander continued to skate alongside Nazem Kadri and Patrick Marleau on the team's third line. He's also working the half-wall on the team's second power-play unit.

It isn't exactly the ideal spot to push his metrics to the next level, but it should be enough for him to play at a 60-point pace – about where I'd peg his floor to be.

Freddie Andersen continues to roll on. The 29-year-old has been the best fantasy netminder in all setups. His win tonight pushes his record to 17-8-0 with a 0.928 save percentage. He's posted a quality start rate of 72 percent. That's a puck-stopper you can rely on.

Andreas Johnsson scored a goal on Tuesday night but it was quickly changed to give credit to Morgan Rielly. Despite the pointless night, Johnsson has been playing well of late. He was a sleeper pick by many last offseason to break out in Toronto this year. He started his season by watching up in the press box as a healthy scratch. When he did get into the lineup, it was in a depth role.

Well, Willy Nylander is back in Leaf-land and things are moving and shaking. Johnsson has been lining up on the left side of Auston Matthews at even strength the past few games. He's also seeing his fair share of second power-play unit duties.

The 24-year-old has made the most of his upgrade in deployment. He came into the game against Carolina with two consecutive games with a goal and an assist. He’s owned in just 16 percent of Yahoo leagues but that number is climbing.

Patty Marleau doesn’t look like a true fit beside Matthews, and Johnsson’s speed, skill and tenacious-style fits well to pursue the puck and cause turnovers for the big pivot to operate with. I love this type of streamer. A young player with upside who is in a good spot. He won’t see PP1 time, so the results will be held back to some degree. But he could become a staple on that line with a few more strong performances.

Buy-in if you can.

It was reported that Ryan Miller will miss six weeks with a sprained MCL. The Ducks wasted no time in claiming Chad Johnson off of waivers from St Louis to provide some support to John Gibson.

Jordan Binnington is the new back-up in STL. The 25-year-old has a single NHL game on his resume. He managed to wrestle the starting gig in the American league from Ville Huuso who has been projected as the up and comer for a few seasons.

With the way the Blues are playing these days, it is conceivable that Binnington sees some ice, but the results will likely be very muted.

It was Jake Allen who got the start and the win against the Panthers on Tuesday. St Louis needed this one. After getting shelled on home ice by Vancouver on Sunday, the media was all over the practice tilt involving Bortuzzo and Sanford. Perhaps that was the gelling moment for a squad that should be much better than they've been.

David Perron (2+0), Brayden Schenn (1+1) and Jaden Schwartz (0+2) led the way for the Blues.

Speaking of bad teams, the Blackhawks dropped their eighth consecutive contest on Tuesday. They fell 6-3 the Jets on the road.

Winnipeg was led by Kyle Connor and his two tallies. Dustin Byfuglien chipped in with three assists. He seems to be back to his old ways after that terribly managed concussion.

More injuries in Anaheim? You don't say. This time it's the team’s top left-wing, Rickard Rakell who continues to be out with a sprained ankle. There is no timeline for his return at this point.

That’s another gaping hole on a team that has been decimated with injuries this season. It was Pontus Aberg who rolled next to Getzlaf and Ondrej Kase on the team’s ‘top line’ during the last game. Aberg and Sprong both took turns on the team’s top power play unit.

No one is replacing Rackell in the short term, but Sprong or Aberg could provide some streaming options if they are getting exposure to Getzlaf in all situations.

Boston and Arizona squared off in a cross-conference battle that drew…very little attention. While it didn't have the heat of a divisional matchup, this was a good game. The Coyotes jumped out to a 2-0 lead after Nick Schmaltz and Nick Cousins potted first-period tallies. Schmaltz has seven points in the seven games since landing in the desert. Here's hoping you bought in when we told you to.

The Bruins stormed back to score four unanswered goals. Brad Marchand popped two. David Pastrnak chipped in with a goal and two helpers. The Bruins haven't been their dominant self with Patrice Bergeron on the shelf. But they're finding their way.

Of note, Ryan Donato skated on the team's second line and top power-play unit. He saw 3:35 of PPTOI and recorded an assist and two shots on goal. That's the type of deployment you want to see the young sharp-shooter receive to start considering him an asset for this season.

The NHL has its first 50-point scorer in 2018-19. Mikko Rantanen buried his 13th and 14th goals of the season and added two assists on Tuesday in a 6-4 loss to the Oilers. That extended his point streak to 12 games and 23 points. This dude is on another planet.

He has a six-point lead atop the Art Ross race.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl combined for five points in the victory. Drai was chucking some backhand sauce out there.

https://dobberhockey.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/12/Drai-to-McD.mp4

The big German has quietly slid into the top-15 point producers with 37 points in 31 contests. He and McDavid belong together. I don't ever want to see those two split up again.

Mikko Koskinen was good once again. Ken Hitchcock appears to have cleaned the squad up defensively, and it's Koskinen who is thriving the most. He sporting a 0.928 save percentage in 15 games played. He has two regulation losses in his last 11 games and has posted a quality start rate of 60 percent.

The crease is his.

The LA Kings are dreadful. Leading the Sabres 3-1 heading into the third period they managed to blow things. Jeff Skinner ended up potting the overtime winner, his 21st of the season. His captain and linemate, Jack Eichel contributed a goal and an assist. It was his fifth multi-point outing in the last six games.

Eichel now sits tied for ninth in NHL scoring with 38 points in 31 contests. The 22-year-old has officially arrived. And so have the Sabres. Buffalo is solidly in the playoffs and third in their division. Just three points behind the Leafs for second. It's been a long road in upstate New York, it's good to finally see some success.

Rasmus Dahlin was held off the scoresheet in this one. But the 18-year-old played 28:34, had eight shots and three blocks. He played 10:04 on the man-advantage!

Fret not keeper league owners, his counting stats may not jump off the page just yet, but he's out there doing things like this before he even has to shave. Imagine what he'll do in a year or three.

https://dobberhockey.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/12/Dahlin-dangles.mp4

Nick Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin teamed up to lay a beatdown on the Red Wings on Tuesday. Ovi proceeded to score three goals to push his league-leading total to 25 in 30 games. The 33-year-old has never had that many tallies through 30 games in any of his previous 13 seasons.

Let that sink in for a moment. He's 33 years old and on pace for his highest output yet. The man is pacing for 68 goals!

What a legend.

Ovechkin is currently riding an 11-game point streak where he's scored 13 goals and 19 points.

Meanwhile, Backstrom continues to be the most underappreciated fantasy star ever. Left for dead by many after a 'disappointing' 71-point campaign a year ago and looking like his days of dishing to Ovi at even-strength were over. Well, turns out he's far from dead. The 31-year-old has 38 points in 30 games to be living in the top-10 league-wide.

I keep trying to trade for him in my main league and you should too.

Rick Roos is rolling again with his annual Cage Match Tournament. Check out the forums to vote for The New Normal edition.

Gus Nyqvist potted a goal and an assist. The 29-year-old has produced nine points in the six games since Anthony Mantha went down with a hand injury. Nyqvist is having his best start to date with 28 points in 32 games. A quiet but effective producer who is seeing high-end deployment.

That's a good combination.

The requisite Elias Pettersson tidbit.

Heading into Tuesday’s contests, Pettersson had 15 goals and 30 points in 26 career games. Here’s a look at some other current stars and their totals after 26 contests.

Some current NHL stars and their points totals after 26 career games:

Elias Pettersson – 30

Evgeni Malkin – 30

Alex Ovechkin – 29

Sidney Crosby – 28

Connor McDavid – 28

Patrick Kane – 27

Patrik Laine – 21

Johnny Gaudreau – 20

Auston Matthews – 20

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Adjust for scoring era and this changes but worth noting. Some other comparables in their first 26 games: Yashin – 34 pts Selanne – 34 pts Lindros – 34 pts Sakic – 33 pts Makarov – 32 pts. All but the first guy are in the HHOF. Pettersson is tied with Malkin for 6th.— Stephen Burtch (@SteveBurtch) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveBurtch/status/1072623138553368576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

Since we're talking about Pettersson (when am I not?), the 20-year-old rookie posted a goal and an assist in Tuesday's 3-2 win over Columbus. His 32 points in 27 games vaults into the top-30 for skaters league-wide. His 1.19 points-per-game represent the 18th best mark.

As amazing as that is, the thing that really stands out is that 1.19 points-per-game is only good for 18th in the league! We are living in a high-scoring and enjoyable time. Perhaps the 22 skaters that played at or above a point-per-game last year wasn't an aberration after all. The goalie pads are slimmer, and the red lights are warmer.

Good times.

The Wild laid the boots to Canadiens 7-1 on home ice on Tuesday. Matt Dumba scored two goals, while Zach Parise added a goal and two helpers.

Dumba has been good again this season. The 24-year-old has 12 goals and 21 points in 30 games this year. His 12 markers lead all blueliners and he's on pace for another career year. That would be five seasons in a row where the former WHL stud improved on his goal and point total.

Jeff Petry may not be working the top power-play unit in Montreal now that Shea Weber is healthy, but that hasn't slowed him down yet. The veteran defender has five points in the five games since Weber rejoined the team.

His five-on-five shooting percentage is a bit high, but the rest of his metrics remain solid. Better not drop him yet.

Let's talk about Timo Meier for a moment. The 22-year-old is tied for 10th in the NHL with 26 even-strength points. His 3.6 P/60 is 17th most – tied with Crosby, Wheeler, Eichel, Pasta, and Malkin.

He's putting 3.31 shots on goal per night and is on pace for 44 goals and 82 points in 79 games.

PLUS! his name is really fun to say.

Teeeee-moe!

People need to be waking up on this kid. He’s a play-driver and he’s driving the bus in San Jose as a third-year player. We keep waiting for his numbers to slag, but there have been no signs of slowing down yet.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Hockey_Robinson

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-ovechkin-clicking-at-career-rate-rantanen-on-another-planet-meier-johnsson-dec-12/

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megadarkbouquettidalwavethings · 7 years ago

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Dominant Federer into Australian Open final after Chung quits

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – A ruthless Roger Federer handed wounded Chung Hyeon an old-fashioned schooling before the South Korean quit with blistered feet trailing 6-1 5-2 in a damp squib of an Australian Open semi-final on Friday.

Federer was detained for only 62 minutes under the Rod Laver Arena roof as he set up a final against Croatia’s Marin Cilic who pummeled another young gun, Kyle Edmund, on Thursday.

The 36-year-old defending champion swarmed all over the world number 58 from the first game, breaking immediately before repeating the feat twice more to grab the opening set in 33 minutes.

When Chung held serve for 1-1 in the second set, a huge cheer erupted from an Australia Day crowd who had hoped to witness a classic battle of the generations.

But the bespectacled 21-year-old, nicknamed ‘the professor’, simply had no answer to Federer’s firepower.

Federer broke for 3-1 with a dipping backhand pass and when Chung needed treatment on his foot blisters after losing the next game, his hopes of becoming the first South Korean to reach a grand slam final looked completely hopeless.

Tennis – Australian Open – Semifinals – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia, January 26, 2018. South Korea’s Chung Hyeon shakes hands with Switzerland’s Roger Federer after Chung Hyeon retired from the match due to injury. REUTERS/Edgar Su

Chung managed to win one more game but his movement was clearly affected and he threw in the towel, departing the arena to sympathetic applause with a smattering of boos.

It was a desperately disappointing end to the first meeting between 19-times grand slam champion Federer and the man whose stunning fourth-round victory over six-times Melbourne champion Novak Djokovic made the world sit up and take notice.

“I thought the first set was kind of normal, I couldn’t tell what was going on with my opponent,” Federer, who looked as stunned as the crowd at the sudden stoppage, said on court.

”In the second set, I could feel he was getting a bit slower, fighting with the blister. It hurts a lot.

“It’s better to stop, that’s why this one feels bittersweet. Credit to him for trying so hard again today.”

Federer, who has reached the final of a grand slam without dropping a set for the sixth time, will be a big favorite to claim his 20th major title on Sunday.

He beat the big-serving sixth seed in last year’s Wimbledon final when Cilic also suffered painful blisters to his feet.

Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by John O’Brien

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The post Dominant Federer into Australian Open final after Chung quits appeared first on dailygate.

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flauntpage · 7 years ago

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Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux

Tomorrow night Madison Square Garden will play host to a fight between two of the greatest boxers of the modern era. Between them they boast four Olympic gold medals, numerous world titles, and an armada of forum threads arguing over which man is the greatest pound-for-pound boxer today. Since the moment it was announced, this meeting between Guillermo Rigondeaux and Vasyl Lomachenko has been the must-see event of the fight fan’s winter season.

While it is technically true that this fight is taking place at Madison Square Garden, it is more accurately going to happen in The Theatre at Madison Square Garden—a considerably smaller venue. It is also being broadcast for free on ESPN rather than on pay-per-view—which would seem bizarre to those who know the quality of the fighters involved. Both of these decisions reflect the nature of the fight: it is one between the darlings of the hardcore fans and press, but it remains to be seen how much interest it can attract from outsiders. That might seem to be rubbing salt into the wounds in the year of "The Money Fight," but one cannot tell Guillermo Rigondeaux’s story without touching on his promotional woes and his status as perhaps the most under-appreciated fighter in combat sports today.

The Invisible Champion

After winning a pair of Olympic gold medals, Rigondeaux defected from his native Cuba and went professional in 2009. Winning the WBA-NABA super bantamweight title in just his third fight, Rigo was picked up by Top Rank and the future seemed bright. In 2013 Top Rank was able to work him into a career making match up with super-bantamweight star, Nonito Donaire. It was the most exciting knockout artist in the lower weightclasses versus a slick ring tactician—what could possibly go wrong? Well, Rigondeaux won convincingly by being the defensive savant he was billed as. Many fans hated it, some of the press weren’t enamored, and even Bob Arum—owner of Top Rank and Rigondeaux’s own promoter—was struggling to work out what he was going to do with Rigo. Arum mused:

“If Rigondeaux would stand and fight, [he] has a lot of power and a lot of skills, but running the way he does really makes it not a watchable fight.” Arum then foreshadowed Rigondeaux’s coming promotional woes by remarking: “I don't know what I'm gonna do […] I have to look for someone to fight him. He's one of the best defensive fighters I've ever seen, but it's not a very pleasing style. He's a very good fighter, but it's not pleasing, so we will have to see.”

Two fights later Top Rank and Rigondeaux had gone their separate ways. Since beating Donaire for the WBA and lineal super bantamweight titles in April 2013, Rigondeaux has fought infrequently and to the applause of only those who work to seek him out. When he met Jazza Dickens, in his sole fight of 2016 at an ice rink in Wales with a capacity crowd of 3,000 people, it became abundantly clear that Rigondeaux is the worst promoted elite talent in boxing. It didn’t help that many of Rigondeaux’s more exciting fights ended under bizarre circumstances. An accidental headbutt turned into a Mayweather-esque glove touch to knockout punch against Sod Kokietgym. After a tentative two rounds against Jazza Dickens, the fight was called off unspectacularly on the stool between rounds as Dickens’s jaw was broken. And in Rigo’s most recent victory (now a No Contest), he hit Moises Flores after the bell in the first round and Flores paused for a moment’s consideration, before dropping to the mat and seeking the disqualification. It seemed as though even Rigo’s knockouts couldn’t please a crowd.

Complaining that fans just don’t appreciate Rigondeaux’s style is old hat. A sportswriter is required to either call him a boring fighter who lacks killer instinct, or provide an impassioned rant insisting that anyone who doesn’t enjoy his fights clearly cannot know shit about boxing. The truth is, of course, that you can appreciate his genius and still wish he cared more about entertaining the crowds who could make him exceptionally wealthy if he were something more like Donaire.

For the fan trying to come to terms with what makes Rigondeaux so good: it is largely his sense of distance and his excellent left hand which seems to just go to openings without an effort from Rigondeaux himself. You will notice that it is very hard for fighters to effectively attack in combination against Rigondeaux because of his constant expanding of range when they attack, and stepping out the side door as soon as they get close. It is bread-and-butter boxing done very, very well.

There are a couple of stranger quirks to Rigo’s game that come out from fight to fight. The first is his cross step. Cutting the lead foot across the rear one and then stepping deep to that side to change angle—a useful means of escape and of getting off to the open side to line up a left straight. It involves the fighter sacrificing balance and the ability to hit for a moment so you won’t see it much. Were the "pivot blow," as Bob Fitzsimmons called it, still legal you would see it more.

Former Bellator light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton used the cross step to set up spinning backhands in MMA.

When he’s feeling flashy, Rigondeaux will also begin slowly shadow boxing in front of his opponent, then change up the tempo to hammer them with a real punch. This is similar to the concept of milling the hands before launching into a jab—the hands are already in motion and simply change speed when the fighter wants to strike, rather than performing a cold start.

Angles for Days

Vasyl Lomachenko also owns two Olympic gold medals, making them rather blasé in this bout. Debuting as a professional six months after Rigondeaux defeated Donaire, Lomachenko has run his record to 9-1. Winning the WBO featherweight title in his third fight, Lomachenko stole the show on the undercard of Mayweather-Pacquiao as he boxed the ears of Gamalier Rodriguez. Lomachenko actually fought for the WBO title in just his second professional fight in attempt to do one better than Rigondeaux, but was roughed up by Orlando Salido in a performance which has been widely criticized as "dirty," or praised as "savvy." Salido introduced Lomachenko to the less than sporting world of the pro game, landing perfect right hooks and uppercuts to Lomachenko’s cup whenever Lomachenko’s back was obscuring the view of the referee.

Since that Salido fight, Lomachenko has been flawless. A sharp jab and southpaw left straight are good weapons on the outside, but Lomachenko does his best work cutting angles and letting his hands go in mid-range. "Angles" is the most overused term in combat sports, but Lomachenko’s are as vibrant and in your face as they can get. Stepping outside of his opponent’s lead foot he will pivot around them—often accompanied by a slapping right hook—and hammer them as they turn. The left uppercut to the solar plexus or under the jaw is his best blow in this situation and it works a treat. The opponent turns with his hands high to avoid being blindsided, and eats a blow straight up the center of his guard as he does so. Often that same right hook will follow and in many of his fights Lomachenko will continue his step, turn, fire sequence two or even three times in a row against a panicked opponent.

Another nice aspect of Lomachenko’s game is his control of the opponent’s head. Wrestling within boxing has always been an under-appreciated facet of the game but you only need to watch Floyd Mayweather’s bouts to realize that grabbing a hold of the opponent or leaning on them can hinder a fighter’s offense far more easily than attempting to block or slip each shot. Where Mayweather loves to lean on the back of his opponent’s head and then nail them if they slip out towards his armpit, Lomachenko will intentionally pass his opponent under his armpit at any time they duck down. Offensively, it can be used to line up punches as the opponent stands up. Defensively it allows Lomachenko to break away from his opponent and reset a few steps away.

The Match Up

Both Rigondeaux and Lomachenko are southpaws who enjoy surprising the many orthodox fighters they meet with unusual open guard looks: Rigo with his cross steps, Lomachenko with his pivots past the front foot. But both also hold vast wells of amateur experienced that they can draw on and are hardly going to be stumped for ideas when meeting another southpaw. Rigondeaux is three inches shorter, though he has a couple of inches in reach—ultimately meaning that neither man has a distinct natural advantage of range. What is interesting is that the bout is being contested at junior lightweight (or super featherweight, for the pessimists) which has a cut off of 130 lbs. Lomachenko has been competing at junior lightweight since last year, but Rigondeaux is coming up from super bantamweight (122lbs) where he is the champion. Rigondeaux looked undersized in some of his bouts in his home division—such as when he was dwarfed by Hisashi Amagasa, but has apparently been packing on some muscle for this contest.

For Rigondeaux it seems likely that the strategy will be the same as it has been in almost all of his fights: limit the exchanges, maintain the range, and only close to land his one or two good shots before returning to range. A slower paced fight is more in Rigondeaux’s wheelhouse—though as he is a gifted counter puncher it is of course the threat of his blows which settles his opponents into a slower pace, rather than no one having thought to put the pace on him. If there is one thing that Lomachenko does well, it’s drive a high pace but as a result he rarely escapes his fights unmarked as Rigondeaux does.

The southpaw versus southpaw match up will give both men a lot more opportunity to play with their jab. In an open guard engagement work must be done to either move the lead hand or shoot inside or outside of it. The angles match up better for jabbing when both men are in the same stance. Conversely this makes it a little harder to land clean rear straights as the shoulder and back can be placed in the way where before the fighter was shooting into the open side. As Rigondeaux scores many of his points by pot-shotting with the left hand, it will be interesting to see what adjustments he makes against Lomachenko—whether he can force the left hand leads just as well or if he falls back more on the jab.

Lomachenko might look to score with his jab on the outside, he does so decently against orthodox fighters, but his best blows always come after he has stepped into range and out of the side door. While going past the lead foot against orthodox fighters is his most common and colorful angle change, he has shown that he is happy to go both ways regardless of stance. In the few moments in his fights that Rigo gets nasty, he will often hold a collar tie with the right hand and blast in left uppercuts before breaking off with an overhand. Any time the two get close enough to exchange, it might well be worth Rigondeaux looking to grab the collar tie both to frustrate Lomachenko with rough-house tactics, but also to prevent him from stepping around to the side. That constant side-stepping is what forces Lomachenko’s opponents to play catch up in exchanges rather than work their own offense.

Continuing on that theme, Rigondeaux is hard to hit with a handful of rice but a couple of the occasions where he has been hit clean show a theme. Both Amagasa and Dickens were able to hammer Rigondeaux as he was standing up out of a crouch, and Dickens as he believed he was entering a clinch.

Going to Rigondeaux with feints and double jabs, encouraging the slip and then leaning on him might be a smart move for Lomachenko. Releasing Rigondeaux and looking for the lead hook as he comes up, or using the rear uppercut to stand him up for the lead hook as he comes up, might provide some chances to crack the Cuban with a good punch. Either way, against an evasive opponent who leans deep, the double jab can be a life saver—keeping the advancing fighter relatively safe and uncommitted while drawing the intention out of the defensive fighter without the need for a power punch.

Ultimately, each man’s ideal fight is the polar opposite of his opponent’s. If Lomachenko can drive the pace up and actually work some combinations and his brilliant bodywork, he stands a good chance of making the smaller, 37-year-old veteran tire. If Rigondeaux’s footwork and counter punches—along with the odd clinch entry to smother Lomachenko mid flurry—can prevent Lomachenko from working a pace effectively, Rigondeaux stands a great chance of outpointing Lomachenko. The chances are that Lomachenko’s perfect fight results in a more fan-friendly experience but if you have made it this far, the chances are you’re here for the sweet science and not so much the blood.

Whatever happens Saturday night, the winner will probably be touted as the pound-for-pound best fighter alive for the coming years. Get back here on Monday and we’ll discuss how the fight went and all the fallout.

Pick up Jack’s book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor and follow him on Twitter @JackSlackMMA.

Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 7 years ago

Text

Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux

While it is technically true that this fight is taking place at Madison Square Garden, it is more accurately going to happen in The Theatre at Madison Square Garden—a considerably smaller venue. It is also being broadcast for free on ESPN rather than on pay-per-view—which would seem bizarre to those who know the quality of the fighters involved. Both of these decisions reflect the nature of the fight: it is one between the darlings of the hardcore fans and press, but it remains to be seen how much interest it can attract from outsiders. That might seem to be rubbing salt into the wounds in the year of “The Money Fight,” but one cannot tell Guillermo Rigondeaux’s story without touching on his promotional woes and his status as perhaps the most under-appreciated fighter in combat sports today.

The Invisible Champion

“If Rigondeaux would stand and fight, [he] has a lot of power and a lot of skills, but running the way he does really makes it not a watchable fight.” Arum then foreshadowed Rigondeaux’s coming promotional woes by remarking: “I don’t know what I’m gonna do […] I have to look for someone to fight him. He’s one of the best defensive fighters I’ve ever seen, but it’s not a very pleasing style. He’s a very good fighter, but it’s not pleasing, so we will have to see.”

There are a couple of stranger quirks to Rigo’s game that come out from fight to fight. The first is his cross step. Cutting the lead foot across the rear one and then stepping deep to that side to change angle—a useful means of escape and of getting off to the open side to line up a left straight. It involves the fighter sacrificing balance and the ability to hit for a moment so you won’t see it much. Were the “pivot blow,” as Bob Fitzsimmons called it, still legal you would see it more.

Former Bellator light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton used the cross step to set up spinning backhands in MMA.

Angles for Days

Vasyl Lomachenko also owns two Olympic gold medals, making them rather blasé in this bout. Debuting as a professional six months after Rigondeaux defeated Donaire, Lomachenko has run his record to 9-1. Winning the WBO featherweight title in his third fight, Lomachenko stole the show on the undercard of Mayweather-Pacquiao as he boxed the ears of Gamalier Rodriguez. Lomachenko actually fought for the WBO title in just his second professional fight in attempt to do one better than Rigondeaux, but was roughed up by Orlando Salido in a performance which has been widely criticized as “dirty,” or praised as “savvy.” Salido introduced Lomachenko to the less than sporting world of the pro game, landing perfect right hooks and uppercuts to Lomachenko’s cup whenever Lomachenko’s back was obscuring the view of the referee.

Since that Salido fight, Lomachenko has been flawless. A sharp jab and southpaw left straight are good weapons on the outside, but Lomachenko does his best work cutting angles and letting his hands go in mid-range. “Angles” is the most overused term in combat sports, but Lomachenko’s are as vibrant and in your face as they can get. Stepping outside of his opponent’s lead foot he will pivot around them—often accompanied by a slapping right hook—and hammer them as they turn. The left uppercut to the solar plexus or under the jaw is his best blow in this situation and it works a treat. The opponent turns with his hands high to avoid being blindsided, and eats a blow straight up the center of his guard as he does so. Often that same right hook will follow and in many of his fights Lomachenko will continue his step, turn, fire sequence two or even three times in a row against a panicked opponent.

The Match Up

Pick up Jack’s book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor and follow him on Twitter @JackSlackMMA.

Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

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movietvtechgeeks · 7 years ago

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Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/novak-djokovic-stumbles-loses-dominic-thiem-2017-french-open/

Novak Djokovic stumbles, loses to Dominic Thiem at 2017 French Open

Dominic Thiem can take pride in sensationally beating defending champion Novak Djokovic at the 2017 French Open on Wednesday. He'd better rest up as Thiem takes on Rafael Nadal, who has found his inner Rafa again. His French Open title defense nearing an end, Novak Djokovic stumbled and tumbled to his knees on the red clay, his racket flying from his right hand as his opponent's backhand zipped past. [pdf-embedder url="https://movietvtechgeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-french-open-mens-singles-semi-finals-draw.pdf" title="2017 french open mens singles semi finals draw"] Even Djokovic found it hard to fathom how far he's fallen, only a year removed from leaving Roland Garros as a player nonpareil, the first man in nearly a half-century to win four consecutive Grand Slam titles. That he departed this time with a surprisingly lopsided 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-0 quarterfinal loss to sixth-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria on Wednesday left everyone, including Djokovic, pondering the answers to difficult questions. Did he give up in the last set? What has happened to his once-impervious play? Can he summon that again? Does he need a break from the grind of the tour? "It's a fact that I'm not playing close to my best, and I know that," Djokovic said after his first straight-set loss at a major since the 2013 Wimbledon final. "For me, it's a whole new situation that I'm facing." Since completing his career Grand Slam at the French Open 12 months ago, Djokovic has participated in four majors in a row without earning a trophy. He also lost his No. 1 ranking to Andy Murray. Djokovic was runner-up at the U.S. Open but lost in the third round at Wimbledon, the first round at the Rio Olympics and the second round at the Australian Open. "The win here last year has brought a lot of different emotions. Obviously, it was a thrill and complete fulfillment, I guess," Djokovic said during an expansive and frank news conference. "I have lived on that wave of excitement, I guess, 'til the U.S. Open or so. And at the U.S. Open, I just was emotionally very flat and found myself in a situation that I hadn't faced before in (my) professional tennis career." The 23-year-old Thiem next faces nine-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal, who advanced when No. 20 Pablo Carreno Busta stopped while trailing 6-2, 2-0 after injuring an abdominal muscle late in the first set. "I mean, it's a joke how tough it is to win a Slam," said Thiem, the only player who beat Nadal in one of his 23 clay-court matches this season. "Now I beat Novak. On Friday, (it's) Nadal. In the finals, there is another top star." In the other semifinal, 2016 runner-up Murray will face 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka in a matchup of three-time major title winners. Murray eliminated No. 8 Kei Nishikori 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (0), 6-1 on Wednesday, while No. 3 Wawrinka won 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 against No. 7 Marin Cilic. Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova reached the women's semifinals. Halep came all the way back from a set and 5-1 down in the second to defeat Elina Svitolina 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-0. Pliskova beat Caroline Garcia 7-6 (3), 6-4. With the wind whipping at more than 15 mph (25 kph), and the temperature in the low 50s (low teens Celsius), Djokovic was out of sorts in so many ways even before that 20-minute third set in which he won only 8 of 34 points. It's only the second time Djokovic lost a final set by the score of 6-0 in his 937 career tour-level matches. "It's hard to comment (on) the third set. Obviously, nothing was going my way and everything his way," Djokovic said. "Just pretty bad set." But both men thought the match was decided in the first set, when Djokovic held two set points at 5-4, 15-40 on Thiem's serve. Thiem erased the first with a forehand volley and the other with a service winner that prompted Djokovic to roll his eyes. Djokovic's backhand really let him down in the tiebreaker: All seven points won by Thiem ended with that stroke. In all, Djokovic made nearly twice as many unforced errors, 35, as winners, 18. "More or less, all the parts of my game are kind of going up and down. I'm feeling like I'm missing consistency," Djokovic said. "I play a great match or two in a row, and then I play a completely opposite match. That's what happened today." Still, how unlikely was this result? Djokovic had won all five previous matches - and 11 of 12 sets - against Thiem, including in the French Open semifinals a year ago. Plus, Djokovic had appeared in a record six consecutive semifinals in Paris. Now he is at a crossroads of sorts. He just turned 30. He split from coaches Boris Becker and Marian Vajda and other members of his team, bringing aboard Andre Agassi for Week 1 of the French Open. On Wednesday, he wouldn't rule out some time off. "It's obviously tough to get out of it and figure out the way how to move ahead. At least I'm trying," Djokovic said. "I know that I have achieved the biggest heights in this sport, and that memory and that experience gives me enough reason to believe that I can do it again."

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

#Dominic Thiem #Featured #French Open #Novak Djokovic #Rafael Nadal

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the-telegraph-sport-yahoopa-blog · 8 years ago

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Roger Federer defeats Rafael Nadal in five-set epic to win Australian Open final

Federer wins 18th slam after five-set battle

He led 1-0 and then 2-1 but was pegged back twice

Rafa broke first in final set and fans feared the worse

"Tennis is a tough sport and we don't have draws but if I could have shared it today with Rafa I would have taken a draw"

Greatest men's player of all time cries after 18th title

The Flashback Slam got the finish it deserved. Deep in the fifth set, Roger Federer’s 18th Slam title hung on a Hawk-Eye challenge. It felt like the whole of Melbourne was praying for the computer to rule in Federer’s favour, and when the image came up – showing his forehand landing smack on the line – the roars startled the seagulls out of the rafters.

Federer was equally carried away by this unexpected 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 triumph – the late-career Slam he has been seeking since his last Wimbledon title in 2012. Normally so poised and commanding, he looked shocked when the victory was confirmed, and even slightly goofy. A schoolboy again, waving to his family in the stands. Then he fell to one knee, and the tears broke through. We haven’t seen him weep like that since he lost to Rafael Nadal here in the 2009 final.

Federer v Nadal final pics

In 2017, Federer was crying tears of joy. He had arrived in Melbourne with the vague ambition of reaching the fourth round, or maybe the quarter-final. No pundit picked him for a title, after the six months he took away from the game last year, but from the moment he beat Tomas Berdych on the first Friday, the Fed Express began to roll.

Admittedly, the departure of the two top seeds – Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic – helped to open up the draw, but Federer’s path was a challenging one nevertheless. Sunday’s final was his third five-setter of the fortnight – a heavy schedule for any player, let alone a 35-year-old with a dodgy adductor muscle. Especially when it ended in a 3hr 37min showdown with Nadal, the man who had stymied him so many times in the past.

Legend: Switzerland's Roger Federer celebrates his victory against Spain's Rafael Nadal Credit: Getty Images

Federer was up against history, precedent and a five-year age gap. But he had one thing on his side – that wizard’s wand of a racket, which delivers strokes no-one else can play. Throughout Sunday’s final, Federer was on the front foot, beating a regular path to the net.

In football terms, this was the sort of match where one team is constantly bearing down on goal, while the other floods their own penalty area, hoping to tough out the 90 minutes and steal a winner on the break. Nadal began in subdued fashion, receiving serve from many metres behind the baseline and trying to soak up Federer’s blitzkrieg rather than launching regular attacks of his own.

The most decorated players in Open-era tennis

The problem for Nadal was that this year’s faster courts favoured risk-takers, and Federer was gambling on almost every ball. Nadal was showing the after-effects of the 4hr 56min semi-final against Grigor Dimitrov, which finished late on Friday. “That was a long battle, both mentally and physically” said Nadal’s coaching assistant, Carlos Moya. “I think he didn’t recover as well as we needed.” Nadal added that he had been missing “a little bit of speed today compared to the last day in my legs probably”.

How, then, did Roger and Rafa find themselves in such a hard-fought scrap? It should not have been that close, given Federer’s overall superiority. But when you play on the edge of human capabilities, as he did on Sunday, there will be periods when the ball rejects your commands.

Credit: AP

One such spell came early in the second set, when he somehow lost four successive games in a rush of shanked groundstrokes and botched volleys. Another arrived at the start of the fourth set, when a single wild forehand seemed to sabotage his timing for the 10 minutes it took Nadal to move 4-1 ahead.

Nadal was holding firm, like a poker player with a weak hand but a strong nerve. Then, when we moved into the decider, he found a burst of adrenaline. The old pulverising forehand finally came to the party, helping him break in the opening game and move out to a 3-1 lead.

Respect: Rafs congratulates Roger Credit: AP

At that moment, the energy of the crowd – who delivered a series of standing ovations – seemed to lift Federer. He broke back in the fifth game, then started to motor with the help of the rally of the match – a 26-shot exchange that ended with a classic Federer forehand up the line. As with so many shots we saw on Sunday, he made contact with that one only a few inches after the bounce.

“I told myself to play free,” he said afterwards. “That’s what we discussed with Ivan [Ljubicic] and Severin [Luthi] before the match. You play the ball, you don’t play the opponent. Be free in your head, be free in your shots, go for it. The brave will be rewarded here. I didn’t want to go down seeing forehands rain down on me from Rafa.”

Stretched to the limit: and eventually even the iron man from Menorca broke Credit: Getty

Yet there was disquiet among some observers, notably Pat Cash in the BBC radio commentary box, about a medical time-out called by Federer just before the fourth set. “Legal cheating,” was Cash’s description. It was only the ninth time Federer had requested a medical time-out in his 1,332 matches on the tour. But two of those incidents have now come back-to-back, after he did exactly the same thing in his semi-final against Stan Wawrinka. “No opinion about that,” said Nadal on Sunday night. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

Roger hugs his wife Credit: Eurosport

Federer tried to clarify the situation. “My leg has been hurting me since the [Noah] Rubin match [in the second round],” he said. “Today I felt my quad midway through the second set already, and the groin started to hurt midway through the third set. I just told myself, ‘The rules are there so that you can use them.’ I think we shouldn’t be abusing the system but I’ve led the way for 20 years. So I don’t know what he [Cash] is talking about.”

Credit: Eurosport

12:38PM

Roger Federer quotes

Thank you Rafa. He said so many lovely things.

I don't think that we could have thought when we were at his academy that we would be here in a final.

Tennis is a tough sport and we don't have draws but if I could have shared it today with Rafa I would have taken a draw.

I work hard but then so do lots of other people, there are some legends in this game.

I have had a difficult last six months and I did not know if I was going to make it here so thank you guys. Thank you.

Keep playing Rafa, please. Tennis needs you. Thank you for everything you do.

Thanks to the fans for making us fight harder, to keep trying one more time. You guys make it special. I have been coming for almost 20 years and I have always enjoyed it and now my family does top. Thanks.

Hope to see you next year. I cannot be more happy.

"tennis doesn't have draws, but if it did, I'd have been happy sharing this trophy with Rafa." Federer is truly great, grand and gracious.

— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) January 29, 2017

12:35PM

Here comes Roger Federer

Gets the trophy from Rod Laver and they hug. What a lovely moment.

Credit: Eurosport

12:31PM

Rafael gets his trophy

Congratulations to Roger and all his team. Amazing how well he is playing after such a long time on the tour. I am very happy for him.

And a great month for me, I spent a whole month in Australia and had a great time. Great country, fantastic people. Everywhere I have played the atmosphere and sport has been incredible.

Some injuries, not new that for me [laughs], I worked very hard. Great match. He had a bit more than me. I am just going to keep trying, but I feel I am back at a very high level. I will keep fighting.

This is a beautiful trophy (gestures to his runners up plate) but not as nice as that one!

Many thanks to all the sports fans. See you next year. Thanks to everyone.

Rafa Nadal Credit: Eurosport

12:27PM

Hopefully we will get to the bit we actually wanted to see

Rod Laver will present the trophies. Rafa, of course, first.

Shhhhhhhh!!! It's Roger Federer

— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) January 29, 2017

12:26PM

They let some suit from GM Motors do a speech

General Motors. NOT GENERAL TENNIS THOUGH IS IT.

Oh and now a Tennis Australia wonk to say thanks to Emirates airlines and Jacob's Creek Lady Petrol. What a buzzkill. NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOU COBBERS

Blah blah sponsors blah

12:23PM

Who will present?

Yep, it is that man. Rod Laver. An idol of Roger's. This will mean a great deal.

Rod Laver Credit: Eurosport

12:18PM

Roger Federer defeats Rafael Nadal three sets to two

6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4

Fantastic. Reaction follows.

Tears of a champ Credit: Eurosport

12:13PM

game in running

But this is a fantastic return from Nadal. No answer to it. 0-15.

A very long rally next point, Fed gambles on a backhand. Unfurls it.... long! 0-30

Roger with a much-needed ace. 15-30

Magnificent return from Nadal, putting Roger under huge pressure, high ball.... Nadal very, very close to the net as he volleys the winner. 15-40. Oh Roger. He has seen this movie before.

Ace from Federer. 30-40.

But now he needs the second serve. I fear the worse for Roger in these longer rallies. But he gambles on a forehand, close to his body, shoulder high, wonderful technique to get up and over that. Winner! 40-40

Unreturnable serve A-40

Roger has match point

Serves. Called out. Roger challenges. Successfully. Gets his first serve back. This first serve out too. Challenges. Unsuccessfully. Loses the point. 40-40

Bangs down a mighty serve. A-40

Roger has second match point

Serves. Nadal returns. into the centre of the court. Roger has time. He picks his spot. Hits very close to the line. in? out? They need Hawk Eye. Would you believe it?

THE BALL IS GOOD! ROGER FEDERER WINS THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN

12:09PM

Roger Federer serves for the match

with new balls

12:09PM

Nadal 3 Federer* 5 (*denotes next server) two sets each

Now then! Is this the moment? Nadal, serving. It's 0-30. What can the great Swiss produce? What can the great Spaniard do? Well, not this. He's hit a double fault! Oh Rafa. He has drained the ball into the net, first signs of tiredness or pressure?

0-40. Three break points. Brutal power from Rafa on the serve, sends Roger out wide, RN hammers home the winner.

Sheer cojones from Rafa to keep producing his best work. It's 30-40. Two break points saved.

But chances now? A second serve. And not a great one. But Roger has mis-hit it. Out. Third break point saved.

It's deuce. Rafa misses with the first serve down the tee. And now we have the rally of the match. Fantastic tennis, and emblematic of these two great players throughout their careers. Rafa thumping out forehand after forehand, brutal and relentless, like a man chopping wood. Roger with his backhand, precision and footwork. He moves Rafa around, he opens an opportunity. He produces the scalpel down the line and it's his point. Another BP.

Nadal with a serve of focused rage. Deuce.

Roger wins the next point too, though. Fist pump. The players trading blows.

Nadal goes for the serve out wide. it is a good serve, but a brilliant return. Roger gets a great angle back across the court, Rafa gets to it, but drills his drie into the net post. Game Federer. A break

11:59AM

Nadal* 3 Federer 4 (*denotes next server) two sets each

Oh, what Roger Federer would give for a cheap hold now. And he gets one! Wins the service game to love, sealing the deal with an ace. Yaaas Roger!

The warrior: Nadal trailed in sets twice Credit: EPA

11:57AM

Nadal 3 Federer* 3 (*denotes next server) two sets each

The longest rally of the match (only 18 shots, which tells you the aggressive tempo Fed has played, almost trying to make this an indoor game) comes to an end as Roger creams a backhand winner. Wins the next point as well. 0-30. What has Nadal got? Well, a net cord, for starters. Second service. But heavy work from Nadal wins that point. Wide serve, close to unreturnable, simple kill. 30-30. But now Nadal hits long! Does he? Hawk Eye review. Yep long. That is 30-40.

Is this it for Roger? The crowd roar him on. Big moment. 4/13 BPs for him. 4/15 for Rafa....

Make that 4/14. Nadal gave him no chance with the serve. 40-40. Should/would have wrapped this up but got a net cord.

Second deuce. GLORIOUS crosscourt backhand from Roger Federer, he unloaded on that and it was far from a sitter.

That's A-40 and gives Federer his sixth break point.....

Nadal has hit a groundstroke wide! Federer breaks back

11:50AM

Nadal* 3 Federer 2 (*denotes next server) two sets each

Nadal races to the net, dinks a volley down the line. But that's about as good as it gets for him, Federer wraps this game up without too much alarm.

He has created chances on the Nadal serve but has not been able to convert.

Nadal not missing in important moments. #storyofthematch#storyoftherivalry#storyofhiscareer

— Svenja Mastroberardi (@svenja_mastro) January 29, 2017

11:45AM

Nadal 3 Federer* 1 (*denotes next server) two sets each

Fed needs the break sooner rather than later. and at 30-15, he plays a couple of big. expressive, expansive shots. Lovely crosscourt winner! It's 30-30. Nadal looks physically pained.

Another vintage Fed backhand lands. It's a break point for Roger, 40-A.

But the Spaniard lays down a brutal forehand across the court, raising his aggression levels when the situation demanded it. Fed now hits too long and Nadal has a golden chance to get out of this tricky service game.

That unpleasant body serve does the trick once again. Game Rafa.

11:37AM

Nadal* 2 Federer 1 (*denotes next server) two sets each

A tight line review goes Roger's way, and now he produces the archetypal serve-volley point. Serve out wide, in to the net, picks the ball up off his toes for the volley winner. A love-hold for Fed keeps him in touch.

One more time? Roger Federer stretches for a shot in his Aus Open Final against Nadal Credit: Reuters

11:35AM

Nadal 2 Federer* 0 (*denotes next server) two sets each

Roger with some of the old flourish here as he slots a backhand down the line and another one whipped across court. The crowd erupts. Federer suddenly back at the races, it's 15-40 and Nadal has two break points to deal with.

Huge moment, perhaps, as Fed scampers to a half-court ball and, surprisingly, lashes the ball backhand into the net. Strongly fancied him to bury that. That's 30-40, then a mis-hit return from Roger off the body serve. Nadal threads the needle to hit the winner down the line and it is back to deuce.

A net cord does Roger a huge solid! It dribbles over onto Rafa's side and dies on the spot. 40-A.

But Nadal redoubles his efforts and holds.

11:29AM

one thing at a time

"Rafa wins, it's 15-17, literally game on for most slams ever. If Roger wins, it's 18-14. I don't know if that gets made up" -- Andy Roddick pic.twitter.com/V4eCYAxHbF

— Michael Beattie (@michaeljbeattie) January 29, 2017

11:27AM

Nadal* 1 Federer 0 (*denotes next server) two sets each

Mats Wilander thinks that Nadal is emboldened by the Fed time out. "Obviously Roger had to take it, but it sends a signal to your opponent." Sure enough, Nadal puts big pressure on the Federer serve and soon has him on the ropes at 15-40. Roger plays a big point to take it 30-40 but then hits a forehand well wide, Federer looking a little subdued in that game. Rafael Nadal breaks serve

11:25AM

The great man re-emerges

It's a one-set shootout and it is Federer to serve.

11:21AM

Roger has gone off court for a medical time out

Rafael sits.

Pat Cash re: Roger Federer's timeout on BBC: “It’s cheating and it’s being allowed. It’s legal cheating but it’s still not right.”

— James Willoughby (@jwilloughby26) January 29, 2017

11:16AM

Nadal wins the fourth set 6-3

No chance for Roger in that. Clinical, powerful, no nonsense.

As many hoped and many were expecting, we will go to a fifth set

11:14AM

Nadal* 5 Federer 3 (*denotes next server). Roger leads 2-1

Worrying sign Roger here at 30-30, Nadal dishes up a rare soft one, Federer puts a simple winner well wide. He's made, I think, 47 unforced errors against Nadal's 19. 50 winners to 22 also paint a clear picture of who is playing the more expansive game.

Anyway, he holds his serve but Nadal will serve with new balls for the set.

11:10AM

Nadal 5 Federer* 2 (*denotes next server). Roger leads 2-1

Nadal puts his foot down, thumping serves, no real chances for Rog in this set and it's soon game to love.

11:08AM

Nadal* 4 Federer 2 (*denotes next server). Roger leads 2-1

Federer in trouble in this set, serving at 1-4 down. This seems to somehow free him up. Two aces. Flashes of imperiousness there. And of looseness as well, a dismal overhead. 30-40 down. Federer operating in a wider band now between excellence and some sloppy stuff. Two more aces get him out of trouble. Strange game.

11:03AM

Nadal 4 Federer* 1 (*denotes next server). Roger leads 2-1

Man alive what a shot that was from Rafael Nadal! Unbelievable. Roger plays what he surely thought was a winner, forehand that goes into the corner and onwards. From way wide out on the court, Nadal somehow produces a low cross court passing shot on the forehand. Game.

Credit: Eurosport

Federer applauds on his racket.

Credit: Eurosport

10:54AM

Nadal* 3 Federer 1 (*denotes next server). Roger leads 2-1

But this game is the upsetter! Roger suddenly drops his level, concentration perhaps, a couple of loose shots. Nadal pounces. Two loose forehands, a backhand volley in to the net and before you know it, the never-give-up Spanish hero has cracked this set wide open.

All right, can't resist. Federer has never been up two sets to one on Nadal and lost.

— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) January 29, 2017

Zip it, Chris.

10:52AM

Nadal 2 Federer* 1 (*denotes next server). Roger leads 2-1

And that pattern continues here in the third,

10:49AM

Nadal* 1 Federer 1 (*denotes next server). Roger leads 2-1

The Swiss in his turn with a pretty stress free service game.

10:48AM

Nadal 1 Federer* 0 (*denotes next server). Roger leads 2-1

Nadal to serve, start of the fourth, and he has produced a fine game with little fuss.

10:45AM

Fourth set incoming

Eurosport are running a ticker across the bottom of the screen about how Sky might be no platforming them - I will write about this in a bit.

To the main event

10:42AM

Greg

Ridiculous Good tennis!How well is Fed taking the ball on the rise.Will we look back at those 3 aces on BP at start of 3rd as key for Fed?

— Greg Rusedski (@GregRusedski1) January 29, 2017

10:36AM

Roger Federer wins the third set 6-1. Leads two sets to one.

Perhaps inevitably, Fed drops his level after that double break. his recent service games have been commanding. not this one. He fiddles his way through, it's 40-40. But he dusts himself down, he manages to hold, and that is the game. Roger Federer wins the third set 6-1.

10:34AM

Nadal 1 Federer* 5 (* denotes next server) one set all

A couple in the crowd have just got engaged. "What a story, to do it during Federer-Nadal," says the commentator. "The guy can't have had it planned for very long, can he?" says Mats Wiladner.

Nadal looking rattled. It's 30-30. A glorious backhand return from Federer. Nadal is broken again!

10:24AM

Nadal* 1 Federer 4 (* denotes next server) one set all

Federer needs quick points, if he is going to win, he wants as short a match as possible. Before Nadal's head-to-head record plays on his mind and his 35-year-old body is put through the mill.

What does this look like? Well, he is looking to attack early in points in tactical terms, and he is literally taking the balls early, trying to get after every ball.

It works well in this service game, which he wins to love.

10:21AM

Nadal 1 Federer* 3 (* denotes next server) one set all

Federer's tactics are working! He is hurrying Nadal, literally taking the ball early, and even volleying where he need not. The cumulative effect is of relentless pressure on the Spanish great. A volley makes it 15-40 on Nadal's serve. he saves that first BP. But here is the second. The crowd roar. Strong serve out wide from the A court, no realistic chance of returning that. It's deuce. Glorious crosscourt forehand from RF, it beats Nadal, whose weight I think was going in the other direction.

It's deuce. Nadal dark and stormy, ferocious forehand, huge intensity from him. That beats Roger on the cross court and now he moves in menacingly behind his serve to bash a volley home and get himself out of jail. Three break points saved.

Credit: Eurosport

Briggsy: "Now dark overhead and the seagulls settling on the rafters. Always danger of badly timed poo on the court or feather floating down, a la the 2013 final.

Remember somebody saying that Ivan Lendl had prepared Andy for every scenario, but hadn't covered the mating patterns of the local birdlife."

10:12AM

Nadal* 0 Federer 3 (* denotes next server) one set all

And Federer presses home his advantage with a clinical, elegant serve-volley game. Quick is the way for Roger in this match. He has hit ten winners in this set so far, Nadal just one.

If I were a betting man...

Hoping its 5 setter game. I can't get enough of these two. I don't want this game to end. #FedererNadal

— Shivam (@ShivamChatak) January 29, 2017

10:09AM

Nadal 0 Federer* 2 (* denotes next server) one set all

Shot of the match, no question. Nadal hammers a groundstroke to a perfect length but Federer whips it off his toes with a passing shot on the half volley. Nadal marooned far behind that baseline. That sets up a break point, Federer wins it and he has broken Nadal.

10:04AM

Nadal* 0 Federer 1 (* denotes next server) one set all

Roger Federer gets to work in the third set. An ace. Soon it's 40-0, but hopes of a much-needed cheap game are temporarily arrested when he gives Nadal a chance at a forehand pass. The man from Menorca needs no second invitation. Drives a winner down the line. Roger now hits a simple-ish groundstroke long, and makes a poor volley into the net. That 40-0 is soon deuce. And when Roger runs around the ball to hit a forehand cross. Into the net. Break point. Big moment.

Roger Federer aces! But loses the next two. Back to deuce after a good serve. But Roger now comes into the net and again drains it into the net. This feels like the key moment in the match, this game. Fed simply has to get out of this. It's 40-A. A wonderful wide serve gives him an ace. Federer drawing on all his huge reserves of heart and character here, Nadal lurking like a panther in the undergrowth.

Federer peels off a heavily spinning backhand and wins the point. A-40. Beautiful backhand now from Federer, Nadal cannot respond. He has held service. Three, I think, aces in that match, some great backhands, Federer had to give his all in that game. It's still only worth one!

9:55AM

Rafael Nadal wins the second set 6-3. One set all.

Rafa serving. Takes his time over the first one. And it pays off. 15-0. Sends Fed out wide now, return comes back, and it's easy pickings to put that into the great wide open spaces. 30-0. Roger cannot really get a toehold on this game, 40-0 before you know it and another wide serve puts Rafa firmly in control of what soon turns out to be the decisive point, Fed hitting long. That's game and the second set to Rafael Nadal.

Simon Briggs: "With any luck we might get them both playing well at same time in set 3, which is probably the match."

9:52AM

Nadal* 5 Federer 3 (* denotes next server) Roger took first set 6-4

And Roger in his turn has won a service game with little ceremony, up on his toes to place a forehand crosscourt that seals the deal. Even still, Rafa now serves for the second set.

9:50AM

Nadal 5 Federer* 2 (* denotes next server) Roger took first set 6-4

Roger never really at the races in this game and Nadal holds with the minimum of fuss.

9:47AM

Nadal* 4 Federer 2 (* denotes next server) Roger took first set 6-4

Double fault from Roger, but he puts it behind him now with a purring cross court forehand that wrong-foots Rafa and he wraps up the game. Still a break down but, if nothing else, he has stopped the mental demons of that four game flat spot.

9:42AM

Nadal 4 Federer* 1 (* denotes next server) Roger took first set 6-4

A lesser man might be tempted to write this second set off as a bad job and regroup, but Federer dusts himself down and raises his game. He wins two quick points and it is 0-30. Albeit that Nadal wins the next two points, Fed not giving it up without a fight in this game. At 30-30, Federer attacks the second serve and slays it with a crosscourt stroke of real elan. Another break point! And Roger has done it, Rafa forced into attempting a low percentage running passing shot, it needed to be a worldie, it wasn't, and the handsome Swiss had all the time in the world to knock it into the empty court, as causal as a man knocking the top of a thistle off with a walking stick, if I may borrow from the classics.

Simon Briggs: "Roger's timing seems to be coming back but that four-game run felt like a classic mental fade, the scarring of a brutal head-to-head record. He complained the other day that he played Rafa too often on clay in the early days. Mind you, if he had taken his mach points in Rome that early time, in 2006, it might not have stacked up on him so quickly"

9:38AM

Nadal* 4 Federer 0 (* denotes next server) Roger took first set 6-4

Suddenly, Roger has that sickening feeling of shifting the gear stick and finding nothing there. This is a horrid service game from him, he has made some unforced errors and before you know it that's a second break for Nadal.

9:32AM

Nadal 3 Federer* 0 (* denotes next server) Roger took first set 6-4

But now it is Rafa's turn to be put through the mill on serve. Roger has answered the call and he shows great creativity, and Djokovic-like elasticity at the net to make it 40-A for the second time in the match. 9/12 points won at the net for Roger. Can he break back? Long rally. He's on top, but Nadal never gives up, like a dog with a postman's trousers. Back to 40-40. Both players hitting their groundstrokes deep, deep, deep. Very few easy points to be had. Roger has put one just long. And Nadal then puts the hammer down with a thumping first serve and he has held his serve.

9:24AM

Nadal* 2 Federer 0 (* denotes next server) Roger took first set 6-4

Bit of a shaky start to this service game, 0-15 and it's the Federer second serve. Nadal moving him around the court, always feels like he is on top here, the sheer force of Nadal pressurising Roger into an error.

At 15-30, Roger gets the benefit of a net cord. He needed that. His wife sighs in relief! She looks really stressed.

Rafa wins the next point and has a break point. It's electric there now. Roger's first serve sees him through this first mini crisis.

But at 40-40, Rafa thinks he has put Roger away, but Fed produces a wonderful running attempted passing shot... Nadal snuffs out its hopes at the net. Another break point.

Nadal is well on top in this point, he has raised his game in this set, he is putting it up to Roger with a series of crunching forehands and Federer is broken by them.

9:19AM

Nadal 1 Federer* 0 (* denotes next server) Roger took first set 6-4

A long rally at 30-15, Rafa has come out swinging here. He is really putting a hurtin' on those tennis balls now, huge thumping forehands, Roger hanging on with his precise, sliced backhands, looking almost delicate in comparison, but might not elegance wins the day in this game.

Briggs: "Bit sharper from Rafa there, maybe he is getting the stiffness out of his legs. More of the route-one FH to BH stuff too. In his opening 6 matches, Nadal was getting the 2nd ball after the serve on his forehand 64% of the time. Tonight? 23% (h/t Channel 7) But maybe changing."

9:16AM

Reader John Mc Enerney writes

Morning Alan, for years I've been racking my brain to find a cinematic rivalry similar to the RRR(Roger Rafa Rivalry). Finally it came to me while trying to put one of my 18mth old twins back to sleep at 0400, Gregory(Fed)Peck up against Robert(Rafa)Mitchum in Cape Fear. Peck is all style, class & almost perfect up against Mitchum rugged ruthless & sweaty. Fed in 4 or Rafa in 5! Too close to call. Enjoy it. Class coverage as always. John

I like that a lot. Somebody mentioned Ali-Frazier in the build-up. I was thinking maybe more Ali-Foreman, the snakey movement against those thumping blows. But Peck and Mitchum is better still.

9:14AM

Here's David Law

"Importance of first set? Federer has beaten Nadal just twice in 11 matches at Slams. Both times he won the first set."

9:12AM

Roger Federer wins the first set 6-4

Ooh Roger. That lovely backhand working its magic now. Rafa has no answer to this game. Two aces in it. It's game and the first set to the Swiss.

Here is Simon Briggs: "Roger loving the off-backhand return from the deuce court, hitting it into the Rafa BH. Against Grigor, Rafa started out hitting over 80pc forehands behind his serve. By end of match it was down to around 60pc, which was one reason the match got close"

9:09AM

Nadal 4 Federer* 5 (* denotes next server)

The pressure's on Rafa right now. Roger assays a backhand down the line off his serve, just out but the signs are good. 30-40. But Rafa wraps it up and obliges Federer to serve for the first set.

Simon Briggs: "Apparently the dance beat is from Piknik Elektronik, whatever you make of that!"

Not a lot, to be honest. Still, in the Telegraph office there is a constant high-pitched whine - not one of my colleagues, I mean - a faulty alarm or something. Not ideal for first thing on a Sunday.

9:05AM

Nadal* 3 Federer 5 (denotes next server)

Ooh, Roger fans. Your man is looking very good. He's rattling through this game, he has got Rafa right where he wants him here and he consolidates this break of serve, sealing it with an ace.

9:03AM

Here is Simon Briggs

Crowd getting into this now. I make it eight winners for Roger so far, and only one for Rafa which came by virtue of a cheeky netcord. Rafa not beating up Roger's BH either. Maybe a bit flat after the Grigor epic? Rafa also returning serve from incredibly far back, which feels a bit negative. Great early signs for Roger fans

9:03AM

Nadal 3 Federer* 4 (denotes next server)

Shot of the match so far from Roger, a leaping backhand smash, to make it 0-15. So graceful.

Lovely backhands down the line from Roger, he's got Rafa under some pressure here, each shot landing right on the baseline. Rafa misses wide! It's 15-30. And this is the point of the match so far! Rafa with his heavy metal forehand, forcing Roger back and wide, but the Swiss hangs in there with his backhand. And he turns the pressure back onto Rafa, who dishes one up. Roger pounces and it is 15-40! Roger on top in this point too, and Nadal had hit it wide. Roger Federer with a break of serve.

that's what a break of serve looks like Credit: Eurosport

8:58AM

Nadal* 3 Federer 3 (denotes next server)

Roger answers with an acute, dominating service game of his own. Neither of these two greats letting the rival get on top for long yet. Fascinating duel.

8:54AM

Nadal 3 Federer* 2 (denotes next server)

Sheer blunt force trauma from Rafa here as he produces a trio of points peppered with heavy, thumping forehands. He's blown Roger away in this game, game to love before you know it.

8:52AM

Nadal* 2 Federer 2 (denotes next server)

Roger's most impressive game yet. Backhand working well, and he has the confidence to come into the net. Takes this game to 15, he has moved Rafa around the court a lot in these points. Not sure you can rely on tiring Nadal out as a strategy, but could that gruelling semi come into play if the match goes deep?

Simon Briggs: "weirdly loud dance music seeping in from somewhere nearby, it must be quite distracting for the players."

8:48AM

Nadal 2 Federer* 1 (denotes next server)

Talking of that Fed forehand, a lovely whipped winner down the line makes it 0-15. Rafa dealing with a few issues in this game, not the least of which is a double fault that makes it 30-30. On second serve, Roger is on top in this rally but a net cord does Rafa a big favour. Roger's backhand return into the net and that's game, but Federer will be feeling encouraged I fancy.

8:44AM

Nadal* 1 Federer 1 (denotes next server)

Early signs are that Roger has got his work cut out. Rafa is working him on the first two points here, testing out that backhand, and Roger has put a crosscourt one into the net. At 15-15, second serve, the first hint of a moment. Rafa very (over) aggressive as he attacks down the line, well wide.

Federer starting to impose a little authority with a commanding backhand to set up an emphatic point. But Nadal hanging in this game. It's 40-30. Big wide serve, Rafa gets it back, a minor victory. Game Roger. His forehand looking well.

8:40AM

Nadal 1 Federer* 0 (denotes next server)

Rafa needs second serves for the first two points. Both long rallies. Both won by Rafa after vaguely unforced errors from Roger. He puts a forehand into the net, then hits one long. A late call on that. Roger mutters something. Rafa gets a first serve in, and that's a quick point. 40-0. And he has soon wrapped the game up to love.

8:37AM

The players are ready

It's Rafael Nadal to serve.

8:37AM

The calm before the storm.

The knock-up.

Nadal has won the toss and will serve.

Commentator: "not expecting a great match, but I am expecting a great battle."

8:32AM

Umpire gives the players a few last minute instructions

Feel of the prizefight about this! Roger cool, still, Sphynx-like. Rafa bouncing on his toes, moving and shaping, especially suggestive of a boxer.

8:28AM

Roger comes out first

Huge ovation.

And ditto for Rafa.

Two great champions, two great players, two very good blokes as well IMHO. My personal preference is for Roger but, as Boris Becker says, either would be an extremely popular winner.

8:25AM

Tennis correspondent Simon Briggs

Sun just going down behind the steel ramparts - stadium bathed in unearthly glow. Which seems kind of appropriate.

Credit: Eurosport

8:24AM

Miles Maclagan is in the Gary Neville role

Good stuff on the Federer movement, and the tactic Rafa uses to hit onto the shoelaces of his opponent.

Also notes that Rafa stands an amazingly long way behind the baseline to receive. 8m!

Credit: Eurosport

8:21AM

Roger speaks

"The comeback has surprised me, if you had asked me six months ago if I would be in a Slam final? The third round win against Berdych has given me a lot of answers."

How have their games changed over the last ten years? Rafa's serve is more consistent than it was. For me, the bigger racket head means I can swing a bit more freely on the backhand. And I feel I have nothing to lose, which is a new feeling in a Grand Slam.

Credit: Eurosport

Good to see cub reporter Mats Wilander there picking up a day's work.

8:13AM

Lovely evening there, they're saying 24 degrees on court

Gorgeous summer's evening in Melbourne for #FedererNadalpic.twitter.com/TF3B6DlM1V

— Oliver Brown (@oliverbrown_tel) January 29, 2017

8:11AM

Greg Rudeski

Reckons that having Carlos Moya back on the team, "his childhood mentor", has been a major boost for Rafa. And "that forehand is the best in the game."

8:09AM

Rafael Nadal

"We never thought that we would have this chance again, to be in a final. I am very happy for me, and I am very happy for him."

Credit: Eurosport

8:07AM

Eurosport reporter

Catherine Whitaker says, "I have never seen a man as relaxed as Roger when I saw him just now."

Pat Cash: "Roger may have the slippers on but he might think this is the one he has to win, this would be the one that got away."

Credit: Eurosport

23-11 is the head-to-head.

8:06AM

Have you checked out our tennis podcast?

Boris Becker and John McEnroe have. Not bad guests huh?

John McEnroe believes that Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are already the two greatest male tennis players ever to draw breath. Ahead of the final, which will be played on Sunday morning in the UK, McEnroe joined Catherine Whitaker (Eurosport) for an interview that we can hear in its entirety here on the Tennis Podcast.

"They are the two greatest of all-time already, but this gives Roger a change to extend his lead to 18 Slams or Rafa to narrow the gap to just two," said McEnroe.

So who will win? Boris Becker also comes on the show with BBC Radio 5 Live commentator David Law, and can’t pick between them.

7:54AM

Here's John McEnroe

7:53AM

Tennis correspondent Simon Briggs marks your card

Where the Australian Open final will be won and lost

7:50AM

Here is the rivalry broken down into four stages

By Charlie Eccleshare

After two weeks of gripping tennis, the Australian Open will conclude on Sunday with the dream final of Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal.

The pair have taken the sport to new heights and over 13 years have lifted the other's game to levels never seen before in the sport.

Federer has more slams than any male player in the history of the sport with 17, while Nadal is in joint second place with 14. The Spaniard though leads the overall head to head 23-11 and has won nine of the pair's 11 grand slam matches.

Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal: The four ages of tennis's greatest rivalry

7:45AM

Talking of that fierce, but respectful, rivalry

Here is our rundown of their greatest battles

7:41AM

Good morning!

A bright and early start in the UK, but what a treat we have in store. Roger Federer against Rafael Nadal, two all-time greats, who have had a wonderful rivalry. It looked like the days of them going head-to-head in a major final had been and gone, but here we are.

#_revsp:the_telegraph_818 #_author:Simon Briggs #_category:yct:001000001 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000G6gZREAZ #sport #_uuid:baacd280-ba48-3bfb-9469-8aec4b613f09

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flauntpage · 7 years ago

Text

Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux

The Invisible Champion

Former Bellator light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton used the cross step to set up spinning backhands in MMA.

Angles for Days

The Match Up

Pick up Jack’s book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor and follow him on Twitter @JackSlackMMA.

Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

0 notes

flauntpage · 7 years ago

Text

Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux

The Invisible Champion

Former Bellator light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton used the cross step to set up spinning backhands in MMA.

Angles for Days

The Match Up

Pick up Jack’s book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor and follow him on Twitter @JackSlackMMA.

Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

0 notes

flauntpage · 7 years ago

Text

Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux

The Invisible Champion

Former Bellator light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton used the cross step to set up spinning backhands in MMA.

Angles for Days

The Match Up

Pick up Jack’s book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor and follow him on Twitter @JackSlackMMA.

Tactical Guide to Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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the-telegraph-sport-yahoopa-blog · 8 years ago

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Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal ready to lift each other to new heights in Australian Open final

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, the two old foes who will contest Sunday’s final, are more than just athletes. They have become archetypes.

Rivalry is what makes individual sport tick. And it helps when your rivalry delivers contrasts. Even the way these giants talk – Federer full of lordly self-possession and easy humour, Nadal projecting humility to the point of insecurity – has polarised the world’s sports fans, so that billions of people know which way their loyalties lie.

Unexpectedly, Nadal and Federer report exactly the same physical dimensions: 6ft 1in and 188lbs. Yet everything else about them is opposite. You have icy northern European against tempestuous Latin. Ethereal volleyer against brutal baseliner. Leftie against rightie.

If nature dealt us a happy hand, then Nike’s designers nurtured the divergence brilliantly. Federer’s regal instincts were set off by those gold-trimmed tuxedos. Nadal’s edginess meshed with his pirate pants/singlet combination, which gave him the look of a tennis-playing Johnny Depp. We are still adjusting to his recent crewcut.

On the court, Federer would clearly have won dozens more titles, particularly on clay, without Nadal’s venomous forehand kicking up at his throat. The effect is not so striking for Nadal, so dominant has he been in their 34-match series. But Nadal has had to play second fiddle in the endorsement market, where Federer’s combination of majesty, glamour and perfect hair is catnip for advertisers.

Federer and Nadal have enjoyed many memorable matches

Judging by Federer’s recent trip to Mallorca, where he attended the opening of the Rafael Nadal Academy, both men know how much they need each other.

A lone overwhelming champion risks boring the public. Look at Michael Schumacher throughout those long years of F1 domination. It was the same with Pete Sampras – at least, until Andre Agassi became a counterweight in the late 1990s.

Tiger Woods did better than most at carrying a sport single-handed, but then he was an exotic bloom amid golf’s arid landscape. And even Woods’s story gained new texture from the emergence of Phil Mickelson.

‘Fedal’, as they are known by millennials, fit so well together: the yin and yang of tennis. Think of Seb Coe and Steve Ovett on the running track, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg on the court, or Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna on the tarmac. A well-formed rivalry, complete with a little animus, becomes bigger than either party on their own.

Federer vs Nadal: ranking their greatest ever grand slam matches

The only downside to the ‘Fedal’ narrative is its lack of balance. Nadal has won just over two-thirds of their meetings, primarily through the inequality between his gigantic, heavily top-spun forehand and Federer’s beautiful but potentially flaky backhand. Crucially, Federer hits the ball with one arm, and this throws up a physiological asymmetry. The ‘pulling’ muscles behind the shoulder simply are not as strong as the ‘pushing’ muscles that generate the force on a forehand or a two-fisted backhand.

Over the course of the last 13 years, this physical issue has spilled over into a mental block. Federer said this week that “I played him [Nadal] too many times on clay early in my career”. He had his chances to reinvent the pattern during a thrilling five-setter in Rome in 2006. But Federer missed two match points, the second with an attempted forehand winner that slid wide of the line. That may also have been a Sliding Doors moment in their sporting relationship.

Just over a decade later, the gap has stretched to 23-11 in Nadal’s favour. And the margin looks even wider – at 22-6, or almost four wins out of five – when you restrict the calculation to matches played outdoors. The author L Jon Wertheim nailed it when he equated Nadal with Rufus, the Harris hawk introduced to scare pigeons away from the All England Club, because of his unique ability to ruffle Federer’s feathers.

What hope is there for a close battle today? Some believe that Nadal will still be jaded after his 4hr 56min semi-final win over Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-final. But then Nadal is noted for his physical ‘bouncebackability’.

In 2009, he recovered from a 5hr 14min semi-final here to beat Federer in a five-set final. He might be considerably more battle-scarred these days, but he still has a five-year age-gap in his favour. And Federer needed a medical time-out during his own draining semi-final, against Stan Wawrinka, because of an adductor issue. “The injury is not something I am worried about,” said Federer on Saturday, with his customary sang froid. “I feel pretty good. For me

it’s a luxury to have two days off in a tournament like this. I watched the [Nadal] semi-final with my team for the whole five hours. Usually I watch as a fan but I watched it half as a fan, half as an analyst, because I know it could have an influence.”

That last point sounds like an understatement. Nadal v Dimitrov was almost a dress rehearsal of what we can expect on Sunday, because Dimitrov’s style – single-handed backhand, elastic movement, whiplash serve – is so similar to Federer’s own. Nadal will thus come into the final having spent five hours honing his game plan.

Neither will the Federer camp want to spend too long talking about Dimitrov’s electric tennis on Friday night, however. It would just be demoralising. The man they call Baby Fed hit his backhand sweetly up the line, fired down a score of aces, and dashed forward to the net at well-chosen moments. But Nadal seemed to grow in stature with each lung-bursting rally. The sceptics said he was losing his aura, after 2½ years in which he was barely reaching the second week of slams. That canard has now been well and truly busted.

Nadal v Federer

“Rafa is more of a favourite than I am,” said Federer on Saturday.

Nadal’s greatness is not in doubt, whether he wins or loses on Sunday. But this is not about one man. He and Federer, through the richness of their rivalry, have made each other greater still.

#_revsp:the_telegraph_818 #_uuid:9aad28e4-6b2f-3c53-9249-836e5a3bd7a0 #_author:Simon Briggs #_category:yct:001000001 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000G6gZREAZ #sport

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the-telegraph-sport-yahoopa-blog · 8 years ago

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Novak Djokovic stunned by Denis Istomin as six-time Australian Open champion is beaten in five sets

Serena Williams vs Lucie Safarova - live

Andy Murray’s path to a possible first Australian Open looks considerably clearer after Novak Djokovic suffered one of the great shock defeats in the history of this sport.

In 13 appearances at the Australian Open, Djokovic had won the title six times and never lost to anyone ranked lower than No. 68 in the world. So his 7-6, 5-7, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 defeat at the hands of No. 117 Denis Istomin was a true bolt from the blue.

It wasn’t as if Djokovic was playing terrible tennis. There were times when he seemed to plug fully into the contest and achieve that “Thou shalt not pass” consistency for which he is justly famed.

But there were also moments when he coughed up cheap errors and allowed Istomin – who was producing the match of his life – to gain confidence and belief. “I feel sorry for Novak,” said a weepy Istomin in his on-court interview, “because I was playing so good today.”

The result removes the man who has beaten Murray in five of his last six appearances at the Australian Open, and creates a sense of opportunity for the rest of the field as well. Rod Laver Arena has felt like Djokovic’s front room ever since he won here in 2008. But he admitted after the match that “It's one of these days when you don't feel that great on the court, don't have much rhythm, and the player you're playing against is feeling the ball very well.”

Istomin celebrates a famous win

Istomin – a 30-year-old who reached a peak ranking of No. 33 - deserves huge credit, particularly for the way he cranked up the pressure in the deciding set. He was living with Djokovic from the baseline, and actually outhitting him with a series of aggressive attacks up the line. And his serve was a devastating weapon, not just for the 17 aces he sent down but for the timing of them. At 6-5 in the fourth set tie-break, he seized the moment with a perfect bomb out wide.

“All the credit to Denis for playing amazing,” said Djokovic in a post-match press conference that showed off his statesmanlike qualities. “He deserved to win. No doubt, he was a better player in the clutch moments. He stepped it up, played aggressive. Served very well, very precise. There's not much I could do. “Of course, I was not pleased with my performance overall. But, you know, I have to congratulate my opponent today.”

Djokovic waves goodbye to the Melbourne Park crowd

8:50AM

Sanguine Djokovic

"It's a tennis match. On a given day, you can lose. Nothing is impossible.

“In the game of tennis, one guys beats the other guy.”

8:48AM

Djokovic is speaking

Cracking opening line...

Question: "What do you take from that loss?"

Djokovic: "My bags. And I go home"

8:42AM

Shock horror

This is pretty amazing - according to the bookies this was the fifth biggest upset on the ATP Tour since 2010.

8:33AM

Novak's former coach boris Becker speaks

"I sat next to Toni Nadal and Bresnik. We were all bewildered at how absent Novak was."

8:30AM

A penny for Andy Murray's thoughts

As with Wimbledon, Murray instantly becomes the tournament favourite after Djokovic's exit. The draw also massively opens up on the bottom half of the draw, with only three players in Djokovic's quarter - Thiem, Dimitrov, and Gasquet - ever reaching a slam semi. In the other quarter in the bottom half, Nadal and Raonic will be fancying their chances of a run to the final.

The top half of the draw looks pretty top-heavy, with Murray, Federer, Wawrinka and Nishikori all potential winners.

8:24AM

Istomin speaks

"I feel sorry for Novak. I was playing so good today. I want to thank my team and my mum.

"Thank you guys [the crowd], you were amazing. There's so much emotion on my mind so I cannot hold it, but thanks so much for coming to support me.

"In third set I had cramp, but I was physically pretty normal today.

Jim Courier interjects - "No offence but that was not normal physically to beat Novak like that.

Istomin adds: "It's the biggest win of my career, now I feel like I can play with these guys and be on their level."

8:19AM

Game, set and match! Istomin wins 7-6, 5-7, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4

After 4hr 47min, Istomin is serving for the win of his life. How's your nerve Denis? The first point goes the Uzbek's way as Djokovic nets a forehand off a strong Itomin backhand up the line. 15-0. Djokovic then nets a backhand up the line, and it's 30-0. Istomin thinks he's up 40-0 after nailing a big serve out wide, but Djokovic keeps himself alive and draws a backhand wide up the line from Istomin. 30-15. A huge unreturned Istomin serve down the line follows, and it's 40-15. Two match points. He only needs one - Djokovic's backhand off a big first serve down the middle flies long, and that is that. Istomin has won 7-6, 5-7, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4.

8:14AM

Djokovic 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-7, 4-5 Istomin* (*denotes next server)

Djokovic slaps a forehand into the net on the first point to make it 0-15, before a pair of sprayed Istomin backhands make it 30-15. A wild forehand from the Uzbek makes it 40-15, and an unreturned first serve completes the hold. Denis Istomin now has the chance to serve out the match against the six-time Australian Open champion.

8:12AM

Djokovic* 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-7, 3-5 Istomin (*denotes next server)

Djokovic has not lost as early as the second round of a slam since Wimbledon 2008 - is it about to happen here? Brilliant length from Istomin on the first point makes it 15-0, and a gorgeous forehand winner up the line gets the Uzbek to 30-0. An ace, shown by Hawkeye to be on the line by a hair's width, then makes it 40-0. And a Djokovic forehand into the net follows to wrap up a love hold. Wow, that was an unbelievable game from Istomin.

8:07AM

Djokovic 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-7, 3-4 Istomin* (*denotes next server)

It looks like a switch has gone off in Djokovic's head, and he's realised he can't keep playing so passively and has to step it up. Two big serves and a forehand winner bring up 40-0, and the Serb wraps up the hold with another unreturned first serve. The pressure swings straight back to Istomin.

8:05AM

Djokovic* 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-7, 2-4 Istomin (*denotes next server)

We're expecting a big response from Djokovic in the next few games, and he is obviously desperate to get the break straight back. Better depth from the Serb draws two errors from Istomin to go up 15-30, but an ace down the middle has us at 30-30. A superb off-forehand winner from Istomin then makes it 40-30, and to show that kind of foot speed after more than four and a half hours of play is absolutely stunning. A huge serve then flies past Djokovic, and it's game Istomin. The wildcard is two games away.

8:00AM

Djokovic 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-7, 2-3 Istomin* (*denotes next server) - Istomin breaks!

A stunning Istomin backhand passing shot on the run gets him to 0-15, and a missed loopy Djokovic forehand has us at 0-30. Big moments coming up here. And a huge response on the next point from the Serb, as he nails a perfect ace plum down the middle. But Istomin won't go away, and he smashes a forehand return that Djokovic can't handle, and it's 15-40 and two break points. Djokovic saves the first one when Istomin is long with a forehand, but he can't save the second! Istomin unleashes an unstoppable backhand winner up the line, and he's up a break in the fifth set! Just three service holds away from beating the world No 2!

Greg Rusedski remains confident that Djokovic will pull this off.

7:56AM

Djokovic* 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-7, 2-2 Istomin (*denotes next server)

This match has been going for 4hrs 22min but both players look fairly fresh. It's a poor start to the game from Istomin as he nets an attempted drop volley, but he recovers well and wins the next two points thanks to a beautiful backhand volley and a Djokovic forehand error. 30-15. Djokovic though swats away a forehand return that's far too strong for his opponent to make it 30-30. Big point coming up. And it's Istomin who holds his nerve, producing a big serve to go up 40-30, and following that up with a solid smash to secure the hold.

Istomin is the 117 in the world, and only once last year won back-to-back tour matches!

7:51AM

Djokovic 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-7, 2-1 Istomin* (*denotes next server)

A love hold for Djokovic to keep his nose in front.

7:48AM

Djokovic* 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-7, 1-1 Istomin (*denotes next server)

Istomin holds, and we're level at 1-1 in the fifth set.

7:47AM

What the?

Novak Djokovic is in a fifth set against the Uzbeki world No 117 Denis Istomin.

We pick it up at 1-0 Djokovic on serve in the fifth set.

#_revsp:the_telegraph_818 #_uuid:8d1a8e90-8a83-3c1f-8392-862a6b5cd39a #_category:yct:001000001 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000G6gZREAZ #sport #_author:Charlie Eccleshare

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