ladies and gentlemen, the winners of the USO

multiple slam winners did it again over this hurricaned weekend.  congratulations to serena williams (now with 9 titles) and roger federer (with 13)!

roger and serena at the player’s party before the start of the USO two weekends ago

ladies and gents, the winners of the USO

multiple slam winners serena williams (with 9) and roger federer (with 13).

roger and serena at the player’s party before the start of the USO two weekends ago

congratulations, roger and serena!

if not nole, not rafa either

nole bows out to roger in their four-set semi-final clash yesterday afternoon in new york 

and the muzzah is in his first grand slam final!  i am soooo happy for andy murray.  which is surprising considering he just kicked my beloved rafael nadal out of the USO in an exciting four-set match that spanned two days and a lot of rain.i caught myself crying when nole beat roddick, and then again last night when he lost to roger federer, and then again when i woke up this morning.  but the brave-hearted scotsman with the wild hair rescued my USO for me.

 

andy murray in his first grand slam final 

in tomorrow’s final, men who have not won a slam title in 2008.  andy sailed into his first grand slam semifinal with an emotional win over fellow junior, the tall argentine juan martin del potro and finally notched his first victory over rafa, making their head-to-head 1-5, murray-rafa.in the ladies’ final which is scheduled to start in 2 1/2 hours, first time slam finalist jelena jankovic of serbia takes on 8-time grand slam winner and 2-time USO champion serena williams of the united states.  jelena’s slam count? zero.  

 

signature rafa celebration — although it may just be my imagination but is the boy fatigued? time to go home to mallorca now, my sweet. what a great year you’ve had so far! 

roger’s slam count? 12.  andy’s? zero.i’m rooting for the players who have never won a slam tomorrow!  they may fail at the last hurdle but they must be hungry, really really hungry.

 

jelena jankovic in her first grand slam final after she defeated elena dementieva 6-4 6-4 in friday’s semi-final 

ajde jelena!  go andy! 

(all photos courtesy of the los angeles times)

damned if i do, damned if i don’t

there he was, being interviewed on court by barcan.  and then suddenly the crowd started booing.  what had novak djokovic said in a post-match interview on centre court at flushing meadows?  he had just beaten american andy roddick in four sets.  there was a very cold handshake at the net and then a lot of fiery, intense heart jabbing and head thrown back with matching yell to the night sky.

roddick had said in an interview two days before that he thought nole had 16 injuries or so.  as a fan of nole, i found this remark funny but i also knew that it could spur nole into an abyss of anger and resentment.

when nole came on court tonight, his eyes were dark, shooting daggers across the net.  he calmly and coldly flattened roddick in the first two sets before the american found his bearings and managed to steal the third set.  when nole grabbed the match by the throat in a tense fourth set tiebreak, little did anyone expect the dark, bitter molasses of his heart to spill out.

it doesn’t matter whether this crowd loves me or not, nole told the blubbering announcer darkly, they always think i’m faking it anyway.

barcan sputtered, wait, this crowd didn’t say this, only andy did and it was a joke.

nole would have none of it.  it’s not a nice thing to say, nevertheless, he shot back.  and i am absolutely thrilled to have beaten the homeboy in his home tournament and oh, his favourite too, right?

i will admit that i did not see it myself but read about it through impassioned roger fans for the most part.  but when i read a transcription of what happened, my maverick balls just kicked in (after i dried the tears that had washed off my moisturiser).

you go, nole.  you must be sick and tired of pleasing a crowd that is only critical of everything you do.  the public is fickle but the people who matter aren’t.  so know who they are.  as for your parents, man, i wish you could get away from them for a while!  but they’re the ones who love you unquestioningly.  so it’s hard. who am i to judge?

just know i’m firmly in your camp, nole.  firmly there.

ok, after seeing the youtube clip of the post-match interview, i’m grinning broadly and just LOVING nole.  ajde!!! enjoy it with me.  go, johnny mac!  woohoooo!

*photo credit: corned beef hash

things that make you go hmmm

 

on the beijing olympics:  critics who slam the summer games for china’s abuse of human rights, refusal to free tibet, having a pretty girl lip-sync a pretty voice, possibly having an underaged gymnast, the horrid smog of beijing, the authoritarian no-fun-games.  let’s take each point mentioned above and slam it to the ground once and for all.

1. government politics (human rights, tibet):  sure, these are pressing problems that must be addressed AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME & VENUE.  i’ve always maintained understanding that protesters and advocates for these issues would use the olympics as a means to air their grievances, but i draw the line when it comes to using the government’s policies on these issues as the measuring stick to gauge the success (or lack thereof) of the summer games.  
2. of young girls:  whether lip syncing or underaged gymnasts, the games have been slammed by the self-righteous (read:  western interests, particularly the media and a certain martha karolyi, coach of the US gymnastics team who, not strangely enough, got the silver in the team competition — someone remove the stench of sour grapes from the room, please!).  it is rather odd finding out that the pretty, vacuous-smiling girl in the red dress who was obviously singing to a recording was not the actual singer but it really doesn’t bother me.  should it?  as a performer myself, i can see why the beijing officials ordered this to happen.  whatever their reasons, i really can understand the motivations behind them and i’m not one to condemn them for wanting to put a pretty face before a worldwide audience of 4 billion.  you think any of the 2.7 billion non-chinese viewers will remember the not-so-cute genuine singer had she been allowed to be on stage?  i really don’t think so.  it’s an issue that has been blown all out of proportion.  strange, sure, but deserving of contempt?  not.  as for the underaged gymnasts, until the proof has seen the light of day, i’m giving the diminutive, young-faced acrobatic wonders of the unparallel bars the benefit of the doubt (and gold) and hold my peace.  so let the burden of proof begin, western media.  let the mad sleuthing commence!  and may it never end to give the endlessly wagging tongues something to write about when no other american gymnasts apart from shawn johnson and anastasia lukin bear uncle sam’s glorious stripes.
3. smog shmog:  where?  first world spoiled brats moan and wail about the harsh side effects of horrible smog for world-class athletes except for the athletes themselves.  ethopian legend haile gebrselassie pulled out of the premier marathon event citing smog as the reason only to find that the event was held on a smogless rainy day.  i can only commend the medallists from kenya, morocco, and ethiopia for running for glory in a sport that started the olympics in ancient greece millenia ago.  retired justine henin said in her pre-retirement days that she was considering not going to the olympics for the same reason.  did anyone miss her?  i doubt anyone, least of all the enthusiastic crowds, cared that the belgian prima donna was not there.  i didn’t!  the russians were more than enough to excite fans of the women’s tour.  davai!
4. no-fun-games in the socialist country:  the problem i have with critics is that they think that democratic nations are the only ones who know how to put on a good show.  i’ve read more than enough canadian columnists and listened to enough bitter british commentators whine and complain about the chinese communists, daring to claim that the 2010 vancouver winter olympics and the 2012 london summer games can be even better on ethical and moral grounds than the extravaganza the chinese put up in 2008.  enough!  the chinese put on a spectacular show that no stupid red bus morphing into an even more stupid hedge with a bunch of ragtag jazz dancers can outstage or even dream of topping.  can western performers summon the discipline to make 2008 drummers perform in flawless sync?  or dance in breathless formations?  no.  do these western societies even stand a squeak of a chance competing against china’s 5,000-year old history?  oh please.  and then they will take it against the beijing games by writing silly nonsense such as “it was a yawner getting a crash course on china’s 5000-yr history”… to such comments i say, then stop watching and try to do something meaningful instead of showing the world your obvious ignorance and contempt for anything better than anything you or your culture can ever do.  why not try to learn from the masters, instead, and perhaps put on a special show not bent on unflattering moral/ethical comparisons?  

smiling ethiopian long-distance running legend haile gebrsellasie (photo credit: reuters)