Tennis 2018

[Rhiannon]

There's a bit more here.

http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/story/_/id/24618866/us-open-tennis-no-coaching-rule-grand-slam-tennis-let-change-it

[Nearly Sane]

Interesting comments here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/world/australia/serena-williams-cartoon-herald-sun-racist.html

By the way the cartoonist talks about watching the match. And still he chose to portray Osaka as white and blonde.

Quote from Rod Liddle in the Spectator:

 "I have spent the morning trying to draw a cartoon of a black person without it being racist. It’s bloody difficult. Especially the lips."

[Rhiannon]

Quote from Rod Liddle in the Spectator:

 "I have spent the morning trying to draw a cartoon of a black person without it being racist. It’s bloody difficult. Especially the lips."

Did he manage to draw a Haitian/Japanese woman without making her look blonde and white?

[Nearly Sane]

Did he manage to draw a Haitian/Japanese woman without making her look blonde and white?

I don't know. I didn't read beyond the quote. I just kept wondering what if it read


 "I have spent the morning trying to draw a cartoon of a Jewish person without it being racist. It’s bloody difficult. Especially the nose."

[Rhiannon]

I don't know. I didn't read beyond the quote. I just kept wondering what if it read


 "I have spent the morning trying to draw a cartoon of a Jewish person without it being racist. It’s bloody difficult. Especially the nose."

Jeremy Corbyn would have said that it was a factual description of noses and everyone has one.

[Rhiannon]

I don't know. I didn't read beyond the quote. I just kept wondering what if it read


 "I have spent the morning trying to draw a cartoon of a Jewish person without it being racist. It’s bloody difficult. Especially the nose."

Ultimately he's a wanker and the Spectator have a choice as the whether or not they want to keep employing him or not.

[Nearly Sane]

Ultimately he's a wanker and the Spectator have a choice as the whether or not they want to keep employing him or not.

It's part of The Spectator's marketing brand which is currently sadly succesaful. Basically it's built around a set of clickbait like Breitbart in a moderately well cut suit. Liddle runs his schtick as a contrarian man who speaks his mind, which unsurprisingly leads to a lot of shallow articles. I used to read it quite frequently as while I disagreed with it in the main, it wasn't filled with the end of the pier stuff if you just skipped over Taki's misogynist Nazi ravings.

[Nearly Sane]

With no points to defend in the last tournaments a good run by Djokovic should mean that he would be year end no 1.

[Nearly Sane]

Halep has a slipped disc but a good lead in the women's rankings. Osaka continues to climb the rankings - up to provisional no 4. And Sabalenka looks like the next player to emerge into the mainstream.

[Nearly Sane]

Djokovic maintains his move on the No1 end of year. Big chance for Coric to make a move on being in Year End Championships if he can beat Federer tomorrow.

[Nearly Sane]

Djokovic now only 35 points behind Nadal in ATP race. But looks like Del Potro out for the rest of year.

[Nearly Sane]

Interesting news from Wimbledon


https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/45913728

[Nearly Sane]

First ATP your event for Edmund and Tsitsipas. The other ATP event being won by Kachanov,which makes Edmund at 23 the oldest of the three winners this week. Not sure of the last time that would have been true with 3 tournaments.


Women's end of year tournament started and can't see an obvious winner.

[Nearly Sane]

Below the ATP main tour events, last week Ivo Karlovic won a Challenger event and set a new record for the oldest winner of Challenger event at 39 years and 7 months. Suspect that we might see the 'giant' next year.

[Nearly Sane]

Svitolina wins in the year end. Not a shock but not expected either.


Federer wins his 99th tournament, and Anderson wins in Vienna as the over 30 brigade strike back.

[Nearly Sane]

Edmund pulls out of Paris with injury. Undoubtedly a breakthrough year, but needs to back it up, and has a lot of points to defend in Australia.


Although it's been a good year for a number of younger players, it looks like the year end in London will have only one player, Zverev, under 25. And though he has had a great year, as yet it still looks as if he hasn't quite been consistent enough, especially in Slams, to be seen as part of the elite. Next year needs to see him, along with Tsitsipas, Tiafoe, and De Minaur amongst others, get to finals in slams, and look to be consistently ranked in the top ten, and top 3 for Zverev to have a new generation of stars.

[Nearly Sane]

Lots of new stars in the women's game. And some such as Wozniacki and Halep winning that first Slam after many years where they were expected to. And yet with Osaka's dip in form, injury to Halep, and Wozniacki being diagnosed with arthritis, next year feels, as with this year all about Serena.

[Nearly Sane]

Nadal out in Paris with injury, which means that Djokovic will be number 1 on Monday. If Nadal doesn't make the yearend then Djokovic could have a big points lead at the end of the year.

[Nearly Sane]

And Nadal pulls out of the year end, which guarantees Djokovic his 5th end of year Number 1 ranking. If Djokovic does well then he is likely to remain World No 1 until at the very least Wimbledon. A good year next for him and will be closing in on Federer's 302 weeks at the top.

[Nearly Sane]

The year end then gave us a win for Zverev. If he can get his act together in terms of the Slams, then it's going to be a new No1 at the end of the next year. He seems to have the all court game. Were he to win in Australia then he would be younger than Federer  was when he won his first slam.