Category: Cue Cards

Cue Cards 9-30-2013: NFL One Liners

clapperboardCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

On Mondays during in the fall, the conversation is so dominated by NFL football that the expression “Monday morning quarterback” has entered the vernacular. The phrase is defined by google as “a person who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event.” With the popularity of fantasy football, we now have Monday morning quarterbacks talking about football from two different perspectives. We want you to be able to participate in this great tradition, so all fall we’ll be running NFL One Liners in our cue cards series on Monday. Use these tiny synopses throughout the day:

NFL One Liners

Baltimore 20, Buffalo 23 — A great example of how the NFL is the least predictable league. The Bills were 6-10 last year and the Ravens were 10-6 and played in the Super Bowl. This year they are as close as can be; playing a close game that came down to the last few minutes and both having a 2-2 record after four games.

Cincinnati 6, Cleveland 17 — Cleveland won their second straight game after losing their starting quarterback to injury and trading their starting running back to the Colts.

Chicago 32, Detroit 40 — Detroit won this game by scoring 27 points in the second quarter, a feat more suited for a video game than a divisional game versus the Chicago Bears.

New York Giants 7, Kansas City 31 — The Giants are 0-4 and have been outscored 69-7 in the last two games. Coach Tom Coughlin’s job, despite his two Super Bowl wins with the team, may be in serious jeopardy.

Pittsburgh 27, Minnesota 34 — One of two games this year to be played in England, the players in this one put on quite a show in a game that was more likely to determine the team with the worst record at the end of the year than the best.

Arizona 13, Tampa Bay 10 — The Cardinals scored all 13 of their points in the fourth quarter to steal the victory from the floundering Buccaneers.

Indianapolis 37, Jacksonville 3 — Two years ago the Colts went 2-11 and selected quarterback, Andrew Luck, with the first pick of the draft. Jacksonville’s best bet this season and probably their only choice is to lose all their games and hope for the first pick in next year’s draft.

Seattle 23, Houston 20 — The Texans dominated this game in the first half, 20-3, but the Seahawks managed to wriggle back into the game, push it to overtime, and win it there with a field goal.

New York Jets 13, Tennessee 38 — The Titans continue to surprise the league with their strong play but may have to adjust to losing their starting quarterback, Jake Locker, to a hip injury.

Philadelphia 20, Denver 52 — Denver seems completely unbeatable right now. They’ve scored 179 points in four games, more than 5o points higher than the second highest scoring team.

Washington 24, Oakland 14 — The nation needed this outcome so that the inhabitants of Washington D.C. can take a few days off from their football crisis and concentrate on that whole government shut-down crisis.

Dallas 21, San Diego 30 — Although the Cowboys loss makes their record only 2-2, that’s still good enough for first place in the NFC East division. The NFC East is always the highest rated and most talked about division in the NFL but this year, the four teams have a combined 4-12 record.

New England 30, Atlanta 23 — The more things change, the more they stay the same. Quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick continue their 13 year run of success.

Cue Cards 9-23-2013: NFL One Liners

clapperboardCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

On Mondays during in the fall, the conversation is so dominated by NFL football that the expression “Monday morning quarterback” has entered the vernacular. The phrase is defined by google as “a person who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event.” With the popularity of fantasy football, we now have Monday morning quarterbacks talking about football from two different perspectives. We want you to be able to participate in this great tradition, so all fall we’ll be running NFL One Liners in our cue cards series on Monday. Use these tiny synopses throughout the day:

NFL One Liners

New England 23, Tampa Bay 3 — Despite having put Boston in a constant state of crisis for the past three weeks, the Patriots are 3-o and it’s the Buccaneers who are lost at sea.

Indianapolis 27, San Francisco 7 — Colts quarterback Andrew Luck beat his college coach Jim Harbaugh, now head coach of the 49ers, whose team and quarterback specifically have looked confused while losing the past two games.

Cincinnati 34, Green Bay 30 — In the most entertaining game of the day, the upstart Bengals beat the Packers in the type of shoot-out game that the Packers were designed to win. The winning score came as the result of a fumbled fumble recovery returned for a touchdown. The football!

Carolina 38, New York Giants 0 — The Giants are known for slow starts but losing their first three games and getting shut out against the previously winless Panthers may be taking things too far.

Detroit 27, Washington 20 — Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III looked more like himself today than in previous games this season. Unfortunately the Washington defense continued to look exactly like themselves.

Miami 27, Atlanta 23 — This game is a great example of how unstable the fortunes of most NFL teams are from year to year. Last year the Miami were 7-9, this year they are 3-0. Last year the Falcons were 13-3, this year they are 1-2.

Baltimore 30, Houston 9 — Missing their star running back, Ray Rice (RUTGERS!!), the Ravens won this game due to the strength of their defense and special teams units.

New Orleans 31, Arizona 7 — Saints keep their perfect record going and look like one of the strongest teams in the NFL.

Cleveland 31, Minnesota 27 — Cleveland played without their starting running back (who they traded to Indianapolis this past week) and their injured starting quarterback and still managed to score more points against the Vikings than they had in their two previous games combined.

San Diego 17, Tennessee 20 — The Titans scored 10 straight points in the fourth quarter including a touchdown with 15 seconds remaining to beat the Chargers.

Dallas 31, St. Louis 7 — Believe it or not, this game was not as close as the score would suggest. The Cowboys dominated the Rams from start to finish.

Chicago 40, Pittsburgh 23 — Pittsburgh has pride and tradition but not much of an offensive line. Those guys are important.

Cue Cards 9-15-2013: NFL One Liners

clapperboardCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

On Mondays during in the fall, the conversation is so dominated by NFL football that the expression “Monday morning quarterback” has entered the vernacular. The phrase is defined by google as “a person who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event.” With the popularity of fantasy football, we now have Monday morning quarterbacks talking about football from two different perspectives. We want you to be able to participate in this great tradition, so all fall we’ll be running NFL One Liners in our cue cards series on Monday. Use these tiny synopses throughout the day:

NFL One Liners

Panthers 23, Bills 24 — Buffalo Bills win dramatically on a touchdown pass thrown by rookie quarterback EJ Manuel with two seconds left in the game; wonder how many games the coach of the Panthers has left before he is fired?
Vikings 30, Bears 31 — Our second game that went down to the wire. This time the Bears got a touchdown with 10 seconds remaining to win the game. Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder left pondering what could have been if his name wasn’t Ponder. Ponder.
Redskins 20, Packers 38 — Maybe the Redskins’ poor start shouldn’t be surprising considering their quarterback, Robert Griffin III, tore his ACL less than 9 months ago; or maybe Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are really good at offensive football.
Dolphins 24, Colts 20 — Colts quarterback Andrew Luck could not create a dramatic comeback against the surprisingly 2-0 Miami Dolphins.
Rams 24, Falcons 31 — The Rams are seemingly on a quest to become a team like the Falcons; close, but no cigar.
Browns 6, Ravens 14 — Defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens rebound from a bad first week loss with a win against a bad team.
Cowboys 16, Chiefs 17 — Long-time former Eagles coach Andy Reid, now coaching the Chiefs, has the ability to beat old Eagles Rival, Dallas Cowboys, in his muscle memory.
Titans 24, Texans 30 — NFL games barely ever go to overtime, but this one did.
Chargers 33, Eagles 30 — The Eagles are supposed to have a revolutionary, fast moving offense, and they do, but today the Chargers out-paced and out-scored them.
Lions 21, Cardinals 25 — It’s a little hard to say this early in the season but it seems like the Cardinals are a good bad team and the Lions are a bad good team. Today the good bad team beat the bad good team. Go figure.
Saints 16, Buccaneers 14 — The Buccaneers spent all week acting like a bad reality show with feuding between coach and players but they were still able to almost beat the Saints. Who will get kicked off the island in this next week’s episode of The Buccaneers? Could be quarterback Josh Freeman.
Broncos 41, Giants 23 — Called the “Manning Bowl” because the quarterbacks of the teams are brothers Peyton and Eli Manning, this was a victory for older brothers everywhere. (Hey Jess!)
Jaguars 9, Raiders 19 — The team that everyone thought would be the worst team in the league before the year started beat the team everyone now thinks is the worst in the league.
49ers 3, Seahawks 29 — This was the most anticipated game of the weekend but it turned out to be a dud. Between the hour-long lightning delay filled with inane chatter and the lopsided score… I need to see Colin Kaepernick without an eyebrow to be happy.

The Good and the Ugly of Fantasy Football

Players that fantasy owners will be grouching about — Colin Kaepernick,  Maurice Jones-Drew, Frank Gore, and Larry Fitzgerald.

Players that fantasy owners will be crowing about — Marshawn Lynch, Michael Vick, Knowshown Moreno, and Pierre Garcon.

Cue Cards 9-11-13: Soccer

clapperboardCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

Sport: Soccer
Teams: United States & Mexico
When: Tuesday, September 10
Context: A World Cup qualifying game
Result: The United States defeated Mexico 2-0
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • The United States has qualified for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil! This may seem old-hat to most people today because the U.S. has qualified for every World Cup since 1990. This string of seven straight qualifications is seventh best in the history of the World Cup and before 1990 the United States had not qualified for forty years.
  • There will probably be some people who question why other people like soccer. I just wrote another post answering that question.
  • A lot will be made of the location of the game. This is now the fourth straight time that the United States has beaten Mexico in a qualifying match played in Columbus Ohio. Each game has ended 2-0 in favor of the U.S. Read Grant Wahl’s excellent post-game piece in Sports Illustrated for more exploration of this topic.
  • Mexico isn’t out of the World Cup for the first time since 1994 yet… but it doesn’t look good. They fired their coach a few days before this game and might do it again after losing to the U.S.. World Cup qualifying is a little complicated (it somehow involves hexagons) but Mexico probably needs to win their two remaining games by as many goals as possible to have a realistic chance. Not making a World Cup in a soccer obsessed country (which basically all of them but the U.S. are) is a hard pill to swallow, so if you are hanging out with a friend who is a Mexican soccer fan today, be nice to her!

What’s Next: The next qualifying matches are on November 10 when the U.S. plays Jamaica and Mexico plays Panama.

Cue Cards 9-9-2013: NFL One Liners

clapperboardCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

On Mondays during in the fall, the conversation is so dominated by NFL football that the expression “Monday morning quarterback” has entered the vernacular. The phrase is defined by google as “a person who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event.” With the popularity of fantasy football, we now have Monday morning quarterbacks talking about football from two different perspectives. We want you to be able to participate in this great tradition, so all fall we’ll be running NFL One Liners in our cue cards series on Monday. Use these tiny synopses throughout the day:

NFL One Liners

Patriots 23, Bills 21 — Patriots were expected to win and did but the Bills made it interesting with their new coach and their rookie quarterback.

Dolphins 23, Browns 10 — A new coach didn’t do anything for the Browns who lost in a completely “meh” game.

Seahawks 12, Panthers 7 — The Panthers are probably not as good as this close game suggests.

Bengals 21, Bears 24 — The Cincinnati Bengals continue their long tradition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Vikings 24, Lions 34 — Adrian Peterson is amazing; the rest of the Vikings… not so much.

Raiders 17, Colts 21 — Raiders new quarterback Terrell Pryor exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations in this game and his team still lost.

Chiefs 28, Jaguars 2 — New Chiefs coach Andy Reid and quarterback Alex Smith start off their careers in Kansas City with a bang regardless of the lack of competition from the Jaguars.

Falcons 17, Saints 23 — A close game between two of the best teams in the league.

Buccaneers 17, Jets 18 — The Jets had all but lost this game, despite better than expected play from rookie quarterback Geno Smith, until a Buccaneer defender took a stupid penalty which led to a last second Jets field goal.

Titans 16, Steelers 9 — The Steelers season feels like it’s over before it even really started because of major injuries to Center Maurkice Pouncey and linebacker Larry Foote.

Packers 28, 49ers 34 — Packers waited all summer to avenge their playoff loss to quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers but failed in a very un-Inigo Montoya like way.

Cardinals 24, Rams 27 — A close, entertaining game between two moderately good but not great football teams.

Giants 31, Cowboys 36 — This high scoring game was brought to you by ugly, sloppy football, not skill and precision.

The Good and the Ugly of Fantasy Football

Players that fantasy owners will be grouching about — Marshawn Lynch, C.J. Spiller, Trent Richardson, Calvin Johnson

Players that fantasy owners will be crowing about — Colin Kaepernick, Reggie Bush, Victor Cruz, and Jared Cook

 

Cue Cards 9-8-2013: College Football & Tennis

clapperboardCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

Sport: College Football
Teams: Innumerable
When: Saturday, September 7
Context: The second full Saturday of the season
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • The first couple weeks of the college football season are full of uneven match-ups between big, powerful schools and the weaker teams that they actually pay to visit their home field. Yesterday had its share of that type of game (Clemson vs South Carolina State, Louisville vs Eastern Kentucky, Rutgers vs. Norfolk State, etc.) but it had some really even and exciting games too.
  • Michigan beat Notre Dame 41 to 30. This was the marquee matchup of the night because it was between to traditional football powers with big fan-bases that are both expected to do well this year. Michigan’s quarterback, Devin Gardner has an interesting story. He was recruited in 2010 to play quarterback but never got much playing time. Last year he switched to Wide Receiver and was excelling at that position until the quarterback got injured and he had to quickly switch back. Now he’s the starting quarterback and he is fun to watch.
  • Georgia upset South Carolina, also 41 to 30. The story will be about Jadeveon Clowney, the star defensive end on the South Carolina team. He became a star last year after this play and is likely to be the first pick of the NFL draft next year. He hasn’t played very well so far this year though, and his team is not doing great either.

What’s Next: No more College Football until Thursday night when Texas Tech faces Texas Christian University at 7:30.

Sport: Tennis
Players: Novak Djokovic vs. Stanislas Wawrinka and Raphael Nadal vs. Richard Gasquet
When: Saturday, September 7
Context: The Semifinals of the U.S. Open
Result: Novak Djokovic defeated Stanislas Wawrinka 2-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Raphael Nadal defeated Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-6, 6-2
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • The Djokovic-Wawrinka match was an epic. The five setter took four hours and nine minutes. A single game in the third set involved 30 points over 21 minutes — a game is won by the first player to get to four but you have to win by two, so these players were stuck at deuce for a long time! Djokovic is the #1 ranked player in the world, so he was expected to win but Wawrinka made a lot of fans yesterday by playing clever, valiant tennis.
  • Raphael Nadal, on the other side of the bracket, continued his dominant run to the finals. Brian Phillips (@runofplay) is one of my absolutely favorite people to follow on twitter. Here was his comment on Nadal from the quarterfinals but it would apply equally to yesterdays match:


What’s Next: The women’s final between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka is on Sunday “not before” 4:30.  The men’s final will be on Monday.

Cue Cards 9-7-2013: Baseball, Soccer, and Tennis

clapperboardCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

Sport: Baseball
Teams: The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox
When: Friday, September 6
Context: The last month of the regular season
Result: The Red Sox won 12-8
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • As the daily forecast showed yesterday, it’s always a big deal when these rivals play. In this case the rivalry was augmented by the standings in the last month of the season. Boston is firmly in first place of the division and will make the playoffs and the Yankees are two and a half games out of the last wildcard playoff spot.
  • Yesterday made it two games in a row versus Boston that the Yankees have scored eight runs and been leading the game in the sixth inning and still lost. This is unusual and probably quite depressing to Yankees fans.

What’s Next: They play again today at 1:05. Not the most important sporting event because of all the college football on, but close.

Sport: Soccer
Teams: The United States and Costa Rica
When: Friday, September 6
Context: A World Cup qualifying game
Result: The United States loses 3-1
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • The Streak is over. After winning 12 games in a row, the United States has lost. Unfortunately this game was more important than the past six or seven because this one counts towards World Cup qualification. Still, the historic streak will cushion the blow for many fans of the team.
  • Three U.S. players got their second cumulative yellow card during World Cup qualifying games in this match. This triggers a one game suspension for them. One of the players was star striker Jozy Altidore who fouled someone needlessly right before the game was over. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann was critical of Altidore for this. 

What’s Next: The United States will face Mexico in another qualifying match on Tuesday. Win and they almost definitely qualify for the World Cup; lose and there will be much wringing of hands and worrying of brows.

Sport: Tennis
Players: Serena Williams vs. Li Na, and Victoria Azarenka vs. Flavia Pennetta
When: Friday, September 6
Context: The Semifinals of the U.S. Open
Result: Serena Williams defeats Li Na 6-0, 6-3 and Victoria Azarenka defeats Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-2
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • In this country at least, the stories will mostly be about Serena Williams and how dominant she looked. Serena is 31, far past the age that tennis players tend to start losing their ability to play at the highest level, and she just keeps on winning against other very good players convincingly.

What’s Next: The women’s final is on Sunday. The men’s semi-final matches are today when Raphael Nadal plays Richard Gasquet and Novak Djokovic plays Stanislas Wawrinka. Nadal and Djokovic are expected to win but watch out for Wawrinka who just upset Andy Murray soundly in three straight sets.

Cue Cards 7-22-13: Golf and Soccer

stk321064rknCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

Sport: Golf
When: Thursday through Sunday, July 17-21
Context: The British Open
Result: Phil Mickelson won
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • Tiger Woods — in golf, at least in the United States for the past decade or so, the story is almost always Tiger Woods. He was tied for second place after three of the four days in the tournament but had a bad last day. Once thought to have a good shot of becoming the golfer with the most major tournament wins, Tiger remains stuck at fourteen since his personal scandal in 2008.
  • Phil Mickelson — the winner will get some press too. He was tied for ninth coming into Sunday and played an incredibly good last round of golf on Sunday. This is particularly remarkable considering he was winning the last big tournament before he messed it up in its last day.

What’s Next: The next major tournament is the PGA Championships on August 8-11.

Sport: Soccer
Teams: The United States and El Salvador
When: Sunday, July 21
Context: The quarterfinals of the Gold Cup, a regional tournament held every year to determine the champion of the North American, Central American, and Caribbean region
Result: The United States wins 5-1
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • Streaking — The United States Men’s national team has now won nine games in a row, its longest streak ever.
  • Landon Donovan — For years Donovan has been the consensus best American player and the leader of its national team through three World Cups. In the last few months the new coach Jurgen Klinsmann has decided not to use Donovan for important national team games. This tournament has been seen as a chance for Donovan to prove that he is still a valuable enough player to be included in the US lineup for next year’s World Cup in Brazil. Donovan played very well yesterday and headlines today suggest that Donovan “has his swagger back” and “proved he belongs.”

What’s Next: The United States will face Honduras in the semifinals on Wednesday, July 24 at 7 pm. The other semifinal game is Panama vs. Mexico at 10 pm that night.

Cue Cards 6-28-13: NBA Draft and Trade

stk321064rknCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

Sport: Basketball
Teams: All of them
When: Thursday night, 6-27-13
Context: The NBA Draft (for more detailed context, click here or here)
Result: 60 young men now have high paying jobs
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • The first pick. After weeks of discussing whether the first overall player selected was going to be Nerlens Noel or Alex Len or maybe Victor Oladipo, the Clevelend Cavaliers instead picked a guy named Anthony Bennett from UNLV.
  • Things didn’t get less strange after that. Often drafts are pretty predictable — not this one, it was full of surprises all the way through.
  • Most people will be talking about the team they root for and who they picked or didn’t pick. Let them do this — no one really knows anything at this point about how well these choices will turn out although everyone will have an opinion.

What’s Next: Now that the draft is done, trades and free-agent signings will rule the NBA landscape.

Sport: Basketball
Teams: Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets
When: Thursday, 6-23-13
Context: A trade!
Result: The Brooklyn Nets trade Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace, a signed-and-traded Keith Bogans, Reggie Evans, Kris Joseph, three first-round picks (2014, 2016, 2018), and the right to swap picks in 2017 to the Boston Celtics for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry.
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • Now it’s really the end of the Big Three era in Boston. After trading their coach on Sunday, the Celtics continue to dismantle the team they’ve had for the last few years. Paul Pierce in particular had been a Celtic his entire career since being drafted in 1998!
  • Who “won” the trade. Like the draft, it really won’t be clear which team got the better side of this trade for a long time (many years considering we won’t know who the Celtics will draft with all those future draft picks) but that won’t stop any fan from having a strong opinion on one side or another.
  • The crazy Russian — Nets owner Michael Prokhorov is known to be an eccentric Russian billionaire willing to spend gobs of money to win. He just put his money where his mouth is. The NBA has a “luxury tax rule” that if the amount a team is paying in player salaries exceeds a certain figure, they have to pay the league an equal amount over that limit. That money is then distributed to all the teams whose payroll’s are under the figure (called a salary cap.) The Nets just committed to being way over the salary cap for the next couple years.

Cue Cards 6-25-13: Hockey and Tennis

stk321064rknCue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

Sport: Hockey
Teams: Chicago Blackhawks vs. Boston Bruins
When: Monday night, 6-24-13
Context: Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Chicago Blackhawks led the seven game series 3-2.
Result: The Chicago Blackhawks win 3-2 and win the Stanley Cup
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • Absolute heartbreak for the Boston Bruins. After a late goal in the third period the Bruins were up by a goal with less than two minutes left. The Blackhawks pulled their goalie (a desperation move) and scored to tie the game. This had to have had everyone in the arena thinking that the game would go to overtime like so many of the games in this series did. The Blackhawks had other ideas and scored again before the end of regulation time to win the game and the series.
  • The end for Jaromir Jagr? Jagr is 41 and played his first year in the NHL in 1990. He won the championship with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992 and has not won since. Although he played remarkably well for most of the season and playoffs, he got banged up pretty good in this game, and there was a shot of him after the game mourning the loss that had an air of finality and deep sadness.
  • This series was about as good as the NHL could wish for. Two original six teams from big U.S. markets playing incredibly well against each other. This season, which looked to be at risk of not happening at all after the owners locked out the players, ended on a high note for the sport.
  • Of course one of the consequences of the labor problems is that the season ended unseasonably late in the year. It was 95 degrees in Boston today and the ice quality was very poor throughout, particularly at the end of the game when a lot of the important action happened.

What’s Next: Probably a lot of beer for the Chicago team. And the city of Chicago. And I imagine many of the Bruins fans in my life too.

Sport: Tennis
Players: Rafael Nadal and Steve Darcis
When: Monday, 6-24-13
Context: The first round of any tennis tournament is where one expects the expected. It is very rare for anything head-line worthy to happen.
Result: Steve Darcis beat Rafael Nadal in three straight sets, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8), 6-4
Sports Fans will be Talking About:

  • The surface — we just did a post on this today about how Nadal’s style of play leaves him open at this stage in his career to being upset on grass.
  • Who is this Steve Darcis guy anyway? No really, no one will know anything about him except that he is Belgian and that no one knows anything about him.
  • Nadal’s knee which looked like it was bothering him. Tendonitis in his knees has forced him to miss lots of time in the past few years and it feels more like this is a permanent disability than something which he will one day look back on as a bump in the road. Every loss and every injury for Nadal is therefore analysed as though it may be his last.