Federer, Hewitt Make 2005 Debuts Monday; Hingis, Philippous

[gsm]

"boyo" do you forget Rogers Olympic ambitions? He had no shortage of patriotic feelings then.

And having seen him loose that 5 set match to Hewitt , It was obvious that he dearly wanted it.

[di-10S]

Out of match w/groin injury. sighhhh
too much sex w/teenage girlfriend??!!!!
Get better Mark!

[ChrisM]

ew, gross. Flipper needs to join a Buddhist monastery.

[ccm]

Sorry to go off topic, but what do all these women see in "The Scud?" He looks like a cromagnon. The picture of him with his new woman is laughable. It's the ATP version of beauty and the beast.

not my type either, but actually i think poo n his new thingy look like brother/sister. . .

[Socket]

"Socket" his exact quote was : 'If I gotta win on cow sh*t , then I guess I have to do it'.

On courtcoverage.com, the guy has this. It's not easy to follow, so here's the URL: http://members.rogers.com/courtcoverage/ The first is a quote from the ABC Online article, and the second is the commentator's response.

"Tennis Australia hits back at Hewitt criticism" - ABC Online

Yesterday, he even compared the Rebound Ace courts being used at the Australian's men's Hardcourts event at Memorial Drive in Adelaide to "cow dung".

That's probably not what he meant. The quote in yesterday's stories was:
“If I've got to win the Australian Open on cow dung I'll try my best to do it,â€

[ccm]

"boyo" do you forget Rogers Olympic ambitions? He had no shortage of patriotic feelings then.

And having seen him loose that 5 set match to Hewitt , It was obvious that he dearly wanted it.

true, but it's easy to put another spin on it too. winning an olympic gold is also a bucketful of personal glory, patriotism aside. plus, it'd make a novel addition to his trophy case.

as for going down hard to hewitt, fed's one of the few players who speaks openly (albeit in his nice-guy way) about wanting revenge on players who've beaten him. think he would have hated to lose that match under any circumstances. don't think he was satisfied with himself until he wasted lleyton in the USO final.

it's definitely lleyton's turn to bite back; it could really set the tone for his entire year if he were able to score a W over fed at home when he wants it the most.

[ccm]

"ccm" couldnt agree more , those donations are piss weak to the max(does that make sense?) and the fact that Sharapova's misely $10000 handout made world headlines is a disgrace. Why she or her management company would want the world to know that I do not know.

"Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher joined the growing list of sporting donors to victims of the Asian tsunami with a pledge of $10 million. . . . while men's players Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt will auction rackets to raise funds."

Just doesn't belong in the same article. . .

Also good for Kiefer (see below), but, uh, one is a bit embarrassing. Maybe he should make it aces *and* double faults?

"German tennis player Nicolas Kiefer pledged $100 for every ace he serves at three Australian tournaments starting this week in Adelaide. Today, he beat Frenchman Cyril Saulnier and served one ace, lifting his tournament total to six, organizers said."

[Conrad]

Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher

Isn't this Jelena Dokic's ex...?

[gsm]

'socket' nice bit of net surfing mate , but I have to say going to the effort to point out the difference in quote's was not worth it.

tennisreporters.net quote:"If I gotta win the Australian Open on cow sh*t , I'll try my best to do it"

My quote: "If I gotta win on cow shit , then I guess I have to do it"

Living in Adelaide I heard the sound bite on telly many times. When I first heard it , I happened to be on the computer and tapped in to the forum the basics of the quote ; that he was refering to AO court as cow sh*t , not realising my post would be scrutinised for accuracy. After I did see that it was scrutinised I wrote the quote down the next time I heard it.

As I've said earlier in the forum , will be going to the tournament on the weekend , will ask him for you (if he's still there , damn well hope so) if was refering to the AO court or not.

Regardless I'll write you guys a little report on my weekends outing.

'ccm' , yes Olympic gold would be a "noval addition to the trophy case". The point I'm making is when Fed was walking into the stadium during the opening ceremony carrying the national flag , he was as patriotic as any. Now he decides that representing his country comes a big second to his personal goals. It all reaks of selfishness to me for the reasons outlined in the post you refer to.

[boyo]

federer's olympic ambitions ain't necessarily patriotic ones. obviously he's given the Davis Cup thing a backseat because it's not important to him. this is deduction on my part.

the comment about selfishness however is an assumption and seemed like a goad because it implies he's depriving others, in this case his suisse countryman, of something they deserve or might treasure.

patriotism is such a racket, pun intended.

[gsm]

Your a hard nut to crack "boyo". I'm going to sit out of this subject indefinitely. Nothing like a good old clash of differences though.

[Conrad]

In defense of Federer, I don't think it's fair that he should be expected to carry the entire country's hopes for a Davis Cup solely on his shoulders. Davis Cup is meant to be a team competition. It's too big a commitment and too much pressure for one person to carry. In weighing the pros and cons of what playing Davis Cup would mean for Fed's goals for 2005, I can understand why he would bow out.

Am I the only one who sees it this way?

[boyo]

it's all the spinach that makes me cranky.

but, yeah i'm with conrad on this one.

lol, i always think, what would i do if i were a world champ tennis player? well, i guess after BUYING A HOUSE IN THIS FRIGHTENLY EXPENSIVE SF REAL ESTATE MARKET, Davis Cup would be low on my priorities. all these freaky patriotic types screaming their lungs out like its the superbowl or something.

what's the saying, Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel? perhaps the upcoming inaugural is souring my mood ...

[mariam]

davis cup is so laughingly( is that a word?) irrelevant that it shouldn't matter if fed shows up or not...

perhaps the upcoming inaugural is souring my mood ...

too bad RAF isn't here to cheer you up. you guys could have some lively discussions.

[ChrisM]

for me the beauty of Davis Cup has nothing to do with patriotism, flag-waving, or what-not. It's all about the tennis. There are some great matches in Davis Cup, some of the greatest ever, in fact. Careers are born in Davis Cup because of great wins. If Nadal doesn't have the opportunity to beat Roddick like he did, then he had a pretty good year, not a great one. Hewitt's big win over Federer a while back was legendary, ditto against Kuerten on clay. Chang and Sampras got immediate revenge over Rafter's US Open win because of Davis Cup. Those probably aren't even the best examples... I think the US win over Russia had some great matches. The point is, the flags give everyone an excuse to organize and play some matches a few times a year. What the crowd does or doesn't do isn't as important to me as the tennis played. If some people get feverishly excited, so be it. That's their problem. As long as it doesn't turn into Chile vs. Argentina, great.... but ask Pacers and Pistons fans....it doesn't have to be an international competition to get ugly.

From the purely Canadian perspective, tennis has to work very hard to get meaningful exposure. We have a great coaching system here, and tennis programs for kids and teens are run with the highest positivity, but the program has struggled to produce champions. This is partly a problem of population, funding, climate, and social drives, but a little luck doesn't hurt either. Canada's return to the World Group, especially teenager Dancevic's emotional win over Saretta, did more for tennis in this country in two hours than anything from the previous ten years. It got people talking. If that's what Davis Cup is good for, and nothing more, then that's sufficient cause for existence.

(ps I don't wave flags, and I wish the national anthems would disappear from sporting events... so for sure I could do without the patriotic aspects of the competition...)