Actually Guys it was Hubby who said that about Pete soo many times lol!

Good Night.

RG and AA At least Hewitt/Knowles are still in the doubles their match is about to start now.

hi am:) can you please let me in on the controversy? As fas as i know, pete was beaten by better clay-courters!

citrus LOL!! Yes we all know that.

Though blinded Pete fans like my hubby,NP and imjimmy always think it was a total conspiracy.I just got along.

We used to hav the Pete Sampras Hour here.Actually it was good.Nothing like the heated Fedal Wars lol!

AM I think Hewitt/Knowles is a good dubs combo. Maybe they should play together at Wimbledon.

AA Yes.Though the other dubs team they will meet here if they win is Nestor/Zemonjic

That's the beauty of internet. Everybody can upload anything on the net and get away with it. Anyone can write a name+corruption and get thousands of hits. Mother Thresa+ the c word shows over 270.000 hits. Even Ghandi+c gets more than 800.000. But is the information truthful and related to them?. NO, most of the times. Coubertin+corruption gets 90.000 hits, by the way.

Even at the very beginning, the IOC had political issues. Business and favoritisms were already playing a role. Coubertin couldn't have gone on with his idea of celebrating (partial) Olympic Games in 1894 without Demetrius Vikelas (a rich Greek merchant). Coubertin, for example vetoed the presence of a German representative in their Executive Committee because of the French animosity towards the other European country. And so history goes on...

I was surprised and angry when the IOC chose Beijing as an OG venue. What to do with those athletes preparing for that special occasion? Watch them or ignore their participation? Everybody who watched the OG is "guilty" of supporting the IOC's choice.
And Samaranch wasn't one of the 15 members of the Executive Board who made the decission. Sport+politics+money is the formula of the modern OG whether one likes it or not.

Next meeting awaits.

AM: Yeah. That is a good sign! Hope Hewitt makes good progress in doubles here.

RG its a tight match at the moment on serve at the moment

Well they just broke the other team and won the 1st set 6-4

Hope Mark Lopez proves lucky for Lleyton too!

I read somewhere that Lleyton and Rafa practice sometimes. It is sometimes to see certain players mix with certain players. I for one found it interesting to see Soderling practice with Roger. I would somehow have imagined Rafa practicing with his Spanish group and Roger sticking with Stanislas and his contemporaries like Safin, Lleyton..

RG Rafa and Lleyton have played doubles together long time ago.Rafa admires Lleyton because of his mindset and he never gives up regardless.Lleyton had This Is Your Like program some years ago and Rafa sent a live message of congratulating him of all the success he has had as a tennis player reaching no 1 etc

oops Lleyton and Mark were leading 4-2 in the 2nd set got broken back

AM: Ah! Now I remember that they played doubles together. Also when Rafa wanted to play a pre-wimbledon exho last year to test his state, he played Hewitt! Good to know that they are friends despite the slight language barrier.

Lleyton/Mark won 6-4,7-6

AM: Congrats! Match done and dusted in straight sets.

AM: I think Amelie Mauresmo will make a comeback too..What say? During Wimbledon. The Williams are injured and if she does ask for a wildcard do not think the All England Club would refuse it...

RG Nadal It was Davenport last night now Amelie? lol! What about Mary Pierce as well

I dont think she would come back for Wimby she has won it.What about RG? she never won that.

RG I hope Serna and Vee will be right before Wimby

I am hoping Vee can reclaim her Wimby title.

AM: lol. If she shows up at RG, she would not stand a chance against the likes of Cibulkova,Pavlyuchenkova, etc. Also, she feels way too much pressure at RG. I think Mary Pierce recently said that she is not completely healed. Whehn she does play for an hour or two per day, it still hurts.

David Ferrer seems more on track tonight leading Bolelli 3-0

Poor Simon Bolelli. How many matches did he win this year? Faring very poorly! At least the other Simon is injured. This fella is healthy and not faring well!

Ferrer has already bageled Bolelli to take the first set.
Belucci is up a break over Garcia-Lopez. Tennistv starts coverage with Tsonga-Almagro today.

RG Nadal Not many.Last time I saw Bolelli played was at Medibank 09.

Hello chicklet. Whom are you supporting at Barca?

Gee I wonder when we will have a new post this one is up to 11 pages already

rg,nadal - I'll pulling for one of the minions to grab a title after all the work they put in at Monte Carlo. Ferrer has reached the final the last two years, so he's my sentimental favorite. JCF or Sauce would be nice to see as well.

Bolelli has retired. Poor guy, Ferru didn't even let him win a game.
Bellucci takes the first set 6-4

chicklet: Ah ok. Me cheering for JCF. Would like to see Almagro do well too.

Eh, I've never warmed to Almagro. Hope Tsonga takes him down today.

So Roddick has pulled out of Rome due to fatigue. LOL

Hey is that true?

Roddick has in the past done ok in Rome

Is RAndy planning to play anything on clay before RG? I guess there is still Madrid.

Oh no! If he does that it would be the third time this year that Tsonga takes out Alamgro!

Fatigue from what.

AA Maybe from winning Miami lol!

AA That horrid Waldron guy was in charge of Melbourne Storm for 5 years he was instrumental in this fraud.

That was two weeks ago. Man that must be some hangover. I think it is ridiculous that the American guys don't go over and play on clay eg Roddick, Blake (though he does have a knee injury atm) etc.

Damn Sods and Florence are playing each other. Shame I won't be able to watch.

chicklet: Think Murray will turn up at Rome!

ARod must be taking care of that shoulder of his. May be he can come to Madrid. After all, the surface is faster and may suit his clay court (!) game!

When is the Tsonga/Ferdasco match on pls?

Saw a picture where Roddick is in Hawaii with the SI cover lady as they celebrate their one year anniversary. Maybe Roddick is fatigued in Hawaii as he has not played since winning Miami. Also, Roddick avoides the real part of the season as much as he can.

Angel of the Surf,
As you know by now, it is a yearly tradition to play a low amount number of clay matches as possible. In the first 2 events in singles play, a total of one American played and that was Michael Russell in Barcelona.

I think Brooklyn is filming in Hawaii.

AM: It will start in another 30 minutes.

MA I was hoping maybe Querry would go and play on clay.

Yes I too was fatiqued last time I was in Hawaii too.

AM - Tsonga plays Almagro is about 25 minutes. That is followed by Verdasco-Melzer.

Thanks RG.Will there be any live streams at all

I am sick and tired at looking at SB

Der to me.I meant the Tsonga/Almagro match see what SB does to you

AM: Try this link:
http://www.fromsport.com/video-233246.html

AM: wlcm. If the link does not work, check the conversations in the chat room next to the video screening. People would give better match links.

Thanks RG.I always get a good laugh from the chat room

AM Bet365 has stream, so at least I will get to some tennis tonight.

Yeah Sam Query can play on clay ok

AM: Wlcm. Yeah..lol. Especially when they are hurling conspiracy theories and really funny allegations!

Believe it or not, ESPN3 will be streaming from Barcelona starting today?

All right. Gtg now. Ciao everyone!

Bye RG

Well I am tired had a busy day.I think I will call it a night

Good luck to Sauce and JCF.

Bye For Now

My stream is a bit dodgey.

"The Russians are gonna take the tie easily!"

It will all depend on Dementieva. If she'll be in a good mood Russia will win easily, if she'll be in a bad moon Russia will win it the hard way :-))

AM: I know Roddick usually skip the clay until Madrid or RG. Since there are 2 mandatory tourneys before Mdrid, how does he handle the powers that be when he doesn't show up? He's probably accumulated enough matches to not have to play one MS tourney

Nico breaks Tsonga, hopefully he can consolidate the break.

TBB playing well he is level 5-5 with JCF.

Not a fan of players skipping out on tournaments/seasons just because it's their least favorite surface. Roddick's just saving himself for Wimbledon. But since Rome is a required MS 1000 event he should be there. There is no evidence he's injured or what exactly his 'fatigue' is from. And clay being his least favorite surface isn't an excuse.

You know if Roddick actually put in some real effort on the clay he might have decent results on it.

Really strong set of tennis from Nico, especially the last two games. He has been volleying quite well. Wish my stream was a little bit though.

Wow TBB won the first set over JCF. I am a bit surprised.

Night all, vamos Nico, JCF, Verdasco and Florence but if RR wins that is cool.

ZOMG, Thiemo's up 5-2 in the 3rd set STB.

Seriously torn. Starting to adore the kid but JCF's pic in Spanish Elle ...

Thiemo wins! *happy scream* *clinks glasses of bessenjenever with zenggi and Angel*

Commiserations to Juanqui fans. No idea if he actually played that bad -- FS @ 80%, but it looks like the kid out-aced him 16 to 2, among other things. And at least you all have Spanish Elle. (For those of you who haven't seen it yet: http://tiny.cc/1gcxp )

OMG, Peg and Angel,

Thiemo did it!!. Happy dance for him. I've just arrived home and I haven't watched the match. I'll drink one Heineken if you don't mind to celebrate his victory. I hate jenever with a vengeance. I'm curious about his message in twitter later.

I'm sorry for JCF because he's always be one of my favourites. Way before those pictures in Elle. I'm going to find the stats of the match.

Zenggi,
Congrats to DeBakker for learning his lessons from the King of Clay last week and used them to good will today.

TWibe,
Pete has a new thread up so we can have a place to discuss tennis and etc...

Thank you, Master Ace. I don't think Thiemo had time to learn anything from Rafa last week. The thrashing went so fast :)

Poor Juan Carlos 51% points won and he lost the match. Ouch!.