Colette -- Hehe. I guess you & me know our dog breeds, eh? :)

CPM, gotcha. And good name pspace.

Annie: You've just written MAndy's Wimby epitaph, talking about his great commercial.

It's a TVland rule that, if you're featured in a commercial that gets frequent airtime, you will bomb out early, thus being forced to see yourself multiple times daily through the end of a tournament you're no longer a part of.

(see, Roddick, A. vs Pong)

A 37-year-old just scored a penalty goal for Mexico, putting them up 2-zip with c. 10 mins. to go.

AB-don't agree about that rule necessarily. See Netjets, Federer.

The hardest one to watch was the one with RAndy and the trophy falling on his head. was that American Express? and losing his mojo.

AB,

I would've thought RAndy's infamous and ill-conceived "mojo" commercial would've been the prime example of what you're talking about.

Meanwhile, Mexico's dishing out some revenge for the whole Napoleon III-backed Emperor Maximilian thing.

No? Hmmm.

Les Bleus? More like ... Les Blows! Amirite?!

Karen's "Dustin" is a beautiful Puli

France is cooked,down 2 goals to nil. This is my most successful WC pool! I am winning this thing with the Albicelestes!

Jenni: I think Ferrer's lost some juice going into Wimby. Don't know why. It's not really about losing so much as *how* you're losing. I don't think he's losing well. If that makes sense.

robbyfan, CPM: yah, I forgot about that embarrassment. Ill-conceived is too mild.

Karen: I thought I'd heard that Dustin has made it into the main draw, the first Caribbean athlete to do so at Wimbledon in 42 years (or something like that). He's ranked #105 and, with all the withdrawals of higher ranked players, he should be automatically among the usual 104 first placed in the main draw. I'll check my ranking info at the ATP site.

As for Cool Runnings, you're just being typical snobby Jamaican, that's all! LOL but I know what you mean. My sons,nieces, and nephews -- all honorary second generation West Indians -- certainly liked the movie a lot more that we old fogeys (their parents, uncles, and aunts) did.

AB, it does make sense. Personally, I'm not thrilled about his opting to skip the grass warmups. I guess we'll see.

Thanks, didn't know they had to be in the top ten. Still, whyn't choose Frannie who went out in the first round here and doesn't play well on the grass. Everyone underestimate this beautiful and talented Scandinavian girl and what is so great is that she always proves the doubters wrong. I'm going to wait for the draw before giving my picks.

Also, what about Aggie, oh, I know she is also a better player than Caro. Rolleyes!

Francesca made the QFs last year so an argument can be made that yes, she does play decently on grass.

...And Sleepers can't be former GS Champs (I'm gonna spreadsheet this)

AB's picks:
Early exit = Top 10 Seeds
Men: Ferrer
Women: Pennetta

Sleeper = outside of the 20
Men: Querrey
Women: Dulgheru (she's my breakout player of 2010)

Dark Horse = outside of top 50
Men: Fish
Women: Zakopalova (only because I like to say her name out loud)

Master Ace's Picks:

Early Exit - Davydenko and Schiavone with Pennetta 2nd.
Sleeper - Querrey and Petkovic with Martinez Sanchez 2nd.
Dark Horse - Malisse and Flipkens with Baltacha and Rybarikova close
CPM's:

Winners: Roddick, Williams
Early Exits: Roddick, the other Williams

robbyfan's:

Men's Winner-Roddick
Finalist-Rafa
Early out-Nole
Sleeper-Mardy Fish
And remember if Mardy wins I promise to eat the Top 10 player's socks

heather's:

Winner: Andy R. (finally!!)
Finalist: Rafa or Roger :)
Early Exit: Soderling

pat's:

early exit:

ATP: Ferrer (game not suit to grass)
WTA: Peer & Pennetta (as much as Peer is playing well this year, grass is not surface; thinks that flavia will defend her 3rd round place last year)

sleepers:

ATP: R. Schuttler (thinks he reached SFs in 2008, played good in the grass season this year) & Querrey (well, winning on all surfaces this year is something, potent weapon on the grass: serve)
WTA: Zie Jheng & Na Li (support for asians, big hitters, flat hitters, agile, na li had a good first serve; former SFs & QFs, can topple any seed on any given day)

dark horse:

ATP: i dont know??? maybe Lleyton... (wants to see him do well again)
WTA: Petkovic

PSpace's:

Winner: Not Rog, Rafa or Randy (c'mon that counts as a pick). Serena.

Early exit: Rafa (3rd round) and Roger (4th round). And, Justine

*branch breaks and Pspace falls*

Kwaku's (if it kwakus like a duck....):

Winner: Rafa.
Finalist: Roger.
Early exit: Murray.
Sleeper: Baghdatis.
Dark horse: Fish.
Strange duck: Golubev.

WTA (with such depth of field, it's a toss of a coin, but let me try):
Winner: Serena.
Finalist: Williams.
Ealy exit: Wozniacki.
Sleeper: María José.
Dark horse: Date Krumm.
Strange duck: Bartoli.

Colette: I read your comment about the box with the pennies for the Unicef trophy 10 minutes ago, and I'm still laughing!

And, yes, I was the one who mentioned Boodles yesterday, and I discovered later why I couldn't find any identifying info about the source of the name on the exo site -- Boodles is a British gin. So, I guess they take the sponsorship money, but they don't want to talk about it too much because it's "demon likker"! :)

I just told my son about the Jamaican tennis player who has 36-inch locks (Don't call them dread locks!) like him -- and is almost as handsome (tee hee); and now I have to go find a picture of Dustin.

Ruth,
Yes, Dustin is in the main draw at Wimbledon.

Ruth: those locks look too distracting. I remember my mother yelling at Serena and Venus to take the beads out of their hair - then one match, the beads fell out and sister got penalized.

I don't know how Andre manageed to play (and win) worrying about his hairpiece flying off.

I've actually been called on a "hair touch" at the net playing comptetive volleyball. Had to stick my ponytail inside my shirt.

Too distracting.

Vamos Mexico! Also nice to see Chris Fowler on ESPN coverage, reminds me of tennis. :)

I LOVE boodles gin...well, face it, I love all gin. :-) Pass the vermouth please. And the olives.

if dent and wozniak both got married and had kids....their kids would have the most widest smiles....had to say it

just saw this: http://tinyurl.com/2dco4ja

Dear Nole's serve, please come back. I miss you so much. please, i promise i'll never take you for granted ever again.

Justine is doing great, just wish she was facing stronger opponent, so I could get a better feel for where her game is at. Maria looked great until she has to face a player close to the top ten and then went out easily. Kim looked good until she got a top opponent.

"Ooodles of Boodles gin" hic!!

Friday Order of Play:

ATP: 's-Hertogenbosch at 5 AM - Malisse vs Stakhovsky to be followed by Becker vs Tipsarevic
WTA: Eastbourne at 6:30 AM - Stosur vs Makarova to be followed by Bartoli vs Azarenka
WTA: 's-Hertogenbosch at 9 AM - Henin vs Dulgheru to be followed by Flipkens vs Petkovic
ATP: Eastbourne at 9 AM - Llodra vs Dolgopolov to be followed by Istomin vs Garcia-Lopez

By the way, my WTA contenders and floaters have been published in the next thread.

AB: I remember that falling beads incident. It was the first and last time that I ever saw Venus get really angry and upset with an umpire -- and the umpire was absolutely right about the warning/penalty for the distraction. I didn't like her reaction, but she was very young then, and I forgave her. :) Just thinking.. I would never have predicted in those days that she'd still be playing at age 30!

Thanks for confirming the main draw information, MA. If these ATP reports of Wimby withdrawals continue, the #120 ranked player may end up getting into the main draw automatically! :-)

Ruth, I knew somebody would be old enough (he he, like me) to remember Trick or Treating for Unicef (or remember when pennies made a difference)!

I knew Boodles was a gin, but it's still a funny name!

gliciouss, thanks for the Dent-al observation

Thanks Patrick.

Thanks lollipop for the twitter news on Delpo. He is my second favorite player and I can't wait for him to come back! I so wish he would be back for the USO, but it's better for him to do this the right way and come back when he is completely healed and ready.

May I add another dark horse and put Robby Ginepri up for discussion? He had a good run a few years back.......

Pete has another post up on PMac's book.

I know everyone has left this thread but there were so many great conversations going and I just got here! So for anyone who may wander in I'm going to put in my 2 cents :) which is probably all it's worth at this point. anyhoo...

Ruth, us white folk here in the states call them "dreads." No? Is this a real no-no? I happen to think they're really cool (and the WS didn't have REAL locks obviously).

okay, I'm really getting into this player and their canine-kind equivalent thing.

Rafa has always reminded me of a black lab puppy. I think he's more of a black lab because his hair is so dark.

Fed's doggie doppelganger has to be smart, graceful, strong and well, basically perfect. Afghan hounds have all these qualities but one. My hubby had one before we were married and he told me that they are on the very bottom of the list intelligence-wise. Basically he told me they were the dumbest dogs on earth. I haven't verified this but if he's accurate then how can Fed be an Afghan? So, I'm bored and find this fun so I'm pulling out my dog breed book to see what else is out there.

And as for my predictions for wimby dark horses, early exits and sleepers, I'm going to wait until the draws come out because with all these sad withdrawals I'm not sure who is actually going to be playing! And I really hope I didn't jinx Mandy. I think he's going to be at least a semifinalist this year.

And I have a wonderful story book dream of seeing Frannie, high from her French triumph, going all the way and pulling a channel slam of her own. Call me crazy but that's what I'd like to see.

Well, so much for my great idea of having the tennis folk come here to talk. Not feeling too great about being railroaded off a post by basketball fans. But I would prefer this to some other sites that have Draconian rules about posting.

brilliant good to here that Kim is back..