What a Great Weekend for Britain
What more could the Brits ask for in a single weekend? They had two of the greatest sporting events to start a weekend. First, they had the Wimbledon finals for both the ladies and the gentleman. Then they had the Prologue and Stage 1 of the Tour de France. Could it get any better? If I were there, assuming I had Wimbledon tickets, I would have been hard pressed to choose one (actually it would be easy… Prologue Saturday, Gentleman’s finals at Wimbledon on Sunday).
At Wimbledon, Venus became the lowest seeded women’s player to win at a seeding of 23. Really, it is kind of a joke. Kind of like Agassi becoming the second unseeded man to win Wimbledon (at least I believe Becker was unseeded in when he won his first). Both were top players in a difficult time and everyone knew they were better than their rankings. I am happy for Venus. I have always thought she would be better off removing herself from her sister and her father when it comes to tennis. Although, I still laugh at her youthful arrogance when she once said she would be No. 1 in the world and her sister No. 2 and they would have every record in the book. I don’t think that combined her and her sister have as many titles as Steffi Graf nor will either of them ever win a “Golden Slam” as Graf did.
On the men’s side, Nadal pushed Federer into a fifth set. It was an incredible match and Nadal could easily have unseated the now 5-time Wimbledon Champion. Federer has tied Borg’s record for consecutive Wimbledon titles, but to be the “King” of Wimbledon, he will still have to win at least two more and tie Pete Sampras. Federer now has 11 grandslam titles along with Borg and Laver. He need s three more to catch Sampras. What is amazing is that Federer has won 11 grandslams in 19 grandslam tournaments. That is just unreal. Talk moves to whether he is the greatest player ever. Well, that is a tough one. I am going to state this, out of 13 matches, on a variety of surfaces, Federer beats any other player in history at least 9 times. He has a complete game. He may never beat Nadal on clay, but that doesn’t even matter. However, as far as the most dominant player of his era, I still give the nod to the man from down under. Rod Laver. After all, the guy won a grand slam when only amatuers were allowed to play. He then goes pro. Doesn’t get to play in a grand slam event for 8 years, until pros are allowed to play and then wins another grandslam. How can you top that? Think about if he had played in grandslams those 7-8 years. He would have like 25 total titles instead of 11.
Onto the Tour de France which started with the Prologue in London. How cool is that? Despite the coverage being dampened by the drug scandals in cycling how can you not be excited to see Fabian Canellara just destroy the field in the 8k TT. Meanwhile, Andreas Kloden establishes himself as a Tour favorite with an awesome Prologue. Meanwhile, in stage 2, the finish comes down to the sprint and a master, Robbie McEwen, emerges from nowhere to out-sprint everyone. I mean in the television coverage the guy isn’t even on the screen with 1 KM to go. How did he do that? The Tour is already shaping up to be exciting.
My fan loyalty at the Tour is torn. I would like to root for an American and an American team in Discovery and Levi Lempheimer. I will be very happy if he wins. I am even pulling for George Hincapie to somehow come up and end up being the number one guy for Discovery; however, I cannot overlook the management of the team being more of the problem than the cure for doping in cycling. They blindly defended a rider which has pled guilty and accepted a suspension. They did everything they could to spin it, but what it comes down to is they wanted a rider that was a favorite at the Tour and they didn’t care about the doping implications surrounding Basso. As a fan, I cannot accept that attitude from a team. So, I have to say I am cheering for a team at the Tour. It just isn’t the team I thought it would be. I am cheering for T-Mobile. They are the only team that seems truly dedicated to cleaning up cycling. So, even though they may not have someone on the front at any time, I will cheer for them and they are now my team. I just wish you could buy their gear in the USA. What is up with that Stapleton?