Monzanator

Since Boris Johnson is the British PM nobody will cry over it. Not to mention the royal family and Kate Middleton handing out the trophies. The Wimbledon traditions are so out of touch with XXI century it literally doesn't matter much.

Part two of the circus show is out too as Caroline Garcia makes quick work of Emma Raducanu 6-3 6-3. I'm still unsure if Raducanu has recorded a single Top 50 win in her career?

Sakkari & Ostapenko have no excuses if they fail to reach R4. The bottom half of the draw has opened with Haddad Maia & Kontaveit out. The latter was never in serious contention after long COVID, she's having a dismal season overall and her #2 ranking is inflated by the post-Wimbledon 2021 points that will start to come off soon.

2 hours ago, Belle said:

Turkey back Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO bids. Now the question is what Sweden and Finland needed to do to be accepted by the terror country Turkey? It’s Turkey that shouldn’t be a member in NATO. 

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61960122

Turkey has the second biggest army in NATO. They have a bigger army than France & Germany combined. They are not going anywhere.

Harmony Tan dumps out the Serena Williams wild card circus after three hours

Alize Cornet claims there was a COVID-19 spread during Roland Garros but everyone accepted it and moved on. Sounds fair. World has moved on from COVID-19 already.

https://www.leparisien.fr/sports/tennis/tennis-il-y-a-eu-une-epidemie-de-covid-a-roland-garros-et-personne-nen-a-parle-lance-alize-cornet-28-06-2022-D5ORFM2NHFHW3F7FNLQ46UAHNQ.php

Mateo Berrettini & Marin Cilic are OUT with covid

Kaja Juvan takes out the in-form Beatriz Haddad Maia in three sets. Haddad Maia should have skipped Eastbourne for sure. Same case as Jabeur at French Open. These players will never learn...

5 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

Raducanu through, so the great soap opera supertanker sets sail.

Caroline Garcia awaits in R2...

Meanwhile Carlos Alcaraz avoided the Hurkacz stumble and beat Struff from 1-2 sets down 6-4 in the decider.

5 minutes ago, NMQ said:

And he lost. Davidovich was a tough first round, but what an upset.

Yeah, Davidovich literally pulled out with cramps at Eastbourne last week.

Meanwhile Wimbledon has also fallen to the usual Slovakia vs Slovenia nonsense @hckošice

Hurkacz saved 3 MP vs Davidovich Fokina before the 2nd rain delay

Maja Chwalińska upsets Katerina Siniakova 6-0 7-5!  Ons Jabeur, Alison Riske & Lesia Tsurenko also won R1 matches so far.

Barely an hour played and we have the first rain delay Maja Chwalinska shockingly won the first set 6-0 vs Siniakova...

Germany and Austria are like the only two nations that seem to care about NC. Norway still has success due to the number of cross country skiers available so there will always be someone breaking through. However in the last 10-15 years cc skiers who don't have enough success in the sport either choose switching to biathlon or retirement outright. NC as the back-up option became less popular.

Finland has declined in cross country in general and likewise Italy. One might argue the rise of freestyle skiing has contributed to that since both these nations are doing pretty well there.

USA has completely tailed off, women's ski jumping is nowhere compared to their dominance from late 00s and early 10s. Men's SJ was poor for ages but at least they had the NC success until recently. Once again you might say the freestyle skiing has drained the talent pool given how technical and expensive the ski jumping part of the sport is.

Czech Republic & Poland are too poor to offer a replacement level. Hell, Czech Republic's ski jumping has regressed badly and nobody, I mean nobody cares about NC in Poland. When we entered a relay that finished 8th in Seefeld WCh there was hope the sport might be revived but our federation quickly buried it and kept all the money in ski jumping like they do for the last 20 years. It spelled the funeral of any NC hopes we have.

Wasick was kinda expected to win a medal but Masiuk not so much!

Synchronized skating? They got rid of the compulsory figures years ago to push for this crap?

Gotta love all the talk about luge & their quotas. At the end of the day it will still be Germany winning all the golds so by the hell bother?

There's always the more exciting competition which nation finishes highest among those without an operation track. Poland always aims for the podium in that event!

4 minutes ago, Agger said:

Holding on to laws from 1791 isn't so much the problems. The problem is the crazy interpretations!

What else do you expect from a country where the same two parties are holding power for 160 years? And they keep telling us it's the best democracy in the world. Talk to the hand

4 minutes ago, NearPup said:

The IOC really did alpine snowboarding dirty by removing the parallel slalom given it requires no additional venues or athletes.

It's not 1998 anymore. Snowboard parallel events are viewed as boring and outdated these days. If not for Ledecka that would be a total marketing no-show.

2 minutes ago, Quasit said:

Am I the only person surprised there's no mixed relay in CC skiing?

Bach wants Germany to win the medal classification so he won't gift a free gold medal to Norway on his watch Especially that mixed skeleton and luge W doubles are semingly gifts for two Germany golds instead.

A new event in luge. Just so Germany can win 12 golds on this track?

Getting rid of alpine skiing mixed event is common sense. Everyone knows this event is decided on lane choice and doesn't have anything to do with sporting competition.