OlympicsFan

Yes he was injured and therefore also didnt compete indoor this year but he also has a different approach this year. Last year he had about 15 competitions before Beijing and he competed a lot in the diamond league, this year he only wants to compete 6 or 7 times before Rio, because he wasnt able to peak in Beijing last year and doesnt want the same to happen again. Storl was always known for performing at his best at big competitions, but in 2015 he wasnt able to do that. In 2011 he entered the world championships with 21.05 m and then improved to 21.78 In 2012 he entered the olympic games with 21.58 m and then improved to 21.86 In 2013 he entered the world championships with 21.04 m and then improved to 21.73 ... In 2015 he entered the world championships with 22.20 m and then ... only had 21.74 m in Beijing. He said that he competed with strong pain in many of his competitions last year and he still managed to set a new PB, although he couldnt use his normal technique due to the pain. He took a long break and wont compete much before Rio in order to "stop" the pain, but he will be again using his favorite technique and not the technique he used last year. I hope that he will be at about 21.60-21.80 before Rio, then he should be at about 22.20-22.40 by Rio. Just as a comparison: Majewski improved by 2 cm in 2015 (20.80 to 20.82), by 9 cm in 2013 (20.89 to 20.98), by 29 cm in 2012 (21.60 to 21.89), didnt improve in 2011 (he entered with 21.60 and had a mark of 20.73 in qualification + 20.18 in the final), didnt improve in 2009 (he entered with 21.95 and had a mark of 21.91 in the final) and improved by 54 cm in 2008 (20.97 to 21.51). About Bukowiecki: So ou really think that he can improve by about 0.4 m and that 21.50 m will be enough for a medal? For me both seems very unlikely ... Last year it took 21.69 to win a medal and i dont see why 21.50 m should be enough for a medal this year, i think Kovacs and Storl will be at 22 m and Walsh should also be somehwere between 21.60 and 21.80 m and a couple of other guys should also be at 21.60 or more. So if you exclude 2008, then even the "genes of Majewski" wouldnt really help Bukowiecki, because improving by 29 cm at most would bring him to 21.43, which shouldnt be enough for a medal. Apart from the fact that your "comparison" doesnt work (because even the "genes of Majewski" wouldnt help him), it really bothers me that your comment is "meaningless" at best, because you would have to say by how much he needs to improve in your opinion to have a realistic medal chance and how likely it is in your opinion for that to happen. About womens long jump: Its really interesting that no one even mentions the current world leader in womens long jump ... I also still hope for Mihambo, but sadly she was injured for a pretty long time and probably wont be at 100% by Rio. My prediction would be gold for Reese, silver for Bartoletta and bronze for Proctor/Nettey/Spanovic, Proctor in my opinion has the best chance for bronze among those 3.

So you decide what "truly? fans of tennis" have to do? Great to hear, did McEnroe appoint you as the new Commissioner of Tennis? I thought it was Nastase ... Djokovic deserved to win RG, he was clearly the best player and at the moment is by far the best player in the world, no one can seriously doubt that. I just wouldve liked to see him play against Wawrinka or Nadal on his way to the title. I hoped that someone else would win the title and i consider myself a true fan of tennis and not just fan of a certain player, but i have no problem to congratulate Djokovic, his team and especially Boris Becker. I think Becker really helped Djokovic to reach a new level. Until the end of 2013 Djokovic won 6 slams, after Becker took over (beginning of 2014) Djokovic won 6 out of 10 slams.

Oslo diamond league is "funny" to watch, there seem to be many african fans who travelled to Oslo.

Great to see Del Potro in such a great shape again, he might be a dark horse for Wimbledon, i think he can beat almost anyone on grass, maybe except for Djokovic, Murray, Federer, Kyrgios and Raonic. I really hope that Del Potro or Kyrgios will win Wimbledon, it would be great for tennis, especially if Kyrgios would win his first slam. Edit: Federer was way off today, but one has to say that Fritz played really great tennis. He played much better than when i watched him the last time (against Ferrer), he seems to be more mobile than guys like Kyrgios or Zverev. I think most seeded players will hope to avoid him in the early rounds of Wimbledon and he might be the most promising youngster on grass behind Kyrgios.

Are you trolling again or just kidding? There is no way he will fight for silver or gold and there are at least 3 guys who have much better chances for bronze. I think top 8 would be an amazing result for him in Rio. Its gonna be really interesting to see where he will be in 2 or 3 years. I thought that he was just another Jacko Gill, considering that he is already as muscular as all the top guys, so i didnt think that he would ever come close to 22 m, but i might have been wrong, maybe he can be a serious medal contender at a global stage by 2017 already.

Are you sure about Petzschner? How did he qualify? I think there is still a possibility for no german male player in Rio. Kohlschreiber didnt want to play in 2012 and now that there are no points awarded i am not sure that he will play. Zverev might try to push his ranking by playing somewhere else, just like Tomic, Thiem or Kyrgios. I think Kerber/Petkovic and Siegemund/Beck will play womens doubles for sure. I dont think that Kerber will play all 3 events and i dont think that Zverev/Kohlschreiber will play mens doubles, so i think we wont have a mens double. I think we could see a combination like Zverev/Petkovic in mixed doubles.

What happened with your predictions on day 14? Were you able to post your predictions in time?

Our womens 4 x 100 m relay should be safe for Rio after their time of 42.00 yesterday. Our womens 4 x 400 m relay also should have a good chance to qualify after their time of 3:29.66 yesterday. Our womens 4 x 400 m relay missed two of their best runners, so we should be able to run sub 3:27 with out best relay, which would be 100% enough to qualify, hopefully they will be fit for the european championships. I dont have any hope for our mens 4 x 400 m relay.

Maybe he didnt pick this stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour to qualify? German swimmers have to select one stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour or the German Open beforehand where they want to qualify. Maybe he selected another stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour or the German Open.

So what? He clearly made the A cut at the german nationals. I think they either just forgot him or more likely: He didnt pick this event to qualify for Rio and will try to qualify at another stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour or at the German Open.

Good result for 16 yo Leonie Ebert in Shanghai, she finished 6th in womens foil and jumped to 57th in world ranking. I thought that she would be fighting for world cup medals by now, but considering her bad results so far i guess we have to be happy about that result. Sadly she got into shape a bit too late to qualify for Rio.

Not really glad, but i know that i threw away the win on day 13, so i cant be disappointed either. The day before i was extremely tired, so i made all my predictions in about 30s without looking up any statistics (H2H, recent results) and that cost me in the end. Maybe i should take this more seriously next time, i have to admit that prediction contests can get really exhausting. I was by far the best if you only count the last 2 days (finals), so i am somehow happy anyway and i hope that i will get the gold in Wimbledon. I think overall, due to the rain, this was a very weird prediction contest, where we often didnt have much time for predictions, so i hope that everything will be back to normal for the next prediction contest and it would be great if you could always open the predictions for the next day until about 10 pm of the previous day. Edit: It would be interesting to know what happend with rybak, africaboy and gvaisakh on day 14. Were they able to post their predictions in time? A win wouldve been worthless for me if the only reason for my win wouldve been that they werent able to post their predictions in time.

I dont see any chance that the rule will be changed before Rio, IAAF has enough trouble with all the doping cases and the possible ban for Russia. I dont understand why on the one hand Rehm has to prove that he doesnt have an advantage, while on the other hand IAAF has to prove that Semenya/Niyonsaba/Wambui have an advantage. In both cases athletes have an unfair advantage, but i think both cases should be treated the same, so either IAAF or the athletes have to prove that they (dont) have an advantage. I dont really think that Wambui is really that young, many/most african athletes are older than they claim to be, so i am not sure if she really has that much (more) potential. I also dont think that you can treat womens 800 m like a normal race, Semenya/Niyonsaba arent "normal" favorites, they are miles ahead of everyone else (i am not sure about Wambui yet), so in my opinion having a bad day wont have any effect on their medal chances. I think they can only lose a medal if they fall or somehow get disqualified. For me its very hard to tell how big the probability is that those 3 are doped, then there would be at least a realistic chance that someone else will get their medal in a couple of years. They are all from poor countries without a really working anti-doping strategy, so i wouldnt be surprised if all of them would be caught in the future. Those 3 basically are "naturally" doped like all the crazy fast 800/1500 m runners about 30 years ago, who almost had the body of a male middle distance runner. It could get really interesting in the future if the rule wont be changed, then some countries might start to search for "woman" like Semenya (in all sports), just to win as many medals as possible. Just imagine China starting to do that, they would completely dominate most sports ...

Its really hard to tell how strong she is at the moment, is she in the same category as Semenya/Niyonsaba? Then we should have 3 different races in Rio. 1) Semenya against the world record 2) Niyonsaba vs. Wambui 3) Who will finish 4th? I think only Dibaba could stop one of them, but i dont think that she could beat Semenya. Arzamasova, Bishop, Sum and the rest shouldnt have a chance for a medal. I hope that we will also see Semenya in womens 400/1500 m, she could win a medal there as well, but i dont know about the schedule ... Did you ever take a close look at the shorts of Semenya/Niyonsaba/Wambui vs. the shorts of all other athletes? It would be really "interesting" to have Semenya/Wambui/Niyonsaba race in the same shorts as all other athletes ...

A bit late, but ... Go Andy, please save tennis!

[hide] Men's Singles Final Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Athlete 1 T1 T2 Athlete 2 June 5th 2016, h. 15:00, Court Philippe Chatrier, Paris [1] Novak Djokovic 3 1 Andy Murray [2] Women's Singles Final Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Athlete 1 T1 T2 Athlete 2 June 4th 2016, h. 15:00, Court Philippe Chatrier, Paris [1] Serena Williams 1 2 Garbine Muguruza [4] Men's Doubles Final Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Athlete 1 T1 T2 Athlete 2 June 4th 2016, h. 17:00, Court Philippe Chatrier, Paris [15] Feliciano Lopez [15] Marc Lopez 2 1 Bob Bryan [5] Mike Bryan [5] Women's Doubles Final Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Athlete 1 T1 T2 Athlete 2 June 5th 2016, h. 13:00, Court Philippe Chatrier, Paris [7] Ekaterina Makarova [7] Elena Vesnina 1 2 Caroline Garcia [5] Kristina Mladenovic [5] [/hide]

I dont think so and 100% not so early. Djokovic will win at least 10-12 slams in the next 4 years, the other slams will probably go to Murray, Wawrinka and maybe Nadal/Thiem. Zverev is too tall to become a dominant player, but i think he could have a career like Cilic, Del Potro or even Kuerten. I dont like Coric and his style, but he is the most likely future number 1 in my opinion, unless Kyrgios learns to work hard and control himself more on court. Thiem could also win some slams, especially on clay and in about 6-8 years Auger Aliassime should destroy everyone else, maybe Kei or Milos can also pick up some slams before that.

Why dont you quote me if you want to talk with me? Where did i say that he will win slams in 2-3 years/any slams at all? Djokovic will win 10-12 slams in the next 4 years if he stays healthy, but then there will be a new era without Federer, Nadal, Murray, Wawrinka, Gasquet, Djokovic, Ferrer, Berdych and i dont see any reason why Kyrgios shouldnt win a slam then. Of course he has a "weak mentality" and has to work on it, otherwise he will end up like Tomic or Dimitrov, but he absolutely has the potential to win a slam. He has a huge serve and an amazing forehand, in addition to that he is very mobile for his size.

Mens tennis is higher quality and you are less likely to get a heart attack, which can happen very easily if you watch womens tennis, but its also much more predictable and therefore less interesting in my opinion. I really wonder what Serena's dominance tells us about Serena herself. Is she only that dominant because everyone else is so weak or does the fact that no one else is really consistent tell us that Serena is even more special, because she is the only one who is consistent? About a decade ago we had players like Clijsters, Henin or peak Venus who also won multiple slams, i really wonder what (if anything) changed since then? I think Muguruza has the potential to win multiple slams, but i dont know about all the other upcoming players, so its very likely that we will have many different (surprising) slam winners in 2-3 years. Edit: I forgot about Bencic. In my opinion she will be the dominant player in a couple of years, who will win many slams, but only if she can solve her health problems.

Sorry, i thought that Federer won the French Open one time more than Djokovic, you should never trust Wikipedia, probably some Djokovic hater manipulated the data.

Zverev and Kyrgios are coming and dont forget Kuhn and Auger Aliassime, they are all huge talents. I agree about the final, Djokovic should win in 3 sets, Wawrinka wouldve had a realistic chance to beat Djokovic. Really sad times without Federer and Nadal. Lets hope for a miracle, go Andy!

Go Stan and Muguruza, please save tennis! Hopefully Stan will defend his title and Muguruza has to stop Serena from winning her 22nd title, the record belongs to Steffi! Stan-Djokovic and Serena-Muguruza would be the finals that almost everyone hoped for, we are almost there ... Mens junior tournament has reached the quarterfinal stage and the 2 favourites are (in my opinion) two guys born in 2000! Nicola Kuhn, who sadly now plays for Spain , will play against his former german teammate Marvin Möller and Felix Auger Aliassime has already beaten 14th seed Olivieri from Argentina. Shapovalov, also from Canada, has already reached the semifinal by beating number 1 seed Tsitsipas from Greece. The 4th semifinalist is Blancaneaux from France. Canada has an amazing future on the mens side with Auger Aliassime and Shapovalov, Auger Aliassime might become the youngest junior slam champion in a very long time with just 15 years and 9 months. Kuhn just turned 16, so he would also be a very young champion. I think Kuhn and Auger Aliassime will fight for slam titles on senior level in 6-8 years, Kuhn couldve become really important for german tennis together with Zverev ...

[hide] Men's Singles Semifinals Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Athlete 1 T1 T2 Athlete 2 June 3rd 2016, h. 15:00, Court Suzanne Lenglen, Paris [1] Novak Djokovic 3 0 Dominic Thiem [13] June 3rd 2016, h. 15:00, Court Philippe Chatrier, Paris [3] Stan Wawrinka 3 2 Andy Murray [2] Women's Singles Semifinals Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Athlete 1 T1 T2 Athlete 2 June 3rd 2016, h. 13:00, Court Philippe Chatrier, Paris [1] Serena Williams 2 1 Kiki Bertens June 3rd 2016, h. 13:00, Court Suzanne Lenglen, Paris [4] Garbine Muguruza 2 1 Samantha Stosur [21] Men's Doubles Semifinals Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Athlete 1 T1 T2 Athlete 2 June 3rd 2016, h. 13:00, Court 1, Paris [15] Feliciano Lopez [15] Marc Lopez 1 2 Ivan Dodig [3] Marcelo Melo [3] June 3rd 2016, h. 15:00, Court 1, Paris [5] Bob Bryan [5] Mike Bryan 2 1 Lukasz Kubot [9] Alexander Peya [9] Women's Doubles Semifinals Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Athlete 1 T1 T2 Athlete 2 June 3rd 2016, h. 11:00, Court 1, Paris Barbora Krejcikova Katerina Siniakova 1 2 Ekaterina Makarova [7] Elena Vesnina [7] June 3rd 2016, h. 17:00, Court Suzanne Lenglen, Paris Margarita Gasparyan Svetlana Kuznetsova 1 2 Caroline Garcia [5] Kristina Mladenovic [5] Mixed Doubles Final Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) Date and Venue Athlete 1 T1 T2 Athlete 2 June 3rd 2016, h. 17:00, Court Philippe Chatrier, Paris Martina Hingis Leander Paes 1 2 Sania Mirza [2] Ivan Dodig [2] [/hide]

I think heywoodu already forgot to vote/voted too late, so you might overtake him, but you would need at least 40 points to overtake him and i dont think that you will score more than 40 points today ...

Oh god, Bertens will reach the semifinal ... Please Muguruza you have to save this tournament!