Tennis, cycling, music, history, Toronto. 🎾🎸🚴♂️ Pickleball gives you warts. (I'm kidding.) Nazis get punched. (I'm not kidding.) 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️⚤, sit down next to me. "If you're after gettin' the honey, then you don't go killin' all the bees." ~Joe Strummer
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Graham Greene has died. A Canadian acting icon, he earned an Oscar nomination for his role as Kicking Bird in Dances With Wolves. He also won a Grammy, Gemini and Canadian Screen Award, along with the Governor General's Performing Arts Award. He also earned a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.
Yes! Just posted this same performance.
Without saying Losing My Religion, favourite R.E.M. song? Easy one for me ... youtu.be/KVT0S0j7F9Y?...
Amanda Anisimova thinking ahead to her quarterfinal with Iga Swiatek ...
You know Amanda Anisimova has been wanting another crack at Iga Swiatek after the Wimbledon double bagel, and she's going to get her chance. Swiatek better have her radar up because Anisimova looked fully dialed in. Her groundstrokes were rocketing back to and through Bia Haddad Maia.
I will always love Justine Henin's extreme-gripped one-hander but Anisimova's two-hander is just so pure.
The Amanda Anisimova backhand belongs in the Louvre. 🎨🖼
Outstanding work!
We've been rightly impressed with Carlos Alcaraz steamrolling through his matches. Jannik Sinner just laid down his marker, letting everyone know it's going to take a Herculean effort to take him down. The world no. 1 crushes Alexander Bublik and moves on to the #USOpen quarters.
Robbie Koenig: "You get the feeling that [Bublik] is pushing on a door that's clearly marked 'Pull'." 😂
The Felix we wish would settle in and stay for a while. 😃
"Felix glow-up" 🤗😄
The beat goes on for Venus Williams and Leylah Fernandez! Consistent serving, timely crosses, spectacular volleys -- and twirling! Always twirling! On to the #USOpen quarterfinals!
The conclusion can be avoided...maintaining that indeed what happens at A does not depend on how the switch is set at B, but that this is only to be understood in its statistical sense, **and most emphatically cannot be applied to individual runs of the experiment.** [Emphasis -- and magic -- mine.]
Spectacular!
Haha -- that's as close as anything I've seen. But honestly, I've just decided that fashion is none of my business. 😂
I'm trying to temper my expectations but Felix was a combined 4-13 against those two legit top 10 opponents. He's going for his shots in a way I haven't seen from him since ... well, ever. Great to see. 💪🎾
Michelle Obama: Sometimes it's nice to eat carrots. RFK Jr.: I want to bring back smallpox. The Atlantic:
You don't understand, Andrew. I know that if I predict something, the opposite will happen. I reverse-engineer the tennis universe. I control matches with my MIND. 🤯🤓
MAGA bravery on display. Turns out, they're just delicate snowflakes.
I still have to stare at the corner of my screen when Hooper turns back towards the hole. 😂
Really feels like Muchova needed to wrap that in 2. At the rate her movement is failing, she's going to be stationary for the 3rd. For f***'s sake, she just cannot catch a break with her health.
Could say the same about so many players. I mean, who in their right mind would be a coach??? 😬😵💫😱😄
Journalists have been cowed into being afraid to write a declarative sentence.
Imagine if they treated, say, an NFL audience with the lack of respect they treat the tennis audience. "These new balls let them throw further. 4-quarter football is too long. They're going to try to move the ball forward. The Cowboys are looking sparkly. They're feeling emotional, obviously." 🤦♂️
Live look at the inner workings of Neil's brain ...
Very quietly amidst all the angst, Coco Gauff's forehand is showing more and more shot tolerance. That was one of the holes in Gauff's game and should be a reminder to her that her serve woes CAN be fixed.
If Karolina Muchova didn't have bad luck, she'd have no luck at all. Taking a medical timeout. The tennis gods are sadistic. 😢
Gotta love her professionalism and intensity. 💪
Meanwhile, in the OTHER match ... whenever I watch Marta Kostyuk, I remember seeing her one year at the Rogers Cup when, fighting tears, she looked at her coach and said "why am I so terrible?" I love Karolina Muchova but want only good things for Marta.
Iga Swiatek in imperious form, steadying her serve and not allowing pressure to build in her straight-sets demolition of Ekaterina Alexandrova. And then holds up the on-court interview to send a text to her coach, telling him to book a practice court. She's an intense one, our Iga. 😄 #USOpen
I got you, fam. 🤝😄
See? You just have to relax. 😄
I almost can't believe what we're seeing from Felix Auger-Aliassime! So confident, such absolute clarity of thought, and total commitment to his shots. Takes out Andrey Rublev in straight sets and into the quarterfinals at the #USOpen!
I don't mind that Felix tried working with Uncle Toni, it just turned out to be an experiment that didn't really work. For Rublev, he's always had a ceiling in his game and he might never break through, but he's having a very solid career. I hope he can learn to take satisfaction in that. ✌️
I didn't say nuthin'.
I like Rublev and I hate those self-harming meltdowns. I just want a Felix win and everyone to come out healthy, mentally and physically. I would have made a great hippie. ✌️😄
You're smarter than me. 😄
Felix Auger-Aliassime staying solid and letting an erratic Andrey Rublev spray the ball all over the court, taking a 2-set lead. Now, if you're a dedicated FAA watcher, there's a little something about Felix and 2-set Slam leads that we're not even going to whisper about ...
Tell her I said sorry. And tell her I said "thufferin' thuccotash!" 🙃
I don't want to lead my life that way, but his malign influence oozes into *everything*. 🤢
Yeah. I have no particular insight, I just live in hope. 🤞
This is why it takes me so long to fill out my bracket: paralysis from analysis. 😄
Maybe. But on the other hand, we always say we want unequivocal apologies rather than the "I'm sorry if you were offended" BS, and from what I can see in the BBC article, he's done that. So hopefully being held up as a global example of jerkish behaviour is a hard-earned lesson. 🤷♂️
Small asterisk on the H2H: 5 of the 7 Rublev wins went 3 sets, and 1 was a very tight 2-setter. Of course, Rublev's easiest win was their most recent meeting, sooo ... 🤷♂️
Felix Auger-Aliassime's shirt's water colour pattern is giving "melting Daffy Duck." I can't unsee it. #USOpen
Felix Auger-Aliassime takes the 1st set from Andrey Rublev, continuing with the high-risk, high-reward patterns that were so successful against Zverev: big inside-out forehand to open the court, big inside-in forehand to close the deal. #USOpen
Well, the hat-snatcher has offered a full apology. I suspect he's sorry it was caught on camera more than anything, but becoming a cautionary tale and example of how not to act is punishment enough. bbc.com/news/article...
Not the main point of this story, which is that Trump has always been a spoiled and cowardly c*nt, but we can also agree that he's always had a completely punchable face.
It's an absolute alternative FACT.
From the moment I said Rybakina was in the zone, Vondrousova raised her level, Rybakina came off the boil, and once again I realized that I have the power to reverse-influence tennis matches with my clueless observations.
Carillo has some interesting insights into tennis, and I give her credit for not backing away from topics like Vukov's abusive behaviour. But she also seems to be convinced that she's much funnier than she actually is. You could hear Lindsay Davenport and Laura Robson cringing the other night.
Rybakina is absolutely punishing anything left short or or not hit at full speed. In the zone.
Everybody uses to hate Chris ... now they just envy the pipes. 💪😄
Literally the first thing I hear when I turned the match on just now was Mary calling Vukov “abusive” 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Ah, yes. I'm afraid he seems to be one of *those* tennis fathers.
I'm gonna bite ... what questions?
Teddy is definitely happy! Thank you for caring! 🤗
Ok, so someone at the U.S. Open host feed needs to learn that they can turn the mic in the players' box off. Between that jackass Vukov and now Bucsa's dad, it's making for a terrible viewing experience. Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD.
At 5-3, and at every point in the last two sets. The poor woman sitting beside him had had ENOUGH. 🙉🤦♂️😄
And lame. A poor vocabulary grasping for emphasis.
I hit today too. Perfect conditions, sunny, no wind, 23 C ... just good for the soul.
Come on, man, now I'm embarrassed for you. You tried to score points, you made yourself look like a fool, and now you're doing this? Yikes. But I can tell you need the last word so, sure.
Not in the slightest. I'm just laughing at you.
No, you mistook my dismissal of you to be caring. I can see how you'd be confused. 🤷♂️
Totally agree. She's had a tough time with injuries, with being overlooked, and of course she was mocked by a prominent journalist. And here's the thing -- no one loves tennis more than Babs. If she's not playing, she's in the stands. I love someone who loves tennis. ❤️
Phew. Tennis. It's the greatest sport in the world, but it can get *lonely* out there. Barbora Krejcikova saves 8(!) match points to beat Taylor Townsend, who we all want to hug right now. What a match.
"Won't somebody please think of ... er, *spite* the children?!?!?"
What a wild tiebreak! This match NEEDED 3 sets (mostly because I only got home at the end of the 2nd and I'm selfish.) 💪🎾🗽
Ok, maybe I've got recency bias. 🤷♂️
I think they're half-heartedly polite. New Yorkers feel no such obligation. 😂
The absolute silence that greets a winner from the person who the Ashe crowd is NOT rooting for is weird. No other tennis crowd completely blanks a player. 😄
Does anyone else take a slightly smug sense of pride when they pop a string right in the sweet spot? I'm MIDDLING the ball, people! 💪🎾😂
I kinda want to hand her a bigger shovel. I think I'm a bad person. 😔
Stephen Colbert in the house!!! And gets a MASSIVE cheer! Tennis people are the best people. ❤️🎾
That works too!
Ok, I know I'm not supposed to laugh at any part of this situation, but come on ... 🤦♂️🤭
I mean, come on, this is next level. 😂
One of the things this age of stupidity and hatred has done to me is to have me actively hoping for the death of one sad old man, and taking solace in the fact that he's a known coward and is no doubt terrified at the prospect of his approaching end. I hate him even more for making me feel this way.
You're wrong. It's just a grown man being an asshole to a child. Look away if the post bothers you. For real.
When it all seems like shit, I remind myself how many fundamentally decent people there are in the world fighting this hateful tide of stupidity. Also, #LiveToSeeHimDie. 🤝
Throwing (pet) rocks, eh? I feel we need to go to a happier place ...
The tennis on its own was sizzling, but, yeah, this one had layers. Especially happy for all women watching.
It took Bia Haddad Maia until 11:30 p.m. to get on court and barely an hour later, she's off after a straight sets win over Maria Sakkari. And the Brazilian fans give a rousing chorus of Olé Olé Ole. They're such a great vibe. ❤️🇧🇷
Bia Haddad Maia up a set and a break on Maria Sakkari, and the Brazilian fans are in full musical voice. Brazil continuing to stick it to MAGA. 🇧🇷💪🎾
Yes! He knew exactly what he wanted to do and then went out and executed. Clarity of mind and control of his shots. Awesome tennis. 💪🎾
What a night at the U.S. Open. This one is for all the fabulous women of TennisSky. 💪🎾
So often the story with Felix is disappointment, blown leads, what might have been. This is pretty darn special.
Well, now he's got lots of time to go home and investigate by sticking his head up his ass. 🙃
The Auger-Aliassime forehand was absolutely SAVAGE tonight. For those of us who've been watching Felix since juniors, THIS is the guy we always hoped to see. Fearless, ruthless, electric. What a performance.
BRAVO FELIX!!!!!
Felix Auger-Aliassime, you beauty!!! Never in doubt!!!
Shhhhh.
