Sharapova Dethrones Venus

Carrera said:

- something you'd never see Martina Navratilova do.

and i thank the Lord every day for that small mercy he has denied us...

you know what, i cant stand tennis....i cant stand that fact that the BBC goes on and on and on about Tim Henman...the lad is just a plain bad tennis player who has won absolutely nothing, but to hear Sue Barker go on you would think he was a regular grand slam winner.. Rudeseski, he's another useless [censored]...

thank God we have the French, Russians, Americans and Germans to show us how to play the sports we invented..

dont get me wrong, i am no fan of the williams sisters but any one of them could beat the living hell out of Henman at tennis or in a good square go.

how is it that when you take tennis, cricket, football etc we are utter toss pieces compared to other nations...

is it under funding? is it the weather? is it our (British) over conficence that we can beat the diegos? can he hell..

MountainPro said:

and i thank the Lord every day for that small mercy he has denied us...

you know what, i cant stand tennis....i cant stand that fact that the BBC goes on and on and on about Tim Henman...the lad is just a plain bad tennis player who has won absolutely nothing, but to hear Sue Barker go on you would think he was a regular grand slam winner.. Rudeseski, he's another useless [censored]...

thank God we have the French, Russians, Americans and Germans to show us how to play the sports we invented..

dont get me wrong, i am no fan of the williams sisters but any one of them could beat the living hell out of Henman at tennis or in a good square go.

how is it that when you take tennis, cricket, football etc we are utter toss pieces compared to other nations...

is it under funding? is it the weather? is it our (British) over conficence that we can beat the diegos? can he hell..

There's nothing wrong with Henman. He makes money for me every year at Wimbledon. I bet on him to lose, and sit back then collect the money when he gets knocked out again. Same goes for Rudetski. Try it.

You make some very good points here and it reminds me of something an Australian athlete had to say about the U.K. Namely, we have the same natural talent in sports as any other country but something is missing.
Take Tim Henman. He is, in actual fact, a very good tennis player but the poor guy is out there on his own. If the Russians had only had Anna Kurnikova, where would they be? But they don't just have Kurnikova, since now there are dozens of Russian tennis players like Sharapova, some only 14 years old, in fact.
Then you have David Millar. He even beat Armstrong in a stage during the tour but, again, he's out there on his own. We need more Millars and Henmans to represent the country.
As to what's missing, well it seems to be attitude, hunger, schooling and facilities.
When I was living some months in Latvia, the first gym I found formed part of a tennis stadium. So, while I did a bit of weights in an old, broken down Soviet gym in the corner, I got to hear all the noise of coaches shouting at the female tennis students and drilling them on their serve. In Latvia, tennis is getting pretty big with many Russian teens anxious to do well and escape poverty over there.
The stadium was even open on New Years Day.
Estonia was even better. In Tallinn we had a huge indoor sports stadium with sprinting, gymnastics, cycling and weights. In the area of the U.K. I live presently there is nothing comparable, neither facilties nor tuition. But, sure, the talent is here if only we had more of a sports culture.
Personally I really think all of this should change. Here there are too many kids hanging around drinking and eating junk food when they could be channeled into sports so they have more of a challenge and more things to do, rather than get bored. If it were up to me I'd invest a heck of a lot more money in stadiums, tennis schools, pools and tracks. The money you would save by reducing crime in the long run would be worth the investment.
It's also a pity that Beckham seems to get more hero worship than Henman.

MountainPro said:

and i thank the Lord every day for that small mercy he has denied us...

you know what, i cant stand tennis....i cant stand that fact that the BBC goes on and on and on about Tim Henman...the lad is just a plain bad tennis player who has won absolutely nothing, but to hear Sue Barker go on you would think he was a regular grand slam winner.. Rudeseski, he's another useless [censored]...

thank God we have the French, Russians, Americans and Germans to show us how to play the sports we invented..

dont get me wrong, i am no fan of the williams sisters but any one of them could beat the living hell out of Henman at tennis or in a good square go.

how is it that when you take tennis, cricket, football etc we are utter toss pieces compared to other nations...

is it under funding? is it the weather? is it our (British) over conficence that we can beat the diegos? can he hell..

Fortunately, guys such as Lennox Lewis, Chris Eubank, Tim Henman and Seb Coe offer a glimmer of hope. The U.K. also did better in the last Olympics than usual so you can only hope that sport does begin to catch on in the future.

Carrera said:

Fortunately, guys such as Lennox Lewis, Chris Eubank, Tim Henman and Seb Coe offer a glimmer of hope. The U.K. also did better in the last Olympics than usual so you can only hope that sport does begin to catch on in the future.

Schools are to blame for most of this, but that's another lazy hippy story.

Carrera said:

Fortunately, guys such as Lennox Lewis, Chris Eubank, Tim Henman and Seb Coe offer a glimmer of hope. The U.K. also did better in the last Olympics than usual so you can only hope that sport does begin to catch on in the future.

I dont think you can compare, Lewis won the World Heavyweight title, Eubank won the world Super Middle weight title, Seb Coe several olypmic Golds and Millar, sure he has never done anything as significant as the other guys but beating Armstrong in an ITT in the TDF is right up there in my book.

Henman?, lets see...the all hampshire under 15s girls cup, yeah he came 7th.

I was a bit annoyed with Lennox when he appeared on The Jonathon Ross show where they showed the footage of him knocking out Mike Tyson. What annoyed me was when Lewis said:
"Well, I proved I was a better boxer than Mike Tyson."
I happened to do a bit of reading about Tyson in a book on boxing politics and the fact is it's little wonder he lost his title well before he fought Lewis. Mentally, Tyson was in a mess with people leeching off his earnings, Don King cheating him out of contracts and even women out to screw him over. You can't be an effective sportsman with so many distractions, especially if you do soft and drink and party - as Tyson did.
I think Lewis fought a shadow of the former Mike Tyson and, to be frank, I'm sure Tyson would have flattened Lewis in his prime. Seeing as Tyson wasn't a big heavyweight like Lewis is, he relied on his speed and power and he had lost almost 50 per cent of those attributes later on in his career.
The only guy who would have beaten Tyson in his prime was probably Ali. But I think Tyson would have downed Joe Frazier and Ken Norton - they were tailor made for him.
Foreman might have troubled Mike of course.

MountainPro said:

I dont think you can compare, Lewis won the World Heavyweight title, Eubank won the world Super Middle weight title, Seb Coe several olypmic Golds and Millar, sure he has never done anything as significant as the other guys but beating Armstrong in an ITT in the TDF is right up there in my book.

Henman?, lets see...the all hampshire under 15s girls cup, yeah he came 7th.

Carrera said:

I think Lewis fought a shadow of the former Mike Tyson and, to be frank, I'm sure Tyson would have flattened Lewis in his prime.

i am in complete agreement with you there without a doubt...Tyson would have ended it within 5 rounds...

there is no dignity nor sporsmanship in beating Tyson now...

I don't have anything personal against the Williams sisters but I think Sharapova comes across as more modest whether she wins or loses. The Williams sisters have this annoying habit of dancing round the court with the racket held high when they win a tournament. For some reason it seemed to work O.K. for Chris Eubank in boxing but I don't know if it suits tennis.
It was far nicer to see Sharapova's reaction when she won Wimbledon. Rather than dance about the court, she simply phoned her mother in Russia to tell her the news (couldn't get through either).
The Williams sisters thought they were invincible simply because they could hit the ball harder than other players. They believed that was what made them unbeatable but now you have Sharapova, a long-legged 17 year old girl who maybe isn't so powerful, but very graceful on court.
Now Maria has beaten both Serina and Venus but just wait till she's 19 years old and fully developed.

It's a shame what happened to Mike. Over the last 3 or so years he has acted like an animal, biting people and behaving disgracefully in public.
Pity he didn't stick to the principles that made him a great boxer under Cus d Amato. The guy wasn't so bad either since he gave many down and out in New York a Rolls Royce when he was rich. Somehow his street background came back to rob him of his talent.
I suppose Stallone had Tyson in mind when he scripted Rocky 5 to show how a boxer can be exploited and spat out by greedy managers and hangers-on.

MountainPro said:

i am in complete agreement with you there without a doubt...Tyson would have ended it within 5 rounds...

there is no dignity nor sporsmanship in beating Tyson now...

Carrera said:

It's a shame what happened to Mike. Over the last 3 or so years he has acted like an animal, biting people and behaving disgracefully in public.
Pity he didn't stick to the principles that made him a great boxer under Cus d Amato. The guy wasn't so bad either since he gave many down and out in New York a Rolls Royce when he was rich. Somehow his street background came back to rob him of his talent.
I suppose Stallone had Tyson in mind when he scripted Rocky 5 to show how a boxer can be exploited and spat out by greedy managers and hangers-on.

I understand that Tyson has entered the "professional wrestling" arena now...Really quite sad.

Carrera said:

I note that Maria Sharapova has beaten another William's sister at just 17 years of age. What a future she seems to have ahead!

Long overdue! It is very boring watching those two and their parents jumping around like they are the next contestant on the "Price is Right"!

I wonder how much of his edge Tyson could get back if he got serious.
Myself I'd recommend he quit drinking totally, quit partying and live in the gym.
Anybody been watching The Contender on TV? This is the program with Sugar Ray and Sly Stallone. I must confess Sly still looks in good shape now he's older and seems to have been less affected by advancing years than Arnold.

zapper said:

I understand that Tyson has entered the "professional wrestling" arena now...Really quite sad.

Carrera said:

I wonder how much of his edge Tyson could get back if he got serious.
Myself I'd recommend he quit drinking totally, quit partying and live in the gym.
Anybody been watching The Contender on TV? This is the program with Sugar Ray and Sly Stallone. I must confess Sly still looks in good shape now he's older and seems to have been less affected by advancing years than Arnold.

Personally, I think that tyson is done...However, I agree the Contender isn't a bad show. Pity that that one guy killed himself though...He fought and lost on march 20th...

zapper said:

Personally, I think that tyson is done.....

i agree, he was done a long time ago, he should retire to his mansion in the hollywood hills and take life easy. Thats what i would do if i were him...

oh wait he cant, he's got even less money that M Jackson right now, Don King has it all...

i would knock on Don Kings door and ask him for his $50 mil. if not i would knock him out with a big right hander (this is me pretending to be tyson) and just take the money. If King has body guards i would just take the [censored] to court.

MountainPro said:

i agree, he was done a long time ago, he should retire to his mansion in the hollywood hills and take life easy. Thats what i would do if i were him...

oh wait he cant, he's got even less money that M Jackson right now, Don King has it all...

i would knock on Don Kings door and ask him for his $50 mil. if not i would knock him out with a big right hander (this is me pretending to be tyson) and just take the money. If King has body guards i would just take the [censored] to court.

Unfortunatly the afore mentioned [censored] has an IQ of about 170ish and is as vicious outside the ring as a young Mike was inside it! He is a serious arsewhipe who is damn near invincible in the courts. I feel sorry for Mike, I truly do, maybe MC Hammer can get him a job driving rubbish trucks

Fixey said:

Unfortunatly the afore mentioned [censored] has an IQ of about 170ish and is as vicious outside the ring as a young Mike was inside it! He is a serious arsewhipe who is damn near invincible in the courts. I feel sorry for Mike, I truly do, maybe MC Hammer can get him a job driving rubbish trucks

I don't know...Rocky might be able to take him out...Didn't he punch out a character based on "don king" in Rocky V?

Tyson did actually knock King to the floor as King was getting into his car. Tyson was furious over money he'd been cheated out of. I think Larry Holmes may also have been another victim who was fleeced.
I suspect Mike's downfall was the loss of his trainer, his unstable street background that didn't equip him to cope with success when it came, women problems, financial problems and possibly steroid issues that may have made him excessively violent. Mike's rages seem very typical or roid rage common to bodybuilders.
Neither is Tyson alone. Many cyclists have also fallen from grace (Pantani and Jimenez).

zapper said:

I don't know...Rocky might be able to take him out...Didn't he punch out a character based on "don king" in Rocky V?

Carrera said:

Tyson did actually knock King to the floor as King was getting into his car. Tyson was furious over money he'd been cheated out of. I think Larry Holmes may also have been another victim who was fleeced.
I suspect Mike's downfall was the loss of his trainer, his unstable street background that didn't equip him to cope with success when it came, women problems, financial problems and possibly steroid issues that may have made him excessively violent. Mike's rages seem very typical or roid rage common to bodybuilders.
Neither is Tyson alone. Many cyclists have also fallen from grace (Pantani and Jimenez).

Here we go again, another [censored] posting, probably because you are reading a book. Don't start with all the steroids game because you know eff all about the stuff. I've told you before about what Zapper and I know about the subject is not for publication. I could blow a number of reputations apart, but I won't, it's chimney corner stuff for trusted people. So we keep it to ourselves. Now go away and pray for the lazy midlanders who have wrecked at least 6000 jobs, and probably as many again from the supporting industries.