Tonight's match is better than Brady Manning

[kobeunderbite]

I don't think it'll give him problems. Two days is a lot of time to get a blister right when you have world class care.

Federer is still Federer. Edberg's minor tweaks don't change that, or Rafa's clear h2h advantage.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Right, baseball. But not top guys in any other major sports.

Depends on how you view a few of those football guys who've been busted.

And whether you consider tennis to be closer to football, basketball and baseball or track and field and cycling.

And whether you give athletes the benefit of the doubt or not. Hey, I have NO problem if you want to believe that there isn't a single athlete in the world who has taken performance-enhancing drugs who hasn't been caught. Or, if you want to believe that top athletes are too honest to seek every advantage, even when afforded the opportunity.

It's your opinion. Thanks for sharing.

[kobeunderbite]

I don't think anyone with a knowledge of sports would consider tennis to be closer to track and field than it is to nfl/mlb/nba.

I also don't think that I said that no one who has taken drugs has not been caught. I don't remember ever talking about anyone's honesty, either. Only that it seems very unlikely that Nadal or Federer has taken ped's, and that Tennis seems to have a serious testing system in place.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I don't think anyone with a knowledge of sports would consider tennis to be closer to track and field than it is to nfl/mlb/nba.

I also don't think that I said that no one who has taken drugs has not been caught. I don't remember ever talking about anyone's honesty, either. Only that it seems very unlikely that Nadal or Federer has taken ped's, and that Tennis seems to have a serious testing system in place.

You seem to be getting upset. I don't believe I made any of those claims.

I respect your opinion. Thanks for sharing.

[kobeunderbite]

I don't think anyone with a knowledge of sports would consider tennis to be closer to track and field than it is to nfl/mlb/nba.

I also don't think that I said that no one who has taken drugs has not been caught. I don't remember ever talking about anyone's honesty, either. Only that it seems very unlikely that Nadal or Federer has taken ped's, and that Tennis seems to have a serious testing system in place.

You seem to be getting upset. I don't believe I made any of those claims.

I respect your opinion. Thanks for sharing.

I am not sure I know what you're talking about. I never said that you made those claims. You said that you don't have a problem if I want to believe that there aren't athletes on PED's who haven't been caught, or that top athletes are too honest to seek any advantage.

I never said there weren't athletes on PED's who haven't been caught. And, I never said anything about the honesty of top athletes. Only that it seems very unlikely that Nadal or Federer are on PED's.

[kobeunderbite]

[Note: As for the serious tennis drug testing program... I usually tend to trust those who know more about it. And, a lot of people are voicing their concerns. I just see the stats... 63 out-of-competition tests in a calendar year and I can make my own assumptions about the severity of testing. But I'll leave that to the tennis experts on this board and other places.]

It seems to be a serious program. That is what most people who do know more about it think, anyway. I personally have some doubts about it.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I'm glad we were able to settle this amicably.

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

[kobeunderbite]

No problem. I'm just saying that it seems unlikely that either Federer or Nadal are using. I wasn't always sure you understood that that was my only position. You asked, "Even Federer says it would be "naive" to think the sport is clean. Is he the naive one?" once when I had never mentioned the sports as a whole, so I thought that was weird. Usually you do seem perceptive.

[AbeVigodaLive]

OK.

Thanks for sharing.

[kobeunderbite]

No problemo.

Do you have any thoughts on the matchup? I've only ever seen you weigh in on steroid speculation regarding Tennis, never the competition itself, which I find interesting.

[AlaskaHawks]

No problemo.

Do you have any thoughts on the matchup? I've only ever seen you weigh in on steroid speculation regarding Tennis, never the competition itself, which I find interesting.

He'll probably only watch 57 seconds of it, anyway.

[AbeVigodaLive]

No problemo.

Do you have any thoughts on the matchup? I've only ever seen you weigh in on steroid speculation regarding Tennis, never the competition itself, which I find interesting.

No. Not really. I won't watch it.

And I don't know what's interesting about it. It seems rather predictable. I like all sports. But I follow only a few closely. For the others, I look for more universal themes when discussing them.

To opine about Nadal's serve or Federer's groundstrokes would simply ring hollow.

[kobeunderbite]

This is actually incredible. Unless I'm an idiot or missing something, it looks like Rafa has never dropped a set against Wawrinka. 26-0.

[AlaskaHawks]

This is actually incredible. Unless I'm an idiot or missing something, it looks like Rafa has never dropped a set against Wawrinka. 26-0.

Wow, that would be an incredible stat. Not surprising though with as good as Nadal is.

[kobeunderbite]

No problemo.

Do you have any thoughts on the matchup? I've only ever seen you weigh in on steroid speculation regarding Tennis, never the competition itself, which I find interesting.

No. Not really. I won't watch it.

And I don't know what's interesting about it. It seems rather predictable. I like all sports. But I follow only a few closely. For the others, I look for more universal themes when discussing them.

To opine about Nadal's serve or Federer's groundstrokes would simply ring hollow.

I don't think many people were predicting that Wawrinka would be in the finals. Most people probably would not have thought that Federer would have made it this far, either.

[AbeVigodaLive]

No problemo.

Do you have any thoughts on the matchup? I've only ever seen you weigh in on steroid speculation regarding Tennis, never the competition itself, which I find interesting.

No. Not really. I won't watch it.

And I don't know what's interesting about it. It seems rather predictable. I like all sports. But I follow only a few closely. For the others, I look for more universal themes when discussing them.

To opine about Nadal's serve or Federer's groundstrokes would simply ring hollow.

I don't think many people were predicting that Wawrinka would be in the finals. Most people probably would not have thought that Federer would have made it this far, either.

How'd Michael Chang do in the tourney? He's always been pretty good whenever he gets on those manicured clay courts of Wimbledon, so I imagine he did well.