Mordecai.

Who’s the guy with his hand on Nadal? First correct answer = Wall of Fame listing.

Connors feeling the slide into irrelevance?

There’s a tipping point to how far you can stretch this ‘living on past laurels’ BS. You have five US Open titles, eight Grand Slams, most singles titles ever in the history of the sport – that’s quite enough to see smaller fries jumping up and down on your TV screen and say ‘You are still not jumping high enough to catch me’.

However, that tipping point is pushed to arrive early if your colleagues like McEnroe and Borg are coming back in the limelight again with exhos etc., your eight Grand Slams are expected to be passed by more people than you thought, your ego is bruised by the way you were handled at Roddick camp despite doing them a great favor by coming down from your high horse, practically every former tennis player from Sampras to Laver are in the news and relevant today – and you are unable to find a footing large enough to accommodate your halo.

Is that the reason he got into that brawl and was arrested? Or is he just following this natural progression pattern of former tennis players who invariably end up getting into all kinds of trouble after retiring? Now some are not even waiting for that.

How desperate for attention do you have to be to not follow simple instructions of leaving the arena as opposed to going to the slammer? Is that that difficult a choice? You’ve got to be thinking of a higher payoff than just going home to be getting mixed up in this nonsense.

Connors, get down from that high castle and get busy. Wasn’t he commentating somewhere recently?

Click here for more.

If Spain wins Davis Cup, who will make it happen?

Only reason Jose is still Federer’s coach next season:

The expectation was to lose all twenty matches played this season AND Jose turned it around by making sure Federer lost just 15.

If that humiliation at the Roland Garros final wasn’t enough to evoke enough courage from Federer to fire Jose instantly, shouldn’t this season be enough fodder for it?

Every freaking cucumber expected this considering Jose was also coaching the Little league along with Ginepri, the USTA and his own academy. How much more carnage do you need to see to part company? Or has the fact that he is ACTUALLY in decline finally sunk in?

If Federer keeps Jose alive next season, it will cap even the most ridiculous and knucklehead decisions he has ever made, not just in his career but his entire freaking life – Wawrinka scandal, hair cut, Mirka delay, not resting after mono and back, avoiding nose surgery, UPS uniform, exhos, moving out of Basel ……

I thought ‘bathroom’ was the only break allowed. On camera and a female watching, even I haven’t done that in a week. And without Vaseline? Geezzz!!!

Argentina feeling the Nadal effect?

This is the exact sentiment that accompanies what the sports world calls a ‘trap’ match. The biggest roadblock to your victory is eliminated to simultaneously take away the wind in the sails. Maybe that’s the reason Switzerland has never won Davis Cup.

Start removing your most dominating players at the last moment to deflate all enthusiasm and energy from the opposing camp and viola you have the Davis Cup title.

It’s a classic one-two punch. You kill two birds with one stone. While planting a seed of complacency at the other camp, you can also motivate your own players at the same time.

Although Del Potro’s injury may have added another spark to the already surging Spain, there’s no doubt Spain’s cumulative experience at these situations is the difference so far.

If Ivanovic’s experiment has paid off, then maybe if Nadal was allowed to be on the sidelines, this would be 3-0 instead of 1-2.

Suddenly the foregone-concluded and boring rubber has turned into a nail-biting exciting battle. With the adrenaline that these two wins have generated for Spain alongwith Del Potro’s injury, it’s difficult to imagine Argentina winning the remaining two matches: Del Potro vs Ferrer and Nalbandian vs Lopez.

This would cap a very successful year for Spanish sports from cycling to Wimbledon to Olympics to now this.

If Spain wins this, Nalbandian as the veteran and leader of the Argentina team will have to shoulder the blame, despite Del Potro’s troubles. And Spain’s coach will corner all credit for switching Lopez instead of Verdasco for the second match.

Photos.