Top 10 Sports Superstitions.

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Have you bought an elephant yet?

Why do Americans don’t own an elephant?

Because it’s not been offered on installment payment.

—Mad magazine.

Federer, Nadal move in opposite direction. Roddick needs none.

How often do you hear this in today’s egocentric sports world? “He outplayed me today”. If that was not enough, knowing which mouth came out of may help: Roddick’s. Maybe not. Roddick is known for running his mouth more at the umpires than at fellow players. He is usually quite sportsmanlike once the match is over. This must have been hard for him considering he has won this what five freaking times already and this surface in a way compensates for his forced MIA drama on clay. But the long line of seeds falling today must have provided that ‘misery loves company’ comfort to dissipate some of the pain. However, there can be absolutely no excuse to go out so tamely to some tomato can.

Federer, on the other hand, provided some relief on a day stuffed with upsets by dishing out a break stick in a rout lasting just 52 minutes. Given Federer’s unparalleled expertise on the surface for six freaking years, he will be held to a much higher standard than everybody else reducing the seeding of his opponents compared to other contenders on grass. Did you get that? No, you didn’t.

Davydenko’s exit has left Federer in a no win situation with stakes even higher if he now loses to any of the ‘currently alive part time’ tennis players. Anytime Kohlscreiber is your biggest hurdle of the entire grass tournament – at just the quarters – on the back of this season’s results, you can bet there’s hardly anything to gain and tons to lose. Could that be a good thing for Federer? Under normal circumstance, maybe not. But we are not sailing under particularly sunny skies these days, are we? So just getting on board with the second title of the season specially right before moving into his favorite cave may be what’s needed more than tougher competition.

But this also brings us back to the beaten the death ‘flipping the switch’ BS. Structured advance through a forest with graded degree of difficulty with every step, usually is the ideal set up to force the peak at the right time. This year, at least, Federer has not fared too well when faced with conditions drastically different from above scenario. However, if Federer can duplicate today’s numbers for the rest of the tournament, he may be half way out of the dog house.

With Nadal already starting to feel the heat in just his second match on grass, Federer may very well find this Wimbledon just a repeat of last year: Nadalless Wimby.

From the looks of it and what came out of Nadal’s mouth after his match today, it seems Nadal may be withdrawing  just to keep hopes of competing at Wimbledon alive. Maybe he was just lucky that his injury didn’t flare up at Roland Garros partly due to the tomato cans he faced until the finals. He may be pushing it now. If there’s really something to be concerned about, Nadal should happily take a break knowing how much distance he has already traveled from the hole he was in just a few months ago. Crawl before you walk, walk before you run?

Photos.

What if I had a beard?

How about De Niro impersonation?

This net is a colossal conspiracy to bring down the fish. Well, I am bringing it down before it turns on me.

Humping at the wrong object? Wrong end?

Oh oh………

I think he forgot to move the ball to the other hand before………….