More Sex Please, We’re French.

Click here.

More Nadal photos from the beach. From M. Thanks.

Click here for more photos.

Is there any other sport other than tennis with as strong an affiliation to soccer?

I mean the overwhelming and irresistible desire a tennis player so shamelessly displays of being a soccer player is beyond preposterous. I don’t think there are ANY two sports with this kind of ‘betrayal’. Any chance they get it turns into proving how good they are at ‘handling’ the ball with their freaking foot. Unless I witness a boxer practicing a drop shot in the middle of a fight – real soon – I am going to lose it real bad if I see ONE more spectacle of basically saying ‘I’d rather be playing soccer’.

It would be at least tolerable if the feeling is reciprocated. I don’t see any soccer player picking the ball and hitting it with his hand – for a forehand shot. The only reason a soccer player ever graces the tennis stadium is only because he is a porn addict getting his kicks at WTA. All others at a men’s game are gay – yeah including the ones that occasionally show up at a Nadal game. Some you don’t even have to guess like that Ronaldo ‘girl’.

If you are a soccer reject and can’t get over it – go to some other freaking sport for therapy – and senseless beating.

Photos.

If Nadal gets his career Slam this year, 2009 will instantly become a huge ‘WHAT IF’.

Specially if Nadal fails to clear No. 16 by just a few. Just like Sampras looks at those four Slam finals he lost with longing and disgust, Nadal may end up beating himself up if he fails by a whisker. Getting to just 12 career Slams may not evoke that response.

Agassi recouped most of his ‘2009s’ and if not for Sampras’s 14 Slam may have been quite happy with where he landed eventually – unless of course if you consider No. 22 sleeping next to him. The severity of what you left on the table comes back to haunt you in just two scenarios: Either you missed the gold standard by the minimum of margins OR the next guy eclipses your record by the minimum of margins.

It was good for Sampras’s family and close friends that Federer reached No. 16. Federer at No. 15 would have transformed Sampras into a petty criminal running around the city as a pick pocket. With 16 he may still not be completely out of the woods though. That’s why losing in the Slam final is that much more painful. There’s a reason Federer didn’t cry like a girl – publicly – after his quarterfinal exit this year at Wimbledon – even though it was a far lesser result than that loss to Nadal in the finals.

That analogy may not be perfect like most I try to jam in but it’s not too far away from the target either. When you are aiming for the record as sensational as No. 16, missing a year in your prime is like getting off the blocks two seconds after the pistol fires at an Olympic 100 meter dash. Not only do you have to produce a consistent ‘plugging’ year after year, it also has to show an upward progression from the year before.

That’s called ‘holding it in’ also referred to as ‘you’re not fooling anyone’.

Optical illusions.

Click here.

Caroline Wozniacki boxes?

Andy Roddick throws out the first pitch at the Braves vs Padres game.

TP’s Golden Ball Movie Film Festival! From RafaFan. Thanks.

RAFAFAN

TP’s Golden Ball Movie Film Festival!

Now that the GOATS are on vacation we have time to read good books and watch interesting movies, no?
After TP’s Food Inc I proudly present another amazing film:

The Way Things Go (from Fischli & Weiss 1987, two Swiss performer artists).

Enjoy!

Poll puts Tiger, Kobe, Serena and Venus on top.

Click here.