Four by four in slams
Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany and their son Stellan at the US Open
So Andy Murray defeats Novak Djokovic in a five-set thriller to end Britain’s 76-year slam drought. Well done. We always thought Murray’s best chance would be at Melbourne or Flushing Meadows, and he finally locked it up. Now the British can stop going on about lost glory, the end of the empire, etc.
Interesting that Sir Sean Connery turned up at Murray’s press conference last week. Connery is the most high-profile supporter of Scottish independence. Murray of course is Scottish. So if Britain is broken up (though current polls say most Scots are opposed to independence), will Britain still have a grand slam?
With his US Open victory, Murray becomes the favorite at the Australian Open (also played on hardcourt). Ayyyy don’t buy the favorite label Andy! Then there will be talk of a calendar slam…don’t listen!
Interesting: The four slams in 2012 were won by the top 4. The first was won by Djokovic, who was then ranked number 1 in the world; the second by Nadal, then ranked number 2; the third by Federer, then number 3; the fourth by Murray, number 4. And they all won on their favorite surfaces, in the places where they (the first 3) bagged their first majors. Symmetry.
Meanwhile: Ampunin si Ampon! The Case for a Filipino Legend in the Tennis Hall of Fame.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
September 11th, 2012 at 17:00
Great summer for British sport!
Quality of play wasn’t the best but it was a good final for sheer drama. Federer is getting close to 300 weeks total at number 1. I miss Nadal and his rivalry with Roger.
September 11th, 2012 at 21:24
Thank you Andy, for beating Nole. I really don’t like the guy.
September 11th, 2012 at 21:43
The top 4 are late career or mid-career so we should be looking for the next batch of champs. Who’s coming up?
September 12th, 2012 at 03:27
Murray winning a slam is so sad.
No one truly stands out at the moment for me. Dimitrov is still all hype. Tomic can be fun to watch, but is generally useless. Harrison has a pretty nice all-around game. From the few juniors matches I saw recently, it looks like we’re up for a bunch of uninspiring Djokovic 2.0 grinders. Terrible. I blame the homogenization of court surfaces.
September 12th, 2012 at 12:28
yeah, the symmetry of the top4 winning their slams in the order of their rankings is an OC’s fantasy come true. adrian monk would have loved this. as for the up and comers, really hard to choose one who have a good chance of breaking through in a grand slam against the current top 4. Isner? Raonic? Harrison? Dolpologov? can’t imagine any of them winning over say djoko or murray on hard courts or over fed on grass. let’s not even consider them ever winning on clay, even if we take out nadal from the picture. berdych, tsonga, del potro, or ferrer are the only ones outside of the top 4 who have realistic albeit slim chances of breaking through but these guys are hardly spring chickens themselves.
September 12th, 2012 at 19:54
Raonic looks promising out of all the young ones if he keeps on improving. Del Portro has been slowly coming back to form after his wrist injury back in 2010 and I would love to see him challenging for slams.
Interestingly, it’s been 29 years since a Frenchman has won a grand slam. Tsonga and the other French headcases (Simon, Gasquet, Monfils, etc.) really have bad juju.
September 27th, 2012 at 16:49
Watch this: http://www.nadalnews.com/2012/09/26/rafa-learns-to-bluff/#.UGQQ_8FhjTo Rafa trying to act and bluff his way. “I’m not Rafa” hihihihihihi