bronze_ribbons. scattered Wimbledon jottings (Reply)

(1) It's a good thing I didn't succumb to the urge to enter any pools or fill out any brackets, since I was rooting hard for Tanasugarn, who didn't make it out of the first round this year. Would very much like to see Mauresmo beat the odds. Other players I'd like to see do well include Rezai, Razzano, Date Krumm, Sugiyama, Craybas (who is playing Razzano next round), and anyone positioned to beat Larcher de Brito (which, next round, is Schiavone).

(2) Regarding the noise isse, I'm kind of with Christopher Clarey: "...if Rafa Nadal were grunting to the point that you were still hearing it when Federer hit a backhand, I'd have the same reaction. Much as I personally don’t like the gruntathons involving the Williams sisters or Sharapova or lesser-known players like Francesca Schiavone, I never thought it was worth regulating. This seems and sounds different." As much as it pains me to say so, I don't think Larcher de Brito's shrieks should be regulated against either, but neither do I have any sympathy for her complaints about people obsessing over her noise instead of her accomplishments: sounding like an amplified Roman candle on every shot is a bloody affectation, it's not "unfair" that it's getting more pixels than her talent. (She also can't be looking very hard if she thinks no one's giving her props, since I've come across assorted articles praising both her potential and her "chutzpah" just in the course of surfing for fedal updates.)

(3) Also from the NYT Global Sports Forum:

BIERLEY: What nobody can be really sure of is how the grass will react to a whole day's play under the roof over several days.

WERTHEIM: See kids, to cover this beat it's a little horticulture, a little psychology, some finance, some acoustical science … really so much more than backhands and forehands.

BIERLEY: I think in the world's biggest green house the seeds will flourish.

CLAREY: Don't waste that sort of line on the likes of us Steve.

WERTHEIM: Cut and paste, at least.

(4) Men's draw: I'd actually be happy with Federer, Murray, Roddick, or Del Potro going the distance. I get why the first three each inspire their haters as well their KADs (Kool Aid Drinkers), but they happen to amuse me more often than not, and they each get such metric tons of insane crap spewed at/about them that I find myself wanting them to win just so that they can prove their doubters wrong. That said, none of the first three are actually my type -- and DelPo isn't either, but he's kinda cute and he's got guts.

(4a) Thinking about what wakes up my plotbunnies and gets them kicking: Badass competency; the self-esteem-qua-arrogance/pigheadedness related to asserting and wielding said badass competence; a character deliberately maintaining a facade out of sheer necessity in order to stare down his goals, his rivals, and/or his fears (think of the Snapes and Lupins I've written; Lord Peter; Will Stanton; Ryo Maclean; and now Federer); badasses not being able to ask outright for the love or comfort they too crave...

(5) Words of wisdom from Corrie over at TennisWorld commentorama:

My first reaction when I saw Rog's togs and gold stuff, was to hate them and shudder, as Pete did, at what the ordinary folks out there would think of such effete show-off-ness.

Now I've totally changed my mind. It's impossible to appeal to all markets. He's never going to appeal to the tough jock sporting types, even though he's a better athlete than any of them.

If he came out wearing dull, conventional garbs he'd be told he was BORING. So he might as well give in to his quirky prankster side, which is very strong, and just have some fun.

The moral of all this? If you're a top star, you simply cannot win. You're either boring or an arrogant prima donna.

It's exactly the same in any verbal spats the media is goading him annd Murray into. Someone will damn you, no matter what you say. If you say nothing much you're evasive. If you say honest stuff, you are, once again, arrogant.

(6) My favorite reporting so far has been the BBC's as-it's-happening writeups (e.g., Day 1).

(7)

meretricula wrote you can do better than me (I can't do better than you). Wicked hot tennis RPS threesome with lipgloss and rimming. You don't have to know anything about the players to savor the smut, though of course the more you know, the more wicked the fun. :-)

(7a) Speaking of Fics of Wrongness That I Have Prompted, I revisited

nineveh_uk's Overmastered (Wimseyfic in which Harriet roleplays Bunter), and it once again filled me with great glee.