It is truly a spectacle and it's a good thing it's only held every four years.
This was the first World Cup held on the continent of Africa and despite all the people predicting gloom and doom it went off without a hitch. No hooliganism in the stands, nothing. Everyone seemed to be having a great time blowing the now famous, or infamous, vuvuzelas.
Davis Cup
Davis Cup played second fiddle, as did all other sports, to the World Cup but there were some stunning surprises in the results. I'm posting the World Group quarterfinal results today. I'll post the complete results tomorrow.
WORLD GROUP QUARTERFINALS
FRANCE defeated SPAIN 5-0
Venue: Grande Halle d'Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France (hard - indoors)
Michael Llodra (FRA) d. Fernando Verdasco (ESP) 67(5) 64 63 76(2)
Julien Benneteau/Michael Llodra (FRA) d. Feliciano Lopez/Fernando Verdasco (ESP) 61 62 67(6) 76(5)
Gilles Simon (FRA) d, Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 76(4) 76(7)
Julien Benneteau (FRA) d. Feliciano Lopez (ESP) 76(3) 64
Spain going out to nil is stunning. After it's horrid World Cup performance I think the French were on a mission. Michael Llodra, above was the most valuable player on the French side.
ARGENTINA defeated RUSSIA 3-2
Venue: Olympic Stadium, Moscow, Russia (hard - indoors)
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) d. Leonardo Mayer (ARG) 63 61 64
Eduardo Schwank/Horacio Zeballos (ARG) d. Nikolay Davydenko/Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) 76(7) 64 67(3) 61
Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) d. Eduardo Schwank (ARG) 46 63 61 64
David Nalbandian (ARG) d. Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) 76(5) 64 63
The world met David Nalbandian's brother from another mother Diego Forlan from Uruguay during the World Cup but David got to dance a jig while dodging water as Argentina defeated Russia in Russia. Think I'm kidding about Forlan?
SERBIA defeated CROATIA 4-1
Venue: Spaladium Arena, Split, Croatia (hard – indoors)
Marin Cilic (CRO) d. Viktor Troicki (SRB) 64 75 62
Janko Tipsarevic/Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) d. Marin Cilic/Ivan Dodig (CRO) 63 62 64
Novak Djokovic (SRB) d. Marin Cilic (CRO) 63 63 62
Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) d. Antonio Veic (CRO) 62 76(5)
Serbia overcame the ugliness that greeted their arrival in Croatia by defeating the Croatian team on its own soil.
CZECH REPUBLIC defeated CHILE 3-0
Venue: Enjoy Tennis Center, Coquimbo, Chile (clay - outdoors)
Jan Hajek (CZE) d. Paul Capdeville (CHI) 60 62 61
Lukas Dlouhy/Jan Hajek (CZE) d. Jorge Aguilar/Nicolas Massu (CHI) 76(3) 63 36 63
Nicolas Massu (CHI) v Jan Hajek (CZE)
Cristobal Saavedra-Corvalan (CHI) v Ivo Minar (CZE)
The Czech Republic (got that Hannah Storm?) won rather easily over Chile. the semi finals will see France vs Argentina in France and the Czech Republic vs Serbia in Serbia.
Weekend Winners
Timea Bacsinszky and Tathiana Garbin won the doubles crown in Budapest.
Unfortunately an investigation into possible illegal gambling has been launched against the match between Christophe Rochus and Richard Bloomfield. Bloomfield, a British player ranked #552 in the world defeated Rochus. As usual tremendous sums of money were involved. This is the second time Bloomfield's name has come up in relation to gambling.
Idle Chit Chat
Tennis players were still out and about last week. There is photographic proof of this.
A formal church wedding and reception was held afterwards.
End Notes
4 comments:
Great write-up, Savannah! I too loved the WC....picked Spain at the very start and they came thru for me! Guess Paul and I have that one thing in common. Thanx for all the lovely pics too!
I am one of the haters who have moved to the left. I would have hoped that neither team won. The Dutch because they coined the word apartheid and Spain because they are one of many European countries that have benefitted from the treatment of the African continent.
I was really hoping one of the African countries would have made it into the semis but the minute that Ghana went, I did too.
It is hard not to look at the history of countries and the way they have treated other countries, and in particular Africa. One would really hope that in the spirit of forgiveness that folks like me (or haters like me) would have been able to move beyond it. But there can only be forgiveness if and when it is asked for.
As no European country has ever asked for forgiveness, save and except England to those of us in the West Indies, it is hard to really forgive those who continue to exploit black people on the continent.
As a black woman, and as someone whose writings I have always respected, the fact that you so dismissively discard the legitimate views of persons who know their history is a sad day for all black people. Very disappointed in your response. Haters to the left indeed. I wonder if Mandela or any of those who fought for equality and freedoms would have just decided that haters to the left would have been an appropriate response.
TA perhaps it's necessary to explain why I said what I said.
The posts extolling the Dutch to the detriment of the Spaniards were made by the same tennis "fans" who regularly spend an inordinate amount of time bashing Venus Willams and Serena Williams for reasons I know I don't have to explain to you, the same people who are looking for someone to "save" women's tennis.
As a woman of both African Caribbean and African American descent I am very much aware of what was done to the African continent by ALL of the European countries who managed to get a stake in the continent.
What Spain did to the Aztec and Incan civilizations is inexcusable. What England and France did in their territories is inexcusable. What Belgium did in the Congo is inexcusable. What the Dutch did in South Africa is inexcusable.
I too wanted an African country to make it to the semi finals but you can't overlook the fact that not one African nation had one of it's own coaching their national teams. If there was one I missed him and I apologize. One of the announcers said that many of the European coaches came on board in the last few months, for shitloads of money. That was not even close to enough time to learn a culture and work with a team. Ghana did the best of all the teams from the African continent. I was glad to see them make it as far as they did but in the end lack of cohesion did them in.
I stick by my "Haters" remark. I'm sorry you felt I had given up my card. I haven't. :)
Savannah, thanks for taking the time to respond and I understand your point of view. Usually when I go to message boards and I see hate filled language disguising itself as intelligent discussions, I use this little adage that I teach my children, "in every relationship, someone has to be the adult".
In this situation, while I understand your use of the term "haters to the left", it would also have been good to use your blog to denounce those who would hide behind serious discussions to spew their venom.
A lot of bloggers abscond from the responsibility of contributing more to society by stating that well it is my blog and I can do whatever I want. True, but with that sort of freedom to express oneself comes some amount of responsibility.
There are a lot of blogs that I used to follow because the writings of the blogger used to be objective, even though you just knew that the blogger did not appreciate a certain viewpoint, but then the blogger has done what many others before have done. They have used their own personal hate to come through or allow others with hate similar to their own to control them.
While I understand that you were addressing those persons who were hell bent on using their racist rants to make their argument, methinks a more appropriate response would have been similar to what you wrote in your response to me.
Anyway, peace
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