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A Further Perspective
Kolya on 16th Street
Nikolay Davydenko plays the match of the tournament in between some much-needed Washington rain.
(Page 2 of 2)
But do drugs really matter? If someone wants to kill himself, it is between him and his family and his God. And the law. It is a criminal issue, if you are involved in illicit drugs. But is it an issue for the sport, as such? Whose concern is it if Babe Ruth ate lots of hot dogs and Joe DiMaggio sipped coffee before games? Or that Pancho Gonzales had a horrible diet and smoked heavily? You go up against all kinds of players, some follow this regimen, some follow that one. You take them as they are and you beat them or are beaten by them. Finally what matters is how they played the game, not what they ingested before the game. Matt had Kolya 5-4, but when he had a chance to break him he sent balls flying over the line in a way that was downright surprising. It is how you play the point and keep your nerve. Whether the stake is a set of tennis or the annual budget of the United States.
I was glad it rained. That was selfish of me, it causes all kinds of distress and disappoints the fans who came to see the late games. They have terrific drying machines at the Rock Creek Tennis Center. Of course they are not much good if the rain keeps coming. We needed it, after the July dryness. But I was glad I had an excuse to leave. You do not often see matches like the one between Kolya Davydenko and Matt Ebden. But I am sure they will show us more.
About the Author
Roger Kaplan, a Washington-based writer, covers the Middle East and Africa (and tennis) for The American Spectator.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
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Clint| 8.4.11 @ 8:13AM
Tennis is such a racket.
Elron H.| 8.4.11 @ 10:26AM
HAH-HAH-HAH...
...dumb...
Pope Testiculus II| 8.4.11 @ 10:37AM
BTW, Clintie-Poo...
Your long-winded post yesterday on the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was loaded with errors and purposeful distortions.
First of all, OF COURSE children are more likely to be sexually abused by a teacher than by a Priest...DUH!!!
There are >6 million teachers in the USA, genius, as compared to
Clint| 8.4.11 @ 11:10AM
Gee Screwball Fanatic Anti-Catholic Bigot Victor-Margie -Reich Nazi,
According to a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, in compliance with the 2002 "No Child Left Behind" act signed into law by President Bush, between 6 percent and 10 percent of public school children across the country have been sexually abused or harassed by school employees and teachers.
That dwarfs the percentage of sex abuse in Catholic Schools,
Pope Testiculus II| 8.4.11 @ 1:42PM
Proof, my son?
Your flatus-infested diatribes deny the truth.
We are NOT simply discussing "Catholic schools". That is more obfuscation.
Not all the children who were molested by Priests were molested in school.
You're not a very bright parishioner, are you?
Clint| 8.4.11 @ 11:13AM
The Answer For Obsessional Anti-Catholic Bigot,Dixie Pixie Follows.
Why Are You & Dr.Reich Hidin' ?
Hmmmm, Fixated Anti-Catholic Bigot White Trash ?
Pope Testiculus II| 8.4.11 @ 1:54PM
Well, aren't you the pot calling the kettle...white..?
Clint| 8.4.11 @ 9:37PM
You're The Anti-Catholic White Trash Bigot, Dixie Prick.
You Ran Your Coward Bigot Mouth.
Now, You're Gonna Wear It.
Bob Grant| 8.4.11 @ 8:43AM
Kolya Davydenko....Um boy. Wasn't that the guy in Rocky III?
RCV| 8.4.11 @ 2:08PM
Would someone tell Tyrell to run Kaplan's solumns in TENNIS TODAY. No one here cares.
RCV| 8.4.11 @ 2:08PM
er, "columns"
Mike Walsh| 8.4.11 @ 4:22PM
Whatever one calls them, my sentiments exactly: Tennis? Who cares?
Cynth| 8.4.11 @ 3:58PM
Wonderful mix of social commentary and sports lyricism! More please -- although it may be these are pearls that ought not be cast before, you know, these yahoos. Yet, tennis and sports properly understood are part and parcel of literate Republican culture, so you probably have a strong audience out there, though one that reads you in secret. To be civilized is often to be in the closet...
Arizona Bob| 8.4.11 @ 4:10PM
Brilliant, brilliant, thanks again, Mr. Kaplan. But I would go further with this drug business. I see your point about letting the sport be the sport, and leave criminal matters to criminal authorities, but it still leaves the sports federations with a huge problem, nor only an image problem -- they have a responsibility for young athletes' health and after all, they don't want to be irresponsible citizens as far as the law is c0ncerned. Unfortunately, as we know all too well, no sports -- from Olympics to baseball, not to mention cycling -- has developed an adequate regime for dealing with these plagues. You were polite about it, but as you know some players, notably James Blake, came down very hard on Odesnik. You're right it's not a new problem. But it is a sickness that is, unfortunately, all too symptomatic of some of the unpleasant traits of life today in our country.
Bob Grant| 8.4.11 @ 4:39PM
"Drugs have been around a long time; they were discussed intelligently in Michael Mewshaw's '80s classic, Short Circuit, about the formative years of the modern professional tour (i.e., since the 1967 beginning of the Open era)."
Short Circuit? I was around during the 80's and only remember a movie titled Short Circuit, starring legendary actor Steve Guttenberg, about a R2D2-clone of a robot and the creepy relationship it had with the character played by Ally Sheedy.
I dunno, maybe it was one of those art movies I never got around to watching.
POST American| 8.5.11 @ 12:30AM
-----'70's Show' DIS-traction, with police state
Stanford Research/Tavistock/ Theo Adorno
subtexting --ALERT!--
MEANWHILE. a report from the LONG buried
scene of what, we'll bet, proves to be the greatest
world de-pop op of all time in Fukishima.
They're now reporting radiation levels to be higher than ever . ALLLLL pulsing out steadily
over Canada and the US. And of course, all of
it frying fertility, formenting cancer etc.
Remember kiddies, the agenda calls 100 MILLION Americans to be
exterminated by 2050. ON RECORD.
NOT that far away ----esp. in the minds of
Rockefeller sponsored actuarial psychopaths.
SO, have a nice weekend, and a nice time at
church listening to your Freemason-Rockefeller
'Council of Churches' front minister
urges prostrate submission to things 'as they are'.
--------------------JUST KEEP ON GOIN'
rendite| 8.5.11 @ 1:26AM
Dude (Kaplan), if you've got the time to invest following this meaningless drivel -- at your age -- you are:
1. Certainly not living a life well lived.
2. Not very intelligent.
3. Lazy.
4. A big part of our national problem.
Get up off your ass and do something meaningful.
You aren't a man; you're an embarassment.
"Oh, but it is just so much fun to fret about pitchers and pitching staffs!"
Or to talk about the Germans and Czechs when they come to the D.C. courts?
Or to wander about Paris looking for a tennis court.
17 posts altogether (18 including mine) with half as meaningless as Kaplan's empty ____________ says it all.
Nobody cares what you write. Nobody is reading.
But you could turn that around if you invest your life (sweat, effort, initiative, thought, passion) in something worthwhile.
Now, go be a man.
Arizona Bob| 8.5.11 @ 10:27AM
I was hoping to catch up on yesterday’s results at the Washington tournament as explained by this site’s best chronicler, but I see there is a day off, although the wires inform me there were some matches played, including some dramatic one involving the
American stars John Isner and James Blake and some fancy displays of athleticism by the remarkable French player, Monfils. I look forward to Mr. Kaplan’s summary of the tournament next week, along with his witty observations on the environment of big time sports, the nation’s capital, and the rest.
Glancing – a weakness when I should be at work, but a substitute for my sports news fix – at the previous day’s coverage, I am appalled to find the editors are not doing their job in controlling access to their site. This is, frankly, like newspaper opinion pages that are open to every kook in the name of “balance”, but in this case what you are inviting is mental unbalance.
Simply to set the context: I like go for an early run in the desert, perhaps batting tennis balls on the neighborhood courts on the way back when local pals are up to the same schedule, then home for a quick shower, check the markets, resist (these days) calling my broker in a panic, and scan the news. I got into the habit of looking at TAS some months ago. I admit I had a subscription to the print magazine that I allowed to lapse, along with NR and a few other journals of this persuasion, after repeated admonitions from my wife that she had better uses for space in the garage than cardboard boxes containing a peculiar part of our children’s inheritance, which she forced me to admit they are unlikely to ever claim when the time comes to settle the estate.
Still, a stiff dose of right-wing slanted news and opinion can be salutary in these times, and what else is a computer on a desk in a den for. One of these days, I keep promising myself, I will give in to an obscure urge, open my checkbook, and send a few thousand dollars to Messrs Tyrrell and his colleagues in this industry with notes telling them the libraries of every school and neighborhood my family has known want subscriptions to their wares.
However, there is an odd species that lurks in these on-line news sites, and it reminds you of nothing so much as pasty faced men in soiled black raincoats lurking around elementary schools. The preceding is a textbook example. It is not clear why Messrs Tyrrell and colleagues allow this to pass. Letters to the editor, after all, are supposed to be from readers, not escaped lunatic asylum patients. It certainly does nothing for the conservative side to advertise the possibility, always present, that we are a bunch of cranks and mental cases, nor, I am sure, does it suggest to the journal’s potential advertisers and supporters that they would be putting their money in a profitable demographic.
I suppose there is a public service involved, in that it is, indeed, better to have these peculiar sorts venting their spleen here than under their raincoats, but balancing the advantages and disadvantages, I would suggest you edit these expressions of paranoia or simply block them.