You have to be a fan of Roger Federer. You just do. And you have to marvel at how amazing of a tennis player he actually is. And do you know when you get a true appreciation of how dominant Federer actually has been? When he loses.

Last night, Federer fell ro the 3-seed, Novak Djokovic, in straight sets in the semifinals of the Australian Open. The front page of espn.com referred to this as a “shocking loss.” And reading that, we thought, yeah, that is a shocking loss. When you lose in the semifinals of a grand slam to a guy seeded 3rd in the tourney and the loss is considered shocking, that means you are damn good. Read the rest of this entry »

Just one day after Serena Williams was knocked out of the Australian Open, her sister Venus followed.  Venus fell last night to Ana Ivanovic in straight sets, much like her sister.  But it’s after the loss where things went in different directions.

We highlighted yesterday the comments made by Serena - the same comments she gives after every loss.  And so, we were careful to check the stories today to see if Venus acted the way we expected… a much better sport than her sister.  Read the rest of this entry »

When we read that Serena Williams had been beaten in the Australian Open yesterday by Jelena Jankovic, we knew that a few things were certain to occur in Serena’s post-match interview.

(1) She would make some sort of excuse for why she lost, then talk about how she was not making excuses.
(2) She would reluctantly give the opponent slight credit for the win, then top that with a comment about how she handed the match to her opponent.
(3) At no point would she straight out admit she was beaten by a better player in that particular match. Read the rest of this entry »