Death Taxes and
the Yanks stuffing up an international basketball tournament remain the three certainties in life. The last two World Championships and the Athens Olympics has seen the supposed giants of world basketball not even reach one final. Pass the tissues. Yes, my anti-americanism is running at reasonable levels, helped by the crowd booing Baghdatis late in the fifth set against Agassi when suffering from cramp, and I will admit to a significant degree of satisfaction at seeing USA lose to Greece. Ask an American who the World Champions in basketball are and their answer will be the Miami Heat.
It also helped my bet on Argentina, as with the favourites out they dropped from 10/1 to 3/1 to win the competition, allowing me to lay off for a free bet before the second semi-final. Just as well, as the Argies (deservedly) lost by one point to Spain. So no chocolates, but no loss either.
The final should be well worth watching, which is more than I can say about women's tennis. The lack of competition in women's matches in the early rounds of the tennis majors does get up my nose a little (partly because it's a waste of time trying to trade matches). Look at the comparison of second-round matches in the men's and women's draw involving the top 8 seeds:
Federer WIN 6-3 6-4 7-5
Nadal WIN 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-2
Ljubicic - well, he lost in the first round
Nalbandian - yet to play but will not beat Safin in straight sets
Blake WIN 6-3 6-4 7-6
Robredo WIN 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-1
Davydenko's opponent retired
Baghdatis LOST to Agassi in 5 sets
Now the women:
Mauresmo WIN 6-4 6-3
Henin-H WIN 6-1 6-2
Sharapova WIN 6-0 6-1
Dementieva WIN 6-4 6-0
Petrova WIN 6-1 6-1
Kuznetsova WIN 6-1 6-1
Schnyder WIN 6-3 7-5
Hingis LOST in 3 sets
While I bemoan the lack of competitiveness in the early rounds, on comes the sports news to tell me the NZ women's softball team lost to the USA 15-0 while the NZ women's rugby team thrashed Canada 66-7.
A while ago a column on Sportsfreak discussed (well, criticised) the treatment of women's sport in the media and while I have plenty of chauvinistic answers as to why it is so crap, perhaps one of the reasons is sports afficionados such as myself watch sport to see a contest - and too much of women's sport does not involve a contest.
To be fair, one-sided contests are not solely the domain of women's sport and there are going to be a couple this weekend involving men. One, the All Blacks will not lose to the Springboks, and on Betfair you can get 1.93 for the ABs winning by 13 points and over. Two, Pakistan will beat England in the ODI series without losing a game - that is if the rain stays away (the first ODI was abandoned due to the aqua).
Finally, the World Triathlon Champs are on this weekend - the course is not flat, so is it too much to hope for an Athens repeat in the mens? Hamish Carter's (probable) last race - my fingers are crossed for the fairytale finish.
It also helped my bet on Argentina, as with the favourites out they dropped from 10/1 to 3/1 to win the competition, allowing me to lay off for a free bet before the second semi-final. Just as well, as the Argies (deservedly) lost by one point to Spain. So no chocolates, but no loss either.
The final should be well worth watching, which is more than I can say about women's tennis. The lack of competition in women's matches in the early rounds of the tennis majors does get up my nose a little (partly because it's a waste of time trying to trade matches). Look at the comparison of second-round matches in the men's and women's draw involving the top 8 seeds:
Federer WIN 6-3 6-4 7-5
Nadal WIN 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-2
Ljubicic - well, he lost in the first round
Nalbandian - yet to play but will not beat Safin in straight sets
Blake WIN 6-3 6-4 7-6
Robredo WIN 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-1
Davydenko's opponent retired
Baghdatis LOST to Agassi in 5 sets
Now the women:
Mauresmo WIN 6-4 6-3
Henin-H WIN 6-1 6-2
Sharapova WIN 6-0 6-1
Dementieva WIN 6-4 6-0
Petrova WIN 6-1 6-1
Kuznetsova WIN 6-1 6-1
Schnyder WIN 6-3 7-5
Hingis LOST in 3 sets
While I bemoan the lack of competitiveness in the early rounds, on comes the sports news to tell me the NZ women's softball team lost to the USA 15-0 while the NZ women's rugby team thrashed Canada 66-7.
A while ago a column on Sportsfreak discussed (well, criticised) the treatment of women's sport in the media and while I have plenty of chauvinistic answers as to why it is so crap, perhaps one of the reasons is sports afficionados such as myself watch sport to see a contest - and too much of women's sport does not involve a contest.
To be fair, one-sided contests are not solely the domain of women's sport and there are going to be a couple this weekend involving men. One, the All Blacks will not lose to the Springboks, and on Betfair you can get 1.93 for the ABs winning by 13 points and over. Two, Pakistan will beat England in the ODI series without losing a game - that is if the rain stays away (the first ODI was abandoned due to the aqua).
Finally, the World Triathlon Champs are on this weekend - the course is not flat, so is it too much to hope for an Athens repeat in the mens? Hamish Carter's (probable) last race - my fingers are crossed for the fairytale finish.
Labels: opinion, post mortems
posted by Rob Crawford at 9:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home