Tennis

[WalterB]

Well, Maria pulled it off, but I thought she struggled a bit. 6-3, 6-7, 6-2, altho 6-3 and 6-2 make it seem easier. I thought she needs to work on those double faults. If she get's to Serena in the finals, she'll need to be spot on!

And, after listening to Victoria Azarenka, I have to say, nope, Maria out shouts her big time,

Victoria is currently up 6-3, but stats say Serena is 3-2 vs Azarenka when Victoria wins the first set.

But, then, WTA tweets "Azarenka has won 71 of last 73 Grand Slam matches when winning 1st set!"

At this point, it's anybody's game.

[Gert-Jan]

As much as I like watching Sharapova play, the amount of double faults needs to go down asap! She was in total control of the game until 5-3 in the second set and from there on, Coco VanDerWeghe made some awesome shots. It's remarkable to see how a superstar like Sharapova still gets nervous when she has to serve for the match. Maria reaching the semis at Wimbledon is a rare thing and after seeing her today, I fear it's not gonna be good enough to beat Serena. Too bad Azarenka could only give her some competition in the first set.

The bottom half of the draw has turned into a joke, lol. The highest seeded player left in the tournament is Radwanska and she was struggling in her game against American Madison Keys, who is being coached by the legendary Davenport. Eventually, the Polish stepped up and won the final set 6-3. She'll face Muguruza in the semi final.

My money is on Williams grabbing her third Grand Slam title this season and with only the US Open still to come, she might be winning all four Slams!

[AussieSteve]

Here down under Wimbledon is on very late at night so I haven't seen much of it myself. I would like to see Maria take it right up to Serena tonight as whoever wins that match will probably win the women's title. I think the men's title is wide open this year. Novak & Andy are my tips to make the men's final.

[Gert-Jan]

Men's semi finals starting off tomorrow with the top seed taking on Gasquet. All I am hoping for is that the Frenchman has some energy left after the thrill-seeking match against Wawrinka. Everybody expects Djokovic to win this in straight sets, but it's still tennis, you never know what's gonna happen. Okay, that sounds like one of the worst clichés ever, lol.

Murray vs Federer is what I'm really looking forward to. It's only 14 years ago that the Swiss ended Pete Sampras' reign, which he eventually would turn into a reign of his own with 5 consecutive tournament victories from 2003-2007. Nowadays both Federer and Sampras are the two tennis players with the most Wimbledon titles (7). He has already gathered the most Grand Slams, so how awesome would it be to see him win his 8th trophy in London!? He's the best player in history of tennis. Better than Nadal, Sampras, Borg, Laver, Tilden, Perry, Connors, Lendl, Agassi etc.

The weather forecast is good. No rain delays.

[WalterB]

Who would have guessed that old sissy Walt would love tennis? Well, I'm not sure if it's tennis or mainly Maria Sharapova. But in any case, this looks very exciting. 'twould be great fun to "play tennis" with Maria. Don't know how long this will be up, so take a look.

http://www.tennis.com/photos-video/2015 ... dXZLrJVikp

[AussieSteve]

Walt it does sound like fun !!

[Gert-Jan]

Maria Sharapova dropped a bomb when the highest paid female in sport announced at a press conference in LA that she had failed a drug test at the Australian Open in January. The star athlete, sex symbol, model and entrepreneur has been suspended from tennis effective immediately.

Sharapova, who won Wimbledon as a 17-year old teenage girl, said that she takes full responsibility. You can't help wondering, though... did she really not know the drug was recently added to Wada's banned list?

Nike, Tag Heuer and Porsche have already distanced themselves from the five-time Grand Slam champion.

Sharapova - Sympathetic victim or calculating PR pro? http://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/35754677

[CGYMike]

I'm going to cut Maria a little slack...I don't know all the facts , but from what I can understand this is a substance that recently went on the banned list and up until Dec 31st was perfectly legal to take. Apparently she has been taking it for over 10 years. All of a sudden its on the No-No list.

I guess as a professional athlete you should know exactly what you are putting into your body, but from the morality and legal standpoint, I think there is a huge grey area out there. Do I think that she is a cheat? Not in the least.

She will figure it out pretty quickly and so will the WTA...they need her as much as she needs them.

[WalterB]

I think she knows what she's putting into her body. Like you said, Mike, she's been taking it for 10 years. They just recetly slipped it onto the banned list and she didn't check the list when it came out. So, a slip-up on her part. A costly one, to be sure, but a mistake on her part. She realizes that, owned up to it and will accept whatever happens. I agree. I think the association at least should realize what happened, give her another test in a couple weeks, and move on. She's a top player.

[Gert-Jan]

For the first time since 1977, a Dutch female tennis player is through to the semis of a Grand Slam! Kiki Bertens defeated Swiss player Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets on Thursday and will now be up against world number one and 3-time Roland Garros winner Serena Williams. There are some concerns regarding Bertens' fitness as she's nursing a minor calf injury, so hopefully she'll be able to play this historical semi-final. The match is due to be played around 1pm local time, so it's gonna be an early one for you Americans.

The top 3 seeds in the men's tournament - Djokovic, Murray, Wawrinka - advance to the last four in which Djokovic has the better draw as he's up against Dominic Thiem and I fear the Austrian won't stand much of a chance. The confrontation between Murray and defending champion Wawrinka, however, has the potential to turn into one hell of a game. Murray fancies grass courts whereas Wawrinka loves clay. Plus, the Englishman had an exhausting quarter-final match against Gasquet, so that will benefit his opponent.

My pick? Djokovic vs Wawrinka in the final.

[Gert-Jan]

Maria Sharapova banned for the next two years....
http://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/36482288

[WalterB]

Totally a bad call. I hereby Ban the ITF for being stupid. "...the tribunal concluded her offence was "unintentional" and that she had not tried to use a "performance-enhancing substance." Couldn't find anything wrong, but banned her anyway? #StandwithMaria