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Caroline Wozniacki: What she said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Caroline Wozniacki is a chocoholic and ‘chocolicious’.
What she said:
“I will do a chocolate deal for product only. No need for money.”
Caroline Wozniacki is less interested in the money endorsements bring her and more about how a company and its products make her feel.
The Dane tennis star desires a chocolate deal because Swiss master, Roger Federer, left a huge bar of Lindt in her US Open locker.
What she really meant:
“I want what chocolate can do for me. I have chocolate on my mind.”
What she definitely didn’t:
“It’s got to be Swiss chocolate or nothing. Belgian will just not do. And it should be shaped like Rory (McIllroy).”
Sania Mirza: What she said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Sania Mirza
What she said:
Sania Mirza feelingly quips on an earthquake north of Tokyo while at the Toray Tan Pacific Open.
Dominika Cibulkova, however, felt nothing.
“I didn’t even feel it. People were talking and I didn’t really know what was happening. But the chair umpire told me afterwards. That’s never happened to me.”
What Mirza really meant:
“The ground moved from under me and this time it was not Shoaib (Malik).”
What she definitely didn’t:
“Someone, hand me my broom please so that I can clean up this mess. All while I listen to Alanis Morrisette’s ‘Under Rug Swept’.”
Bogdan Obradovic: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Bogdan Obradovic
What he said:
“And you know what, if that happens, I’ll be a minister!”
Bogdan Obradovic jokes that Novak Djokovic is so popular in Serbia that he could easily be President.
“There is a joke in Serbia. Actually, it’s not a joke. It’s a fact. Ask any man, woman or kid and they will tell you Novak must be the president. Even the president will say, ‘OK, I am ready to vacate my chair for Novak’.”
The non-playing captain of his country’s Davis Cup team is in Bangalore where India play them for a spot in the World Group.
It was in 2001 at the US Open that Obradovic predicted (to a Serbian reporter) that Djokovic would be World No. 1 someday and win the American title.
“I told him that we have one kid back home and he is going to be No. 1 and win the singles title at the US Open one day. That interview was broadcast on Serbian national television. Many people laughed at me. Today, they smile.
You know Novak was junior World No. 1 at 14. He won the European championships. Now you may wonder how a European champion can be called a world champion. Let me tell you. It’s a funny story. Actually, even Americans and Canadians and Australians used to play in the European championships. It’s funny, I know. So, to me, Novak was the No. 1 junior in the world.”
On Djokovic’s elasticity:
“The good thing was that he was naturally elastic. So we developed an exercise regimen and made sure we didn’t destroy that aspect of his body. Look, most tennis players are strong and powerful. But they are not agile. They don’t possess elastic energy. This is not American Football or rugby. In tennis, you need to have elastic energy. By using your elastic energy, you tend to spend less energy during matches. This helps you recover faster. No one knows your tank capacity; how much gasoline you have. I can tell you Novak spends less energy than any other player on the Tour. That’s why is so fit. That’s why he is No. 1.”
What he really meant:
“A minister ministers and that’s what I’ll do. After all, haven’t I been ministering to him for years?”
What he definitely didn’t:
“Machiavellian, ain’t I?”
Caroline Wozniacki: What she said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Caroline Wozniacki
What she said:
“I was shocked. I thought at least, you know, I would get a face to face or something. But there was nothing. It was just a phone call and I did not hear from him again.”
Caroline Wozniacki reveals the back-story behind her sudden break-up with Northern Irish golfer Rory McIllroy. The nuptials were called off by the golfer ending a three-year relationship.
The luscious Dane said:
“It was very hard because he made it very public from the start. He put out a press release so I didn’t have a choice, you know, it just got put in my face.
I was shocked. I thought at least, you know, I would get a face to face or something. But there was nothing. It was just a phone call and I did not hear from him again.
I don’t think you expect to find yourself in a situation like that, you can’t prepare yourself or your body for anything like that so I think I was in a bit of a shocked phase there for a while.”
Wozniacki has since moved on and poked fun at her former boyfriend’s lack of inches.
https://www.instagram.com/p/qjWZ3lEHxDEnglish: Profile portrait of Rory McIlroy, golfer from Northern Ireland. Taken at Royal Dublin Golf Club, Dublin, Ireland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“I went to Miami after the French Open and Serena was there and we had a great time. I came back from that and I felt refreshed, I felt like a new self.
I started practising towards Wimbledon and I was playing well. I think you just have to take life as it goes and I believe you never get things put on you that you can’t handle. I’m definitely on the other side now — I’ve moved on.
I think it is very important to have a life off the court and to me it wasn’t that hard to balance tennis and a relationship.
I would like a taller guy so I can wear my heels. Someone who is fun to be around who doesn’t take himself too seriously.”
McIllroy broke off the engagement claiming:
“The problem is mine. The wedding invitations issued at the weekend made me realise that I wasn’t ready for all that marriage entails.”
The ace golfer has since won two Slams while his ex-partner made only her second ever Grand Slam final at the US Open last week.
What Wozniacki really meant:
“Hell, I was supposed to be married and you pulled the rug from under me. You’re a rug rat.”
What she definitely didn’t:
“Well, at least, he didn’t post it on Facebook, direct message me on Twitter or IM me , well, anywhere.”
London, Rio De Janeiro and Nottingham: A Tale of Tests in Three Cities
Lionel Messi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Novak Đoković vs Roger Federer on 2010 Rogers Cup Semifinal game in Toronto, Rexall Centre 1:2 (1:6, 6:3, 5:7) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Roger Federer is still a champion.
Flying under the radar, the 17-time Grand Slam winner fought tooth and nail taking the championship match into the final set last Sunday.
Novak Djokovic may have clinched his seventh Slam. But no guesses for who walked away with the plaudits and the kudos.
Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov are amongst heirs-in-waiting to the Big Four. But for now, they are just that.
Brazil’s shocking disintegration against Germany in the semi-final and the consequent shellacking had their fans in tears.
No consolation for them in the third place match either. Holland walked away with the honours—a meeting their coach Van Gaal derided as leaving one team feeling a loser despite having reached the semi-finals. His exact words:
“But the worst thing is, I believe, that chances are that you lose twice in a row. A tournament where you’ve played so marvellously well, that you go home as a loser just because you could possibly lose the last two matches. So, this has got nothing whatsoever to do with sports, not in my view.”
It’s Germany versus Argentina tonight in the final. Two former champions, two great gladiatorial sides.
Germany hold the edge on current form. But Argentina have Lionel Messi.
The Barca galactico was completely out of sorts in the quarters and the semis; the man-to-man marking rendering him ineffectual. Can he do a Maradona and take Argentina home?
Knock-out games are less about scoring and more about attrition. It’s about waiting and hoping that your opponent makes a mistake and then capitalising on it and drawing the shutters down.
That’s how Holland and Argentina played out their semi-final. It made for extremely boring viewing. Van Gaal repeated the mistakes of the 2010 final against Spain when Holland played hard and foul ruining any possibility of their moment in the sun. Hoping to win on penalties should be a strategy for relative minnows such as Costa Rica, not for the team that has dazzled the world with its brand of Total Football over the past four decades.
The first Test Match between India and England got underway this week at Trent Bridge.
The hosts presented the visitors an Indian wicket: flat and lifeless.
The match has already produced a record of sorts. The final wicket partnerships in the first innings produced two hundred-plus partnerships.
If Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami showed that the wicket held no devils, Joe Root and Jimmy Anderson rubbed in the curator Steven Birk’s face in it with their world record stand of 198—the highest ever in Test cricket.
Birks copped some criticism for the state of the wicket.
Birk said:
“We wanted to produce a pitch with pace, bounce and carry which hasn’t happened unfortunately. There’s quite a lot of moisture underneath but it’s a hard surface on top which is why it’s lacking pace. The moisture readings taken earlier in the week were quite high and we haven’t seen enough of the sun to really bake it out.”
Ian Botham’s take on the pitch:
“You might as well be playing in Chennai with this wicket.”
Jimmy Anderson had similar views:
“Two days out we could see the pitch was not going to have huge amount of pace in it. That is something you just got to try and put out of your mind. We are as frustrated as everyone else watching.”
Has the mandate to ensure matches last into the final day hastened the death of Test cricket? Indian fans stayed away—their ratio a paltry 10:90.
Draws occur in Tests all the time. It’s the nature of the result that makes all the difference to the enthusiasts.
Sharapova knows not her Tendulkar; Neymar’s back’s out
Football player Neymar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sachin Tendulkar (Photo credit: ali_pk)
Maria Sharapova (Photo credit: D. Piris)
Its the 6th day in July; the semi-final line-up for the FIFA World Cup’s finalised and Petra Kvitova reigns supreme at Wimbledon once more.
In Brazil, it’s Brazil versus Germany and Holland versus Argentina.
Will it be an all South American final or an all European one?
Or is it to be a fifty-fifty split? Only the soccer gods know for sure.
Neymar’s horrendous ouster from the World Cup—kneed from behind by his Colombian opponent Juan Camilo Zúñiga—left a sour taste in the mouth.
Is this the end of Brazil’s World Cup?
Earlier in the week, Indian trolls had a field day hurling online invectives at Maria Sharapova for her insouciant response, “I don’t know who Tendulkar is.”
Does it really matter? Did Sharapova need to know who the demi-god of India cricket is to win her five slams?
For that matter, does Tendulkar need to be aware of tennis heroes and heroines to score on the cricket field?
Or do you and I need to know who the President of India is to do our jobs? Not unless your job needs you to know this trivia. But I digress.
Do you think Tendulkar cares that the ruling diva of women’s tennis does not recognise him or his name or his lauded achievements? He will probably breathe a sigh of relief that there’s one less bothersome fan in the world.
Is Sharapova to blame for her ignorance? Does it not have to do with the insular sports coverage of Western media specifically in Russia and the US? But why blame these states? How many Test-playing countries are there? Barely a handful.
Should Maria worry? Only if she’s seeking to package, market and sell Sugarpova in India, right?
Till next week. Adios, for now.
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“Been there! Great Big Daned that!”
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Novak Djokovic: What he said, really meant and definitely did not
Novak Djokovic Believes He Belongs Among The Game’s Elite
What he said (via ATPWorldTour.com):
“I think luck falls on not just the brave but also the ones who believe they belong there.”
World No. 1, Novak Djokovic, answers the question,”What’s been the difference?”
The Serb’s interview with Patrick McEnroe features in the debut edition of ESPN, The Magazine.
What he really meant:
“Luck is more belief than anything else.”
What he definitely didn’t:
“It’s all about my gluten-free diet.”
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