[atari 2600]

Lleyton Hewitt is still in the Australian Open tournament.
Hewitt to meet Baghdatis, crowd a focus
http://news.smh.com.au/hewitt-to-mee...0119-1mvb.html

He'll be playing against Baghdatis tonight. Baghdatis recently came under scrutiny for chanting anti-Turkish slogans.
Baghdatis video triggers ethnic storm
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...l?from=mostpop

[atari 2600]

they are tied at two all in the final fifth set...live on espn2...it's into the wee hours in Australia of course...they are on their 8th deuce in this fifth game of the fifth set...and lleyton goes up top 3-2 with a service break...

[atari 2600]

the australian, hewitt just won. the thing went on all through the night in melbourne...five sets with multiple games lasting longer than usual...Baghdatis walked off in tears after being defeated...

[Glice]

Did you see the darts final the other week? It was a classic.

[atari 2600]

i didn't

but, man, that was a pretty great tennis match

[atari 2600]

who was playing darts, glice
?

[atari 2600]

you can tell me i don't mind...write about whatever here.

guess you had to say 'ta'

[Glice]

Originally Posted by atari 2600

who was playing darts, glice
?

Final scores from last Sunday:

Mark Webster (Wal, 1) 7-5 Simon Whitlock (Aus)
Legs: 3-0 3-2 3-0 1-3 0-3 3-2 0-3 3-1 0-3 3-1 0-3 3-1


But that doesn't quite do the game justice, unfortunately. 'Twas a blinder, I have to say I fancied Whitlock until Webster had his third near-11 dart finish.

[atari 2600]

i once bet a guy a hundred that i could throw a bullseye with one dart and did. i haven't played much in a few years...don't have a board anymore...i had several as a kid...the cheap ones...and then i had a bristle one with a cabinet and got good darts...then took it up again later in my twenties in bars a little...some friends were on teams...i regularly beat, not always but regularly, beat these people in our doubles games...one doubles game of cricket darts was with someone famous...initials r.p. now r.i.p...it was at the uptown lounge...not the original uptown, but the one that is right next door to the original...the only darts i fool around with these days is the darts for my crossbow pistol and shoot at targets in the backyard sometimes

[Glice]

I had a dartsboard in my room as a bairn as well. I play about once a year. I'm still great, but I only play for money and only against people who think they're awesome.

I'll beat anyone at Table Tennis as well. Raar.

[atari 2600]

oh man i was incredible at table tennis at one time...real tennis too

i got a table when i was about eleven or so...don't have it anymore

the last i really played was at the student center at the university of georgia... i won a few times...

used to be good at billiards too

i'm still fair at table tennis, pool, pinball or darts

[Glice]

I had 'potential' to be a pro when I was younger at Table Tennis... inevitably, my interests headed more towards booze and girls, so that fell by the wayside. Was pretty tidy at Tennis as well. Played both at county level for a couple of years.

Now, I'm still alright at Table Tennis and play a few other things (cricket and snooker most frequently) but I'm no more than ok at anything. Except pool, but that's a game to break up the drinking, I always find.

[atari 2600]

cool, i played tennis for the high school team and was ranked as #2 seed in the state tournament during my senior year...i lost my first match...haha...i couldn've tried to play in college i suppose...

espn2 is showing the round 6 match from yesterday
http://ukpress.google.com/article/AL...GdE5WrFc8wcN2Q
where federer narrowly escaped being beaten by the serb, janko tipsarevic. in the commentary, i thought it was interesting to learn that tipsarevic has a tattoo in russian of a dostoevsky quote: "beauty will save the world."

[krastian]

Yeah, the Hewitt/Baghdatis match was pretty great. It looks like Blake will be playing Federer if everything goes as planned. It seems like a lot of the big guns are either losing or getting a scare by some relatively unknown players. I guess it's because it's the first Grand Slam of the year and players are just starting to get into their groove.


Roddick pisses me off.....he always loses. I like Blake better, so whatever. It's nice to see the Williams sisters playing good tennis again....they kind of went away for a little bit there a few years ago. They seemed to just not really give a fuck.

[atari 2600]

yeah, the williams sisters seem to do well when they really want to...they've kinda always been that way...they are getting older though...& we'll see if blake can advance

roddick looked like he was going to be strong early last year, but now he's just not good at baseline basics...he played inspired in the match yeterday, but he's very streaky...he still has the serve (still the fastest probably along with djokovich) had a record high number of aces yesterday, but he doesn't constistently anticipate or hustle or place shots at a very high level anymore...hence why he still lost

i don't think hewitt will beat djokovich but you never know...hope he can do it for the home crowd

oh that baghdatis/hewitt match was the latest starting and latest finishing match in grand slam tournament history...i'm glad i got to see the fifth and most of the fourth set...it went from midnight until five in the morning because the federer/tipsarevic went so long with five sets

[atari 2600]

Upstart French player Tsonga is taking it to Nadal who is currently losing in straight sets in the Men's semifinal.

[SYRFox]

Yeah! Tsonga rules! (/me hates Nadal). Happy to see a french in final

[atari 2600]

A few of the surprise finalists in the last few years of the Australian Open have gone on to become known (like Baghdatis who was an unseeded finalist in '06), but they didn't do much in the following years.

Judging from the level of powerhouse play I see in Tsonga though, he's going to emerge as one of the game's best. It should be a good final.

[_slavo_]

Daniela out!!!!!

"Ivanovic, the No.4 seed, outlasted Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova in three tough sets - 0-6 6-3 6-4 - in their semi-final showdown in two hours 10 minutes.

Hantuchova, 24, had never been past the third round at Melbourne Park in three previous appearances. "

[krastian]

Pretty solid beat down by Sharapova over Jankovic last night too....I thought it would have been a better match.

It's always great to see new blood in sports. Hopefully, like atari alluded too, there will be a good men's final. Djokovic pretty much won every body over with his impersonations at Wimbledon last year...he's pretty cool. Especially when he imitated Nadal picking out his wedge. I'm kind of rooting for him....Federer is till insane to watch though, so either way it should be good.