DramatistDreamer

That video was ridiculously hilarious. Cruz is creep and awkward AF and that closeup on that white particle on his mouth...yuck!

Tennis, like Grigor has had some rough patches this year: French Tennis Federation Offices Raided by Investigators Another day, another tennis scandal, tennis 2016 is too much!

Del Potro beats Thiem 7-6, 6-3 in Madrid. Del Po was very emotional afterwards- he knows what a good, tough opponent Thiem is so for him, I'd guess, this win is the best gauge of how far he has come since his return.

I read a very long form piece that talked about his creepy writings. It sounded like something that would come from the brain of a very intellectually stunted adolescent- except it was from a 30-something year old grown man! That video footage of Fiorina falling and Cruz not even helping her, oh boy!

I agree but she had lost a lot of confidence and she has to rebuild it somewhere. I'd prefer her rebuilding her confidence on the ITF circuit than to be playing on the WTA tour, chalking up loss after loss and losing her confidence piece by piece. I remember when Agassi in his late 20s, returned to pro-tennis after a long layoff (and a significant ranking drop) and was playing Challenger tournaments to rebuild his game. Kind of makes sense. Townsend has a very versatile, effortless game but she's not exactly a power player so she can't really hit her way through opponents and gain confidence the way the Williams Sisters did at her age.

I have been watching a group of episodes from the 1990s are realize that both Allison Janney (West Wing) and Kristin Johnson (Third Rock from the Sun) both had small roles on the show around '93-94. So fun to see them in bit parts before they had bigger success.

I might expect that behavior from a play transitioning from juniors to the ATP but not someone like Dimitrov, who has had some years of experience behind him. Time for the sports psychologist (lol)! Seems like it was not poor officiating but self inflicted. Other than taking the grievance to whoever strung his racquets, it seems like he may have something going on with him personally. Is he carrying a pre-existing injury? Or is there emotional strain? Very odd for him, who is not known for tantrums. Thiem lost to Kohlschreiber, surprising even Kohl's fans (lol). Phillip has won this tournament at least twice before, it's kind of his thing (lol). Yes, I remember reading a NYT article about Gimelstob where he mentioned going through a divorce. I guess he read it and saw in the article that he was doing ten things at once (while defending his ability to do so to the reporter) and thought it probably wouldn't look good for his prospects of even dual custody unless he cut down on some of his activities. Taylor Townsend won an ITF tournament today and she does look to be a bit trimmer than when I last saw her.

@Soapsuds Did you hear about what happened to Dimitrov? I didn't see much of the match but heard about the end result.

Yeah Mr. Bozo…..LOL…..I wonder if John Isner made the trip to Spain? Isner and Gimelstob parted ways, I imagine it may be interesting the next time Gimelstob provides commentary on one of Isner's matches. The only U.S. man that I've seen in Madrid (in pictures) is Jack Sock. Before Madrid, none of the U.S. men were in Europe on clay.

I can't blame you but at least with ESPN3, you don't have to listen to the regular ESPN commentary, it's from the world feed, so generally the same commentators as TennisTV. And no Justin Gimelstob either.

The Madrid tournament has already started, Sloane Stephens had a match today where she beat Teliana Pereira of Brazil in three sets. Definitely not a qualifying match. At least ESPN3 is finally covering a clay court tournament on red clay. It's my only recourse besides those bootleg streams, some of which are blocked by my antivirus software. Last year, ESPN3 livestreamed Monte Carlo, the Family Circle Cup, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome. This year, the only clay court tournament they've streamed prior to Madrid was the Family Circle Cup. And streaming begins tomorrow, not today.

Dominic Thiem beat Alexander Zverev (I was tempted to say Sascha) to advance to the BMW Open in Munich, where he'll face Phillip Kohlschreiber. @Soapsuds, you should also be glad that Grigor Dimitrov beat Ivo Karlovic (in 2 tie-break sets, of course!) to advance to the finals in Istanbul. Lucie Safarova won the Prague Open (on home soil) over Sam Stosur and both had to hustle by plane to the Mutua Madrid Open as the tournament has already started there.

Frances Tiafoe just beat Ryan Harrison 7-6, 6-4. Of course, Ryan smashed his racket on the verge of losing his serve and the match. Until he changes his temperament and attitude, I don't see Harrison going very far.

I always reject the idea of a player leaving if he/she is not ready to go, especially in today's game where so many players peak in their late 20s. Stan Wawrinka won his first Major at what, 30 years of age? Although I don't see Young having that type of major success in singles (he's pretty nifty in doubles) but I think he could, not consistently but sometimes, have a good showing at tournaments (didn't he get to the Quarters last year at the USO?). It was an interesting match. The crowd seemed neutral at first but seemed to be pulling for Tiafoe, especially after Young won the 1st set. Young seemed very agitated with the crowd and his tweets kind of explain why: I do think he felt the pressure of being supplanted by the YOUNGer player out there, while Frances seemed undaunted and unfazed by the dynamics on court. At first, Tiafoe did seem nervous, but deep into the 1st set, he started to play the game he's capable of playing- it was too late to salvage the 1st set, Donald had built a sizeable lead but early in the 2nd set, I had a sense that it would be a different story. Tiafoe, playing with no pressure, just played his game for the rest of the match, while Young, at times, was focused point by point, and then completely bothered both by the crowd and what Tiafoe was doing to his shots. What I cannot understand is why is Young playing on a green clay court in Tallahassee? I can understand why Tiafoe would (he wants those points, trying to get into the Top 100) but Young, at #81 is already in the Top 100 and should be playing on red clay in Estoril or Munich. With Donald's ability to create different spins on the ball, I can't figure out why he won't try to make a go on clay. He doesn't know how to slide but quite a lot of players have had decent results on red clay without sliding particularly well. None of the U.S. men in the Top 100 seem to even be making an effort on clay so far this year. I don't understand, because if a player is healthy, the more the player makes an effort, the better their chances are of improving and having a measure of success.

Frances Tiafoe just beat Donald Young in a clay court challenger in Florida.

JCap is at it again https://twitpl.us/fGzZ

Thanks @Soapsuds I sometimes forget about the SI Mailbag but I try to read it when I remember. Thanks for the reminder We've talked about Nishikori's issues on this board. He's prone to injuries, probably due to his lack of height and labor intensive style of play. I think the best of three format suits his game but in a Major, with a kind draw he can go deep into the tournament but in order to get anywhere past the QFs, I think he would need a lot of help. I don't know why Wertheim felt that Donald Young should answer for what happened in the match vs. Medvedev. He wasn't the one who uttered whatever it was that led to the default, nor was he the one who gave the default. Why can't the Challenger tournament director just state exactly what led to the default and the reasons (if it's still not clear) for the default. A lot of confusion in tennis could be cleared up, if there were more transparency in regards to meting out punishments and penalties. Like I said before, when Kyrgios had his infraction and punishment announced, the tennis establishment went into detail, even 'outing' Donna Vekic (when even Nick didn't mention the name of the woman) in the process. Why is tennis choosing to be vague now? Their openness could be instructive to other young players, particularly from parts of the world that may not be familiar with what is considered offensive to other groups. Hey, did you hear that the Russian Minister of Sport said that the levels of meldonium in Sharapova's blood were too high to reverse her suspension? She's basically temporarily suspended but I know her racquet sponsor was trying to lobby for her suspension to be dropped. Also, since all these other negative tests from Russian athletes have been made public, some people were suggesting that if there were an amnesty, that she'd be included. I think any amnesty would only be for people who stopped taking meldonium before the deadline with what they believed would be ample time for the drug to leave their system, that does not include Maria, who admitted that she continued to take the drug after the January 1st deadline. So basically, the Russian Sport Minister says, while he doesn't want to announce whether further punishments are coming and he admits to hoping any punishment won't be severe, her meldonium level "exceeds the permitted limit." http://www.sport-express.ru/tennis/news/993588/

I'm thinking Monfils withdrawal from Munich wasn't so much about a groin injury, it was more like him saying Fu*ck this, I'll catch ya in Madrid or Rome (lol). A picture of Monfils on the bottom, before the tournament began. He does not look happy.

Prague is not that much better:

YUUUGE number of layoffs in the Sanders campaign: Sanders campaign begins laying off staff

If you think that one is funny: He looks cold!

Which tournament is he playing? BMW Open in Munich, Germany, where they've already had snow and hail and players are dressing in layers.

Juan Martin del Potro just won his 1st clay court match since 2013!! Is that right? Man, he's been dealing with injuries for a long time, if that's the case!

Oh, I saw on my library's website, so I don't know about the cost. I don't even know whether I can make a trip to my library to check it out. If I can check it out in the form of an ebook, that would be ideal for me right now since I'm practically attached to my laptop right now.

I was going through my local library's online database and saw a book on Meryl Streep, became curious (I love juicy biographies) and clicked on it but when I did, I noticed there were some suggested titles at the bottom of the page and among the suggested titles was Farley Granger's 2007 autobiography, with Robert Calhoun written in big letters and I wondered, has anyone here read that biography? Here's the cover: