Faulkner

Surprise! Another Bachelorette contestant in legal trouble.

http://www.vulture.com/2018/06/bachelorette-lincoln-convicted-of-indecent-assault-battery.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_source=fb&utm_campaign=vulture

Kesha has accused Dr. Luke of raping Katy Perry, according to court documents. Kesha made the claim in a text message to Lady Gaga.

https://variety.com/2018/biz/news/kesha-accused-dr-luke-of-raping-katy-perry-1202844495/

Nadal has pulled out of Queen’s Club again.

Anthony Herrera was SO handsome. Just a knockout.

Robert Gant STILL looks amazing.

6 minutes ago, John said:

2018 EW Reunion

 

https://people.com/peopletv/video/bs/00000163-dccc-d960-a767-fcde318a0000/queer-as-folk/

Whoever does Wendy’s social media...wow.

Interesting how they start in with the drama instead of the funny, happy stuff in typical RH trailer fashion.

4 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

Sharapova couldn't be bothered with the paperwork and extensive doctor's exams to go for the TUE.  Also, she never declared that she had a physical ailment that needed treatment, let alone a disclosure of her use of meldonium, which still strikes me as weird. 

I mean, we all know that Petra has asthma and uses an inhaler. We knew when Heather Watson and Christina McHale were suffering from glandular fever and Venus' struggles with Sjgrogren's are well documented, as well as Serena's history with bloodclots.

Why no papertrail for Maria?  Strange.

 

Sorry but Errani's excuse of her mom's meds falling into the pasta doesn't pass muster for me.  I had a relative who took cancer meds and kept them in her bedroom, NEVER in the kitchen. There is a strong warning against anyone except the patient even handling the medicine because it is so strong.

 

Yeah, there are a lot of things about Sharapova’s situation that don’t wash. It just makes her insolent attitude that much harder to take now. Not to mention the willful amnesia of the tennis media, who have never truly held her accountable.

Tennis players are tested a lot and are usually hyperviligant about what they consume, and if a massive star like Sharapova can get caught flat-footed and outed, I imagine anyone can. There are always TUEs (therapeutic use exemptions), of course.

16 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Y'all - Teresa is now a bodybuilder 

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2018/06/10/teresa-giudice-bodybuilding-rhonj-real-housewives/689248002/

That’s funny, but her body looks great actually if you like an athletic figure.

Tel Aviv pride.

50 minutes ago, Khan said:

Granted, MEK will always be "Tad the Cad" to me, but I have to say, Kurt McKinney, who was Kurth's predecessor at GH, would have been way more suitable for the role than Kurth himself.

He certainly would have been more physically appealing than Wally, but again smug Matt Reardon taints him in my memory. Maybe if I’d seen him as Ned, I’d think differently?

4 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

 

I quite liked seeing Steffi steamroll everyone.  

She was never a bore like Nadal is, and she wasn't quite as dominant as Federer/Nadal have been over the past decade. She had competition from Sanchez Vicario, Seles, Pierce, Sabatini etc

And for some reason women's tennis has always been more interesting than men's. Probably because the women don't hit as hard or serve as hard as the men so there's more play in women's matches.

Some of it is it personal preference, of course. I like Novak and Serena, so I don’t mind as much seeing them dominate. (And both of them are fiery personalities who quite often got themselves into tough situations and had to Houdini their way out of them, which for me was nerve-racking but entertaining, and they weren’t crowd favorites for much of their runs, so they appealed to my Aquarian rebelliousness lol. Serena has only *really* been embraced recently, and I’ve just accepted Novak will always have legions of haters, even though his behavior has improved markedly since his childish early days.)

Steffi and Federer always seemed cold IMO and yet had these worldwide cults supporting them. But aside from that, I started really following tennis 1995-96, and Steffi was winning pretty much everything but the Australian those years, just as Roger hoovered up nearly everything 2004-07, leaving Rafa content with Roland Garros. 

Steffi still had some great matches, especially with ASV, but tennis never really captivated me until there were multiple *real* contenders for Slams like Serena, Venus, the evil Hingis, Davenport, and then the floodgates opened in the early 2000s with the resurgent Capriati, the Belgians, et al. And I liked the stories of the Big 4 men, later on, all pushing each other. I never felt like the men’s tour really had that during the Sampras/Agassi years, and Pete was, to me, a not particularly compelling servebot who rained aces to win matches. More power to him, and he was clearly a more complete player than someone like Isner or Karlovic, but I just didn’t find that rootable.

Speaking of Arantxa, she is living her BEST life:

I found Wally Kurth so charmless and snide as Ned Ashton that it’s hard to imagine him as Tad (even though WK certainly aged more gracefully than MEK, who just looked uncomfortable and tetchy in those later years on AMC). The young MEK was just a star and dead sexy.

More power to Nadal, but it’s the same as the Patriots or the Warriors or Manchester United back in the day winning every year. Why follow a story when you know the ending? There’s nothing anyone can do about it. The other players just have to get better or wait for Nadal to get worse.

Andy will get WCs wherever he wants, but he has a steep hill to climb. We will see. There’s more time to play yourself into some kind of form during the summer hardcourt season, but he has to be careful. Obviously, Wawrinka’s recovery from knee surgery has been quite protracted. 

I always thought the men’s tournaments from 2008-14 were fantastic because there was a real tussle between the Big 4, all of them pushing each other to be better on the various surfaces. But the women’s game from 2000-2010 was fabulous with Serena and Venus, Capriati, Mauresmo, Henin and Clijsters, Davenport, and a few others all vying for titles and creating classic matches. Much more interesting than seeing Steffi steamroll everyone, especially after Seles got stabbed.

Ouch at Ken Rosewall calling Thiem’s performance “disappointing” in front of tout le monde.

Hey, I don’t think anyone is claiming Cecchinato is going to contending for Grand Slams yet, but it is impressive for someone who’d never won a match at a major to make a run to a semi and beat three straight seeded players (PCB, Goffin, Djokovic—all very good on clay) to do it. And he didn’t embarrass himself against Thiem, even if it was a straight set loss. Cecchinato isn’t the most savory character with the match-fixing allegation hanging over him, but he put together a good couple weeks. It’s more than most of the ATP will ever do.

Aside from the surprise Cecchinato run, the men’s tournament has been far less interesting than the women’s. I think that’s been the case since last year’s French.

Still, Rafa’s defense skills are otherworldly. At one of the deuce points in the final game, Thiem hit about four balls that would have been stone-cold winners against anyone else, and Nadal retrieved them all. 

Interesting.

Petko coming in with the snaps.