leicsmac

I love watching Red State Republicans in the media. It's a taste of what Jeremy Kyle would be like if the people on it were rich and could string a sentence together.

How is that irony headache Matt? Seriously, this would be unreal if this actually happened. However major organised religions as a whole seem to have a problem with homosexuals. I'm not sure why tbh - what kind of people other people want to get nasty with shouldn't be a reason to be vilified/discriminated against/insert random negative thing here. I mean, if it's all about liking a particular set of features thing then they might come after me for liking women with big breasts.

Quoted/Repeated for emphasis.

A year ago I said in this same thread test the gap between Murray and the players above him was closing. Today and the events of the last 12 months have proven that the gap had closed completely. He is amongst the truly elite. Great to see. Now to make some more history by beating Djokovic on Sunday!

Piss poor shot selection from Murray there - he'll think it's a set wasted. Got to regroup.

Murray with the first set - actually looks better in all departments right now,

Murray - Federer just started...should be a cracker!

And top 4 for the semifinals is the way it turned out, thanks largely to Tsonga buckling under pressure in the third set TB and Almagro in what was possibly one of the most sensational chokes of all time - served for the match 3 times and couldn't get the job done. Djokovic shouldn't have too many problems with Ferrer - Ferrers strength is outlasting people, and Djoko can outlast him - Ferrer has no other weapons with which to hurt him. The other semifinal will be much, much closer. I can't actually call this one - you may as well flip a coin, I think it's an even 50/50 matchup. It'll come down to who has the better day at the office on the day. Gun to my head I'd say Federer is a marginal favourite based on past GS history...but it is marginal. Looking forward to it!

Can't really read much into the form of the top players thus far...Murray has had an easy time of it but he's not had to stretch himself thanks to Del P being inconsistent still, Federer looks in good nick but he's played the kind of players who will make him look like that and Djoko had a hard time against Stan but probably will have no problem recovering due to his immense stamina. Really speaking the tournament starts now. Murray should have few problems against Chardy. Both Djoko and Federer may have problems if their respective opponents Berdych and Tsonga come out all guns blazing - they've both caused shocks like that before. But for some reason I can't see any major upsets happening in the QF either. Top 4 for the semifinals.

Today highlighted a key difference between the top 3 (and Nadal too when fit) and the 5-8 ranked players immediately before them. The reason those 5-8 players (Del P, Tsonga, Berdych et al) are not breaking through to the very top is because they are still vulnerable to much lessrer ranked players in the early stages of Slams, whereas (the odd Rosol-style aberration aside) the top 3 are not. They only tend to lose either to each other or occasionally to those 5-8 players. But they never (or hardly ever) go out before the QF of Slams. The ones below them (like Del P and Cilic today) do so, too often. The big 3 might get into trouble, but most often they get themselves out of it. That's why they're at the top consistently. Murray won ugly today, but it was straight sets, and now the draw has been cracked wide open for him. Federer is about to finish off Tomic, but potentially still has to face Raonic and Tsonga before the SF, whereas Murray has probably Simon and Chardy/Seppi. It's looking good for him.

Can't disagree with any of that. Hopefully she'll keep improving, and winning ugly (like today) bodes well.

Top 10 is top 10, bad day or not. Agreed the quality of the match was poor from both players (check out the number of doubles Robson served), but at least Laura showed she has potential. A lesser player would have lost even with Kvitova playing that badly.

And she comes through 11-9! Fantastic win - probably the best of her career to date.

9-9 in the decider...Laura giving it everything here. Win or lose she can be proud she's gone toe-to-toe with one of the top 10 in adverse conditions.

New Tesco burgers: Low in fat, high in Shergar.

So far so predictable...expect it to remain the case tonight, though the Fed-Davydenko match might be entertaining for the first half hour or so. Just popping up with a fun sport-related fact: Joao Sousa, the world no.100 and Andy Murrays opponent tonight, is (apparently) the son of one former Leicester manager Paulo Sousa. Here's hoping the son is as good at tennis as the manager was at management during his rather short time at LCFC.

Murray opens up against Haase at midnight tonight. Djoko won easily enough last night and Fed plays sometime early tomorrow morning. Murray has got a pretty good draw, though for some reason I'm a bit apprehensive about Haase - he was two sets up on Murray before he clawed it back last time they played, so I've got a feeling he'll make Andy work for it. After that though it seems reasonably plain sailing until a possible meeting with Del P in the QF. The H2H is 5-1 in Murrays favour which suggests he can deal with that, but they've not played since Del P's long-term injury, so there's a few uncertainties there. Djoko's draw is pretty cakewalk - only Berdych in the QF is a potential threat IMO. Fed's draw is nasty. Potentially facing Davydenko in R2, home favourite Tomic in R3 and Raonic in R4, followed by Tsonga in the QF. That's fairly brutal. Knowing him he should come through, but you wonder how much he'll then have in the tank for a potential SF against Murray. My tip is a Murray-Djoko final...with Nole probably coming out on top this time due to being fresher.

Nice stuff. Sometimes you've just got to go for it! Now you've got me hankering to play 'The Game' again...need to get up to Dusk Till Dawn soon I reckon!

You learn something new every day, Cheers.

Then I bow to your superior knowledge on this matter. I always thought coughing up blood = bad news regardless of circumstances, but then I'm a massive hypochondriac.

Top bombing. Did the advice help? Doctor. ASAP. Coughing up any level of blood is something that needs to be checked out.

And congrats Paddy!

Hold 'Em? Start by following the blackjack rule - only play hands that have a value of 20 or above in blackjack (pair of face cards, face card with Ace etc) or pairs above 9's. As you get used to what everyone else is doing you can start playing a few more hands if needed.

Not aiming this at you personally, but THIS is the shit i have problems with. Why can't it just be about football?

The whole Celtic/Rangers thing (and by extension the whole brouhaha surrounding Rangers being demoted) just pisses me off royally. Too much religion/political BS, too many polarised views, not enough proper football.