leicsmac

Tense TB here.

Cracking TB from Murray there. Now to press home the advantage!

All pretty cagey early doors here - Murray has had to save a few break points but right now it's pretty even.

That it could, where they walk into is anyone's guess.

Hairdressers?

Thank you.

Unfortunately so - the religious lobbies in particular, vile bastards, in particular the ones that attack the education system with their creationism shit.

Yep. As I've said on here before, moral absolutism of that kind grinds my gears perhaps more than anything else.

Ken Livingstone, a gay rights activist and a Muslim cleric? Please tell me this on youtube.

Unfortunately not, but you can read a bit of it on wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Livingstone#Meeting_with_Islamic_Cleric_Yusuf_al-Qaradawi

Why do you guys think I'm taking the piss?

I've got a gay cousin you know, and the guy I open the batting with is bi. I think it could be a real show stopper this, a huge event, could turn into the biggest gay pride event since the Sydney Mardi Gra, a real turning point in history.

I'm going to pitch the idea to Ken Livingstone. Does he have any clout down there anymore?

Probably not amongst those particular two communities since the whole thing with the Islamic cleric and the gay rights activist.

Because they're frigid and don't see sex as being anything fun, only for making babies. Which is why religions should make infertility a sin.

Either that or it's the old Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve stuff - which is bullshit. God made Anna and Eve, then sat there tugging it for a few billion years. Then he decided to spice things up by adding in a bloke, and to make things more interesting, that bloke would be an egotistical dick. So he moved Anna and Eve out of the way and created Adam. Then he realised because he'd been too busy jerking it to Anna and Eve, he'd accidentally given Adam one too many ribs. So he offered to take one back to make Adam a partner, as an excuse to send the lasses back down there. Then he realised he could use the rib to make an even hotter woman, keep her up there and send the less attractive one down for Adam. Hence Eve got sent down, and God has sat there cracking one off to Anna and the rib-woman ever since.

It's funny, then you realise they're in a position of power and then it becomes slightly less funny.

This is possibly one of the best pieces of prose I've ever read.

As for your bottom line...yeah, the jokes on everyone else unfortunately. You wonder how they get into power in the first place...then you see the media and religious lobby over in the Red States and you realise, then throw up.

Moronic politicians: http://www.huffingto..._n_2541894.html

So, you're going to force women to live with a constant reminder of what happened to them...

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.

The Muslim community in that area should open it's doors to a gay pride march in the summer.

What a wonderful event it would be to show how tolerant most moderate muslims are and to build bridges between the communities, I'm the sure the local LBGT groups and local inams could work together to make this happen and show what a truly wonderful multicultural place Britain in 2013 is.

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.

Stop bitching you bunch of jebends. The chap who was harassing the gay guy was a dick, ronnie is a willy puller for bringing in the religious aspect to it & if z-layrex only picked up on it because he was a muslim then he's probably a twat.

Diplomacy people, diplomacy

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.

Bad day? Horrific day, ****ing awful top 10 is not top 10 if it playes like 510.

This is exactly right Robson was well below par and still ended up winning. I've seen Robson play better than that and lose to people outside the top 50. Shocking match, longest rally of about 13 or something? As for Laura Robsons "potential" I've seen much, much more promising displays than that, needs to sort her bottle out sometimes. Overall as a 19 year old tennis player she is doing brilliantly but that was, well absloutley wank, she'll get destroyed against Stevens if she plays like that. Hopefully better things to come.

Can't disagree with any of that.

Hopefully she'll keep improving, and winning ugly (like today) bodes well.

No pride in beating the Petra Kvitova that turned up today. Disgrace to womens tennis. I'd struggle to serve that many doubles in a three set match!

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.

Could have been the high shergar content...

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.