[P1international]

How annoying. I hope he never makes another slam QF (although apparently he's been excelling at Wimbledon for years and no one told me, so I guess Roger and Rafa better watch out!).

[hacyOrgachbic]

How annoying. I hope he never makes another slam QF (although apparently he's been excelling at Wimbledon for years and no one told me, so I guess Roger and Rafa better watch out!).

Yeah....and don't forget all of those GREAT finishes at the US Open...how many did he WIN? I forgot.......


LameJames

[P1international]

Yeah....and don't forget all of those GREAT finishes at the US Open...how many did he WIN? I forgot.......

LameJames

I love it.

[altosburg]

Venus would totally lose to this Diatchenko if this was her match.

[slarceSelia]

Venus would totally lose to this Diatchenko if this was her match.

Why is that? (I am not watching now)

[altosburg]

Why is that? (I am not watching now)

Her game is very offputting and she's hitting a lot of winners. She hits with two hands off both sides and has a really strange service motion.

Although, the more I watch, she's kind of slow, so maybe not.

[secondmertg]

From the "coulda been a 20Q question" category, who will win the first game against Dinara Safina?

[slarceSelia]

Her game is very offputting and she's hitting a lot of winners. She hits with two hands off both sides and has a really strange service motion.

Although, the more I watch, she's kind of slow, so maybe not.

Maid Marion 2.0

[P1international]

Barrois is crafty! She's serving at 4-1 against Azarenka! WOWZA!

[abossakon]

I really think...that offering up this excuse year after year after year after year is a load of horsesh*t.

If Rafa can do Aussie, Clay and Grass...why can't the Americans? If Serena can win the French Open .....then Roddick, Blake, even Wayne and Ginepri can go further.

Spare me that "oh that is where we excel at" crap. If ya wanna compete,GO OUT AND COMPETE!

How much respect would we have for all of the clay courters that come over to the USA for the hardcourt season.....what would we say about them if they offered up this bit of drivel: "oh we are clay court specialists. That is where we excel at. We are just obligated to come to some of these events otherwise, we are just waiting until the clay court season rolls around again because that is where we excel at!".

Top players.....play on ANY surface. At least...Pete tried. And he NEVER offered LAME excuses!

The Americans are, in many ways, where the Spaniards were 10-20 years ago (see: Alex Corretja's Grand Slam record (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Co...mance_timeline) or Albert Costa's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_...mance_timeline) or Sergi Bruguera's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergi_B...mance_timeline)).

But I don't know if I agree with the notion that Americans now aren't trying...but Pete Sampras did. He phoned it in for years at the French Open (after his run in 1996 he didn't have a single laudable result). He made the (I believe conscious) decision that it wasn't worth the effort to retool his game in order to make a run there when Wimbledon was a few weeks later and he was probably going to win it playing just the way he had been. That's where he excelled and he didn't put as much effort into playing on clay. It's not what his fans want to hear, but it's not an invalid decision, IMO. And Rafa and Roger and Serena (and Andre, for that matter) can make the transition and requisite adjustments between surfaces because frankly they're more talented than James and Robby Ginepri and Wayne Odesnik.

And Pete was way too monosyllabic to offer excuses anyway.