The Red Sox bullpen has pretty much drained the creativity from my brain.  Actually, I take that back, listening to Tim McCarver tell me interesting tidbits like “innings started by homeruns lead to more runs than innings started with walks” has definitely drained the creativity from my brain.  For you tennis fans reading who know nothing about baseball, that would be like John McEnroe saying, “Losing the first game in a set leads to more sets lost than losing the first point.”  No, in all seriousness, thank you FOX for making a bad series even worse.  Or maybe I’m just pissed that the Red Sox are losing.

Anyway, some links:

Against Canas, third time is a charm for Federer.

Federer will have to win three of four Grand Slams for the third year in a row to break the all time mark held by Sampras.  Even he is admitting that will be tough.

Gimelstob discuss the bright, although USA-less, future of the WTA.

Mario Ancic has traveled a long way down the road of recovery, some of the distance at the expense of James Blake.

Safin quits 2007, again.

Kid is five years old.

I’m on it, and so is my brain. So, in lieu of a post, here are some links for your enjoyment. I will return with a full post next week with my thoughts on match fixing.

Rulers of Tennis will work together to regulate match fixing.

Peter Bodo’s thoughts on a unified tour.

ESPN story on Ivo Karlovic, who recently became the 4th player with 1,000 aces in a season.

Anyone have any interest on what Michael Chang has been up to?

Updated Shanghai race information.

A link to a bunch of different links concerning match fixing.

The USTA announced a new Executive Director earlier this week.

Apparently tennis players and acting do not get along well.

Sox over Indians in 6, Rockies over DBacks in 6.  Joe Torre leaving is obviously a huge story, but could people over at places like ESPN discuss what the Indians accomplished in the ALDS in beating the Yankees for maybe three minutes during SportsCenter.  Please?

In the Autumn of 1995 I was 14 years old, and two tremendous things happened in the world of sports - 1. the Boston Red Sox won their last AL East Division title and 2. the USA won the Davis Cup. Now, twelve long years later, both could happen again. Baseball is not the point of this blog, so I won’t delve into that subject, but a three game lead with four left to play should result in the Yankees finally relinquishing the AL East crown. The other matter could be a little more complicated, and will be decided the first weekend of December at the Memorial Coliseum in Porland, Oregon. (more…)

After one day of singles, the US and Sweden are tied at one match a piece. The Andy Roddick/Joachim Johansson match went about as expected, with about two points that went longer than four shots. The two players have big enough serves as it is, and certainly don’t need a carpet surface to enhance their serving abilities. However that is what Swedish Captain Mats Wilander thought would be best, and to be honest it worked for him on the first day. I don’t really think anyone expected Joachim to beat Roddick, but he gave himself a chance by forcing tiebreakers in the first two sets, before finally getting broken once in the third. Final score was 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-3 in Roddick’s favor. Roddick also had 30 aces (to Johansson’s 23), or put in other terms, 27 more aces than I have served up in the last decade. (more…)

Note: I’m writing from my laptop in Sweden, and everyone reading should know that my “D” and “E” keys are stuck together.  I will do my best to edit everything, but if you ever see something along “thedse” lines, deal with it.
Earlier today the draw for this weekends USA-Sweden Davis Cup Tie was announced, here is the order if play: (more…)