Sporting Achievements!

[jo]

Thanks, hughmanity

Can you believe that I first noted him as a tennis player not in any game where he was victorious, but it was in an interview that I had seen and I could not believe his humility and down-to-earth attitude.

Btw, he plays lefty - sounds familiar ( but he is naturally righthanded)...and he once joked about his "big ass" ( I laughed out loud because it reminded me of how Hugh fans used to praise his backside contours in his XMen movies and other films)



Sports has been suffering because even if events can be held - the lack of live audiences has removed a lot of the excitement. I am also a great fan of F1 racing -- but have not been tempted to watch every race. I miss all the colorfully-garbed fans with their flags and colorful caps and sound-producing whatevers signifying their sports favorites!


In another discussion - on BWW, someone suggested that they should simply film the live productions and show it on streaming. Ha - a lot of Nays!! In an article on Hugh, it has been noted how so much more impressive he is in live performances -- because he takes from the audience as much as he gives to them. He thrives on the rapport with his audience. That is why The Boy From Oz thrived for an entire year -- it was the performer/audience rapport which brought on such remarkable memories of the shows!

Jo

[jo]

[jo]

The Australian (Tennis) Open will soon start, under very strict bubble and quarantining rules.

It so happened that a lot of players ( and their team - coach/physio) were part of exclusive plane transports where certain passengers tested postive upon arrival ( they were supposed to have done the necessary procedure and should not have joined the flight if they tested positive) and they all face a 14-day quarantine rule, without court practice. Other players also on partial quarantine ( the so-called "bubble" where they can only move within the confines of the selected hotel and the Rod Laver Court) will be able to practice daily for a few hours. The Open will start on February 8 so some players would not have much court practice. This has caused a controversy as some athletes have complained noisily about the inequality.

Australia has kept a tight grip on controlling the spread of the virus - and this shows in their stats.

Christiane Amanpour decided to interview Rafa Nadal on how he viewed the whole thing.

Rafa, as expected, took the high road, with a more statesmanlike view, saying that everyone knew the rules...and while he was sorry for those who suffered more because of the quarantine rules, he said they must respect the efforts of the Australian Tennis Federation in setting up the tournament. He cited that this is less important in the whole scheme of things because of what the world has suffered in this prolonged pandemic era.

Of course that drew controversial comments on Twitter! Pros and cons.


I put in mine --

And YAY !!!

I got to tweet Christiane Amanpour - my most favorite journalist in the world!



*************************************


And my message to Rafa --

[jo]

Winning a title during the pandemic --

[jo]

Rafa Nadal and Naomi Osaka given LAUREUS Sports awards for 2020!

It is the highest sports award because it covers many sports and sports disciplines in the world


sports.inquirer.net/422470/nadal-and-osaka-scoop-top-laureus-awards

CONGRATULATIONS to the Champions!


Jo

[jo]

Rare ( maybe never) that a statue honoring an athlete while he is still competing is erected at one of the Grand Slams - Rafael Nadal statue ( honoring his 13 French Open championships) at Roland Garros!

www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/article/rafael-nadal-statue-unveiled-at-roland-garros





lastwordonsports.com/tennis/2021/05/27/rafael-nadal-gets-a-statue-at-roland-garros/

Jeu, Nadal!

Rafael Nadal's record at Roland Garros --

Wins - 100
Losses - 2

Each Grand Slam has 7 matches each.
Nadal has won 13 Grand Slams at Roland Garros!

[jo]

[hu4601]

 
I just finished watching Hugh's mate, and my favourite, Roger Federer win his third round match in one of the most nail biting and lengthy games of the tournament.
Unfortunately there was no crowd in the stands due to lockdown rules for late night matches, so the atmosphere was lacking. It was after 1AM Paris time when it ended after numerous tie breakers and deuces. Hopefully Roger's 39 year old body will recover in time for his next match, and Hugh can get TV coverage to watch it.

[jo]

Surprised to hear that Roger Federer has withdrawn from the French Open --

STORY SO FAR: FEDERER WITHDRAWS, NASTIA BACK IN QUARTERS
SUNDAY 6 JUNE 2021 - ROLANDGARROS.COM
Join us for updates throughout the day as singles fourth-round action begins at Roland-Garros

Roger Federer Roland-Garros 2021
©Philippe Montigny / FFT
The Roland-Garros tournament organisers have learned that Roger Federer has withdrawn from the fourth round of the tournament.

"After discussions with my team, I’ve decided I will need to pull out of the French Open today. After two knee surgeries and over a year of rehabilitation it’s important that I listen to my body and make sure I don’t push myself too quickly on my road to recovery. I am thrilled to have gotten 3 matches under my belt. There is no greater feeling than being back on court", said Federer.

Tournament Director, Guy Forget said: "The Roland-Garros tournament is sorry about the withdrawal of Roger Federer, who put up an incredible fight last night. We were all delighted to see Roger back in Paris, where he played three high-level matches. We wish him all the best for the rest of the season."

Ninth-seeded Italian Matteo Berrettini receives a walkover into the quarter-finals, where he awaits either world No.1 Novak Djokovic or 19-year-old Lorenzo Musetti.

Maybe he wants to be more fresh for his favorite tournament - Wimbledon!

[hu4601]

Jun 6, 2021 9:45:19 GMT -5 jo said:

Surprised to hear that Roger Federer has withdrawn from the French Open --

STORY SO FAR: FEDERER WITHDRAWS, NASTIA BACK IN QUARTERS
SUNDAY 6 JUNE 2021 - ROLANDGARROS.COM
Join us for updates throughout the day as singles fourth-round action begins at Roland-Garros

Roger Federer Roland-Garros 2021
©Philippe Montigny / FFT
The Roland-Garros tournament organisers have learned that Roger Federer has withdrawn from the fourth round of the tournament.

"After discussions with my team, I’ve decided I will need to pull out of the French Open today. After two knee surgeries and over a year of rehabilitation it’s important that I listen to my body and make sure I don’t push myself too quickly on my road to recovery. I am thrilled to have gotten 3 matches under my belt. There is no greater feeling than being back on court", said Federer.

Tournament Director, Guy Forget said: "The Roland-Garros tournament is sorry about the withdrawal of Roger Federer, who put up an incredible fight last night. We were all delighted to see Roger back in Paris, where he played three high-level matches. We wish him all the best for the rest of the season."

Ninth-seeded Italian Matteo Berrettini receives a walkover into the quarter-finals, where he awaits either world No.1 Novak Djokovic or 19-year-old Lorenzo Musetti.

Maybe he wants to be more fresh for his favorite tournament - Wimbledon!

    Agree. It was an amazing effort to get through that third round match. Hope both Roger and Ash Barty are able to recover for Wimbledon.

[jo]

[jo]

He has not yet won the French Open for this year...but The New York Times chose to pay tribute to his athlethicism and his sportsmanship conduct. The focus is on how he keeps changing his game to suit modern tennis and new competitors.

www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/sports/tennis/french-open-rafael-nadal.html#commentsContainer&permid=113163886:113163886

In Paris, Rafael Nadal Is the Same as Always, and Yet He’s Different
The player who turned defense into an art form fights to avoid the wars of attrition he battled as a younger athlete. At 35, that is what he must do.

Rafael Nadal has made changes to his game that are most evident in his serves.



Published June 7, 2021
Updated June 8, 2021, 11:43 a.m. ET
PARIS — His hair is thinning on top. His knees can be shaky. In January, he suddenly came down with a balky back that almost forced him to withdraw from the Australian Open.

And yet, with his win Monday over Jannik Sinner of Italy, a 19-year-old rising star, Rafael Nadal surged into the final eight once again at the tournament he has essentially owned since 2005. It’s just that he owns it in a different way than he used to.

Nadal was not perfect Monday in his 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 win. He was down 5-3 in the first set before winning four straight games. He had some trouble putting away the second set after taking a 4-0 lead. But as he nearly always has on the clay at Roland Garros, he made all the necessary shots, joy-sticking Sinner around the court as though he had a metal rod inserted into his chest.

“At some point he was playing and I was only running,” Sinner said.

Nadal has won the French Open 13 times. France’s tennis federation unveiled a statue of him on the grounds here before the tournament began, a steel abstraction of the final moments of his powerful forehand shot. Monday’s win was his 104th at Roland Garros.



The victory moved Nadal, seeded third because of his current ranking despite all his success in Paris, closer to a semifinal showdown with Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1. Djokovic beat the 19-year-old Italian upstart Lorenzo Musetti in one of the more bizarre matches of this tournament. Djokovic appeared lost for the first two sets, missing his targets and uncharacteristically dropping two tiebreakers.

Then he took a bathroom break and returned a steadied player, winning 12 of the next 13 games to knot the match at two sets each. He won four more games before Musetti retired down 4-0 in the fifth set.

But the 35-year-old version of Nadal looming in the semifinals for Djokovic, 34, is plenty different from the Nadal who started winning in Paris long ago.

Back then, Nadal was a defender of the first order. He hunkered down behind the baseline, chased down every ball and, especially on the red clay he loves so much, turned his matches at Roland Garros into wars of attrition.

That was not the Nadal whom Sinner met Monday in the round of 16, or the one Cam Norrie of Britain ran into in the third round over the weekend. The Nadal of today, who knows there are only so many five-hour marathon matches a veteran player can survive, targets speed and efficiency nearly as much as victories.


“I do what I can in every moment of course,” he said. “If I can win quicker, better.”


Nowadays Nadal works to win matches faster.

By now, several years into this latter era of Nadal dominance on clay, opponents have become accustomed to what to expect, but they still come away staggered from the experience.

“It’s amazing how quick he was after his serve to find his forehand,” Norrie said after his loss. Norrie felt like he was playing pretty well against Nadal, but as he spoke his eyes appeared glazed, as though he had just seen something he could not quite believe. “The guy is relentless.”

Between points, Nadal is as deliberate as ever. He sweats profusely, and towels off at every opportunity he can manage.

He swears he does not have obsessive compulsive disorder, but he still must carry through with his series of tics and tasks before play starts, sweeping lines clean with his foot, whacking his shoes with his racket three times before his first serve to free the soles of the clay, bouncing the ball over and over until it feels just right in his hand before he tosses it.

Once the point starts though, Nadal has become more relentless with each passing year, especially since 2016, when he began working full-time with Carlos Moya, the retired Spanish player and former world No. 1 who won the French Open in 1998.

Shifts in tennis strategy can appear subtle on the surface, but they can have outsized effects on the way points, games and matches unfold.



In Nadal’s case, Hawkeye’s laser cameras, which have become more prevalent during the past decade and take hundreds of measurements per second of the ball and the court position of each player, tell the story.

When Sam Maclean, a data analyst with Hawkeye, combed through the numbers, the data showed exactly how Nadal had tweaked his playing style in his 30s, becoming more aggressive and trying to end points as quickly as he can, even if he will never be someone who finishes many points at the net.

Not surprisingly, the change is especially apparent during Nadal’s service games, when he has the best chance to control what happens during the point.

From 2012 to 2016, Nadal hit 30 percent of his first shots after his serves from inside the baseline. But each year he has worked with Moya, that number has risen, first to 36 percent, then to 39 percent, then to 41 percent, and last year to 42 percent.



Why is that so important? Because when Nadal hits that first shot from inside the baseline, he wins 74 percent of the points. When he hits the first shot from behind the baseline, he wins just 59 percent of the points.

And while Nadal often drifts deep into the back court when his opponents serve, the points quickly evolve into a fight for him to get forward, to that nub of tape in the middle of the baseline he earlier kicked clean to give himself a target to scurry toward during the point.



Even though Nadal is giving himself less time to set up by stepping into the court for that first shot, he is still hitting the ball back as hard as he always did, on average about 75 miles per hour, according to Hawkeye, with a fierce level of topspin that makes his ball feel like a rock on his opponents’ rackets.

“He’s the only guy who is playing like that with his forehand topspin,” said Richard Gasquet of France, who managed to win just seven games against Nadal in their second-round match.

Gasquet said it was impossible to prepare for Nadal because there was no one to practice against who hits the ball even remotely like he does. Gasquet is the same age as Nadal and has been playing him since they were teenagers. He spent years in the top 10. He is 0-16 against him in ATP Tour events, and the victories are as decisive as ever, even as Nadal should be deteriorating.

“It was really hard for me to play,” Gasquet said after his loss.

Alexei Popyrin of Australia, Nadal’s first-round victim, was proud just to come close to winning a set.

“It’s his court,” Popyrin said after his defeat. “It will always be his court.”

But the replies of those who sent in comments to the article focus on the kind of human being he is!

Of course, I sent in my comments, too...

which the NYTimes approved almost momentarily

JosieB
Philippines8m ago

I discovered the joy of watching tennis after seeing Rafa Nadal in an interview -- what a candid but very humble sportsman! Before that, tennis was simply a game of athleticism & power that I have observed. Rafa Nadal brought a certain human quality to the game - he worked hard ( and has always maintained how he needed to continue doing that); he always had a good word for his opponent's particular strength ...and, in all these, he has always made fans feel that they are part of the joy of tennis.

One of the most endearing moments was in a 2019 match, his ball accidentally and dangerously hit a ball girl by the umpire. He ran over to her, asked how she was, and kissed her on the cheek ( that made it so much better)! What a kindly and sincere act. Have you ever seen him argue ferociously with an umpire or slam his racket with the intention of exacting revenge on it? Not ever...except one time when he was fuming at an umpire who refused to allow him to go back to a more private place to change his shorts which he unknowingly put on backwards during the break. Well, he was human after all!

He deserves that statue at Roland Garros - -as a symbol of the sport for fans to appreciate and for future champions to emulate. A man unyielding in his desire to win but someone whose gentlemanly ways indicate how well-bred this model of utmost athleticism is! Hope he adds another Roland Garros trophy(ies) to his collection! Jeu, Nadal!

Jo

[hu4601]

Jun 8, 2021 12:38:17 GMT -5 jo said:

He has not yet won the French Open for this year...but The New York Times chose to pay tribute to his athlethicism and his sportsmanship conduct. The focus is on how he keeps changing his game to suit modern tennis and new competitors.

www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/sports/tennis/french-open-rafael-nadal.html#commentsContainer&permid=113163886:113163886

In Paris, Rafael Nadal Is the Same as Always, and Yet He’s Different
The player who turned defense into an art form fights to avoid the wars of attrition he battled as a younger athlete. At 35, that is what he must do.

Rafael Nadal has made changes to his game that are most evident in his serves.



Published June 7, 2021
Updated June 8, 2021, 11:43 a.m. ET
PARIS — His hair is thinning on top. His knees can be shaky. In January, he suddenly came down with a balky back that almost forced him to withdraw from the Australian Open.

And yet, with his win Monday over Jannik Sinner of Italy, a 19-year-old rising star, Rafael Nadal surged into the final eight once again at the tournament he has essentially owned since 2005. It’s just that he owns it in a different way than he used to.

Nadal was not perfect Monday in his 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 win. He was down 5-3 in the first set before winning four straight games. He had some trouble putting away the second set after taking a 4-0 lead. But as he nearly always has on the clay at Roland Garros, he made all the necessary shots, joy-sticking Sinner around the court as though he had a metal rod inserted into his chest.

“At some point he was playing and I was only running,” Sinner said.

Nadal has won the French Open 13 times. France’s tennis federation unveiled a statue of him on the grounds here before the tournament began, a steel abstraction of the final moments of his powerful forehand shot. Monday’s win was his 104th at Roland Garros.



The victory moved Nadal, seeded third because of his current ranking despite all his success in Paris, closer to a semifinal showdown with Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1. Djokovic beat the 19-year-old Italian upstart Lorenzo Musetti in one of the more bizarre matches of this tournament. Djokovic appeared lost for the first two sets, missing his targets and uncharacteristically dropping two tiebreakers.

Then he took a bathroom break and returned a steadied player, winning 12 of the next 13 games to knot the match at two sets each. He won four more games before Musetti retired down 4-0 in the fifth set.

But the 35-year-old version of Nadal looming in the semifinals for Djokovic, 34, is plenty different from the Nadal who started winning in Paris long ago.

Back then, Nadal was a defender of the first order. He hunkered down behind the baseline, chased down every ball and, especially on the red clay he loves so much, turned his matches at Roland Garros into wars of attrition.

That was not the Nadal whom Sinner met Monday in the round of 16, or the one Cam Norrie of Britain ran into in the third round over the weekend. The Nadal of today, who knows there are only so many five-hour marathon matches a veteran player can survive, targets speed and efficiency nearly as much as victories.


“I do what I can in every moment of course,” he said. “If I can win quicker, better.”


Nowadays Nadal works to win matches faster.

By now, several years into this latter era of Nadal dominance on clay, opponents have become accustomed to what to expect, but they still come away staggered from the experience.

“It’s amazing how quick he was after his serve to find his forehand,” Norrie said after his loss. Norrie felt like he was playing pretty well against Nadal, but as he spoke his eyes appeared glazed, as though he had just seen something he could not quite believe. “The guy is relentless.”

Between points, Nadal is as deliberate as ever. He sweats profusely, and towels off at every opportunity he can manage.

He swears he does not have obsessive compulsive disorder, but he still must carry through with his series of tics and tasks before play starts, sweeping lines clean with his foot, whacking his shoes with his racket three times before his first serve to free the soles of the clay, bouncing the ball over and over until it feels just right in his hand before he tosses it.

Once the point starts though, Nadal has become more relentless with each passing year, especially since 2016, when he began working full-time with Carlos Moya, the retired Spanish player and former world No. 1 who won the French Open in 1998.

Shifts in tennis strategy can appear subtle on the surface, but they can have outsized effects on the way points, games and matches unfold.



In Nadal’s case, Hawkeye’s laser cameras, which have become more prevalent during the past decade and take hundreds of measurements per second of the ball and the court position of each player, tell the story.

When Sam Maclean, a data analyst with Hawkeye, combed through the numbers, the data showed exactly how Nadal had tweaked his playing style in his 30s, becoming more aggressive and trying to end points as quickly as he can, even if he will never be someone who finishes many points at the net.

Not surprisingly, the change is especially apparent during Nadal’s service games, when he has the best chance to control what happens during the point.

From 2012 to 2016, Nadal hit 30 percent of his first shots after his serves from inside the baseline. But each year he has worked with Moya, that number has risen, first to 36 percent, then to 39 percent, then to 41 percent, and last year to 42 percent.



Why is that so important? Because when Nadal hits that first shot from inside the baseline, he wins 74 percent of the points. When he hits the first shot from behind the baseline, he wins just 59 percent of the points.

And while Nadal often drifts deep into the back court when his opponents serve, the points quickly evolve into a fight for him to get forward, to that nub of tape in the middle of the baseline he earlier kicked clean to give himself a target to scurry toward during the point.



Even though Nadal is giving himself less time to set up by stepping into the court for that first shot, he is still hitting the ball back as hard as he always did, on average about 75 miles per hour, according to Hawkeye, with a fierce level of topspin that makes his ball feel like a rock on his opponents’ rackets.

“He’s the only guy who is playing like that with his forehand topspin,” said Richard Gasquet of France, who managed to win just seven games against Nadal in their second-round match.

Gasquet said it was impossible to prepare for Nadal because there was no one to practice against who hits the ball even remotely like he does. Gasquet is the same age as Nadal and has been playing him since they were teenagers. He spent years in the top 10. He is 0-16 against him in ATP Tour events, and the victories are as decisive as ever, even as Nadal should be deteriorating.

“It was really hard for me to play,” Gasquet said after his loss.

Alexei Popyrin of Australia, Nadal’s first-round victim, was proud just to come close to winning a set.

“It’s his court,” Popyrin said after his defeat. “It will always be his court.”

But the replies of those who sent in comments to the article focus on the kind of human being he is!

Of course, I sent in my comments, too...

which the NYTimes approved almost momentarily ;)

JosieB
Philippines8m ago

I discovered the joy of watching tennis after seeing Rafa Nadal in an interview -- what a candid but very humble sportsman! Before that, tennis was simply a game of athleticism & power that I have observed. Rafa Nadal brought a certain human quality to the game - he worked hard ( and has always maintained how he needed to continue doing that); he always had a good word for his opponent's particular strength ...and, in all these, he has always made fans feel that they are part of the joy of tennis.

One of the most endearing moments was in a 2019 match, his ball accidentally and dangerously hit a ball girl by the umpire. He ran over to her, asked how she was, and kissed her on the cheek ( that made it so much better)! What a kindly and sincere act. Have you ever seen him argue ferociously with an umpire or slam his racket with the intention of exacting revenge on it? Not ever...except one time when he was fuming at an umpire who refused to allow him to go back to a more private place to change his shorts which he unknowingly put on backwards during the break. Well, he was human after all!

He deserves that statue at Roland Garros - -as a symbol of the sport for fans to appreciate and for future champions to emulate. A man unyielding in his desire to win but someone whose gentlemanly ways indicate how well-bred this model of utmost athleticism is! Hope he adds another Roland Garros trophy(ies) to his collection! Jeu, Nadal!

Jo

    I didn't realise that the records for the most titles at Roland Garros are still held by two Aussies, Ken Fletcher and Margaret      Court.  Hopes were high for world # 1 Ash Barty to win this year, but unfortunately she withdrew with a hip injury in the early rounds. All our men have also been eliminated, so no more late nights for me this year at least until Wimbledon.

[jo]

Sad day for Rafa Nadal and his fans!

He has just lost the semifinal match to Nole Djokovic at Roland Garros!

Next time around, Rafa!


At the post-match press conference --

That is why Rafa has so many fans and admirers -- he is such a down-to-earth person, always a model of humility!


Jo

[hu4601]

Jun 11, 2021 16:22:42 GMT -5 jo said:

Sad day for Rafa Nadal and his fans!

He has just lost the semifinal match to Nole Djokovic at Roland Garros!

Next time around, Rafa!

Bad luck for you Jo, but I must admit I only saw the last two sets by accident when I turned on the TV early this morning and it was still on.

I am a tennis lover but am not a fan of either player as I find one very arrogant and the other extremely irritating. Just my opinion.

I don't enjoy the grunting of both players, and the delaying tactics of one of them. So I watched with the volume turned down, and the pause button got a lot of use so I could fast forward when needed !!

Having said that, both players are incredibly talented and deserve recognition for their contribution to tennis.

[jo]

What I admire about Rafa, apart from his athletic ability, is his well-known humility and strong sense of sportsmanship ( have you ever seen him lose his temper in a sports where so many break their rackets when things do not go their way ?)! The first time I saw him interviewed ( he still had long locks and his pirate costume - LOL) I was struck by how humble he was even if his English was broken and still very simple. And he does come from a very well-off family, with 2 notable athletes apart from him...and they all live in Mallorca (Balearic Islands). He has been hailed as Spain's Greatest Athlete ( the older King attended his wedding). One player once described him in Spanish ( which we also use here, because we were under Spanish rule for 3 centuries) was that Rafa is "muy educado". The word is not referring to the level of academic education... but a turn of phrase in Spanish which means that one is very well-bred!

I am sure he will be back -- he loves the game and works very hard at it( he is known for doing the longest practice sessions during the Grand Slams)!

On a more joyful note -- we have a budding tennis champion from the Philippines who has reached the FINALS for the GIRLS DOUBLES at Roland Garros. She has just turned 16 and is still studying but she is based in Spain - guess where - at Rafa Nadal's Tennis Academy (it is not just tennis schooling but a famous Institute of Education in Europe is based within its surroundings so the tennis scholars can get an academic degree as well). She is Alex Eala and she has won her first professional tennis tournament this year. If I am not mistaken, she also won the same Girls doubles title at the Australian Open in 2020 and another title at the US Open in 2019.



Jo

[jo]

/photo/1


Liev Schreiber ( who is one of Hugh's rare Follows on Twitter) - once said that Hugh is a mean tennis player!


Jo

[jo]

On a more joyful note -- we have a budding tennis champion from the Philippines who has reached the FINALS for the GIRLS DOUBLES at Roland Garros. She has just turned 16 and is still studying but she is based in Spain - guess where - at Rafa Nadal's Tennis Academy (it is not just tennis schooling but a famous Institute of Education in Europe is based within its surroundings so the tennis scholars can get an academic degree as well). She is Alex Eala and she has won her first professional tennis tournament this year. If I am not mistaken, she also won the same Girls doubles title at the Australian Open in 2020 and another title at the US Open in 2019.

Our Alex Eala and her partner for Doubles Girls at the French Open won the title!

img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAKYvyo.img?h=1066&w=1598&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2067&y=795



Jo

[jo]

Ashleigh Barty of Australia has just won the Wimbledon Ladies Single Championship!

Congratulations to Ash !!!

Not only has she shown her athletic superiority -- but she is also very unassuming and sounds very nice!

Hugh is over the moon


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

Lol - Hugh and Deb's cheering noted by Wimbledon tournament

[jo]

[jo]

Hugh reacts to Djokovic's 20th Grand Slam win at Wimbledon --

[jo]

[jo]

Caught the most significant part of the Opening Ceremonies of the TOKYO 2020 Olympics...

from the President of the IOC welcoming all the athletes

to the unique, highly artistic, comedic, and poignant representation of all the sports - artistically presented by Japanese technology and sense of comedy

to the march and lifting of the Olympic flag - represented by various parts of the world...and the today's modern heroes - all the world's frontliners in the fight against the pandemic

to the entry of the Olympic flame initially lit by the sun in modern Greece( where it was first lit in the modern Olympics -- although Greece was also the site of the ancient Olympics - thus the derivative name from Mount Olympus, the home of the Gods)... passed to various key personalities - former athletic heroes from all sectors, including representation from the medical world...to the athlete entrusted with the lighting of the Olympic flame ( tennis Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka).

to the climb to and the unfolding of the cauldron, a beautiful rendering of Mount Fuji, the symbol of Japan...

and finally the lighting of the flame that will burn in the next 16 days of competition!



I have watched so many opening ceremonies --

but this is special! Japan showed hallmarks of its culture, including its contribution to modern technology, the animated representation of each sports grouping, a comedic side, and all very modern yet touching base with its own millennia-old culture.

with the state of the world adding the most poignant touch to any gathering of athletes from all over the world!


if a tear fell for me... totally unexpected but added to my appreciation of the collective efforts of mankind