Tennis

[robow7]

Are those pics of Sammie from this FO ?

 

[frenchfry]

These pictures should be in a medical textbook as an illustration of PED abuse.

 

[the sceptic]

Are those pics of Sammie from this FO ?

Yes. Here is from today.

It really isnt fair

 

[zebedee]

Tons of players on the WTA tour dope, not just the obvious ones.

Among the most suspect would be Errani and her mate Schiavone, neither muscular to the extent of Stosur.

Errani admits to her "working" association with Dr Del Moral, "the best doctor for everything" as she notoriously let slip.

 

[blackcat]

all are also. tennis gets a major pass in the media. except for online THASP blog.

 

[robow7]

Not Schiavone

http://espn.go.com/tennis/player/photos/_/id/378/photoId/2823741/francesca-schiavone

 

[zebedee]

Vinci, Errani, Sciavone - Italian midgets all who have sought recourse to the extra-curricular in order to stand four square against the East European and North American amazons of the WTA tour.

Look at their late-career rankings trajectories and wonder how they did it.

Everybody's at it. They know how to get away with it. The hapless ITF know full well Errani is a doper. They singled her out and tested her seven times when they found out Del Moral was her "doctor for everything" and still came up with nothing. We know that doped athletes from cycling can test clean north of 300 times. Why should tennis be any different when it is known that the anti-doping there is a total pee-in-the-pot joke?

 

[blackcat]

Li Na also. she looks a little like the oriental simon gerrans.

she retired, went to uni, husband is a tennis coach, doped up a treat, came back and won majors.

those italian lightweights are gonna have the advantage on clay. but they have jawlines like a male model. not attractive.

was sanchez vicario even a woman? did they do a test on her. i think she had other chromosomes, like xy

 

[zebedee]

Lightweights, Blackcat, have no advantage on clay or any surface. Ferrer, at five nine, is a modern miracle and we all know what he got up to.

Gone are the days when a magician like Pietrangeli could glide around the Foro Italico, fascinating the crowds as he used his racquet like a wand to slay by a thousand cuts, the beasts of his time. Modern strings and racquets have put paid to all that. The hitting is brutal on both tours and midgets ordinarily don't stand a chance. Someone, like Schiavone say, with suitable "help", can make a brief summer using methods of old. Sooner or later though she inevitably succumbs to the remorseless power of the modern backcourt player of whom Li Na, presumably "helped" too as you suggest, would be a good example.

 

[blackcat]

nullified the serna advantage
should have been more specific. not an advantage per se, but they can neutralise their power with marathons

 

[zebedee]

I like the midget Italians. They possess good variation, are more interesting to watch and can more than hold their own in doubles where net play tactics can be skillfully deployed to make robots look foolish. Collectively, they've found a way to win though the supposition is that it involves off-court consultations with dubious doctors.

In singles play, without dope, they get splattered. Even if they dope they get splattered by EPO-fuelled, ephedrine-stimulated, hGh'd robots who cannot express their tennis without screaming or raging abuse.

 

[iejeecee]

It's really sad that Justine Henin is no longer in tennis.

She was such a joy to watch, especially in the way she dealt with those 1.90 steroid robots, who's only tactic is to blast the ball as hard as possible from the baseline without any variation.

It was brutal for her to deal with though, which is probably among one of the reasons why she had to retire relatively early.

 

[blackcat]

It's really sad that Justine Henin is no longer in tennis.

She was such a joy to watch, especially in the way she dealt with those 1.90 steroid robots, who's only tactic is to blast the ball as hard as possible from the baseline without any variation.

It was brutal for her to deal with though, which is probably among one of the reasons why she had to retire relatively early.

great backhand

 

[iejeecee]

31yo Robredo wins his 3rd 5 setter in a row, coming back from 0-2 down in all of them.

The spanish ironman?

 

[infeXio]

To be fair, Almagro bottled it massively today.

 

[Bicycle]

It's really sad that Justine Henin is no longer in tennis.

She was such a joy to watch, especially in the way she dealt with those 1.90 steroid robots, who's only tactic is to blast the ball as hard as possible from the baseline without any variation.

It was brutal for her to deal with though, which is probably among one of the reasons why she had to retire relatively early.

there were some who wondered what the reason was for Henin's first "retirement"

 

[The Hitch]

31yo Robredo wins his 3rd 5 setter in a row, coming back from 0-2 down in all of them.

The spanish ironman?

Maybe not entirely doping related, but i see Tommy Haas has smashed his way into the quarters. Christ he was already one of the oldest in the top 100 when he got within 2 points of beating federer when fed won the thing, and then got to the semis of wimbledon. That was 4 years ago.

 

[Ferminal]

great backhand

Fuentes client?

 

[zebedee]

Henin was pretty much accused outright by members of the Kim Clijsters camp.
Her training base was Florida, so no Fuentes link as far as we know.

Her premature retirement was pretty amazing. Ranked number one she was at the time having just completed a year (2007) when she was virtually unbeatable. Then she retires, Tommy Cooper-style, just like that - on the spot, world ranked No 1, and with no prior announcement. She tried a comeback eighteen months later which fizzled out after a bright start.

No convincing explanation was ever given. It remains a mystery to this day.

 

[iejeecee]

Henin was pretty much accused outright by members of the Kim Clijsters camp.
Her training base was Florida, so no Fuentes link as far as we know.

Her premature retirement was pretty amazing. Ranked number one she was at the time having just completed a year (2007) when she was virtually unbeatable. Then she retires, Tommy Cooper-style, just like that - on the spot, world ranked No 1, and with no prior announcement. She tried a comeback eighteen months later which fizzled out after a bright start.

No convincing explanation was ever given. It remains a mystery to this day.

I don't think her first retirement was such a mystery. It was more due to psychological as opposed to physical reasons. Basically she wanted a break from being a tennis player, possibly influenced by Kim Clijsters who also retired for her first time around that same period.

Her second retirement was due to a chronic elbow injury

 

[zebedee]

In which case why do it instantly and ask for all ranking points to be nullified there and then if not to take yourself immediately outside the scope of anti-doping regulation?

The second time she did it officially, via the ITF retirement process whereby you notify the regulators in advance.

Here's a more recent case which chimes with Henin's:-

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/2013/05/30/tennis-anti-doping-zuzana-kucova/2373149/

Was a nudge and a wink given to Henin after a test positive? We don't know. There's no transparency when it comes to tennis anti-doping practice. We have to take everything on trust.

 

[iejeecee]

In which case why do it instantly and ask for all ranking points to be nullified there and then if not to take yourself immediately outside the scope of anti-doping regulation?

The second time she did it officially, via the ITF retirement process whereby you notify the regulators in advance.

Here's a more recent case which chimes with Henin's:-

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/2013/05/30/tennis-anti-doping-zuzana-kucova/2373149/

Was a nudge and a wink given to Henin after a test positive? We don't know. There's no transparency when it comes to tennis anti-doping practice. We have to take everything on trust.

Since the itf/wta have no interest in outing tennis players as doping cheats, much less high ranking ones, I don't see why she would have to jump trough all sorts of strange hoops to avoid being tested.

 

[wansteadimp]

Henin also had the big falling out with her family, no reason was ever given. It wouldn't surprise me if they found out that she was on the PEDs.

 

[zebedee]

I don't see why she would have to jump trough all sorts of strange hoops to avoid being tested.

Maybe she had tested. Who knows? Maybe she saw the writing on the wall; the big, obvious dopers like Dinara Safina with her "recovery" doctor, Del Moral, muscling her out, and she lost heart all of a sudden.

http://www.tennischannel.com/news/NewsDetails.aspx?newsid=6950

At least one journalist wasn't wholly convinced by her story.

 

[The Hitch]

I think this thread is an example of.some.members going a bit too far. Was henin on peds, very possible. Does that explain everything that ever happened to her, hell no. Peds may have been the reason she retired and why she had a feud with her family. More likely they did not. Henin always struck me as pshychologically fragile. She broke up with her husband who she married very young midcareer I think.