posted Oct 30, 2008

Hey folks lets not all gang up on King.
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Wouldnt dream of it Interesting discussion.

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posted Oct 30, 2008

King nothing against you fella as you keep things interesting - just a disagreement on views on his attitude. You may not like it but I don't think it has changed. He has just started winning! Everyone's smiles when they are winning

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posted Oct 30, 2008

Guys I don't take any offence here. I'm all for a bit of heated debate and disagreement. There's only one person here who I thought was just arguing for the sake of it.

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posted Oct 31, 2008

Vis,
I’m glad that you don’t take offence and like heated debate. You know a bit about tennis, most of us do.

I do think you need to work on your powers of argument. A number of us didn’t like aspects of this article or others written by journalists about Murray. You said, “I notice that nobody who has a problem with it has attempted to publish anything better in the last day.” Why should we? Most of us have a time-consuming day job – Mr. Overend and the others are full-time professionals. I don’t doubt that quite a number of us could do as good a job at sports journalism as many of the professionals – sports journalism is not rocket science.

You said, “Even those of us who count ourselves as supporters were rolling our eyes at the ranting and swearing on court even as recently as this spring. That WAS immaturity, it WAS harming him, the press WAS right to point out that it was detrimental to his game, never mind his image.” It may have been immaturity or it may have been an unusually strong desire for improvement, or both. None of us know truly knows the answer to that. Do you think that McEnroe was immature throughout his playing career? Did his ranting and swearing damage his image? The press in Britain at the time hated him and grew to understand that it was an essential part of the man and his game. The press (including McEnroe) said that Murray’s behaviour was harming his game. I think it may have been the mental spur required to improve his game. I didn’t hear or read anything from the press pointing out that Borg, Federer and quite a few others went through a similar phase in their quest to get to the top. The coverage was not balanced.

You also say, “In all honesty the only poster here complaining about the original article that I have more than a modicum of respect for is duggie.” That was so hurtful that I nearly cried when I read it. Once I stopped laughing and my sides stopped aching, I imagined how warm Duggie must feel knowing that he alone has your public endorsement. Maybe your name has given your ego too much of a boost. Archie Gemmill said of Graeme Souness, “If he was a chocolate drop, he'd eat himself." Are you feeling tasty Vis?

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posted Oct 31, 2008

You obviously dont even know the basics.Bagdhatis was 13 when he was pakced off to join the french tennis training squad and he rose to be World Junior No.1 between Gasquet and Monfils.I often wonder what happened to Nadal in those years. Mauybe he just leapfrogged the junior stuff.
For you information that name Bagdhatis does not sound or look like Greek at all and my Greek friends are vague about it.

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posted Oct 31, 2008

Sorry, that comment about Baghdatis' connection with French tennis was intended for NIreland-OEngland or some strange name like that.

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posted Oct 31, 2008

Ladies ... ladies! Can you go bicker on Facebook or somewhere, and leave this forum for tennis comments?

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posted Oct 31, 2008

Once I stopped laughing and my sides stopped aching, I imagined how warm Duggie must feel knowing that he alone has your public endorsement
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I just like good debate and respect between all posters even if our viewpoints are different.

My only criticism is that the article IMO is to fulsome in its praise and has some unnecessary phrases which I personally dont associate with specialist journalism.

I dont mind an article praising or discussing Murray - I'm becoming more of a fan , not just because of his winning but because of his maturity.

I am just uncomfortable with disrespect to other tennis professionals even in a " jokey" manner.

I expect better.

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posted Nov 2, 2008

Baghdatis is a cousin of a Cypriot whom I know. He is a Greek Cypriot.

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