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Saturday, September 12, 2009

Tennis humor: Djokovic vs Mac

Weekend tennis humor (and one thought on Semenya)

In among all this controversy over Caster Semenya, I thought I'd take a day off (well, kind of a day - I still have ONE comment to make at the bottom of this post, I promise it's one). And for the day off, here's a video I really enjoyed, of Novak Djokovic first imitating and then playing John McEnroe after his US Open victory against Radek Stepanek the other night.

I've not been a huge fan of Djokovic, mostly because he seems so petulant and has that annoying habit of reliance on his support box. But it's really great to see tennis players (any sports stars, for that matter), becoming entertainers to add value over and above what they do on court or on track.

We've seen with Usain Bolt that one man can add enormously to the entertainment value of a sport. Bolt has taken athletics to a new level of entertainment, and hopefully that persists beyond his career. He's already inspired many others to 'imitate', and then there was Berlino, and a great world Championships, and suddenly athletics seemed exciting!

So below is Djokovic, famous for his impersonations, giving a court-side interview, then an imitation of commentator John McEnroe, followed by a few rallies with the American legend. It's a good laugh, and a nice change from the somewhat heavier topics of recent times (if you're getting this in an email, click here to go to the site and view it there - it may take some download time if you're in South Africa)!



On court, the finals have been moved to Monday, thanks to a complete washout yesterday. Federer, Djokovic and Nadal are all still in, Nadal finding himself with the challenge of playing three matches in three days to finish, while battling abdominal injuries and doubts over a knee injury. It should produce an intriguing climax.

Caster Semenya brief thought

There is that brief thought on the Caster Semenya issue, but that is above, in a separate post!

Ross