Here Come The Withdrawals! Milos Raonic Announces He Won’t Go To The Rio Olympics

Halep pulled out too. http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2016/07/15/simona-halep-olympics-tennis-zika-virus-romania/

July 15th, 2016 at 3:46 pm

Wonder if he actually “feels” more Montenegrin than Canadian and that might be a subconscious reason. His brother and sister have moved back.
Wog Boy: there was an extensive interview with him in “The Times” just before Wimbledon. His parents were considering emigration to Australia or Canada, but apparently there were at least 30 application pages for Australia and 3 for Canada so, surprisingly enough, they went for Canada. Also said he’d been taking Mac round London art galleries…..what a brave man ;)
Can totally understand Halep withdrawing. This virus is a bit of an unknown.

July 16th, 2016 at 1:46 am

meanwhile, berdych pulled out too.

not sure margot but he’s been very involved with tennis canada for years and has played passionately for canadian davis cup teams in several ties, too.

July 16th, 2016 at 12:29 pm

Berdych came to the Citi Open to do a press conference and sign autographs – very nice of him.

https://twitter.com/CitiOpen/status/755776495457566720

July 20th, 2016 at 2:33 pm

Those are very sweet pictures MMT, especially as there seems to be alot of negativity surrounding Berdych on this very forum ….

July 20th, 2016 at 2:55 pm

Willow: He’s been a model professional, and I think he gets a bad rap. He’s had the perfect trifecta of offenses to the fans of the big 3 (of 4).

First, he “robbed” Federer of his gold medal in Athens in 2004 by beating him (the nerve), and then proceeding to lose two rounds later to Taylor Dent. Then there was, what I still believe was, something of a misunderstanding with Nadal in Madrid (in 2006, when it was played on indoor hard courts in the fall).

The partizan Spanish crowd had been a little over the top for Berdych’s liking, so he “shushed” them after winning that match – not a big deal, but apparently an unforgivable offense (for those who take themselves too seriously, in my opinion). Nadal took exception to that and told him (while shaking his hand), “You are very bad…very bad.” Berdych responded, thinking Nadal was saying he was a bad tennis player, with “If I’m so bad, how did I beat you 3 times?” Which, although true, you can just imagine how Nadal’s fans felt about that at the time.

Then last year he had the temerity to hire Andy Murray’s former…frankly, I don’t what you call him…hitting partner(?) Danny Vallverdu, resulting in Murray (et al….ugh) getting very confrontational and profane during their Oz Open semi final last year. Because as we all know, (like an ex-girlfriend of Tony Soprano) if he can’t have him/her, nobody can. Of course Murray blamed the whole thing on the media.

Needless to say, I think it’s all ridiculous. Particularly the Murray thing, given that Berdych (at Murray’s requested) played a doubles benefit match (with him, Ivan Lendl and Tim Henman) AFTER the final at Queens 3 years ago for Ross Hutchins, a former professional and friend of Murray’s who had been diagnosed and treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

Anyway, just thought I’d throw that out there.

July 20th, 2016 at 3:25 pm

Great post MMT, i completely agree, i thought his warm side came out, when he did the charity match for Ross, and he did talk so warmly when asked about Esther ….

July 20th, 2016 at 3:48 pm

He does get a bad rap in Anglo-Saxon media. Also, Fedal fans (The Cult) almost universally hate the guy. With Federer fans it is very simple – they are mostly fanatical and take every Fed’s loss personally, so Athens 2004 defeat, and Wimbledon 2010 defeat labeled Berdych as someone to be despised forever in sick minds of The Cult (most of them call him Berdshit). Similarly, The Cult really hates Cilic, simply because his 2014 win over Fed (no other reason whatsoever) despite Ciic being really low key guy and one of the best behaved player on the tour.

Lesson learned:
You can be a model professional and extremely nice guy, but once you deny King Fed an important title (or many titles like Rafa and Nole), you will be hated with passion by The Cult. The players they typically like and are complimentary about are Dimitrov, Goffin, Gasquet, Roddick, etc… see the pattern here?

July 20th, 2016 at 3:57 pm

Willow: I also talk “warmly” about Esther ;-)

July 20th, 2016 at 4:01 pm

MMT Tennis players do indeed have beautiful wives /Girlfriends ;-)….

TBH Ive never heard any Federer fans talk badly about Cilic though, well not here anyway ….

July 20th, 2016 at 4:09 pm

LOL here we go, another provoking calling out of Fed fans. This one takes the cake.
And “Anglo-Saxon media”? Where did that come from?

Bird gets a bad rap, not from just one fan group, but many others. It’s got nothing to do with Fed as CON fans claim. Everything is not someone else’s fault. It’s about taking responsibility for your own actions.
Lesson Learned:
Research better on why a player is not a favorite of some, and don’t jump to blame it on other groups of fans, just because you don’t like them.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/handshake-refusal-nets-a-negative-response-20120122-1qcq5.html

July 20th, 2016 at 4:23 pm

Fair enough skeezer – that was indeed pretty dumb of Berdych. I’m not one who thinks one should always shake an opponent’s – especially if they’ve been unsporting throughout the match. But there was nothing wrong with what Almagro did, and there was no reason not to shake his hand.

July 20th, 2016 at 4:56 pm

Difference between The Cult and Church:

Cult,
“In the sociological classifications of religious movements , a cult is a religious or social group with socially deviant beliefs and practices.”

Church,
“The word “church” comes from the Greek word ekklesia which is defined as “an assembly” or “called-out ones.”

Happy to be church member and not cult member..in Rogertown waiting for the command, that cult mambers will oblige, to drink Koool-Aid, knowing it is enriched with cyanide.

July 20th, 2016 at 7:07 pm

agree with you MMT.
berdych deserves better.
he’s a good guy.

July 20th, 2016 at 7:08 pm

jane,
Agree, he did make that stupid and wrong gesture of not doing handshake, but name me one player that hasn’t done something stupid and wrong on tennis court including Nole.

Betdych tennis is silky and smooth, nice to watch and he can beat anyone when he is on, unfortunately for him he is not on when it matters the most…except of beating Roger at Wimbledon and then not giving Roger his vote for Edberg award, after Wimbledon match (Roger didn’t accept his defeat graciously, surprise..surprise) so Rafa won it. Enough reason for The Cult members to hate Berdych and call him ugly names all the time, very ugly name. Try to imagine somebody calling certan one Fedshit..he would be publicly burned!

July 20th, 2016 at 7:25 pm

Berdshit is not the only nickname Federer fans gave to Berdych. On the tt.tennis-warehouse forum they regularly call him Berdouche.

Yet, when I call Federer douchebag, they cry foul and call me a hater.

#confused

July 20th, 2016 at 9:30 pm

^proof that other fan groups call players names. Not a “Fed fan” thing. Lol.
Lo

July 20th, 2016 at 9:45 pm

I Will admit as a Rafa fan i have given Berdych some stick in the past, so its not just Fed fans thats a fallacy, and some of it has been to do with the handshake against Almagro, the shushing of the crowd against Rafa, and the comments he made when playing Andy at the AO, and the b*tching about Roger when he beat him at W in 2010,however as Wogboy says none of the players are perfect, and sometimes posters hold onto a grudge forever, and there are certainly players that behave and have done much worse, Berdych came across as quite warm and friendly when he did the charity match with Lendel in 2013 after Queens for Ross Hutchins, and he seems to glow when he talks about wife Esther ….

July 21st, 2016 at 9:08 am

In 2010 Berdych played some of the best grass court tennis ive ever seen him play, beating both Roger and Novak B2B, it reminded me of Lisickis(sorry cant spell her name) run in 2013, playing absolutely out of her mind, before sadly running out of steam when both got to the final ….

July 21st, 2016 at 9:13 am