You Will Be Assimilated

Well old granite face has finally won his first Grand Slam, and I suppose it would be churlish not to congratulate the
miserable, mono-toned, characterless Scot on his fine achievement (especially as I won a few pennies from him last night).

Of course, there are now a great many people saying that the "haters" should crawl back under their rocks and keep quiet now that Murray has hit the peaks, but I think these people are missing the point. If there were any Murray-haters who genuinely thought he was never going to win a slam then, okay, we can all point our tommy-guns at those people and laugh at them as we drill them full of holes... but I think the majority of people who don't like Murray do so simply because, outside of his actual tennis play, he gives so very little of himself to the watching public. Murray is genuinely a man who runs the gamut of emotions from A to B (Wimbledon tears excluded).

And I don't know about you, but I expect a little bit more from my tennis players than that. Okay, tennis is not played-out in the interview room, I grant you, but it is supposed to be an entertainment. Murray's tennis play is undoubtedly outstanding and many of you will argue that this is all the entertainment he's responsible for providing. He's not a clown out there to make us laugh, afterall. He can simply let's his tennis do the talking. Alright. Fair enough. But as far as I'm concerned tennis holds a special position in the pantheon of sports simply because it's been so blessed with such amazing characters down the years. These special characters that, even now, I hold dear in my heart, have led the way and shown us all how tennis should be played - not with  faces wreathed in stern solicitude but with a display of love and pleasure of the sport in which they are participating in. Based on what has gone before, an additional responsibily now lies with today's players as far as I'm concerned.

Nowadays of course, the automaton approach is deemed acceptable and has become the norm in tennis, but for those of us older than twenty years of age (and I just about qualify), tennis still has vivid memories of a sport that one minute was spun tight with unbearable tension, and the next was cracked asunder with gushing relief, outrageous unconventionality, comic violence, or wild genuine humour. Laughter was not a stranger in the tennis courts of yester-year when we were graced by players with real character such as Becker, Henri Leconte, Connors and Ilie Năstase. Back then, even the "gentlemen" players like Newcombe and Laver had something about them which today's faceless tennis pros seriously lack. And Murray is the absolute epitome of all that's missing in today's tennis professionals.

There were indeed quiet and business-like players back then, let's not kid ourselves, but players like Borg or Tanner complemented the more erratic players, providing a pleasing contrast. The serious players were the cake and the entertaining players were the fruit and nuts, making a deep, rich fruit cake full of flavour. Nowadays, there are no fruits and no nuts, and all we're left with is a dull, dry hard sponge that's difficult to swallow. Our Mr. Murray is unfortunately the prime example of this unappetising aspect of tennis.

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P/L from yesterday as I did trade the Under 21 match also
 

Football: £87.89 | Tennis: £33.79 | Tote: |  Total P&L:  £121.68

 

Football Showing 1 - 3 of 3 markets

Market Start time Settled date Profit/loss (£)
Football / England v Ukraine : Over/Under 2.5 goals 11-Sep-12 20:00  11-Sep-12 21:53  4.46
Football / England v Ukraine : Correct Score 11-Sep-12 20:00  11-Sep-12 21:53  44.59
Football / England U21 v Norway U21 : Over/Under 1.5 Goals 10-Sep-12 19:00  10-Sep-12 20:57  38.84