I'm Calling It...Nadal Loses.
The US Open begins tomorrow and after checking out the men's draw, I have a prediction: Rafael Nadal loses in the first round. Gasp!
This may sound surprising to those of you who follow tennis(read:none of you) but I had the chance to see Nadal up close and personal in Cincinnati last weekend and I didn't like what I saw. I saw a guy hitting slow serves and a forehand which caused the ball to sit up and let Novak Djokovic absolutely pummel it back at him.
This is not the only reason. He has a tough first round opponent in Richard Gasquet. Gasquet recently served a suspension after testing positive for cocaine and this is his first real tennis match in a while.
Gasquet's vacation could go two ways. Either he is pissed that he was falsely suspended(he claims to be clean) and plays hard to prove himself or he comes out slow and weak because he hasn't played a real match in months. I am feeling it will be the former.
This is by no means guaranteed, of course. Rafael Nadal did make it to the semi finals of the Cincinnati Masters tournament last week which means he had to go through several opponents on his way. However, I think most players are simply afraid of him even if he isn't playing well. I do not believe Gasquet is that type of player. He will attack...a lot.
Don't worry, I won't come back here and change this post in the event of Nadal winning. I simply want to make it known that I am predicting this huge upset before it happens. I will update this post either way with the outcome. Comments will be frozen in the event that I am wrong.
UPDATE: I was wrong.
-Carsten
P.S. Thanks to Nick for the photoshopping.
Comments (1) 30.08.2009. 19:31
Fantasy Football 2009!
I took a different approach to fantasy football this year than I have in the past. Instead of playing with people that I know who are notorious for drafting and walking away from the league, I decided to join a public league in hopes that the nine random people will care a little more. If they don't, oh well.
I was doing a little bit of research on the draft and deciding on my general strategy when I realized that having one monitor available at the time of the draft was going to severely hinder my performance, especially under the 90 second limit per pick! I couldn't let that happen so I put together the "command center."
(Click for larger version)
As you can see, it contains everything you need to be successful at Fantasy Football. On the left, you have Heyworth, Elsa's most beloved teddy bear and a beast at picking sleepers. The Macbook was used for the draft itself and that window that is opened stayed so the whole time, allowing me to constantly monitor who was picking and how much time was left. The Lenovo (the black one, but I don't see color) was used to tab through various websites that I feel had good information(i.e. mock drafts, player rankings, etc...). Last, but not least, we have a Corona Extra with lime. The lime really makes it, just ask Bo. You need this.
So how did the draft turn out? Not bad. I had the first pick so I took the standard route and went with Adrian Peterson. Some of my other picks include Donovan McNabb and Wes Welker but I won't go into the whole team. This whole process got me really excited for the football season to start and for all of Heyworth's hard work to pay off.
-Carsten
Comments (1) 24.08.2009. 18:44
Golf!
I have started golfing. I honestly never really thought that I would get into golf. Thanks to William and Franklin, however, I am now pretty interested in golfing.
Last week I picked up my first set of clubs, Maxfli Black Max. I picked up another set first but after having the head of the driver fly off on the second attempted drive, I decided to go with something else. Go figure.
I am heading to Atlantic City for my brothers bachelor party on the weekend of July 4th and am going golfing on the 5th, weather permitting. I am so pumped. Should be fun.
-Carsten
Right now, a trailer for Wanted is on TV, I want to see it.
Comments (0) 22.06.2008. 21:00