Blake [15] vs. Gonzalez [15], Olympics Semi

[NADALwonWIMBLEDONagain]

I know what you mean. but we are animals that act on instinct on many situation. On event of this magnitude, it maybe a reflex action to not say anything. Our animal survival instinct kicks in and we don't always think about integrity.

It just depends what your animal instinct is. I couldn't cheat if I tried, I have a conscience. Whereas some people don't have a conscience. Maybe they used to live on the streets and steal, so they are desensitized to dishonesty.

 

[latinking]

It just depends what your animal instinct is. I couldn't cheat if I tried, I have a conscience. Whereas some people don't have a conscience. Maybe they used to live on the streets and steal, so they are desensitized to dishonesty.

The umpires job is to call it. He didn't see it. Just like in football ( soccer )when a bad penalty is called in the World Cup, or in NFL when a player is holding and doesn't get called for it. In Boxing when a Boxer hits low or hits on the break. In every sport it has forms of cheating. It up to the umpires and refs to call it. Sure its worng, but you all act like your saints. LOL. I know that if its your team that the bad call goes for you won't be upset, you probabley cheer.

 

[NADALwonWIMBLEDONagain]

I wouldn't cheer Nadal if he did a Gonzo, thats for holy heck darn sure; and I've never cheered cheating in others sports, and never cheated in my sports.

 

[latinking]

I wouldn't cheer Nadal if he did a Gonzo, thats for holy heck darn sure; and I've never cheered cheating in others sports, and never cheated in my sports.

Who is your NFL team? Do you watch NFL? Football ( soccer )? NBA?

 

[NADALwonWIMBLEDONagain]

I play basketball everyday of my life and obsessed with the NBA. Don't follow NFL or soccer.

 

[NADALwonWIMBLEDONagain]

Cheating in sport is no different to robbing a bank or stealing a car. Some people would do it, others would not.

 

[latinking]

I play basketball everyday of my life and obsessed with the NBA. Don't follow NFL or soccer.

Well how about when your team gets a bad call that goes for them. Or your fav player fouls someone and the ref doesn't see or call it. Or a plyer on your team forces a foul and it was no foul, and he takes it anyway. Or when a player fouls and pleds to the ref that he didn't touch the guy, when the replay shows he did. Do you not cheer for your team.

I am just saying for you to say that you will never cheat, in sports its always some form of cheating or being a bad sport. or bad calls. Sure what Gonzo did was bad but for you guys to crucify him, you all are not being real about sports. It wasn't match point and wasn't the reason why he won.

 

[NADALwonWIMBLEDONagain]

Well how about when your team gets a bad call that goes for them. Or your fav player fouls someone and the ref doesn't see or call it. Or a plyer on your team forces a foul and it was no foul, and he takes it anyway. Do you not cheer for your team.

I am just saying for you to say that you will never cheat, in sports its always some form of cheating or being a bad sport. Sure what Gonzo did was bad but for you guys to crucify him, you all are not being real about sports. It wasn't match point and wasn't the reason why he won.

If my team gets a bad call that goes for them I can't change the refs decision, you get technical fouls called for telling the ref what to do, and they never change the calls unless another ref requests it. Whereas in tennis you can tell the umpire something and concede a point. Plus basketball calls are almost always subjective, foul calls are in the eye of the beholder (and often up to the ref if they want the game to be physical or not). Tennis is factual mostly. I don't ever cheer for my basketball team, I'm on the court. And as a fan I don't have a favorite team, I stopped caring about the Bulls when Jordan retired.

It doesn't matter if Gonzo's cheating decided the match or not, it was wrong. Its up to Gonzo how he wants to be perceived, and what kind of reputation he wants. And I've never even considered cheating in a sport btw. Its not easy to cheat, it'd be going against my instincts if I did.

 

[Turning Pro]

Damn, Blake should have had this. Them 3 consecutive match points!!!

 

[latinking]

If my team gets a bad call that goes for them I can't change the refs decision, you get technical fouls called for telling the ref what to do, and they never change the calls unless another ref requests it. Whereas in tennis you can tell the umpire something and concede a point. Plus basketball calls are almost always subjective, foul calls are in the eye of the beholder (and often up to the ref if they want the game to be physical or not). Tennis is factual mostly. I don't ever cheer for my basketball team, I'm on the court. And as a fan I don't have a favorite team, I stopped caring about the Bulls when Jordan retired.

It doesn't matter if Gonzo's cheating decided the match or not, it was wrong. Its up to Gonzo how he wants to be perceived, and what kind of reputation he wants. And I've never even considered cheating in a sport btw. Its not easy to cheat, it'd be going against my instincts if I did.

If you play basketball I am sure in some way you have cheated in your life, like I said.

Not admiting you fouled a guy while the ref wasn't looking. Or accepting a call that was bad, its the same thing. Or in a pick up game when you call things yourself, if the ball was close to being out and you called it in, saying you saved the ball from going out. Not Admiting to touching the rim. When you know you touched a guy going up and you don't give him the foul. In some way you must have done one of those. I can assure Jordan has at some point in his life

Anyway, after having said all that. I do understand what you are saying. I hate cheaters too, but I am just trying to prove the point that NOBODY can say they have never cheated in some way. Its impossible in sports. If you are a sportman, or a fan. Somewhere along your life you have cheered for a bad call or cheated in some way. Its the nature of competition.

 

[Marty502]

Meh, I've seen it all too many times. In Soccer, Formula 1, Formula 3, even Tennis.

In Formula 1, nobody remembers that Michael Schumacher, globally regarded as the best F1 driver ever along with Ayrton Senna, had a nasty fame of ramming his championship opponents from the track twice, and got away with it once.

Nobody remembers Schumacher chopping Mika Hakkinen off the track and into the grass at 330 km/h in the Spa back straight. Nobody even remembers the 2006 Monaco incident where he tried to stuff the whole qualification race and was sent last on the grid as a punishment. I remember all of it because I'm a huge F1 nutcase, but all these incidents were all over the press and internet forums (if available) on their day.

But what remains? The seven championships, the new records, and Michael's winning hunger and attitude.

Dirty playing is everywhere. Some get away with it, and is usually forgotten quickly. The true responsibility here for a lousy job it's the umpires (sorry Carlos), not in Fernando. You gotta do what you gotta do. These guys at the elite know it.

 

[NADALwonWIMBLEDONagain]

If you play basketball I am sure in some way you have cheated in your life, like I said.

Not admiting you fouled a guy while the ref wasn't looking. Or accepting a call that was bad, its the same thing. Or in a pick up game when you call things yourself, if the ball was close to being out and you called it in, saying you saved the ball from going out. Not Admiting to touching the rim. When you know you touched a guy going up and you don't give him the foul. In some way you must have done one of those. I can assure Jordan has at some point in his life

I can't change the refs call, so if the ref doesn't call a foul on me I can't do anything about it. Have you ever seen a basketball game before? Refs never make a call based on a player's opinion, ever, not once.

I'd never cheat in a pickup game, because there is no point to it. There is never a point to cheating. If you win via cheating then you lose.

Jordan can't cheat, because the refs call the fouls. The player has no say over it. Watch a basketball game sometime and you'll see how it works.

And no I've never cheered a bad call. Why would anyone do that? I'd complain about a bad call though, a lot. It's the nature of competition for cheaters to cheat, bad refs to make bad calls, some refs fix matches because they were paid off. But a high percentage of players never cheat (and often don't have the capacity to cheat, depending on the sport).

 

[latinking]

Meh, I've seen it all too many times. In Soccer, Formula 1, Formula 3, even Tennis.

In Formula 1, nobody remembers that Michael Schumacher, globally regarded as the best F1 driver ever along with Ayrton Senna, had a nasty fame of ramming his championship opponents from the track twice, and got away with it once.

Nobody remembers Schumacher chopping Mika Hakkinen off the track and into the grass at 330 km/h in the Spa back straight. Nobody even remembers the 2006 Monaco incident where he tried to stuff the whole qualification race and was sent last on the grid as a punishment. I remember all of it because I'm a huge F1 nutcase, but all these incidents were all over the press and internet forums (if available) on their day.

But what remains? The seven championships, the new records, and Michael's winning hunger and attitude.

Dirty playing is everywhere. Some get away with it, and is usually forgotten quickly. The true responsibility here for a lousy job it's the umpires (sorry Carlos), not in Fernando. You gotta do what you gotta do. These guys at the elite know it.

I agree!!!

 

[latinking]

I can't change the refs call, so if the ref doesn't call a foul on me I can't do anything about it. Have you ever seen a basketball game before? Refs never make a call based on a player's opinion, ever, not once.

I'd never cheat in a pickup game, because there is no point to it. There is never a point to cheating. If you win via cheating then you lose.

Jordan can't cheat, because the refs call the fouls. The player has no say over it. Watch a basketball game sometime and you'll see how it works.

You don't get it do you. So if you cheered for all the times that guys just breathed on Jordan and he got the call, than you are showing bad sportmanship in some way. Trash talking, Jordan was a big trash talker, thats getting in someones head, that a form of being a cheater. Doesn't that show bad character?

 

[NADALwonWIMBLEDONagain]

You don't get it do you. So if you cheered for all the times that guys just breathed on Jordan and he got the call, than you are showing bad sportmanship in some way. Trash talking, Jordan was a big trash talker, thats getting in someones head, that a form of being a cheater. Doesn't that show bad character?

Trash talking is nothing like cheating. You are crazy. Trash talking doesn't get technical fouls called, the refs know its part of sport. Do you watch the NBA? Clearly not if you think players call the fouls lol. No it doesn't show bad character, it shows aggressive basketball, silly.

I don't cheer if a superstar is favored by a ref, ever. I'm completely against it. I never cheer that. The refs make the mistake of favoring the superstar, its not he superstars fault.

You talk as if you know me, yet you only know yourself.

 

[Oui c'est moi.]

Was Bill Gates watching this Blake match too?

 

[FuriousYellow]

Just finished watching. Man, what a terrible end to a terrific match. I'm a fan of Gonzo but that was just wrong even if it was at the beginning of the game.

I was just waiting to see at what point of the match Blake was going to check out mentally and after that point I could see that same dead fish look in his eyes I've seen so often. Up until that point, he was holding up pretty well mentally.

 

[dunlop1975]

Just finished watching. Man, what a terrible end to a terrific match. I'm a fan of Gonzo but that was just wrong even if it was at the beginning of the game.

I was just waiting to see at what point of the match Blake was going to check out mentally and after that point I could see that same dead fish look in his eyes I've seen so often. Up until that point, he was holding up pretty well mentally.

At 30-30 in that second last game, Blake gave up on the point and could easily have won it, if he'd been ready instead of letting the point go. He did that several times in the last set, no one wants to see someone give up on the point, no matter how much of a put-away it is.

 

[dunlop1975]

That's a distinct possibility. However, I think Gonzo had enough time to rationalize the situation, quite enough time. Who knows? Blake shouldn't have let it get to him anyway. Squandered BPs and MPs are part of the tale too.

I agree, it's not great to see Gonzo keeping mum about it, but Blake should have moved on - it's televised all over the world, so Gonzo has to live with that on record.

 

[helloworld]

James Blake should have won this match. There's like a war going on between China and the US, and one gold medal would really help that. I guess the US will be goldless in tennis this time.

 

[Marty502]

Yup. And once again, Chile makes sure they don't.

 

[InvisibleSoul]

It should be Blake [8] vs. Gonzalez [15], but Tchocky was in a hurry to post yet another bad poll, so he got mixed up.

Blake is 8th and Gonzo 15th seed.

Uh... nope. Gonzalez is the 12th seed.

 

[0range]

Wow I went to sleep at Gonzo serving 5-6 in the 3rd set (didn't have the heart to see Gonzo lose), kinda surprised to be waking up find that Gonzo actually won!!

I had _nightmares_ that Gonzo lost, and that Blake and Djokovic are in the finals, and then Blake beat Djokovic in the final!

...anyways even more surprised to find out there' some sorta disupte with the line call... had to read the last few pages to figure it out.

 

[BreakPoint]

I wonder if Blake could have challenged the call with Shot Spot, as it usually shows the trajectory of the flight of the ball so it should show that the ball changed trajectories while it traveled well over the net and near where Gonzo was standing.

 

[veritech]

I wonder if Blake could have challenged the call with Shot Spot, as it usually shows the trajectory of the flight of the ball so it should show that the ball changed trajectories while it traveled well over the net and near where Gonzo was standing.

very good point. i believe it would have shown the ball's movement after the contact with gonzo's racquet. gonzo would've got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

 

[0range]

Say there's no hawkeye in place, if the opponent hit a ball that landed right on the line and the player saw it, but the linesman didn't call it, I bet 99.99% of the time the player won't just "confess" that the ball was good and give up the point (even though Djoko did it once).

Different situation I know... I'm just saying..

 

[TheTruth]

To come to think of it, Jimmy Arias calling Gonzo a cheater may not be so fair. How would you react if the ball touches your racket and umpire doesn't notice it ?? with Gold medal on the line, would you come out and say i give away the point ??????

Arias called Gonzo a cheater?