Extract from a report in Tuesday's edition of the London Evening Standard on Andy's match against JWT which I found interesting for what it revealed about Karlo's use of gamesmanship in his match againt Jamie!
[...]Murray will head home to rest and then prepare for the Davis Cup tie.
He will do so safe in the knowledge that his back-up singles player will be Jamie Baker, who had earlier gone out of the first round 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-4 to giant Croatian, Ivo Karlovic. The 21-year-old Scot, 217 in the world, could not make good a gap of 197 places in the rankings, but put in a typically feisty performance after coming through three qualifying rounds to make the main draw. In some respects it was the perfect way to gain some Davis Cup experience because of the loud following of local Croatian supporters enjoyed by 6' 10" Karlovic. If anything, Baker fed off the chanting and catcalls and he had Karlovic properly rattled after taking the third set 7-1 in the tie-break so much so that the Croat went off for an eight-minute toilet break at the end of it, angering his opponent. "It was ridiculous. The atmosphere of the court goes dead and I lose my momentum," said Baker.
Ah, that would be the point where we thought there was an injury timeout for one of the players.
Incidentally, Karlovic got so frustrated in his match against Youzhny in the 3rd round that he even produced an underarm serve which went for an ace lol.
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Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive.... those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience
> "It was ridiculous. The atmosphere of the court goes dead and I lose my momentum,"
or ... "I can't play well unless all the opposing supporters are on my back" - brilliant
He needn't worry, in Buenos Aires, the only chance of it going dead on court is if someone gets shot ... (hopefully not a realistic risk in tennis, even if it is in football)
-- Edited by steven at 00:42, 2008-01-21
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!