RJA wrote:

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korriban wrote:

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Uncalled for.

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Sorry but I don't see how it is uncalled for. I am one of Dan's biggest cheer leaders on this forum and have defended him against a lot of criticism. For someone to say that I have "rep of knocking Evo at every opportunity" is either dishonest or stupid.

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Well defaulting immediately to insult, even slightly obliquely is always uncalled for.

On the point itself:

If you say something like "...such a reputation could only exist in the minds of the exceptionally dimwitted." then most times, your opinion or statement will go unquestioned because to disagree appears to mark oneself out as "exceptionally dimwitted", or even not as intellectually astute as the originator of the statement, to whom the evidence is apparently all too patently obvious.

It's the psychological trick of the Emperor's New Clothes. 

People are very reticent to be the little boy that points at the Emperor and says, "but he's not wearing any clothes.".

It's a device the correspondent uses a fair bit when challenged. The recent example of claiming that a member expressing a contrary opinion was congratulated on having the most stupid opinion ever seen on the board, amongst others. (if the search function worked at all, I'd quote verbatim and give the reference; alas it does not)

However, the real issue here is the original statement, "Disappointing but not remotely surprising. Everything about today had disaster waiting to happen written all over it."

Which is a claim which I doubt that most readers would seriously believe the correspondent genuinely held before the match. Had it been said in advance of the match then, fair enough.

To state it after the fact? Well, it's all too easy to construct a plausible justification if you can mould it upon the forge of hindsight and custom fit it to the events as they actually transpired. 

As such any explanation now is largely irrelevant - it can be entirely fabricated if needs be, to suit.

I thought Dan would win for the record, and even if he lost did not entertain the thought that it would be in straight, and pretty straightforward, sets.

Further for the record, I do think RJA has a proven record of generally supporting Dan, and being more lenient with him than almost any other player.

I don't say that as in any way damning with faint praise, because, in my opinion, RJA is often very very hard indeed on all players, even in victory. With that in mind even just being very hard on Dan could be considered 'lenient'.

Rather, I find that RJA is easy on Dan, even by the collective standards of all correspondents on the board.

I therefore find Christian's suggestion that, "Maybe RJA trying to live up to the rep of knocking Evo at every opportunity?" to also be unfair and unwarranted.

Back to tennis. I think Mr. Evans need to show willing for at least the rest of this year, consistently, week in week out, proving that his supposed new dedication is real, and without thought of reward save those he can gain himself on court.

If that proven period of focus is demonstrated, then by all means he should be reconsidered for all of the support mechanisms to which GB tennis players are made eligible and entitled. Acting any sooner I think would allow Dan to too readily slide back to the 'old ways'.

That's me done posting for a while. This took me ages to construct!

christian wrote:

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RJA wrote:

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korriban wrote:

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Uncalled for.

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Sorry but I don't see how it is uncalled for. I am one of Dan's biggest cheer leaders on this forum and have defended him against a lot of criticism. For someone to say that I have "rep of knocking Evo at every opportunity" is either dishonest or stupid.

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 Ok then, instead of throwing around cheap insults, explain how the result was entirely predictable?  Given how the one thing Evo is famed for is his unpredictable results?

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Well if you want to say something preposterous about me then you can expect a reaction. As for the result, I didn't say that it was predictable I said that it was unsurprising. On balance I thought he would win the match but I wasn't confident that he would.

christian wrote:

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It was meant as a light-hearted quip, based on the dig RJA got the other day about being anti-Evo. Not to be taken seriously, certainly not intended to get the ott reaction it did but hey ho. I'll leave it there out of respect for the decent folk who run, and use this board a lot more then me.

Back to the more important tennis, I do think Evo gets a far harder time than he deserves, whilst understandable given his attitude at times, he's one of, if not the best prospect behind Andy, and I think deserves a bit more support for that. Just my opinion btw!!

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I which case I will apologise for my reaction. Misunderstandings on the internet are very common and in this case I was more than a little irritated by the suggestion that I am anti-Evo which is a appalling distortion of the truth. As I am pretty sure all regular users of this forum will have realised that Evo is one of my favourite players. I have almost certainly watched him play more times than most on this forum over the last two years, I have defended him  time and time again and have frequently said that aside from Murray he is the most talented British tennis player.

To be honest results like today don't just disappoint me but they sadden and enrage me to an almost equal degree. Everybody has a bad day now and again, but the amount of appalling defeats Dan has suffered in the last 2-3 years is quite simply ridiculous. To go from beating Nieminen a few weeks ago to losing to Veger today almost defies belief but as I said it really doesn't surprise me and if AliBlahBlah doubts my sincerity on that he either doesn't understand me. No one doubts that Dan can raise his game against quality opposition but until he learns to win routine matches 9 times out of 10 he will never come close to making the most of his potential.

Finally I will address another of AliBlahBlah point's, namely that I am very, very hard on British tennis players. Well yes, when it comes to players who I consider to be talented and who have not made the most of their ability I judge them harshly. Of the current British 2-5 (not counting Klein) I think they have all massively underachieved in their careers and of our youngsters I think Golding and Broady should both being do better than they are. As a fan of British tennis I am sick of seeing talented players underachieve and while I will certainly praise them when they do well I don't think that I am being unfair in criticising their short comings. I will never criticise players for not being good enough and I have frequently praised the likes of Marsalek and Gabb, players who I don't think will make it but who display a fantastic attitude both on and off court.

But the Austrian isn't, said the ****-eyed optimist (though aware that good sense supports your view!)

Well, well. Fallen foul of the automated censors, I see. Fortunately, the omission is self-evident.

Darren & Arnau are probably not going to reach the semi:

QF:  Arnau Brugues (ESP) & Darren Walsh WR 906 vs (2) Marcelo Demoliner & Maximilian Neuchrist (BRA/AUT) WR 409

The Brazilian is ranked 77th in the world...

Yes, they do.

RJA wrote:

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Yes, they do.

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 Thank you.