Lex

Win in Paisley job done. Easy, right?

Trying hard not to be that iPad parent, my son’s two and he has never seen one. But when he won’t sit still in a restaurant for more than five minutes the temptation to slap one in front of him to keep him quiet is huge. Expect to cave in soon.

Celtic Rangers Hearts Kilmarnock Dundee Utd St Mirren Aberdeen Dundee Hibs Ross County Motherwell St Johnstone

Mandron (St Mirren) Penrice (Hearts) Anderson (Killie) Randall (County)

Yeah most travelling without a ticket. We will all see the game I’m sure.

Speaking to a Dunfermline fan the other day. They drew an Icelandic team in the UEFA cup in 2004. Many of their fans didn’t go and saved themselves for the next round. They got duly knocked out by the Icelanders and haven’t been in Europe in the 20 years since.

Iceland here we come.

Well tournament’s over. Is he gone yet?

No surprise, Alcaraz is simply a better player than Djokovic at the moment. His numbers and potential are terrifying. I think it’s now beyond doubt that he’s the best 21 year old in the history of the game, if he retired tomorrow he’d be remembered as a great. We’ve rightly spent the summer eulogising Andy Murray’s great career. He retired on three slams on two surfaces, Alcaraz already has four over all three surfaces. He turned 21 a couple of months ago. For comparison Djokovic had one slam when he turned 23, at this rate Alcaraz could be in double figures when he’s 23. The scariest thing when you’re watching him is that he plays like a 21 year old. He does a lot of daft things, we’ve seen it throughout the tournament. He dropped two sets to Tiafoe, one to Paul, one to Humbert, one to Medvedev and he didn’t play well in the third set today either. He starts going for the wrong shot and his head goes a bit. The kind of mistakes you see almost every 21 year old player make. The kind of mistakes that get made less and less with experience. His coaches have alluded to that too, that he’s playing at about 80% of his potential. Which is normal, which is why you don’t see many kids his age winning slams, never mind winning four of them. If his development is normal in five or six years he will still be making all the shots he is today with all the physical power and attributes he has today, but he will be making less daft mistakes. The only question now is his longevity. If he’s still competing at the sharp end of slams when he’s 37 - like Djokovic is - he’ll be in the mid 30’s on slam count by then, long past Djokovics record. Or maybe he hits an injury crisis and never wins another one, who can say. He’ll be favourite to retain the US Open next month regardless.

Fairly common in America too tbf. At least in the 20th century.

We live in the post truth era. Any time anything like this happens instantly people are claiming a conspiracy. Had it been on Biden the Trumpists would been immediately crying fake news too, it’s not a left or right thing. It’s quite clearly not a conspiracy of any kind. Unless the guy in the crowd who collapses shot is in on it, along with all the secret service, along with the now dead shooter aswell as however many others.

Just what you’d imagine someone from antifa to look like. Been a while since we have had an assassination/attempt on a presidential candidate. That seals Trumps win in November, as if it was ever in doubt.

Carlos in four and Novak in three no surprises. Musetti and Medvedev actually both played quite well, but there was a bit of inevitability about the results. A rematch of the 2023 epic on Sunday then. Should be a great day for Spanish sport that, their boys are favourites in both finals.

Semi final day today and it’s hard to see beyond Djokovic and Alcaraz repeating last years epic final. Musetti has been the player of the tournament, don’t often see the 25th seed in the semi. His slice won’t be as effective against a rested Djokovic as it was against Fritz though. His run surely ends today. Alcaraz v Medvedev is a repeat of last years semi final, which Alcaraz cruised through in straight sets. Medvedev can hurt him on hard court but it’s a different game on grass.

No doubt Spain have been the best team in the tournament and they’re clear favourites here. Would be surprised if they don’t win it. However, England are achieving a level of consistency you don’t often see at international level. They’re hard to beat - they haven’t lost a single game during this competition, including in qualifying - and they’re good at penalty shoot outs. That’s the formula that will get you far. Since Southgate arrived they’ve went SF, F, QF, F. Given that in the hilarious 20 years prior to his appointment they didn’t make a single SF, that’s quite an improvement. Compare them to their European peers: Germany haven’t made a single SF since 2016, France got knocked out the last 16 by that easy draw team Switzerland at the last Euros, Spain have got knocked out the last two World Cups at the last 16 by Russia and Morocco, and Italy haven’t even qualified for the last two World Cups. Given they keep knocking on the door of the latter stages, it does feel inevitable that they’ll win one eventually. Let’s hope it’s not on Sunday.