Diamonds are Forever

He can't be any worse at doubles than either of the two that were playing (I'd fancy my chances against them!), he's got a good serve and in the match yesterday he volleyed pretty well, didn't get that decision at all. Yip, it's a bit of a kick in the teeth if your coach doesn't have the confidence to play you against Luxembourg, would have thought it would have made more sense to let him get a win under his belt and give him some experience for when he's needed in the future.

Didn't get to see any of it, but why wasn't Muller playing in the doubles ? Their only hope of winning the tie was winning the doubles and then Muller pulling it out the bag against Murray. He won in straight sets yesterday so he surely can't need much resting. It's academic really but don't see the logic behind that decision at all.

For the reason I said earlier. The huge risk compared to the pretty small benefit just wouldn't be worth it. Things like cycling and athletics there would be a pretty high incentive, football and rugby slightly less so, then things like tennis, and finally sports like snooker and darts where it wouldn't be worth it at all. You keep going on about Djokovic, he won a Grand-Slam in 2008, so presumably he was on PED then, then stopped taking them and realised he couldn't hack it without them, and then started taking them again ?

What players are built like wrestlers ? Federer is built like a rake, Djokovic isn't much bigger, Murray has filled out a bit from what he used to be he's by no means bulky, Nadal's left arm is big but hardly near the size of a wrestler. In any event, why would a tennis player want to be the size of a wrestler ? Having brute strength really isn't that important, especially when it would hinder your speed and movement. And it's probably treated with less scrutiny than cycling and athletics because in tennis the difference PED would make to your performance would be pretty negligible, it might make you a bit more powerful or a bit faster, but it's not going to improve your skill or technique. You can be as powerful or fast as you like, but if your forehand is useless PED aren't going to change that. Compare that to cycling or athletics which is the opposite, they require virtually no technique and are all about speed and endurance - things which PED would improve greatly. It makes perfect sense not to treat it with the same scrutiny - if that is indeed the case.

Never understood why so many people seem to enjoy criticising Murray so much. The guy is a fantastic tennis player who is unfortunate to be playing at the same time as 2 players who will probably go down as the best 2 players ever. He's now consistantly reaching semi-finals/finals of grand-slams and will probably win a major at some point. And even if he doesn't, he's already had a career that 99% of tennis players would be proud of. However, some people clearly don't rate him and don't see him as worthy of living up to Scotland's great tennis tradition...

However they also said - 'And that is one of the finest tennis shots I've ever seen! The keen footballer lets an outstretched Tsonga return drift through his open legs before bringing the racquet round to lift a deftly-angled volley across the net on a silver platter. Incredible. Moments like that are so rare in sport.', which is hardly indignant. People will obviously have different opinions, I have no doubt some people wont like it, but they are probably the same people who have a go at him for being boring and having no personality on the court. There's so much pressure on players these days, in all sports not just tennis, so there seems to be less and less showboating, so it's great to see when players do it, especially top players.

I was dragged along to see Take That at Hampden by my girlfriend (at least that's the official line anyway ) and they were excellent. I really like the first two albums they released since reforming and know pretty much every word, their latest one however, is pish. Basically I like their stuff without Robbie Williams. I don't think I have many guilty pleasures on my iPod, I think most of my stuff is pretty 'cool', but then I suppose everyone thinks that.

There is a difference in that almost always a treadmill will give a falsely high reading of how far you have run. I noticed this a few years ago when I'd do runs on the treadmill and then run outside and my times were a lot slower outside, even allowing for the different environment, stopping for traffic and stuff like that. I looked into it and found an interesting piece on it which I just tried to find and couldn't. Effectively you could stand on a treadmill and jump up and down and it would say that you have travelled a distance when obviously you hadn't, how inaccurate it is depends on your running style. I quite like treadmills because my knees are dodgy and I find it more comfortable than running on concrete, but I would never take any notice of the times and distance.

What a stupid and pointless thing to say.

There's no doubt he has to become more aggressive, his losses in the Slams this season have all been by 'big-hitters' who have been handed the initiative by his defensive play and have just blasted him off the court. It seems that he plays 'passively' and if he goes behind he goes into his comfort zone, which is being even more passive, which just makes it worse. That's the way he has always played so it might be hard to change, but I think it's a case of taking 1 step back and 2 forward for him here. His Grand-Slam results have been pretty poor, the French was decent, Wimbledon on paper looks good but he had an extremely good draw and even then was close to losing in the 4th round, and the Australian and US Open have been terrible. There shouldn't be any knee-jerk reactions but he needs to consider changing something. Physically he is in top condition, he has every shot in the book, so it has got to be a problem with the mental/tactical side. However, he does seem quite stubborn so will be interesting to see what he does.

One set down. Far too passive again, needs to take the match by the balls instead of waiting for Cilic to mess up.

Comfortable in the end, however he still seems to lose concentration for 3-4 games in a row in most matches, which against decent players he just can't afford to do.

That might actually help Murray, maybe not to win the tournament, but certainly to get the final. There are question marks over the fitness levels of Del Potro and also Nadal's knees so a couple of tough matches in quick succession could have an affect on them if they end up in a tough match with Murray, whereas with Murray's fitness levels you wouldn't think it would matter.

I agree, the whole thing is far too scripted now. It obviously always has been but it is just been pretty blatant recently.

No he hasn't. He has simply stated that it is not right that we do not know what league we will be in, just one week before the start of the season. He is quite right to complain about that, how the hell is he meant to build a squad in that situation ? One minute he is looking at 2nd Division players and the next minute it looks like Livi are going bust and he will need 1st Division players. He also probably feels agrieved that due to Airdrie 'living within their means' and not 'cheating', he now has 2 relegations on his CV (obviously there were other factors, such as him being a poor manager ), while one of the clubs that 'cheated' looks like getting away with it. I'm not KB's biggest fan by a long way but I do have sympathy for him, and what he said was spot on.

It was reported earlier that the bond that Rankine and McDougall have to pay is £700,000. If I was owed money by Livi and I found out that they had that kind of money at their disposal to give as a bond yet I still wasn't getting paid I wouldn't be too pleased. Secondly, was one of the main purposes of the meeting on Thursday not so that Livi could assure the SFL they could fulfil their fixtures ? They clearly couldn't give this assurance otherwise they wouldn't be asking for this money. Or have the SFL realised they have made a balls up after seeing the reaction of fans and clubs and are now trying to enginer it so Livi will be punished without making it obvious they have changed their mind ?

It was reported in the press last week that if Livi went bust Airdrie would replace them. Also considering Jim Ballantyne's place at the SFL it's fairly obvious he had good reason to assume we would be promoted. I think his comments are spot on. Don't see why you would be astonished.

So do most Airdrie fans I think.

You said he was single handedly responsible, and that is all I disagreed with. And as you have just described there are numerous people have contributed to Livi's demise just as much, if not more, than Massone. Just because he is the man who happened to be around during their final days doesn't make him solely responsible.

It's just such a stupid thing to say. The club has been run shambolically from start to finish, to say he is 'single handedly' responsible is just so idiotic that I can't be arsed arguing about it. I think 'pish' sums it up perfectly

Pish

Can people stop posting the number of users please ? We can see for ourselves, thanks

Why is that shocking ? Far more people will be interested in someone having a medical at Man City than a Scots 1st Div club going bust. Sad but true.

The train from Glasgow to Airdrie/Drumgelloch is like getting a tour of the worst places in Scotland.

Apparently we will be getting promoted should Livi go bust on Wednesday. Pish! Edit: Beaten to it.