Novak Djokovic

Once at an NRL match, Wests Tigers fullback Tim Brasher hurled a small novelty footy my way. Pretty sure the thing was intended for his nephew or cousin, but I snatched it, I took it home and that was that.


Leaving aside the fact that a Sydney rugby league fan actually got off his backside and went to a game, there is nothing remarkable about this anecdote. Finders, keepers. Especially at sporting venues.

Yet public sympathy today appears to be leaning heavily towards 14 year old obsessive Novak Djokovic fan Melissa Cook, who missed out on a shirt thrown her way. And public fury is being unleashed on the fan who snatched the shirt.

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  • janet says:

    04:02pm | 03/02/12

    First In Best Dressed, once it left his hands it was fair game. Read more »

  • John Cartwright says:

    02:22pm | 03/02/12

    They should ban this sort of activity in any area that has dolphins. They are more intelligent than humans anyway, especially these braindead morons. Read more »

 

There was a famous moment in golf journalism, after an ageing and written-off Jack Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters tournament. A senior writer totally seized up in the media room, clutching his hair and saying “it’s too big, it’s too big, it’s too big…”. What the guy had just witnessed simply defied any words he could write.

A champion to a tee. Picture: Getty.

You feel the same way trying to describe an Australian Open final like the one we had last night. What do you write? How do you sum up five hours and 53 minutes of the most epic tennis imaginable between two guys with the stamina of marathon runners, the dynamism of sprinters and the skill of marksmen?

Oh, there are all sorts of angles you can take. More angles than a protractor factory. You can take the broad view and start the “who’s the greatest ever?” debate. After all, if Federer has the most Grand Slams ever, but Nadal keeps beating Federer when they meet in Slams, and now Djokovic keeps beating both of them, that’s the kind of argument that could rage on well past pub closing time.

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  • Sean Williams says:

    04:40am | 31/01/12

    Terrific match but still a bit behind Federer-Nadal epic at Wimbledon in 2008. Even the Federer-Roddick Wimbledon final that went to 16-14 in the fifth the following year ranks above. Not least because Wimbledon is THE tournament the players want to win. The Australian Open may be technically a major… Read more »

  • Jaypalm says:

    08:46pm | 30/01/12

    As Nadal is a left-hander, if Djokovic hit a forehand down the line, Nadal would be defending it with a forehand, not a backhand. Just sayin’. Read more »

 

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