Daily Bagel: Tennis Channel CEO rants about Comcast case
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z1RdyMQwj0&feature=youtu.be
• Video: Taylor Townsend on how to be an awesome tweeter. Nice to see she's as bubbly and giggly as ever.
•Deadspin obtained an internal email from Tennis Channel CEO Ken Solomon, who used some ill-advised language to lament a federal appeals court's decision in the network's dispute with Comcast over distribution.
And finally, of all things to say there is not sufficient evidence of discrimination? Even Ray Charles could see the shameful way they treat those they do not own. Conjuring this impossible justification…that there isn’t sufficient evidence to support this and every other painful and brutal discrimination complaint is like looking at a building engulfed in flames and asking “what fire” ??? It’s like being raped for a decade by a brutal captor, finally winning in a long and painful public court trial (while you can’t get work because of your Scarlett Letter), and then on appeal years later from a pre-decided Mad Hatter of a court asking you, the victim, to produce a video to prove that it ever happened. Forget the scars, bruises and painful clarity with which everyone knows that your story is simply 100% true, where is your proof dear Alice???
Solomon issued a statement to Deadspin apologizing for "several ill-chosen, excessively colorful and inappropriate words in a private e-mail to colleagues a few weeks ago reflecting my disappointment with a legal decision."
• Andy Murray's No. 1 fan was in the crowd to watch his rain-delayed opening match against Nicolas Mahut at the Aegon Championships in London. Murray completed a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory on Thursday.
https://twitter.com/KevinSpacey/status/344836358407344128
• The windy 2012 U.S. Open semifinals still haunt Tomas Berdych, who lost to eventual champion Andy Murray.
He remains furious with the organisers who insisted that they play on in gale-force winds. And he justifies his argument by pointing out that the second semi-final, between [Novak] Djokovic and David Ferrer, was called off after a few games. (To which the officials would probably reply that a tornado warning forced the whole stadium to be evacuated.)
“This is the match that stays in my mind for a long time,” Berdych told The Daily Telegraph. “Especially the fact that the guys around the tournament, they skip the match after us just because of the wind. I mean who cares? We were playing in it, so skip it or suspend the match after two sets and let’s play another day. This was very unfair, I think anyway.
“Of course, it was the same for me and Andy. His game is better for the wind - OK that’s his advantage. But that day, come on. The chairs were rolling around the court. That was a really bad decision. I wouldn’t find a match like that in my career, that stays [in my head]. If you lose first round, who cares? But if you get to the semi-final playing really well - and I was playing well - and you feel the chance …” He tails off, wearing the blank-eyed expression that regular tennis followers will find it easy to picture.
• The injury-plagued Juan Martin del Potro on how "sometimes it’s like I’ve had two different careers, before the U.S. Open and after I won in New York.”
Assessing his journey since the 2009 United States Open as a whole, del Potro, who met Pope Francis, a fellow Argentine, during the Rome Masters, added that “things happen for a reason.”
Asked to come up with one, the 24-year-old replied: “Maybe it’s the price I had to pay for winning a Grand Slam.
“Last year I played really well, sometimes better than in 2009, and I started this season really well. Now other bad things have come to me. I need to be strong to manage these bad things and to keep trying and working, and be positive all the time.”
• Murray criticizes the one-year ATP ranking system.
• Mardy Fish is likely out of Wimbledon. Matt Cronin reports that Fish is planning to return at the Atlanta Open, which runs July 20-28.
• An English translation of a good interview with Rafael Nadal published in L'Equipe.
