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It's a curious quirk of the internet that almost nothing survives of Bill Simmons's pre-ESPN work. After seeing last week's newly unearthed column from Simmons's AOL Digital City days, a reader sent along another Boston Sports Guy entry rescued from the dustbin of history. If you've got any old Simmons columns lying around, please send them to us. More »
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The late author's profile, written for the now-defunct Play, "constituted a dream pairing of writer and subject" that "still stands as one of the most stirring, illuminating essays ever written about the beauty of sport at its highest level," according to the Grantland introduction provided by Michael MacCambridge. More »
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Before the decade is out, sports will exist only on ESPN. More »
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When Novak Djokovic wakes up tomorrow, he'll be the No. 1 ranked tennis player in the world and the 2011 Wimbledon champion, having defeated tomorrow's No. 2 ranked player Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. More »
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Your morning roundup for July 3, the day after some baby gators proved a mud hole is better than any stop, drop and roll mantra. More »
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Your morning roundup for July 2, the day a few Marines face time in the brig because they married solely for money. More »
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Here's video from when Victoria Azarenka faced Tamira Paszek in the Wimbledon quarterfinals a couple days back. A quick check confirmed that a) Victoria Azarenka and Tamira Paszek are really the names of two tennis players, b) Azarenka won 1 and 3, and c) the Gruntin' Belarusian lost to Petra Kvitova today. More »
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Your morning roundup for June 30, the day the turtles won. Photo via @FortyDeuceTwits. More »
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Over the weekend, Hickey alerted us all to Novak Djokovic's torturous separation from his beloved toy poodle, Pierre. Wimbledon being Wimbledon, toy poodles are (understandably) not allowed on the grounds, and Djokovic was "genuinely upset" not to have his good luck charm nearby all week. More »
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There was a single American remaining in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon this year, and his name was Mardy Fish. His is never a name that inspires confidence or even optimism in tennis fans in the United States, most of whom are still lamenting the retirement of Pete Sampras a decade ago. Fish lost to Rafael Nadal today, as we all confidently predicted he would do, and now there is not a single American remaining at the All England Club. The scarcity has inspired real panic amongst the American tennis cognoscenti, or those who consider themselves to be of the American tennis cognoscenti. It's a familiar panic, because we see it every year. Here's a sampling: More »
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Serena Williams, the two-time defending Wimbledon ladies' champion, was knocked out of contention today with a 6-3, 7-6 loss to Marion Bartoli. Her post-match presser was in stark contrast to the post-match presser that followed her third-round win over Maria Kirilenko on Saturday. One is a happy, triumphant Serena, allowing the media its time to fawn, and one is a sad Serena, eager to get the hell out of the room with the circus tent wall hangings and away from anything resembling a microphone. More »
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Today's New York Times reports from Wimbledon on the sneaky advantage that left-handed tennis players enjoy on grass: More »
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Your morning roundup for June 27, the day this dog made us question if there was any good in the world. Image of Reggie Jackson enjoying retirement via the New York Daily News. More »
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The Brits won't let Novak Djokovic's dog Pierre into the country to watch master play tennis at Wimbledon. This sucks for Novak, whose pooch has a Twitter account and managed to get onto the cover of the July edition of men's Vogue, or L'Uomo Vogue. More »
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After 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli dropped the first set of her match yesterday, she "gestured furiously for her mother and father, who is also her coach, to leave the viewing area in Court 14." More »
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Your morning roundup for June 25, the day Wade Boggs introduces you to Deputy Stanley, a dimwitted yokel who does battle with Swamp Shark. More »
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There is little debate about whether or not Australia's Lleyton Hewitt is in decline; the 30-year-old who was once known for his speed has been suffering through battered knees and a slower step for a few years now. He lost to Robin Soderling in the second round at Wimbledon yesterday, 6-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4, but he looked like a younger self: More »
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We're a bit late on Richard Swarbrick's latest animation: This one, unlike the other work we've seen from him, is appropriately Wimbledon-themed. But it's still worth sharing: he took a single point from a single Wimbledon match and recreated it using racket strings. Of course he did! Swarbrick's inspiration was Tim Henman's diving volleys, which you can watch in non-string form here. More »
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At 78 years old and after 28 years on the job, Dick Enberg is calling his final matches from Wimbledon this year. He'll wrap up his ESPN tennis contract at the US Open in a few months, and then he'll go home to San Diego to call games for the Padres. We're afraid that Enberg might not have the opportunity to tell stories about "bloody blue balls" in baseball, and that he definitely won't have Chris Evert next to him to keep his doddery in check — "I'll leave that one alone" — so we really have to appreciate this national treasure while we can. More »
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This is the moment that tennis has been waiting for: its reluctant female lead in joyful tears after her triumphant return to Grand Slam tennis. The SportsCenter tribute is next. Serena Williams won her first-round match against Arvane Rezai in three sets today, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, and was in tears when the BBC caught up with her for a post-match interview: More »
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A quick primer on SportsFeat: Every day, we post great sports writing from across the web, both new stuff and classics. A companion to Longform.org, the site is designed to be used with services like Instapaper and Read It Later, so you can read the stories later on your phone, iPad or Kindle. You can find our picks at SportsFeat.com, of course-we also send them out via Twitter and RSS. Every Friday, we'll be sharing a group of favorites with Deadspin. Up first: stories about winning and losing at Wimbledon. More »
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Serena Williams knocked off Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round at the Eastbourne Tennis Tournament today, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. There were two very good signs in the scandal-stirrer's first return to professional tennis in over a year: the first was that she won, despite a rough first set, and the second was that she threw a racket and had what we will call a civil conversation with the chair umpire. Any fear that Williams might have lost some of her competitive edge or ability during her twelve-month sabbatical from the sport shouldn't last; as Jon Wertheim pointed out this afternoon, "rust" for the younger Williams (even rust that's built up for so long) "means one bad set." More »
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In sports, everyone is a winner—some people just win better than others. Like unseeded Thiemo De Bakker, who was granted a rare Wimbledon bye by being matched up with the injured, exhausted Isner. More »
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She won her match 6-1, 6-4 over a Romanian woman called Raluca Olaru, who, according to the paper, did not show her fanny. [DailyMail] More »
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Xan Brooks is an editor for The Guardian who was tasked with what would appear to be a pleasant two-week assignment: Live blogging Wimbledon. Then Isner-Mahut happened. Come join him on his descent into hell. More »
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If there's one thing we learned today, it's this: John Isner and Nicolas Mahut have exactly the same amount of tennis skill. But that still doesn't solve the problem of how to end their ridiculous grudge match. More »
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John Isner and Nicolas Mahut are currently mired in a fifth-set 46-46 tie; the match is in its seventh hour. ESPN2 just cut back to the World Cup. Follow the action at SBNation or the Guardian's liveblog. Or turn on ESPNU. More »
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Blake didn't take kindly to ESPN's sideline reporter analyzing his poor play within earshot. So he shared a few thoughts of his own with her. More »
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Yes, we know Wimbledon started yesterday. Did you? Honestly — did you? It doesn't get really interesting until Thursday, anyway, so, shhh. Here's Deadspin's tennis correspondent, the deuce-dropper himself, Dylan Stableford, to let you know what is the what. More »
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Roger Federer dropped his first two sets to something called Alejandro Falla, the 60th ranked player on the tour. Whether it's an epic upset, or an epic comeback, it's worth watching. (UPDATE: Federer won. Of course he did.) [Wimbledon, ESPN2] More »
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In London, sports are sport, Americans are ungracious blokes and Andy Roddick is brave, tenacious, athletic and bloody valorous. So like Hamlet, Othello and Romeo before him, Roddick naturally became the tragic hero in the British writer's five-act narrative arc. More »
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Andy Roddick's one of those athletes whose fame outsizes his accomplishments. He's one of the more successful American tennis players, but in the Roger Era, his on-court record will never put him alongside the greats. More »
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It's Andy Roddick's brother, Oklahoma Sooners head tennis coach John Roddick, getting some not-so-quality face-time. I know it was a long match but he should pack a granola bar just in case he gets hungry. [YouTube] More »
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Got an image you'd like to see in here first thing in the morning? Send it to tips@deadspin.com. Subject: Morning crap More »
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I'm sure we'll see this same picture in, oh, 90 minutes: Roddick once again holding his sad plate standing next to a smirking Federer. If you're the gamblin' sort, a Roddick victory pays out ridiculously. Live that dream.[Fanhouse/NBC] More »
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The women's final at Wimbledon is underway, and it's the Williams sisters meeting in it for the fourth time. Who will win? Who will lose? You'll have to wait (or call Richard Williams) to find out! More »
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Andy Murray is British, so naturally, he's the local favorite at Wimbledon. Hey, that would make for a sappy Rick Reilly video essay, complete with "Das Deutschlandlied," the British national anthem, as background music. More »
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"We were told: 'Go and reverse between these gravestones.' I thought: 'This is very odd'. But we did it and went to Wimbledon." The £20 for parking in a cemetery is split between three charities. How wonderfully macabre. [Ananova] More »
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Interesting story from London's Daily Mail where they get an All England Club spokesman to admit the ladies featured on the hallowed Centre Court aren't necessarily the best players, but they are the best-looking players. More »
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Got an image you'd like to see in here first thing in the morning? Send it to tips@deadspin.com. Subject: Morning crap More »
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