australian open, week one

With the 2011 tennis season officially underway, I've been enjoying reading about and watching daily highlights from Australian Open (try as I might, I cannot seem to coordinate my schedule with the live matches on espn3.com and am thus forced to watch re-runs of matches and highlight reels. That said, the latter does a fine job of condensing 3+ hour matches into a more feasible 3-5 minute duration; leaving plenty of time to do other things [like blog about my fondness for tennis]). With another week of top-notch tennis until the champions are crowned, the level of play thus far has been outstanding. Per usual, Nadal and Federer are all playing well (despite some level of injury). Although it might not (yet) be his time to shine, the entirety of the British Commonwealth has its collective hopes and prayers resting on the shoulders of Andy Murray. Good news for them, he appears physically fit and mentally prepared (despite a few McEnroe-esque outbursts/looks of disgust/disappointment; but they're minimal when compared to previous tournaments). In the women's draw, Wozniacki and Clijsters look impressively strong. And just earlier today, Francesca Schiavone beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in a record shattering 4 hours, 44 minutes marathon match. All of this aside, here is the best video highlight from week one of the year's first Grand Slam...

gentlemen and the essence of cycling

In the event that the new über team - Leopard Trek - fails to win as expected (and let's be realistic, their coterie of supercyclists must be considered protagonists in every race the team enters), they are at the very least doing wonders for the image of cyclists (professional and otherwise). With an effortless grace these gentlemen achieve what so many others feign and posture to convey.* All of the panache with none of the pretension. I for one am excited to watch Cancellara, Voigt, Fuglsang, the Schleck brothers, and the rest of "true racing" Leopard-Trek animate races throughout 2011. Kudos to you gentlemen.

Team Leopard Trek stop for a mid-ride coffee somewhere on the beautiful

island of Mallorca (photo courtesy of Robert Wagner @ http://twitpic.com/3o5gv8).

* Whereas another group of far more demoniacal and diabolical cheaters (not to name names or place blame, but use your imagination [or the internet] to scour doping headlines from the past few years) just don't give a damn, sullying the sport and embarrassing its advocates.