Aesthetic Olympics

 As I'm sure you're all aware I love the olympics. And this year's event in London is no exception.   Now I'll get to the serious sports commentary bit later but first I've been inspired by Cosmopolitan's frankly shocking list of the hottest athletes at this year's games and I decided I could do a way better job myself.

Happy International Women's day

Once again its International Women's Day so here at Sports Wall we'd once again like to fly the flag for feminism and salute all the wonderful women making sports great.Firstly Hope Solo- She's beautiful, she's badass and she's absolutley brilliant at what she does. The ultimate women's day girl crush.
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva - She's a World Junior Champion, Youth Olympics Gold medallist and she won two Grand Prix titles on her debut. And she's only 15. Phenomenal.
Eva Carneiro - You may not know they name but you would certainly recognise her if you saw her. She's the lovley lady who sits next to the manager on the Chelsea bench. She's their first team doctor you see. Again she's gorgeous but more importantly she strikes a blow for girls in a male dominated industry and is so inspirational that we all just wish we were her.
Kim Clijsters - She retired for two years then when she came back she became the first wildcard and unseeded player to win the US open. Then she defended her title the next year. Then she won the Australian Open in 2011 to become world number one. And she's the (joint) most successful mummy in tennis history.
Caster Semenya - She won the 800m gold medal at the World Athletics Championships at aged 18. But the reason that we love her and the reason she is the perfect inspirational woman for women's day is the grace and dignity with she handled what must be every girl's worst nightmare. And for coming back and proving them all wrong and winning a silver medal at the 2011 Worlds. She's a wonderful example of courage and strength and I can't think of better slogan for Women everywhere than her very own "God made me the way I am and I accept myself." Right on Caster.
Happy Women's Day to all the kick ass ladies worldwide.

Happy Valentine's Day

It's that time of year again everyone. It's Valentine's day! And once again the boys of Sports Wall are on hand to bring you a handy guide to the art of love. There are many ways to catch the eye of the object of your affections,



perhaps buy a card or gift?



maybe buy a snazzy new outfit?

 You could call up your wing man

you could try some gentle flirting

you could get romanticor get a little more 'intense'

or maybe you could go all out and re-enact a scene from their favourite movie?

Whatever you do Ruth's Sports Wall wishes you a happy boy love day.

Aussie Rules baby

New Year means of course the Aussie open, and this year the drama and excitement have begun early. The other day I watched Lleyton Hewitt playing Cedrik-Marcel Stebe. In terms of intensity Lleyton never disappoints. It was a hard fought five setter with the momentum swinging between the two players. He's just fascinating to watch with the way he engages the crowd and the atmosphere was electric with all his aussie fans singing the roof off the arena. He came through battling and some of the shots were just great. Plus now he plays Andy Roddick which I think will be a hell of a match in terms of atmosphere with both of them no doubt yelling and glaring up a storm. Then today there was another dramatic five setter featuring the king of dramatic five setters David Nalbandian. I really have a soft spot for good old Dave, partially I think because he's been going quite a while and he's a player I've watched a lot so I've gotten quite attached to him. And he's a very stylish player to watch, he jsut comes up with stunning shots out of nowhere. I'm sure most of you are aware of what happened at the end of the match but to recap John Isner had a serve called as an ace and David wanted to challenge but the umpire decided he couldn't because he had signalled too late. Cue rage. Personally I felt like the poor guy got a raw deal because that essentially blew the rest of his game as it happened at 8-8 and pretty much directly caused him to lose focus and the match. Its kind of ridiculous that he wasn't allowed to challenge as I can't count the amount of times a tennis player has gone to inspect the ball mark on the court before challenging so to say he took too long is not really good enough. So I'm in camp Nalbandian on this one.
PS: (Desperately trying not to jinx it) Sports Wall favourite Feliciano 'Flic' Lopez has progressed to round three. Fingers crossed for tv coverage. Come on Eurosport do us a favour.

Service with a smile

There was a big big reason to celebrate here at HQ yesterday. Wimbledon, third round, Centre Court....picture it. Feliciano Lopez steps out onto court against Andy Rodick, a player he's lost to seven times,, including reecently at Queen's. Then...BOOM...Ace. A pattern begins. But not just a pattern of big serves, a pattern of some beautiful volleying and exquisite passing shots. Flic is ON his game today. Then sudddenly he's making the eighth seed look very ordinary in the first set tiebreak. Then it happens again in the second tiebreak. In the third set the damn breaks and so does Flic. It's glorious, fist-pumping, vamos-ing, hair shaking glorious. I could not be prouder. I've been supporting Flic for a long time, since number 90 in the world to be precise, but his ranking has never mattered to me, its his game in  all its flowing aesthetic glory. In full flow he's a beautiful sight to behold, he has awonderful languid grace to all his movements and i could honestly write reams about how gorgeous his tennis strokes are. Another highlight of Flic's match was the commentary of the man, the legend Boris Becker. He's fast becoming a favourite a HQ with his left-field remarks. The other day, one of his fellow commentators pointed out Noel Fielding in the crowd, to which Boris promptly responded "the guy in the middle? That's not a woman?!" Then during Flic's match he began musing to himself about the state of Andy Roddick's nails, reasoning that biting them that far down must hurt. The piece de resistance came when he spotted Roddick's wife (a swim wear model, who's been in Sports Illustrated.) His thoughts? "Anyone seen the swimsuit issue? (pause) I HAVE!" Genius.

A good vintage

Something unusual has happened at HQ. I've been watching Wimbledon this week and the most affecting match I've watched and the one that has moved me to blog was on the women's side of the draw. Yes you read that right, there's a wave of feminism going on here at Sports Wall. And its all because of Kimiko Date-Krumm. Mrs Date-Krumm was Venus Williams' second round opponent at SW19 this week. Normally everybody would be commenting on the fact that she is ranked number 57 in the world and Venus is a multiple Wimbledon champion. But there's something else everyone was commenting on. Kimiko Date Krumm is forty years old. She turned pro in 1989. I'll put that in context for you all, that's the year I was born. She retired in 1996 and came back in 2008. That in itself is inspiring. But watching her in the match was something else. Her athleticism was amazing and her shot making ability was absolutely sublime, her ability to change her game to suit the moment was so impressive. It was a display of proper vintage tennis. She pushed Venus Williams all the way eventually going down with a more than creditable score of 7-6, 3-6, 8-6. I hope her match was as inspiring to all the aspiring tennis players out there as it was to me. What a fantastic example she's setting for us all, Kimiko we salute you.

Post-Season Break

Big early morning greetings to everyone from Newcastle Airport. That's right I'm out of HQ for a holiday. Where are you going, I hear you ask. Well I'm going to the beautiful home of all things Calcio. Ruth's Sport's Wall is decamping to Bella Italia for a little break. So if things are quiet for a few days that's why. Anyway, the football season ended on a little high with justice prevailing and Barcelona (and football) winning the champions league against Manchester United. Also football triumphed in the Premier League with Wigan staying up instead of Birmingham's anti-football. I've been watching more of the French Open, in particular Mr Nadal, who I must say is starting to look more assured as he progresses. I also enjoyed the endurance clash between my favourite catalan lion David Ferrer and Baby G Monfils. Five sets of showpiece tennis, get in. Now we're down to the serious part and I'm hoping to catch some of it on Italian TV. I'm pretty sure they show Moto GP there as they might have a rider or two in the championship. Anyway, ciao for now

F for fabulous at the French

One of my favourite sporting events has come round again this week. Its time for the red clay of Roland Garros and that means one thing; the French open. I think I had forgotten (only slightly) how much I actually enjoy watching tennis. Its beenn  a cracking tournament so far. The first match I watched was Roger Federer's opener against  Feliciano Lopez. If you've seen any of this blog before you'll know that this was entirely because of Flic Lopez and literally nothing to do with Roger. Flic is an absolute aesthetic dream, he has a beautiful, graceful languid quality to his movements. He brings out the 'Death in Venice' in me he really does- I read the book recently and adored it, I totally identify with so much in thhat noveel. Anyway, point is he's a wonderful player to watch. Unfortunatley he didn't win but that doesn't mean I  didn't enjoy it. I always enjoy watching hima nd cheering him on whatever the result. For some reason I feel the need to be a lot more vocal when watching Feliciano and I yell at the TV during near enough every point in his matches. Luckily HQ was empty yesterday so I didn't look like a total loon. I also watched Rafael Nadal's first round match which was a lot closer and more worrying than  I'm used to from him. As we speak I'm watching his second round match which the eurosport commentator (male) has pronounced 'F for fabulous.' I have to agree. There's been some breathtaking shots from both him and his opponent, particularly at the net and this third set is turning into a hell of a contest. I caught two of my favouritte players in action briefly too; firstly Gael 'Baby G' Monfils. I love his all action, mission impossible style of tennis and how wonderfully expressive he can be (those eyes!) Secondly David Ferrer. I love the sheer energy this man has, I love how he prowls on the baseline like a sexy Spanish lion and I love his fiery temperament. And you know, he's a real hard-working professional. Ahem.
It hasn't all been boy-watching. Unusually for me, I tuned in to the women's competition too and watched Kim Clijsters. I like Kim. I have a lot of respect for her and she seems a classy lady. Unfortunatley she lost today. Oh well back to the boys then.

A horrendous hat-trick

A stark contrast to a couple of weekends ago when everything went right. This weekend everything went wrong. Sporting wise. First up was Moto GP and while there were positives such as Valentino's first Ducati podium and lovely Dovi on the podium, there was an incident which overshadowed the joy somewhat. Dani had a little duel with Simoncelli which he came out of worse and crashed. His collarbone is broken. Poor baby Dani has only just recovered from breaking the left side of his collarbone. Now he's broken the right. It just never ends for the poor guy. I wish him all the very best in his recovery because as you all know HQ is very firmly Dani territory. Then came the Arsenal match. A 2-1 loss to Aston Villa. Robbed doesn't cover it. A stonewall penalty denied. A perfectly good goal denied for no apparent reason. Bookings and red cards not issued. Ridiculous. On the plus side Robin got fighty which is always a highlight. Then to complete the hat-trick, Rafael Nadal lost the Rome final to Novak Djokovic. What a weekend.

Tennis News- Flic's big day

More exciting sports news from this week. Last weekend Feliciano Lopez reached the final of the Serbia open. He didn't win it, but we still feel like its worthy of celebration. He's been one of my very favourite sports people for some years now after I watched one of his US open matches and was just bowled over by how charming he is and how entertaining he is to watch. I follow his results very closely and to see him get in a final is fantastic. So there you have it. We love you Flic! Congratulations.

source

International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day! Happy Women's day everyone. Since this blog is pretty boy-centric usually and since of course it is run by a woman, I decided that today on Sports Wall we're going to pay tribute to some of the fantastic ladies making sports great.

Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's day. Not sure how to celebrate? Allow the boys of Sports Wall to show you how......

More Sporting Thoughts

I'm thinking of making this one a regular feature.
I've been shamefully behind on my football watching of late and I've finally caught up. I watched Match of the Day this morning and the first half of the Leeds match which I missed. Good stuff all round. I was particularly impresed with Arsenal's play at the weekend which had all the hallmarks of the beautiful football us gooners are often spoiled with. Also it made me realise something I'd left off the list of things I love about Robin van Persie. The way that man moves is pure poetry in motion. The shaping of his body when he takes a free kick or a curling shot is remarkable. Its amazing how elegant he is, every single part of him seems to align and each time you could take a perfect snapshot of it. I loved the Leeds match for another reason. It was exciting end to end stuff and extremely competitive which although occasionally stressful is still a great thrill. And even though the last Arsenal goal was greeted with unbridled joy at HQ I did still feel bad for poor Kasper Schmeichel. He's absolutley adorable and seeing him sitting huddled in the net looking for all the world like a little boy lost did tug at my heartstrings.
On the tennis front we've lost some of our harem in Oz. Marcos Baghdatis is out, as is Baby G. So we're left with three Spaniards flying the flag. We're going to cheer on Tommy Robredo for all we're worth against Roger 'Beige' Federer. However we're going to lose one of our boys as our catalan lion David Ferrer takes on the one and only Rafa in one of the other quarter fianls. Honestly I can hardly bear to watch. Divided loyalties does not even cover it.
And finally as massive congrats to the lady lineswoman who officaited Liverpool's game on Sunday and by all accounts did a bang up job. We wholeheartedly support the cause for more ladies in the game. We're first in line. And good luck to the Arsenal tonight. I know we can do it.

FA Cup and Aussie updates

Fourth round people. What a match the other night, the magic of the cup indeed. The boys were absolutely fantastic, they knocked it out of the park and really made me proud. Samir Nasri was superlative, that goal was an absolute peach. And Bacary Sagna. Now I've elucidated on my love for Bac before and once again he's come through with a cracker of a goal and that beautiful smile of his. I've often complained about the FA cup fixture list but five trophyless years have made me warm to it a little. Funny that.
Now to Australia. Our slam chasing matador is through to the third round. Unfortunately Flic has fallen at the second hurdle which robs us of the posibility of a bromantic showdown with Rafa. David Ferrer has prowled his way through (rawrrrrrr.) And Marcos Baghdatis and Baby g are progressing. Wahey.
Now a treat to conclude the post. Carrying on the Emmanuel Eboue theme from the other daay, here's another one of his great moments. 3-2-1 Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhtttttttttssssssss

Some Sporting thoughts

Two in two I'm on a roll.
We have my return to uni to thank for the sudden proliferation in blog posts. I have an hour free before classes and nothing to fill it so its a perfect time to look after my baby.
Just a few random thoughts today. I managed to catch the Australian open this afternoon which was fun. As I'm sure you all know by now I'm a big tennis fan so obviously I try to catch as much of the grand slams as i can. I think I'm a bit remiss on my tennis posts on this blog especially given how often I look at results so I'm going to make a conscious effort to give more love to the tennis playing members of our little harem. I was lucky with the match I caught as well as one of my favourite players was playing. It was Lleyton Hewitt vs David Nalbandian and when I saw the draw I thought this had the potential to be a cracker and oh boy did those boys deliver. I love Lleyton. He's one of the most dedicated sportsmen in the entire world and to describe him as passionate would be an understatement. What I like about Lleyton is his fighting spirit and how you can never ever count him out now matter how impossible the situation is. He's a little firecracker which always goes down well at HQ and today was no exception. Our particular favourite from today was his declaration of "it was WIDE" with a glare that could cut through about a foot of steel. Unfortunately our little Aussie rocket was beaten in a four hour epic by David Nalbandian. Nine Seven in the fifth. man that is a way to go down. Hats off to you. I do have a lot of time for nalbandian though he's a classy player and its nice to see him back in the top thirty after a lengthy injury absence. A HUGE congratulatory shout out to Feliciano Lopez or Flic as he's known around these parts for making the second round. His presence in any tournament just brightens our day. We're also keeping an eye on Baby G Monfils, Gonzo and David Ferrer. And of course the one and only Rafa.
Some Calcio thoughts for you all. I'm thinking of making my Serie A musings a regular occurence given my obsession with it. I managed to watch Juventus v Napoli last week and a Roma match whose opponents escape me. Anyway. I love the drama of Italian football, all the yelling and gesticulating. I love how they challenge every call. In that spirit I've decided to bring more Serie A flavour to my life. I'm hoping to shrug more and gesticulate to make my point clearer, in crucial moments I'm going to ask myself "What would Pippo do?"
And a treat to finish off. I recalled a special special moment from the end of the Arsenal/Man City game the other week. At the end of the match Emmanuel Eboue strolled his way onto the pitch. He was dressed as what I can only describe as "a space pimp." Your eyes do not deceive you that picture is real. On anyone else this would look absolutley ludicrous but personally I think our Emmanuel is totally working that. Outlandish suits him. That or the fluoro has warped my eyes.

Harem Watch- US Open Tennis

Time to check in with all the tennis boys setting hearts aflutter here at sports wall towers. As we speak I'm watching THE big match, the clash of my titans Rafael Nadal vs Feliciano Lopez. A hugely anticipated match in my household as Rafael Nadal has been my favourite tennis player for years now and the object of my crazy attentions throughout various tennis seasons. Feliciano 'Flic' Lopez is the most frequent and vigorous (ahem) challenger to Rafa's domination of my affections since I discovered him about five years ago at world number 90 and on hugely entertaining form. Now he's at about 23 in the world, much to my unbounded joy and I do as much as I can to convert anyone who'll listen (seriously there's a little pocket of people in North East England who are ridiculously well informed about Flic.)
Other news from Flushing Meadows: Gael "Baby G" Monfils beat Richard Gasquet (a former harem member) and now plays Novak Djokovic.
David Ferrer (rawrrrr) unfortunately lost to underwear model Fernando Verdasco, remained sexily angrily and dignified while doing so.
Tommy Robredo was unfortunately beaten by Mikhail Youzhny yesterday, adding him to the list of Harem members I have seen criminally little of during this tournament. Others include Juan Carlos "JC" Ferrero- out in round three and Marcos Baghdatis and Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez in round one. Also honorary harem members Kei Nishikori, Lleyton Hewitt, David Nalbandian, Ernests Gulbis and Jeremy Chardy also exited fairly early.