The 1st Thread For 9/11/12: No Longer Anyone's Joke.......Again

My phone died out two points away from the greatest non-Olympic day in British tennis history, so that is why I went silent last night on Twitter.

Murray really almost blew this match that he should have won in straights, because he basically blew every other lead imaginable in the encounter.

The Scot blew two break leads in the first set, and couldn't covert on four set points in the 1st set tiebreak before winning the set on the 5th chance of asking. He blew the 4-0 lead inexplicably in set two, and he almost blew his two sets to none lead with a dreary 4th set. Nevertheless, he quickly erased the thoughts of suffering an insufferable choke away quickly by breaking Djokovic so forcefully in the crucial opening game of the final set.

Great to see how stoic Ivan Lendl was to the end, and Murray shall be #1 in the near future. He played exceptionally well in Tokyo and Shanghai last year, will have everyone in London behind him of course at the Tour finals, and will be so confident going into Australia in January.

Once again, Andy Murray is no one's joke ever again.

The Update Stuff:

Jon Wertheim really is tremendous in his 50 thoughts post-US Open edition, especially when addressing how Patrick McEnroe, who he considers a friend, has just royally embarrassed himself this year as a commentator and as a key executive figure with the USTA.

We've been beating the "Conflicts of interests are holding back the sport" drum -- it's a big drum; a bass drum; actually more like an oil drum -- for a while now. It didn't take long to get an unseemly example. On the very first night of play, Donald Young played Federer in the Monday prime-time match. The notion of the McEnroe brothers commenting on Donald Young is akin to letting the Van Gundy brothers commentate on Dwight Howard's first game as a Los Angeles Laker. (If not Roger Goodell reviewing Jonathan Vilma's BBQ restaurant.) Simply waaaaay too much personal history there. As one Canadian journalist tweeted right away: "PMac doing a DYoung match one of those incestuous tennis things that should never happen. 2hr platform to rip him w/o defence. #cantlisten."

 But more troublesome still: As in corporate America, conflicts and coziness and cronyism have the effect of undermining accountability, stunting growth and corroding the culture. The USTA's spotty record in harvesting tennis talent is a major story, one that profoundly affects the future of the sport. Maybe it's ineptitude and profligate spending. Maybe it's the fundamentally flawed structure of the USTA. Maybe -- and I put most of my chips here -- it's a function of globalization and demographics and a worldwide talent pool of unprecedented depth. Regardless, this issue is worthy of critical examination and inquiry. And ESPN, with its resources and platform, ought to be leading the charge.

 You have got to read his entire post, tennis fan or non-tennis fan. It speaks to just the fundamental overall problem when America lets its corporations run the show with no rules for them to adhere to. Again, here's a 2nd link to it.

Another hilarious post from the great John Koblin, as CBS did give full coverage to the men's final well into primetime. Despite the new season of new episodes not starting yet, fans of "How I Met Your Mother" were really angry about tennis being on still.

Also, I think me and my sister are the only black fans of the show, based on how the demographics of those on Twitter voicing their displeasure that tennis was preventing them from watching their favorite show were all white in Koblin's funny write up.

And a great mashup of the British papers for Murray's famous win, from the Slice Tweets:

And that was your Andy Murray/Novak Djokovic tennis dominated edition of "The 1st Thread" today for September 11, 2012.