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the grim state of Indian tennis.
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NEW YORK -- Joe Sakic has given Nathan MacKinnon another endorsement to be the first pick in the NHL draft, though the Colorado Avalanche are still listening to trade offers. Authentic Robin Roberts Jersey . Speaking after the board of governors meeting, Colorados executive vice president of hockey operations explained why the team preferred MacKinnon to defenceman Seth Jones, who has ties to Denver. "We believe Seth, hes going to be a good player, as well, a very good defenceman in this league," Sakic said. "When youre picking No. 1, you want to be able to pick what you believe is going to be the best player in the draft. That was why we made that decision." Sakic and head coach/vice president of hockey operations Patrick Roy have repeatedly singled out MacKinnon as their choice at No. 1. Sakic originally told the Denver Post that the Avalanche would pass on Jones in favour of a forward, either MacKinnon, Halifax teammate Jonathan Drouin or Finnish centre Aleksander Barkov. Sakic called this a "deep draft" but said the Avalanche have targeted the player theyre taking. He was then asked about MacKinnon. "I think when you watch Nathan play, hes definitely a skilled guy but hes a powerful skater," Sakic said. "He can play a skill game, but he loves going to the net. He loves going to the hard areas, and hes just a tremendous player." The Avalanche front office being so up-front with the stance of MacKinnon over Jones has raised skepticism about possibly trying to drum up a trade. The Florida Panthers pick second and the Tampa Bay Lightning third. Sakic wouldnt say how Colorados approach is affecting trade talks, if at all. "Obviously when you get closer to draft time, you might receive more calls. Im not too sure," he said. "Were very happy and content with picking first, but if we get some calls, obviously well listen. Right now were excited about making the first selection." Authentic Chase Utley Jersey . The Masters champion and winner of last weeks Australian PGA has a three-round total of 14-under 199 at Royal Melbourne. "Im in a really good position for tomorrow," Scott said. Authentic Mike Schmidt Jersey . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. http://www.cheapphilliesjerseys.us/authentic-darren-daulton-jersey/ ;. Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. Anyone remembers watching The Village? Manoj Shyamalans caper on a mystical settlement intentionally divorced from the modern world. Characters in the film refer to nameless, apparently scary creatures in the nearby woods as Those of whom we do not speak. Shyamalans indulgent offering was unintentionally comical in parts. In a spectacle not dissimilar to the film, Indias premier tennis players have recently indulged in an all-too-familiar interplay. Weve had testy interviews and snarky tweets, and a couple of days of juicy, yet weve-seen-these-before-many-times headlines.We have been told that Those of whom we do not speak are doers of ulterior things, toxic and patriotic with a hashtag.A disclaimer before I go any further. I have known Leander Paes for nearly 20 years. That he is a man to be admired is to state the blindingly obvious. Besides his athletic prowess and unquestioned pedigree, Paes can be charming, humorous and is generally great company. We get along very well and exchanged some very pleasant text messages while he was in Delhi for the Davis Cup.What Paes also is, is very sharp and aware of the world around him. So when he responded to a question about the Rio Olympics at the press conference after his doubles match in the Davis Cup tie against Spain by saying India didnt send their best team to the Games and that he and not Rohan Bopanna should have partnered Sania Mirza in the mixed doubles, he knew exactly the headline storm he would be setting off. Mirza (supposedly) and Bopanna (more directly) responded cryptically via Twitter. A day later, speaking to news agency PTI, Paes let loose an extended tirade, including claims of being hard done by highly jealous competitors who will not achieve what he has in 10 lifetimes.Phew.Professional sportspeople are good at stonewalling questions they do not wish to answer. It is inexplicable why Paes would rewind the clock after the event is over and has ended in another empty-handed outcome. The Olympics question could so easily have been parried with, Thats over now guys, what is the point of flogging a dead horse. Lets focus on other stuff. End of story. Instead Paes stoked a fire and must surely recognise that his assertions wont go unscrutinised once he goes down that pathway.So, lets deal with this mixed doubles business first. Paes makes a logical claim when he says that he won four mixed doubles Grand Slams over the last year and a half before the Olympics and should have been the natural choice. However, a closer look at Mirza and Bopannas run at Rio and you wonder if they were such a dreadful selection? Remember, in their semi-final they led by a set against Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram and were effectively one step away from assuring a medal for themselves. In their previous match they had beaten a team made up of Andy Murray, one of the worlds best players, and Heather Watson, who had won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon less than a month ago. Their first round win had been over Australians Sam Stosur, another Grand Slam winner, and John Peers, a doubles specialist who has been in Grand Slam finals.Now in this semi-final, Williams, a modern great of unquestioned merit, suddenly switched into beast mode after virtually sleepwalking through the first set to turn the tables spectacularly on the Indians. Is Paes implying that had he been Mirzas partner, he would have warded off this burst of spectacular play? Maybe. But maybe not. In the bronze play-off, Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka produced a compelling performance to deny Mirza and Bopanna a place on the podium. Had Paes been around was there any certainty that the Czechs would have been quelled?He knows the answer to those questions is No. Because he knows in sport there are no certainties. Paes needs to look no further than his own chequered Olympic career for evidence. In 2012 in London, he was four years younger and several notches higher in the doubles rankings. Did he and Mirza win a medal? No. They were eliminated in the quarterfinal. If anything, Bopanna and Mirza produced Indias best mixed doubles result in Olympic history by finishing fourth.Paes must also introspect deeper when he makes a proclamation of this kind. While his singles medal from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta was undoubtedly a remarkable feat, isnt it a red mark on his record that despite having played in seven Olympics, a large percentage of those as one of the worlds top-ranked doubles players, he doesnt have a single doubles medal of any colour? It is because there can be days such as the one he and Mahesh Bhupathi encountered in Beijing in 2008 when a red-hot Roger Federer in the company of Stan Wawrinka demolished them in an early round match.Lets explore this further. If the argument of best teams is premised on having won Grand Slam titles in the same category of late, then why was Paes okay with the decision to split the pairing of Bhupathi and Mirza so she could play with him in London? Only months ago, Bhupathi and Mirza had won the mixed doubles title at the French Open and had won the Australian Open in 2009. Now surely, they too could argue wwhat more did we have to do to be nominated as Indias entry for those Games? Would it be a fair assessment all these years later that splitting them up caused India to miss out on a certain medal? No. Authentic Drew Hutchison Jersey. Because in sport, as Paes knows, there are no certainties.Give this a little more thought. For the sake of argument, and only that, could Bopanna also use the best team wasnt sent argument to blame his first round loss in the mens doubles in Paes company? Remember, having earned the right to pick his partner by finishing in the top-10 in the world rankings by the cut-off date for Rio, Bopanna requested for Saketh Myneni not Paes. In his communication to the All India Tennis Association (AITA), Bopanna said Mynenis game is more compatible with his but that plea was rejected. Now, having watched Myneni put in a strong performance against Rio gold medallists Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez the other night in Delhi, would it be a good look if Bopanna held a press conference immediately after saying, See what I meant? Saketh is a such a good doubles player. In my opinion the best team wasnt sent to Rio. Had that happened we wouldnt have lost in the first round.That would be downright silly, wouldnt it? Hindsight, as an enduring sporting cliché goes, is a wonderful thing. All that matters is the here and now. Paes and Bopanna went. They lost. End of story.It can be contested till the cows come home but to pick Mirza and Bopanna for the mixed doubles wasnt a move destined to fail. They had a good record playing together having done well in tournaments such as the Hopman Cup and the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL). As an ad-court player, Bopanna complimented Mirza who is a natural deuce court player. They shared a strong off-court chemistry too, which clearly isnt the case with Mirza and Paes. And lets be honest, they played well in Rio and were within a set of a spot in the gold medal match. It ended in tears but, hey, this is sport. There are no certainties.This soap operatic frequent return to pugilism via the media has quite frankly become rather tiresome. Watching the Indian team operate closely in Rio was a stark insight into the shambles of their equation with each other. To begin with Paes arrived just a couple of days before his first match, making team captain Zeeshan Ali throw his hands up in exasperation. Once Bopanna and Paes exited, despite the presence of Mirzas womens doubles partner Prarthana Thombare in Rio, not once did Paes join up with her to help Bopanna and Mirza practise for their upcoming mixed doubles campaign. A member of the Paes camp would tell us he had been clearly asked to stay away, while a member of the Mirza-Bopanna camp would say Paes hadnt bothered to offer his services. These were three individuals simply unwilling to communicate among each other!Now as the headlines subside, life can go back to normal. Bopanna and Mirza are back on tour with their regular partners, hoping to end the season on a high. Paes, whose ranking has now slipped into the 60s, is gamely marching on despite being 43 years old. He will play in the lower divisions of the circuit, hope to climb back up the rankings and find a regular partner. On the evidence of how he played in Delhi against Nadal and Lopez, it is clear that he isnt a spent force just yet and there is a verve and bustle that is still very much part of his game. It has been a wretched couple years for Paes, with personal problems including his daughters illness, and confronting those while playing on this hugely demanding circuit is undoubtedly difficult.He is right to proclaim that he has earned his place in the higher echelons of the game and if a young player wishes to depose him, he has to do so on the tennis court. If a 47-year-old Paes is in the reckoning for Tokyo in four years time, mock him all you will, but it will be a telling commentary on the grim state of Indian tennis. At the end of his final in Rio, I asked Abhinav Bindra, who had missed a medal by an agonisingly close margin, if he would reconsider his decision to retire from shooting and maybe attempt a go at Tokyo in four years time?I am someone who believes in giving the next guy a chance, he replied. If I am not winning, I should move on.Not all sportsmen are cut from the same cloth. And there is no reason for Paes not to aspire to another shot at Olympic glory if he so chooses. His sport is an individual pursuit and if he is willing to commit himself to the rigour and show up for competition against much younger players on equal terms, he has every right to target that goal. But as a legend of modern Indian sport, there is nothing to be gained by raking up bygones, where despite what he or those close to him may believe, he isnt entirely blameless.With the dust settled on another sordid punch-up, all that has happened is followers of Indian sport have entertained themselves by interpreting tweets and chuckling at stories about those horrible people of Whom we do not speak. Wholesale Jerseys 2019 Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale NFL Womens Jerseys China NFL Jerseys White NFL Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys ' ' '
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