My Profile » Discussions


anting to limit Cals chances an

  • August 7, 2019
    TORONTO -- After a gutsy day of comeback tennis,?Grigor Dimitrov?has a twinkle in his eyes. This was supposed to be the?season the formerly eighth-ranked Bulgarian, who entered the Rogers Cup at No. 48, rediscovered his shot-making.Instead, it had become the one in which he dumped a match in Istanbul by racket-smashing his way to a DQ -- and otherwise twisted himself in knots.But right now all that feels, if not far away, at least not of the moment. In the space of a few hours Monday, the 25-year-old came back from nearly getting ousted by a Japanese challenger in his first-round match at the Rogers Cup to giving a surprisingly spirited aerial show with his doubles partner, Stan Wawrinka.Advancing past the first round of a non-Grand Slam event shouldnt have a revelatory feeling. But it does for Dimitrov, not least because of the way he did it -- breaking down the suddenly bewildered Yuichi Sugita, who was three points from winning in a second-set tiebreaker.After a half hours rest, Dimitrov came back, moved to a side court and, with only a handful of people watching, made aerial shots like the one where he leaped up on the ad side at net, twisted his body to adjust to a drive into his gut, and then moved his racket like a lead guitarist to redirect the ball sideways and low across the net so it kicked off the tape of the forehand doubles alley. Epic, was how he described it.These are the kind of matches I need to play now, Dimitrov said. Ive been working very hard, even though Ive had bad results.Expectations have always been high for Dimitrov, who was dubbed Baby Fed from the moment he came on to the scene, fair or not.I had a little burden all my life with Rogers thing, comparing me and all that, Dimitrov said 24 hours before the Swiss shut down his season to further rehab his knee. It started when I was a junior, and it didnt help. Didnt help at all. Ive been dealing with this all my career so far.Thank God thats all behind me.Dimitrov says hes done rebelling against comparisons.At some point in your life, he said, you need to sit down and say, What do I want to do? How do I want to be remembered? Whats my legacy? And whats important to me? This is the type of conversation I had with myself. Its very hard to look at the man in the mirror. Because you cant hide anything. I think, for me, OK, there were a lot of things I had to say to myself and accept.Digging himself out of the first round of the Rogers Cup doesnt qualify as career breakthrough -- not when his contemporary and Canadas hometown star, Milos Raonic, is coming off a Wimbledon final. But its a start.So are the Olympics.Unlike several of his fellow millennials, who dont see the sense of competing in an event that doesnt get them rankings points, Dimitrov sees another way to get his groove -- if not his gravitas -- back. Maybe more importantly, hes trying to rediscover how to have fun.In London, I didnt even get the chance to go to the village, Dimitrov said. Im going in the village now, so Im excited.The twinkle is back, in the eyes of a new man. Fake Air Max 90 From China . PAUL, Minn. Fake Shoes . Cuban testified Thursday that he was upset when the companys CEO told him news that would reduce the value of his shares, for which hed paid $7.5 million. But he said he did nothing improper when he sold those shares over the next two days. http://www.fakeairmax90.com/ . Louis Blues teammates who would also be participating in the Olympics, Alex Pietrangelo felt right at home, no different in some ways to the travel experience of any old road trip – save for the length of the journey, that is. Cheap Fake Air Max 90 . LOUIS -- Rookie Tavon Austin has missed another day of practice, lessening the odds hell be ready for the St. Fake Air Max 90 2019 . The Croatian served 21 aces and hit 42 winners against Sijsling, who double-faulted to give Cilic a 4-3 lead in the deciding set. "All the players, they know me and they were really happy to see me and they were really happy that this is over for me," Cilic said. BERKELEY, Calif. -- With the clock running down and the game on the line, California coach Sonny Dykes trusted his much-maligned defense to deliver.The defense responded with six stops from inside the 10 to seal the win.James Looney stopped Zach Moss from the 1-yard line on the final play of the game to give the Golden Bears their second straight home win against a ranked opponent, 28-23 over No. 18 Utah on Saturday.Im really proud of our defensive players, Dykes said. Those guys have taken a lot of criticism from people. The good thing is they didnt listen to it. They kept working and kept getting better.Dykes declined to use any of his three timeouts late in the game as Utah (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) drove for a possible winning score, believing a defense that has struggled to stop opponents all season could come up with one key stand for Cal (3-2, 1-1).Im glad Coach Dykes put the faith in us, Looney said. He always has. Its not like its a new thing. He just told us to go out there and play. He knew we were playing well and he put his faith in us and we came through.The Utes had a first-and-goal at the 9 with about 2 minutes left. Dykes considered starting to use timeouts to save time for his high-powered offense that had built the lead behind four TD passes from Davis Webb but decided against it.A pair of short runs and a sack, left the Utes facing a fourth down, but a pass interference in the end zone against Marloshawn Franklin Jr. with 14 seconds gave Utah three more shots from the 2.Moss ran for 1 yard on first down, Troy Williams threw an incomplete pass on second down before Looney ended the game by wrapping up Moss before he even got back to the line of scrimmage.I had a chance to make a play, it was my play to make and I made it, Looney said. It was about time. I need to make those. Im a leader of this defense and I need to make those plays.That set off a wild celebration for Cal and sent the Utes home in disappointment following their first conference loss.A tough ggame to lose but proud of our guys for how they hung in there and fought back, just like weve done many times previously in the season, Utes coach Kyle Whittingham said.dddddddddddd Were just one play away there.THE TAKEAWAYUtah: The Utes came into the game wanting to limit Cals chances and did just that by running 97 plays on offense and holding the ball for 42:01. Utah had a 21-play scoring drive in the first half that took 9:08 and kept Webb off the field.We didnt want to get into a scoring contest with them, Whittingham said. Thats their MO, thats not our MO, and thats exactly how it went down is we did not let that happen.California: The Bears were not their usual selves on offense as they struggled to run the ball and went more than 30 minutes of game time with just one first down. But Webb was good enough the rest of the game, throwing for 306 yards and a pair of scoring strikes to Chad Hansen and Demetris Robertson to give Cal the win.TIMEOUT DISPUTE: A key factor on the final drive was a disputed timeout by Utah. With the clock stopped with 14 seconds left, the officials granted the Utes a timeout they said they never called. By using the teams second timeout there, Utah felt forced to throw on second down from the 1 because it was out of timeouts and Whittingham wanted to make sure he had three shots at the end zone.It limited how many times we couldve run the football, thats what it did, Whittingham said. That was a huge factor.POLL IMPLICATIONSThe Utes will likely fall out of the poll following their first loss of the season, while the Bears will need to do more work to get into the rankings for the first time this year.UP NEXTUtah: The Utes return home to take on Arizona next Saturday.California: The Bears seek their first road win when they travel to Oregon State on Saturday.---AP college football website: collegefootball.ap.org ' ' '