I have been pondering this question for a time now. :) Not that I don’t have much else to nurture in my fertile mind, like love, relationships, money, jobs, climate change, late bus service etc, but there is the occasional need to let it rip…right off my chest. So, could you be so kind as to lend me your ear drums to bang on for a bit :P ; or in this case your mental faculties for a tete a tete.

My pet peeve is :blink: with this idea of fairness in sport. You always hear the stewards saying, ‘yeah well we want to create a level playing field’, “not to disadvantage any player”… but you probably know that is a bunch **** .

Equal prize money for men and women in tennis. Yeah, it seems so politically correct when one set plays a best of 5 and the other a best 3 and gets paid the same. Does the Women’s slam games provide some extra hidden pleasure that I am unaware of :unsure: . Probably for the male fans and the few emm..lesbian types… But the same can be said for females who savour the men’s game and the few gay blokes as well. So why not pay more for the entertainment pleasure there as well.

Many consider the sport to be an elitist one by its very nature. Expensive graphite racquets, tennis balls, travelling expenses, shoes clothes..Yup!…. :rolleyes: so maybe they need the money. But how come those very much affiliated with the american market earn more money as athletes than else where. Should they be competing on the same level, when they can easily afford the best physio, training, facilities, nutrition, etc?

Don’t even get me started on the nutritional aspects because it is one of the most troublesome areas. Should an athlete in the U.S, eating a specially crafted energy balanced diet and popping all kinds of vitamin pills compete with say, some Asian or African without access to such nutritional gems? It’s even worse when your beloved officially approved pills make you fall foul of the law :wacko: . Case in point, Greg Rusedski, taking ATP approved supplements and his reward, banned nandrolone by products….Hmm
I even wonder if the ATP approved stuff works the same for everybody, cos even if it improved his performance by say 30% one could argue that it is worth the collateral damage. But Alas….. :) Greg the tennis player himself is actually a whole story for some other time…

:coffee: And who can forget Guillermo Coria (not for his hottest wife on tour) but his subsequent ban for taking vitamin pills and nandrolone shenanigans. Coria did sue the US drug company after his case was thrown out because he could not get endorsements anymore. Mind you the guy is not American, so any endorsements that he had were precious :( . Apparently they have settled the case with him out of court.

Threats of litigation have always been one way to try to standardize many things in our competitive world; and none more so than the Fifa ban (recently relaxed) on playing soccer at high altitudes.
This I think was myopic :tsk: . Ecuador, Bolivia etc, are naturally, nature induced high altitude nations. So if you find your soccer players out of breathe after just 45 mins is it their fault. Does that mean they should be banned from playing up there? Now if they come downstairs to play, wouldn’t they have more stamina ..is it still fair? Much the same with Kenyan long distance runners training at high altitude.. :shrug: Doesn’t it give them more stamina at sea level road races…so would I be on an equal footing with them in a London or Boston Marathon.

Speaking of stamina, not all women are cut form the same cloth, so some have more issues than others during that special time of the month. What if I were to fall into that category :blush: , consequently experience a heavy flow. That is my energy source passing away :rolleyes: . It will take a lot more from me to play well and win matches, is that really fair or am I doomed to never be a top player…This actually brings to mind Sesil Karatantcheva. What if she actually took the said drugs to deal with an unwanted pregnancy at such a crucial stage in her career and development? Couldn’t there have been flexible provisions for this…should she choose one, pregnancy or career? …Unfortunately, Sesil’s own brash personality doesn’t earn her any sympathies.

But my sympathies actually went out to :hug: Kuznetsova, for that public outing by the Belgian authorities for testing positive for some banned thing. Shamefully , it was an exhibition tournament, she was taking cold medicine…and was only her first sample. Evidently, As an athlete who is perhaps dehydrated or low body weight or takes a higher dose than they're allowed to, the advantages of ephedrine are going to be as a stimulant drug. It will improve reflexes, hand-eye coordination and have an effect of increasing heart rate. So it's a stimulant drug; it's a go-fast drug. Trigger happy officials….
Alicia Molik put it rather succinctly :ok: …. “There's absolutely nothing wrong with anything that she's done. I saw the papers and I read the front page, and I bought every single newspaper in the convenience store and threw them away - that's how strongly I felt about the issue.”

To end my rant :blah: , it will be very interesting if the Wta or ATP will allow an athlete like
South African Oscar Pistorius to play on the tour. Affectionately dubbed, the “fastest man on no legs”, He is a Para Olympian, obviously, with a handicap. The IAAF (athletics body), has banned Pistorius from formal competition on the basis that his prosthetic lower legs are "technical aids" and therefore illegal. Recent cries from some quarters have allowed a more flexible approach from the IAAF. So, will he be able to better serve on those carbon fiber legs, no Achilles heel injuries , less cramps, will he move faster…. Is it all even fair!!! It's off my chest, so you decide. :coffee: