Nikolay Davydenko swung his magic sword to victory in Miami, but retired tennis player Arnaud Di Pasquale had a much harder time carrying the Olympic torch.
Racket Love
One of our readers named David left a very good comment that goes some way to explaining Nikolay Davydenko’s love affair with his new Prince tennis racket. Like the proud parent of a new baby, he couldn’t stop talking about it after his victory over Rafael Nadal in the final in Miami on Sunday. By the way, David, I’m guessing by your email username – gasparddnuit – that you’re a fan of Maurice Ravel. True?
David left that comment because I messed up while we were live blogging the men’s final on Sunday. Davydenko’s new Prince racket has a dense stringing pattern – it has 18 by 20 strings instead of 16 by 18 strings – and I said that having more strings allows you to get more spin on the ball. I was completely wrong. So here you go, here’s a little string theory for you.
String density refers to the number of strings in a racket. The more strings there are, the more strings come into contact with the ball. The more strings come into contact with the ball, the more strings there are to absorb the impact. The ball doesn’t bounce off the racket as hard and that means you have more control over it. Of course, you give up some power and it’s harder to put spin on the ball because the strings can’t dig in to the ball as well.
It’s a bit curious because most players today do anything they can to improve their power and they use spin to do it. Luxilon strings grab the ball and allow players to whack the ball as hard as possible but keep it in the court by putting topspin on it. Davydenko gave up some power and spin so he could play more aggressively. He wanted to go for more short angled winners without the ball sailing on him and it worked against Nadal – he had 19 winners to Nadal’s 12 and he was the champion of the day.
If any other racket stringing expert is tuning in and wants to add to the discussion, please do because I’ve never strung a racket in my life.
Torch Songs
Retired French tennis player Arnaud Di Pasquale was one of the athletes ferrying the Olympic Torch through the streets of Paris on Monday, and like his fellow French torch carriers, Di Pasquale was unable to make his way through the hoard of demonstrators who oppose China’s recent crackdown on Tibetans. Five times security officials had to douse the flame on the torch and transport it using a bus. You can see in this picture that Di Pasquale is not a happy camper.
Many people believe that politics should be kept out of the Olympics but that doesn’t make much sense. The process of bidding for the Olympics highly political and the act of staging the Olympics is all about politics. This is the first time that China has hosted the Olympics and it’s the mother of all propaganda moves just as it is for every country that hosts the Olympics.
As far as I’m concerned, go ahead, protests the procession of the torch. The torch is a direct statement of protest to China. Look at the alternative: do nothing which stands as tacit approval of unacceptable practices. But don’t physically attack people to get at the torch. You lose moral authority when you do that. Make your protest and make it peacefully.
And don’t interfere with athletes competing in Olympic events. If protesters interrupted Olympic events in progress or impeded athletes in competition in any way, I disagree with that. It serves no useful purpose. Besides, many other countries deserve similar protests for their practices so which athletes should you interrupt?
If I won a medal at the Beijing Olympics in, say, skeet shooting or something else that doesn’t require too much running, or jumping, or slogging – I’d be tempted to pull out a small Tibetan flag from my sleeve and hold it high. I’d make sure it was okay with my fellow medalists just as Tommie Smith and John Carlos did when they raised a black glove in support of civil rights after winning the gold and bronze medal at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. The silver medalist, Australian Peter Norman, wore a human rights badge in support of Smith and Carlos.
Of course, I’d only do it if it was my swan song in the Olympics. I’m not that brave. Norman went on to qualify for his country’s team in the next Olympics but the Aussies refused to put him on the team. But no, I wouldn’t do it because it’s on the field of competition. Carlos and Smith have every right to do what they did and we protest to protect that right, I’m just saying I wouldn’t do it. For the same reason, I don’t support boycotting the Olympics to protest political disagreement because, again, that interferes with Olympic competition.
Ten days before those 1968 Olympics in Mexico, hundreds of student holding a peaceful demonstration were killed by Mexican police. The students were using the occasion of the Olympics to protest politics in their country. Olympic protests have a long history and that won’t end any time soon.