robpollard

June 24th, 2010 at 12:43 PM ^

I've played and watched tennis for quite a while, and this match is impossible for me to get my mind around.  It would be like NHL playoff game going into 12 OTs or the U.S. Open in golf (if it was tied at the end of four rounds) going an additional 72 holes.  I watched some of this match (indeed, who watched all 10+ hours) and Isner in the 5th looked like he was about to cry at any moment.  I've rarely seen someone, while in a match, look so thoroughly tired and ready to just say, "Ah, f* it".


This picture at the CNNSI.com page makes me laugh (it's the obligatory picture next to the scoreboard).  The looks on their faces says it all.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/tennis/06/24/isner.mahut.final.ap…

robpollard

June 24th, 2010 at 2:13 PM ^

I know we're understandbly very "Go America!" around these parts with the world cup and now Isner's epic victory, but I believe this should have an OT in the title (he's a Bulldog, not a Wolverine).


Edit: see you made the change - great!

Brick

June 24th, 2010 at 1:06 PM ^

I'm was very surprised Mahut didn't surrender, he is French.

Seriously though, that was just unbelievable.  I feel for Mahut but at least he is a part of history.  This will not happen again.

BillyShears

June 24th, 2010 at 1:19 PM ^

It's the Italians that surrender, not the French.

 

http://www.ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/getting-to-the-truth-about-world-war-ii.aspx

 

“France’s army did not simply surrender or run away in 1940, as ignorant American Know-Nothing conservatives claim. “

“Britain’s well-trained expeditionary force in France was beaten just as quickly and thoroughly as the French, and saved itself only by abandoning its French allies and fleeing across the Channel. “

“France lost 217,000 dead and 400,000 wounded.  Compare that to America’s loss of 416,000 dead during four years of war in the Pacific and Europe.”

coldnjl

June 24th, 2010 at 2:01 PM ^

On 22 June he (Phillippe Petain)  signed an armistice with Germany that gave Nazi Germany control over the north and west of the country, including Paris and all of the Atlantic coastline, but left the rest, around two-fifths of France's prewar territory, unoccupied, with its administrative centre in the resort town of Vichy.[4] (Paris remained the de jure capital.)

then....

On 11 November 1942, German forces invaded the unoccupied zone of Southern France in response to the Allied Operation Torch landings in North Africa and Vichy Admiral François Darlan's agreeing to support the Allies. Although Vichy France nominally remained in existence, Pétain became nothing more than a figurehead, as the Nazis abandoned the pretense of an "independent" Vichy government. After 7 September 1944, Petain and other members of the Vichy cabinet were relocated to Sigmaringen Germany, where they established a government-in-exile until April 1945. Pétain, who had been forcibly brought there by the Germans[7], refused to participate in the governmental commission, which was headed by Fernand de Brinon.

 

Thank you Wikipedia

jmblue

June 24th, 2010 at 7:44 PM ^

Signing an armistice is not the same as surrendering.  An armistice is a negotiated agreement to stop fighting, similar to a cease-fire.  The French public was initially told that Petain (a WWI hero who was immensely popular at the time) had negotiated reasonable terms, and consequently most initially welcomed the armistice.  Only gradually did the harsh terms - dictated by Hitler and sheepishly accepted by Petain - come to light.