tennis, life and a few things in between

A friend’s mom is turning 85 today!

8am tennis: I played well but came up short. NJ, Graham, George: 5-0, 3-5, 3-5. It was a really nice game.

Did 200 swim / stretch after tennis. This morning was pretty cold, smell of autumn!

An all bleu day: the 2024 Atlantic hurricane that cancelled our Thursday game, had just passed. But the rains are keep coming. It rained today as we were finishing up the second match.

7-6 (7-3) Ivy/me, vs a mixed team
6-0 Jen/me vs Ivy/John

Jen is a really good younger player, with pleasant voice and mean back hand that travels low.

Tue I lost all three short set with 3 Gs: Gary, Greg and Greg.

Yesterday the pool was closed till 11am. The deck was cleared out but  the bistro was open. However, the lunch for the tennis group was rather tasteless. Not a complain …

A week after Mid-Autumn Festival – the fullest of the year, the moon reduced to half. It’s a pretty sight as I’m swimming -:)

Tennis: 3-5, 1-5, 1-5 … with two doubles in the 3rd set.

What was I doing out there?

• ^9.30 did two 100 before leaving: back 2:41:32, free 1:41:58

Zheng Qiwen (郑钦文, 2002-; 2018, $4,658,739; 4 singles titles) won the women singles gold medal in Paris, on August 3rd, which was very precious. I was happy for her, winning Olympic 2024 gold medal is definitely more prestigous than a grand slam: Olympic occurs only every four years, while grand slams happen four times each year.

I though about Peng Shuai (彭帅, 1986-; 2001-22, $9,617,653; 2 singles titles) rather immediately because of her conduct at 2014 US Open semi final match, when she refused to retire due to her prolong leg cramp. It was unethical and unsportsmanlike.

But I think people will remember her as a brave girl who came out, accusing a high ranking Chinese official of sexual assault. I believe her.

However, my motivation of writing this post, is due to Mehdi Hasan & Victor Gao interview on Al Jazeera’s Head to Head program six days ago. I googled Gao (高志凯, 1962-) who has both wiki and zh wiki pages. Among many coverages and interviews, the 60 Minutes Australia in 2022 caught my eyes, when he said Peng: “she can defend herself in front of whatever man or person in China.” Peng’s post was Nov 6, 2021. Victor was once considered by Foreign Policy as “a reputable interlocutor in U.S.-China relations.” After this interview with Mehdi, wondering if Foreign Policy would say the same now.

郑钦文的赢 彭帅的输 wenxue city

郑钦文(2002-; 2018 转职业, 赢得 4,658,739 美元; 4 个单打冠军) 于 8 月 3 日在巴黎获得女子单打金牌. 这非常珍贵. 我为她感到高兴, 赢得奥运会金牌绝对比大满贯更珍贵: 奥运会每四年才举办一次,而大满贯每年举办四次.

我很快想到了彭帅 (1986-; 2001-22; 9,617,653 美元, 2 个单打冠军头衔), 因为她在 2014 年美国公开赛半决赛中的行为, 当时她腿抽筋 拖了十几分钟不肯退赛 (通常应该是三分钟 … 主办方也有责任-不公平. 现场直播的媒体有些炸锅了 公平是竞赛中最重要的 没有之一). 返回场地二次 就是赖着不肯认输. 这实在是太没有体育精神了. 那是她职业赛中最好的一次 所以她不肯轻易放弃. 相比之下 丹麦的卡洛琳·沃兹尼亚奇 Caroline Wozniacki (1990-; 2005-; $36,095,873, 30个单打冠军头衔) 就非常有风度 不仅没有催 还很关心的过来帮忙 (我不是她的粉).

但我认为人们会记得她是一个勇敢的女孩,站出来指控中国高级官员性侵犯. 我相信她.

然而, 我写这篇文章的动机, 是六天前高志凯在半岛电视台的 面对面 (Head to Head) 节目上的采访被Mehdi Hasan采访. 我在谷歌上搜索了高志凯 (1962-), 他有维基和中文维基页面. 在众多报道和采访中, 2022 年的《60 分钟澳大利亚》引起了我的注意, 当时他说彭: “她可以在中国任何男人或任何人面前为自己辩护.” 彭的帖子发表于 2021 年 11 月 6 日. 高志凯曾被《外交政策》视为 “中美关系中一位享有盛誉的对话者”. 在接受 Mehdi 的这次采访后,我想知道《外交政策》现在是否会说同样的话.

Today’s swim: 1,680 @ 46 all breaststroke; 100 free @ 1:57.74 at the end.

We’ve been struggling with the tennis court line sweepers ever since. Thanks lord we’ve a new one now that looks fancy or so Disney,  and it works.

Playing in the evening has one disadvantage: wine and food are weighing me down – I could only play one set, and lost 2-6.

I swam in the morning 1,260 yards in 30 minutes. Did a little more after tennis – 140 in 3 minutes = 1,400 in 33 min.

My August log: 26,680 yd (15.16 miles: 45.72 min per mile) in 11:33 hr

• ¹ 1,160 in 30
• ² 1,400 in 36
• ⁴ 1,280 in 27: 1,040 in 21 36’28” per mile
• ⁶ 1,740 in 42
• ¹⁴ 1,880: 100 free @ 1:57.74
• ..