Sunday, September 06, 2020

Sunday 6th September 2020..Day 204!!!

I did not have a great sleep last night and have been up since 4.30am.....this happens once in a while to me.


Needless to say I was a bit fuzzy this morning and decided not to go play tennis and instead took Boomer on a four hour walk.


We went here......





We hit the tide at a good time and was able to walk all the way along the beach to the far end......



















It was a lovely day and with it being a holiday quite a few people around but they were all being responsible of social distancing...


We had a good time.


I also called my brother and spoke to both him and Janet and they and the family are doing well.....I also called my Uncle Bram, who will be 94 in December, he is truly amazing, after losing his lovely wife Rita a couple of years ago he is still in the family home, takes care of himself and is going to go back to playing badminton once a week next month......and as alert and smart as a tack!!


So sad for all those wild fires in California..I was listening to a news broadcast and they said some parts of the State in a 24 hour period experienced heatwave and temperatures of over 100 degrees and that was followed by snow blizzards.....very hard to imagine!!


This is the huge and breaking news form the US Tennis open today...


Top seed Novak Djokovic has been disqualified from his US Open fourth-round match after accidentally hitting a ball at a line judge.

Djokovic showed his frustration after losing serve to trail 6-5 against Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta.


The Serbian world number one took a ball out of his pocket and hit it behind him, striking the female line judge in her throat.

After a lengthy discussion, he was defaulted by tournament officials.

A United States Tennis Association statement said: "In accordance with the Grand Slam rulebook, following his actions of intentionally hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences, the US Open tournament referee defaulted Novak Djokovic from the 2020 US Open.

"Because he was defaulted, Djokovic will lose all ranking points earned at the US Open and will be fined the prize money won at the tournament in addition to any or all fines levied with respect to the offending incident."

Djokovic was the heavy favourite to win the men's singles title at the US Open, which is being played behind closed doors and is the first Grand Slam to take place since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Going into the match against 20th seed Carreno Busta, Djokovic had not lost a singles match in 2020.

The 33-year-old was aiming for an 18th Grand Slam triumph to move closer to rivals Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, who are not playing in New York, in the race to finish with the most men's major titles of all-time.

Djokovic had been playing well up until the game where he lost serve and had three set points at 5-4 before Carreno Busta fought back from 0-40 down.

However, the world number one also showed a flash of his temper during that game by whacking a ball into a sideboard after the Spaniard brought it back to deuce.

Leon Smith, Great Britain's Davis Cup captain, said he was "surprised" Djokovic did not get a warning for that incident and feels one might have prevented the controversy which followed.

After Djokovic was defaulted, Smith added: "There has to be consistency, if someone hits a ball with that much venom and temper, call a warning.

"The second one can be dangerous and so it proved to be."

In what proved the final game, Djokovic fell and hurt his shoulder, immediately calling for a medical timeout when trailing 0-30. Following treatment, the match resumed with Carreno Busta sealing the set three points later.

It was then that Djokovic hit the ball away, striking the line judge.

Djokovic appeared to plead his case to tournament referee Soeren Friemel and Grand Slam supervisor Andreas Egli during a long conversation at the net.

Eventually, however, he accepted his fate and shook hands with Carreno Busta, who looked shocked by what had happened as he waited for a decision in his chair.

Djokovic left Flushing Meadows without doing his news conference.

His defeat means there will be a new male Grand Slam champion for the first time since Marin Cilic won in New York in 2014.


To his credit he did issue this statement later..



Novak Djokovic has apologised for hitting a line judge with a ball at the US Open, saying he is "extremely sorry for creating her such stress".

World number one Djokovic, 33, was disqualified from his fourth-round match against Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta because of the incident.


The Serb took a ball out of his pocket and hit it behind him, striking the female line judge in her throat.

"This whole situation has left me really sad and empty," said Djokovic.external-link

"I checked on the linesperson and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling OK.

"I'm extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong. I'm not disclosing her name to respect her privacy."

After a lengthy discussion, Djokovic was defaulted by tournament officials at Flushing Meadows.

He will lose all ranking points earned at the US Open and will the prize money he had won at the tournament. He could also be fined for the incident.

"As for the disqualification, I need to go back within and work on my disappointment and turn this all into a lesson for my growth and evolution as a player and human being," Djokovic's statement on Instagram added.

"I apologise to the US Open tournament and everyone associated for my behaviour. I'm very grateful to my team and family for being my rock support, and my fans for always being there with me.

"Thank you and I'm so sorry."


Stay safe and healthy!!


Yashi Kochi!!

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