Nalbandian: pronounced idiot

COMMENT

1. Yesterday David Nalbandian, an experienced and talented Argentinian tennis player, disgraced himself in front of a crowd of several thousand and a TV audience of millions. Miffed at having his service broken, and seeing his opponent reeling him in after taking the first set from him, savagely kicked the advertising hoarding surrounding a line judge. This then shattered and struck the linesman's leg, drawing blood. The referee instantly disqualified him. Later, Sue Barker, that consummate sporting journalist, interviewed him live, offering him the opportunity to apologise. What did he do? Well, he sort of apologised, though half hearted would be my description of what he said. He then went on to insist that the ATP shoulder some of the blame as they were responsible for the poor playing surface all the players had had to endure throughout that week.
Pelagius's verdict: pathetic. Behaving like a spoilt child who wishes to evade responsibility for breaking a toy, he completely failed to apologise properly to the people most entitled to one: the crowd. They had payed upfront for the privilege to watch a match which was in reality shaping up for an intriguing climax, and what did they get? A truncated mess. The same applies to the millions, like me, who were watching the match on TV.
Peter Fleming, one of the most articulate and thoughtful sports commentators out there, said that what we all needed to hear was, essentially, "mea culpa", but we didn't get anything like that. Could the Latin American temperament have something to do with it, the "loss of face" thing? I don't really care. He didn't hold his hands up as he should have done, and for that as much as the minor injury he caused, he should be fined 25,000 euros by the ATP and banned from Wimbledon, which is how I think the FA would deal with an offence like this.

2. EGYPT BACK IN DEEP SHIT AFTER PROMISING START

Yesterday in Egypt the military, who have always held the real power in that benighted country, undermined the "free and fair" elections by issuing a decree claiming great swathes of power for themselves, whoever wins.

I remember some cynical, though seasoned, political commentator warning last year that their famous toppling of Moubarak would probably change very little for the ordinary citizen in the medium to long term. Now his words appear frighteningly prescient in view of events yesterday. Seems it takes rather more than getting rid of a long-term tyrant to change the country down to its foundations, as the Egyptian people are finding as they go about their day today. Clemenceau once said war is too important to be left to the generals. He should perhaps have added, and politics too...