ev tottle

[ᜰ 🇦🇷🇯🇵 @markklfc]

Lionel Messi on the 100-year-old fan holding the “100 YEAR OLD MESSI FAN” banner:

🗣️ “When I saw her in the stands… I honestly had to hold myself together. In that moment, football disappeared for me. It wasn’t a stadium anymore, it wasn’t noise, it wasn’t pressure it was just emotion.”

“Someone who has lived a whole century of life… through wars, through generations, through everything the world has endured… and she is still here, smiling, holding my name in her hands. I don’t even know how to explain what that feels like.”

“It made me think about everything my first steps in football, the dreams I had as a child, the sacrifices my family made… and somehow, through all those years, my name reached someone like her. It’s overwhelming.”

“I don’t deserve something like that. No player does. Because this goes beyond football. This is love from a lifetime, not just a moment.”

“I looked at her and I just wanted to stop time for a second… to say thank you properly. Not as a footballer, but as a human being who understands how rare it is to be loved like that for so long.”

“There are goals that make noise, trophies that make headlines, but this… this was something completely different. Pure, unconditional connection between two lives that were never meant to meet, but somehow did through football.”

“If I could give her anything, it wouldn’t be a shirt or a photo. It would be time. Because the fact she spent part of her life supporting me… I will carry that forever.”

“When I retire, I will remember nights like this more than anything else. Because at the end of everything, football is not about records… it is about hearts that connect without even speaking.”

“And in that moment, I realized something very simple… I am not just playing for trophies. I am playing for people like her.”

[José Morón @jmgmoron]

No habrá nunca nada más intimidante en la historia del tenis que escuchar la presentación de Rafa Nadal en Roland Garros con todos los años en los que ganó.

🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶

[The Touchline | T @TTouchlineX]

🚨BREAKING: Gonzalo Higuaín on his recent photo:
“I have seen the comments, and they are very sad,” Higuaín said.
“It seems that if you are not at your physical peak, you are no longer treated like a person. People only love footballers when they look like machines. The moment you look human again, the jokes begin. During my career, I played through pressure, injuries, anxiety, and criticism every single week. Now I eat what I want, spend time with my family, and live peacefully. That should not offend anyone.
“The internet has made it normal to insult people for ageing, gaining weight, or simply changing. Some of you talk about mental health, then spend hours mocking strangers online. Think about that.
“I’m not the same person I was 10 years ago, and that’s okay. I’m happy with who I am, and I’m not going to let a few internet comments define me."

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Rafa Nadal won the 2022 French Open with his left foot completely numb. His doctor had been injecting anesthetic into the nerves before every match, for two solid weeks. After one of those matches he couldn’t walk, and his father had to carry him to the hotel.

That was his 14th French Open title. No tennis player, male or female, has ever won the same tournament that many times. His career record at the French Open was 112 wins, 4 losses. That 96.6% win rate is the highest by any player at any major in history. Only three men ever beat him in Paris: Söderling in 2009, Djokovic twice, and Alexander Zverev in his final appearance in 2024.

The forehand that powered all of it spins faster than a washing machine on spin cycle. About 3,200 rotations per minute on average, peaking at 5,000. Federer’s spins at 2,500. Sampras and Agassi were at 1,800. Nadal’s ball spins about 80 times in the time it takes to cross the court.

The condition in his foot is called Müller-Weiss syndrome. It is a rare disease where a small bone in the middle of the foot slowly collapses. He has had it since 2005. There’s no cure. He once said he doesn’t remember what playing without pain feels like.

He retired last November in tears, after Spain lost a Davis Cup quarter-final to the Netherlands. Across 23 years he won 22 Grand Slams, 92 tour titles, and 1,080 of his 1,308 singles matches. He held the world number one ranking for 209 weeks and earned $134.9 million in prize money.

The Netflix series drops May 29, in the middle of this year’s French Open. He turns 40 five days later. The tagline is “A Life Beyond Limits.” That was the job description of a tennis career he played, for years, on a foot doctors said could not hold up.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Rafael Nadal was diagnosed with Müller-Weiss syndrome at 19 years old. The navicular bone in his left foot was collapsing. There is no cure. The condition is degenerative. It only gets worse.

The navicular is the keystone of the human foot. It catches the head of the talus and connects to the first three toes. It absorbs the majority of load when you change direction. In tennis, players change direction hundreds of times per match. On clay, where the surface forces you to slide into every shot, the stress on that bone multiplies.

His sport demands exactly the one thing his body could no longer do without pain.

He won 22 Grand Slams after the diagnosis. Fourteen of them at Roland Garros, the clay court tournament that punished his foot the hardest. His record there: 112 wins, 4 losses. A 97% win rate across 23 years at the single venue that required the most from the bone that was failing him.

For context, the other Grand Slam dominance records: Djokovic at the Australian Open has a 91% win rate. Federer at Wimbledon had 88%. Nadal's 97% at Roland Garros isn't just the best in tennis. There may not be a comparable number in any individual sport at any single venue, ever.

He once told reporters he doesn't remember what the feeling of playing without pain is. The condition is most common in women aged 40 to 60. He got it at 19 and kept winning for 19 more years.

The Rafa documentary drops May 29. During the French Open. The tournament he won 14 times will be happening without him while 300 million subscribers watch what it actually cost him to own it. He turns 40 on June 3.

Netflix timed this so the stadium that was his is full of players trying to fill a void that 97% says might be permanent.

[Olena Rohoza @OlenaRohoza]

🇮🇹 The speech that all of Italy heard. And that the world must hear.
In a country that will host the Olympic Games, Italian Senator and Vice President of the Human Rights Commission Filippo Sensi took the floor and said what should have been said out loud long ago.
He called it a disgrace that the International Olympic Committee disqualified Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych.
Not for doping.
Not for violating fair play.
But for… memory.
For a helmet bearing the faces of Ukrainian athletes — his friends, colleagues, champions — killed by Russia.
The IOC stated that the helmet “did not comply with regulations.”
And then Sensi asked a question that brought silence to the chamber:
Does aggressive war comply with regulations?
Is there a separate technical protocol for it?
The correct angle of a missile strike?
The permissible size of a crater?
An athlete prepares for the Olympics for years.
A Ukrainian athlete trains between air raid sirens, in shelters, under news of the dead.
He overcomes fear, exhaustion, and loss.
And he steps to the start line not only for a medal — but for the right to exist.
And he is suspended… for remembering.
Because memory is the most dangerous substance. It is hard to add to a prohibited list. But apparently, someone would very much like to.
The senator named names. Just a few among more than 650 Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia:
▪️ Yevhenii Malyshev, 19, biathlete — killed in Kharkiv.
▪️ Mariia Lebid, 15 — missile strike in Dnipro.
▪️ Dmytro Sharpar, 25, figure skater — killed in Bakhmut.
▪️ Volodymyr Androsiuk, 22, track and field athlete — also Bakhmut.
▪️ Daria Kurdel, 20 — missile strike in Kharkiv.
▪️ Alina Perehutova, 14 — standing in line for water with her mother in Mariupol.
▪️ Maksym Halinichev, 22, boxer — killed defending Luhansk region.
▪️ Viktoriia Ivashko, 9, judoka — missile strike in Kyiv.
▪️ Kateryna Diachenko, 11, gymnast — airstrike on Mariupol.
▪️ Karina Bakur, 17, world kickboxing champion — shielded her father with her body.
These were the faces Heraskevych wanted to carry with him to the start line.
So that they would “compete” alongside him.
So that their dream would not die with them.
And for that, he was punished.
Because it turns out that the faces of murdered athletes violate regulations.
But their absence on the track does not.
In his speech, Sensi said the most important thing:
The Olympic Committee did not lose an athlete.
It lost its most valuable medal — its conscience.
Sport without memory is just a show.
Sport without humanity is just decoration.
Sport that fears truth is not about peace.
The Olympic movement was born from the ideals of honor, dignity, and unity.
Yet today Ukrainian athletes must prove not only their strength — but their right to remember their fallen.
And if memory becomes a violation of regulations — then the problem is not the helmet.
The world must hear this.
Because silence is also a position.
And indifference is also a choice.
Memory cannot be disqualified.
And conscience cannot be added to a prohibited list.
🇺🇦 We remember every one of them.
And we will not allow their names to be erased.

[House_of_Cricket @Houseof_Cricket]

#Bornonthisday, Keith Miller flew fighter bombers in World War Two.
He survived nights over Germany dodging gunfire and crash landed when his engine failed.

Years later, when Michael Parkinson asked him about pressure, Miller smiled and said:

“Pressure is a Messerschmitt up your arse. Playing cricket is not.”

That line told you everything.

He could bowl thunderbolts off a short run up and change the mood of a stadium with a single spell.
At Lord’s in 1956, with his back in pieces and age catching up, he kept bowling through the pain for more than 70 overs because his team needed him.
Ten wickets in the match, almost 37 years old, refusing to give in.

Miller believed the game should have dignity.
He would not bounce tailenders.
It was never about hurting people. It was about competing with honour.

There was a certain magic in the way he carried himself.
That walk to the crease, hair flicked back, the grin, the looseness, the swagger.
Crowds felt alive when he was involved, as if something unforgettable might happen at any moment.

Miller lived like cricket was a privilege, not a burden.

He was more than an all rounder.
He was a reminder that sport is supposed to feel alive.

If you want someone to win you a match off the last ball, catch, six or wicket, you pick only one man.
Keith Ross Miller.

[Lissa Evans @LissaKEvans]

Today I received my favourite-ever insult on Blue Sky which I will be embroidering and framing:
'Oldass person who double spaces after periods like they are writing on a typewriter'
I am, indeed, guilty of this vile crime.

[Dave Jones @eevblog]

IMPORTANT message for everyone using Gmail.
You have been automatically OPTED IN to allow Gmail to access all your private messages & attachments to train AI models.
You have to manually turn off Smart Features in the Setting menu in TWO locations.

Retweet so every is aware.

[ev tottle @EvTottle]

@Djoko_UTD Easy peasy. Rafa on clay.

[NP @nadalprop_]

Forever my favourite tennis player. ❤️

[José Morgado @josemorgado]

Jannik Sinner (23y11m):

- Youngest since Nadal (2009) to reach four consecutive Grand Slam semifinals

- Youngest since Nadal (2008) to reach at least three Grand Slam semifinals in the same season

[The Big Three @Big3Tennis]

Robin Soderling on IG:

“When you thought tennis had reached its highest potential with the Big Three. These guys just took it to the next level.”

It was an insane level but man I think some people need to do a rewatch of old Big Three matches.

[Matthew Willis @mattracquet]

Best of 5 haters in utter shambles

[S. @Aintn0waySwag]

Roland Garros finals are not as easy as Rafael Nadal made it look like. ✍️

[Janniksin_Updates @JannikSinner_Up]

Roberto Baggio: "The world needs people like Jannik Sinner.
I wish him to remain as he is, he is an example for young people"

🦊💙

[ev tottle @EvTottle]

@Minerva2BC Brilliant article. Thanks for sharing.

[JB (@[email protected]) @Minerva2BC]

Cynthia T. (avid Rafan, no longer on X/Twitter) has posted a farewell to Rafa piece on her Northwoods Listener blog. It's worth a read: https://t.co/sHz3D9dyyG

[dani 🇧🇷🌎 @pointnadal]

Clay season isn’t the same this year.

[Kaoru #TAEM 🇫🇷🇺🇦🇬🇪🇪🇺🇸🇾 #MUGA @Kaoruw143]

@ZelenskyyUa Close the skies 🙏🙏🙏💔
#StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🔱❤️‍🔥