French Open diary: Gulbis and Djokovic prove sportsmanship is no flight of fancy

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  • Once again, sportsmanship was at the forefront on court yesterday as both Novak Djokovic and Ernests Gulbis gave each other points during their semi-final.

    Djokovic, who trained as a youngster at the same academy as Gulbis in Munich, actually over-ruled the umpire, who had stepped out of his chair to check a mark for a Gulbis ace and called the ball out.

    But the world No2 checked the mark himself and handed the point to his opponent, despite it being a set point for Djokovic and Gulbis’ shot was an ace to saved it.

    “I made a joke after that about Niki (Pilic), our coach in Germany," said Gulbis. "He used to teach us (me and Djokovic) how you should see the marks. He used to draw the line around the ball.

    “I made a joke about it, but I really appreciated it. It was a really nice gesture.”

    Gulbis is often misunderstood by fans and pundits, but he insists he is a farier player than he is given credit for.

    “I’m all about fair game,” added the 25-year-old. “I don’t like to get free points and I don’t like to win matches by walkover. Either way, I would do the same thing (and give my opponent the point).”

    And indeed he did as later in the match Gulbis checked a mark and gave a point to Djokovic. “There was no question about it,” the Latvian explained.

    Murray's fantasy football team doesn't sit well with Melzer

    Andy Murray is a big fantasy football fan and he often brags about how well he’s doing during the football season.

    So the Scot was asked to play football manager the other day and name his ideal football team of tennis players. Of course he put himself as centre forward, chose Rafael Nadal in midfield, and he put Michael Llodra as goalie, saying the Frenchman’s quick reflexes from all his years playing doubles would make him a trusted custodian.

    A controversial choice was him putting Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in right back even though everyone sees the French beast as a striker. Tsonga had previously told me that if he were a footballer, he’d be Didier Drogba. But hey, if Murray sees him as a Dani Alves, we won’t argue.

    There was backlash though as Austrian veteran Jurgen Melzer tweeted Murray after he saw the Brit’s choices, saying: “So @andy_murray I am not good enough to make your soccer team. And no @picomonaco ?? That hurts more than my UsOpen loss 09!!”

    To which Murray responded by saying they would definitely make the bench.

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