Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s 4 rackets destroyed in less than a minute: possibly a record for rackets destroyed in a single match at the highest level of tennis.

That meltdown somehow lifted him to win the third set 7-5, before succumbing again in the fourth 1-6.

But is he the greatest pro racket-smasher who ever lived?

Marat Safin, the 2005 Australian Open champion and former world number 1, was said to have broken about 700 rackets in his 12-year career (1997-2009). Another source said that in 2011, he said that he’d destroyed more than 1,000 in total. Apparently he destroyed 48 rackets in 1999 alone.

Then there’s sentimental favourite Goran Ivanisevic, who had to retire due to breaking all 3 of his rackets in the second round match against Lee Hyung-Taik in the 2000 Samsung Open. He didn’t have any more rackets with him, and there weren’t any suitable ones for borrowing.

Supervisor Gerry Armstrong then told umpire Kim Craven to announce the incredible:

Due to lack of appropriate equipment, game, set and match Lee.

Some people say Ivanisevic broke even more rackets than Marat Safin in total

Source

A scoreline you’d never expect to see at Old Trafford

Coincidentally, Man Utd’s Jonathan Evans, who was sent off in the 47th minute, was wearing the number 6 shirt.

It was the reigning league champion’s first home defeat in 18 months (since April 2010) i.e. 25 matches and on 19 home wins on the trot – so City’s margin of victory is especially memorable.

It was City’s biggest away league win since the 6-0 victory at Burnley in March 1999.

Ferguson himself described the defeat as his worst in his more than 50 years of involvement in the game:

It was our worst ever day. It’s the worst result in my history, ever. Even as a player I don’t think I ever lost 6-1. That’s challenge for me too. I can’t believe the scoreline. The first goal was a blow for sure but it was retrievable at 1-0. The sending off was a killer for us. We kept attacking when we went 4-1 down and we should have just said: ‘We’ve had our day.’” We just kept attacking. They were attacking three versus two. It was crazy football. I thought with the experience we’ve got – Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra – they would [defend more] but we just kept attacking. Sometimes there has to be common sense about it. It was a bad day. What did concern me was the goals for and against. Goal difference may count. Last year it was in our favour. Most years it is in our favour. This time maybe not. We’ll come back. By January we’ll be okay. We usually get the show on the road in the second half of the season and that will have to be the case. We’ve played all the teams around us and they have all to play each other so the second half of the season is important to us now. We will react, no question about that. It’s a perfect result for us to react to because there is a lot of embarrassment in the dressing room and that will make an impact.

Some other bad defeats during his reign as United manager:

0-5 at Newcastle and 3-6 at Southampton in 1996, yet Man Utd went on to win the league title.
0-5 at Chelsea in 1999, ending United’s 29-match unbeaten run. Yet, Man Utd went on to win the league title.
1-4 at home to Liverpool in 2009, yet Man Utd went on to win the league title.
1-4 at home to QPR in 1992. That season, Leeds won the league title.
1-5 away to Man City in 1989. That season Liverpool won the league title.

So one could say that the hairdryer treatment will be at full throttle after the match.

The Reds’ worst ever home defeat was 1-7 to Newcastle United in the old First Division, which happened way back in 1927. They also had lost 0-6 twice at home: to Aston Villa in 1914 and to Huddersfield Town in 1930.

Man Utd’s worst ever defeat is 0-7, which happened 3 times:

- at Blackburn Rovers in 1926
- at Aston Villa in 1930
- at Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1931

Social networks were abuzz after the match against their rivals, including:

obefield (via his blog sokernet)

M6nch6st6r Unit6d

Manchester City’s new logo:

bongkersz (via twitter):

1Enam. 1Six. Latest additions to the ’1′ craze. 1Toilet. 1Notebook. 1Kedai. 1Telur.

Six and the City!

Khairy Jamaluddin (via twitter):

Bola itu bulat. That’s all I’ve got tonight. 1-6.

TheLoneTweet (via twitter):

Man United were holding out – in prep for the big midweek tie with Aldershot

asoundreaction (via twitter):

Holy sh*t. Just seen the football score. Forget the hairdryer treatment let the tea cup throwing commence

anthraxxxx (via twitter):

tak kisah siapa kalah, janji Manchester yang menang #tuitsedaphati

MukhrizMahathir (via twitter):

Regime change in Manchester! 6-1!!! Its a masacre!

mpkotabelud (via twitter):

Pedih! RT @NoorAzam: Sebelum ucap selamat malam, kita ucap … SAAAATUUUU? Malaysia. SAAAATUUU? Malaysia. SAAATUUU? ENAAAAAM. Selamat malam.

ThankUAndGnite (via twitter):

On a scale of 1-6, how humiliated do you think Man Utd fans are now? #Manchesterderby

JosuaClement_S (via twitter):

Losing 6-1 at home with your strongest team is way worse than losing 8-2 away with your reserves playing.

Then Fernando Torres’ (Chelsea) miss could be right at the top:
- 3rd highest paid player in the world
- competitive, club level, world-class league match (Manchester United vs Chelsea, EPL, 18 Sep 2011)
- edge of 6 yard box, left side of goal
- unchallenged

Click here to view the embedded video.

Challengers:

Cristiano Ronaldo’s (Manchester United) miss of the season in 2007
- now highest paid player in the world
- competitive, club level, Sheffield United v Manchester United, 2006/2007 EPL
- from 4 yards, close to middle of goal
- unchallenged

Click here to view the embedded video.

Aiyegbeni Yakubu’s (Nigeria) miss during World Cup 2010 group match against South Korea
- not in list of top 100 highest paid players in the world
- competitive, international level, World Cup match
- about 3 yards away from goal, approx middle of goal
- unchallenged

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rob Earnshaw’s (Wales) miss during a Euro2012 qualifier against England, 6th September 2011
- not in list of top 100 highest paid players in the world
- competitive, international level
- edge of 6 yard box, left side of goal
- unchallenged

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jon Dahl Tomasson’s (Feyenoord) miss during a Dutch league match, 2001
- capped 112 times by Denmark, scoring 52 goals – joint all-time top scorer for his country
- competitive, club level (Feyenoord v NAC Breda, 2001)
- right on the line, close to middle of goal
- unchallenged

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rivaled by Ilija Sivonjić (Croatia, Dinamo Zagreb) during a Croatian league match against Cibalia, 2009
- not in list of top 100 highest paid players in the world
- competitive, club level, not world-class
- right on the line, near to right of goal
- unchallenged

Click here to view the embedded video.

As of the evening of 3rd September 2011, the 10-second barrier has been broken 457 times.

Usain Bolt owns (or co-owns) 5 of the 10 fastest 100m times in history: 9.58, 9.69, 9.72, 9.76, 9.77.

He has run faster than 9.80 on 6 occasions.

He has broken the 10-second barrier 23 times.

Only 2 other sprinters have clocked times that are among the 10 fastest in history: Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, the other Jamaican. Tyson Gay has 4 of in the top 10, including 9.69 and 9.71, the 3rd and 4th fastest times ever. He has also clocked 9.77 twice.

Asafa Powell has even more top 10 times in history than Usain Bolt – 6, including 9.72 and 9.74, the 5th and 7th fastest times ever.

In fact, Powell has broken the 10-second barrier more frequently than anybody else – 73 times (some reports say 80). Previously, Maurice Greene held the record, with 53 sub-10 runs.

Carl Lewis has broken the 10-second barrier 15 times.

Samuel Francis’ Asian record of 9.99 set in 2007 is the joint 457th best time in history.

Source
alltime-athletics.com
Wikipedia

As of yesterday evening, when Usain Bolt became the 200m 2011 world champion with 19.40 seconds, the 20-second barrier has been broken 183 times.

Usain Bolt owns (or co-owns) 7 of the 10 fastest 200m times in history: 19.19, 19.30, 19.40, 19.56, 19.57, 19.59, 19.63. That means he has run faster than 19.60 on 6 occasions.

He has broken the 20-second barrier 22 times.

When he drives a car, is he a speed demon too? If he is, that collision estimation could go up.

Michael Johnson has broken the 20-second barrier 23 times. Everybody knows that his best time is 19.32 seconds, but perhaps less know that his next best times were 19.66, 19.71, 19.77 and 19.79.

The fastest 200m time not by either Bolt or Johnson is 19.58 by Tyson Gay in 2009 (7th best time in history). Gay also owns the 9th best time in history (19.62) set in 2007.

The relatively unknown Xavier Carter co-owns the 10th best time in history with 19.63 set in 2006.

Shingo Suetsugu’s Asian record of 20.03 set in 2003 is the joint 237th best time in history.

Source

The current world record holder, Javier Sotomayor is 1.95m tall and his world record is 2.45m, meaning he jumped 50cm over his head. Some have listed his height as 1.93m, hence the difference is 52cm.

I think if Yao Ming (2.29m) trained to be a high jumper, he would’ve easily broken that world record.

But there are 2 persons who have jumped 59cm above their own heads, Franklin Jacobs and Stefan Holm.

Franklin Jacobs (born 1957) is a 1970s American high jumper. He’s only 1.73m, yet his personal best is 2.32m, which set the world indoor record in 1978.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stefan Holm (born 1976) is a Swedish high jumper. He’s only 1.81m, yet has jumped 2.40m indoors in 2005. He was the 2004 Olympic champion.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This gives hope to those of us less than 1.8m tall – time to practice jumping over one of those stainless steel barrels then…

In 1984, Poland’s Marian Woronin timed 9.992, so unofficially he’s the first non-black person to beat the mark.

In 2003 Australia’s Patrick Johnson, who has Irish and Indigenous Australian heritage became the first person from a non African background to break the barrier.

On 9th July 2010, Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, 20 became the first caucasian / white European to officially run the 100m in under ten seconds when he clocked 9.98 at the French national championships. He has since improved to 9.92.

Click here to view the embedded video.

His comments after achieving the feat:

This was my goal to break it of course. One has to run under 10 seconds in order to be part of the world’s best. I will be recognised as the first white man to run it, but today is mainly historical for myself! It’s not about colour, it’s about hard work.

No Asian has ever done it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the middle of the race, he decided that he was going to turn it into a 100m dash instead, and simply threw the hurdles sideways.

I totally lost it when he ran through a hurdle, fell to his left and just managed to avoid being trampled upon by the next guy.

He is widely acclaimed to be the greatest goalkeeper in history, voted the best goalkeeper of the 20th century by The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).

He is the only goalkeeper ever to win the European Footballer of the Year Award, in 1963.

In 1994, FIFA established the Lev Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper at the World Cup finals.

In 1998, the World Team of the 20th Century were chosen by 250 international football journalists – Yashin was named the sole goalkeeper.

He was chosen to be the goalkeeper in most of the world-all-time teams ever written, including the FIFA World Cup All-Time Team and the FIFA Dream Team.

He is also believed to have saved about 150 penalty kicks, much more than any other goalkeeper in history.

He played 12 matches at a World Cup, with 4 clean sheets. In his entire career, he had 270 clean sheets, out of 812.

Perhaps rather strangely, he said that the way to do it is to “have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles.”

He’s credited with inventing / starting now commonplace practices:
- quick throw of ball to begin swift counterattack
- coming out of penalty area to snuff out danger
- command and organization of his fullbacks
- punching the ball away in certain situations rather than trying to hold on to it

He spent his entire pro career with Dynamo Moscow from 1949 to 1971 (326 games), winning the USSR football championship 5 times and the USSR Cup 3 times. However, his debut game was less auspicious, as he failed to save a soft shot straight from a clearance by the opponent’s keeper! That probably sidelined him for 3 years, until he made the senior team again in 1953.

He was the goalkeeper for the Soviet Union between 1954 and 1970, earning 78 caps, conceding 70 goals, and winning the gold medal at the 1956 Olympics and the 1960 European Championship.

Playing in 3 World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1966). he helped his country to reach the quarterfinals. In a group match against a rampant Brazil where his team lost 0-2, his performance ensured they didn’t lose by a much bigger margin.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of his greatest performances was the 1963 FA Centenary match, when he played for the “Rest of the World XI” team against England at Wembley. There, he made some unbelieveable saves.

He was undefeated in men’s singles from 1939 (aged 18) until his retirement in 1953, 14 years later.

Apparently he only ever ventured out of the USA in 1949 to participate in the All-England, the Thomas Cup and Danish Open, all held in that same year.

That seemingly lack of exposure to world class opponents did not prevent him from astonishingly becoming the only American ever to be badminton men’s singles world champion when he won the All-England, then considered the world championships, by defeating Malayan legend Ooi Teik Hock with seeming ease 15-1, 15-6. It was his first and only participation in that championships.

A video of that match:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Another video of the same match, from another angle:

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the Thomas Cup, the world’s most important men’s badminton team competition, even though the USA lost 3-6 to eventual champions Malaya, he remained undefeated. And of course he won the Danish Open too.

During these tournaments, he also defeated another Malayan legend: Wong Peng Soon, probably the only player capable of defeating Freeman. In fact, Freeman faced Wong 3 times in his career and won all of them.

Wong Peng Soon would go on to win the All-England singles title 4 times, including 3 consecutively in 1950-1952.

In 1997 Freeman became the first American to be inducted into the International Badminton Federation Hall of Fame.