“I know it for a fact anything can happen, and I have to accept them both in the same way,” Nadal said after the match. “You cannot collapse either because you’ve won a match or because you’ve lost it. This is sport, and you can have victories or defeats. No one remembers defeats on the long run. People remember victories.”

Soderling will play No. 10 seed Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals. They will be joined by No. 2 seed Roger Federer, who bested Tommy Haas 6-7, 5-7, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 on Monday. Federer, who needs a Roland Garros title to complete a Career Slam, has lost in the finals to Nadal each of the past three years.  The field is rounded out by No. 3 seed Andy Murray, No. 12 seed Fernando Gonzalez, No. 16 seed Tommy Robredo and the winners of two matches to be completed today. No. 6 seed Andy Roddick will play No. 11 seed Gael Monfils, while No. 5 seed Juan Martin Del Potro will play No. 9 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Coedmagazine.com has a list of 10 professional athletes who are on Twitter. I’ve listed them here and you can click on their names to follow them:

-Giants QB Eli Manning (does he slur and lisp when he Tweets?)

-Snowboarder Shaun White

-NY Jets safety Kerry Rhodes

-Skateboarder Mike Vallely (who? Ok, if you say so)

-Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal

-Golfer Natalie Gulbis (mmmmmm…I’m not into celebs, but I’d follow her wherever. She’s got huuuge Tweets)

-Former 49er WR Jerry Rice

-Overexposed Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps

-Tennis player Andy Murray

-Bicyclist Lance Armstrong

We’d rather just shut it down than to run a boring, poorly updated blog, which is what OTR is starting to become.

We can’t thank all of our readers enough. You guys have all been great and we had a ton of fun playing with everyone. Maybe we’ll do it again some day. We could have just let the blog die slowly and not update it, but that’s not fair to anyone. We thought we would give OTR a proper burial by at least letting everyone know that we are calling it quits.

Memorial services will be held Sunday, December 21st at 2 PM at the Lodi, NJ YMCA.

You can send thoughts and regards to MPerry_77@hotmail.com and MicahW@feverpitchmedia.com.

Happy Holidays to all of those in OTR land!!

Federer also saw his streak of 65 consecutive grass wins snapped as well. Considering Federer’s reign of tennis dominance, a lot of other streaks were probably broken with the loss too. Those streaks may or may not be of note.

Photo Caption: Nadal during Sunday’s win over Federer at Wimbledon.

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PHOTO CAPTION: ‘barry’ was kind enough to forward his school picture from this year.

I spoke to ‘barry’ last night to let him know he was receiving this award and I asked him to tell us a little bit about himself that the readers might not know. Before I could even get out the question ‘barry’ yelled out, “Tomorrow is Monopoly night. Baltic Ave is my favorite.”

With a little snicker I responded, “That’s great, ‘barry,’ that’s great. Tell us more?”

The conversation continued for about ten minutes before he had to finish up his life-sized Simon Birch sculpture for his LEGO contest this weekend. But let me highlight some interesting facts ‘barry’ wanted to share with OTR and you, the readers. His favorite sports team is the Charlotte Sting. He loves the WNBA, because he doesn’t feel dunking should be legal. “It’s too violent,” he said. ‘barry’s’ favorite color is dark orange. And he has a pet turtle named after his favorite person of all-time, ‘Skippy’ from Family Ties, who was played by Marc Price.

Before we ended our conversation I asked ‘barry’ what his favorite comment (or as he likes to say, ‘coment’) was on OTR’s site. He singled out this quote under a Chad Johnson article:

“no coment micah? hummmmm why? because the jimmey rollins”

“Because the jimmey rollins,” I don’t think Micah or myself could have summed it up better. Again, we salute you ‘barry’ as OTR’s Fan Of The Year. Don’t stop commenting. Continue your schooling to get that grammar perfected. And tell your friends that OTR did an article all about you, buddy. You are the best.

OTR Note: ‘barry’ is now commenting as ‘mark.’ I guess he doesn’t realize we can see his posts are coming from the same computer. You will soon see ‘mark’s’ aka ‘barry’s’ comments (same grammatical errors). They are currently in moderation.

“Discoveries in genetics, physiology and nanotechnology are creating new challenges to definitions of cheating. Sports executives including Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay and former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound say a reconsideration of what’s fair may lead to more-invasive testing, rules designed for emerging technologies and even legalizing banned substances if they become so commonplace they confer no advantage.”

End excerpt.

Former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound? Are you kidding me? Dick Pound? I need to do more research. His full name is Richard William Duncan Pound. This is even more funny. Let’s say he uses his middle name as Will. Dick Will Pound? Honestly, how do you name your child Dick Pound? I apologize if there are any Dick Pounds that read this blog.

PHOTO CAPTION: Dick Pound shows that he measures up to the competition.

Alright, enough…read the article, it’s pretty good. And while you are on that site, check where the 10 year treasury is at to see if mortgage rates will go up or down tomorrow.

However, T.O. likes this loser and that’s the real news. Owens on how they met (from the NY Times article), “I guess we both kind of watched each other from afar. We exchanged numbers. He has a guy out of Waco, Tex., does some biomechanics, who works on his body during his season to keep his body in shape. I use that same guy, John Patterson, during my football season. He keeps up with me, I try to keep up with him. Since that time we’ve kept in touch with each other and followed each other’s careers.”

Roddick on Owens, “I wish a lot of the public saw what I saw. He’s a pretty friendly guy, he’ll meet people — friends of mine — who he doesn’t really even know, and he’s nothing but nice and sweet to them. I wish the public saw a little bit more of that side of him.”

OTR’s opinion. We think it’s cute. They watch each other from afar. They exchanged numbers. They keep up with each other during workouts. They are meeting each others friends, being all nice and sweet. They do make a cute couple. I’m happy for them.

Photo Caption: Pappas says, “Utah. Get me two tennis articles today.”

This is a first for OTR. A tennis article!!! I actually had to create a new category. We believe if more tennis players hurt themselves more articles will be written.

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