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If the weather carries on as it has been, the organisers of the French Open might like to consider adapting cricket’s Duckworth/Lewis method. This is a system whereby matches interrupted by rain can be decided over a shortened distance. The great thing about it is that no one really understands it and so is in no position to argue with it.
Tennis has done it before, of course, when it introduced the tie-breaker to stop matches going on interminably. This, in contrast to Duckworth/Lewis, is quite a straightforward system.
Before the rain arrived today - making it four days out of five that the weather has intervened - the first real upsets of the competition took place with the defeats of Amelie Mauresmo, two times a grand-slam winner, and the men’s sixth and seventh seeds, David Nalbandian and James Blake. And what was really surprising was that all three lost to no-hopers.
Even Mauresmo, who has a reputation for being someone who could choke on pureed banana, could not possibly lose to the Spanish qualifier Carla Suarez Navarro. But this is what she did, going out 6-3, 6-4.
In fairness to Mauresmo, who in 2006 won the Australian and Wimbledon titles, this is her first tournament since last month’s Fed Cup tie in Japan. Since then she has been held back by an abdominal injury and today she clearly had trouble with her serve as she lost her second-round match in 72 minutes.
Suarez Navarro, 19, who was playing in her first grand-slam event, was the first to hold serve in the fifth game and broke her opponent again to lead 5-2 before sealing the opening set in 34 minutes. Mauresmo, who has never made it past the quarter-finals in Paris, dropped serve again in the fourth game of the second set and despite managing three games in a row, was broken again in the ninth.

blogs.guardian.co.uk

"It’s still early," said Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY yesterday. "I mean, everybody is so focused on where we are right now — I guess I remember that, in June of 1992, that’s when Bill really wrapped up the nomination — the middle of June, after the California primary."
Then- Gov. Bill Clinton literally did not secure enough delegates through the primary and caucus process until the California primary, June 2, 1992.
But he had sewn up the nomination long before then.
Months before then.
Moreover, the first real contest that year was on February 18, 1992. (No one competed in the Iowa caucuses since Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, was a candidate that year) The first real contest this year, the Iowa caucus, was January 3, 2008. So you’d also expect that race to last later in the calendar — it started more than a month and a half later.
But regardless of that, here are some key dates for that 1992 race that indicate how misleading this argument is.
February 18, 1992 — Sen. Paul Tsongas, D-Mass., wins New Hampshire primary. A scandal-plagued Gov. Bill Clinton comes in second.
February 20, 1992 — San Diego Union-Tribune headline: "Tsongas got most votes, but Clinton says he won".
February 25, 1992 — Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., wins the South Dakota primary.
March 3, 1992 — Clinton wins Georgia. Tsongas wins Maryland. Harkin wins Minnesota and Idaho. Former California governor Jerry Brown wins Colorado. Still all very much up for grabs.
March 5, 1992 — With no money, Kerrey ends his campaign. "We were ready to go full throttle," Kerrey says, "but unfortunately we ran out of gas."
March 7, 1992 — Clinton wins South Carolina.
Harkin announces he will drop out.
March 10, 1992 — Clinton cleans up on Super Tuesday, winning Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas. Tsongas wins Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

blogs.abcnews.com

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