Ringo as the Australian Open?

Here's a quirky article from ESPN that matches each of The Beatles with one of the four majors of professional tennis and explores the commonalities. It's for real.

One passage:

Yes, Roland Garros is the George Harrison of tennis's Fab Four. As Harrison was to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Roland Garros is a touch less significant than Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. But in some ways, Roland Garros, like Harrison, is exotic, spiritual and underrated, a place of a many different languages than all the others, where the music blends new instruments, all things must pass and players struggle for hours on end, sliding on the clay....

The analysis is forced at times (especially John as the U.S. Open) and several of the lyric excerpts are, at best, mildly amusing and, at worst, completely needless. But Joel Drucker does locate similarities where they (surprisingly) exist and, in the process, puts together a pretty imaginative take on this intersection of different aspects of culture.

And because I'll likely never have another opening to comment on professional tennis (a sport I love), here's this: Federer's defeat of Nadal in Madrid yesterday was huge. It was for a Masters Series title, on clay, a week before Roland Garros begins, and against the player who has so greatly vexed him. Props, Roger.

Highlights? Why not:


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