#challengerers

[batsplat]

sampras tops generous agassi is insane LMAO. thank you for that lovely pt. 2 to the sampras/agassi rivalry essay!!!!!! i showed my friend your first post and she said, of agassi's biography quotes (specifically the "pete, always pete" motif): "OK THATS INSANE.... whys he writing like this is the song of Achilles or something. i could recognize him by touch alone core" andlksjfd and i found it very apt

please it's no trouble, I LOVE talking about them. and yes!! yes!! I LOVE how poetic about this stuff agassi is, how he really just like... gets the narrative appeal of sports, how he's so singularly capable of putting words to it. and how he talks about sampras! where he knows they're both alike in some fundamental ways, that there's something they've shared with each other that can never be erased... that sampras will always be part of his story, inescapable, inevitable. as always, pete. but also this fundamental feeling of separation. of alienation. of not being able to breach that divide

which is a PERFECT excuse to bring in perhaps my favourite interview agassi ever did, courtesy of der spiegel around the time of the release of the autobiography. it's quite extensive and the whole thing is very much worth a read. unsurprisingly given that it's a german magazine, a lot of attention is paid to agassi's relationship with steffi graf - and those bits are particularly sweet and sad

SPIEGEL: Both of you were drilled by fathers who wanted to control everything. Agassi: What is right is that both of us were in our fathers' hands. I told a lot of people that I hated tennis -- seriously and strongly hated it -- and they all tried to talk me out of it: "Ah, that is not right, Andre; in fact you love tennis, don't you?" Do you want to know what Stefanie said: "Don't we all?"

god.

there's also a fair bit about agassi's relationship with his father, so fair warning that those parts are all quite heavy. AND it's also very interesting on the actual writing process for the autobiography and how agassi's collaboration with moehringer came about. plus it takes some fun swings at chang and courier, for old time's sake. but to turn back to sampras, there's just something so striking about how agassi describes what it felt like playing tennis -

SPIEGEL: Mr. Agassi, is it possible for a happy person to win Wimbledon? Andre Agassi: For me, it's hard to imagine. SPIEGEL: Roger Federer seems to actually enjoy playing. Agassi: Yes, maybe. But, in my world, this is impossible. The maximum were short moments of peace during a match which we, the players, used to call "the Zone." But you couldn't plan it. It was never constant. And it went by very fast. SPIEGEL: Does a tennis professional have to be obsessed? Must there be some kind of trauma for him or her to be good? Agassi: While I was winning Wimbledon, I felt like I would die. I feared to fail; I feared embarrassment.

- and then later in the interview gives his thoughts on sampras -

SPIEGEL: For years, the rivalry between you and Pete Sampras was magical to a worldwide audience. Is there still a connection between the two of you? Agassi: There is a lot of respect. I believe that, without Pete, I would have won more and learned less. SPIEGEL: He appears to have been as driven as you were. He had to sleep in ice-cold rooms in total darkness. Was he obsessed or traumatized, as well? Agassi: We were all driven. And, of course, there is something strange about tennis: Egocentric and narcissistic behavior can win; torture and the isolation of players may lead you to the top. Pete and I shared our life and our fate; we were together all year long. But we were lonely. If there was not the net separating us, there was a wall.

and... yeah. "if there was not the net separating us, there was a wall". nyhhhhh this idea that to be a good tennis player, you need to embrace the worst aspects of yourself, that you need to make yourself suffer... egocentric, narcissistic - a sport of the tortured and the isolated... pete and I shared our life and our fate; we were together all year long. but we were lonely........ god. GOD. what more is there even to say!!

which is really agassi's gift, isn't it... putting words to the dark underbelly of the sport that everyone who's spent enough time in that world is aware of - but may never be forced to confront. tennis is hell, it can be one of the loneliest experiences imaginable - and so much of agassi's story is about attempting to stave off that fundamental horror. surrounding himself by as many people as possible, trying to live a real and full and loud life... because whenever he stepped on court he had to face The Horror once again. rivals who can share a life and a fate but can never truly understand each other, a net dividing the players that might as well be a wall... as always, pete - and as always, alone

[bellezzamortale]

"#...rafans who for the most part had. ahem #some strong opinions on juan carlos ferrero" oooh can you say more pls im curious

oh it's really just exactly what you think it would be, lmao.

idk if you were on tennis twitter during the peak big 4 era, but if you weren't the one thing you've got to know is that it's nothing like the cute little tennis tumblr community. on here we all love out faves and if we have players we don't like, we mostly keep it to ourselves.

meanwhile 2010s tennis twitter? was insanely tribal. it was a battle field where most fans of the big 3 thought of themselves as footsoldiers in the war effort of establishing their fave as the GOAT.

rafans, fedfans and nolefam have been on the warpath since forever. in the 2010s when roger was still at the peak of his powers some fedfans hated rafa so much i once saw one of them refer to him as "sewer slime". lots of fans are completely convinced all the other big players are dopers and only their personal favourite is clean, and that the other players are faking their injuries and only their personal favourite is really hurt, etc etc.

so of course when juanki took little jabs at rafa every once in a blue moon in interviews, how many hardcore rafans were saying "aw he's had a rough go at it with injuries for years, and rafa is a young upstart who came in and totally stole his spotlight, i can see how that could be upsetting, lets give the man a bit of grace"? uh. not a lot 😭😂

so my introduction to the man was basically only rafans making snide comments about him being jealous and a bad sport, because he was already retired for a couple of years when i joined twitter so i never got to saw him play live.

the strangest part of it all was that i distinctly remember a couple of rafa fans (i could probably count them on one hand though) who just... distrusted ferru by association? because if ferru was so close with someone who clearly didn't like rafa, then surely ferru himself had to bear a grudge against rafa and was just hiding it really well!!! they were constantly on the lookout for the most minor infraction, i got unfollowed by like 5 people over a completely harmless joke ferru made after the 2015 rio open final that people adamantly took out of context.

good times! everyone was completely off their rocker and i wouldn't have missed it for the world 😌

[matteoberrettini]

nico!! thank u for the mcenroe and borg gifs! lowkey been getting into them as a ship on the side bc of their laver cup hug and the story of mcenroe calling borg to tell him not to sell his trophies ldksjaflkds.

omg hi saria!!! that's GREATTT wow i'm so fascinated by this and glad to have provided content. what's their ship name? borgenroe? mcenborg? jorn lmaooo? either way love this ship idea

[roryheartz]

baby daddy patrick texts perchance?

YES YES he is a girl dad bc i said so

(super corny bc i cant figure out how to be funny w/out being cringe)

[ftyeonjun]

truly baffled by people calling any mmf threesome "challengers-isms" now. what happened here. you saw a girl fuck two guys and you think omfg this is sooo challengers coded are u ok

[expergoe]

tagged by @challengerers ! thankuu sorry this took a sec to get to LMFAO

Tag 9 people you wanna get to know.

Last Song Listened To: andy, you're a star - the killers

Last Movie You Watched: ermm god its been ages. possibly venom like two months ago LMFAO.

Currently Watching: (re)watching torchwood for the 1000th time!

Currently Reading: roger federer and rafael nadal the lives + careers of two tennis legends (holy mouthful) also rereading half-light by frank bidart :)

Current Obsession: TENNIS !! and a little gtav. waiting to finish my uni term so i can start grinding in online again

tagging (no pressure!!!!!!) (i also couldnt think of 9 ppl tbh. feel free to also do this if u want):

@mousemannation @rgrfederer @pinkcaraz @ballerbunni @fritzes @hydroblader

[bluespring864]

Tag 9 people you wanna get to know.

Thank you so much for the tag! @butterflyintochains and sorry for the late reply! This is always a busy time of year for me.

Last Song Listened To - I was listening to a Jaques Brel live album yesterday. The last encore on that is "Le plat pays", one of my favourite songs of his.

Last Movie You Watched - Don't watch a ton of movies either so I think it was probably Challengers in the cinema this spring... which is kind of a shame because I didn't even like it that much. I should watch some films over the holidays :)

Currently Watching - Nothing, really. I just finished Season 3 of Taskmaster Australia which was hilarious and I will catch up on Only Connect soon, I am somewhere halfway through the current series but set it aside because of too much work... Also I will definitely try to catch a bit of the Japanese Figure Skating Nationals over the holidays.

Currently Reading - Depressingly, I started reading numerous books months ago and haven't finished any of them yet. Have to finish The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr soon though because I really need to give it back to the friend I borrowed it from a year ago! Fanfic reading: obviously everything by our new Novandy anon <3 And I want to catch up on the rest of the tennis rpf tag on Ao3 soon, and the Tatort tag as well... I hope the holidays will be long enough for all of that!

Current Obsession - Tennis. It was when I replied to one of these tag games a year or two ago and it probably will be until the end of time :D

no pressure tags to:

@alacants, @crossedcourt, @lightsouttennis, @forty-lou, @michelle-ma-cherie

@dianashnaiders, @arfield, @iamsigningmylifeaway, @challengerers

[bubikort]

Segítsetek már. Ennék valami jó baszó erős chipset. Tegnap be is csapattam a kedvenc kőbányai úti kínaimba, ahol vettem ezt. Viszont a hot felirat ellenére is maximum pikánsnak mondanám. Van valakinek valami bevált (és könnyen beszerezhető) evős chipse(tehát nem a hot chip challengere gondolom)?

[mirohtron]

Girl?? Challengere????? What's that?

omg u havent heard ??? its a new zendaya film and its from the same director as call me by ur name

[gabriel-rodriguez]

Had a fun #doppleganger side quest last Friday with my friends. Was also able to merge this fella into the story. He is Groh, the father of the blue dragonborn from the party. It was really fun and they seemed to enjoy the tension and puzzle. Though maybe they need more of a challenge because let's just say the fighter demolished the doppelganger despite being the right #challengerating

#drawing #art #dndcharacter #dndcharacterart #backstory #dndnpc #dndnpcart #oc

[batsplat]

your sampras/agassi post was life changing... my god

(said post) thank you!! I'm really pleased by the pick up that post has gotten - I don't post much about tennis on here, but it always has and always will be my number one sport and this rivalry is one that's very dear to my heart. incidentally, I got a similar ask prompting a write up of the henin/clijsters rivalry, so when I find the time I'll talk about them in similar depth too. now there's a rivalry that definitely deserves more attention that it gets

but speaking of agassi/sampras, while I have you here... there's one particular match from 1994 I only very briefly alluded to that does also speak rather nicely to the themes of that rivalry. it's the final of key biscayne (aka miami), played at a time when sampras is the dominant world number one and agassi is still on just the single slam. the reason why this match is so notable is that it could very easily not have happened. sampras was struggling with health issues at that point of his career - and before the match was scheduled to start, agassi came upon him lying prone on the locker room floor with severe stomach pain

sampras was not ready to start the match at the scheduled start time. by rights, it should have been agassi's win via walkover. the tournament directors requested that agassi agree to a delay of the match - it's particularly awkward to have to cancel a final, after all, with thousands of spectators present to see the big match (x)

On March 20, when Agassi entered the locker room before the final, he witnessed a very unusual scene: Sampras was lying on the ground, suffering from a stomach ache. There was no way Sampras could be ready to start the final on time, which would make Agassi the Miami champion. However, the world No 1 thought he would be able to play if Agassi agreed to delay the final by an hour. Agassi agreed. “It’s not about winning the tournament; it’s about taking pride in what you do,” Agassi explained later, according to The New York Times. “If I couldn’t beat Pete healthy, I didn’t deserve to win the tournament.”

delaying it by A WHOLE HOUR is just objectively extremely generous from agassi - though of course the expectation was that sampras surely wouldn't be particularly competitive anyway. sampras got an IV drip that managed to at least get him back on his feet and ready to take to the court. so at last, after all the fuss and delay, they manage to get the match started. here's agassi in his autobiography describing the delay:

After dispatching Becker, I’m in the final. My opponent? Pete. As always, Pete. The match is slated for national TV. Brad and I are both keyed up as we walk into the locker room, only to find Pete lying on the ground. A doctor and a trainer are leaning over him. The tournament director hovers in the background. Pete brings his knees up to his chest and groans. Food poisoning, the doctor says. Brad whispers to me, Guess you just won Key Biscayne. The director takes Brad and me aside and asks if we’d be willing to give Pete time to recover. I feel Brad stiffen. I know what he wants me to say. But I tell the director, Give Pete all the time he needs. The director sighs and puts his hand on my arm. Thank you, he says. We’ve got fourteen thousand people out there. Plus the network. Brad and I lounge around the locker room, flipping channels on the TV, making phone calls. I dial Brooke, who’s auditioning for Grease on Broadway. Otherwise, she’d be here. Brad shoots me an evil glare. Relax, I tell him, Pete probably won’t get better. The doctor gives Pete an IV, then props him on his feet. Pete wobbles, a newborn colt. He’ll never make it. The tournament director comes to us. Pete’s ready, he says. Fucking A, Brad says. So are we. Should be a short night, I tell Brad.

now, I reckon by now you should be able to guess where this is going. you can find the full match on youtube (samprasfan1987 one of the absolute goats of historical tennis match youtube), though unfortunately only with german commentary. here's three minute highlights with truly horrendous quality:

and I'd recommend it as a match to experience in its entirety. it's........ it's not the best match you'll ever see. it's not the best match those two have played. it's certainly a match those two have played. but, y'know, the thing about tennis is that sometimes it just isn't the best matches that are the most compelling... sometimes it's the matches where both players are fighting their demons. sometimes it's compelling to watch the demons win

because of course sampras can't do the decent thing and just roll over and die. he just HAS to come out swinging, clearly rattling agassi with how he can actually somehow play proper tennis in his condition. this match is such a fun little case study of what an absolute bitch it is to play a physically diminished opponent. the spectators, the commentator, you the viewer, and agassi himself - everyone knows that agassi SHOULD be winning this match. of course he should!! sampras was lying on the FLOOR an hour ago, he's had to IV his way back to his feet, agassi is giving him the "newborn colt" descriptors. and this kind of set-up does run the risk of making you feel like it's a lose-lose situation. if you win, you only won because your opponent was off your game. if you lose, then you're a fucking moron who couldn't even put away the weakest version of your rival

and it's clearly affecting agassi, who plays poorly at the start of the match. he quickly goes down 2-5*, double break to sampras, not finding his rhythm and reeling off a litany of cheap errors as sampras ticks up his games with typical metronomic efficiency. agassi might be making sampras' life easier, but sampras certainly isn't playing like a man who'd lain stricken with agony a short while earlier. then, however, agassi rallies - finds his game, loosens up, probably because he was already down on the scoreboard. the worst case scenario was already happening. the momentum switches quickly and it looks like sampras might be ailing physically after all. agassi still isn't playing his best - but he takes it to sampras, cleans up the error count a little and takes five consecutive games to win the first set 7-5. which, well. a physically healthy sampras generally does not get broken three service games in a row. not with his serve

so going into the second set, it looks like... well, maybe sampras had only about half an hour of decent tennis in him. now he's run out of steam, it's basically game over, right? agassi can cruise home to take the match and the title - probably shouldn't have let the first set get so spooky, but all's well that ends well. spectators got their show, agassi doesn't fall apart against a guy who might keel over any minute

except... except. first set to agassi, and the pressure's once again on him... once again, he's the guy who's supposed to be winning. sampras is down, might be out - he has no reason not to swing freely in a match he probably should be losing. and unfortunately for agassi, there's no guarantee sampras might not recover again physically somewhat after all. energy levels can wax and wane - if you're trying to manage some kind of physical issue, you might be struggling for a while before suddenly clicking back into gear again. agassi has the momentum, sampras has nothing to lose

you know what happens next. sampras gets better and better. agassi gives up a cheap break early in the second - by the third, sampras does manage to find a strong level. it's basically one way traffic. sampras takes the victory. agassi takes another blow

or, as the washington post would put it in a true all timer sports headline:

lovely

here is sampras' description of that episode:

Meanwhile, in a development I kept secret from everyone, I was battling physical problems of my own, although they were paltry compared to Tim’s. For more than a year, I had been struggling with bouts of nausea and an inability, at times, to keep food or even water down. The situation started sometime in 1993, and was so aggravated by the spring of 1994 that I was unable to make the start time for the final of the important Key Biscayne tournament, in which I was to play Andre Agassi. In a gesture I still appreciate, Andre agreed to postpone the scheduled 1 P.M. start of the final for an hour, while I took an intravenous glucose drip. I had been throwing up all morning, which I blamed on the pasta dinner I’d had the night before. The IV did the job, rehydrating me, and I went on to win the final in three sets. At the time, I wanted to believe that the episodes were somehow related to dehydration.

and his immediate post-match comments:

“I woke up at 7 feeling nauseated, heaving and gagging; I didn’t think I’d be able to go out and play,” Sampras added. “But I feel a lot better now. As the match wore on, the adrenaline started kicking in and I started to think I could win when the chips are down. That sort of showed me I’ve got guts.”

guts that were nearly spilling out of him at one point, one might note

and on agassi's side:

“Once he got in front, he started serving big, and that was it,” Agassi commented. “Part of me was saying there was no way he could stay out there for three sets…. I was wrong.” During the trophy ceremony, tournament founder Butch Bucholz thanked Agassi for his sportsmanship, and the runner-up received a standing ovation from the crowd. 

I'm sure agassi felt better getting a standing ovation for having been made a fool of

and that's the problem, isn't it, hinted at by agassi's own line - playing a diminished opponent forces you to think far far more than you should be. it increases the stakes. it makes you feel like you should be winning. it saps at your concentration. it requires you to resist feeling any sympathy or even pity for your opponent when they're struggling. it makes you wonder if you should be taking advantage of your opponent's condition, make them move around the court more, prolong the points, change your style of play to better suit the situation. it makes you wary of celebrating too much, partly out of respect and partly out of a sense of dignity, messes with your motivation levels. makes you think too much about how people are reacting to the match when you should be focusing on how you're playing it. it makes you try and peer into the future - wondering when their level might drop off, if you just need to hold out until their legs give way... all these extra considerations, eating away at your concentration and mental strength. on the flip side, it can make everything easier for the struggling player: they know they only have limited options to pull off the win, they know they probably shouldn't be winning, so they can opt for simplicity over turmoil

it's a universal dynamic in tennis, happens to the best of us - but this specific scenario does also feel like it just happens to be perfect for this specific rivalry. as always, pete; as always, denying andre. sampras, who could swing freely and fight as hard as he dared and show his guts and emerge victorious. agassi, plagued by doubts, second guessing himself as he lets his inevitable rival inevitably snatch away another victory. from right under his nose. after having been lying prone on the locker room floor in front of agassi's own eyes

as ever, of course, agassi himself puts it best:

But Pete does it again. He sends his evil twin onto the court. This is not the Pete who was curled in a ball on the locker-room floor. This is not the Pete who was getting an IV and wobbling in circles. This Pete is in the prime of life, serving at warp speed, barely breaking a sweat. He’s playing his best tennis, unbeatable, and he jumps out to a 5–1 lead. Now I’m angry. I feel as if I found a wounded bird, brought it home, and nursed it back to health, only to have it try to peck my eyes out. I fight back and win the set. Surely I’ve withstood the only attack Pete can mount. He can’t possibly have anything left. But in the second set he’s even better. And in the third he’s a freak. He wins the best-of-three match. I burst into the locker room. Brad is waiting for me, seething. He says again that if he’d been in my place, he’d have forced Pete to forfeit. He’d have demanded that the director fork over the winner’s check. That’s not me, I tell Brad. I don’t want to win like that. Besides, if I can’t beat a guy who’s poisoned, lying on the ground, I don’t deserve it. Brad abruptly stops talking. His eyes get big. He nods. He can’t argue with that. He respects my principles, he says, even though he doesn’t agree. We walk out of the stadium together like Bogart and Claude Rains at the end of Casablanca. The beginning of a beautiful friendship. A vital new member of the team.

such an impressive act of sportsmanship. so completely unrewarded. god, I LOVE the wounded bird trying to peck agassi's eyes out description. can you IMAGINE how annoying that must be if you're agassi? what a thorn in your side this one guy must be? what does it TAKE to put this bloke away? doesn't even have the decency to lose when he's needing an IV drip to take to the court. always, always, ALWAYS catching agassi by surprise. in their first slam final when agassi should've been the favourite, in that 2001 uso quarterfinal when agassi was in far better form, in their last ever slam final and match... even here, when sampras should have been a shell of himself. somehow sampras finds something, somehow he has an evil doppelgaenger to send out in his stead. no wonder he kept scrambling agassi's brain. what a nightmare to deal with

[challengerers]

tfw you encounter a word you've never seen before and its so cool you want to make it your url but its taken bc of course it is. challengerers it is for Now.

[pynchfic]

Hi just wanted to say I love this blog and I can't believe I only just discovered it!!!

So glad you’re enjoying!

-Sheila

[astudyinfreewill]

challengereality replied to your post “Something Wicked This Way Comes: or, the Rising Dark in Ronan’s Arc”

Your essay makes a LOT of sense and makes me wonder- what if Ronan manifested Bryde the same way he manifested Cabeswater? Bryde may have needed a willing dreamer to pull him out of dreamspace, and that's why we never see Bryde before the end of the book: he didn't have a corporeal form yet. I'm not saying Ronan invented Bryde- Bryde has existed for a long time & maybe was an actual person- but he's since been stuck in dream space trying to get out to wage his war...?

@challengereality oh, very interesting point!! however i’m not entirely sold on ronan “manifesting” him because as far as we know, manifesting something has to be a purposeful choice for ronan (which is also why the crabs make no sense) and he didn’t choose to pull bryde out of his dreams? i think the implication that bryde has ties to boudicca and the fairy market also means that he already does have a corporeal form, BUT... 

what i would be interested in is the notion of bryde being able to fully teleport himself, physical form and all, through ronan’s dreams. we already know he can interact with ronan’s dreams in other ways, such as actually pulling things out for him (like the sword hilt -- and, most likely, the crabs), so i suppose this also works for his own self? i suspect bryde is crazy powerful, more than ronan imagines, and dreamwalking is only one of his talents (shapeshifting is also probably high on the list...)

[dndeed]

What's the challenge rating on this tank-crushing bug?

Catachan Devil (catachanus scorpiones maximus)

Liber Xenologis