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Mad Dash: French Open winner has awesome tattoo

max thompson

In a tennis era that's been dominated by three guys, Stan Wawrinka has emerged as an underdog worth rooting for, despite the likeability of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Wawrinka won his second grand slam final by upsetting Djokovic on Sunday at the French Open, and it gave us a chance to learn a little more about a guy who's truly unique in the tennis world. Specifically, he has to be the most tattooed guy to ever have this much success on the tour, but beyond that, the tattoos he has are also fascinating in their own right. As first brought to our attention by For The Win, the ink on Wawrinka's left arm is pretty inspiring. It's from a Samuel Beckett poem and reads:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

In an interview with the Guardian between Sunday and his 2014 Australian Open win, Wawrinka said the tattoo is an appropriate reflection of his world and life view.

“I only did the tattoo last year, but I first saw the quote a long time ago. It always stayed in my mind. It’s how I see life and tennis. The meaning of the quote doesn’t change no matter how well you do. There is always disappointment, heartache. You are losing almost every tournament. You need to just accept it and be positive because you are going to lose and fail. We’re not all Nadal or Djokovic, who can win most tournaments.”

He's right, but at least now we know who we want to pull for when those guys fall short.

Handling hecklers is part of the job for any professional athlete, but all hecklers are not cut from the same cloth. When a Seattle fan blew Tampa Bay pitcher Chris Archer a kiss at Safeco Field, Archer responded with an all-time rebuttal. Well played.

In case you were curious about whether there's any issue too small for FIFA to screw up, think again. While the rest of the world waits to see if Russia and Qatar will keep the 2018 and 2022 men's World Cup in light of Sepp Blatter stepping down as president, the FIFA site itself is screwing up live updates for the women's games. As spotted by Sports Illustrated, the site's game updates are using male pronouns to recap big moments. Clearly, the braintrust behind the site apparently didn't bother to make that fix high on the priority list. Hey, it's not like they had a year to prepare or anything.

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The Yahoo Sports Mad Dash is a roundup of the morning's trending stories from across the sports landscape. Check it out every day to see what's buzzing.