关注公众号《备考CATTI》，免费分享有关资料，笔记等！不喜欢套路，所有资料全部免费获取，因为免费所以珍贵！

Time and ties wait for no fan

What is a tiebreak?

Many a system has been used to separate winners and losers in sporting events where a draw is unpalatable

THE NERVES of myriad sports-lovers were shredded last weekend. After almost five hours of tennis, Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat Roger Federer of Switzerland in a fifth-set tiebreak at Wimbledon. Ten miles away, at Lord’s, England beat New Zealand to win the Cricket World Cup by a ridiculously narrow margin. Tied after 50 six-ball overs, the sides played out a final “super over”, which was again tied. But that was sufficient for England to emerge triumphant, since they had hit the ball to the boundary more times than New Zealand during the course of the day. Without such tiebreak measures, cricket fans might have been left with no clear winner; Messrs Djokovic and Federer might still be playing.

Tiebreaks in sport deliver a victor in situations where rivals have not been separated by conventional means. Sometimes—think league matches in football—a draw is considered acceptable. Other times—joint World Cup winners, anyone?–such a result just will not do. Only 17% of rugby fans were satisfied after the British and Irish Lions’ three tests against New Zealand in 2017 failed to produce an overall winner, according to a poll by Sky Sports. Many of the players were keen to play on and get a result, too. As the New Zealand rugby coach, Steve Hansen, put it: “We've ended up with one hand on the trophy each, which is a bit like kissing your sister.”

Tiebreaks come in all manner of forms, but invariably differ from normal gameplay. In grand-slam tennis, the tiebreak—usually triggered when a set reaches six games all—was first introduced at the US Open in 1970. At Wimbledon the previous year, Pancho Gonzalez and Charlie Pasarell had slogged it out for five hours in their first-round tie. Until recently most grand-slam competitions eschewed tiebreaks in the final set, but in this year’s tournament Wimbledon adopted them when scores reached 12-12, in order to ensure faster, more television-friendly finishes. (Even so, Sunday’s match between Messrs Federer and Djokovic was still the longest singles final in the tournament’s history.)

Tiebreaks in cricket are more recent. Test matches still end in draws, to the mystification of non-aficionados. “Bowl-outs”, when bowlers try to hit the stumps at the other end of the pitch, were introduced to decide shorter forms of the game in 1991. But these only reward a team’s bowling prowess, not its batting or fielding. And so the “super over”, in which each team faces six extra balls, has become the tiebreak of choice in recent years for certain 50- and 20-over matches.

【七月份】经济学人

Microsoft’s transformation required a change of culture

Pet-ownership is booming across the world

Cori Gauff announces herself at Wimbledon

Boris Johnson may reverse Britain’s embrace of sin taxes

How to predict the weather

BMW tries to turn a corner—and loses its boss

An unhealthy tax change hits British hospitals

The end is not yet in sight for Boeing’s 737 MAX crisis

The power and the passion of folk singing in Estonia

What is Libra?

The business of the body

推荐阅读：

【历年张璐口译】2019总理记者会，张璐翻译的这些话真给力！

公众号后台回复：

"政府工作报告"|"资料"|"外交部金句"|"卢敏".......

更多英汉注释政府报告：

十九大完结

19大词组及句子整理（百度网盘）

2019政府工作报告完结@备考CATTI个人注释

2018政府工作报告完结@备考CATTI个人注释

2017政府工作报告完结@备考CATTI个人注释

【中英对照全文】2019政府工作报告

---

如果您感觉本文还不错或者对您有帮助，那请分享给您的朋友