Answer to if question is:
USO trophy. Reason would be Sampras' last Slam, Clijsters' only Slam, and Serena's first Slam and possibly, the one that Federer may either tie or break Sampras' Slam record.

Kimiko Date also played in the same exhibition as Steffi Graf and Navratilova. She beat Graf 6/2 6/3 and Navratilova 7/3.

I hate the fact that FSN has the rights to Indian Wells. My local channel showed last years SEC's track and field championships instead of tennis. Hopefully since Miami is in the South, I'll get better coverage for the Miami tournament.

"...the only sport that's harder to play than to find on cable television...the only sport that's harder to play than to find on cable television..."

Easier to play you mean? :)

"...the only sport that's harder to play than to find on cable television...the only sport that's harder to play than to find on cable television..."

Easier to play you mean? :)

Memorabilia? If (when) Rafa wins Wimbledon, I would be very happy to have one of the balls from that final match. That's all. Just a ball. Wouldn't even have to be autographed. Just knowing how much Wimbledon means to him - it would make me proud to know I was in possession of a small part of that final.

Wimbledon trophy sounds good. RG's is also very pretty. But I only want the men's cup, no plates plz.

Sher - thanks for that correction

if question:

a racquet! either one of Rafa used when he won RG or one of Fed's, one he used when he won Wimbledon last year.

I'm not into the post matches sweaty gear.

the racquet: it would be like owning something from Antonio Stradivari. I know players have quite a different approach concerning their racquets, breaking them and throwing them away but still, that would be something very special.

apologies for the dreadful english.

TOF--I always wonder about that--who wants Federer's sweaty armband???

Does a set of racquets qualify as "one piece"? :)

A racquet from all of these:

Ashe's '68 USO and '75 Wimbledon
Pancho's matches in '58 against Hoad
Steffi's '88 USO finale to the golden slam
Rafter's '97 or '98 USO.

That'll do quite nicely, thank you. :)

crazyone, have you ever been to rf.com? ;-)

one of roger's rackets he used to play to win a gs final, preferably wimbledon. SIGNED!

Wait a second, when were the Olympics in '88? I'm so confused now. They must have been after the USO. Ah, I don't care. Just give me one of Steffi's racquets. :)

Good and funny point. The narrative of the MSG match wreaks of match-fixing.

Sher, I've been to the main website, not to the forum...I don't think I'm at that stage of craziness yet.

Supersnark: Yes, and add to this--the previous matches were in Asia, where Federer is probably more popular than Sampras given how recent the surge in tennis popularity is in that area, while this match was in the US, Sampras' home country. So it was necessary that he get at least a set here.

Um ... I'd take a Fed sweaty armband, thank you very much. ;)

Congrats to Fed for what seemed a 'perfect' sort of 1st round match for him. I little bit of rhythm, a little bit of S&V, and a little bit of good serving. High fives to Fed fans.

I, alas, could not attend, because a.) Fox sports was busy with other things in my area... snowmobiling, at one point!!! And b.), because I was helping John Adams defend British soldiers at the Boston Massacre trial, and then prodding the Continental Congress into declaring independance. Oh, also getting innoculated against small pox with Abigal and the kids - YIKES!!! Busy, busy, busy!!

I do seem to remember Mahoooooooot, TMF's next opponent, from back in a grass court tourney last year...Halle? Queens? ... where he beat a bunch of good players including Rafa??? But many intriguing matches today before we get to that.

The Barcelona trophy. In 2000, when Safin won Barcelona they's had it taken apart because of a bomb threat. They didn't put it together quite right, and during the trophy presentation Safin raised it and it dropped on his head. I think that knock to the head may be the explanation to a lot of the stuff we've seen from the guy since, and it may have been the single most crucial event in tennis in the past decade (except for the federer-horna match at the french in 2003).

Ed, great blog, but I would disagree about Harkleroad playing as good as some of the more notable Americans. Harkleroad is a solid player, but she's not a contender for a title. The win against Safina and her Fed cup competion was great for the US, but she has been on the tour for a while now and has never won a title. She does very well on the lower ITF circuit, but has a poor record against the top Americans such as Davenport and the Williamses. I remember when she first came out there was a lot of buzz that she was the next American hope, but she didn't live up to that promise, but good luck to her. Go Justine!

Ro'ee--I didn't know that about Safin and the Barcelona trophy.

Why do you say that the Federer-Horna match at the French was the most crucial event? Because it spurred Federer to turn into a GS-winning machine?

Ed - thanks for that Guga clip. Amazing to see him up at the net... and effectively so...so often. Cliff and PMac were talking about his incredible variety and how he had all the shots to choose from. Sounds familiar.

memorabilia:

the racquet that BJK used to beat Bobby Riggs: a weapon that changed the face of sport....

(and, if i'm truly honest, Marat Safin's jock strap....)

oh.. or the antwerp diamond racket. :)

The Fishing Channel is looking better and better these days.

I too was upset that FSN decided not show tennis Sunday, which was all I was looking forward to on a lazy afternoon. Instead I got bull riding championships here on FSN

hmmm...here's my list of tennis memorabilia

a Venus Williams Wimbledon racket (any one will do) -- to own a raquet of one of the best grass court female players in the game, with all due respect to Martina who won 9--she was before my time

a Serena Williams racket (the last woman to win the Grand Slam, albeit a "Serena Slam"

a Roger Federer racket (preferably the one he used to win his 15th Grand Slam, passes Pete Sampras)

a Rafa Nadal racket (the best clay courter I've seen lately in the game)

and for nostalagia--a Stefan Edberg ANYTHING, racket, shoe whatever. Because my one regret is that I never got to see him play in person.

and it goes without saying, I would like the above items autographed.

I would also like to be there the day Federer passes Sampras's record. I want to frame that ticket stub and the program of that match.

hmmm...here's my list of tennis memorabilia

a Venus Williams Wimbledon racket (any one will do) -- to own a raquet of one of the best grass court female players in the game, with all due respect to Martina who won 9--she was before my time

a Serena Williams racket (the last woman to win the Grand Slam, albeit a "Serena Slam"

a Roger Federer racket (preferably the one he used to win his 15th Grand Slam, passes Pete Sampras)

a Rafa Nadal racket (the best clay courter I've seen lately in the game)

and for nostalagia--a Stefan Edberg ANYTHING, racket, shoe whatever. Because my one regret is that I never got to see him play in person.

and it goes without saying, I would like the above items autographed.

I would also like to be there the day Federer passes Sampras's record. I want to frame that ticket stub and the program of that match.

Dang it. I forgot all about John Adams last night! How was it, CL???

I feel like Safin after double faulting on set point. Where's my racquet so I can break it?

Tennis Memoribilia I'd Love To Own:

1) Vick's Vaporub Cologne
2) Ace bandage headbands
3) Rebound Ace Sneakers
4) Temper-tantrum broken racquets as opposed to rackets
5) Grand Slam Slurpees
6) Mineral Icepops

Tennis memoribillia I'd love to own.

l. anything touched by Cliffie or Justine

crazyone, visiting the rf.com forums will answer your question about the sweaty armband, I'm sure. :)

"I, alas, could not attend, because a.) Fox sports was busy with other things in my area... snowmobiling, at one point!!!"

Fox Sports Network in my hood, preempted the Fed match with an episode of a show called Sports Science, in which a willing participant takes a rubber baseball out of a tennisball machine, right above his "five-hole" (non baseballers see wikipedia) to see what it must feel like to be hit with a 70mph pitch. Of course, this would only apply if hit by a Tim Wakefield pitch, or a kid pitching in the Little League World Series but I digress. Now I know this too. But, FSN did tape delay from Indian Wells in the ungodly 1:30am to 3:30am local, but only showed Kuzy and moper Murray....and listen to the Schtob telling Barry Tompkins how good he was in Rocky IV during the Saturday Nadal match...

Samantha Elin,
Was that you posting at 1:13 PM?

Schwab, I was about to ask the same.

as always, thanks for the MNP, Ed, but i´m a tad baffled by your continuing love for harkleroad.
yes, she has a *fine* season by her own standards so far. but to compare her in a way to zvonareva seems already a bit too kind/ too much praise for my taste.

i see that rusty won comfy vs querrey. well done mate, keep it up!
gutted to see that marin indeed lost (was a done deal after the TB in the first set but to see it now as a fact is not exactly high spirits inducing ;( ).

but the good thing today is eurosport covers one wta match and the schedule gods have been kind to me for once and decided it will be JJ vs sugiyama i get to see.
neat. splendid. brilliant.
at least i hope so.
could of course turn out to be poor. horrific. shambolic.
marin´s exit might have been the knell to the good IW days...

Not so much a piece of memorabilia, but a piece of memory: I'd love to have the memory of Roger Federer lifting his hands in victory after the finals at Roland Garros.

Hope springs eternal...

Bismarck,
Are you planning on doing some commentary on the JJ/Sugiyama match for TW? I will not be able to see IW coverage today because of work requirements.
If so, will it be in this thread?

Sherlock - It was terrific, actually. They clearly threw a ton of money at this and most of it was very well spent. The acting is first rate... Paul Giamatti (!!??) - who'd a thunk it, but he is excellant. And they really show you how just plain difficult, and often dirty, day to day life in the 1700s was...which makes you appreciate their extraordinary endeavors even more.

Of course, like almost all programs like this, at times you'd think John Adams was they whole revolutionary show, which of course is far from the truth. Someone....maybe McCulloch...or maybe Ellis... once wrote that John Adams was the most UNDER estimated man of the American revolution and Thomas Jefferson was the most OVER rated man of the American Revolution. And I think there is some truth to that, (as a chauvnistic New Englander, I am sort of bound to. ;-). But invevitably, the pendulum swings too far the OTHER way, when the reality is a much more complicated middle...which doesn't always lend itself to the narrative thread beloved by dramatists, novelists, tv producers or even historians. Meanwhile, we cling to the pendulum of opinion as best we can.

Anyway, I'm sure HBO will repeat this a LOT...they are going to want to get their money's worth. And it is definitely worth watching. We found ourselves totally mesmerized. So much so I almost forgot about TMF's match!!! (note the 'almost' ;-))

no Schwab, sorry.
didn´t take my laptop with me to not get tempted/sucked into doing uni work during my free time.
and this pc i´m using is not in one of the rooms which have tv here at my family´s palace.
can give post match impressions. will watch all the more closely. ;)
there won´t be any live match calls from me during IW at all (i can hear the sighs of relief, jejeje)

I would like a pair of Ivan Lendls shorts witha pocket full of sawdust
A pair of clay stained shoes worn by Guga and/or Rafa from one of their FO wins
The red dress Venus planned to wear in the 1999 USO final(which she lost to Hingis in the semi and never wore)
One of Serena's cat suits
a pair of black tuxedo shorts, worn by you know who
The alien uterus trophy from Dubai
Yuri's unabomber-esque AO ensemble
a lock of Boris Beckers hair

Bismarck, it's so cool that your family has a palace! ;-)

I want the earrings that Serena wore during the 2007 AO. I am convinced those were magic. :)

lol,crazyone.

Bismarck,
Post match comments would be greatly appreciated.

crazyone,
my home is my palace. ;)

Hi Ed,

Enjoyed this post very much. :) I highly recommend that you purchase the ATP live stream. It's basically the Masters Series feed the TC carries ... same announcers, too. Yesterday alone was worth the $14.95 tourney pass. I watched the Haas and Fed matches, as well as some of Ancic/Gonzo, Querrey/Hewitt and Davydenko/Isner. The video was of very high quality and no commercials!

crazyone,

What a lovely thought! You chose a memory over a tangible item. How about viewing that memory from a courtside seat and snapping a picture of it yourself? That would be the ultimate experience. Your love for Rog and optimism are really quite endearing. :)

Alien uterus? Why?

Steffi's 93 FO, 93 USO and 94 AO trophies which I would liquefy and cast into a statue of Monica Seles.

Hi everyone. Great piece as usual, Ed. I think I would like to have the racket that Andre Agassi used on match point when he won his French Open title, to complete his career Grand Slam. If he signed and dated it, that would be pretty great too! In my mind, that is THE moment of Andre's career if one had to be chosen, and even better that it is a feat not equaled by guys like Connors, Mac, Lendl, Sampras or Federer (at least not yet).

I would be perfectly happy w/any item that Roger touched/used/wore. Racquet, shirt, sweaty headband, man bag, murse, whatever. I'm easy.

Haha well, tangi--I'm not so optimistic that I would fork over the money to fly to Paris and get a courstide seat at the final

:-P

So I'll stick to TV for now. I'd like to see Federer live, but unfortunately the nearest tournament for me is the USO and it seems hard to get courtside seats in Ashe. What about for a first round match?

Not that I don't want to see tennis in general live, but there's more urgency when it comes to Federer.

Bismarck, that's a good attitude to have :)

MrsSanta
It would make a nice coffee table item, conversation piece
o heck...I just wanted to mention the alien uterus again

so the reason the ATP can't accommodate Mac users on its live stream is because they has to 'safeguard' their content ...

^*&%&#$&~!

Great question, Ed. Right now, I would have Federer's racket (any, but I guess match point is always the one) from his first Wimby. Blake is one of my other favorites, but I find it hard to think what I would like of his -- maybe a racket from that YEC final?

CL, thanks for that. Excellent review. :) I'm so pumped to watch it. I like Paul Giamatti too.

As a born and raised west coaster, I think I'm pretty objective on the overrated/underrated question. I think they're all underrated. :)

I could talk on this subject forever. Where's the Deuce Club thread? :)

Ok, to make this a passable post, go Rafa today! Although I have to admit, I wouldn't mind seeing DY win. Wouldn't that be something?

And go Kohlschreiber!! No offense Djoko fans. :)

It was bad enough that FSN was planning on showing only two hours of coverage yesterday, but even worse is they punted on that, too! They promise me two hours, put it on their schedule, and then show Brewers spring training instead? Why buy the rights to something if most of your stations don't play to carry it?

I hope the ATP won't sell the rights to them next year. Maybe they'll give TC a good deal. One can hope. :)

Yello I'm wondering why it's called an alien uterus. Unless of course all sailboats look like alien uteruses (uteri?).

Gasquet is already up a break against Chela.

Steffi's 93 FO, 93 USO and 94 AO trophies which I would liquefy and cast into a statue of Monica Seles.
====================

I share this emotion!

What I'd like to have is the Fed's FO winning racket...since it hasn't happened yet and it's likely to never happen...I'd settle for being courtside for his 15th slam...le sigh ;(

crazyone, do you live within driving distance of Cincy, by any chance? I live closer to NYC than Cincy (about 4 hours vs. 8), but I've been to Cincinnati the last 2 years and am going again this year. The stadium in Cincinnati is nice and small, and the tournament itself is quite manageable. My son and I saw some great tennis there last year, including 2 Federer matches and a practice session.

beckham, have faith. it will happen. :)

Yeah that was me, lost my head Patrick. Thanks.

Hey all,

Can't wait for the Nadal/Young match. I think they played once before at the 2005 US Open and Rafa one in 4 set, this should be a good match because they are both lefies

Jamaican Girl, I don't think they ever played before. Their career record on atp site is 0-0.

MrsSanta
someone coined that title during the trophy ceremony

I had a strange thing happen with the ATP feed last night. It worked fine all evening until one time when I tried to change courts. I'm copying the emails to and from the vendor:

My feed was working perfectly. Suddenly I have a message that the
number of licenses issued for the content has been exceeded and I
can now longer view the tennis.

Please explain and let me know how this problem can be fixed.
Thanks!

Thank you for contacting us.

DRM works by issuing a licence to an authorised user when they
request a video or audio service. This process is usually unnoticed
by the subscriber and is done automatically. However if the
receiving computer is not configured precisely that licence can fail
to activate. If this happens several time the error message "number
of licences exceeded" appears. This is because each username has a
limited number of licences per day to prevent one username being
used on several computers at once. The licences reset 24 hours after
the last failed attempt.

We have reset your licences manually.

Best Regards,

ATP Masters Series - Web Support

-----Original Message-----
Subject: ATP tennis masters

Jamaican Girl,
Sher is correct. That was Scoville Jenkins Rafa beat in 2005 only to lose to Blake in round 3.

Hit send too soon but you get the idea I hope. Point is don't log on and off the tennis coverage too many times or you won't get back in for 24 hours.

memorabilia definition:
noun

1: Objects that are connected to or remind their owner of past events.

2nd definition: anything providing permanent evidence of or information about past events.

Given that neither of those two definitions specifically rule out my choice:

IF I could own one piece of tennis memorabilia...then...

I choose VENUS herself.

ks

ad,

I had that same problem frequently in 2006 during the Madrid, Paris, and Masters Cups tournaments. I don't know that the licenses ever re-set automatically. The only way I was able to resolve the problem was contacting customer service directly. It took them days to get back to me then, so at least it's good that they're responding more quickly now. Good luck!

Casey Dellacqua is giving Paszek a pounding!

Sher, I wonder who he played then, I know it was the same year he lost to James Blake, maybe it was Jenkens? I don't

The coverage and the announcers at Fox are awful. If CB can have Venus then I choose Cliffie himself which would really keep me smiling.

ad and low chitown:

I had issues with the Wimbledon site last year. It escapes me now, but there is a way you can reset the certificates yourself, so that you would not have to wait 24 hours. If I can find my notes, I'll post the self-fix later.

ks

Rafa's clay-stained white piratas from the 2006 Roland Garros final.

Samantha: One of the FSN announcers is none other than the tennis version of the rodeo clown, Justin Gimelstob.

crazyone,

Flying to Paris and having courtside seats to the FO final wouldn't be so bad even if Rog wasn't in the final, no? :)

Heidi!

I got your DC message too late. If you want to talk fs I'll check there more frequently this week. But I don't want to know Worlds results before the TV coverage. :)

Justine's hat.

Anything from Venus (I'd take the dish if I could)

oops forgot this; anything Rafa wants to take off and give me

Actually, in light of creig's post, the piratas would be much enhanced if Rafa was still inside them:) (For some reason I'm not too bothered about the top half of the outfit).

Thanks low chicago and Creig Bryan. It appears the ADP feed has limits that they will need to be overcome as the service matures. Meanwhile I was pleased with their quick response and the feed surely beats the almost nonexistent and somewhat amateurish FSN coverage.

If Creig Bryan gets Venus then I want James. If I can't have the real thing, then maybe just a hug and his warmup Davis Cup outfit.

==================================================================Actually, in light of creig's post, the piratas would be much enhanced if Rafa was still inside them:) (For some reason I'm not too bothered about the top half of the outfit).
==================================================================
thougth about that but didn't want to come off as being too greedy, but I don't mind sharing.

Tim - did you get an actual answer re Macs/Atp feed? 'Cause I e-mailed them as well and so far have rerceived bubkus.

Sherlock - Tell me about it!!! Seriously,if you took the most justifiably underated of the signers of the DoI, (Button Gwinett anyone?...though he was probably, like, an astronomer in his spare time), he would still be about a hundred IQ points, a thousand education points, and a million courage/leadership points ahead of the current...or even recent... crop. One of the real difficulties in any program like this Adams show, is in keeping the idea alive in the viewers' mind that this is not all a forgone conclusion. These people were very realistic and I'm sure they .... and any sane person...would have rated their chances at eventual succcess as tiny at best...and their chances at eventual hanging as very high. It was truly a leap into a very dark void.... an unknown unknown. ;-)

And to make this tennis acceptable - Go....er....EVERYONE!!!

memento-wise... I'd like one of Rod Laver's rackets. A wodden one from one of his GS years. It would have great tennis history, plus a wooden racket is a pleasing designed, 'living' little bit of sculpture in the way a modern racket is not.

oh if people are claiming players then i want masha.

Gasquet really destroyed Chela. 6-2, 6-1.

Jelena, please finish this off quickly so that we can move on to Moya (and Blake).

what about Guga, Doesn't anyone what him?

They Moya and Blake match won't start until 1:00 pm local time, so even if Jankovic finishes off Sugiyama in the next couple of minutes the next match won't start for another 40 or so minutes. The reason being that FSN picks up coverage at that time.

creig: I thought that Sherlock was the greediest of the memorabilia wishers...but then I saw your wish! LOL and ks

Mrs Santa: That award really did look like an alien uterus.

CL: I saw some of "John Adams," and I kept wondering who the makeup artist was...very strange effect, I thought, especially with Giamatti and the actor who played George Washington (was that David Morse?) But it was a good production, and I'll have to plan to see it completely in one of the repeats that, as you mentioned, are sure to come.

So as far as the Masters Series TV goes, am I the only one who can't find the same number of completed matches as there were before? Not only does it appear that the archived matches are no longer (mostly) available, I also can't find previous matches from the tournament, such as last nights Fed-GGL match.

Weren't we able to access all of that content last year?

Karin 1492,
Jelena/Ai is being covered on FSN West only at the moment. Thanks.

speaking of memorobilia, cant believe none of you Rafa kids have expressed a desire for his article of clothing famous for being picked at regularly throughout a match... and Im not talking his pirates here!

and yes, CL, I received that explanantion from the ATP peeps in London... somehow allowing mac users to stream tennis opens them up to piracy? ok whatever!

The irony of the delay in the Moya-Blake match is that here in the UK, after Gasquet's blowout of Chela, there is no ATP tennis for 40 minutes even though there is dedicated tennis coverage - Sky are filling in with a long Andy Murray interview, and some chat between commentators.

Schwab: I live in the South, and can only get my local FSN. Right now I'm looking at the World Cup Luge. I don't get why they would put a sport that has snow or cold weather in it on TV here, because we rarely get to have cold weather and even more rare is to get snow.

The coverage picks up at 3:00pm my time, which is 1:00pm there, which is why I said that about coverage picking up.

Okay. This was simply too good to pass on.

From a (translated) interview with Feli in Dubai:

Dubai is the best week of Lopez in a long time. Even he lived for several days in the seven-star hotel "Burj Al Arab", thanks to Rafael Nadal lent him a room in the megasuite that the organization gave to the world number two. But Nadal returned to Spain on the night of Thursday, and Lopez had to move to a "conventional" hotel

"Today I have moved because he went away, Rafa told me that the hotel was worthwhile and he was right. Outside you see it and you say, 'my mother!'. Inside is impressive, yes, but outside is spectacular" he explained, while laughed to confess that, unlike Nadal, he did not have a mirror on the ceiling, above the bed. "No, mine was normal ...!"

Rafa! Mirror on the ceiling?! My, my. You naughty boy.

Tim: I do not expect that Rafa will go commando inside his white claystained piratas from Roland Garros 2006:)