uno!

tres!

temes: very?

OK, OT topic. Has ayone read this?

http://www.atptennis.com/1/en/2008news/fire.asp

I like Rafa's Hamburg draw. I can think of no better preparation for RG than for him to face Djokovic in the semis and Federer in the final. It's pretty much the same situation as in last year's French Open.

Vamos Rafa!!!

Zolarafa,
That's too bad about Schwank's prize money. Wonder if the hotel's insurance will cover any of his losses. He should have put his money in the bank like everyone else.

My predictions,
Fed will bt kiefer to reach the final and the beat rafa in 3 gruellikng sets after rafa also went the distance in beating djoko in the other semi.

Talk about gruelling, that epic four hour, three set match vs Moya at Chennai semis in January nearly killed both players. But what a terrific match! he he

I highly doubt Rafa will let Carlos do that to him again tomorrow, though.

Vamos Rafa!!!

hi guys!
I was reading just a bit - adn caught Aussie Ange" comment about my beautiful breakfast companions
Yes, I did have my coffee and bagel with Hott Sauce and Ferru
strange match - but I was proud of Verdasco, he did not fold when he got a lead
tomorrow will be a different story
I saw the tape of Roger's match as well - good sound beating of Soderling ,but frankly I was hoping for more of a bloodthirsty bludgeoning of that jerk
the surgical precision that Roger used to slice him up was too clean for my liking
I wanted a bloodbath - ending the with Soderling reduced to a sniveling pulp at the end
The Murray / Rafa match did not live up to the hype - Murray did not play very well , at least IMO .
I found myself being distracted by the underwear wars - Rafa would wedgie pick , Andy would adjust his gear 2 times per point
It was really pathetic - I think Murray fiddles with his crotch more than Roddick
a gross habit for sure
and my tv just did not have enough Moya/ Safin to suit me
glad that Marat took it to 3 - it was a good tournament for him
mean, I know , but hey - I never said I was nice

Beth, you crack me up.

I never thought of the Murray-Nadal matchup as a blockbuster--Murray's skills are not developed enough on clay to make him a challenge for Nadal, in fact I thought Nadal didn't play as well as he usually does in that match.

Beth, tell us how you feel, eh??? I must say I really like the new blunt Beth, looks good on you, you wear it very well!

Beckahm and crazyone - I guess I really did stick it to Soderling
but well I don't like him
The Wimbledon match was the main reason
but I saw him in person and he behaved like a total jackass on the court in IW as well
so I was really hoping that Roger would disembowel him

I was hoping for a good match between Murray and Nadal cause the last 2 matches , particularly the one at the AO a few years ago , was so good . But well , it just did not happen today , for whatever reason . I don't think either player was at his best today.

dhamm411: venus' serve looked solid. she's not bombing it as hard as she can which seems to indicate that she's not just looking towards wimbledon. given that she's never won the french (and with justine out of the draw) i would have to think she'd like her chances given that she's healthy.

a note on her french open prospects (provided that she continues to do well in rome): she had that great run on clay back in 2004 and if not for a turned ankle curtailing her prep i think she would have taken down myskina. in 2005 she did have that shaky match against karatantcheva but at least to me it seemed that she was attempting to overpower her but somehow (*ahem, doping*) sesil held her ground. the vaidisova loss was pretty tough but she did play well there and at least this year she supposedly doesn't seem to have the same energy issues she had in the third against jankovic. all i say is this, she's certainly underrated as a dirtballer and i don't see her giving up lightly.

Hooray blunt Beth!

I'm sorry to continue the discussion here, but maybe I could just throw some input in on Pete's "The Condo". It is more of a question that I wish to be clarified. If we did get rid of all the ranking points, how would the ATP/WTA decide which players automatically qualify for which tournaments and what their seeds were in the tournament. Would ever player have to go through qualifying rounds? Some sort of ranking system would be needed.

hey, Sam !
I knew you would like my bluntness
I have to call this one like I see it

tomorrow is going to be so hard for me
Hott Sauce takes on Fed - I do not see Hott Sauce winning , but it would sure do his career and confidence a world of good if he did - or at least played well

and Rafa / Moya is always hard to watch - I really like both guys -although I will definitely have to go with Rafa there - I want to see him play Djokovic and settle this #2 thing - head to head

OMG, Tipsy is in the latest issue of Men's Vogue. Djokovic had a 6 page spread in the last issue.

Is he wearing an Armani nose strip?

"As a tennis player, you have a lot of days during the year when you really don't care what you wear, how your hair is." --Tipsy; Men's Vogue June/July 2008

I guess Anna Wintour dumped Fed for Tipsy. HOORAY! I think she put the mojo on Fed, and now that he appears to be rid of her, his form is returning.

carnap: No, he is wearing:

Y-3 windbreaker, $419
Bottega Veneta short, $550.

This photo shoot/interview was taken on the beach during Miami.

Tipsy photographs well.

TennisEsq: Thanks for the Tip(sy)! Yum. ;-)

Soderling looks like one of my friends boyfriends..

Please tell me "short" was a typo. I loathe the Fashionista bludgeoning of the English language. Shorts! Pants! "This year's new in a pant..." ACK! PATOOEY!

Why is it always Hamburg Crisis or Rome Crisis?
For past two weeks women have been playing equally important tournaments. When men want to get out of something "ladies first" excuse is used but for imp issues it's all about men.

short = shortS

Dela: Welcome to the world. No matter how much we try to raise the collective consciousness, we never succeed. Tennis Channel is only showing the men's tournnaments in full. The women are relegated to the semis and finals only. Still, that better than watching the usual smelly bag check they insist on showing us.

must find the tipsy photos
I am relieved to know he did not wear the breathe right strip in the fashion shoot

dela, I wonder the same thing. Women are treated like chopped liver here.

beth, Patrick Dempsey is on the cover.

Fed's really getting a lot of practice with lefties in this tournament...Nieminen, Soderling, Verdasco tomorrow, and maybe Rafa.

carnap: You crack me up with your bag check comments.

TennisEsq: I disagree - chopped liver gets better treatment.

Sam: lol

I had to laugh when Justine was playing one of the slams last year; I forget which one. Anyway, the commentators kept saying, "Well SHE really hid under the radar." It was as though she deliberately requested that her matches not be televised. I found myself yelling at the TV, "You dolts! If we haven't seen her matches, guess who's to blame?"

carnap, Soderling is a righty.

Tennis Esquire - well that certainly makes the magazine worth a look :)

Crazyone: Shows you how much attention I've been paying. They're showing the Soderlin match right now! LOL Huge faux pas...apologies. Can't tell my right from my left.

People can say what they want about Anna's little friendship/obsession with Rog but if it gets us hot tennis players in Men's Vogue - it can't be all that bad. ;)

carnap: LOL about the under the radar stuff!

I'm still amazed that Men's Vogue exists. Then again, no one has ever confused me with a fashionista ...

carnap, lol and you are right. Last year they kept on comparing Henin to Fed. Why isn't Fed ever compared to Graf? Afterall, he's been putting Graf like numbers. Reaching slam final after slam final, winning three in a year for three seasons, keeping his stronghold on number 1 ranking, quest for a calender Slam. Sampras, as great as he is, never did these things. Sampras does have a record for most number 1 finishes, but he never held it for this long in one stretch.

Hey Sam. Nice to "see" you. My brain is addled from too much work. A colleague is playing sick, and I'm having to pick up the slack. I'm home now having a nice cuppa tea and a biscotti while watching the rerun of Soderling v Federer, and I'm astounded that Soderling is playing righthanded in this one. Thank heavens Crazyone straighted me out on that. Maybe I need something stronger than tea.

beth, resident fashionista, how long has Anna Wintour had that bob haircut, circa Linda Evangelista 1990? She's due for a new do.

jeez...i can't even type tonight. "straighted???"""ARRGHHHH

Hey carnap. Good to "see" you too. The last two weeks at work have been hectic. In addition to an already busy schedule, I had to pick up the slack for some lazy workers from another department who couldn't follow the instructions we gave them. Not to mention that I'm still in shock from the Henin news - it has killed my interest in watching tennis for the time being.

dela, I thought the same thing. Henin retired on top like Graf did after she won the RG then made it to finals of Wimby (losing to Davenport). There were silly comparisons to Borg's retirement.

carnap: Your typing woes must be punishment for your 8:05 post. ;-)

My post is a little unclear, I was referring to 1999 when Graf won RG, then made it to Wimby final, then rode off into sunset.

Oh lordy, dela, totally misread your post, but I agree with you anyway about Fed compared to Steffi. It's been a long day.

Good to hear Sam saying "hooray!" Hope you had a good sleep Sam after that grueling day.

Nice to see Vee winning against a formidable opponent! Was Vee the last standing American in last year's FO? If she was, then never never underestimate her chances in the finals.

*Not to mention that I'm still in shock from the Henin news - it has killed my interest in watching tennis for the time being. *

Sam! I totally understand why you're bummed about the Henin retirement, but we probably don't have *that* man years with Federer left, at least not at the peak of his game, so doesn't the fact that these players can be gone abruptly at any time increase your desire to watch them when you can?

Tennis Esq - I doubt she will ever change her signature look too much
she has gone slightly lighter and longer but the basic style is the same
maybe she considers it a classic - like a little black dress

Thanks Ren. I appreciate your shout-outs last night on various threads. I had to be in early for work today, but tomorrow I have the luxury of sleeping in a bit.

*that manY years with Federer left.

Sam - so sorry about the coworkers and your gloom over Henin
don't leave us , my friend
football season is not that far away!

crazyone: Yes, but it just has to run its course. I'll be ready to watch the men in a few days. The women, not sure when.

TennisEsq, you make a good point though. It is in line with my earlier comment that women are always compared to men and it is never vice versa. Navratilova and Graf are def. benchmarks in open era and future greats should be held up to their standards regardless of thier sex. Borg, Mcenroe, Sampras constantly come up during these posts but where are the names of great female champions.

Sam: hola!!! hang in there...

Evening!

Wait, Tipsy's in Men's Vogue? Know where I can see the photos? (Can I add that one of my (male) co-workers is absolutely smitten with Tipsy. I want to find the pics more for him than for myself!)

Beckham, what's your opinion on the Federer-Verdasco matchup, given that Verdasco's been playing well this week?

Beth: Thanks - I'm sticking around, but will be in a Bissy-like gloom about the Henin stuff for a while.

Thanks Beckham. A Fed win in a few weeks would sure cheer me up!

crazyone: Funny typo given the man-centric discussion tonight.

Sam: I was devastated too, but not as broken as "harden(n)e-d" (with apologies, to Justin) fans of Henin. It would be difficult to imagine tennis without its staunch supporters as it would be hard writing in this blog without you Sam and the others who strike some balance in an otherwise one-sided world of tennis.

Sam, A Fed win a few weeks would make my life complete. lol

Well I tried to go on Mens Vogue and find pictures..I couldn't find any.. TSF also doesn't have them yet - but they probably will since they had the Novak pictures up.

From Jon Wertheims's Mail Bag column:

A quick personal story concerning Leander Paes that your readers might find interesting: When Leander was 14 years old I was one of four coaches working in India helping train the top Indian boys to prepare them for a potential career in tennis. An elite program for only 14 boys, it was sponsored by an Indian subsidiary company of Nabisco and the overseer of the program was the famous Amritraj family.

Leander was one of the boys we coached. I spent two amazing years based in Madras, India, that I will never forget. Fast forward to the present (almost 20 years): through a friend at the Tennis Channel I was able to contact Leander via email in an attempt to reconnect and say hello from an old coach. Not only was I curious to see if he would respond to my email, I was wondering if he would remember who the heck I was!! I was pleasantly surprised to receive a response back from Leander and he not only remembered me but he made personal references to our training runs on the beach, the tennis racket I used to play with, and the workouts on the cow dung tennis courts that we trained on (that's right, cow dung!!).

One final note: Us coaches knew that Leander was a special athlete even when he was 14. He (and the rest of the boys we coached) called all the coaches "sir", and off the court he was the nicest kid you could imagine. But when he stepped on the court, even at 14, he was the fiercest competitor I have ever seen, and never, ever, gave up until the final point had ended. It's nice to see he has had a successful tennis career yet still remembers a coach from his distant past!
-- T.J. Hyman, Redondo Beach, CA

http://tinyurl.com/5sc7rp

Rafael Nadal may be the the King of Clay, but who's the King of Cow Dung?

Ren:

The last American woman standing at last year's FO was Serena before she lost to Henin:( in the quarterfinals.

Just mentioning Justine's name makes me sad. I was not a fan of hers until I knew she was gone and would never see her play again.

Crazyone: all things being equal the Fed should win, Hott Sauce is mentally suspect and well he's also not that great coming to net, but he also has the ability to hit good shots from nowhere, so if the Fed plays well and doesn't have any protracted walkabouts he should be fine, the Fed practised with him so he knows he's playing well, but like I said earlier today everytime the draw looks navigateable on paper the Fed doesn't make it to the F...but see, the MC draw which I thought was tough (based on his then level of play) he makes it to the F playing scintillating tennis along the way....le sigh...

that is a nice story about Leander Paes
but I am not sure that anyone would really want the title of King of Cow Dung

AFWU: Thank you. I just checked that out and indeed, it was Serena. I might be thinking of the USO when Vee was a semi-finalist. Again, if I am wrong correct me. I always make mistakes of facts. Sheesh!

Ren:

Nope you are right about the USO!

Beckham: let's keep our fingers crossed! There were no walkabouts in the match with Soderling today, but I think Soderling didn't even allow Federer to have a walkabout given the number of UFE he committed at key moments.

Dela,
Good question. I follow the WTA more than I do the ATP but media coverage leans toward the ATP due to a potential GOAT candidate, a potential clay GOAT, and an upstart who believes he will be ahead of the GOAT and clay GOAT in the very near future. Unfortunately, the stars of the WTA do not play consistently like the ATP. The Elite Four(before yesterday) probably play an average of 12-13 tournaments a year. The Top 3 probably play an average of 17-18 tournaments a year. Also, the WTA needs to find a way to get their Tier I tournaments the same kind of publicity as the ATP does with their Masters Series. More later.

Hi all.
Biggest gold star of the day goes to Alize. I must admit she snuck up on me. Alize fans must be on cloud nine( a good number in the twibe). Only seen her when she played Shrieky. Sveta's chances at the FO are looking slimmer by the day.

And boy, did Muzzah put up a fight. The Brit press just seem to set him up for a beating everytime he looses.

Crazyone
Props to you for picking Kiefer over Kolya. I'll have to check out your picks for Fri

AFWU, That was a relief. BTW, did you read one columnist's ranking of the greatest women tennis players in re Henin's retirement? I can name the seven top players he mentioned: Graf, Navratilova, Evert, King, Seles, Serena, Henin, Venus. In that order.

Ren:

No, sorry I did not read that.

Does anyone know if tennischannel.com will have live and on demand coverage of RG?

Sam - sorry that you are bummed.

Saying good morning here first before I go back to read previous threads as I wasn't able to watch any tennis last night!

izidane, thanks--my picks for tomorrow are posted on the other thread.

I got a LOT wrong today though, I thought Monaco would beat Seppi, Ferrer would beat Verdasco, and that Safin would beat Moya. None of those surprised me hugely though, since Seppi played very well against Gasquet, Verdasco almost beat Ferrer in Valencia and beat him last year in the French Open, and Safin is a headcase extraordinare. The real surprise was Montanes over Tipsarevic, that came out of nowhere. So 4 out 8 was all I got, and three out of the four I got right were of course the top three, who don't get upset that often.

Ren, I wonder why Court is left of lots of these lists. Discounting lots of her AO, she still had some great slam wins. Am I missing something?

Afwu1216,
Do not know about RG coverage on tennischannel.com but I do know ,since I have DirecTv, there will be coverage on 5 different courts where you can select your match. When I am not on my day job, chances are I will be watching a match that is not on the main 2 courts. I will read TW for that especially if Rafael, Roger, and Novak are playing. WTA is waiting for me on 05/25/08:)

Sam,
If you are not working, tomorrow would be a good time for ATP watching. I really do understand your position on the WTA at the moment.

I don't remember ever having heard of Montanes before
obviously he is one of those who plays and succeeds primarily on clay
is he any threat at all to Djokovic
and the showdown for #2 ?

monaco losing 0 and 3 was surprising.

Master Ace:

I don't have DirectTV but I will be able to watch courts 1-5 also on ESPN360.com

beth: I don't think so, unless Djokovic totally comes out flat and underestimates him.

dela: the result was mildly surprising, the scoreline was definitely very surprising. Is he injured again?

I don't think I set a foot in mess of a coverage ESPN calls tennis during first week of RG last year. DirecTV coverage was great.

The Tipso defeat is disappointing. He's never met his compatriot Djokovic, that could have been a good one, depending upon your point of view.

Dela,
On ESPN, they are asking you to vote for the all time WTA greats.
Evert - All-time leader in winning % - Clay Queen
Graf - Only lady to win all Slams at least 4 times - won 22 Slams
Navratilova - Wimby all time leader with 9 single titles
Hingis
S Williams
V Williams
Henin
Court - Won 13 Slams that were not AO. 24 overall for career
Seles
King

Wait, I am not understanding this DirecTV coverage of RG. Do they have their own sports channel?

Dela,
Coverage on DirecTv was great! As I said in an earlier post, the WTA is calling my name on 05/25/08.

Yeah Syd, that quarterfinal match was something that I was looking forward to when I saw the draw, I'm afraid Djokovic-Montanes will be a snoozer.

Crazyone: I was going to say that it was "strange." But knew I'd catch a lot of flack for it.

beth, Montanes was the player that took Rafa close to an hour to breadstick last year in the FO, if I remember correctly. 3rd round match, I think?

Sam, sorry your gloomy. I was so shocked about the retirement, and tennis will definitely miss Justine's presence.

Argh. *You're* gloomy. Not your. Typo amnesty, please!

Afwu, direTV has five channels where you can choose different matches going on and they also have a scoreboard function for day's results and some of these mathces don't have commentators yapping on and on. They had the same thing for USO.

Syd: That loss was strange, and it created some (totally unwarranted) theories in my head.

AmyLu, it took an hour for a breadstick? Ugh, must have been a boring match.

Thanks Crazyone
Kinda expected Marat to flame out, woulda been nice to see him go further. Tipsy gave his all for the first 2 matches, don't think there was anything left in the gas tank.

And Vera playing hide and seek with the camera was too funny.

thanks , Amylu
I do not remember that match at all
sounds like it was a good one to forget
but , well I hope he can give the Djoker a good workout then

crazyone, I actually missed that match (I was in Ecuador visiting JJ, and we went on a day trip to smaller villages in the Andes that day), but it's one match I can say I was not sorry to have missed. I didn't bother watching the recording of it, after reading about the match on-line.

AmyLu: evidently Montanes served up 13 double faults in the match...

The day trip to the Andean villages sounded like a better way to spend your time.