By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor
Good morning. This is the Tribe's daily post for discussing the live tennis at the ATP Masters Series event in Hamburg, or the WTA tournament taking place in Rome.
Yesterday I spent the whole day sitting on the main court at the Rothenbaum Club in Hamburg. At the end of the day, I was able to reflect that not only have I now completed the Rafa Euro-spectator Slam, at least on on a non-calendar basis (it began at Roland Garros in 2007), but that my face, in the past few weeks, has finally stopped burning from the sun, having acquired its current colour on tennis courts in four countries in the past month. The venue is impressive - light and airy in spite of the structure that supports the retractable roof, and provides shade to the upper seats. I felt that it showcased the tennis extremely well, creating both space and intimacy. Apart from some empty seats up at the back, and in the boxes at the front, Hamburg was packing in a good crowd for most of yesterday - at its height during the first set of the Nadal-Starace match. The shadows from the retractable canvas roof that you see on TV are much less distracting that you might expect - I barely noticed them. Many springlike green trees surround the club, and the grounds are spacious, with a strong selection of concessions for food and drink, and tables for the public to sit and eat, and enjoy the sun.
The secondary court, M1, is located right next to the main stadium, and it's easy to access for a few minutes, for those who wish to sample the matches there. It's noisy, but also has generous seating, so it's unlikely that fans will miss out if their favourite is playing there instead of on the main court. Unfortunately, I was unable to see any of the Murray-Simon match there, due to a scheduling conflict.
Match Choice:
For me, this would be Nadal versus Murray. Their previous two meetings took place on hard courts, and both times the matchup proved compelling. Their match in Madrid last year was the most exciting live match I saw in 2007. I won't be there today, having arrived home in the small hours of this morning, but will be watching keenly. Naturally, Nadal is the heavy favourite. Murray has some weapons to use against him, though. Rafa's facial expressions were priceless after being dropshotted countless times yesterday by Potito Starace (photos coming in tomorrow's Crisis Center, along with plenty of others, including Roger Federer's noticeably briefer appearance against Jarkko Nieminen).
Player of the Day:
Among the players I saw yesterday, I have to award this to Nicolas Kiefer, who managed to put out the Rome finalist, Stanislas Wawrinka, in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. In my photo above, he roars after taking the first set, conveniently right at the photographers (I was seated just a few rows behind them). In fact, this moment set me thinking - I wonder how much players give thought to the photo-opportunities created by their on-court body language, given the character story told by the images that result?
As for Kiefer's win, he managed to do it in two very tight sets, needing to break back in order to stay in the second, and save set points - I was sensing that if he lost this, all the momentum would be with his opponent. Wawrinka is coming off two weeks that involved a semifinal in Barcelona, and the aforementioned Rome final, so may be a touch weary. However, both players were performing well - Kiefer just seemed to have extra bite and depth on his groundstrokes when it mattered. After celebrating (sorry to KIefer fans - taking shirt removal pictures after the win was thwarted by people jumping to their feet and spoiling the view), he thanked the audience for their support yesterday, and said it had helped him through. I was totally caught up in the excitement of the moment, and was delighted for KIefer. The crowd atmosphere was very pleasant throughout, towards both players.
Weather Report:
In Hamburg yesterday, I found it oppressively hot in the middle of the day. In the forward rows there's no shelter from the sun. More sun and heat is forecast for today, and this unseasonable weather is now expected to continue right through the weekend. This means that the courts should continue to play a tad faster than usual.
Meanwhile, in Rome some sun is expected, in between clouds.
As always, enjoy today's tennis.
