Morning, all. Morning, Pete.

About 1.5 hours until Mr Federer shows us whether he's rusty or ready.

Morning :)

I love that Ana's manager thought to send you the Vogue article, Pete.

Looking forward to seeing how Fed is going. I've missed the ol' fogey.

Man, feels like a lifetime since Fed was last on my SB. This'll be interesting.

Pete, error notwithstanding, your Ana post was still spot on, I thought. I recall nodding an awful lot. ;)

And that's a lovely pic of her.

Welcome back Pete,

Being a tennis player one has to get accustomed to all kinds of pressure.Being the no 1 player in the world is no different.The spot light shines on your more I suppose,your are the leading light.I think it comes down to the player how he oshe handles the so called "extra pressure".Though at the end of the day its still about focusing as a tennis player.

As we know, doubles do not get the publicity as the singles does but here goes:

Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez defeated Serena Williams and Venus Williams, winner of 3 Slams in 2009, AND Cara Black and Liezel Huber, Worlds Number 1 to win the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.

When the draw was made, most people,including yours truly, thought the Williams Sisters would win their semifinal match. When the WS won the first set 6-2, things did not look good for Nuria and Maria Jose as they were playing the biggest match of their career. However, they dug deep and found the extra gear which enabled them to win the 2nd set and force the supertiebreaker. In the STB, WS ran off to a 6-3 lead but Nuria and Maria Jose dug deep once again and won 7 out of the last 9 points to win the match. Key point was Venus serving at 6-5 and Nuria returned serve. Serena told Venus to let the ball go but Venus, whether she heard Serena or not, came forward and hit a swinging volley in the net and from that point, the Spainards had the momentum which carried them to the win.

In the final, they played Cara and Liezel and had lost all 6 meetings therefore, I thought Cara and Liezel was going to be the 2nd team to win 3 Championships in a row. However, Nuria and Maria Jose led all set but when they had to serve for it, Cara and Liezel broke back to force a tiebreak. That tiebreak was a thing of beauty for the Spainards as they won all 7 points to take the set. That was huge for the Spainards because if Cara and Liezel would have won it, they would have won the match in straights. Cara and Liezel force the supertiebreak but once again, the Spainards were clutch when they need to be. Key point in STB was at 3-2 Cara/Liezel where Nuria hung tough from the baseline as Cara and Liezel hit the balls toward her until Maria Jose timed her cross and hit the volley winner to tie the STB at 3-all.

Nuria and Maria Jose won 7 titles in 2009 which led the tour. Their first 4 titles were on clay but once they won their first Premier title in their career at Toronto(first HC also), their confidence started to grow and even their losses in that stretch to Cara and Liezel were tight affairs.

Titles - Sony Ericsson Championships, Toronto, New Haven, Bogota, Acapulco(2 time champion there as they won in 2008 also), Barcelona, and Palermo.

for those who missed it...
Time for London's world famous year-end WTA Awards:

Best clay court player of the year: Dinara Safina
-even though she did not win RG, she did make the finals and won the two biggest clay court titles of the year and made the final of stuttgart.
runner up is kuznetsova as she won RG and stuttgart and made the finals of rome.

Best grass court player: Serena Williams
-She won wimbledon with an epic win over elena dementieva and then the final over two time defending champion and sister, venus williams.
runner up of course would be venus, even though she didnt win it, she smoked all of her prior opponents.

Best hard court player: Serena Williams
-She won two of the three biggest hard court tournaments (AO & YEC) and made the final of key biscayne and the semis of the us open. she also made the semis at paris (indoors), dubai, sydney, and toronto.
runner ups would be elena dementieva and victoria azarenka. They both had good solid results on the hard stuff.

Best international player: Yanina Wickmayer
She won two international level events and made the finals of another. she has also qualified for bali!
Runner up would be shahar peer. She won two titles and made the semis of others.

Biggest breakthrough: Caroline Wozniacki
She had a great year topping it off with a run to the finals of the us open before getting defeated by clijsters. she also won three titles, qualifies and made the semis of the yec, won the most matches on the wta with 67 wins and reached a career high of no. 4. she made a name for herself and has proved to be one of the top forces of the new generation.
runner up would be victoria azarenka as she won her first three titles, the biggest one being at key biscayne by defeating serena williams. she also made the quarters of RG and wimbledon, the semis at indian wells and qualified for the YEC.

Biggest comeback: Kim Clijsters
After two and a half years of inactivity and having a baby, she comes back and wins the us open in just her third tournament back. in her first three tournaments, she beat big names like serena, venus, kuznetsova, wozniacki, and azarenka.
runner up would be kimiko date-krumm who came back from a 13 year retirement to win seoul. by doing this she became the second oldest winner of a wta tour title behind billie jean king.

Biggest dissapointment: Ana Ivanovic
a year after getting to no. 1 and winning RG, she makes a slide in the rankings to below 20 and makes one final at indian wells. she failed to make the quarters at any grand slams and failed to defend her title. she ended it by pulling out of beijing. she sturggled with her confidence and her serve. maybe a break is a good thing for her.
runner up would be dinara safina's failure to capture a grand slam, especially at RG where prior to the quarter finals, only lost five games. everyone was expecting her big win, but instead she succumbed to the pressure and tightened up

Best match: Serena Williams v. Elena Dementieva @ Wimbledon
On her way to the title, Serena ran into an inspired elena who never served better in her life. the pounded groundstrokes back and forth creating lots of memorable points. it had high drama, and of course a serena comeback from match point down. finally serena won it 8-6 in the third.
runner up was probably serena v. clijsters in the semis of the us open. even though it ended in controversy and in unfortunate circumstances, the level of play from both players was very high. both hitting the ball with pretty good accuracy and great defending.

Biggest upset: Melanie Oudin def. Elena Dementieva
the young 17 year from georgia came against gold medalist and established veteran dementieva who was just off a title at toronto, winning the us open series and being tipped by many to win the whole event. not many gave her much of a chance, but like her shoes said, she "believed" she could win. with the crowd behind her, she delieved a shell shocked dementieva a second round defeat. she carried this all the way to the semifinals
runner up would be carla suarez navarro defeating venus williams at the australian open in the second round. she was on a 10 match win streak and was looking to win her first AO title, but the spaniard used her one-handed backhand effectively and won after saving match points and coming from 5-2 down to win it.

doubles players of the year: Venus and Serena Williams
they won three of the four grandslams and another title at stanford. they also played at the YEC for teh first ime as well. they now have a total of 10 grandslam doubles titles.
runner ups would be black and huber because they finished as the year end no. 1's and had another solid year.

player of the year: Serena Williams
She won three of the 5 biggest titles of the year (AO, Wimbledon,and the YEC) and finished as the year end no. 1. she also was the only player to make it to the quarters at all the grandslams as well. she also made the finals of key biscayne and many other semis (see above). she also won three grandslam doubles titles with venus. outside of 2002, it was probably her most successful year of tennis in her career.

year end grade: B
it was a solid year filled with lots of memorable story lines and lots of drama. not a lot of GREAT matches, but there were enough solid matches to keep people satisfied. with the return of justine henin, clijsters, and sharapova getting back to form, 2010 looks like it will be even bigger and better!

thanks for reading! and i may update this if i left something out. there is still one more tournament, so if something important happens, i will comment on that as well. tell me what u all think!!

Basel Order of Play with Roger playing at 12:30 PM:

http://tinyurl.com/y9q2de3

Valencia Order of Play with Nikolay playing after Garcia-Lopez and Greul
http://tinyurl.com/yj7vudv

Hi Pete! welcome back from Montana. hope you had a great time. Looking forward to the Agassi piece.

and belated happy birthday wishes to AM!

London,
I only have one disagreement and that is in the doubles category. I would have given the runnerup in the doubles to Llagostera Vives and Martinez Sanchez. Despite Black and Huber ending 2009 as the number 1 team, they did not win one of the 5 biggest events on the calendar and won less titles than the Spainards.

Bali Draw:

http://tinyurl.com/yb9q9jp

"rusty or ready?" How about both...rusty, but ready.

All the Rochi make me frazzle much more than logic would dictate though... Fed seems to have much more trouble with their spinny serves than Roddick's 135mph bombs. So we shall see. Happy to see him back in any case.

FYI Fed fans who are registered at the Mothership. Long interview with Fed on the Basel tournament thread..less about tennis and more about his life as father and husband and how that works as far as his career goes. Google translation is, as ever, ...captivating.

Thanks Annie,though its the 2nd of November where you live,so its not really belated lol!

I too cant wait for Petes take on Agassi.Seeing nearly every other past player has spoken out on the situation.

Well, hopefully my betfair stream is working.

Rogi, try not to finish this match the way you finished the last match I watched you in, okay?

Rochus is a tough costumer to open with, and Roger has an annoying little tendercy to lose sets to him.

There a huge interview with him, I won't bring it here because it's only the google translation of the german, I imagine some kind soul on RF.com will eventually translate, a lot about Mirka, how they decide things together. How things are decided with the team, about his singing after DC, etc, etc. Good stuff.

Apperantly he said (in a previous interview) people have a hard time to tell the twins apart, but he believes Myla looks like him and Cherlene looks like Mirka.

Betfair link - you need to register, it isn't active yet.

http://livevideo.betfair.com/?CID=&PLA=7778423511660653

Pete posted his response to Agassi on ESPN
http://tinyurl.com/cl42ae

Good afternoon,

Andrew, Roger will be ready, of course. I hope.:)

Thanks for the heads-up about the interview, guys!

Thanks Nic for that link

Just finished reading Petes thoughts on Agassi,

Thank goodness for you Pete,we are on the same page.

master ace, i was debating whether to give it to Llagostera Vives and Martinez Sanchez or Black and Huber. I decided to go with Black and Huber because they performed better in the slams, and held on to the no. 1 ranking. it was a slim margin that i gave it to black and huber, but it was close.

Roger match will be on ESPN360 also at 12:20 PM EST

so ready or not -- has fed clinched no 1 for the year end?
Nadal is only playing a total on 1000 points and Fed is more than that ahead of him
fed has 200 pts from last years tennis masters and nadal has 0 does that matter?

London,
Understand completely as Nuria and Maria Jose best Slam result was the QFs at all Slams except the French.

Good Morning,

The Great Roger Federer will be taking the court in about 2 hours time and it will be delightful to get to see him play again. After nearly 7 weeks off he should be raring and ready to go. During that time off he spent quality bonding time with his wife and twin daugters. Also, he got much needed rest and rehabilitation from the long and highly intense year. After 3 weeks of nothing but rest Roger began physical training in Dubai with his trainer and coach. He spent about 1 week doing nothing but physical training and than the last week practicing tennis and doing physical training as well. That is about 3 weeks of rest and recovery and 3 weeks of training and practice. This will make a world of difference for Roger finishing out this year and also starting next year getting ready for Australia. Roger should feel fresh as a daisy after the World Championships in London. He will play this week in Basel, next week in Paris, and than have 1 week off to get ready for London where he will desperately want to win the World Championships. That is 3 tournaments in 4 weeks and all matches will be best of 3 sets. I expect Roger to feel very good after London given the 6-7 week break he had from mid September until November 2. The year will conclude on November 29 with the finals of the World Championships in London. This will give Roger 1 month off before he heads to the Middle East where he will play in a exibition event prior to the Australian Open on Jan 18, 2010. I also expect Roger to play either the Kooyong Classic or the Brisbane Invitational just prior to the Australian Open for his last preperation. After the World Championships in London I expect Roger to take 3 weeks off for Holiday and than start preperations in Dubai for the beginning of 2010. December 21, 2009 is when I expect Roger to begin training and practice for the beginning of 2010.

Sportsfan,
If Roger plays the first week of the season, it will be in Doha instead of Brisbane because he is playing an exo at Abu Dhabi which is not far from his base in Dubai.

Pete: are you aware of the glitch in typepad currently? People are getting directed to some weird ads, notably a yellow pages ad. It's happened to me today. anybody else?

Pete,

I've read your article on Agassi. I agree that Andre coming out with this secret is (late but)admirable. I miss your thoughts on the ATP not doing anything about it at the time.

Roger says in an article on "Blick" today when asked what he thinks about Agassi's confession:

"I am very disappointed. This is not a joke and if this happens to a current player he must pay for it. It's also damaging for the image of sport and for Agassi's. It is important to know that a lot has changed in the last 15 years. I don't see how a top-player could conceal today something like that".

Roger arrived in Switzerland 6 days ago.

"If the Slams are worth 3K, who really would play the other tour events? I know people remember who win the Slams but the other events is what help the tour survive as the Slams are technically not part of the tour. It is an ITF event. Personally, I like the current system and as Ruth said a player has to win 5 or 6 matches in 7 days to win the title while in a Slam a player has to win 7 matches in 13 to 15 days. Jon W said in the past a reason Serena may do well in Slams compared to tour events is that rest day in between matches and the competition in Slams are thinned out in a 128 draw field."

MA, just read your comment above on yesterday's thread. Well said. What the Slam fetishists fail to understand is that the smaller events need the big names to thrive. Once the Slams are worth 3K a Slam winner basically will have won 3 of the 4 mandatory Premier events. Again, that's 3 of the 4 most important non-Slam events that are mandatory. Under this new system a Slam winner could sleepwalk thru the smaller events--provided that she participated at all--and still be in contention for the top slots as long as she didn't tank in the other Slams. Yeah, this sure sounds like a perfect recipe to promote the overall tour.

predictions for Bali:

Group A winner: Marion Bartoli
this was a tough decision, but im thinking the bartoli from Stanford will appear here and defeat shahar and rybarikova. but it wouldnt surprise me at all if shahar came through.

Group B Winner: Samantha Stosur
i think she will use her big serve effectively and win her two matches.

Group C Winner: Yanina Wickmayer
she has had a really good season, and has been playing well recently. i dont expect this to change.

Group D Winner: Sabine Lisicki
She has the big serve and the big groundstrokes. she should make it out of this group relatively easily.

Semifinals:
Lisicki def. Wickmayer
Stosur def. Bartoli

Finals: Lisicki def Stosur

Well there is still no confirmation on the Kooyong site for Roger as yet.Though he always plays their as his preparation for AO.I would be very surprised if he played at the Birsbane tournament.

Del Potro will take Rogers spot at Kooyong next year if he dosent play.The present line up for Kooyong 2010 is a pretty strong one.

Oliver Rochus is going to be a tough customer to come back and play your first match in 7 weeks against. Although it would be good for Federer to play him because he hits alot of balls and that will help Roger get back in the rythum. I believe we will see Roger vs Novak in the finals and I think it will be a great match. Depending on how the rest of the year goes think Novak and Roger will probably be the favorites in Australia. Good Luck Roger, and enjoy your first match in Roger Federer Arena.

really sportsfan -- don't you think the grandparents will want the twins in Switzerland for their first christmas??
Start training Dec 26

London,
Agree that A is a tough choice b/w Shahar and Marion but I am going to take Shahar in the spot of Marion in all of your predictions.

Hi AM,

I've missed you this morning. I've read your comments about your celebrations. Well done!.

Monserrat Caballé is singing at the opening ceremony in Basel. Roger's match will start after this ceremony.

I was so curious to see what Pete's thoughts on Agassi's. The ESPN one is good but seem abbreviated - given the limitations there. Still waiting for the 'full blown' TWibe blog of Pete. Can't wait.

Somehow...the psychological acumen with which Pete tackles the "humans" behind celebrity sportsmen...there's no one like Pete out there! Like a wise father who *knows* his truant child!

Also Estoril has announced Fed is signed up for 2010.

Basel:
Fed is about to step in. So...looking forward to it.
ESPN360 is showing it live - you have to register.

C'mon Fed. Turn it on. Been a while!

Nic
Fed signed up for Estoril? His 2010 schedule isn't out yet though.
Fed did play Estoril 2008 - won it as Davy retired (who lost the first set) in the 2nd set. That was his famed preparation for the RG by including one more Clay tourney (besides MC, Rome, and Hamburg that year) - and boy! wasn't that a catastrophe!

This weekend illustrated again the main reason I usually enjoy watching WTA doubles more than WTA singles: the doubles usually highlights the variety in the women's games much more so than does the singles.

Some thoughts on Martinez Sanchez and Llagostera Vives:

Martinez Sanchez and Llagostera Vives can be a fun pair to watch, if somewhat aggravating if you are rooting for them--especially because they often play the important points in a match worse than their top-ranked foes. (This weekend, however, was largely an exception.)

Martinez Sanchez, of course, has a very effective lefty serve and prefers to serve and volley, both in singles and in doubles. She's a throwback to Jana Novotna and Martina Navratilova tennis, but she is nowhere near as athletic or quick as those two players.

Martinez Sanchez is one of the best reflex volleyers on the WTA tour. She also goes for some outrageous angles on some of her volleys, which look great when they succeed, not so great when they don't and a more conventional volley would have sufficed.

Martinez Sanchez's greatest weakness in volleying is that she doesn't put away as many volleys as she should, giving her opponents chances to get back into points that they "should" have lost at an earlier point.

Both Martina Sanchez and Llagostera Vives lob more than most top WTA doubles teams I've seen. Although their lobs can be very effective , quite a few fall short and lead to easy putaways for their better opponents. One subtle benefit of all the lobbing is that, even when the Spanish lasses are losing points via the lob, they are still creating some uncertainty in opponents who would prefer to crowd the net and, perhaps, opening up some angles for the Spanish lasses passing shots later in a match.

Llagostera Vives is too short (and not as talented as other munchkins like Amanda Coetzer and Kimiko Date) to do very well in WTA singles. However, when she can reach a ball, she generally handles it well. She lobs well. Although she doesn't hit hard passing shots, she is adept at hitting them with enough topspin to keep them low and make her opponents volley up until Llagostera Vives can find an angle or the opponent makes a volley error.

Llagostera Vives has munchkin reach so she can't cover the net as well players of normal stature. On one hand, she is aggressive at the net, which is a good trait in doubles. On the other hand, she can be shaky at net, which makes her net play an adventure.

Llagostera Vives and Martinez Sanchez haven't been playing that long together as regular partners in the recent past (about a year and a half)

They are something like 29 and 27 respectively, so I'm not sure how many years longer they will be at their peak. Hopefully, they will start playing better at the majors, so more of their matches are televised.

"Best clay court player of the year: Dinara Safina
-even though she did not win RG, she did make the finals and won the two biggest clay court titles of the year and made the final of stuttgart.
runner up is kuznetsova as she won RG and stuttgart and made the finals of rome."

london--I agree with everything but this. I think the one who won RG should be the clay-court player of the year esp since she did quite well in other big clay events... & she played through a rough draw at RG. If Azarenka hadn't self-destructed, she was on the road to upsetting Safina.

TripleF-FedFanForever

Yes, it's on the Estoril Open's webpage too:

http://www.estorilopen.net/1/en/news/newsarticle_4054.asp

Hey folks

Like some others here, I'm amazed I'll actually be able to see Fed again. It seems like eons since that frustrating-but-not-heartbreaking loss to Delpo.

Jax, you still around?
:-)

I guess i am on time for fed's first match after USO, come on Roger.

I guess that means no MC for Fed in 2010, it will be Rome, Estoril, Madrid, and RG.

I wonder which 250 tourney will be replaced with Estoril? Doha or Tokyo?

"I usually enjoy watching WTA doubles more than WTA singles: the doubles usually highlights the variety in the women's games much more so than does the singles."
Word, MSF.

And great thoughts on MJMS/NLV.

CL, I'm surprised you're able to work up much tension about Ollie.

Sure, he's a tough cookie, but Roger's known his game since they were kids, and the Rochi haven't been burning up the rankings recently.
Wiley, workmanlike, but not much of a worry.

Rust, and random Roger ridiculous could be more of a factor, of course...

Arun I did leave you a message on the other post,hoped you read it.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!

There he is!

AM: yep. :)

vetmama, all I see is a large woman in blue singing...

Yeah, crazyone, I thought they were going to introduce him and they were just bringing on the music...:/

london I do agree with you regarding Safina this year and her achievements on clay.To me clay is her best surface.Taking into accout that she had made the finals at RG also,still with no trophy in hand.Though next year will be tough as the Queen of Clay will be in contention.Safina and her lower back disc problem is another worry as well.

CL and Or,

Thanks for the info about where to find the interview. The google translation was absolutely hilarious.

Omg, how can Roger follow Montserrat Caballé ? Fabulous, fabulous opening ceremony. *swoons*

"I guess that means no MC for Fed in 2010, it will be Rome, Estoril, Madrid, and RG."

Brewer,
Roger can still play Monte Carlo per ATP schedule and it could be Monte Carlo, OFF, Rome, Estoril, Madrid, OFF, French Open.

Manuelsantanafan,
Very good thoughts on Nuria and Maria Jose AND the WTA doubles game in general.

Babe,
I agree with London on Dinara being the best clay court player as she made the finals at the French 2 years in a row with Svetlana right on her heels.

"I guess i am on time for fed's first match after USO"
Does Roger like his daughters have a twin??? Yes this explains a lot since 15 slams cannot be won by a single person.
Well Roger played DC......

Other than maybe a Slam or WTF, when is the last time Roger played a match on Monday?

Geez, what a curtain raiser for your first match

Is there a link to Rogers match pls

I don't expect Roger to play the full mandatory schedule next year or any other year again. He didn't this year.

http://www.fromsport.com/video-107147.html

But it's very choppy.

Thanks JohnC

Tuesday Order of Play

Basel with Novak at 2:30 PM
http://tinyurl.com/y9q2de3

Valencia with Andy Murray returning
http://tinyurl.com/yj7vudv

Are they going to say "Welcome to Roger Federer stadium.... Roger Federer!"? ;)

Master Ace: I know he can play MC, but he won't ;) It would be too much tournament in a row before RG, and he says he needs to schedule more carefully nowadays, because he's starting to feel the miles.

And MC, Rome, Estoril, Hamburg didn't work in 2008, MC, Rome, Estoril, Madrid wouldn't work in 2010 either :) He played only three clay tournaments before RG this year, (or rather two and a half :) ), and it's safe to say, it worked better ;)

Hi, everyone,

Well, here we go again. Hope everyone enjoys this, lots more to look forward to before 2010.

.....
Yes, Roger has a twin. His name is Fred. He was responsible for some of the particularly *cough* 'memorable' matches of 2008 :P

new color..same style.

"Players who are 30 years of age as of January 1 of the current Tour
Year, may elect not to be designated as a Top 10 or Marquee Player,
provided written notice of such election is delivered to Tour Operations
by November 1 of the prior Tour Year. A Player electing to decline eligibility
will still be required to play the four (4) Premier Mandatory
Tournaments, if she qualifies by ranking; however, she will not be subject
to the Top 10 or Marquee Player rules and will not be entitled to any
Player Commitment Compensation. If a player elects not to be designated,
an additional player will be added to the Premier List."

Avid Sports Fan,
The above is per WTA rulebook. 2010 will be the last year Venus has to play by Roadmap rules. Serena and Justine last year will be 2011 with Kim either in 2012 or 2013.

Oliver and Roger smiling about something while waiting.

Roger always looks great to me

Well he could wear "checkered clown pants",gee it that happened I think I would die.

http://www.channelsurfing.net/watch-davidoff-swiss-indoors-basel.html

Mr Personality Lars Graff is the umpire,with a new wave hair cut.

Well, are they going to play in the dark?

Man, he has lost a lot of weight. He looks positively skinny. I love his outfit

I love the colour combo Roger is wearing,very chic and up to date.

What's the colour combo?

"Babe,
I agree with London on Dinara being the best clay court player as she made the finals at the French 2 years in a row with Svetlana right on her heels."

Ok--but, IMO, that prize should go to the one who won the biggest of the clay titles--especially in light of the fact that she came second in the lead-up to the French.

Ana's story is interesting. But every player has reasons for not playing well.
Sharapova had to leave the tour for 9 months and came back with a different service motion.
Chakvetadze went from 2007 year end #6 to about #75

They are all dealing with health issues and confidence issues.

How do you think the NY Giants' offensive line feels today? They're probably so beat up they can barely stand up. Their qb has a foot injury and is screwing up. Their defense has been awful recently.

That's pro sports. Not easy. Not supposed to be easy

no workable links for Basel, hey?

brownish maroon polo with white trim detailing, white shorts

Aussiemarg and Nic
I would say the color of the T is coffee-bean with a touch of purple. Very nice.

Babe, if you are in US...its being shown on espn360.com

OMG i cannot believe Serena did a book signing in London and i didnt go!!! (also Fed looks great but v. skinny)

Babe,
Understand your argument for Svetlana being the best on clay due to her win at the French and Stuttgart but Svetlana got eliminated early at Madrid. If Svetlana would have made the SF at Madrid, I would have disagreed with London on Dinara.

Tommy NY Giants are my team,best we forget lol!

Federer's arms are looking even thinner, if that was possible.

Aussiemarg, hope I'm not late wishing you Happy B'day. Saw some posts on the other thread.

Triple fed fan

Spot On! with the colour.

That was a nice, blistering FH!

Fed does look very skinny!

AM...happy B'day!

"Babe, if you are in US...its being shown on espn360.com"

Yes, I don't think I can get that with my server here. Even at home, my cable company does not carry espn360.

This sucks--2 months without Federer & I can't even see him on his return.

Has the match started?

VC No,its the 2nd of November where you live,thats my birth date

Anyway dosent matter,thanks for the Birthday wishes.

Like wise Lady Julia,thanks.

Ahh... late by a few hours then. I haven't checked here in the last few days, actually was pleasantly surprised to find out that Federer is playing today.

Babe - here's a stream!

http://www.channelsurfing.net/watch-davidoff-swiss-indoors-basel.html

babe, this stream is a bit choppy but definately better than nothing. There's another stream, which is a few minutes delayed with spanish commies, but smoother.

http://www.fromsport.com/video-107147.html

MA: I don't see how early elimination in Madrid & then subequently winning RG some how rates her below Safina. But, I think this is a point on which reasonable minds can disagree. It comes down to how much one rates the slams in conjunction with other tournaments. For me, Sveta had the far better clay season because she capped it with the biggest prize.

Fed looks great! now can he go home between matches? is this local for him?