Tennis Talk 2011

[mooncreek]

I am sad that Indo-Pak Express ended with a whimper. Bopanna will be playing next year with Bhupathi, ending Round 2 of him with Paes. I am guessing this is related to the Olympics.

[oopssorry]

Wow - this is some Year-End tourney.

Love the reports, lt. Missing London a ton, but those reports of the pubs help!

Recipes, tiki!

[lt]

oops, here's some more for you: I'm staying in the city (near Bank) and when I was walking to/from my hotel at the after work time the pubs were just insane--people flooding the streets drinking outside, happy as clams. The business folk do know how to welcome the weekend. On another note, I have this thing where I can't stand on escalators, I have to walk. As anyone familiar with London knows, the escalators in the underground are stories deep and are absolutely everywhere. Who needs a gym? Luckily, my bad hip has more problem walking forward so going up and down isn't as painful.

Some weird things to note today: You know how Rafa's left arm is bigger than his right? Berdych's left leg is bigger than his right. Makes sense considering the power in his serve but it is strange looking. I know the Lord Farquad resemblance has been remarked upon but Ferrer has a perfect physique. Goodness knows I've always appreciated it, but after looking at Berdych's legs I really noticed just how perfect David's legs are which led me to look at the rest of him. Perfect. Also, he is probably the only player who can put on a hot pink shirt and actually look good in it. I think because I can just imagine that Lotto gave him his shirts and he didn't even notice that one was hot pink. It's the not caring that makes it work.

Speaking of clothes, I think Nike has just given up in designing their stuff (excepting Roger and Rafa). Their run of the tennis mill stuff is just so. . . nothing.

Something I noticed during the US Open and it continued here, Tsonga must drive adidas nuts. They have very clear day and night color schemes and in the day/night they have multiple color color pairs that the players are supposed to match (little things like a logo in bright orange on the shirt that's supposed to match a stripe in the shorts) and Tsonga never, ever matches anything correctly. It was driving me crazy during the Open trying to figure out why adidas was putting bright orange with darker (not complementary) orange until I saw Dolgo and saw how the outfit was supposed to go (and you know it's bad when you have to look at Dolgo to see the correct fashion).

I felt awful not rooting for Ferrer tonight but I really wanted Berdych in. And I cannot believe how much I lucked out tomorrow--I have good seats for the day session and nosebleeds for the night session. I get Max and Daniel and Roger and David during the day. Woohoo!

There were Czech fans in the crowd tonight--I'm used to Chilean cheers, Argentine cheers, Spanish cheers but I've never heard Czech cheers before. It sounded like "I love my brandy" but I'm guessing that wasn't what they were saying.

Something I read in the paper (granted, a London tabloid) is that the ATP is considering a two-year ranking system. I cannot say NOOOOOOOOOOO enough. Roger said it best when he said it just wouldn't work for three reasons: 1) lower-ranked players wouldn't be able to have a breakthrough year that captures the imagination of fans, 2) people wouldn't pay as much attention to the rankings (he used golf as the example--they use a two-year ranking system and no one really pays attention to it), 3) if there wasn't a constant chance for change in the rankings the press wouldn't talk about the rankings--which means they wouldn't be talking about tennis.

Most of the rest of the top 8 like the ideas of a two-year ranking but that's because they're talking to the guys at the top. Of course they want the safety of a guaranteed ranking. Rafa said he liked it in case of injury but that's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater--fix the protection of the rankings because of injury (which they are also working on right now) but don't go so drastic as a two-year ranking.

One of the, many, things I love about Roger is that he thinks about what's good for the sport in the long run and not just what's good for him at the moment. He has such a sense of history for tennis--I love that.

There was a lot of wondering about Paes and Bhupathi breaking up again--the commentators thought (like most) that they had gotten together to play next year in the Olympics and here they are, in the semis of the WTF. So what happened? Can they just not stand each other enough? Bopanna is very excited to be playing with Bhupathi (no surprise there). I haven't looked it up, I wonder what other weird double combinations will appear in 2012 for the Olympics.

I'm here at a random time of the year and I cannot believe how crowded everything is--the streets, the underground, the shops, everything. New York has nothing on London in that regard. I don't even want to think about the insanity during the Olympics.

eta: on another NOOOO note: I hadn't realized that Berdych and Safarova broke up but I saw some leggy kinda blondy lady in Berdych's box and I feared the worse. I just looked it up and her name is Ester Satorova and she's a fashion model. *sigh*

[breezybee]

Thanks for the report lt. I just watched Daniel and Max take out the Bryan Bros and I can't imagine how excited you were seeing it live!!!

I agree about Ferrer's physique. Sometimes he looks sort of stocky on tv but when you see him up close and personal - wow. Very nice.

[oopssorry]

You rock, lt. Have had a few fun games of Chase up and down those escalators - and it's a pretty good day spent traveling throughout the whole tube.

Feeling pretty proud of my Roger, and hoping my printing of that doesn't jinx anything.

Think I'm going to look up when it becomes a decade of Roger inside the top 5.... Anyone? Is it July 2012?

[falafaclese]

Fed has been in the top ten without interruption since October 14, 2002. He debuted in the top ten at number 8 on May 20, 2002, but then dropped out for a while before returning in October.

Great reports lt! I would love to check out that event some time. I also would like to go to the Paris Masters for no other reason than I love the look of the Palais Omnisports.

[oopssorry]

Thanks, fala! I found it and it was Feb 17, 2003 when he landed at 5 that's he's been in that group ever since. Wondering if we'll make it to 2013 there; scared to hope, I guess.

[lt]

It's his 100th final tomorrow. 100. That's insane. And third Sunday meeting Tsonga.

I decided Berdych is a bit of a Debbie Downer, tennis-wise. His style of play kept Tsonga from doing anything really interesting (except win). I think tomorrow will be a more entertaining match. But what was entertaining tonight? GRACE freakin' JONES showing up to watch Tsonga. The photographers went nuts. I had nosebleed seats tonight and she was covered up from her head to her feet (including gloves and sunglasses) but once I saw that mouth on the big screen I recognized her.

With Max and Daniel and Roger and Jo all playing tomorrow I did take a peak at the prices on viagogo but there isn't anything in the good seats for under 300 pounds so I'll happily watch from my hotel room. Thank goodness for Sky Sports--they're showing the doubles.

The doubles match tonight was a battle of annoying camps. Frystenberg and Matkowski's people were waving the Polish flag and leaping to their feet but Paes and Bhupathi's folks cheering for faults by the Poles was worse. Even the fans in the stands weren't clapping for double faults. . . And both Leander and Mahesh have this nasty habit of glaring and pumping their fists towards their camp when they win a big point (and they chest bump).

Speaking of chest bumps, yes, breezy, Max and Daniel made me very happy. I was sitting right behind the Bryan's camp and, I will admit, they were very well behaved. So were the brothers. I don't know if it was because they never did anything to cheer about in the match or just that they're maturing. Boy, I hope it's the latter. And I can now tell the brothers apart (I don't know my right and left fast enough to see which hand they're holding their racquets so that doesn't work for me). Bob is slightly heavier than Mike. He's still thin and all, just not as thin as his brother. And since Mardy and Roddick wouldn't listen to Roger anyway they should listen to the Bryan Brothers about clothing--Fila had them in loose clothes but they weren't baggy at all. I do wish they didn't dress like 6-year identical twins though. They could wear same-colored clothes without wearing the exact same outfits.

The difference in day and night matches was extraordinary--during the day, both doubles teams were playing very within themselves and not making a multitude of stupid errors. The night match was a clusterf*ck of stupid mistakes. During the day, Roger had no real problem with David but the match had loads of brilliant points and fun games. During the night, well, Berdych was making errors all over the place and Tsonga was just sort of hitting the ball without his panache. I found myself wishing that Ferrer had beaten Berdych (even with that meaning Djokovic would have made it to the semis) so I could have seen Ferrer vs. Tsonga. And the way Roger is playing I don't think he would have lost to Djokovic. And I don't think it was the difference of good seats and high seats. . .

Hey oops, here's another London thing for you--I'm watching some old Fry and Laurie right now (and they had Hugh singing an ode to Steffi Graf! How random is that?). And tomorrow I have to go to a Sainsburys and get some weird things for my brit cousin-in-law. One last London thing--I think more Londoners still smoke than New Yorkers. In New York it's become a very rare thing to walk behind someone smoking but here smokers are still everywhere.

Oh, speaking of Djokovic/Roger--in the article where Roger was talking about the two-year ranking he talked about how it would be nice for the top players "like [himself] and Rafa." Hee, he just will not acknowledge Djokovic as the top player. But, a caveat--this was a London tabloid so who knows what he really said.

[tikigirl]

You are awesome, lt! Add my thank-you to all the rest.

[roseha]

And mine too lt! just like being there!
I totally agree with Roger on the two year ranking concept - I think it makes no sense whatsover, especially with four new Slams each year.

[lt]

You know what's silly? That I'm sitting here in my hotel room so ecstatic that not only is the TV going to show the doubles final but that here it is, a half an hour before that match, with all the commentators prepared to spend that half an hour in a pre-final show. How cool is that? They're now doing some WTF final history (look at Pete! so young! And Boris. . . awwww, and Roger with that stupid ponytail.).

You know what's stupid? Going to Harrods on a Sunday afternoon. Yikes! Now that's what crowded means. . . (but it was my only non-tennis day so it had to be today).

eta: Yeah! Woohoo! And all the commentators declared Max the doubles player of the week. He's really having one hell of a November--National Ambassador for UNICEF and WTF champion.

[harry24]

Happy to be watching tennis not on my computer.

And you all know that I am a devoted Roger Girl, right? But, damn, if JWT isn't just adorbs. That little smile just kills me.

Still, I hope Roger keeps the foot on the gas and serves this puppy out.

[tikigirl]

Fucking COME ON, Roger!

[mooncreek]

This is definitely the best match of WTF, regardless of outcome. That it's even still going on (there was Championship Point!) proves just how much Jo rocks.

[harry24]

Jo does, indeed, rock.

But, COME ON, ROG. PUT THE HAMMER DOWN, GODDAMMIT!!!!