lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Feb 1, 2012 18:26:11 GMT
Hee. In not-important news: Today is Signing Day for the college football recruits (this matters, it really does) and Chris Fowler tweeted that he's got Nole going to LSU, Rafa to Alabama and Roger is neutral (as the Swiss are). It just tickles me that he loves his tennis so much.
Did anyone see Azarenka on Ellen yesterday? Tall young lady. She was keyed up and a bit nervous but I thought she did a good job. They gave everyone in the audience two tickets to IW--which is great, except I figure most of the guests at the show were probably not from LA and who knows where they'll be in March. . .
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Post by falafaclese on Feb 1, 2012 19:39:57 GMT
I missed Vika. I'm kind of interested to see her in that setting, because she seems to have a bit of a sarcastic personality (I guess that's not much of a stretch).
So, Woz has already fired Ricardo Sanchez. Yes, that's right, after two whole months. It looks like Piotr still has a pretty tight hold on Woz's game, and evidently Sanchez could find his way in. It's too bad, because as much as i dislike Sanchez, he sure as hell has a good track record with JJ. Woz needs to hire whoever is coaching Christina McHale, because in my opinion, Christina has the game to which Woz should be aspiring. Christina has excellent movement, good timeing and what seems like good fitness. What Christina has that Woz doesn't is a very nice forehand that she's willing to unload with when the opportunity arises. All Woz has that Christina doesn't is experience (which in my mind will bring better consistency and focus within the point). I'm not saying that McHale will make it to number one or even a major title, but she has potential. It is bad, however, when you're a number one and it in any way looks like you should be aspiring to the game of the number 38. Woz can get there, I just hope she does.
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Post by mooncreek on Feb 2, 2012 22:29:17 GMT
It must have been tough for Sanchez to be heard at all with Piotr yammering in Polish in Caroline's ear.
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Post by mooncreek on Feb 6, 2012 3:43:52 GMT
I think I saw more of Venus during the Fed Cup tie than Serena - and that was before Venus even got on the court to play! Her new hair is absolutely fabulous - although quite amusing to see how small Serena looks when standing next to her. I also don't remember the last time I saw her in something actually resembling a tennis outfit but I wish she'd do that more often instead of the "high fashion" thing.
That the crowd stayed for a dead rubber in Massachusetts over finding a spot to watch the Super Bowl says a lot for how much Venus has been missed. Really odd to see a ladies doubles match with only one Williams sister on the court.
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Post by falafaclese on Feb 6, 2012 15:51:43 GMT
I completely missed seeing her play. I had to leave, and I had my DVR running, but the recording shut off near the beginning of the Christina McHale match. From what i read, it sounds like she got a warm welcome though.
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Feb 7, 2012 13:47:05 GMT
Listening to the radio this morning and Dick Vitale was talking about the NFL HOF and he mentioned that his "good friend" Nick Bollettieri hadn't made it into the Tennis HOF. I want you all to imagine being in a room with Vitale and Bollettieri having a conversation. . . I think Dante would make that one of the rings of hell. Meanwhile, I'm not Bollettieri's biggest fan and hindsight being 20/20 I don't like how the style of tennis he coaches changed tennis but not making it to the HOF does seem to be an oversight.
(eta: I just looked over my post and I realized that I spelled Bollettieri a different way each time--and they were all wrong.)
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Post by breezybee on Feb 9, 2012 20:07:36 GMT
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Post by falafaclese on Feb 9, 2012 23:38:09 GMT
I just came over here to post about that myself. While I sometimes rolled my eyes at his.meltdowns, I really enjoyed him. It's too bad he has to go out because AG too many injuries. Miami should have a warm, South America-friendly crowd for him to say goodbye to.
Has anyone been following the latest fallout of Yannick Noah's filing comments? Some French comedy show did a comedy sketch (with puppets) in which a Rafa puppet pees into his gas tank, drives away at a high rate of speed, and gets pulled over for speeding. Now the Spanish gov't may sue because they used the logo of the Spanish tennis federation.
I also read that Alisa Kleybanova has finished her chemo and has started training again. Good for her.
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Post by mooncreek on Feb 10, 2012 17:06:52 GMT
If Gonzo wasn't going to have the motivation after his home tournament last week, it just wasn't going to happen. Miami is a good spot for him to end.
Just watched the Fish-Wawrinka match. That crowd was so weird - the Americans seemed louder. Stan tried to rev them up in the fourth set but that seemed more like a desperation move.
Both players choked quite a bit in the fifth set but this sets up well for the Americans to win the tie - a four and a half hour loss doesn't bode well for the rest of Stan's weekend.
ETA:
I hadn't bothered with the second match because it's Roger fricking Federer but....
US is now up 2-0?! The fangirl is trying not to scream right now but YAY JOHNNY. Thankfully, Tennis Channel will be reairing this day like crazy.
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Post by lizm on Feb 11, 2012 3:16:14 GMT
Just finished the Raonic-Benneteau match... was more entertaining than most Raonic matches have been previously. Ben got a bit of comeuppance by lightly snarking on Raonic's return game before the match (though I ordinarily agree, not today).
The Canadian fans were embarrassing me slightly, but only slightly compared to other 'home crowds'.
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Post by mooncreek on Feb 11, 2012 16:12:40 GMT
Now having seeing the Federer/Isner match, there are two things you can take from the match:
(1) John did not back down. He ended the match with three consecutive return winners. No, really, John Isner essentially did an impression of The Shot from Djokovic's win over Fed at the US Open three times in a row. Other than the game in the second set he got broken, Roger did not play a bad match. That said...
(2) That court is utter shit. You'd think once it was clear Roger was playing, they'd have a court that might actually be decent. So many bad bounces, which works well with Isner's serve. Absolutely terrible if you're a rhythm player like Wawrinka - Roger wouldn't have had rhythm regardless due to playing Isner but it makes one wonder about the doubles.
ETA: Given #2 and Stan's state of mind, I'm not that surprised the Americans won the doubles. A Bryan Brother would also be favored on this type of choppy clay, even if there's only one of them.
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Post by harry24 on Feb 13, 2012 1:28:56 GMT
Good grief. I was settling in to do some busy work at the computer, turned on the TV to the Westminster Dog Show for some company while I worked, and whose dulcet tones do I hear? Mary Carillo! I had no idea she did this gig.
I remember her great work on the hilarious and informative Olympic Ice show during the last winter Olympics, so hopefully she can bring that same charm to this gig.
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Post by acre on Feb 14, 2012 12:08:58 GMT
Aww, I'm taping the dog show and I hope Mary does good. I know she can be totally irritating, but by god when she's good I love her. So funny, so charming. Like the little girl with the curl, how does that go?
When she was good she was very, very good and when she was bad she was awful. That's not right, and I'm off enough that I can't get it on Wiki, but you get the gist. Mary has been in my tennis life about always, 30y's?, and I can't stop loving her. And Olympic Ice! The best thing ever. Wow, when she's good, she is so so good, it's too bad she also sucks so much some times.
ETA: Found it! Longfellow, no less.
There was a little girl, who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead,
And when she was good, she was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
Sorry, I had to. No, I'm not so--y(see, it's actually me), good lit and poetry a-e never out of place. But it is dawn o'clock, so who knows.
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Post by breezybee on Feb 14, 2012 13:34:55 GMT
Holly crap. This is Djoker's wax likeness unveiled in Serbia. I'm gonna have nightmares tonight.  |
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Post by printwhore2012 on Feb 14, 2012 13:41:27 GMT
Hello. Has anybody seen this: espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/7552875/tennis-double-ranking-period-atp-tour-troubleSorry if it's been discussed in another thread before but Rafa really needs to tone it down with this two-year ranking stuff because it makes him look like a self-serving jerk. Even if he brought this up in 2009 back when he was still number one, it still doesn't look good and the media is picking up on it. His PR needs to tell him to tone it down, between this, supporting Contador, attacking Federer in the press and lobbying for a system whose most obvious benificiary would be him, I just can't deal with it anymore. As for Federer, man I cannot believe that he blamed Wawrinka for the doubles. It's such a horrible thing to say, Stan's always been the DC guy when Federer was out there winning Slams so the least he could do was stick up for his partner. *sigh* Alright, I'll crawl back into my hole. |
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