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Post by falafaclese on Jan 2, 2013 21:33:03 GMT
Happy 2013! I just realized that we heve been here bitching, moaning, mouthing off, and generally thinking we're pretty damn clever for over 5 years! Thanks for adding so much to a sport that I already thought was damn near perfect! And special thanks to admin wherever you are!
To start off the season, here's a pretty good iPhone 5 ad featuring Venus and Serena. love the facial expressions.
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Post by harry24 on Jan 2, 2013 21:51:58 GMT
PRETTY GOOD?!! It's effing awesome!! I adore the paddle twirl at the beginning. Both ladies are brilliant, as is the choreography, as well as the overall concept.
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Jan 3, 2013 16:12:17 GMT
I just saw that commercial the other day--so good.
Happy New Year to everyone.
Do you guys remember me talking about my tennis cousin? The one who I'd meet up with at the Open? She died two weeks ago. It hasn't hit me yet, but because my favorite memories of her are tied up with tennis I thought I'd write a bit about her here: A little over ten years ago we discovered that we were going to the Open on a couple of the same days each year (first Thursday and Friday). At first we'd just make plans to say "hi" on the grounds but we quickly discovered that we both loved Andre so we would go to his matches together. One year we were interviewed by CBS during a downpour because we were happily chatting away in Ashe while everyone else was giving up on the day. She explained that we didn't see each other that often so we could catch up while taking the chance that play would continue (play did continue but so many people had left that they told everyone to come down courtside to watch Andre play Roger). As the years started going by we found out that we watched tennis the exact same way and really liked the same style of players. We started calling each other the day before when the OoP was released to plan our attack on the next day and how to see everyone we wanted to. Feli was our absolute must see. We'd go early to make sure to get our front-row seats. She didn't love Max as much as I did but she was more than happy enough to watch every doubles and mixed match with me. The only tennis thing we disagreed on was exactly where to sit--I liked sideline between net and service line and she liked sideline between service line and baseline. For years I'd bring friends to the semis with me but they were never huge tennis fans and I always felt obligated to make sure they were having a good time. I started bringing my cousin and it was perfect--I never had to worry whether she was enjoying herself during the long day because she was loving it as much as I was.
We started calling each other during televised tennis matches--every Aussie Open she'd call at 3:30 am for the big matches and we'd sit in our respective homes watching the match with the phones glued to our ears. We'd have little battles with which cable system was faster than the other and the person who had the faster system had to be careful not to give away a big point. For the longest time her system won but my cable-card TiVo won in the end. She was the one I'd call when I was at Key Biscayne or Indian Wells to give the update on who I'd just seen doing what. I'd scout out the younger players and we'd make sure to watch them when the next US Open rolled around--Kevin Anderson and Dolgo were two of her favorites. Her absolute favorite of all time was Guga. As his career was coming to an end we'd make sure to watch him in any draw that he had entered. During the 2011 US Open her stomach was bothering her. She didn't want to go through the Open not feeling well so she went to a doctor. Tests and tests later and they found a "shadow" on a MRI. I was with her (before a Fer match) when she got that call. Turned out she had a rare liver cancer and after everything shook out the doctors gave her less than five years. For the first 10 months she was very aggressive with the chemo but the pain was too great and she and the doctors decided it would be better to just deal with pain management and let the cancer take its course.
I must admit, I'm dreading this Aussie Open. That's when the full realization is going to hit me in the face and I don't know how I'm going to take it. There are some relatives you love because they are family and there are some you love because you bond over something special to both of you. She was the latter.
*Phew* I needed to say that to tennis people. My family memories are different and make sense to the rest of the family but only tennis people are going to get what this loss means in solely a tennis manner.
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Post by breezybee on Jan 3, 2013 17:01:33 GMT
Hugs lt.
I'm sorry for your loss both of your cousin and your tennis buddy. I think most of us have the tennis friends that we can talk for hours to about tennis or just sit beside in silence watching an awesome match. I work with a tennis buddy and most days we have a tennis chat to start the day. It might be about a great match one of us just saw or it might be about Feli's new haircut but we get each other. We to Roger's Cup together too and she was absolutely the perfect person for me to attend with. You must have a big empty space in your life right now and my heart goes out to you.
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Post by harry24 on Jan 4, 2013 4:17:34 GMT
Oh, lt, I'm so, so sorry. I read your message hours ago, and it's been weighing on me. What the hell do you say when someone you really care about dies way before her time? I've got nothing. It sucks. I'm just really sorry.
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Post by falafaclese on Jan 4, 2013 5:15:34 GMT
I'm so sorry for your loss, lt. I'm glad you got to have such nice tennis memories with her, and I hope you are okay as you deal with the loss. Take care of yourself, and thank you for sharing those memories with us.
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Post by skyz on Jan 4, 2013 5:46:05 GMT
I'm sorry for your loss, lt. Cancer is such an awful disease. I hope you have your loved ones around you during the Oz Open, who can be understanding of your grief. I'm glad that you felt you could share those memories with us. I'll keep you in my thoughts.
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Post by roseha on Jan 4, 2013 6:09:18 GMT
I'm so sorry also lt. You are always so generous about sharing your tennis experiences with all of us, and I can't imagine how sad it must be to lose your cousin, especially a person you were close to and shared your love of tennis.
Will keep you and your family in my thoughts as well.
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Jan 4, 2013 13:58:14 GMT
Thank you all--I didn't want to bring down the beginning of the new year but I (selfishly) needed to get that eulogy out and I wanted her remembered in a way she normally wouldn't.
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Post by oopssorry on Jan 4, 2013 21:33:11 GMT
so sorry, lt. i love the idea of a tennis-centered eulogy. my fondest memories of my mom revolve around tennis - with the 04 AO being the culminating one. we watched it from her hospice bed, and we lost her soon afterward. for a long time, the number of weeks that roger had been #1 equaled the number of weeks i'd been without her.
hard not to frame the events together....
lots of good energy your way.
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Post by mooncreek on Jan 5, 2013 18:55:58 GMT
Sorry for your loss.
This week at Doha had been nice to see a former Top 5 player regain old form (especially in demolishing Ferrer). So to see Davydenko - a player so known for racking up titles in the past - soo close to winning first title in two years and absolutely lose it mentally was tough to watch. Consider that I'm a Gasquet fan but even I know he won this event due to opponents blowing it in the big points.
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Post by harry24 on Jan 5, 2013 21:43:54 GMT
I was rooting for Davy and am so sad he couldn't grab the title. The commenters were saying that he has admitted to slacking off (relatively) on his conditioning in the past year or so, and says he's changed that, so hopefully this will be the first of many successful tournaments this coming season.
Happy for Reeshard, though.
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Post by francienolan on Jan 7, 2013 12:45:06 GMT
LT What a beautiful eulogy to someone who obviously meant so much to you. I know you will watch with a heavy heart and process AO differently this year but thank you for sharing that with us.
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Jan 7, 2013 21:47:07 GMT
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Post by francienolan on Jan 8, 2013 2:15:28 GMT
I know there were jokes about Masha being taller thn Baby Fed-  obvs it doesn't matter- but unless she goes back in the pro basketball pool that is probably going to be the case. So out of loop, have watched very little tennis since USO. I always do this and am therefore especially thrilled by the bright and fun AO scene. |
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obvs it doesn't matter- but unless she goes back in the pro basketball pool that is probably going to be the case.