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Post by lizm on Sept 1, 2014 23:32:37 GMT
The spidercam seems really creepy this year. Have they always been zooming it so fast and so low?
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Post by tikigirl on Sept 2, 2014 0:25:26 GMT
Bouchard took a medical timeout, harry. Blood pressure check and ice. Apparently it was super hot conditions.
This Krunic/Azarenka match is NUTS. Ditto Robredo and Wrawrinka. Fun night.
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Post by lizm on Sept 2, 2014 6:11:26 GMT
The WHOLE POINT of this not being the Australian Open is that I shouldn't have to be awake at 2am in the morning, isn't it? At this point I'm rooting for Nishikori because he's closer to the finish line, patriotism be damned.
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Post by tikigirl on Sept 2, 2014 6:20:28 GMT
Awww, lizm. I hear you. But still, go Milos!
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Post by lizm on Sept 2, 2014 16:19:32 GMT
Haha thanks, tikigirl, I ended up going to bed in the vain hope that maybe I'd wake up to an unexpected Milos win. Alas, it was not to be. Devastating day for the Canadian contingent as a whole.
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Post by tikigirl on Sept 2, 2014 16:58:18 GMT
I enjoyed watching Raonic this tournament and hope he continues to improve, lizm. And now for the rant: as far as I can tell, the heat policy at the USO is pure gender-based bullshit. The women get to take 10 minutes off play if requested; men have to play through the heat. As far as I can tell, this is scientifically baseless. ( source) So women should actually handle these hot, humid conditions better than the men. Ugh. Had to get that off my chest! [/rant] |
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Sept 2, 2014 20:31:55 GMT
Ugh, this weekend! Awful. The entire week before the Open started I told everyone in the world that all I asked for was that our mild summer continued for two more weeks. Nope, not even close. That first Monday was our first hot day all summer and because I hadn't acclimated it was miserable. . . but not as miserable as when the pure humidity set in this weekend. You'd sit there and sweat but the sweat wouldn't dry because of the humidity. One guy sitting behind me Sunday night turned to his friend and said that the shower when he got back to the hotel would be the best thing ever.
It's my fault we had the massive thunderstorm Sunday--when I bought my tickets a couple of weeks ago they had run out of grounds passes and cheap seats in Ashe so my choice was spend the extra money for a first-row Loge seat or not go. I figured middle Sunday is crazy crowded so a specific seat might not be such a bad thing. Then I was quite gleeful when Rafa pulled out because he would have been in that Sunday spot (this is where karma got angry at me) and Roger moving to the 2 spot meant he'd play Sunday day. Then I panicked all week that he'd lose before the third round. When he didn't lose I thought I was set. He started the same time Feli and Thiem started on Grandstand so I stuck to my third-row seat in Grandstand and figured I'd move to Ashe after a set. At 3-3 in the first they had to suspend the match because of lightning. After the (massive) downpour they concluded the day session in Ashe so Roger played to the night crowd. That meant I paid the big(ger) bucks and never stepped foot in Ashe. Did see the rest of the Feli match but, damn, he never found a foothold playing Thiem. That kid is legit.
Something new this year on the app (which is BRILLIANT!) is that they give you the practice schedule. I've never been a fan of letting the people know who was practicing when/where (I believe it should be a happy surprise when you come across someone practicing) but I took advantage of it. The funniest moment was Roger--he was scheduled for practice at 10:45 and 11:30 so everyone filled the viewing area in front of his court by 10:15. 10:45, no Roger. 11:00 am, no Roger, 11:15, no Roger. At 11:22 he walk onto the practice courts and immediately goes to the one NEXT to the one he was scheduled at. The crowd just started chanting "come to practice court 5 Roger, come to practice court 5" but he didn't listen. And then he only hit with Stefan for 10 minutes and that was that. Feli and Marc Lopez were scheduled to practice on side court (where you can get right down to them) so I went there and watched Vika practice for a bit before Feli. She was smiling and happy and took a picture with every single person who asked her when she was finished. She even held up the pen she was using to sign autographs asking "whose pen is this?" until she could give it to the right person. Sweetheart.
And, yes, CBS has control over the weekend and neither they nor ESPN airs the night matches so Saturday and Sunday night tickets are never going to have the marquee players. Speaking of CBS, is there anything worse in the commentating world than Mary Carillo and John McEnroe? Awful. Then you get Taylor Dent on CBS Sports Network who 1) thinks he was a heck of a better player than he was and 2) hates on pretty much all the players currently playing. Not fun at all to listen to him.
It's too late now (unless you want to watch juniors) but the new courts 4/5/6 (court 5 is a TV court so you can see it on the feed) are great. I'm all sunburned on one side of my body because I spent so much time in the same spot on 5. Underneath also turned out to be a nice, quiet spot to sit out a rain delay.
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Post by breezybee on Sept 2, 2014 23:14:05 GMT
Unfortunately yes, there is.
Those of us who had the misfortunate of listening to Luke Jensen and Al Trauwig call the Robredo/Kyrgios match the other night discovered this. You know late at night when those informercials come on where some guy is jumping around and yelling about this GREAT NEW PRODUCT and you go flying across the room and lunge for the remote to he will shut the fuck up? We got four sets of the Nick Kyrgios infomercial.
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Post by falafaclese on Sept 2, 2014 23:46:43 GMT
I missed this. Who took the medical timeout? Bouchard did. She was having serious problems dealing with the heat, and ultimately just broke down if the media is to be believed. i didn't see it myself, but those have been the reports. It seems like Monfils played a good match today. Did anyone see it? I was sneaking peeks on my tablet at work, so i got the sense that Monfils was playing well, but I couldn't tell if Grigor was off or just outclassed. BTW, the US Open app is really good. I highly recommend it. ETA: this post is totally untimely because I didn't refresh before posting, and didn't see all of the new posts. Dumb. I'm so curious to see that giggling episode. I was watching the match, but missed it, and it sounds totally creepy. |
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Post by breezybee on Sept 3, 2014 0:24:34 GMT
It was weird and creepy Fala. One of them kept yelling "Don't tell me he's not a star, I'm watching a star" when talking about Kyrgios. That was before the giggling.
The Dimitrov/Monfils match wasn't great. Monfils was pretty quiet and was drinking Coke during the change overs. Dimitrov double faulted on Monfils' match point. That sort of sums it up.
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lt
Semi Finals
Posts: 3,223
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Post by lt on Sept 3, 2014 2:01:30 GMT
I was watching on the computer and Monfils is just playing within himself. No antics, just tennis. Which is funny because the commentators (Taylor Dent being one) started complaining that Monfils wasn't being entertaining enough. Except to complain about some light rain, he did the same thing against Gasquet. Just played and won. Very curious to see what will happen against Roger on Thursday night.
eta: ummmm, I just watched PMac interview Roger and he said Gael was playing "within himself." Either they've been spouting that line and it got into my consciousness or PMac is in my head. I'm not too happy with either choice.
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Post by roseha on Sept 3, 2014 7:23:27 GMT
Hey, lt, thanks for all that great commentary as usual. Almost like being there!
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Post by tikigirl on Sept 3, 2014 15:13:33 GMT
Re: Monfils "playing within himself": I'll say. After the first set, there were multiple times when, to return serve, Monfils would stand about ten feet inside the baseline and just sort of tap the serve back without moving. He also had multiple return points when he didn't move his feet at all and just hit the ball back. Maybe he was trying to conserve energy, though he seemed plenty energetic on his own service games. I dunno, but it was fucking bizarre. I'm starting to think he's more than a bit of an asshole. |
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Post by harry24 on Sept 3, 2014 15:20:11 GMT
Yay! Townsend and Young are playing doubles on my TV at this very moment.
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Post by falafaclese on Sept 4, 2014 0:22:54 GMT
Serena looks shitty right now.
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