11 posts tagged “tennis”

Tennis is back in the press these days, unfortunately, it is because of shadiness... I'm not even going to go in to the nonsense that is swirling around Davydenko, other to say, he better cut it out, if he's doing anything wrong.... 

What people should really be talking about is that Federer just lost to Nalbandian.  Granted, it was only the Madrid Masters, a tournament that I honestly didn't even know existed, but Nalbadian had a similar road to the final that Djokovic had last year (in whatever that tournament was just before the US Open, Cincinatti maybe, or the Pilot Penn in CT - regardless), picking off multiple top seeded players on his way to finals.  Nalbadian took out Nadal (2) and Djokovic (3) to get in to the finals. 

He will definitely be one to watch when the Australian Open gets going!!!  Personally, I find it a relief to see some of these guys beating Federer, even if it isn't in Grand Slams.  What fun is it to watch when the sport is dominated by one guy?  Not that I don't like "Fed", I just want to see some great tennis, and great tennis can only exist when there are multiple, qualified players vying for the title.... 

See, I can talk about my other loves besides TEA

I get a NYTimes email link each day and at the bottom it has "On This Day" which cites something newsworthy that had happened on this date.  Here's today's: 

On Sept. 20, 1973, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a $100,000 winner-take-all tennis match.

Federer won it in three sets, but that doesn't do the match justice at all.  The first two sets were decided in tie breakers and there wasn't even a break point opportunity until about halfway through the second set.  Adam and I watched the first set together and then he went off to bed and I slogged through until the end -- although, I did watch some of the Tim Gunn show during the third set (my disclaimer) and actually missed most of the game when Federer finally broke Andy. 

Here are some of our observations:

Jimmy Connors, tennis legend and Roddick's coach, looked great in his suit sitting in the stands.

 

 

 

 

 

It was such a treat to have Andre Agassi in the commentator booth!  It took some time to get used to sound of his voice (and I thought he was a little too quiet sometimes and needed to speak louder), but he made some very insightful comments.  It was a great addition to an already great night of tennis a welcome break from hearing the dimwit who normally sits with McEnroe (he was there, just didn't talk as much). 

 

 

Early on, Agassi mentioned that Roddick would have to be careful to get points over with quickly because he wouldn't have a good chance winning points on long rallies against Federer.  We both liked that comment and Adam started keeping track (of points that went to 6 hits or more).  In the first set, tracking points that went over the net six times, Federer won 15 points to Roddick's 5.  Andre's point was right on the mark.

 

 

 I wasn't a big fan of both players dressed in black.  Made it a little hard to keep track of them....  and I HATE that Andy wears shirts that are a bit too big, so he is always pulling up the sleeves between points - maybe that's just a nervous habit and not a reflection of his shirt size.

We noticed that Roddick was running around his backhand quite a bit.  It didn't seem that he had a lot of unforced errors on that side, so it was a bit unusal.  Interesting to see that although Roddick is the one known for his heavy serving, it was actually Federer that had more aces.  It was nice to see Andy coming to net a fair amount.  Shocked at times, by the passing shots Federer was able to get past him - the man is amazing!  A fascinating Federer statistic: during the second set, he won 94% of the points played off his second serve.  That's insane....  

Neither Adam nor I are very big fans of Roddick's style of play.  Relying on a big serve to pull out victories may make you win a lot of games, but it isn't terrbily exciting to watch.  And, he's been over hyped - He's only won the Open once people! Back in 03.  He's 1-14 now in head-to-heads with Federer, I liked his comment that can't really be considered a revilry (sp?) until he starts winning some head-to-heads.  Very respectful of Federer's success and not egocentric.  Roddick, is unquestionably a tremendous asset to professional tennis.  He is a good sport, very modest, pleasant to ball boys, umpires, other players - just an all around good guy.  In stark contrast to the Williams sisters, who are at the other extreme.

Adam noticed this, and I can't believe I never realized it - Both players, but Federer especially, have freakishly wimpy left arms in comparison to their muscular right arm - they almost looked deformed.OK - so my comments are a bit all over the place this morning, but hey, I didn't get much sleep from staying up to watch the match!

Here are some statistics from the NYTimes Open Blog: Roddick had the most aces he’d ever served against Federer, 14, and had 42 winners and 24 unforcced errors, many of them when it was all but over. He even served 71 percent for the entire match. But Federer had some pretty good numbers, too: 15 aces (yes, he again out-aced him), 48 winners against 18 unforced errors. Neither player served a double fault.

Last night, Henin defeated Serena in the Quarterfinals.  This is the third time that these two have met in a Quarterfinal this year, and Henin has won each time....  Henin was serving horribly and Adam and I resorted to yelling at the television after her numerous double faults (7 in the match) and inability to get a first serve in - she was getting around 50% of her first serves in - pathetic for the #1 Ranked woman in the world!!!  While extremely powerful, Serena wasn't moving very well - not that she has ever been very agile.  When Henin ran her back and forth, she didn't stand a chance and her net game was awful.  Her footwork was just pitifall, she wasn't moving well. 

The Williams sisters aren't known for their sportsmanship, AND never give the other player credit for playing well when they get beaten, but I didn't notice Serena behaving inappropriate last night... So, I found it intriguing this morning when I saw photos of the match and all the captions commented about "an ungracious Serena".  One of the photos was Henin/Williams shaking hands after the match and she seemed corgal - so that's a bit of a mystery.  Guess I should read a summary of the game and see if I missed anything.... 

Henin goes on to play the winner of Venus Williams/Jankovic - Jankovic is seeded third, but I believe Venus is favored to win - they play tonight.  Yesterday, I had been confident that Henin would be able to take the Title, but if her serve is as bad as it was last night, Venus is going to trounce all over her second serve.

Nadal got ousted last night (4th Round)... impressive that he made it this far, considering his knees have been bothering him.  He had said last week that he would have pulled out of the draw by now if he had been any other tournament.  I think its nice he has such a drive to win this major AND managed to get this far before being beaten.  The match started late (the whole night was behind because Djokovic's match went so long and put the whole schedule over an hour behind) so I didn't watch too much.  Nadal wasn't playing poorly, but it was clear that he wasn't moving like he normally did.... 

This afternoon, hopefully its still on when I get home from work so I can watch, Tommy Hass is playing Davydenko, a Russian that's seeded 4th.  Should be interesting if Haas can continue to play as well as he did against Blake.

Big night tonight - FEDERER vs. RODDICK.  I'm not a big Roddick fan.  He's got a big serve, so he can dominate when he serves, but the rest of his game isn't very impressive.  Once his opponent figures out how to block his serve, he looses his edge.  I think Federer may get a whoppin' the first couple of games Roddick is serving, but shouldn't have a problem moving on to the Semis.

STAY TUNED!!!

AH HA!:  I went looking online for what prompted the negative comment about Serena, and low and behold, she behaved in typical Williams behavior during the press conference. Here's a quote from the NY Times: From Williams’s perspective, she beat herself. “I think she made a lot of lucky shots and I made a lot of errors,” Williams, the eighth seed, said sourly during her postmatch news conference.  Why is it so impossible for those two (Serena & Venus) to occasionally give their opponent some credit for winning??? 

Update: I just couldn't let this go and went searching for more on the press conference comments... interesting/testy exchange between Serena and the press.... details here

I love this time a year... although, I don't quite get enough sleep because I'm staying up late to watch the end of good matches.....  I've been meaning to comment for some time, but my work connection isn't being very cooperative with VOX lately. 

Here are some thoughts in no real order...

Don't know who this is, but she looks ridiculous.  This was her outfit during the first round and I'm pretty sure she got ousted in Round Two.  She was quoted as saying she was bummed that she didn't get farther because she had more outfits to showcase... this is about tennis, T-E-N-N-I-S.  If you care about outfits, go to Bryant Park for Fashion Week (happenening now) instead of Flushing Meadows! 

She looks like a Freakin' American Gladiator.

 

 

 

Venus is playing some great tennis and it looks like she will be playing the winner of Serena/Hennin in the Semis, BUT this outfit is doing nothing for her boobs.  Get some support - this is physical activity and your "girls" don't seem very happy braless!

 

 

 

 

 

 I had been a big Blake supporter until I heard that the "J Block" -- his fan base -- were extremely irritating to sit next to...  they scream things like "put it in the hole" that don't even make any sense... when we were at the Open, we sat next to someone Adam dubbed "DelBoca Vista" (Seinfeld reference) and this woman would scream for Marty Fish every other point -- so annoying. 

We got to watch some amazing tennis yesterday afternoon.  Blake, seeded 6, fell to Tommy Haas (German!) ranked 10th in a fifth set tiebreaker.  Haas has historically been a pretty inconsistent player, but really seems to have brought his A-game to the Open.  I think he's slated to play Federer in either the Quarters or the Semi's and the poor guy just doesn't stand a chance against Federer.

 

Great quote in the NY Times commenting on Sharaova's night-game outfit... it said something along the lines of "She looked like she got lost on the way out for a night of clubbing"....  What the heck is this outfit?  Her day-wear was a little better, but still overly dressy.  It bothers the feminist in me to read her quotes where she says that she plays better when she feels  pretty -- This is tennis, a sport, not a fashion show!!! 

Maybe Sharapova and Bethanie Mattek will enjoy Fashion Week together since neither of them made it through to Week Two. 

 

 

One of this nicest things I've seen during the USOpen was the sportsmanship between Andy Roddick and Justin Gimmelstob.  Gimmelstob, a 30yr old American (from Jersey!) intends to retire after the US Open.  He and Roddick are buddies.. that exchanged some nice banter back and forth during their first round match up and afterwards interviewed one another... Gimmelstob is planning on doing some broadcasting post-tennis.  He had a very energetic, humorous personality and I look forward to hearing him during matches.  

 

 

 

My prediction for the Women's Draw?  Henin all the way!  Unfortunately, the draw is a little lopsided.  Sharapova didn't really have much competition in the bottom half, and she was beaten by a young Russian (?) ranked 30th -- so that half is wide open.  Venis & Serena Williams, and Hennin are all in the top half.... each has 5 or more majors under their belt and each of them has won the Open previously.   Serena and Henin's quarterfinal match is tonight at 7pm, while I am stuck in my exam-review class.... I've already requested that Adam keeps my up to date on the score.  If it goes to the a third set, I'm bailing on class.  I have my priorities!  We got to see Serena play and she's not at the top of her game.  Hennin would play Venus in the semi's and although Venus has beaten Henin almost every time they've played one another, they haven't been head to head since 2003 or 2004, when Venus was at the top of her game.  I predict an interesting Semi Final on the top half of the draw and an uneventful Final.  Hennin (or a Williams sister) will destroy whoever makes it out of the bottom-half of the draw.  My money is on Hennin!!! 

The men's side is still wide open.... Federer of course is still a superstar.  Nadal is injured but still in it.... Roddick is just waiting to get yanked.  I believe he's slated to play Federer in the Semis, if someone doesn't oust him first....

This guy - Djokovic, who is seeded third is playing some great tennis.  He looks to be the only guy that could dethrown Federer. 

I LOVE TENNIS!

 

We went to the US OPEN on Friday... about freakin' time!  We were supposed to go last year, but I was sick on the day we were supposed to go, and the following day, we could have gone, but my mom had off from work and I opted for being a good daughter since she had recently seperated from my stepfather....  Anyway, this year we went with no tickets -- fingers crossed that we could get in, even though we had seen that Grounds tickets (seats that aren't specific to a stadium) were sold out.  We ended up scalping tickets for $150 -- not too bad.  Tickets were for the Authur Ashe stadium, but not together.  Face value of the tickets were $58/each.  We had a backup plan of bumming around in Manhattan - luckily, it didn't come to that.

I have always told Adam that the best part of going in the first week is walking around the outside courts checking out the doubles activity and players that are lower in the ranks -- in the past, my stepfather and I have watched players that later got really good... kind of cool to have seen them when they were clawing their way up the rankings...

Well, the place was a mob scene and it was tough to see much of anything anywhere.  We tried to watch some side games (including Hingis playing doubles) but couldn't see much.  It's great to be able to see Hingis, but if you can't see the rest of the court, you can't really appreciate the game...  So, we went in to the Ashe stadium where we had tickets...  At first, we snuck in to a lower level and enjoyed being really close to the game, but eventually got booted when one of the ushers saw us switch rows when the people whose seats we were in showed up and we tried to move down a row.  We never ended up sitting in our actual seats and managed to secure seats in the less-nosebleed seats.  Our seats were in Row Z - the last row.

We watched Marty Fish (an American) loose to a Spaniard in 5 sets -- tennis was just OK.  There were so great points, but the game in its entireity (sp?) was a little ho-hum - 5th set of course was much more interesting.  We were actually hoping that the first match would be over sooner so we could watch more of Serena's game.  By 6:15 we were pretty pooped from having been outin the sun for 6 hours -- and we were each a bit hungover from teh two beers...  

I was bummed that we didn't leave with any US Open paraphenalia, but neither of us saw any shirts we really loved.

 

 

 

Things to keep in mind for next year: 

1) Friday is too late in the Open... we should go Mon, Tues, Wed when it is less crowded and there are more games on the outside courts.

2) We need to get there before 11am, so we can secure good seats on one of the outside courts.

3) We didn't save any time going to Flushing Meadow from my mom's.  We'll just take Amtrak (with points I rack up from work) to Penn Station -- it will take the same amount of time.

4) Bookbags aren't allowed, but apparently really big purses are... it sucked having to check our bookbag.  So much for the snacks I packed.  I foolishly didn't even keep my cell phone (pants with no pockets) so we couldn't call our friends we were supposed to meet up with afterwards and cancel on them punctually.

5) AMEX has this very cool offer for cardmembers where you get a free disposable radio, so you can listen to the telecast games, AND the option of renting a TV, so you can watch games on other courts.  Djocovic was playing in the other stadium while we were watching Fish and it would have been cool to keep up with that 5 set match.

I guess I'm a little rusty from not having gone recently -- actually, I've gone twice since I've been with Adam, but I was in a corporate box both times (I know, poor me) so I didn't appreciate the Open from the "commoner" viewpoint... 

Can't wait for the Finals this weekend!!! 

There's an article in the NY Times today about the draw.  I must say that I'm a little bummed to see the Women's side so top-bracket-heavy.  First, it makes the matches in the bottom half less interesting, but also, it gives Sharapova (and her insane schrieking) a better chance of getting farther in the tournament. 

Should be interesting to see if Djovokoc (I think I just butchered that spelling) or Nadal can prevent Federer from his fourth straight US Open victory.

The fun starts Monday.  Adam and I are going on Friday - so excited!!!!   Fingers crossed that the weather is cooperative.

Yesterday, in between the modest studying I did and the work catchup I had to deal with, I was in and out of the family room keeping an eye on tennis.  Adam was back and forth between some golf tournament and the Finale of the Men's Roger Cup - a hardcourt match played in Montreal. 

Djokovic, a young Serb beating Federer in a best of three match that included winning two tiebreakers.  It's amazing that he took our Roddick (how is he even ranked third) AND Nadal to get to the final.  After his semi-final vicotry against Nadal he was quoted as saying that it was one of the highlights of his career... Pretty cool he took out Federer - King of Tennis, the following day.  Here's a quote that I found fascinating in the NYTimes.   

Djokovic defeated No. 3 Andy Roddick and No. 2 Nadal in his previous rounds, becoming the first player to beat the world’s top three ranked players in the same tournament since Boris Becker defeated No. 3 Michael Stich, No. 1 Pete Sampras and No. 2 Goran Ivanisevic in 1994 in Stockholm.

Looking forward to seeing Djokovic in the US Open. We plan on going August 31st - CAN'T WAIT!

It's TENNIS TIME!!!  Yesterday 8 out of the 9 American men in the tournament lost in the first round.  Wow!  The remaining American, Ginepri, had his match suspended because of weather....  now, its not a suprise that many of these lost.  For example, what were the odds that the poor guy picked to play Federrer in the opening match would result in an upset?  But, Andy Roddick, rankd #3 is out -- the second year in a row that he lost in the first round of the French Open - obviously, playing on clay is not one of his strenghts.  Most disappointing is the news that James Blake, ranked 8, is out.  I'm a big Blake fan.  He plays great tennis and fun to watch.  His match last year when he lost to Nadal (quarter finals maybe?) was phenomenal. 

Stay tuned for more tennis updates.  Let's hope it stops rain in Paris.  Rain and Tennis don't go so well together!!!

GO NADAL!  I've got my fingers crossed for a NADAL vs. FEDERER FINAL!

I'm getting tired of posting only about the house hunting saga, so here is something complete different.....

Photo depictions of my two favorite ways to enjoy a Sunday morning:

Favorite #1:  Unfortunately, there are only 4 Sundays a year where I can watch a Grand Slam Tennis Final.  Check out this breakfast spread though!  I am one lucky wife to have a hubby that enjoys cooking so much.  We took this photo when we were watching the Australian Open in January.... next up, the French Open... I think. 

Favorite #2: Reading the NY Times on the couch with Adam.  This is a relatively new tradition we started since Adam received a Sunday subscription as a Xmas present.  We normally do this from the time we get up until Meet the Press starts at 10:30am - I know, this just screams DORK, but hey, that's us.  I normally continue reading the paper while Adam watches the show.  I can only stomach politian's avoiding answering questions for so long, before I need to find something to do in another room.