I'm Back And Missing Tennis

I arrived home yesterday after driving 1,200 miles. Weather was foggy and rainy. By Maine, it had turned to snow and ice, and I almost wrapped myself around a tree five times. It's a good thing I grew up in Wisconsin and learned how to drive on snowy, winding, hilly roads. I saw no less than four cars disabled in snow banks off the side of the road. I needed every bit of experience and calm to get home safely. Sitting on the side of the road and waiting for the storm to pass wasn't an option. That's the easiest way to get crushed by another driver who can't navigate the conditions.

Oh, yeah. This is my tennis blog, isn't it?



Haven't seen a bit of tennis since Dubai and Bangalore. I see Mardy Fish has defeated some quality opponents including Lleyton Hewitt and world No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko, to make his first Masters quarterfinal since Cincinnati back in 2003. I see James Blake, who finally beat Richard Gasquet in a Davis Cup preview, will get another chance to dismiss Rafael Nadal in another quarterfinal. I see that Roger Federer has recovered in breathtaking time from his convenient delayed mono diagnosis and has stormed through the draw to face Tommy Haas, who extended his winning head-to-head over Andy Roddick in the second round, giving folks reason to speak of the curse of Dubai. But remember, Andy has been to exactly two semifinals at Indian Wells, having to win tough matches along the way, and never a final in the desert. When I saw the draw, I didn't expect him to get past Tommy whether or not Andy had won, or even played, Dubai. Not on a hardcourt as slow as this, not in a place where Andy has lost to the likes of Igor Andreev, whose record on hardcourts is worse than Andy's on clay.

Nothing particularly surprising or exciting happening in the women's draw, unless you're in love with any of the six women who remain. Lindsay Davenport is doing quite well in her local event, the resurgence of Vera Zvonareva continues, Maria Sharapova remains undefeated in 2008, Svetlana Kuznetsova appears to remember how to play tennis, and the Serbian Vitches can face-off in the semifinals if each win their matches today.

My challenge is finding a free livestream to watch what's left of this event. And getting Mother Nature to stop sending us all this snow.