Bird's Eye View: Washington Quarterfinals

Found this gem by James7 over at Talk About Tennis:

So yesterday I missed the first QF but got there just before the second.

No one was on the practice courts, but I saw ESPN had set up a little tented booth area. There was a little crowd gathered to be behind the two people at the desk. I don't know the name of the one guy, but the other was Gimmie-Slob, sitting with a little hand held mirror and fiddling with something at his left ear for several minutes. Either hair or earpiece.

Slobs companion recorded a voiceover to a Verdasco/Baghdatis promo or lead-in montage. The first take flubbed a little and they repeated it. I decided thatit probably wasn't worth it to try to be in the background of any footage they would take and headed off.

Right next door on court 2 I saw very few people in the stands and someone on the court so I headed over and sat down. There I was treated to Stan the Man who I had managed to miss this week! He was fooling around with someone I didn't recognize (probably from his team?). Exercising, I'm sure, but it looked like he was having fun. They were kicking this ball around and passing it without hands back and forth. I was trying to understand the rules of the game they were playing, but didn't get it. Got some video and good pictures where it FINALLY dawned on me to use the action setting of my camera. I was a little pissed now that I realized all of those earlier trashed photos probably could have been saved and non-blurry all week.

Read the rest...

Observations From Down Under

Last year, John in Melbourne sent me an email report of his experiences at the Australian Open. He did the same this year, wondering if I had forgotten him. Not a chance.

Highly unlikely that you will remember, but I dropped you a line around this time last year to let you know that I really liked your tennis blog. I have dipped in quite a bit this year, usually around the Slams, and would like to say thanks again for being informative, entertaining and for expressing opinions that I often agree with! Not always, though - I just can't "get" Andy. I particularly liked your Davis Cup posts.

You may (or not) be interested in my thoughts about the last few days at the tennis. Unfortunately I am back to work tomorrow, so had to come home to prepare for an early meeting. I was hoping to stay for the Davenport/Sharapova match or even the Richie/Lopez match, never having seen the pretty boy in person. Everyone I spoke to wants Davenport to win tonight, as Maria does not have many fans here, even though the media are always trying to hype her up.

The fans have really taken to Tsonga. I was watching his doubles match with Grosjean on an outer court today, and one could not move, what with the crowd, photographers... He looked a bit tired, and Sebastian was doing most of the work, like Dad watching out for his son. I like Tsonga's big serve, as you don't see that as much now. I will be interested to see how he plays at Wimbledon.

Everyone is saying the new courts are playing a bit slower than the old ones, but not being an expert I can't see much difference. The players definitely seem to slide around a lot more, which should be good for avoiding the injuries that Reebound Ace apparantly caused.

There has been a bit of talk about weight, particularly after Alicia's opponent (can't remember her name) in Round 1. It seems to me that, apart from the top few, the females are generally not very fit, whether they be plump or thin (saw Hantuchova - still like a stick). Whereas the standard of fitness in the males seems to have improved. Even my old favourite Stefan Koubek has toned up! I wonder how many of the females are motivated to get to number 1, when you can still earn big money otherwise.

The night match has just started on TV , and yes - Maria's dress is a shocker!