Friday, November 8, 2013

The Masters of the Masters

The World Tour  Finals are essentially the World Championships of tennis then why do they stay in the same spot for so long when other olympic sports have a different host for each staging of the championships  They are called the Master Series in which you can gain the most points on the tour outside of the Slams therefore why not have them rotate through these five  venues that could host the event in November for the event that used to be called the Masters. Another option is to take them somewhere that doesn't have a Masters event such as South America. Having the event rotate between venues would make it more of an event because it won't be there for another six years. These five locations all play differently and two of them have the option of the roof while Paris is an indoor venue. The order I would but them in would be Indian Wells, Madrid (which would be on clay) , Miami, Shanghai, Paris. With Madrid on clay you get the variety of surfaces which would make it a more interesting stop in the rotation of the Finals. Of the nine thousand points available to the winners of the Masters events six thousand of the are come from purely outdoor events. So why should the biggest Masters event be where the least amount of points are given. Another venue could be the Olympic tennis stadium in Rio after it is used for the Olympics. 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

The Tokyo Towel Dance

Tokyo has a roof but during a short rain delay Tuesday during the Jankovic/Morita.  For the duration of the delay it did not seem like the roof was closed but more of a exercise in how many different ways can we try to dry the court with towels and fans. Even Shino made an appearance.







Friday, July 26, 2013

The Greatest Commercials In Tennis

The US Open Series is upon us and it made me think of those awesome commercials with the players that stopped in 2010. Here are some of my favorites.



2008 Bus commercials everybodyguys taking a ROADTRIP!!!!



It Must Be Love... 

Rafa works at his hobby and then gives us a recipe.... 


Maria really could have done better. She apparently takes her nap time very seriously. 



Serena and Roddick talk twitter 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBZdr4rVHPA

The Real US Open Series

Half of these players are retired

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Paris Pondering





Wonder if she knows about Rafa's football connections and that he is really just a tennis leftie.





They just happen to be ranked in the two spots ahead of her boyfriend. Also this happened.... yes that would be Benoit Paire himself retweeting it.



Bold choice Andy. 

While he has been away from Paris Andy Murray won the first week with his tweets. He is a Aga fan, possibly invented the hashtag of the year, complained about commentators . Which lead me to the conclusion is really bored sitting in home or he is just letting his inner tennis dork free while he can. 


I am still not sure if he confused Ula with Aga here but maybe the ninja skills are genetic. Also blonde Aga confuses things. 


He really goes wild on Saturday night

  • Extended fifth sets are not a Grand Slam problem. It is a John Isner playing Grand Slam tennis problem. That is two years in a row that he has lost in an extended fifth set at Roland Garros alone. 
  • Tennis coverage on weekends & holidays (Memorial & Labor Day) is rough. They show what they think will catch the casual viewers eye. It is unfortunate for the hardcores but they do what they think will make them the most money. If you pay for tennis tv, tennis channel or possibly both and for those few hours that the Slam is getting national network tv exposure then I really don't think the tennis gods will smite you if you pop open a stream to watch a match or two. Yes it is not ideal but it is a better use of the time the match is on to be using a yes somewhat shady resource to get to watch what you want. 
  • Serena is looking amazing so far but the quarterfinals are the obstacle that has stopped her from adding to the only single trophy in her Grand Slam collection. She faces Sveta next who beat her in this very round on the way to winning in 2009. Will there be a different outcome Tuesday? 
  • In Rafa's first two matches especially he has not had the edge that he usually does and there have been some unexpected happening for someone who has won an event seven times but of one who is coming back from a extended break from the game. When he stepped on the court Monday he had not been on the grand slam stage in eleven months. Do the reaction to the results have more to do with where they are happening rather than what actually happened? Say that this was the US Open, would you look at Rafa dropping a set to Brands and in real threat of going down two sets to love in the first round with the same shock. Then in the second round again losing the first set to Klizan another hard hitter who he had never faced. In a way it takes me back to Wimbledon 2011 Serena in her first Slam back from her long heath battle and to my memory the talk was that she was going to come back and win "because she is Serena", "because its Wimbledon". Which while I think it was a good for them to time their come backs before their most successful Slams. It makes the expectations seem even greater because of the history they have at these events. There were improvements in the Fognini match and he can only improve and gain rhythm going into the second week. The sun is all expected to be shining on Monday at least. 
  • This is shaping up to be the year of the 30- something Tommy. Both Haas & Robredo are through to the quarterfinals. 





Monday, May 20, 2013

Swimmers for Aly

Fierce Five member Aly Raisman made it to the final of Dancing with the Stars which is on right now on ABC and team USA's swimmers want you to vote for her.





















Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Some Advice to Sloane from Rory Gilmore

So Sloane Stephens told SI Baseline that she didn't know that her Serena comments were "on the record" here.  So 

LORELAI: What? We were just talking. She won’t print any of it.
RORY: Why? Was it off the record?
LORELAI: Yeah. Technically. It wasn’t about the inn.
RORY: But did you say ‘it’s off the record’?
LORELAI: No.
RORY: Then it’s fair game, so she can print all of it.
 - Gilmore Girls 5.18 To Live and Let Diorama

Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Ryan Lochte Experience

The moment we have all been waiting for the premiere of What Would Ryan Do just ended and here are a few of the finer moments of the first episode. It was exactly what I expected it to be with lots of Ryan with his shirt off, with his family and showing that he is a more than just some super swimmer. In the entire thirty minute episode apart from the interviews Ryan had his shirt on for maybe 4 minutes if not less. Now to the tweets.




Fellow Gator and Olympic Gold Medalist was watching.




In a future episode Ryan will try golfing. On the subject of golf this show was way more entertaining than Michael learns to golf.













What is that face?




Ryan defending his favorite movie.
















I cannot wait till next week and actually for the entire series if this first episode was so good then I can only imagine what adventures await us.







Thursday, April 18, 2013

Birthday Week

Maria Sharapova has been tweeting about her pre birthday celebrations all week and with her birthday tomorrow now is a good time to recap the festivities.




First who doesn't love cupcakes?








Birthday Dinner. Hi Tommy! Also you are so adorable tweeting your'e self Maria. #drunk?




More Birthday dinner frivolity


Also since Pova's birthday is such a big deal the tennis gods gifted us all with a glorious match up on the eyes.




Rafa vs Grigor in Monte Carlo seems like the perfect way to celebrate. No?

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Desert Paradise

Both tours have returned for the yearly trip which is the tennis paradise of Indian Wells. There many story lines this year Rafa Nadal has not played a hard court match since Miami last year although his comeback has had two titles on the clay of the Golden Swing, Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka have both not lost a match this year on way to two titles each. While Andy Murray has not played a match since losing in the final of the Australian Open and has not won a match at Indian Wells since 2010.

Women's Early Matches to watch: Draw
Laura Robson vs Sofia Arvidisson to play Julia Goerges.
Madison Keys vs Melanie Oudin to play Sam Stosur
Fran Schivone vs Maria Sharapova- Round 2

Doubles Pairings to watch: Draw
Sveta Kuznetsova and Flavia Pannetta
Petra Kivtova and Yanina Wickymayer
Julia Goreges and Yaroslava Shvedova
Andrea Petkovic and Angelique Kerber

Men's Early Matches to watch: Draw
Go Sodea vs Ryan Harrison to play Rafa Nadal
Ernest Gulbis vs Feli Lopez
Bernie Tomic vs Tomaz Belluci to play Richard Gasquet
Marcel Granollers vs David Nalbandian
Mardy Fish can play either Ben Becker or Bobby Reynolds in his first match since last years US Open.

Double Pairings to watch: Draw
Ferrer and Robredo play Isner and Querrey in the first round.
Grigor Dimitrov and Freddie Nielson in the totally random department
The Murray Brothers!
Feli Lopez and Milos Raonic
Tommy Hass and Xavier Malisse
Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers- Marc won the title last year with Rafa.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Tennis at MSG


This being my first exhibition I didn't really know what to expect. Were the matches going to be serious matches or hit and giggle fun. The balance seemed to be found through both matches with cameos from Red Foo, Ben Stiller  and an adorable little girl. They were introduced at the start of the event after Fernando Verdasco's girlfriend Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Jarah Mariano delivered the match balls. The players then came through the crowd to stand on pedestals as they were introduced before Serena and Vika started their match. One thing that I did not know before hand was that the ladies were set to play best of three with a supertiebreaker while the men had a full three set match.

The tone of the matches was actually the opposite of what I expected them to be with the ladies match with the slight detour for Red Foo and some lefty rallying was the more serious of the two matches. Although considering that the last match that either Serena or Vika had played was against each other was the Doha final. The Rafa and Delpo match was much more lighthearted and had this very happy energy about it that felt like it just filled the building. This all started when there was a prematch picture with a group of young kids with Rafa and Juan Martin greeting each one of them before the pictures were taken. The first set of the mens match was proceeding much like a normal match except for the exceptional number of smashes, slices and the like. When they got to the second set things lighten up even more when they had a footie tennis header exchange. Then the fun really got started when Rafa went to get Ben Stiller out of the front row for what seemed to be a two against one until Delpo got a ringer out of the crowd. The little girl that he choose stole the show and even hit a winner on Rafa. While it wasn't always the most competitive or serious tennis it was really enjoyable to especially see Rafa on court in person running around with a smile that had dimples the size of one of the pothole outside on 34th street.


Thursday, February 28, 2013

Another Quad Begins

Seven months removed from London a new crop of gymnasts with some veterans are in WorcesterMassachusetts in what will be as start of the long and twisted Road to Rio. American Cup podium training was today for the competition which is on Saturday. Katelyn Ohashi and Simone Biles are making their senior international debut with Kyla Ross doing a beam exhibition although she trained on all four apparatus. After watching both the men's and women's trainings today the ladies get more done more efficiently most of the men's rotations especially on pommel horse and parallel bars then actual routines or skills.

Women's podium training part one in full. Follows the US Women as they train beam routines, vault timers, floor timers and bar routines.


In the second training the ladies did floor routines and vaults.
Simone's Floor

Vault


Katelyn's Floor

Vault


Men's training

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Tennis Reality Show



So I saw this tweet and thought that there should be a reality show of making people do what they are going to if something happens or not. 
Like this...

LORELAI: Yes, but I've been testing people who have "honk" bumper stickers lately to see if they really want people to honk. Guess what? They don't. I lay on my horn, and this alleged scuba diver slows to a crawl in front of me just out of revenge, and I'm screwed.

EMILY: You need a hobby.

LORELAI: Yes, actually.

EMILY: Come on, Rory's waiting.

(They walk into the living room.)

RORY: Hey, what happened?

EMILY: She honked.

RORY: Oh, another bumper sticker test.

LORELAI: I just thought up a great idea for a reality show. You pull people over who have those "honk if you love whatever" bumper stickers, you kidnap them, and you make them do whatever the bumper sticker says they like to do, whether they do it or not. And then you make them eat bugs. (x)


My take on all this is that Rafa will be there if he is there and if not he won't be.  

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Reign Change?



Tomorrow Serena Willams will stand one match away from reaching the number one ranking for the first time since she surendered it on October 11th, 2010 to Caroline Wozniacki. It would be her 124 week at number one which is sixth all time weeks in the top spot. After all she has been through since she last held the ranking it will be a nice achievement to become the oldest WTA number 1 at 31 years and 4 months old. If Petra were to defeat Serena tomorrow then Maria Sharapova could take over number one for the 22nd week if she wins the title. Victoria Azerenka would retain the ranking otherwise. 

Complete Order of Play for Doha Quarterfinals:

Starting 3:30 pm Local (7:30 am est)
Sharapova (3) v. Stosur (8)
followed by: Azerenka (1) v. Errani  (6)
followed by: Kvitova (9) v. S. Willams (2)
Not Before 8:30 pm Local
Radwanska (4) vs Wozniacki (10)

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Fashion Athletes

It is fashion week in New York City and Nastia Liukin is on the case in between NYU classes of course. Maria Sharapova also seems to be keeping up with the shows from Doha.










Aly Raisman has also been taking in the new fall fashions.

Photo: Getty