So Close, Yet So Very Very Far

Good evening everyone. I apologize for my lack of posting recently. I have finally arrived in St. Louis after 17 hours on the road. I spent a couple of hours yesterday desperately seeking a way to spend the night in Cincinnati and thus give myself the opportunity of visiting the Masters tournament that is currently underway. No dice. I wouldn't have arrived in Cincy until 11pm and would've had to hit the road around 11am.

So, I may not have been able to make it in person, but I've been keeping a pretty close eye on the Western Southern Financial Masters event this week. Let's talk Roger Federer. He's into the quarterfinals of Cincy after a finals showing last week in Toronto. I guess this is a little misleading. Roger has played a total of 7 games all week. He had a bye in the first round, Istomin retired, and Philipp Kohlschreiber pulled out of their match before it even started. Pretty good week in my book, but not great practice. He'll be up against Davydenko next, who hasn't had the best results lately and Roger has a very heavy winning percentage against Kolya, but it could be tricky. I still think Fed will come through.

Andy Murray is fresh off a Masters 1000 win in Toronto, but faces tough competition in his QF. Murray has also played a lot of tennis lately and in some pretty exhausting conditions, the poor guy has drawn mostly day matches. Anyway, Mardy Fish is ridiculously in form and has a great shot here. Murray's likely to be tired and Fish is on a roll. I'm looking for the upset here. Also, Andy played a three set match today against Ernests Gulbis and is looking a little vulnerable.

If Andy Roddick is feeling better, and that's a big if, he should be able to power past Novak Djokovic. Nole seems to have been having some serious issues with the heat lately. I haven't seen the order of play yet but my money's on Andy in a day match.

Poor Julien Benneteau had all the chances in the world today against Rafael Nadal, including match point, but couldn't convert. Nadal eeked out the win, but he's going to have to do a lot better if he plans on winning the US Open for the first time this year.

On a side note, John Isner was forced to retire from his match against David Nalbandian yesterday, after rolling his ankle. All signs were good last night when John posted on his twitter that his ankle should be fine with some rest and ice. However, Patrick McEnroe tweeted this evening that Johnny is now in doubt for US Open. This would be a big loss for the Americans. I'm not sure he was on his way to winning the title this year, but I was expecting an impressive performance and a run into the second week. My warmest recovery wishes are going out to John this week. Clearly this should do the trick.

I'm very excited for this year's US Open. No one looks invincible and it could be anyone's title. I'm doing my best to make travel reservations for Labor Day weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to give you guys some live insight.

My apologies if you find mistakes in this mess. I think I'm still delirious from the drive ;)

A Weekend of Tweets

I know a lot of people still don't like to use twitter. I was very reluctant to join, but it's become an excellent source of information about tennis players. I've got some followers now, but not nearly as many as read A Change of Ends. I think some of my observations from this weekend are amusing, so the following post is simply an exact recap of what I posted on twitter this weekend, so please don't pay attention to some of the misspellings, etc. Twitter isn't exactly conducive to proper grammar.

Is anyone watching Rafa do the draw? He is so fidgety! 5:27 PM Aug 6th via web
Very limited internet. Here are some fun facts from today. 6:50 PM Aug 7th via web

Rafa and Nole did practice together this morning. It was a mob scene. Sadly, I deided to stay away from the madness. 6:50 PM Aug 7th via web

Fed practiced on a court that is very difficult for spectators to see. It was still mobbed. He snuck out the back entrance at the end. 1,281,217,899,000.00 via web

FYI, Federer practiced with Robin Soderling. 1,281,217,916,000.00 via web

Spent a full hour watching sam Querrey practiced. He seems like a really nice guy. Fun fact: he hit the gym this morning with his trainer at around 10:30. 1,281,217,981,000.00 via web

I'm in love with Tommy Robredo. He's adorable. 1,281,217,997,000.00 via web

Just saw Gulbis and Davydenko chatting in the lobby before going their separate ways. 1,281,218,027,000.00 via web

I consistently end up in the evelator alone with Julien Benneteau and never actually say anything to him. I wonder if he'll start to notice. 1,281,218,067,000.00 via web

just saw Stan and Peter Lundgren jovially walking through the lobby. Those guys look happy! 1,281,219,141,000.00 via web

Stan and I are now work out buddies. He just doesn't know it. Looks like he and Peter are getting along great. Lots of laughing. 1,281,228,582,000.00 via web

Michael Llodra cleans up nice. Just saw him on his way to dinner. 1,281,228,598,000.00 via web

Feliciano Lopez is here, just saw him checking into the hotel. Had an urge to follow the bellhop up to his room, but resisted. 1,281,228,647,000.00 via web

Monfils is out with his crew. Looks like he could take some fashion advice from Llodra. 1,281,229,201,000.00 via web

Tomorrow's Legg Mason final will feature Baghdatis and Nalbandian. My money's on Nalbanian. He's been on fire this week. 1,281,229,399,000.00 via web

Robin Soderling just looked at me funny. Weird, cause I wasn't even staring at him or anything. 1,281,229,785,000.00 via web

Soderling is in the lobby with finace, Jenni, and Robert Lindstedt, the Swedish doubles player. 1,281,229,837,000.00 via web

Victor Hanescu looks kind of surly, but quite tall in person. 1,281,230,343,000.00 via web

Davydenko just walked by with a woman I assume is his wife. She was wearing a very sparkly shirt with Bugs Bunny on it. 1,281,230,503,000.00 via web

Richard Gasquet and coach just came back. I shared an elevator with them earlier today. 1,281,230,604,000.00 via web

Alright, I've got to go get some dinner myself, but I'll try get some juicy updates later. 1,281,230,745,000.00 via web

@MTFadout I'll do my best to find Ernie tomrorow. So far, I've only seen him off site, I'll try to hit up a practice tomorrow. 1,281,239,321,000.00 via web in reply to MTFadout

some incredibly androdgenous tennis player i don't recognize with the skinniest gf i've ever seen just walked in. No idea who it could be. 1,281,240,749,000.00 via web

Breakfast time in toronto! 1,281,278,047,000.00 via web

Saw Ernie sitting alone in the lobby waiting for transport. Didn't stop to bother him though.. It looked like he had a rough night. 1,281,278,082,000.00 via web

Mr androgenous was at breakfast this morning with twiggy, but I still have no idea who he is. 1,281,278,114,000.00 via web

Almost didn't notice Gilles. He seems to be breakfasting with mom and dad. How cute! Coach and son are also here. Man, that kid is lucky! 1,281,278,157,000.00 via web

Gael and Gilles had a nice catch up when they saw each other. 1,281,278,185,000.00 via web

Feli was eating alone for a while, but was eventually joined by some guy. Where was Ferenando? I thought they were inseperable. 1,281,278,244,000.00 via web

Fun Fact: Feli wears a Yankee's baseball cap with his initials embroidered in the side. 1,281,278,291,000.00 via web

Mrs Davydenko was wearing the same flashy Bugs Bunny shirt to breakfast, but no sighting of hubby. 1,281,278,355,000.00 via web

I think I used to underestimate the attractiveness of Gilles Simon. He is adorable. I love that he's here with his parents. 1,281,278,405,000.00 via web

Almost forgot, saw Robin Soderling in the gym this morning cycling. 1,281,278,477,000.00 via web

I think something about me creeps Sod out. I was just walking by the door and all of the sudden he turned around and looked at me. 1,281,278,526,000.00 via web

It's a little rainy today, so hopefully we can get in some tennis. I've got to check out fo the hotel at 12 and my flight's not til 9. 1,281,278,570,000.00 via web

Also, it is Mr. Federer's 29th birthday. So birthday wishes for Roger this morning. 1,281,279,016,000.00 via web

just got a photo with Gilles, taken by the lovely gf of Julien Benneteau. 1,281,281,713,000.00 via web

someone's coach just said hello to me in French. I wonder who it is. 1,281,281,852,000.00 via web

Mystery solved. It was one of Monfils' team. 1,281,282,264,000.00 via web

still trying to figure out who mr. androgenous is. 1,281,282,280,000.00 via web

Also, Julien Benneteau's gf was sitting next to me waiting for her car and he is super pretty. 1,281,282,384,000.00 via web

You know you go to too many of these things when you start to recognize the coaches. 1,281,282,474,000.00 via web

Unfortunately the rain cut my day at the tennis short, as in I didn't see any before I had to leave the site. Oh well, sitting in the lobby. 1,281,299,748,000.00 via web

Nikolay is right in front of me with his ipad about 24 hours ago via web

what's up with WAGS and Bugs Bunny? Andrey Golubev's gf was only wearing a Bugs Bunny t-shirt, allbeit less flashy. about 24 hours ago via web

*** This should have read "Andrey Golubev's gf was ALSO wearing a Bugs Bunny t-shirt." Let me be clear, she was also wearing pants.

@RagingBitch You solved my mystery. It was indeed Dolgopolov. about 24 hours ago via web in reply to RagingBitch

Querrey's coach is all over the place. Looks like he's on his way to the gym. about 23 hours ago via web

hoping for some fun sightings before I have to leave for the airport. about 23 hours ago via web

Forgot to mention earlier. A player was actually squeegeeing his own court. Just as it was looking pretty good, it rained again. about 23 hours ago via web

If they let me watch up close, I would've helped squeegee. about 23 hours ago via web

Gonzo is in the house. Very blue tape of his calf. about 23 hours ago via web

now it's super sunny. I hate you toronto. Why couldn't you have been sunny this morning? about 23 hours ago via web

the WAGS are almost as easy to spot as the players. They're all tall, thin, and gorgeous. Well, not all, but most. about 23 hours ago via web

The lobby in the hotel is very dark. It both hurts my eyes and makes me feel creepier than usual. about 23 hours ago via web

So Canada and America Are Actually Different?

Ok, so I think I've officially started this post 10 times in my attempt to be witty; however, the exhaustion has set in and I'm pretty sure that my attempts at humor have only been funny to me. I think I'll just keep it simple and give you guys a general recap of my weekend. I'm also planning to follow this post with a timeline of tweets from Saturday and Sunday for those of you who don't have twitter. Those have my more off-the-cuff comments and probably read as an interesting stream of consciousness. I flew out late Friday night and landed in Toronto around 10:30pm. Theoretically I knew I would have to clear immigration to get into Canada, but I really thought this would be an easy walk through job. Nope. I got grilled by the gate agent. Apparently a young woman, spending a weekend in Toronto, to watch a tennis tournament, alone is very suspicious behavior. FYI, I'm not sure I could look less threatening. Anyway, I finally made it through and I was on my way.

I stayed at the Hilton Toronto, with the majority of the players, excluding the Top 3. A special thanks to the hotel for my free upgrade to a junior suite. The Hilton was lovely, but a bit of a letdown after my amazing stay at the W last weekend. The hotel was fairly unimportant anyway. Saturday, I left for the tournament around noon. It was a long trip on the metro/bus, but not too difficult. Plus tournament tickets for the weekend were free, which was awesome. The weather Saturday was nice, alternating between a little bit chilly and warm, but no rain. When I arrived at the site, I did a lap of the grounds to get my bearings. Toronto is nice and posts a board of who's practicing where at what time. This is super convenient for picking out your favorites, but also means that when Federer/Nadal/Djokovic/Murray are practicing, fans camp out in those seats from like 10am onwards. It so happened that Nadal was practicing with Djokovic when I got there, but there was no chance I was going near that mob scene. The crowd must have been at least 20 people deep on any side. Plus, there were plenty of great players out practicing and I'd rather be up close. I spent some time checking out Youzhny's practice before moving on to Belucci/Gonzalez practice. I decided to check out the next court and was pleasantly surprised to find Davydenko and Monfils. Nikolay Davydenko is so unassuming in person. He's currently ranked sixth in the world, but you would never look at him on the street and guess he was a tennis player. Monfils is always a good laugh, so I stuck around for a little while to watch. I kept wandering and eventually ran into Sam Querrey's court.

The Rexall Center is pretty good for watching practice sessions, as each court has bleachers, so you can actually see. I spent the full hour watching Sam. He looked pretty relaxed and his coach was quick to provide tips. I didn't recognize his practice partner (it could've been someone he brought for this purpose or a less well known player.) Sam's coach was very clear about how the practice partner should hit the ball over to Sam's side to practice certain shots. All in all, it looked like both guys were having fun out there. The fence on the bleachers side of the court is probably only 3 feet high, so small children kept running over during water breaks asking Sam to sign various items. He was very accommodating, considering the interruptions. It was a great session for me because I could clearly hear everything said on court, and it was all in English. There was one long rally in particular that got very exciting and Sam ended it with a beautifully executed drop shot. The crowd applauded and Sam bashfully held up his racket in acknowledgement. In general, he seemed very down to Earth and was very nice to his fans. He still says "You're Welcome" when people thank him. I really appreciate those qualities in a player and will definitely seek him out next time. In terms of tennis, he's got a wicked forehand and hit several shots that made his opponent smile in defeat. He also had a couple of not so great moments, mostly at the net. It looked like his coach was encouraging Sam to practice volleys. His shots were so powerful that they often sailed straight over the baseline.

I took a quick breather by the retail tents and ended up with a new pair of Marc Jacobs sunglasses. I'm not quite sure how this happened. All I remember are the words $50 gift card and I was sold. All the tournaments I've been to have had retail tents. Most of them sell tennis gear and equipment, which makes sense. Tennis fans are likely to buy a new kit or bag if they see it on their favorite player. Some of them are just plain weird. See my post of Rotterdam. There was a meat tent. Toronto had all the regulars as well as sunglasses, some kind of pain relief spray, and cameras. All of these kind of made sense. I checked out the price of the glasses I bought this morning at work, and it looks like I actually got quite a good deal. I digress...

Benneteau and de Bakker were up next on Sam's recently vacated court. I've seen them both several times so I moved on. I walked through Gasquet's practice and took a few photos. When I came back out to check the practice schedule, there was a giant crowd by the connected practice courts. At the tournament, there are several outer courts that are used as stand alone practice courts, but there is also a series of four courts all in a row that have seating on two ends and fencing on the other sides. Sure enough the giant crowd was trying to watch Roger. Every surface imaginable was being sat on or stood on and people were doing anything they could think of to get a look. He was on one of the middle courts, quite far from most of the spectators. I adore Roger Federer. I'm fairly certain he's the reason I love tennis, so I definitely wanted a few pictures. There was no way I was getting close to the front of the mob, so I blindly held me camera above my head and started shooting. Luckily he was nice enough to wear a bright pink shirt that day, so even though the photos are blurry and far away, you can still pick him out. The truly unfortunate part of this mob, was that I had no chance of seeing Tommy Robredo. I don't know why, but since seeing him in Rotterdam, I have had some serious love for Mr. Robredo. He was practicing on the court next to Roger. Had he been on one of the stand alone courts, I'm sure I would've gotten the intimate experience I was looking for because everyone would've still been huddled around Fed. So, I decided it was time for a some fries and a beer. Fun fact about Canada, you can give them US money almost anywhere, but they will give you back Canadian money, which is completely useless outside of Canada. I finished up and started walking back in the direction of the mob. After scoping out the grounds, I knew that the connected practice courts had a side entrance and after seeing the crowd, thought it likely that Roger would choose that route out. He did. His fans were pissed. However, my lovely Tommy braved the crowd (although I don't think anyone even bothered with him.) As he was passing me by, I held out my little book of autographs and a sharpie. He just kept walking, but because he is such a nice guy, he turned around and walked back over to sign it.

It was late afternoon by this point and I decided it was time to call it a day. I made my way back to the hotel decided to hit the gym. I was pleasantly surprised to find Stanislas Wawrinka and Peter Lundgren in the middle of a workout. I got a good chuckle from watching them while I was on the elliptical. Stan was trying to help Peter workout by trying a series of different style crunches. It wasn't going that well. He was laughing pretty hard by the end. Finally, Peter left Stan to his own workout. Stan proceeded to play with his Ipod for a good 15 minutes before he started running. I was actively trying not to be a creeper and finished my own workout in a timely manner.

I sat in the lobby for a while to use the wifi and posts all of my tweets for the day. I had more and more to say as I sat and watched players go by. Other than that, I had a relatively tennis free night and headed out for dinner.

I woke up pretty early on Sunday and decided my best tennis player sightings would probably occur at breakfast, so I headed over to Tundra for the buffet. I saw Gulbis sitting outside on the restaurant waiting for his car. He didn't look so good. I'm guessing he had a late night on Saturday. The food in the restaurant was mediocre, but I did see Gilles Simon, Gael Monfils, Michael Llodra, a lonely Feliciano Lopez, and Alexandr Dolgopolov. I decided not to leave for the tournament until noon because it looked like rain, so I sat in the lobby next to the tournament table and continued to update twitter. Julien Benneteau's girlfriend sat down right next to me to wait for her car to the site. I desperately wanted to make friends, but wasn't quite sure how to go about that. Before I could hatch a game plan, Gilles Simon and co. showed up and Julien's girl got to chatting with Gilles and his coach. They were just waiting for a car, so, when I caught a lull in the conversation, I stood up and asked if we could take a photo. Gilles was really nice about it and Julien's girlfriend volunteered to take the picture.

It was finally time for me to check out and head over to the tournament. Unfortunately, it had rained quite heavily and all of the courts were soaked when I got there. The practice board had been updated and Federer and Nadal were set to take adjacent courts on the connected practice courts. Who could pass up the opportunity to see them practicing at the same time? So, I decided to camp out in one of the seats in hopes that the tournament staff would be out to dry the courts soon. About a half an hour into waiting (I wasn't the only one, all the seats were full and there were plenty of people standing,) Ross Hutchins and his coach came out onto one of the courts to survey the damage. There were giant puddles. There was no way that they were going to be able to play like that. So, the coach popped out the side entrance to look for some help. All he got from the staff were two squeegees. All of the dryers and staff were being used to dry the match courts as the qualifying matches needed to be completed. So, as tons of people watched, Ross proceeded to squeegee his own court (noticeably absent was any help from doubles partner Andy.) It was hard, tiring work, and frankly wasn't going so well. A while later, Andy Murray walked out on court. The squeegee man, aka "Ross," had done a pretty good job, but not quite enough to dry the whole court. Murray squelched around for a while debating whether to practice, but the fates sealed it when it started to rain all over again. Poor squeegee guy. Murray walked off the opposite end of the court and stopped to sign some balls/t-shirts/etc. However, the crowd on my side was not pleased. One woman yelled, "Andy, we've been waiting for 3 hours, why did you go over there?" A small child started repeatedly yelling "Murray, you suck" quite loudly as it started to rain harder and Andy jogged off court. It was mid afternoon and I decided to cut my losses and return to the hotel. Of course, my luck is pretty horrendous and the sun came out a few hours later, but I had to catch a flight back to Boston.

As you can tell, day 2 didn't work out so well, but overall it was a good trip. I would definitely go back to Toronto for the Rogers Cup next year. The tournament is very spectator friendly and the practice courts are accessible which is one of my big measures of how much I like a tournament. Even though the Rexall Center is part of York University, it is absolutely massive. I don't know anything about Canadian colleges, but I can't imagine there's a tennis match outside of Rogers Cup that could fill the Center Court arena.

It looks like it will be a while before I can get to another live event. I was hoping to drive out to Cincinnati for finals weekend, but I will be setting up my new apartment in St. Louis instead. I still have high hopes for making it to the US Open, so I will keep you all posted.

Rained Out

Hi everyone. I'm exhausted from my trip back from Toronto, so I haven't had time to come up with some interesting posts yet; however, I wanted to leave you guys with something good, so I put up my photos from this weekend. I'm sorry I couldn't get more, but all the early practices were rained out today and then I had to go back to the hotel. While there were plenty of player sightings in the hotel itself, I had to stick to my 10ft rule. I also haven't had the chance to tag them yet, so you'll have to try to figure out who's who yourself. Think of it as a game. FYI, that pink blur is Roger Federer. There were so many people at his practice that I just had to hold my camera above my head and hope that I ended up with a picture of him. That's why they kind of suck. Anyway, more updates to come. You can basically see a play by play of my weekend on my twitter account, but I will post something similar here soon. Have a great night everyone and enjoy the photos!

http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae146/lubinskya/Rogers%20Cup%20Toronto/

What Ever Happened to Consistency?

For years now, I've been able to comfortably sit down to watch a match between any top 5 player and a player out of the top 5 with little belief that an upset was possible. However, recently the game has changed. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have been the dominant figures in tennis for at least the past 5 years and players like Djokovic, Murray and Roddick have continued to float around the top 10. It's been rare that any new players have a chance to break into the top 5 or 10 because the players at the top of the rankings have just been too dominant over the past several years to make room for any new comers.

Lately, there's actually been a bit of movement around the top 10. Is this some kind of mid-season slump, or are we looking at a changing of the guard? While Roger Federer may not have won any titles since the Australian Open yet, but he is still an unshakable number one. Federer's over 3,000 points ahead of any other player in the rankings. He may not have won the most titles this year, but he's been playing a more limited schedule, and frankly he won the one that counts. Federer will go into this year's French Open as the defending champion for the first time, but I don't think this will add to the pressure. He's already completed the career grand slam and bested Sampras' all time record. Federer has nothing to lose and is undoubtedly the most consistent player in Grand Slam tournaments on the the tour. I'm not sure he'll win this one, but he'll defend plenty of points to retain his number one spot going into the summer.

Djokovic has had a lackluster year so far. The change in his service motion and switching back and forth between coaches doesn't seem to have helped his game. He may be number two in the rankings, but that has less to do with merit than the injuries plaguing usual number two, Nadal. Frankly, Djokovic has been coasting since his Australian Open win in 2008 and if he has any shot at winning another slam, he's going to have to dig a little deeper. While his clay court game has improved, I wouldn't give him great chances at this year's French. Djokovic's next big hope for a Slam win will come in September at the US Open. Let's hope he can find his game by then and earn his number two spot.

It's truly a shame that Rafael Nadal's career has been plagued by injuries at such an early age. He is only 23 and already has 37 career singles titles. That's a truly amazing statistic. If he can manage to stay healthy, that number should easily double. However, Nadal seems to be in a bit of slump lately. Last week's win in Monte Carlo should be a big ego boost since he hasn't won a tournament since Rome in 2009. That's almost a year with no titles. Nadal's win in Monte Carlo also marked a record 6th title in a row at the MCCC, a feat never accomplished by another player, not even Roger Federer. This week, Nadal was meant to be going for a 6th title in Barcelona, but pulled out for fear of re-injuring his knee. However, I wouldn't count Nadal out just yet. I think he's probably just being extra cautious in the weeks leading up to the French Open in hopes of regaining his crown. I expect we'll be seeing him in the final at Roland Garros in a few weeks, if not winning the whole tournament.

The fourth spot is really what I'd like to discuss in terms of players slipping around the top 10. Juan Martin del Potro currently holds the number 4 ATP ranking, a career high for the Argentinian. However, del Potro hasn't played a single tournament since the Australian Open as he has been out indefinitely with a wrist injury. This means that players like Murray have slipped so far that they are being overtaken by players that aren't even currently playing on the tour. That said, I hope del Potro recovers quickly and can return to the tour in time to defend his US Open title. He is an extremely talented young player.

Andy Murray...what can I say? Murray started the year off with a bang. It seemed like he would finally put the Brits out of their misery and win a Grand Slam. While the match wasn't a blow out like his US Open final, Roger Federer very clearly dominated the young Scotsman. Getting to the final of a Grand Slam is nothing to scoff at, but it's the rest of Murray's year that has me worried. It just seems like something's not quite right. He hasn't won a single title yet this year and exited in the second rounds in both Dubai and Miami. Unfortunately, I don't see Andy's year getting much better from here. Like every year, soon Andy will start to feel the pressure of Wimbledon looming ahead and the extra stress most likely won't help his already ailing game.

To round out the top 10, Davydenko is currently out with a broken wrist, so I'd expect to see him fall a spot or two in the coming months. Andy Roddick is hiding out during the clay court season. Roddick hasn't played any tournaments since winning in Miami and has pulled out of this week's mandatory tournament in Rome, citing personal reasons. However, according to TMZ it looks like his personal reason was a beach vacation with wife Brooklyn Decker. Soderling and Verdasco squared off in today's Barcelona final, which Verdasco won, a nice victory for him considering his defeat in Monte Carlo last week. Jo Wilfried Tsonga rounds out today's top 10, but I'd expect a little movement in spots 9 and 10 in the upcoming weeks as there are plenty of points to be gained and lost.