Cupcakes & Tennis

It begins on a Sunday.  The only major that does.  It puts pressure on the players to be ready for a Sunday beginning, but the crowds come and the revenue bucket fills up for one additional day.  Eh voila.  And the weather, which had been cool and blustery earlier in the week and through the qualies, dawned fair and reached a sunny eighty degrees or so, little wind.  Good conditions for tennis and the balls not so heavy.

A bunch of players lost today, including Andy Roddick, which meant that some players were out before the beginning they and we are accustomed to.  Andy looked lifeless against Nicholas Mahut, of France and of legendary Wimbledon match against John Isner two years ago.  Mahut doesn’t much like clay, unusual given he’s French.  Andy doesn’t like it either.  Prior to today, Mahut had never beaten Andy, on any surface.   But Mahut played well and Andy played badly, upping his 17-0 losses on clay this year to 18.  C’est la vie.

The American on the up and up this year is Bryan Baker.  Bryan who?  You mean the Bryan brothers?  No.  This guy is 28 years old, or so.  His professional tennis career was derailed half a dozen years ago by injuries.  He had a total of five surgeries, tough to come back from.  Instead, he studied business and finance at Belmont College in Nashville, where he was also the unpaid assistant coach.

Little by little, he began to feel better and a year ago started to test his body out.  After a couple tournaments where he played a lot and felt fine, he decided to give the tour another chance.  On Saturday, in Nice, he played the final against Almagro, losing, but who cares?  It was his first ATP final ever.  His family flew in for the big event.

Now he’s in Paris and tomorrow he’ll play his first round match against Xavier Malisse, the Frenchman who, in an ironic twist, he lost to in his last professional match before all the injuries, at the US Open.  It would be wonderful to see him get his revenge these years later, on French soil.  And he’s got more than a fair chance.  Malisse is 77 in the world, thirty two years old.  He’s a good tennis player, but it’s not like Baker drew a first round against Djokovic.

Venus got through her first round match, picking up steam to take the second and third sets.  Stosur looks confident and I would love it if she manages to pull off the victory that eluded her three years ago.

Tsonga and Juan Martin del Potro are into the second round, both winning in four.

I hadn’t known about the bad blood between Rafa and the French over the puppet show called Les Guignols until I heard Chris Clarey of the New York Times being interviewed by Bill Macatee on French Open Tonight.  If you haven’t seen this, and I hadn’t, here’s some You Tube.

Here you will see the Nadal puppet drinking water, then urinating into his car’s gasoline tank.  There is also the writing implement, a syringe.  To me, it seemed funny, but the French are getting sued over it so I guess the Spaniards aren’t laughing.

So, will it be Nadal this year?  He’s tied with Bjorn Borg with six French Opens each.  Or will it be Novak, with a career Grand Slam to show for it, no one since Laver has done that?

Stay tuned.  See you tomorrow, right here.

It’s the last weekend, ABC swoops in for the coverage, but the weather might fool with that.  Windy with some rain expected.  We will all need to be flexible.  Two men’s semis today, Roger vs Rafa and Novak vs John Isner.  Women’s final tomorrow, Azarenka vs Sharapova.  Men’s final tomorrow, who’s your call?  Could easily be Rafa and Novak again.

Ana Ivanovic is playing some of her best tennis in four years so it was discouraging that she needed to withdraw due to a hip injury after one game of the second set against Maria last night.  The outcome was by no means assured even though Maria took the first set, 6-4.

David Nalbandian gave Rafa a verrry hard time in the last of the quarterfinals yesterday.  He’s so much fun to watch when he’s on.  Everyone else works hard, David is all talent.  He was two points from winning the match and at 30/30 he threw in a drop shot (which already had not been working) and that’s the closest he got.  He did make Rafa sweat though, denying him his own service game at 5-2 down in the third, then winning his next game and nearly pulling even to 5-5.  Another stupid drop shot stopped that from happening.  I was rooting for David all the way, nothing against Rafa, but it would have been fun to see Nalbandian in the semi and possibly the final.

I’ve had it with the idiots who design Andy Murray’s tennis clothing.  Why does he need to look like a big goofy toddler, not to mention that these bright colors – saturated orange, blue, chartreuse and kelly green – look terrible on him.  With his fair skin and gingy hair, Andy looks good in subtle tones of grey and beige, strong navy, greens in the olive to forest green range.  There are people, I am not one of them but I’d take this gig, who do this for a living.  You can hire color consultants, it’s that specific.  Add one to Murray’s shopping cart.

I’m wondering who will be calling the matches for ABC.  Tennis Channel put on a good week.  I know nothing about the HD technology, but ESPN came in for a day yesterday and boom, there it all is on the wide screen.  What is the problem with Tennis Channel getting this?  Good to see Chris Fowler and team, or some of the team, for a day and I’m hoping Mary Carillo has the call for the women’s final.  Maybe Johnny Mac for the men’s matches?

We’ll see soon enough.  Enjoy the remaining matches and we’ll talk again once the results are in.

They call the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells the fifth slam and in some ways it is.  With the huge stadium, second largest to Arthur Ashe only, it can feel like it.  But with the mountains all around, the divine climate, sunny and low humidity, and outer courts that are tricked out with Hawkeye but otherwise resemble your old high school practice courts, it’s another story.

It’s a special place, as all the commentators say.  Low key.  I’ve been familiar with La Quinta in particular since I was seven years old and took the train from Chicago with my mother and two sisters to spend time in the desert with my grandparents.  They bought a big double lot at the end of what is now known as The Cove in La Quinta and built a small mid-century home.  We ate grapefruit from their trees, walked one block further into the lavendar mountains.

I fell in love with palm trees, not a one to be seen previously in my Wisconsin existence.  La Quinta then was sparsely populated.  The roads were dirt and the stars at night looked like a traffic jam.  There was a post office, a gas station and the Desert Club where we lounged by the pool and batted tennis balls around on the two or three courts.  This was low key.

The La Quinta Hotel, Roger Federer’s lodging of choice, was there in its present day location but there was nothing glossy about it.  It was quiet, old Hollywood cache.  When you drive into The Cove these days, it’s completely built up.  You can tell the old properties by the old growth.  Around my grandparents’ home, which became my mother’s home and then my sisters’ and my home before we sold it a dozen or more years ago, there is still a tall hedge of oleander.  Inside the house you have privacy, but your neighbors are still in your face.  Down the road, in the commercial part of town that was undeveloped desert before, there is a slew of stores and restaurants and the big art festival held each year.  What used to be back of beyond is now a bustling valley community.

When the ATP and WTA tours roll into town, they generate a lot of activity in an already busy place.  About 200 million dollars pour into the valley during these two weeks.  Larry Ellison, who saved the tournament by buying it a few years ago, has extremely deep pockets and it shows.  Even without ticket sales or other funds they raise, he could probably write a check for the yearly maintenance, soup to nuts, the same way you or I can buy our morning coffee.  That’s why all the outer courts have Hawkeye.  It should be so in all the tournaments, but it costs quite a lot and so it isn’t.  Still, fair to all the players.

This year the flu has stricken a good number of players.  Roger Federer has been sick but not sick enough to withdraw, thank goodness.  It took him three sets to dispatch with Milos Raonic and Thomas Bellucci, but he did it.  Milos is the Canadian teenager with the big serve and poised demeanor, not an easy out, even for Roger.  And Bellucci is a Brazilian who looks like an Italian who just came alive off of some Renaissance fresco, quickly changed from choir robes to Adidas shorts and sneakers.

Even with fifteen or more players gone due to illness, there’s a lot of tennis going on.  Andy Murray was taken out last weekend, as was Sam Stosur.  Christina McHale beat Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, another upset.  Great to see her go after it in front of an American crowd.  Ryan Harrison just lost last night to Gilles Simon, one of the most frustrating players on tour.  He’s not that big, doesn’t have any huge weapons, how does he keep on winning?  He shouldn’t be able to do that, but he is.

What’s up with Michael Llodra, getting so foul mouthed with an Asian American fan who was supporting Ernest Gulbis, his opponent?  Really bad form.

Ana Ivanovic is playing some good tennis again.  She took out Wozniacki the other night.  Azarenka, on her winning streak, nearly double bageled her friend Agnes Radwanska, also doing well this year just not against Vika.  I caught the tail end of comments from Lindsay Davenport and Brett Haber that the two friends aren’t talking, and that was before yesterday’s beat down.  I can imagine it would be difficult to keep up a friendship with this kind of stress.  Much easier when you are two players working your way up.

Djokovic and Nadal look strong, along with Roger.  John Isner is the only American left in the draw and he’ll take on Gilles Simon next.  I’ll pick John in that one.  On the women’s side, we could have a Sharapova Azarenka final, whole lot of shrieking goin’ on.

After Sunday, everyone who isn’t already in Miami gets on a plane and goes there.  Whole different thing.  Sunny and humid.  Glitzy Miami.  Latin beat.

More later.  Thanks for reading Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.

Two years ago when I sat in Rod Laver Arena for the men’s final, I was tucked up in the very last row at the TV viewpoint end.  It actually wasn’t a bad seat and my fellow passengers, so to speak, and I got to know each other and formed a little community by the end.  The match itself was three straight sets to Roger over Andy Murray who never really put it in gear that evening.

I lingered after the ceremony until they chased me out, wandered slowly through the grounds one last time, caught Roger being interviewed by ESPN and talking with the handful of people who were still around, including me.  A great finish.  Even after I meandered back to my flat just a few blocks from the cricket grounds, it still wasn’t much past midnight.

What a contrast to the final this year.  The longest final in a Grand Slam in the Open era, five hours and fifteen minutes, or thereabouts.  It was 1:30 in the morning before people filed out.   I recorded it and watched during the morning and afternoon yesterday, it was a commitment.  And even though I extended the time of the recording, I still had to watch the last half hour on ESPN 3.   Epic and awesome are two overused words these days, but they apply in this case.

Both players ran about fifteen miles or so during the match.  Coming in to the semis, Novak had spent about 10 hours on the court.  For the semi and the final, he played the same number of hours.  And one comment about the running these guys do.  It’s not what you do when you go out for a three mile jog.  No, this is like constant sprinting.  Two steps to the right, then chase back fast to the left, then up to the net, then quick steps back to line up for an overhead.  Stop, start, stop, start.  And in between get your racquet on the ball for a clean shot.  Truly arduous stuff.

Rafa made a comment in press after the Murray/Djokovic semifinal that Murray lost the match because he took his foot off the gas in the fourth set, the one that Novak won handily 6-1.   It’s a valid point.  Rafa is not one to make that same mistake.  At the end of the third set of the final, he was down two sets.  Neither player took their foot off the gas.  Novak had many chances in the fourth set to close the door.  He was five points from winning the match at one point.  But Nadal wouldn’t let him.

It was fight to the finish and by the end they were both so exhausted, they were nearly reeling.  Novak managed to break Nadal at 5-5 and went on to serve for the match.  No one knew how it was going to turn out.  They had never played a five set match in all of their encounters.

It seemed so fitting.  That the last match should bring us all into uncharted territory.  The game is constantly evolving, taking itself up a notch, more power, more agility, more fitness required.  These two men are among the most fit beings in the world.  What would they do with a fifth set?

And even though Rafa lost, again, to Novak, it was a different kind of loss.  He made headway in figuring out how to beat Novak and he forced Djokovic to up his own ante.

Someone had to win, someone had to lose.  As they stood by the net while the ceremony got underway, they could barely stand and finally two chairs were brought out so they could sit while all the thank yous got said.  Rafa was gracious in defeat, as he always is.  Novak is well spoken also.

All in all, a thrilling and satisfying end to a tournament that will be hard to top for excitement and great tennis.  There were surprises and upsets and in the end, the last women and men standing did the sport proud.  The women’s game has a new number one and a first time Grand Slam winner, someone we can and will look forward to seeing a lot in the future.  The men’s game has the top four all playing well, shuffling around, challenging themselves and each other to play better, bring something more, something new to the fore.

It feels like a new, fresh chapter in the game and I, for one, am loving it.

Plus, having picked the winners correctly, Azarenka and Djokovic, I did much better on my racquet bracket than otherwise.  My own small satisfaction.

Mostly I just enjoyed watching it all, being a part of it, along with so many others worldwide.  Thanks for reading my posts here at Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.

I’ll be posting right along now.  Indian Wells is not far off.  Let’s see how this new year unfolds.

Catch you later.