Tag Archives: gilles simon

Okay, let’s start right up front with the men’s semi-finals decided just moments ago by the outcome of the Nadal/Berdych match played in front of a totally packed house.  Nadal won in three sets.  The first he played like a maestro, and then he had to fight for the rest of the match.  It looked like maybe he had the same stiff neck after the first set that prevented Gilles Simon from playing his full match against Roger this afternoon (he retired at 3-0 in the first set to the great displeasure of the crowd; they booed as he left the court which I thought was bad form, the guy would not have left the court if he could have played).  Still, Rafa won, whatever the physical difficulty was, and tomorrow night I will be there along with thousands of others to watch Rafa and Roger play for the first time in North America since 2005.  This is real tennis excitement.

And I love that of the final four, you’ve got Rafa, Roger, Novak Djokovic, the top three players in the world and who else?  Number fourteen, Mardy Fish!  Go Fish.  Love Mardy.  I don’t think he’ll win against Novak, who is unbeaten this year.  That’s right. Twenty matches, twenty wins.  Or is it twenty one?  That kind of winning streak does not happen often.  John McEnroe had a 39 match winning streak, and someone else almost as many, not remembering right now.

I do have to say that Brad Gilbert is truly impressive when it comes to knowing tennis history.  Last night, when Cliijsters was down 1-5 in the second set against Azarenka, Mary Joe Fernandez was asking about other consecutive match dig outs (Kim had saved five match points the night before against Ivanovic.) and Gilbert came up with some pretty obtuse information and he was right.

Kim lost last night.  She seemed flat after her late match the previous day and only at the end when defeat seemed a short step away did she rally.  There comes a point in many matches when the loss is nearly inevitable and it’s always interesting to watch how the almost defeated player just loosens up and goes for his or her shots, what the hell, and often it can turn a match around.  One thing I think is clearer when you are watching tennis live is the mental game.  You can follow that thread more easily, you can see the players during the changeovers, you can see a lot of things you don’t/can’t see on television.  You can just read that story in a way you can’t otherwise and tennis is such a mental game, it’s a huge part of it to be able to know what’s going with the players internally.

Back to Mardy Fish for a moment.  I didn’t give him much of a chance against Del Potro and he pulled that out, so who knows?  Still, I love it that Mardy is in the semis.  If he wins tomorrow, he’ll be in the top ten, a major goal of his.  I don’t know what the weather conditions will be for their afternoon match.  Today it was just plain a bitch for Sharapova and Petkovic.  The wind was constant and strong, it was extremely hot and humid.  Petko played a great first set and then just went away.  So Maria is in the final, and will be in the top ten for the first time in over two years.

She’ll play either Azarenka or Zvonareva who are doing battle as we speak.  God help us if it’s Victoria because she shrieks as loud as Maria.  Vera is quiet.  Please win Vera, tonight and Saturday.

The stadium looks different on television than it does in person.  On tv, it looks huge and kind of stretched out.  Actually, it’s a good size but still feels intimate.  As I wrote earlier, I like it the best of the three large tennis stadiums in the U.S.

I’m going to check on Vera and Victoria, then catch some sleep.  Big tennis tomorrow.