Got some pics

This time tomorrow, I will be in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I estimate that I will be either eating dinner at a Quizno's near Hays, Kansas, or will have just finished doing that. We are hopefully going to get to Topeka about 10 pm, get over to Wal-Mart and buy some groceries...yes, yes, that is what we do. I hope to get some updates going when I get there; it should be an interesting time.

Anyhow I got some pictures from the Weber match when we were at the Academy. I will put up some better pics later; most of them that I have now are blurry. Stupid camera.

Federer sets new record -- and a sick video

Roger Federer has now spent over 3 years at the #1 spot on tour. That is just amazing. It's the longest consecutive run at #1 ever.

Also watch this disgusting knee dislocation -- it went down last night. EWWWWWWW



All I got for now -- in class, gotta go.

As promised

I said I'd be back by Sunday, and I shall deliver. I am even feeling mellow enough to discuss what happened on Friday. But first, some news.

• Tommy Haas absolutely crushed Andy Roddick today. It wasn't pretty. I watched the whole match and Roddick looked how I feel out on court lately. I remember some of the numbers...Roddick's first serve percentage was like 22% for most of the match. Just won't win many matches like that.


• By the way, Haas didn't face a break point during the entire tournament. = amazing


• Venus Williams apparently won a tournament. That statement should tell you how much I care.


• This is some upsetting news. Joachim Johansson, Pim Pim, to some of you, had another shoulder surgery. He is always getting injured, and that sucks because he is amazing. I remember watch him play Agassi a few years ago at the US Open. He lost, but he hit like 47 aces in four sets. It was ridiculous.

I don't normally do this, but the trip and the delay calls for some personal explanation.

About Friday: I had class until noon, then I downed a delicious BBQ sandwich from a local sub shop. I fired up the TiVo and watched Liverpool beat down Barcelona (still pumped about that), and then at 3 I went up to school and we set out for the USAFA to play Weber State.

So we get to Springs and the traffic is terrible, nothing new...finally get to the Academy and find the proper field house. The facilities are AMAZING. I have some pics coming -- they are on my buddy's camera but I will get them soon. So we got there during the lowering of the colors and it was a very eerie experience. This weird bugle sound was warbling over the top of the hill and everyone was standing perfectly still facing the hill...nevermind.

We get inside and sat around for over an hour while UNC finished playing the Academy. We finally got a court to warm up on...7 guys, one court, cool... At 6 when our match was supposed to start, I go up and take a seat (I was playing singles, not doubles). There was some delay, and then when matches started, of course one match had to be tight and took about 80-90 minutes. Then our first four singles matches went on -- I was playing 6th that day.

Finally at 9 pm I got a court. I hadn't eaten a meal since noon; my only bio fuel was a soggy PBJ that I had put in my bag. The courts were Rebound Ace, and the elevation was like 7000 feet, so it was really awkward. The ball was all over the place.

That's one of the things I have come to realize: The great players at this level will make that adjustment in 20 minutes and have a competitive match. Me -- I will take about 2 sets to get to feeling like I know what the ball is going to do and then the match is over and I'm headed back to Pueblo and my shitty hardcourts and my 4000 some feet. I wish I could adjust faster.

Anyhow, long story short, we got back to Pueblo starving and defeated so we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for some comfort food. Our wings took over an hour to prepare, apparently, but when they got there, oh man...delciousness times TEN. I took some people home, it started to snow, the wind started to blow, I got to bed at 2, I got up at 7 and had to work at a conference at school all day. It was amazing. Hope that explains the delay.

We are going to Kansas on Wednesday, so I will be doing a Road Trip feature type thing. I'm also going to try to invest in a new camera before then, so be prepared for some amazing footage.

LFC slips past Barca!!!

Sooooo Bellamy and Riise made up for beating the shit out of each other earlier in the week by scoring a goal apiece in Liverpool's stunning upset of Barcelona. That is just pretty freaking sweet.

I also hope this picture helps explain why I haven't updated much of anything recently. As you can probably see, I can't even sit on my chair because there is a glove on it...ummm...don't know how that happened. Someone should move it. Anyhow, I promise that by Saturday night...maybe Sunday --yes, definitely by Sunday, life will return to normal for a few days. Then it's off to Kansas.

Tomorrow the team will be traveling up to the USAFA for a match against Weber State. I wasn't looking forward to it until today. I made some remark to my coach about getting shot back down to Earth tomorrow and these were his exact words: "It doesn't matter!! Seriously, don't even think about tomorrow, it isn't important at all!" Now I really want to play. Don't even try to understand.

Also, I might start posting some of the amazing things my coach says to us during practice. Today's moment of zen came when this kid Kyle was playing this kid Beau..."Oh, and Kyle, if I ever see you throw your racquet like that again, regardless of what made you do it, I will cut off your testicles and sew them onto someone who knows how to use them." That is just such a nice burn...I wish I was a 57-year old tennis coach who could just talk shit to his players all day. He's a great guy though. Seriously.

LIVERPOOL LIVERPOOL LIVERPOOL!!!

Tomorrow is the day that we all (as long as "we all" means a few of my friends and I -- and probably part of England) have been waiting for. Liverpool is playing Barcelona in the first of two Champions League matches. It's going to be amazing, but we don't get it on TV here in America. Gay ass digital cable. I'm going to have to try to watch it on the Internet somehow, but I have a feeling that soccer on the Internet is going to be a disappointment.

In tennis news (I am taking this shit way too seriously), Mardy Fish is everything I wish I was. He is good at tennis, making changes to his game and still being successful, generally a bad ass...I'm getting upset.

There are all kinds of tournaments going on right now but they're all in the first rounds so you can check them out at your leisure...if you care.

It's also worth mentioning that if you are living in a foreign country and can get the Liverpool game on TV, I hate you.

PERFECT

Yesterday and then again today the weather finally cooperated, and by that I mean the mercury rose to within exactly one degree of a little number I like to call BEAUTIFUL. It was amazing. I walked to the courts yesterday and hit for 90 minutes and then walked home; it was stunning. Today we practiced for two hours at the park and it was wonderful. Actually, it was great until coach made us run a couple of parks and thanks to the excretory emergency I was forced to deal with at that time, there was a whole other set of problems to deal with. Aaaaanyhow.

Scotland's own Andy Murray took down Andy Roddick and Ivo Karlovic in quick succession this weekend. That's a pretty impressive pair of servers to beat back to back. Karlovic does this a few times a year; it will be interesting to see if he can stick around this time. I mean, he's 6'10'', there is no reason that he shouldn't just pulverize anyone who comes on court with him. You don't even need to be able to play that well past serving if you hit 20 aces a match. That's more aces than I've hit this year. And last year.

This cat took down Robbie Ginepri in 3 sets in Memphis. It's too bad because I like Robbie. And also because that guy is two years younger than me. You can check out the Memphis tournament website, but I should warn you that it sucks ass.

Back to Scotland for a minute. Is this an amazing t-shirt or am I retarded? I bought it, so I hope I'm not retarded. Of course, I won't wear it tucked into a kilt that goes up to my nipples, so I will at least have that going for me. I also bought an amazing Scottish flag bandana a while back that I am going to sport at a few matches this season. The whole soccer thing and a little bit of tennis and a lot of wanting to bring some European strangeness to my house has led me to buying cool stuff on ebay. I will probably buy a new sibling on there eventually.

I guess this is kind of a cool trophy. Whatever, Mauresmo is a man, I bet she doesn't enjoy the diamonds too much. Or maybe she does. I make it a point to ignore her. Just another irrational tennis bias, I suppose.

By the way, happy belated Valentine's Day to you people. I didn't think to say anything earlier because it's not a real holiday (what do I know though? I am single and ready to mingle). I'll be getting back to the homework now...

So that's what wind tunnel tennis is like - neat

My first instinct is to say, "It wasn't really that bad." Looking at the scores and reactions from people, it could have been a lot worse. I am speaking of course about my school's match against ACU today.

I woke up and pulled back the blinds to see a dark, windswept day waiting for me. The weather finally warmed up (we tried to hit yesterday when it was 28 and I ended up with icicles in the facial hair) but the "warmth" was cancelled out by the 50 mph winds. I'm not joking. Look it up. I'm not even going to link it for you; you'll just have to trust me.

But it wasn't as bad as it could have been. They came, we played, they won, it was windy as SHIT, and that's really all there was to it. Not much controversy. We saw the #22 team in D II tennis and they were pretty stout, but not amazing. We had close doubles matches, some close singles matches, some blow out singles matches, but whatever. It's going to help us; just a shame that we had to put up with the worst conditions I've ever played in. The wind was so powerful that if you just drop-fed a ball to the other side of the court, it stood about a 90% chance of being blown onto the next court. If you didn't drive the ball with a lot of purpose, it would not go anywhere near the target. But I'm done talking about it.

Ivo Karlovic, 6'10'' dudemangus is beating people again. I remember when he knocked out Hewitt at Wimbledon in the first round in 2003. He hasn't really done much since then except slay random top 10 players. He is ranked 103rd in the world, but he's freaking tall! He can do what he wants.

Roddick took down Spadea, which is good because I hate Spadea and everything he does.

Bonnie DeSimone has a piece about Sam Querrey which may or may not be interesting - I didn't read it. I don't want to get depressed by reading about the amazing life of a 19-year-old pro tennis player. We'll see if the tennis media continues to build him up as the "next great American tennis player!!!" Yay!! I remember a lad named Donald Young from a couple of years ago that everyone was nutting over. What now? He never won a tournament?

Oh well. You probably don't care, but Bonnie DeSimone...I'm coming for you.

No courts...no problem...jokin!

I should be studying for my Business Communications test right now, but in a few words I can accurately sum up my opinion of that class: F that shit.

That is also my opinion of the weather, which continues to be cold and depressing. Yesterday it was 9 or some ridiculous temperature like that. Today it was a little bit warmer (warmer, lol...) but it snowed most of the day. What snow is still on the ground is light and flaky, but it is snow nonetheless.

This brings me to the match update, and really the week so far.

• Monday: Practiced for one hour in 38 degree weather. It was amazing. </sarcasm>
• Tuesday: I cannot tell a lie. I didn't do anything. My legs hurt, it was about 10 degrees outside...yeah.
• Today: Worked on a stationary bike for 30 mins at school, did some core stuff, flexibility work...what? Yep. Futile.
• Thursday: We're going to squegee some tennis courts tomorrow in the hope that we can play Friday. This leads us to...
• Friday: The forecast calls for 48 degrees and 40 mph winds. The coach's solution was to move the match up two hours, when it is just as windy but much colder. 12:30 is the start time, but I'm hoping I get a phone call at about 10 telling me to forget it. It's one of those things where you really hope things work out, but you know they probably won't, so avoiding the whole situation would just make life easier.
• This all reminds me of a short exchange between me and Ricardo, the kid from Mexico on our team. He taps me on my shoulder in lab on Monday and says, "James, what will the weather be like this week? Will we get to practice?" I said, "Ah man I dunno, it's only supposed to be like 26 tomorrow." He gave me a confused look and said, "Twenty-six, umm, I don't know - what is that in Celsius?" I said, "That's like -2 degrees," and he just sat back and said, "Fawwwwwwwwwk."
• I looked up the Puebla, Mexico forecast yesterday, and depite being over 7000 feet in elevation, the high for Tuesday was 70 degrees and the low was 58. Fahrenheit. LOVE IT

If you read this and wonder, "Well, dumbass, just go play indoors!" then I commend you for your sense of logic. Then I would remind you that Pueblo is a community that really possesses no logic. We have some indoor courts...at the Pueblo Country Club. Private party. Then there were some indoor courts at the state fair grounds, but as I think I mentioned earlier, they suck, and actually now they're shut down for the rest of the month. Our school doesn't have any tennis courts, indoor OR outdoor, so we are basically screwed if the weather keeps up its freezing ways.

Anyhow, there is some real news to attend to.

Mardy Fish is still playing good tennis. Andy Murray won in spite of himself. This was at the SAP Open...an indoor tournament! Gasp! Apparently Safin won as well.

• It's nice to see Guga still being a bad ass. I will always root for a shaggy Brazilian. Look at that guy, it looks like he just walked up to the court and grabbed some random guy's racquet and started throwing down. What a man.

In other sports news, I find this to be a little bit funny. 18 games!! I feel so bad for Paul Pierce. The Celtics are tanking the shit out of their season to get a shot at Oden or Durant. Also, how old do you think this guy is??

Also, while I am loving the fact that Carmelo is averaging 30.8 ppg, 6.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists, I am not pleased that they lost to the T-Wolves tonight. I only put that on here because it's fresh in my mind. And because I wanted to. You get it. I also love this even though it's a little old...I was right in front of him when it happened, it was sick, and I wanted to put it up.

Davis Cup - doneski

A few of my predictions held up. My biggest mis-prognostication, if such a term exists, was the forecast of a Chilean upset of Russia. Didn't happen. That's OK though, because both teams have some amazing players, and I was just guessing that Fena's amazing run of late could blast Chile past Mother Russia. I like Safin too though, so whatever.

Some thoughts...

• I'm glad that the USA played some nice tennis on clay for a change. Blake dropped his match which was disappointing, but Roddick showed us something in his win over Berdych. Apparently it was the first Davis Cup tie on clay that the US had won in 10 years. Impressive.
• I watched most of the tie on the VS network - apparently that is what OLN turned in to when it died - and I must say that the tennis was good and the commentary sucked. Lief Shiras, you're on alert.
• I liked how Roddick didn't let the clay phase him mentally; that's the key to being successful in ANYTHING, but especially clay court tennis. I know from experience too, because I played on some clay this weekend - sorry, no pics or highlights...check sportscenter though...
• I will say this about that: Clay is not the most enjoyable surface to play on if you've played on hard courts your entire life, but as long as you just make up your mind that you're going to be OK, it doesn't matter that much. That's what all the Americans need to do at the French.
  
  Look at Nadal - he won the French and made the finals at Wimbledon because he did not care that he was playing on grass. Tennis is tennis, to an extent. You have to be able to move on different surfaces to be successful, and yes, Nadal is a great mover, but still, it's a lot more mental than anyone will admit.
  
  And I can't believe I'm linking to this but Peter Bodo makes a solid point with this.
  
  That's all for now. I'm going to go hit for a little bit. It's 70 degrees in Pueblo right now and the sky is blue (alright, partially blue) and it is amazing. BUT, it's going to be 30 degrees for the next three or four days and our huge opener is on Friday. I am really looking forward to not hitting for three days and then playing an amazing team from ACU. We're so screwed.

Foggy weather =

...not so good tennis weather. I feel like I woke up in Seattle by way of London. We had one good day this week -- good meaning 67 degrees and sunny with no wind. It was amazing. By far the best day I can remember in a long time. Unfortunately yesterday and today have been foggy and cold and now a little snowy. Not the best weather for sports.

I can't wait for Davis Cup to start. I just hope we get it on TV here; the damn Tennis Channel is trying to monopolize TV coverage of the sport...bad news is that barely anyone GETS the Tennis Channel. I know they bought the rights to air at least one of the grand slams, so I guess I won't get to watch that one. Hopefully the OLN is still around, but since I can't find a link to it they might be out of business. That would be about right.

These are the matchups for all eight Davis Cup ties. Nothing else is going on, so here are my predictions. For the sake of time and accuracy, you'll just have to go without the score line. The winner will be sufficient

• FRANCE over Romania


• Croatia over GERMANY


• BELGIUM over Australia


• USA over CZECH REPUBLIC


• Spain over SWITZERLAND


• Sweden over BELARUS


• AUSTRIA over Argentina


• CHILE over Russia

Davis Cup is not the easiest thing to predict. In college matches (or most other levels of play, for that matter), if I have to play some guy from Mexico who is ranked 3rd in the region and hits the piss out of the ball, I'm just going to lose. I'm not good enough to keep up with him. I like to play people like that, but I'm probably not going to take many games off of him.

However, with Davis Cup, everyone is a professional. There is a certain level of quality that every player possesses, a certain degree of ability that gets them to that level in the first place. After that a lot of it is planning and mindset, conditioning and coaching. And oh yeah, emotion! You're playing for your country! How insane would that be? I want to go to a Davis Cup match sometime, but I guess I'll just have to put that on the list next to "Visit Anfield in May" on the list of things to do.

Nothing happening

Ben Kweller is telling me that nothing's going on, and sadly, that's how the tennis world is right now. The ATP is quiet for now because Davis Cup is about to start, and unlike other sports, no one is doing anything completely retarded to distract from the action. Is that really necessary?

I hope the Nuggets can begin to pull their heads out of their asses. Iverson is playing tonight (just checked) so that's good. Now Melo and AI can begin to dominate. And thank Scotty Crowe (by way of John Mayer) for this, and I guess thank Allen Iverson too, because it's just funny:

US vs. Czech Republic - Davis Cup Preview

The US is playing against the Czech Republic in Davis Cup action this weekend. I hope we don't suck. And yes, it is purely conincidental that ESPN decided to run the same story as me. This was purely spontaneous. Moving on.

There are three things (OK, there's more) that could really mess us up in this tie.

• Andy Roddick and James Blake are maaaaaybe not the best clay court players in the world. They are also playing against Thomas Berdych -- always a dangerous opponent.


• This goes with #1...it's on clay. Americans probably do need to train on it more, but they are still playing catch up to the rest of the world on hard courts.


• It's Davis Cup. It's an away match. It's a racous atmosphere. Anything can happen.

The good news is this: Roddick, Blake, and the Bryan brothers (the dubs team, never a concern) are playing just about as well as they can. Roddick disposed of some of the best players in the world at the Australian, and Blake is still playing an extremely high level of tennis.

I have all the confidence in the world about those guys, but Davis Cup is do or die; it's going to be fierce.

Now you can see what I was talking about

I haven't stopped thinking about the Achilles comparison (see previous post), so now I want you to see what I was talking about. Here it is:

And then because it is newsworthy, Xavier Malisse battled the elements and came back from being a set down on the second day of play to beat James Blake . Disappointing for me, to be sure, but that's a solid win for Malisse.


The weather has finally warmed up here too. In fact it was a glorious day to live in Colorado. I wanted to play outside but we had practice indoors still, but it was nice to go outside all sweaty and bask in the glow of the sun instead of sprinting to a freezing car in the kind of cold that makes it feel like the inside of your nose is falling out. I hope it stays.

Footwork - kind of important

So I was watching the movie Troy tonight, and in the midst of Brad Pitt kicking Hector's ass, I made a comparison that only I could make: Achilles had amazing footwork. Roger Federer has sick strokes, and Achilles could use a sword and throw the damn spear like no body's business, but how amazing must their footwork be to be able to dictate like they do (or did) in all of their matches and duels and stuff? I have been really working hard on my footwork lately when I've been playing because I have realized two things: it is without question the most important aspect of tennis, and I suck at it. I have been hitting so many balls while leaning back and away from the ball that I have been driving myself mad. So the new comparison is this: could Achilles beat anyone down if he was striking and leaning back at the same time? HELL no.

Watch this video, but when you do so, don't watch any of the strokes. I challenge you to just watch Federer's footwork. Don't look at the strokes, don't watch Hewitt...just look at Federer's feet. I know it's kind of an older clip (from the 2004 TMC), but the audio is really keen at court level. Just keep an eye on Fed and listen. Watch how he never stops moving, the little steps he takes to set up the shot, how he might be a foot and a half behind the baseline but is always moving forward to hit the ball and then steps inside the baseline when he gets a ball he wants to hit. That is why he's number 1 in the world. And watch Troy too, it's not a bad movie.

ATP round-robin

The ATP has decided to shake things up a little bit this year. Instead of the normal 32-player draw or whatever each tournament features, the first few days of competition will now be dominated by a round-robin format. Essentially, players are grouped and play the other players in their group and the winners advance out to the elimination phase, which usually begins as the QF. This means that you can still lose in your round-robin group but win the tournament. Some players like it, some don't. The only time I have used round-robins is at small local tournaments when there aren't enough players to fill out a full draw sheet. I think it's kind of stupid that the ATP is doing that on tour though. It is how they run the Tennis Masters Cup, which makes sense, because if you have the 8 best players in the world, why not have them play more matches and beat on each other a little bit more for the benefit of the audience? It doesn't make much sense to do it at every tournament though, which is probably why the ATP is just trialing it at select tournaments this year. Brad Gilbert doesn't like it, which is good enough for me to not like it. And I agree with him, on-court coaching would be much better. It is allowed at every other level of the game, why not at the top?

In other news, the US Davis Cup team was announced, and it was no surprise. In fact it's barely news worthy. The line up will be Andy Roddick, James Blake, the Bryan brothers at dubs. They are playing the Czech Republic on indoor clay Feb. 9-11. It will be interesting for sure...I hope they don't lose. Aside from Thomas Berdych there is no one that should pose a threat to the US players, but because it's Davis Cup, and because we suck on clay, anything could happen.