Inbetweenthings

Another Tuesday, another hellacious thunderstorm, another USTA league match washed out. Last Tuesday we got rained out, and then today was just crap. I left the house at 4:45 and it was fine. I noticed it was getting darker as I was driving to the courts, and after 5 minutes of driving I no longer needed my sunglasses. By 5:00 pm when I was at the facility it started to rain, and then by 5:15 it was hailing and blowing really bad. Didn't stop until almot 7:30. Fuck that.

Anyhow, I have that tournament in FoCo this week and was hoping I would get at least one match in beforehand. Guess I will have to get a couple of unofficial sets in and then be on my way. I am going to try to get up there and eat and then check in to the hotel, maybe take a fresh little nap, then head to the site and check the place out, play my first match, and then I might meet a friend for some dinner. I hate to plan things out that specifically in advance, but it seems like a solid schedule right now.

Raining...

It is officially summer tournament time for a couple of reasons. One, we started playing the Paper Cup tournament last night, and also because tonight's matches were completely rained out. What a pain.

I played a pretty long singles match last night but it was a solid effort. A nice little three-setter, saved a match point even in the final set (but it really wasn't that dramatic). The match was on serve most of the time and I just got the breaks when I needed to and that was that. I was a little rough around the edges and I needed to clean up a few parts of my game, but I got through it against a good opponent so I'm relatively pleased. Then Greg and I had to play two amazing guys in dubs, and despite playing the most stellar doubles we've ever played, we lost 7-5, 6-1. No matter though. There are still some sick teams in consolation, so that will be fun.

Tonight though...balls. Completely rained out. I strung some racquets this afternoon and I'm glad I didn't just sit on my ass waiting to play. I have to play Beau (from the college team) in this next match, so I will probably lose, but I wouldn't go out there if I didn't think something retarded was possible. I am going to hop on a bike in a little bit I think, or at least do something physical tonight, so I'm gonna get going. In the meantime, pray for no more rain -- it's really annoying.

Spring for a day

Yesterday I woke up and everything was covered in snow. Today it was 70 degrees and perfect. No joke. Practice was solid, and afterwards I ran around the park because it was a nice day and I wanted to try out the new Nike running shoes. It was a successful venture on both counts. I walked up to school at 5 for a dinner meeting and took a little pic on the way home because the light in Pueblo is best at the end of the day. Wanted to share. Anyhow, it's a good thing that I managed to get maximum enjoyment out of it too because tomorrow the weather is supposed to start sucking again.

Not much going on in the world of professional tennis today. Today was the first day of the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, and if you want to read about it...well go for it.

I am trying to find a relatively unknown tennis player to stalk when I go to Wimbledon this summer. He (or she, I guess!) would have to be ranked somewhere around 75 to 100 in the world. My boss and I just think that it would be funny for the 82nd ranked player in the world to have two stalkerish superfans for a couple of days. We could go to the players' hotel and rush him for autographs and what not. Man, I am looking forward to this.

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.