[Volcanic Tennis]

Today, I saw the beginning of Youzhny/Isner. Isner's big serve was there, but Youzhny was just chipping it back into play, neutralizing the serve. I left around 4-3, but it was very high quality tennis. I saw the end of Verdasco/Mayer, which left me feeling terrible for Mayer (who was a good sport however). Fernando must have signed for everyone on the court haha!! I just missed getting a photo by a bit though (wrong place at the wrong time haha)
Then I saw the end of Dancevic/Duclos vs Davydenko/Kunitsyn. It was good quality doubles, and the match tiebreak was super exciting. It's all kind of a blur now, but Frank was really happy with the win, as was Pierre-Ludo. Frank said, "wow, 90 ATP points, I think I have a doubles ranking know" He posed for a photo with me
Then it was Robredo/Petzschner. I didn't know Phil, but he has a really nice game. I love watching Tommy though. It was a really even match, neither leaving the other too much ground to work with. Tommy was super frustrated at the end of the match I could feel, Phil's serve came through in the crucial moments of the match.
I saw Youzhny win against Isner then; he was so pumped you could hear him from Robredo's court. He did the typical salute and signed autographs for the fans, he was visibly super happy.
Mirnyi/Ram finished a practice and posed with me They were talking about buying acres of land.. ????? Quite confusing !! Zimonjic/Nestor were also practicing. Nestor looked winded a lot, and I'm wondering if he's injured as he said. He didn't look 100% today, but you never know by watching practices. They both signed this newspaper clipping I had from when they defended their Wimbledon title, they both smiled when they saw it. Super cute!
We watched the end of Hanescu/Kohlschreiber as well. Hanescu just has a booming serve, what can I say! The guy never quits. Phil was playing well, but Viktor just let no ground up on his serve. He was very pumped up at the end of the match, he posed for a super cute photo with me
Then it was time for the match of the week in my eyes (mostly because I'm such a big fan of all the players): Aspelin/Hanley vs Lopez/Verdasco. Wouldn't you know it, I was sitting right next to the Spanish camp (who were loud and never ceased talking ) The rallies were of the highest quality, the serves unrelentingly fast; some of the shots they hit in the rallies were outstanding. The crowd was capacity; we were ooohing and awwwing like you wouldn't imagine. I love Fernando and Feli, but everyone was cheering so much for them that I had to cheer on my guys Paul and Simon. I felt terrible for Paul/Simon when they lost, they were visibly upset at not having capitalized in the tiebreaker. But Feli/Fernando really wanted to win this one, you could tell. Today confirmed what I knew: Simon and Paul are really, really good doubles player. I had never seen Simon play live, but he's just a wiz at the net and his serve is AWESOME. (which is why he's my favorite doubles specialist ) Paul is also handy, quick with his hands. They just lost by a thin margin today (mostly due to the Spanish having more aces at bigger moments). But I am confident that on a good week they can win a Grand Slam together.
I watched Ullyett/Soares vs Petzschner/Dlouhy after. Kevin/Bruno were playing well, but Lukas was just ON FIRE and so was Phil. Phil's serve boomed as usual (his service games took under a minute) and Lukas was very agile and quick with his hands today. KBruno let up a little bit at the end when he needed to be on his feet the most, and he left the match visibly upset. But Phil and Lukas were ECSTATIC. Phil posed for a photo with me and Lukas said "Smile, eh?" and he said "I am ALWAYS smiling" (and indeed he was... but unfortunately I had left my zoom on my camera so the photo looks blurry )
Haas/Gonzalez was good while it lasted... quite short. The crowd from CC had come over only to leave. But I did walk into Melzer/Coetzee vs Bhupathi/Knowles. After the first set, they let us come down so I was in the second row behind the baseline. That is just an AMAZING seat, I cannot describe it, you feel as if you are right behind the player as they hit... I'm still dazed. The match was good quality, but Jurgen would miss shots and lose his mental. He put too much pressure on himself tonight. He even had a little outburst that Mahesh was receiving for every deuce point (all the while Jurgen was always receiving for the deuce points too It was an odd exchange between the four players) On the way out, Mark posed with me (but I had to take the photo myself - luckily I didn't miss, and with the flash and the lighting it turned out the be one of the best photos I've gotten this week!)
Until tomorrow, adios!

[valexie03]

Very interesting update. Thanks

[Truc]

Thanks again, it's very appreciated, you see lots of matches we have no livestream for.
If you saw the doubles match Mirnyi-Ram/Dlouhy-Petzsche yesterday, there was a longer break at one point, was the scoreboard having a bug or was there a medical time-out?

[Volcanic Tennis]

I already forget what I did Thursday
I watched Andy Roddick and Andy Murray practice, as well as Garcia-Lopez and Lopez. Garcia was looking at me funny, he must wonder why I watch him so much.
I went to watch the end of Del Potro - Hanescu, I thought Juan Martin had quite a big game today. Viktor just looked at a lost against the hard hitting of Juan. Juan signed a lot of autographs, it was really sweet. Poor Viktor though, I felt bad for the guy.
I ran off to see Bhupathi/Knowles practice; Bhupathi left the court early, so I asked him for a photo. I said "Good match last night" as I clicked the photo, and he actually smiled on the photo (It's really nice!) Then Knowles practiced alone. He hits a serve (which was booming nice) and he says to his coach "Is that good?" so the coach says "well you didn't really do what I told you to do" so Mark muttered "That's funny I thought it was a f-king awesome serve". Then the coach was feeding balls and Mark said "Don't feed them so high, I am capable of attacking high balls after all" I was having fits of laughter.
He came to sit in his chair and said 'Hey how are you' to two girls watching him (we were only 3) He was super social, took photos with the people, and signed the photo of us commenting that it was a nice photo (which it was, too)
I watched Nestor/Zimonjic practice against Raonic/Bester - Daniel is just a hoot! He is so sarcastic but funny. At one point when Raonic missed a return he said "And you had match point on Gonzalez?" But it was all in good fun. The young Canadians won one game at most. I got a photo with Nenad which was nice
Somewhere along the line I got to take a photo with Marin Cilic but he was kind of prima-donna like. He said "Sure, but hurry up" and he looks disgruntled on the photo. I felt guilty for asking I also got one with Fernando Verdasco at some point, after his practice, but he's not looking (it's too bad because it would otherwise have been perfect!)
Davydenko/Gonzalez was a good match; not much separated those two. They were on even terms throughout, just a little bit of an edge to Davydenko's consistency.
Then I got to see Mirnyi/Ram practice and got their autographs on the photo of us three I was disappointed a bit with the photo, I wanted to take it over but I didn't want to be a bother
Lopez/Verdasco vs Moodie/Norman was a great match. Fernando was visibly bothered and tired from his singles loss, and Lopez was his drama queen self. Dick and Wesley were level throughout, which was to their credit. The match was really even, big serves from all four players, and I can't say Fernando/Feli were outclassed. It was only the difference of a few points. Fernando is the one who missed the most important shots in the second set breaker though, he felt HORRIBLE after this one.
We watched Mirnyi/Ram vs Petzschner/Dlouhy next. This was such bad scheduling. Phil was EXHAUSTED from his past two days (two singles and one doubles) and got medical treatment at 1-1 for his knee. And really, there were about 30 of us in the stands, half of which knew the players. It was just bad scheduling, it should've been played Friday, but oh well. Max/Andy were just too good, Phil was too tired, and Lukas missed some shots he wouldn't have missed on a good day. After the first set, Phil hit a ball to the back of the court but it went in the stands and hit Max's coach. He felt HORRIBLE and apologized twice, and after the match too. Lukas also lost his cool, but moreso than Phil, SMASHING his racket into the backdrop of the court. Lucky no one got hurt !
Simon/Tsonga was almost over then, it was packed on the court. I can't say much about this match.
Bryan/Bryan vs Melo/Lindsted was great quality doubles, but Marcelo and Robert just made some mistakes in two games in each set which cost them dearly. They didn't take their opportunities on BP, and were not able to break. Mentally it was quite a battle for them, and they both had towels over their heads after the match was over, visibly upset they could not capitalize.

Friday, I saw Nestor/Zimonjic vs Moodie/Norman. Masterclass from Dan/Nenad. Really, a cut above the competition today.
I got to stand in for Andy/Novak and Juan/Rafa, both of which were entertaining but no one needs to know my impressions.
Oh, and I got a 'photo with Nadal'....