Pacific Life Open pictures

Thanks for the great photos.

You captured Juanqui's ass perfectly.

Lucinda said:

Here's my super-unprofessional pictures from Indian Wells 3/17 - 3/20, taken with my rinky-dink digital camera

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/collections/72157604241589243/

The best matches I saw were Ancic vs. Fererro, Nalbandian vs. Stepanek, and of course, Nadal beating both Tsonga and Blake

Nadal has really really small feet, and Ancic is probably the loudest breather I've ever heard on court.

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great pics Lucinda. thanks so much for sharing. let me ask you something:

looks like Nadal`s practice sessions are jammed with fans. any idea how long some of these practice sessions lasted. and also do they pratcice returning serves?

thanks in advance.

Clay Death said:

great pics Lucinda. thanks so much for sharing. let me ask you something:

looks like Nadal`s practice sessions are jammed with fans. any idea how long some of these practice sessions lasted. and also do they pratcice returning serves?

thanks in advance.

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It depended on the player. I didn't stick around for whole practices, but I would guess anywhere from 45 min to an hour for most. They usually did some warm-ups on the grass then went and hit on the courts. Berdych's practice was very regular. I saw him on almost the same court at the same time each of the four mornings I was at the tournament - always with his coach close by.

Some of the practice partners were hitting serves to the players... I expect they run the guantlet during a practice and cover everything.

I was also surprised to see them practicing so near to their scheduled match time. The pictures of Nadal practicing in black were taken only about 1 or 1.5 hrs before his match with Blake that night.

Marcos Baghdatis tall, dark and hairy? More like of average height, chubby, and could use a shave.

Thanks for the pics.

Thanks for the pix!

So Lucinda, did you have a good time at your first tournament?

Thanks Lucinda, great pics!

Clay Death said:

great pics Lucinda. thanks so much for sharing. let me ask you something:

looks like Nadal`s practice sessions are jammed with fans. any idea how long some of these practice sessions lasted. and also do they pratcice returning serves?

thanks in advance.

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Almost every player I've ever seen do a "regular" practice, it was one hour. at IW, the courts change over each hour on the hour. Same at LA. When players warm up (anywhere between 1-2 hours before their match, depends on the players how long before the match they like to warm up), it's usually 20-25 minutes. Rafa's one of the 5 or so most popular players at IW, in terms of how many people watch his practices. In the practices, they practice pretty much everything, even in the shorter pre-match warmup. That's been my observation anyway, at IW and other events.

thank youuuuu

Fee said:

So Lucinda, did you have a good time at your first tournament?

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I had a great time! I'm already making plans for 2009.

Lucinda said:

I had a great time! I'm already making plans for 2009.

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Excellent, perhaps we'll see you there. Are there any Challengers or Futures events near you? There is so much tennis in the US, you can probably see it more often than once a year.

Fee said:

Excellent, perhaps we'll see you there. Are there any Challengers or Futures events near you? There is so much tennis in the US, you can probably see it more often than once a year.

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There's a challenger in Yuba City in early June, and of course Sacramento has WTT and hosts the championships.

Get out! You live in the same area I do. :lol:

There's also a challenger in Sacramento in October, with some fairly big names these last few years (Querrey, Young, etc). You have to go to that one too.

The Futures tournaments in June right after Yuba City can be interesting too (I've only been to one of those, a few years back).

Fee said:

Get out! You live in the same area I do. :lol:

There's also a challenger in Sacramento in October, with some fairly big names these last few years (Querrey, Young, etc). You have to go to that one too.

The Futures tournaments in June right after Yuba City can be interesting too (I've only been to one of those, a few years back).

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haha! Awesome Thanks for the info. I'll definitely look into the local Challengers since the prices (after Indian Wells) are so reasonable