So does Jim Courier not like Hewitt or something? Cause he was snarking on him all during that match.

Courier is one snarky bastard (love him). Is he doing the commentary for an Arthur Ashe match? I think of him as Mr. Armstrong.


I loved the dreads as well, but judging by the baldness pattern I think we are very lucky James just got rid of it all.

Word. He was all (re: Hewitt's wedding at the Sydney Opera House), "I'm thinking of renting out Ellis Island if I ever get married". And then he actually said "You know this time last year, Hewitt didnt even know his wife" and I actually went "Burn, Jim Courier! Burn!"

Sigh. I love him.

And i miss the dreads too.

He wishes he played like Agassi. First of all, he'd be at the baseline dictating play. If you don't talk about net game, Roddick is very much like a Sampras who hits harder at the expense of control. Their strengths are serve and forehand. Andy's serve is harder and his forehand is better (except on the run), but his backhand, control, and movement are much worse.


I don't know if she's ever coached. She clearly loves tennis; maybe she should give it a shot.


I don't know, but could you blame him? He certainly wouldn't be the first.

When he said that, I actually laughed out loud. It's funny because it's true!

Oh no, baby, we're getting married in Prague.


I'm now going to think about this for a while. How would Mary be as a coach?

I've kinda depressed myself watching the Mojo commercials on the internet. The one similarity that Andy has with Andre is that Andy needs to re-evaluate how his natural skills should be incorporated with training in other areas--and no one has done that as well as Andre did. I think Andy does understand this (his net game this summer proves that), he just needs time to put it all together.

I cannot believe this, but when Andy really pulls it all together. . . I'm going to be a fan. I NEVER thought I would say that.

Thomas Blake is taller but not yummier than James. Although I agree James was cuter with the dreads.

I hated the AmEx characters in the box with Mardy. I see enough commercials during the breaks, thanks anyway.

I think that Roddick was winning when he first surprised everyone with the speed of his serve. Now that the guys are figuring out how to hit their returns Roddick seems unprepared to keep playing the point. Sometimes you can almost see his body relax after he serves, thinking the point is his, and he's not ready when the ball comes back.

I only saw part of the first set yesterday. There was one point at 5-3 when Roddick was trying to serve out the set that he tried to serve and volley and Muller made a great pass. JMac said, "I bet we won't see him try to serve and volley for a while". Did Andy try to S&V more in the second and third sets? I hate to see him 10 feet behind the baseline - he's just not fast enough.

When I turned it on it was 5-2 Roddick - I guess Muller had been making a lot of unforced errors to that point. I'd like to know how he turned that around. I thought during the end of that first set Andy was "artificially" trying to pump himself up - going through all the motions but I wasn't buying it because he didn't look like HE believed it.

Even though those AmEx commercials are annoying me (although I did (shamefully) giggle when they were introducing Tennis late night and the voice intoned "Can you find Andy's mojo?") I am loving the Lexus commericial with the intonations about fame and Andy's "WTF" look.

I'd also like to see Carillo have a try at him.

I don't understand why he doesn't follow his serve in more. At one point last night (I think it was in the third set) he started with the serve-and-volley and he put away a few points in a row. I remember thinking "Okay if he keeps this up he could turn it around" then he just stopped and went back to staying at the baseline. The times this summer when I've seen him consistently coming up to the net, it seems to have worked beautifully.

I agree, but serve and volley is new for him and it is a heck of a lot easier to do something new when winning than it is when losing and, most important, Muller was passing him all over the place. Andy does not have the reach of the Beast.

Amex is so screwed. Those mojo ads were all over the subways and I'm sure will continue for the rest of the tournament on TV. This reminds me of Nike's Dan vs. Dave thing for the Olympics in '92 (am I that old?). They had this whole campaign based around two American decatheletes, ran the ads constantly, then one of them didn't even make the Olympic team and the other was DQed during the event.

I hope Amex goes back to the CLANG! ad where the trophy hits Andy on the head. Or they can hurry up and film a new one with him sitting next to an empty seat since he didn't win shit. Or maybe combine the two and have his mojo take the empty seat.

By the way, I loved the Brad Gilbert is his mojo article in this morning's Times.

Wertheim's take on Roddick's loss:
Deconstructing Roddick

I agree that a lot of the players Andy used to bulldoze are now onto his style and are doing a better job of adapting.

However, he does seem to be working on his weaknesses, and often that means taking a step back to take two forward. I give him credit for making the changes, because he could've just danced with who brung 'im.

Sharapova seriously needs to do somethin about those nipples. The girls have been at full solute the entire tournament.

And a lovely thing they are! Hey, if the ladies get to see Nadal and his skin tight shirts, then I'm all for mmmmmMaria providing us with equal opportunity ogling.

Venus has to be the biggest culprit of all time. She's always nipply. Speaking of Venus, it's hard to believe she first burst on the big stage here 8 years ago.

I remember those too. Amex isn't as bad off as Nike. The Olympics only happen every 4 years and Andy will definitely be in many other tournaments. I guess Amex will have to use the mojo ads for some other tournament Andy plays in.

Well they can keep running the first mojo ad, and air the conclusion when he wins his next tournament.

Its not like that crappy ass "I'm going to Disneyland!" commercial with Nancy Kerrigan.

It was Reebok, not Nike, that ran those Dan and Dave ads. When Dan didn't even qualify for the Olympics, IIRC Reebok changed its strategy and showed Dan cheering on Dave.

I don't know if Amex is going to keep the Mojo ads. You would hope that they would have planned something in the event that Roddick lost. Like that ad where he got hit on the head with the trophy. The original one had him buying a second seat for the trophy. When he lost, they switched to him saying "maybe next year" or something like that.

Amex paid their money, I have no doubt the ads will air. They care about selling credit cards and exposure. Reminding people over and over about the upset via the ads and even talking about how Amex is effected is all good for them. I wouldnt be surprised if they get a late night talk show joke or two out of it as well. Andy on the other hand, will end up looking (and feeling) silly as he sees the ads over and over. He must be feeling horrible right now and I really feel for him.

Andy really is a funny guy. When a reporter asked if Agassi following a '93 first-round loss to Enqvist by winning the tournament the next year as an unseeded player gave him some hope, Andy deadpanned, "I hope I'm not unseeded next year." Hee! He has the best press conferences since Goran.

I hate the segments that show how ignorant people are. Where is your pectoral muscle? Where is Mallorca? Argh!

Oh c'mon, did someone really ask that?


Good point. It's not only tv and internet. . . all that print advertising. They sponsored that SI special--and every single co-worker gave me their copy so if anyone needs a copy. . .

Oh, it was worse than you think. They asked random people where it was. Yes, one of the answers was, "My what?"

To take a page out of the SFU thread, I offer the following:

SHUT UP, TRACY!

The woman. Never. Stops. Talking. Enough already! That is what bugs me about her. That and the fact that she reminds me of some figure skating commentator who similarly annoys me. Anyone?

At the moment Andy looks so discombobulated, I have trouble remembering/putting my finger on what Andy's strengths are.

But one thing is that playing the net with any regularity is a game for great athletes. You need agility, quickness and great hands. These things can be worked on, but only to a degree. That's why Wimbledon is rarely ever won by real baseliners, because baseliners are rarely the really great jocks (to use Mary Carillo's word.) And I'm not sure Andy has those attributes.

He may be more of a real power baseliner whose power has been muted of late, and who needs to refine his net game, but really only to mix things up.

And re Andy's backhand, PMac made some interesting comments about two-handed backhands in general during the Pilot Pen final. He was praising Lindsay Davenport's great backhand, the perfection of her technique and noting her bent right elbow. He said that the greatest two handed backhands used the bent right elbow, and that Hewitt and Roddick used straight right elbows. I think he mentioned Safin as an example of another player with a great backhand who used the bent elbow, which supposedly allows for longer, more fluid flow through the hitting zone.

Given what many of you have pointed out about Roddick's backhand being a weakness, I wonder if at this point a player could incorporate a change like bending the elbow or whether that's just too fundamental.

I wish someone had taught him to use a one-handed backhand. He'd have the extra reach to get to a few more balls. Also, even though I know he's all about the power, I really wish he'd try some slice serves every now and then. It'd be a nice change of pace to upset the returners rhythm.

Serena said "New Orleans" correctly.

USTA put James Blake under the lights Thursday night? I'm all over that. Way to go James!

Got to set the VCR to record my AA tomorrow. Guessing 2 p.m. Anyone else taking bets on the length of the first two women's matches. And what's the likelihood for rain?

Serena just said she was going to donate $100 for every ace she hits from now until the end of the year. Seeing as how she had only 2 aces this match, and only a maximum of 9 tournaments left, how much will that really be? It sounds really great to the audience and the tv, but I don't see it as such a huge grand charitable gesture. I've donated $500, and I don't make near the millions of dollars that Serena does.

Sandra Bullock giving $1 million to the tsunami relief efforts last winter? Huge. Steven Spielberg pledging $1.5 million to the tsunami relief efforts? Even more impressive. Serena Williams pledging perhaps a few thousand dollars to the Katrina effort? That's like pissing in the ocean. Save it Serena. Or donate in private and not make such a huge public display of it.

I think even McEnroe said he donated $25 000.

I think Serena's gesture was appropriate and timely. And sincere.

And my heart actually broke for Andy last night - though I am so happy for him that his sense of humor does not fail him in such moments. It seems to be a great coping mechanism.

What was up with the overexposed lighting at the beginning of tonight's coverage? Did they acknowledge it, and I missed it? At one point, Jim Courier looked like something out of Amityville Horror.

I am learning to deal with Al and Tracy, but I cannot tolerate Michael B. Ugh. When he approaches the players, I cringe and sometimes mute it. I wonder if there is any kind of consensus among the players about network preferences.

[OT] Thanks so much, Chesty - and you have a very non-JMac memory! She's five weeks old, asleep on my lap as I write, and perhaps up for her first road trip to NYC depending on how things progress. I hope you all in the south are doing all right given everything....[/OT]

Really, she said that? Ugh. Not just for the relatively small amount, but that "for every X I do, I'll give Y amount" is not cool. It makes it seem trivial. The help you give should not be contingent on how many aces you hit, Serena. The fact that with this arrangement the total amount will be anything between a few hundred and a few thousand means that it doesn't matter to her either way because she definitely has money to spare. Sheesh. Just give an actual amount outright.

That's it! I don't know if I have a specific figure-skating commentator in mind, but she definitely falls in there. Yeesh.

I think what time Andre goes on tomorrow depends on if it stops raining and Jenkins/Nadal finishes tonight (I hope Castallack brought a book and an umbrella). Lopez starts at 4pm tomorrow so I'm not sure what I want.

I've always felt that Jon Wertheim was a bit of a dilettante pretending to know more than he does about tennis, but his analysis has improved over the years, and I like him because of his criticism of US networks' favoring of Americans only that puts foreign players on the sidelines. Because I know where he stands on that issue, I really enjoy his giving American-sounding nicknames to players, such as "Bill" Coria, "Willie" Canas, and now "Paul-Hank" Mathieu. Hee.

When the rain came, I decided to run to the gym for a quick hour. I seriously walked into the apartment the minute Rafa and Scovill were walking back on court.

And I second Johnny Mac's comments about "the tight shirt really helps" with Rafa's outfit. Wow! Me likey.

I totally agree with JMac in that I don't have problems with Hewitt's "come ons." Like Chesty it's his behavior towards lines judges and the like that gets me annoyed. Along the same lines, I liked that JMac saying that he didn't think that there was anything wrong with Nadal getting excited after saving a break point against him. He created an error from his opponent and was happy to have prevented the break. I don't think that it's meant to be disprespectful- just shows that he is happy to get out of a bad situation. If players can't be happy about stuff like that- no wonder why people say tennis is boring.

Nadal is playing pretty badly though tonight- not like Montreal. Hope he gets his act together. He seems rattled right now. Even though I like Sco- I want Rafa to win this.

Nadal's outfit is just a big no no. Those pants are horrendous! He does have quite the bubble butt though.

ETA: I can totally see Nadal losing in another round or so.

The way he is playing now- which is not up to his hard court potential that he showed in Aus, Miami, and Montreal- yes.

And I want him to play up to his potential on hc and do well here because I am so tired of the dismissive attitude in some countires towards people who do well on clay. It does require great skill- different than grass or other faster surface but no less legit. [/end rant]

I completely disagree. For people that rich, it's easy to write a check and move on to something else. When you're a highly competitive athlete (especially in an individual sport like tennis), tying her giving into her performance is cool in a lot of ways. For instance, I imagine she'll be fielding questions about it months from now when the destruction from Katrina isn't on TV every second and the bulk of the country has forgotten (and I use that term loosely).


I disagree with this as well. He's making a few more errors than usual, but I think he's playing pretty well. Look at how well he's been holding serve. Scoville Jenkins is just playing really well in spots and dictating play when he can. This is very reminiscent of the Federer/Baghdatis match here.

Rafa's tight shirt looks VERY uncomfortable especially in the stifling New York humidity. I've always been taught that in the heat and humidity you wear light loose fitting clothing. Nadal is contradicting that.

I also think that Nadal could have some trouble in the next round. I remember watching him at some hard court tournament (I want to say Montreal) and even though he won I watched a match of his against Moya in which he struggles and went to three sets. Moya isn't a great hard court player so it kind of scared me. If he makes I through Scoville, which I think he probably will, he's got a tough matchup coming up in the next round. Blake is playing lights out this summer and Andreev could be dangerous as well.

He may not be what he once was, but he's always been a very good (maybe even great) player on hard courts. I'm not just talking about the Aussie Open final either. He has a big serve and a great forehand—hey, that reminds me! Carlos Moya is the player whose game is similar to Roddick's.

Dudes. I can't help it. Nadal's fist pumps and jogging and screams and fist-pumps-while-kicking-in-the-air annoy me. They thoroughly do. I don't mind fist pumps when they're understated. But the whole Nadal "package" (and I say package because I think he's actually a really nice kid) at the moment is way over the top for me. The clothes! The horror! The wedgie! The picking of the wedgie!

Aaaaaargh!

I barely recognize Jenkins from last year. He's looking mighty fine, may I say. Absolutely gorgeous face.

I totally agree- doesn't he even have at least one Master's title on hard. A very good hard court player when he was at his best- he was one of the first actually to try to break the stereotype that just because you speak Spanish as your first language you can't play on hard.

Again- love how JMac is repeatedly showing that being excited over a point does not equal bad sportsmanship,. Sports has emotion and tennis needs that for some players.

I must say- I have noticed that Scoville is quite attractive, he has an almost feline look about him.

I don't have a problem with her tying it into her number of aces, but I think the amount that she will end up contributing is relatively meager. This is essentially the US version of the recent tsunami. Back then we had celebrities giving millions of dollars to help countries halfway around the world, places that most of us will never see. And now? New Orleans? Mississippi? Places in our own backyard? And Serena makes a big display of giving $100 for each infrequent ace. Surely she must have some idea of how many aces she'll hit per match. If the number is so low, then why not up the ante? $500 or even $1000 an ace? If she's that rich, she can surely afford it. I didn't like her getting all emotional and talking about Katrina and then grandly announcing her $100 x ace contribution as if it was going to save the country.

I know that any amount can help in the relief efforts, and I'm sure those affected are grateful no matter how large or small the donation may be. But when you have common folk giving hundreds of dollars, a public personality/celebrity/millionaire donating just several thousand seems a bit wrong.

I can't see how Nadal is comfortable at all in that one-size-too-small tank top. And I totally agree with the bubble butt comment. It's ginormous. Biggest butt on the men's tour.

Goddamn, Rafa looks like a girl tonight. Stop picking your ass, bitch!

Well, it's easy to spend someone else's money. Serena was the very first player or commentator to mention donating anything, so I can't be critical of her. I think she was being sincere. If anything, Johnny Mac mentioning his $25,000 after Serena said something would make me question his sincerity, not hers.


His possible next round opponent might have something to say about that.

It's actually part of his OCD. And I seriously think that he has that condition (as my cousin does). He has his same routines that he has had since he was a little kid- fix the socks, tug at the paints, line all of the water bottles up just sooooo, run during warmup, etc. I know a lot of people make fun of his tics but I have a hard time doing so because I seriously think he has touches of OCD like my cousin and having experinced someone who has that condition, it really isn't easy to break.



Hee! So true! I have seen both players in person and I have to give the edge to James in that department but (hee!) both have good bubbleocity.

I agree, she is also maybe encouraging other players to do the same by speaking up. Look at McEnroe, he said he would donate $25,000 and got Ted to go along and match that offer. What Serena said she would donate might not seem like a lot, but who knows how much she will donate in private.



I don't question his sincerity at all. Again, by showing generosity, it encourages generosity. When Andrea Jaeger was on she mention how he helped out her charity and I had never heard that before so if he just wanted publicity he would be touting that himself.

Nadal dresses like a dancer on a cruise ship.

Oh, I wasn't actually questioning his sincerity. I was just saying that I'd question his before I questioned Serena's.

Oh, dear, Serena. A hundred an ace? I'm sure her heart is in the right place, and it's the first I've heard a player talk about donating.

BUT ... $100/ace when you're wearing and breaking $40,000 earrings on a tennis court makes her look awfully Marie Antoinette.

Scoville is very handsome! And he's playing so well. He looks good at net as well. I wonder if it would make sense for him (instead of Andy R.) to develop a serve and volley game. The two handed backhand isn't the best accessory, but it can't be impossible.

It's funny to see Bam-Bam so very, very grumpy. He's usually such a sunny boy, even when he's got his game face on. I would like to hear someone, and I think Jim Courier is probably the best bet, talk about the speed and bounce of this surface and how it benefits Bam-Bam. It looked like a lot more balls were getting past him than I'm used to seeing, which makes me think this surface is faster than the hard courts in Montreal and Miami.