His 2nd round match is scheduled to be aired @ 2pm today, although sometimes you tune in and they don't show the match that was advertised (what's up with that?) I'm annoyed that they've been neglecting him myself. Here's a possible explanation/theory on why they favor broadcasting the womens draw over his and the men's matches in general (well, with the exception of roddick...of course).:
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showpost.ph...41&postcount=23

That theory makes some sense-I would be interested in seeing other men's matches, but not Federer's and to a lesser extent Roddick because they really are one-sided and boring (and I've heard the "but what about the tennis artistry and seeing someone at the top of his game" and it's old-I want competition) and the women's draw seems more open in general, like you don't know how it will all end-the suspense is more entertaining. That being said, I think the quality of play in the men's game has been improving while the women-with the exception of Henin and Hingis are just bash, bash, bash. But there is more depth and suspense there (and the matches are of a more manageable length) so I think they are making the right call with the women.

I disagree that there is more depth in women's tennis than in mens. I do agree with the poster at tennis warehouse, who stated that

.

The depth of men's tennis in the top 100 is more to me than in the women's game. (I do not mean this as a bash against the women's game.) In my opinion, there are many skilled men's players not in the top 40 or 50 who can make a real match out of playing the majority of the top ten, which does not happen as often in the women's. For example, Haas is not even seeded at the tournament and he could beat about anyone. I think the top 100 in the women's game is much more top heavy. The problem is that Federer is really so heads above the rest that his matches are one sided. (I'm sorry for being soap-boxy- but I really do think that men's tennis gets a bum rap in the US.)

That stated, there have been some nice surprises in the women's tournament so far. I like that there have been more upsets than normal.

But, I really do wish they would show some of the depth of the men's game. I think, for example that Jarkko Neiminan and David Nalbandian will likely have a great match- but since they are "no names" they won't show it and as usual, the only exposure that people will get to the men's game is one-sided matches. There have been some exciting, competative three/four/five set men's matches but since they don't involve Roddick or Federer- they are not showing them. At least they have shown the five and four set matches of Hewitt, but altough Vik and Chela played very well- Hewitt was off so the quality was not as high on both sides as it has been in other matches. (Although Chela- ranked #51 did play rock solid and would have been tough for many players higher ranked than him.) We saw some longer matches with Blake, but again, they were not close or longer really because of high quality, but more because of a dip in quality.

Still, was nice get some glimpses of players like JCF, Tursinav (he has talent!) and others last night.

ghettohoodrat- you do bring up a good point about match length. I personally love that GS matches for men are all best of five. But I understand for some, it can seem really long. Jon Wertheim has knocked around the idea of a psudeo-Master's tourny style in the Grand Slams where the men's matches are best of three in the first week and then best of five in the second week. (In Master's tournies- the final is the only best of five.) I think that could be good for keeping the players fresher and may help in tv, but I'm not sure if I would like it because it would eliminate some of the great 5-set matches in earlier GS rounds, for a recent example- the fantastic Sanguinetti/Schricipan epic five set match at the 2005 USO.

Oh, well. I do think that some countries just show more women's matches, and some show more men's. I know that in some countries like Argentina, they show the men much more than the ladies. It's too bad it can't be 50/50 everywhere.

Boy, do I agree with that. I think that except for the Wimbledon final and the Sharapova/Serena Aus Open semi last year, the men's side during the Grand Slams has consistently outshone the women's.

Yeah, we will just have to agree to disagree on this. Basically, when it gets to the point in the second week for the women, where there are at least six players who have won an GS, know what it takes, and could possibly do it, I get excited. For the men, yeah there is depth in the first week, but for the second week? It's a game of who will Federer sacrifice in the one-sided final. And I am "into tennis". I think that as appreciative as I am of how good Federer is, I am also getting tired of him.



I love "the majority of the top ten"-as long as no one in the top ten or hundred can make a match with Federer, the accusation that there is no depth in the men's game will have some validity. Depth to me means more than exciting individual matches in the lower rounds, it means some question as to who will win the tournament-men's tennis does not have that right now.

We will have to agree to disagree. I do think that in the men's Federer is the favorite more than any of the women are upon entering a tournament. That's very true. But I don't think it's a given that he will win or that he will be in the final.



I think there there are some who can "make a match" with Federer. And there are some that can beat Federer. You can't really say that "no one" in the top ten or hundred can challange Federer, because they have. My statement about the "majority of the top ten" was not meant to imply that no one could make a match with Federer.

Nadal won his last match against Federer and almost won against him in Miami on hard. He is 2-1 against Federer, with one of those wins on hard. Nalbandain beat Federer in Shanghai and I don’t buy the idea that Nalbandian just won because Federer was tired after not having played during his layoff. Nalby was playing awesome tennis. Safin can beat Federer. In my opinion the semifinal between Safin and Federer last year at the Aussie Open was one of the best matches I have ever seen in my 25 years of watching tennis. Gasquet- when his game is on can beat Federer. Berdych- when his game is on- is imo sublime and can beat Federer. (I really feel that if Berdych becomes more consistent as he matures he will really be something special) Haas just beat Federer at an exhibition. And one thing that I love is that all of these players have different styles. And some of Federer's wins, such as his matches against Keifer, Gonzalez, Santoro last year- were fun.

There are some players who have a very hard time with Federer, Roddick and Hewitt for example. But there are others who can beat him and have. And Roddick or Hewie may figure him out- McEnroe did with Borg. I remember last year at this time some people were taking it as a given that Federer would win all four Grand Slams that year. And he took only half. Two months ago- people were saying it was given that Federer would win the YEC - he did not.

I realize now that I should not have implied that was so above everyone else. He is imo one of the best if not the best men’s tennis players out there. But with his talent, he is bringing the quality of the rest of the men up with him.



I thought that the Wimbledon 2004 final and USO 2005 finals were exciting and not one-sided. The 2004 USO final, yes- I will give you that. :P

I do have to say though, that I think it is a shame for the men's tournament this year that Safin, Nadal and Agassi are not at the Aussie Open. I think that the ESPN commentators would have loved to have those guys in, and as a fan, so would I. I've noticed that of course they love Agassi, but they are also very fond of Marat and Rafael. (I think PMac has a man-crush of sorts on Rafa.)

And again, I want to not that in my praising the men's game- I am not trying to bash the women's game. I enjoy it very much. But I do think that it is not 100% locked that Federer will win a tournament or will beat everyone he plays.

You are totally wrong. They are foreign no-names.

That's actually the gist of what I meant and why I had "no names" in quotes. No names by ESPNs ...cough...standards. :)
I was happy to see that Nalby has been on Rod Laver so far this tourney - he has always done well here. And you know that Jarkko may be almost as big as Conan O'Brien in Finland.

It looks like Marcos Baghdatis is rolling on through his third round match and onto a likely 4th round match with Roddick. Whee! This kid's attitude reminds me of my beloved Guga so I can't wait to have one of his matches televised. It should be an interesting mix of fans. The USA fans will be loud and the Greek and Cypriat fans were quite rambunctious during Baggy's second round match. Should be fun.

I would like to give ESPN props for showing the live matches late night and early morning. There are showing much more live tennis this year. I set my tivo and wake up to some good stuff.

Nevermind.

I'm straight, but I have to concur. He looks much, much better with that haircut. It's like when Federer ditched the bun for his latest style.

AFAIC, there's an easy way to fix the depth problems: the women should go back to seeding only 16 players. Really, that's about the cut-off point for someone having a realistic shot at winning the title. That would generally make for more competitive early matches while still protecting the best for the second week. I'm too lazy to look right now, but I'm sure players 17-32 on the men's side are monumentally superior to the respective ladies. All of the really good women in that range (Myskina?) are in slumps.

Excellent description of Marcos' vibe. I've liked this kid since we first got a look at him vs Roger at the US open.

The topic in here is tennis coverage, not the game itself. Please stay on the subject.

My post was phrased clumsily. I meant it as a joke to further emphasize what you were saying. Actually, since ESPN did show a bit of the Amer Delic match, perhaps they are OK with American no-names. BTW, I was thrilled to see Delic. I'm a big fan of his.

Speaking of foreign no-names, I see to my annoyance that ESPN will go up to its 2am close with the taped Sharapova match. Why show Nalbandian-Nieminen live when you can go with the stick in the nightgown pre-recorded?

I thought they suspended play due to excessive heat. There is nothing live to show right now.

Jarkko and David started playing about 1:30 eastern, so when there was around half an hour of coverage left on ESPN, but I was expecting them to still go all the way through the taped Maria match which had a few games left. They are playing in the Vodafone arena and Vodafone and Rod Laver have roofs so they can play in there in inclimate weather. But you are right about play being suspended - the play on the outer courts was all cut off because of the weather. I'm catching some live play from Vodafone on an internet feed before I go to bed. (Luckily, my husband understands that I get a little nutters when it comes to watching grand slams and things like the Olympics.)

It looks like the ESPN signal may have been cut off before the 2:00 eastern scheduled ending time.. After all of the heat- there was a sudden downpour and it looks like they were having trouble with the feed. I got some choppy images, some odd sound bites, and then "No signal" on the screen. Maybe they would have had a five or so minute glimpse onto Vodophone for the live match, but I bet they would have used filler instead. I guess they will be coming back live tonight for Serena match, though. I will be asleep by then- yea for Tivo!

One thing that I really wish ESPN would do is so more tiny snippets from other matches. Such as "here are some of the matches that were competed today" and at least show match point if there was a camera on the court. In particular, that would have been nice for the mini-upsets such as Krajichek over Mirza and Ferrer over Ancic. USA was better about that.



I thought it was very nice that he got some time to shine, too bad about the loss. I wonder if it was his first time having a televised match?

Hello, my name is Chesty and I am a tennis addict.

The USA Network showed Delic play Roddick at the US Open a few years back IIRC. They even did a report on his preparation and all that. It was a good piece. We need more tennis coverage of young players like that.

4th round Hantuchova-Sharapova! Tennis has never looked so good.

augustina, nobody's stopping you from yelling "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" all you want. We're just saying we find it obnoxious.

I just realized that the Vijay Amritraj-Alan Wilkins combo that Star Sports has is sort of like the Phil Gordon-Dave Foley combo on Celebrity Poker Showdown: the pleasant, insightful expert and with the guy who knows even less than I do. They're a good pair.

Except for almost any combination of male players! Hee.

ESPN can do some sort of cross-marketing with Fox's Bones.

LOL.

I'm getting really upset with TSN's coverage. They show the same matches they did during their overnight block during their afternoon coverage. I had to watch Davenport/Kirilenko(sp?) and Sharapova/Kostinic twice. Thankfully they showed Williams/Hantuchova today, but they only showed the second set. The Australian Open is my least favourite slam due solely to the TV coverage. On the plus side, Mary Carillo attempted to do Homer Simpson last night, it wasn't executed well, but the attempt was appreciated. She even talked about an episode and everything. Kudos.

Does TSN have thier own coverage, or do they just use footage from ESPN?

When tennis is on it's ESPN's so it might not be their fault, I don't get ESPN (Damn nation) so I can't compare the two schedules. I would like to see TSN pick up ESPN's night match coverage at 3.30am, instead of showing bass fishing or something.

Tonight was the first time I've seen a Hingis match since she came back. I don't ever remember the commentators being as glowing about her when she was on top. It's good to see because I adore her, but it's weird. I hate the "comeback story" push, though. She's playing well. That should be enough at this point. After the first win or two, lay it to rest.

Speaking of her, I don't remember that 'stache she seems to be sporting these days. She's a cute girl, but some of the angles they got of her face really highlighted the facial hair.

As for other facial characteristics I don't need to see, what was up with ESPN's porecam when they got the shot of the tennis court reflected in some spectator's mirrored shades? That was unnecessary. Even close-ups and telephoto lenses should allow some personal space, folks.

You know what ESPN.... coming into the Australian Open I just hoped for one thing... just one thing, and that was to see a couple of matches by Amelie Mauresmo. I love her...I've been a fan since I saw a match of hers against Mary Pierce a couple of years ago and I fell in love with her backhand.

But ESPN has not shown any match of hers... why? Why do they hate me so much? Am I mistaken... have they shown one of her matches and I've just missed it. I will shut up and apologize if someone says they have shown one. I watch the coverage in the late afternoon and even watch a lot of the coverage at 3:30am and I have not seen anything.

I've seen a lot of Men's coverage and a lot of Martina Hingis and the Williams sisters but no Mauresmo. Give the girl some respect she's seeded 3rd. Sigh. It's just frustrating, why are they ignoring her, and I know the match they finally show is going to be the one she loses.

Besides that I'm loving watching Martina Hingis, which is weird because I didn’t particularly like her back in the day. lol. I have no idea why but I just didn't... I think it might have been because I liked Lindsay Davenport (wasn't a big fan but I liked her more then Hingis) and they were rivals back then. I would love to see a Martina Hingis vs. Lindsay Davenport final, which can happen because of the draw. Man... Wouldn’t that be a flashback to about 6 or 7 years ago. It probably wont happen because Hingis would have to beat most likely Kim Clijsters in the Quarters and then Amelie Mauresmo in the Semis ( and sorry Hingis, I love your comeback story but I have to root for my girl) but she does kind of have a nice chance cause her bracket was kinda weak and some players that would have given her trouble have been knocked out.

ESPN showed some of Mauresmo's matches against Loit and Sun. Not much, IIRC, but some.

Damn... I didn't see any of that. Even if it was just 20 mintues I would have liked to see it. O well I expect to atleast get to see her whole quarters match at the least, hopefully.

This makes no logical sense-ESPN was good and showed a lot of the Hrbaty-Andreev match (why is Hrbaty still wearing that shirt?) and then they showed most of the Kiefer-Ferrero match (ah, Juan Carlos is so cute and I had no idea that Kiefer was visibly cursing out his opponent-pretty ugly) and then, 30 minutes before the Federer-Mirnyi match is about to start, they cut to a tape of the Spurs-Heat match and say they will show the Federer-Mirnyi match on tape at noon tomorrow-I don't get why they don't just show it live and then repeat later the next day. Especially since the commentators were saying that Mirnyi has beaten Federer a couple of times and would be his first genuine test in the tournament-so it may be a rare non-boring match. Strange.

I agree. I came home to my Tivoed coverage and was so happy to see the Hrbaty-Andreev match and then JCF and Keifer. I too was expecting them to maybe show Federer live- but I guess you have to take with the good with the bad. That's the best we can expect from ESPN, unfortunately. I think the commentators like commenting on both Hrbaty and Keifer. With Hrbaty they never tire of talking about his shirt and with Keifer they like talking about his oddness. And they sure went to town talking about his comments to JCF! And of course, they can't comment on a JCF match without mentioning his "hang dog" expression.

I see that the Andy/Marcos match is the one scheduled for tonight. Whee! I hope they stick to that because they have been a little loosey-goosey with sticking to showing the matches they say that they will. I think the commentators will have a lot of fun with the atmosphere for that match.


Hee!

I have always been a big Hingis fan, even when she made cringe-worthy comments about the WIlliams sisters and Ms. Mauresmo, but I don't think the ESPN coverage is doing a very good job of doing anything other than canonizing her. I've seen all her matches at the Aussie Open--and I hope to see her play Kim cause that will be a fun match--but I wanted to hear them talk last night about how they think her play will work against hard-hitters. That was her downfall the first time around, after all, and during the first half of the first set, it still looked like she was having some problems with pace. Or maybe it was just some very accurate acute angles nobody on the tour would have reasonably been expected to get to. I'm willing to buy either explanation, but I'd like to hear it discussed.

And I think part of the reason it wasn't discussed is that, as much as I like Mary Jo Fernandez, she doesn't "do" big picture stuff the way Mary C. does so well. Mary's interview was almost fawning, though, so I don't know that she would have given anything other than a hopeful prognostication. Hell, Brad Gilbert pretended she's one of the favorites! Even I wouldn't say THAT, and I adore the intelligence and slipperiness of her all-court game and her great hands. It's so great to see a woman who doesn't just hang out on the baseline and bang out the points a la Sharapova et al.

And maybe that's why the ESPN crew is lauding her so much....because her game is so different now and they have missed seeing a woman's game that looks like Federer's fame: it has variety.

They're really going over the top with the Hingis love. There are other players that have very good variety in their games, and they're being rather ignored by ESPN: JHH and Mauresmo. It's not like Hingis is the savior of tennis or anything.

I agree. They JHH and Momo are garnering rarely a mention and they do have very nice variety. One reason why I do think that there is such hyperbole for Hingis is that they are just so happy to have her back. Mary obviously has a ball calling Hingis' matches and I think she really missed that. So I am givng ESPN a bit of a pass on this.

Speaking of hyperbole- is any one else tired of how the ESPN commentators are acting like a Roddick/Federer final is already a given? Haas is playing very solid in Feds' half and Roddick has potential tough matches ahead. At least McEnroe tried to bring up to Cliff that Ljubicic could be a really tough match for Andy if that comes to pass. I have noticed that PMac is very impressed with Ljubicic- must be from the Davis Cup.

Apparently they are allowed to bet on sports down in Australia, and according to the betting and the media, Hingis is the second favorite to win the title. I'd like to see a Clijsters/Hingis match, because I think Hingis would have a good chance-Clijsters is injured and isn't really talking up her chances.

And one reason I love that Hingis is back is precisely because she makes "cringe-worthy" comments-I want her to continue doing that, it makes the game more fun to follow and she definitely has a personality, which is lacking in the game now IMO. She's already dissed Myskina (said Myskina has no real skills or weapons and seeing her win the French Open made her wonder why she wasn't in the mix too) and Sharapova (saying she wants to play Maria to see what all the hype is about-says she's pretty but where's the game). So it's way more than the game that I am wanting to see and hear from Hingis.

Maybe it's the aspect setting on my TV but Hingis does look stouter, more muscular. But yeah, I wish they'd knock it off with the comeback drama, and I'm wishing her well too. At least Carillo and MJ Fernandez sprinkle their comments with genuine (though too few) real insights. Oh, Brad... Mr. Gilbert... STFU. "She just needs to believe in herself." "He really needs to dig deep." Wow, that's helpful. And Kiefer's still in the mix! Oh, he's fun! On other players his court antics would be more aggravating to me, but I love watching his matches for some reason.

Sorry, I'm late coming back. Vodafone had a roof on and was still going. I had to "watch" the changing numbers on the site. They did show the last couple of games though, which luckily coincided with the rain delay in the Williams-Hantuchova match.

Chesty, I didn't have any interruption in the ESPN feed here.

DistantSun, did you see the part where Brad Gilbert was naming Australian bands and he raved about Crowded House? Woo hoo!

OMG! I hate that I missed that. Brad Gilbert just became one of my favorite commentators. Gotta love a man with good taste! He now gets a pass from me for everything ridiculous he may utter.

I think a lot of the commentators are hyping Hingis because she has such a good shot to make the final. She's looked impressive and this is her best event, so it's only natural for them to kick the comeback story into overdrive.

GO BAGHDATIS!

Thank heavens. I thought I was just imagining the Hingis hyperbole. Good to know others are noticing it too. And it's a different network I'm watching! I'm really getting fed up with Vijay going on and on about every aspect about her game, while not really talking about similar aspects of other players' games. She's not the only one with variety and who thinks on court, for pete's sake. It's particularly annoying when Hingis sets up a point and hits a winner, he goes on about her tennis smarts, etc., then when her opponent does a similar thing, somehow she "overpowered" Hingis for that point. Whatever. Maybe it is because they're glad to see her back. Me, even though I acknowledge that she's a smart player, I just am not a fan of her for some reason.

JCF is so cute, even with that long hair - ick. I've learned not to watch his matches anymore, as he is following the trend of all of my other favorites: never winning. Bah.

I'm glad PMac finally mentioned what's been evident to me for a while: there are times when Baghdatis looks a lot like Federer. He doesn't have the consistency yet, but the style of play is similar.

Those were my exact thoughts. "I forgive you for all your inanity, Brad!"

Yep. He and Gasquet are like the baby-Feds of the new batch of players. But I think that Baghdatis reminds me more of Agassi than Federer in the way he can hit the return. And his attitude reminds me of Guga.

His fans, though, bug me. I'm sorry, but I found Blake's frat house party fans annoying and I think the same about Baghdatis'. Somehow, the Brazilian fans who supported Guga didn't annoy me. Don't really know why. Maybe because the network didn't show them every five seconds or so...

I don't find Baghdatis' fans nearly as annoying as the J-Block. For example, outside of one clap- they haven't cheered Roddick's first serve fauts. During the USO the J- Block was horrible about cheering Nadal's serve faults. And Robredo's too They also would be horrible about cheering and jeering Rafa's or Tommy's errors. . I also read from people who were at the matches that they yelled things like "fag" or made fun of the players' clothing to Lopez during the Pilot Pen and also to Nadal at the USO. Marcos' fans just really cheer betwen points- to me that is much, much better. They just sing. And one thing that I find is much better about them is that Marcos schooled them not to do things like cheer first serve fauts. I do not remember hearing about James (even though I love him) doing such a thing. I do agree that ESPN is showing the Marcos crowd too much (even though there is one absoulutely lovely boy in that group.)

I thought that Dick and PMac were riduculous when they said that it was "unfair" that you could hear Marcos' fans more because they were male. Even though it was USA during the USO, I think at least one of them was commenting during the Blake or Robredo match and they said nothing about the J-Block cheering faults, etc. the way they were.

HA! But seriously, Andy needs a new coach.

Isn't Crowded House from New Zealand?

I was basically indifferent to the J-Block, but I kind of enjoy Baghdatis's fans. They seem like fun.

Let's give credit where credit is due—that was the best Roddick match PMac has ever called. The fawning was kept to a minimum, he offered some very good analysis, and he didn't seem ridiculously biased.


[OT]Lead singer and songwriter Neil Finn is, but the other two members (Nick Seymour and the late Paul Hester) are from Australia. That allows both countries to claim them.[/OT]

I agree. They were rowdy- but not rude.

I actually liked the commentating for the most part tonight. I thought PMac - even though he loves Roddick- was more even tonight. He did accurately say what Roddick was doing wrong- not playing aggressive enough and at times being too far behind the baseline. Also- they were spot on with their analysis of Bagdatis- he constructed points so very well, did not lose one ounce of composure, and has beautiful groundstrokes (I thought the comparison to Nalby was very apt in this regard.) I also liked how at the end I believe Brad said that it was not that Roddick lost (although he could have played better) but that Marcos won.

All in all, I am sad for Andy, pleased as all get out for Marcos.


I know I have been going on about Marcos and his personality. Today, he did seem more focused and not as effervescant as he sometimes is. But still pleasing. And I love this bit after the match. Some may file it under tmi- I file it under hilarious:



Hee! Too bad that we don't get the after match interviews. The only ones we get on court in the US are usually at the USO. I thought it was sweet when they showed the shot of his girlfriend and she was wiping tears from her eyes.

I also liked when PMac said that Andy kept waiting for Baghdatis to lose the match. Very true, IMO. And I don't know if Roddick needs a new coach. I do know he seems to need a new brain. It's always the same problems when he loses a match. Standing too far behind the baseline in rallies and when returning serve, not using his power as much as he should, and being passive in general.

They did cheer errors a few times and Roddick mouthed off at them once because someone apparently clapped after he committed a fault. But yes, I appreciated that Baghdatis talked to them and told them to tone it down. He seems like a really awesome kid. Of all the new batch of players, he and Gasquet are my favorite to watch. Their games are so much fun.

And a new backhand.

I missed the Roddick-Baghdatis match but just saw the replay, and I think I love Baghdatis. Not just because he took out Roddick (ha!), but like others have said, he has a very pleasing Fed-like game.

Star Sports is sticking with Hrbaty-Davydenko right now, but I'm not interested in it even though I like both players, especially Hrbaty, who was almost a favorite of mine at one time.

Edited to add:
Damn. Stosur very nearly became my favorite female player. Oh well.

But wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, the Star Sports commentators didn't go on and on about the super-brilliant wonderfulness that is Hingis during the match. It made watching it that much easier, knowing that you were allowed to think that the other player had court intelligence and touch too. And Stosur did. Too bad about the tiebreak, it really looked like she was going to take the match to a third set.

Yeah, I think a lot of the perception of Hingis as The Only Thinking Player Ever!!! has to do with commentator gushing, and that when you don't have that gushing during one of her matches you can see that 1) the other player can think too, 2) it's not always due to power when somebody beats her or wins a point from her. Shockingly, sometimes it has to do with the other player constructing a point well or even (gasp) out-thinking her! Sadly, I know of some commentators who would call this blasphemy.

I just watched the Hingis/Stosur match on Eurosport and their commentators are absolutely awful, they talk such crap Im actually start to miss all the BBC commentators.

Im so happy Hingis won though. Making the quarter finals in your first grand slam in 3 years is damn impressive,she wont be favourite against Kim but Im so glad shes back. The Hingis interview at the end was funny though when she said Kim Cljisters was "sort of Aussie". I've really missed her random comments, she has so much more personality than some of the drones on the tour today.

On a side note, I didnt know Stosur's coach is Gigi Fernandez, but I think the cameraman found out half way through the match cos they didnt show her at all for a set and a half but then every other point they went back to her.

So, hey, where are the MMMMax Mirnyi MMMMMavens? (Sorry, I couldn't think of anything better.) I figured I'd pop in here and his harem would be discussing how wonderful it was to have an entire singles match of his on television. Was it because he lost?

He did a good job against Fed, but, as someone up-thread described the 2005 Wimbledon final, Federer was en fuego. Gad, some incredible shots!!

I had no idea they were like best friends. In case you missed the telecast, Feds was going to be the best man at Max's wedding, but then he got to the Wimbledon final and couldn't make it. So sweet.

I thought the three men in the booth for the match (Cliffy, PMac and Enberg) were somewhat uncomfortable. Cliffy in particular was clearly feeling awkward at being a color guy. Although he contributed some good thoughts.