I finally got to see the Nadal- Clement rubber in the Spain-France Davis Cup Semis tie thanks to TTC's reruns. That is the first time I have seen Nadal with his "on" game and man, was I impressed. He made some fantastic shots. Now I see what the hype has been about. The announcers were impressed too.

I was wondering- are some of the Davis Cup matches that they show on TTC feeds from Eurosport or something?



OopsSorry The answer to your fear is Tivo or DVR of some sort. I find that (outside of when grandslams are on) even with the extended coverage that TTC provides- I am still able to feed my tennis mania but live a full and social life. :)

Yeah, it ain't pretty.


I think that's probably the case although clearly the commentary is TTC.

The saddest part, Chesty, is that that sliver of a life I talked about? The result of Tivo. I know: pathetic. You're right, Castallack, it ain't pretty at all.

When my husband saw me calling Comcast to ask them about TTC, he asked me, "You really need to watch more tennis?" Made me wonder if for every call I make he doesn't make one against it. Poor guy. (Heh. They DO need that support group, Chesty).

Though in all seriousness, Tivo has saved the day. I fast forward through stuff that is superfluous (commercials, replays, etc.) and have got a good deal of my life back. And I know that even with the extra opportunites with TTC, I would possibly then watch less of the matches that interest me less (USA-BLR - though I know: MAX!) if I could only get more of the matches that interest me more (ESP-FRA).

Heh. Or that's my story anyway!

ETA: Go Roger! Whee!

Did anyone get the Thailand Open on tv? Was it on the Tennis Channel? It looks like they had an excellent field with Federer, Roddick, and Safin. BTW, Federer beat Roddick 6-4 6-0, for his 10th title of the year, and 12th consecutive final win. Boy, that guy is just on fire, this has got to be one of the best years ever on the men's tour.

Wow, he bageled Andy.

It was on TTC and I did see the final. It was actually much more competative then the score would indicate, plus Roddick was injured and had to have the trainer come out at one point. But Federer was just brilliant.

It looks like TTC will have many of the upcoming WTA tournaments but only the semis and finals.

Got an email from The Tennis Channel (not offered in my area) this week. Here's what they recommend:

Thanks, Juanita. I got that, too!

I've registered my complaint with Comcast once a week for quite a while. They tell me it isn't available to them for my area. I don't really buy it, but my next step is to take it back to TTC to make that a possibility. I hold out hope, anyway!

And don't think I didn't look right away into getting that Voom satellite thingy, whatever it is.

From www.cnnsi.com today:Can we just talk for a minute about the:
1) injustice that I can't watch Agassi and mmmmmMax Mirnyi's match? and
2) fashion models as ball girls? Um, what? Am I here right now?

The models probably aren't much older than the regular ball kids, just less interested in tennis.

I actually saw it on TTC; they are showing Madrid. It's only for one match per day but quite frankly I didn't even notice until I read it in the paper (the matches start at 5am so I'm reading the paper at the same time, basically).

Aah, Castallack, killing me softly and consistently with TTC envy. *sigh*

Sorrry, Juanita! Believe me, I'd love some more people to chat with about TTC coverage but I think I'm the only one in America with access to both TTC and TWoP.

I'm a TTC and TWOPer myself. :)

Good to know, Rose! Have you been watching Madrid? It seems like at the time I'm most inclined to watch (around 9-9:30am) they are showing old matches. I heard them mention that they take a break around then but I'm puzzled. It's indoors so clearly there's no rain delay. I don't really get it.

I haven't been watching Madrid that much. Just saw a wee bit of the Costa match on Monday when I had a day off of work. I need to set the Tivo for the matches. It looks like they are showing live coverage at 5:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m- and yep - there is a break around 9 a.m. when you like to watch.

I will most certainly be watching Agassi's third round match ( I have to think that they will show it). It looks like he will be playing Nadal and that could be fantastic because I was uber-impressed by Nadal during the Davis Cup and Andre is always fun. I'm also hoping that they show Tommy Haas' matches.

It sounds like both Agassi and Spain's Secretary of Equality don't like the tournament using the models.

I haven't been Tivoing because with the baseball playoffs I know I'll never have time to watch and by the next day it's too late. But I may just do it tomorrow. The other problem with baseball is that it's been going so late that I've been getting up late in the morning. If I can get back to my regular 8am schedule I might just catch a live match.

I really like Nadal as well and it ought to be electric with the Spanish fans. The Davis Cup matches were crazy; the chair umpire had to practically beg the crowd to be quiet. Even the players tried to shut them up. It was wild.

I called DIRECTV about TTC, and the guy I spoke to seemed to have never heard of it. They said the best way was to go to the website and submit feedback. Stupid ass DIRECTV. They have the Golf Channel and the NASCAR channel, but still no Tennis Channel. I'm jealous of all of you who get to watch these matches all the time, while I have to wait 'til at least the Masters' Cup (and then the Davis Cup from Spain which will either be showed on tape delay or at a really strange hour that I won't be home for).

This is gossip but soooooooooooo interesting: From her official site. And thus removes the one thing about Lleyton Hewitt I actually liked: his girlfriend/fiancee. Sad to hear in any case. But I certainly wish her the best. /catty remarks

Good for them for breaking up before going through with the marriage. Much better to end it now than less than a year after the wedding, eh Arantxa?

I saw a little of today’s Madrid Masters Robredo/Agassi match during lunch and lord- those model ball girls are god-awful. They can’t even run and fetch the ball properly. The announcers (which are the same ones that TTC used in Monte Carlo and I really like) seemed to be annoyed by them as well. On Tuesday’s Nadal match they had regular ball-kids and it was so much better. If they need eye-candy there is already Tommy Robredo (although he got beat today) and Safin. Yeah to Nalbandian for his win today (I wonder if they showed that).

David Beckham was at the match today and had major bling!bling! in his ears.

I feel bad for Lleyton and Kim- I really liked them together.

Between the Masters and baseball our Tivo is getting sports overload.

So funny! My first thought was, Thank God I don't have to root for Lleyton anymore.

I watched Madrid this weekend and it was great until the end (for me) because the Nalbandi-man lost. But alas, he was truly outplayed by Safin. And TTC actually stays with the program through the award ceremony. Who knew that Marat Safin spoke Spanish? Muchas gracias!

He trained in Spain for a while, so that's not at all surprising to me. But yes, good show!

A bit OT here, but have you heard who Mark Philippoussis is currently hooked up with? HINT: Blonde socialite with no discernible talent, except for that of appearing in internet videos.

My admiration for him has just plummeted faster than the stock market in 1929.

Man, I've missed all the good dirt while I've been away. I can only imagine: how extremely pissed Mr. Obsessive Compulsive Agassi was at the models; what the hell happened between Lleyton and Kim that Kim broke up with him over the phone (!?!); Paris Hilton!!!!!!! Oh my. Who knew October could be so fraught with tennis intrigue.

I was just feeling the same way, LT. I wished I could have seen Andre for the reactions alone. I still have little sense of what the final verdict on ModelGate is in the tennis community, but I'm hoping it's a failed experiment and not an awful precedent.

I actually felt sad for Lleyton and Kim - after years of hoping she'd see the light. He has seemed so much more centered and humbled as of late, and I thought perhaps she had made the right decision all along. I hope they're both all right....

I have to say I'm not surprised at all about MP. Whatever.

But the worst news for me today (you'll be shocked I'm sure....) was that Federer injured himself badly enough not only to withdraw from his hometown tournament but also potentially from the whole season's end series....

In the good news column, I hear Davenport has decided not to retire this year and has registered for Australia.

I also read that Clijsters cancelled her wedding dress weeks ago. All I could think was "You mean Mr. Zero knew she was moving out before you did?"

The season ending tourney for the ladies started Tuesday. So far the TV coverage has been so boring.

ESPN will be covering next week's Masters Cup Houston. Some matches will be live and some will be tape delayed.

Player Schedule & Results

That's because the event is boring. Well, not in itself, but there's no excitement surrounding it. It's in L.A. at a time of year when there's just no buzz about outdoor summertime sports, and people are more holiday oriented. For the third year here it's been a downer, poorly marketed to boot, and that's reflected in the TV coverage. (OT, but what they need to do is associate the event to Thanksgiving somehow.)

You know, I love tennis but I've always hated the season ending WTA Tournament. The ridiculously loud blue tennis court? I HATE the court. And is it me or is the court set up to where the player furthest from the tv viewer looks much HIGHER (or bigger) than the other player? Another thing i hate: the acoustics. Instead of hearing "wham" or "bam" when the players hit the ball, you basically here a "ping" or nothing at all.

The Serena v. Lindsay match was actually very good, as was the Sharapova/Zvonareva match yesterday. The semifinals are set, and they are Myskina v. Sharapova and Mauresmo v. Serena.

I HATE ESPN for not showing the Sharapova/Myskina match in its entirety. BOO!

I love Roger with the short hair.

Wow. I don't. Just... no Roger, either go short or keep the girly pony-tail. Not a fan of the Farrah Fawcett man-do he's got in this picture.

It looks better without the headband.

LOVE the hair. Didn't get a chance to watch his match yesterday, and now I really regret it. (Now if he could only get through to Moya. . . )

Heh. I can't remember really liking Moya when he had short hair, but it'd be fun to see him do something differently.

The article on Roger's win yesterday on espn.com briefly mentioned the hair, and I guess they interviewed him about it! He said he just keeps chipping away at it (Damn - I can't remember the exact wording) just like his tennis!

Of course, I love it! Or I THINK I do. Hard to tell since I'm so goddamned tired from having to watch the matchin the early morning hours. Sheesh. And Argh. Couldn't they have used the match (between the ONLY TWO male Slam winners this year) as a lead-in to the WTA finals?? What was going on that had to be shown in primetime?

OK. Didn't come in here solely to complain. The coverage will get better throughout the week, right? Right?

It's about time he cut that hair, and he does look much better.

I checked the ESPN site and it looks like ESPN will show the day matches during the day (I'm missing Hewitt vs. Moya as I write this) and ESPN2 will show the night matches very late at night. I'm guessing no doubles coverage (surprise, surprise) which sucks because not only do I want to see Mirnyi (natch) but I would love to see Malisse/Rochus. They are just so damn much fun.

Also on the site is a short article about Kafelnikov playing professional poker (!!!) now that he is retired. Husawhatsitnow?

LT: I too read that Kafelnikov poker story. Although I admit your reaction is much better than mine:

I thought the Serena/Sharapova match the other night was pretty entertaining, at least at times.

But I was wondering what the hell was going on during the awards ceremony... Right when Sharapova was about to accept her big check, some dude went rushing behind her off to the left and they all looked over there kinda confused. Sharapova looked pretty concerned, and I assumed that some fanatic had run onto the court and valiant background guy went flying off to deal with it. But then when they pulled back to a wider shot a few seconds later, Serena and the Suit she was standing with were laughing it up, presumably about what had just happened. Did anyone read about this and can fill me in? Totally curious here as I haven't read anything about it in the press.

Wow! Watching the Federer-Moya match and this is the first one I've been able to see with his new haircut. Loving it! He looks so much better and I love how it moves around when he's playing. It's rather sexy. I've always thought that he was quirkily hot but now I think he's veering towards just plain hot.

I'm going to the finals on Sunday and I hope oh how I hope that Roger will be in the final. I've never been able to see him play in person and I would just love the chance to see him do his stuff live in front of me.

I love the new haircut, headband or no.

They showed doubles coverage on TTC but the late night taped coverage on ESPN or ESPN2 just about killed my sleep schedule last week. 11:30pm? What is up with that?

I'm hoping you got to stick it out through the rain today, Chesty.

I was on my way over here to offer my kudos to ESPN actually - especially after my sleep-deprived whining early this week (I hear you, Castallack) - for finding a way to bring us the event despite all the delays, but then they refused to give us even a few minutes of the ceremony. For Poker?

Oh well. Yay, Roger! Do what you want with the hair; you're the best thing I've ever seen.

Oh thanks ESPN for "skipping" forward in the Fish/Moya match. I mean, who wants to see the whole match? Next time, just show the first and last games, I'm sure it'll be just as satisfying.

Ok, so glad I didn't tune in after all.

Dang, Pee Mac's Dream Team got smoked. HA!

Sometimes I hate having deductive reasoning, but I guess what I really hate is when ESPN shows Davis Cup on tape delay. Sunday afternoon at 3 eastern time we get the Moya-Roddick match in a three hour slot. Obviously that means Roddick loses and Spain wins, otherwise they would have shown the deciding match with Fish. I might have been able to suspend disbelief and think that the match was being played at night live in Spain, but it was an outdoor stadium and I could see the sunlight streaming in on parts of the audience.

Or you could have had what I had and pass a radio at the deli that morning announcing "Spain wins the Davis Cup as Roddick falls to Moya." Five seconds and the whole afternoon match is ruined.