*Typically working thru the night*

Decided to take a break and return to the blog for some light relief.
I have been thinking further about what Steggy and Jay were saying on the weekend OT about putting your stuff out there in the public domain for minute scrutuiny and critism: respectfully getting flammed etc and the necessity of developing a hard shell as a survival cloak.

It reminds me of the first time I presented an academic research paper: The venue was my faculty's weekly meeting and the audience were staff members and grad students. (Btw, for those who don't know, these settings are infinetely more hazardous than even full conferences as the intimate setting allows those socially deprived academics a much sought after forum in which to give full vent to any pent up frustrations in all their terrible ferocity.

I knew before I started, that subsequently, it was rather unlikely that the editors of the Journal for Child Psychology and Psychiatry were going to send a request for paper submission, but I thought that maybe, just maybe, I had written something half decent and would therefore receive the expected accolades from my colleagues in the faculty.

As I stood on the podium, my hands were shaking, my knees were knocking, my tongue seemed permanently glued to the roof of my mouth, I had an incessant urge to go take a slash.

But I also thought that most of the audience had at some point been my teachers, and to the best of my recollections, I had not pissed anyone off too much. These people I had known for years, so I was essentially among friends; it was going to be like a night out bowling, right? Wrong, wrong, wrong!!!

What child-like naivety that thought was. The rather pointed questions which had the effect of immediately exposing the fatal flaws of my method, my results, analysis (sophomoric), research implications(none immediately apparent) and last but by no means least, my conclusion(are you kidding?), caught me a little by surprise, but when my own supervisor, the guy who had nutured this misguided thing couldn't resist the feeding frenzy either and jumped right in to leave no doubt, ladies and gentlemen, that what you have before you today, is an unmistakeable piece of crap; well this just finished me off.

If my paper stank sooo bad, why the hell had my supervisor who had so enthusiastically fostered it's gestation then so publicly lacerate it?

My guess-sorry about the beating, but when the gettin's good, you got to get a piece as well. It's just such dam fun!

Lesson learned- just side-step the flames, and wear that hard shell-as Richard Carlson has repeatedly said, "don't sweat the stuff". I have never subscribed to Aversive Therapy anyway.

Petrova's awful excuses after losing the Amelia Island final = MORE shame for the women's game.

Good grief, when will these pampered princesses get a clue?

Ian: When hell freezes over? *sigh*

Ian: What excuses are you talking about specifically, please?

With Monte Carlo starting Sunday, I guess this will rule out Roddick kick starting the tourney, right? He will be at Houston, right Steggy? A homey, no?(not forgetting Austin associations).I suppose Rafa, and not Fed will be the ain feature first day.

I have also been thinking about the "greatest players" debate-note the plural and not the GOAT declarations-in relation to two other venues of supreme achievement:

During the weekend, I saw the movie, Copying Beethoven. Now many musicoligists consider his 9th to be the best composition of all time. The movie's recreation of the debut of this symphony wi almost bring tears to your eyes.

But many other people with an opinion about classical music consider Mozart to be the greatest composer of all time.at least there has been no greater musical prodigy.

My own favourite is Handel. I just love the Watermusic-with those aristocratic trumpets. It was, after all specially written for Handel's close friend, George 1st.

The other venue of sumpreme achievement-middle distance running. By many people in the know, Herb Elliot(an Aussie), was the greatest of all time-he no sooner won the gold medal at the 1960 Olympics, than he retired, totally undefeated at the age of 22.He was the Bjorn Borg of milers-gone too soon!

But how could you ignore the claims of Seb Coe, who is the only man in history to successfully defend the mile gold medal, or Hicham El Guerrugge, who owns practically all the middle distance world records.

Now back to tennis. Pete Sampras was the first tennis player that was able to follow from beginning to end. I saw all his big matches. When he was on song, he was like a Leviathan. Carlos, the heart flutter of many TW posters, said that Pete had an intimadating factor that was almost tangible whereas Fed doesn't. And Pete still holds the Slam numbers.

But to me, Pete's matches left you somehow unsatisfied-if he was smokin, it was usually 3 shot rallies when he was serving and not much different when he was receiving. Pete had exceptional gifts, but being king of the baseline was not among them.

But can Jimbo be overlooked? Fed has even said he won't come close to Connors' total number of tourny wins (is it 109?). This must reckon in the conversation, right?

During IW, Pete B related a Dennis Ralston as declaring a certain Pancho Gonzales as the absolute best-Laver included.

And what about Laver? How many extra slams would he have won had he been able to play between his grand slam years of 1962 and 1969
I think his dominance was such that you could conservatively suggest that another 2 slams per year is not unreasonable. That's an extra 12 slams. Doesn't this indisputibly make him the GOAT?

My all time favourite is TMF for his sheer artistry and gracefulness-notwithstanding slam numbers. I have never seen it mentioned that there has been another player with similar fluidity, poise and grace.

So whose the best? It's completely unresolvable-it is like aesthetics,it's all a matter of taste-fitting in a way, because it is only Federer who exemplifies poetry in motion.

jac: I love "Will they or won't they attend analysis". Let's muddle this out. M-C starts Sunday, putting Roddick on a Monday start. Houston ends Sunday at 3pm local time (9PM M-C time, I *think*), leaving Roddick the option of taking more-or-less a red-eye flight over to Nice. Let's assume he plays the Houston final and gets on a flight by 7PM LST. That puts him in Monte Carlo around 11AM Monday, and he's working on no sleep, and must play within eight or nine hours.

My "analysis"? Roddick either (conveniently) won't be making the Houston final, or he'll drop out of M-C.

Steggy,
yeah, I hope Roddick's been dieting because that schedule is going to be the champion of squeezes.

Steggy, could you add ESPN's coverage of the Family Circle Cup?
Thursday its on at 1p, Friday at 1p, Sat 12:30p, and Sunday at 1p EST. Thanks :)

Nice win for the US in Davis Cup this weekend. And really fantastic win for Tati at the Family Circle. She played consistent attacking tennis and beat Venus, Ivanovic and Petrova, all good players along the way.

Sorry! I meant Amelia Island not the Family Circle.

Besides the sisters, how Tier II is Charleston looking? Those organizers must be losing their minds.

Never thought I'd see the day when Venus and Serena would be saving a tournament by actually showing up when everyone else is pulling out:-)

Just looked at the Charleston draw. Venus and Serena are in the same sixteenth, so they will be losing one of their major attractions early in the tournament. But with the way Venus has been playing, she might lose before that anyway.

Sorry to monopolize the posting. But I just realized I made an error. Venus and Serena are in the same eighth, no sixteenth.

I'm beginning to wonder about Ana Ivanovic-is she the real deal?
As it currently, stands there's acres of unfilled potential.
In the fem game, saying she's only 19 really doesn't apply. Time for to win something again.

Alista,
I hear ya about blog monopolizing, but shoot, there ain't any other body hanging out here yet.-so let's just party!

I was able to catch the doubles over the weekend and was suprised how much emotion and energy the match between the Bryans and the Spanish generated. Perhaps it is the team concept but the players were able to get really pumped up and dance around the court after a great point or shot. That game in the fourth set where the Bryans fought off two break points, that could have sent it to a fifth set was a great game.

The Spanish team also demonstrated how two guys with big serves can challenge a top doubles specialists team.

It was also obvious from the players and bench how much fun these guys have playing Davis Cup in a team format.

It also demonstrated how much more there is to a best of five versus the new format as this match was over after two sets and the Spanish lit it up in the third and fourth sets.

It was some great tennis and as a person (not alone I expect) who plays about ten doubles matches for every singles match, I learned quite a bit about how the top guys play the modern game.

Give that all the players were so into the team competition, I now feel rather than condem or congratulate individual players on showing up for Davis Cup, I think it is their loss for not enjoying the experience.

Right now it seems that there is a lag-time for development of some of the women. Aside from Vaidisova, we just don't see some of the younger teenagers in the draw anymore. Girls winning at 14 and 15 have pretty much gone by the wayside.

Lisa,

That's kind of surprising as I got the impression from Pete B's feature on camp Bolleteri that his little haven was virtually bursting with female neophytes itching to get smacking some balls from the baseline at the highest levels at the earliest possible opportunities.

Ivanovic looked pretty good against Tati, but this is the best whole tournament I've seen Tati play.

I dont know how ivanovic is any different from vaidisova.
Same style of play.

Ivanovic is more Davenport-ish, Vaidisova is more Sharapova-ish.

So, in other words, ptenis is right.

Hello everybody!

(it's my first post around here...)

Ryan,if I'm not mistaken Family circle @ Charleston is a TIER 1 event!!

Frenchie: Wouldn't know it by looking at the depleted draw. Welcome, btw. Be sure to review the site rules, located in the New to TennisWorld category, all the way up and to your right.

Ryan,

To me, they're all rather sleep inducing- any appearance factors notwithstanding

Frenchie--oh, you're right, it's Tier I, but in title only...when exactly 0 of the top 7 players in the world are entered, it's hard to consider it truly as a Tier I. Yes, you have Venus and Serena, but only Serena will be a factor, and Venus has been struggling. I look for Shahar to have another big tournament.

jac,

I agree.

I agree, jac, although Golovin/Ivanovic was pretty high-quality for the last set and a half or so.

In other news, Federer clone drops to No 8, below Novak Djokovic.

steggy, thank you for welcoming me: I've been what you guys call a "lurker" for a little while but I've rechecked the rules again just in case.

ryan,aah Ok..it was sarcasm...I agree with you then!
However Tatiana -sorry can't do with the "tati" thing- could be on a roll after Amelia Island. So as a very proud French I'm actually betting on a Tatiana/Serena final!!!

Back to the Roddick schedule conumdrum,he will have to make a public announcement post-haste, because if he tried to play both Houston and MC, as per Steggy's timetable above, he will be Roddick toast in Monaco

Where is annabelle?
Ireland is in some kind of trouble against NZ.

ptennis,

I'm feeling a bit thick-who is Fed's clone?-this is breaking news to me- I must have missed something here.

Is Annabelle Irish? My pa is Irish. GO IRELAND

jac: He's not the only one that would be toast. Several players are entered in both tournaments. Blake, Haas, Fish, Melzer, Becker, Ginepri, Verkerk among 'em.

It should be interesting to see who will tank, and when, for what points and which tournament.

I'm feeling a bit thick-who is Fed's clone?-this is breaking news to me- I must have missed something here.

Late last year someone wrote an article where they said that if Federer created a clone of himself, Rupert Federer, and gave this clone all the points that separated him and Nadal, Rupert would be a comfortable number 3.
Well, Rupert has since dropped to number 8.

Note: The name is hypothetical and serves only to help the illustration.

Annabelle is australian (maybe by way of Ireland).

But she has players in her Fantasy team that are from the Irish team.

ptennis,

Gotcha!

If Nadal were playing both Houston and Monte Carlo, we'd expect him to win both. Granted, he's the premier claycourt player of the last couple years, but is his fitness that much better than that crop of players that we'd expect him to win and them to tank? Surely at least Roddick is fit enough to make a run at both (not that he has the clay talent necessarily to do so, and his hamstring may still bother him).

It will be interesting to see whether Rafa's suspect foot will go the distance this clay season.

Jac, that story of your presentation was horrific. Wow. Kudos to you for ever recovering from that experience. With supervisors like that, who needs enemies, eh?

Sherlock,

Yeah, it was an "experience", but it did teach me what sort of supervisor NOT to be myself, that's for DAM sure.

"I dont know how ivanovic is any different from vaidisova. "

She's more attractive. ;-)

And Sam's eagle eye does not miss the mention of Miss Ivanovic! :)

Welcome, Frenchie.

She's more attractive. ;-)

I have learnt from experience that Mr Beholder has the last word in these matters.

I generally find it hard to pick between the 2. I plan to spend the time, between now and the moment when they qualify by the 7 year rule, contemplating on this problem.

That's right, Tari!

Forgetting Miss Ivanovic's incubating tennis career for a mo, she has always reminded me of Michael Douglas's squeeze.Maybe she could work opposite leacherous old Sean, no?

"I have learnt from experience that Mr Beholder has the last word in these matters."

Right, it's subjective. But I think Sherlock will back me on Ana I.

Is there anything to the theory of Vaidisova's artificial blondeness?
Same question for Sharapova.

Hrm. Talked to Pete, he thinks that M-C will grant a Tuesday start to late players coming in from Houston. Crisis averted. Sort-of?

ptenis: I'd guess that the carpet doesn't match the curtains on both counts.

Steggy,

Isn't there traditionally at least a week or two between these tournaments? I cannot recall conjestion like this.

"I'd guess that the carpet doesn't match the curtains on both counts."

LOL, steggy.

What I'm wondering is how old Vaidisova really is, 'cause I'm not buying that she's 17. :-)

jac: Mmm, not that I'm aware of, but it does seem to me that the calendar is more crammed together this year, than last year (especially from, say, RG to Wimbledon).

Right folks. I'm off to cover the Shortbus Claycourts.

Sam: I'd guess 22, 23 based on her facial structure and lack of teenaged facial puppyfat.

Funny steggs. I knew the carpet bit but I was never able to remember what furnishing they were supposed to match.

Unrelated Question- What is the tournament that mattress mac runs? I thought this was one that was on the chopping blocks. I also thought that it was the Houston Clay Courts but I am not sure anymore.

LOL Shortbus Claycourts.

I have such a hard time taking that event seriously, from "Mattress Mac" (yes, I'm aware of how great he is for tennis) to the excessive number of American entries to clay-court impresario Andy Roddick winning 19 titles there or whatever.

Hey Sam,

I'm wondering how long have you been wondering about The Vaidisova?. But she really does look as if she has a few more growth rings there than publicly stated.

ks

Maybe Vaidisova just looks old. I mean Does LeBron James look his age? We all know Greg Oden of Ohio State looks older than dirt, instead of 18.

jac: For as long as she has not looked her age. I think I first saw her play sometime last year.

Mattress Mac-man, I thought this guy had already gone to foam and spring heaven, but no they still wheel him out to give us some jingoistic good tidings-just in case, heaven forbid, we should ever forget what nationality we are.

God Bless Mattresses.

Ryan,

A big Amen to that.

angel4b: That is probably the case. Agree about LeBron & Oden.

Ryan: What jac said

anyone interrested in a job ?
it's kind of steggy job but for the atp site !

http://www.atptennis.com/en/news/2007/intern2007.asp

good morning everybody. Thanks to everyone who posted about yesterdays matches - I got to catch up on what happened. Between church and family dinners - there was not time for me to watch tennis on Easter. And our paper is no help at all - sometimes - if we are lucky they list the winners. To make the point even more clear - this morning's sports headline was that some normal guy beat Tiger Woods for the Masters. They did not even list his name in the headline - how pitiful is that - some poor schmoe pulls off the greatest win of his career and they don't even print his name in the LA newspaper
Glad that you all enjoyed my rather belated pix from Indian Wells -
Lucy - there is one specifically for you - so be sure to check it out. My daughter was having a blast with those photos. She apparently surprised Rafa and Hott Sauce with her Spanish - they both remarked that they did not know that blonde American girls could speak Spanish at all - so they were more than happy to pose for pix with her.Sadly - her picture with Lopez was not so good - we know who is in it - but no one else would.

ptenis: McIngvale, or rather his wife, runs the US Shortbus Claycourt Championships. They've let their contract with the USTA exire as of this year, so 2007 is the last year it will be held. They're trying for a summer hardcourt event next year.

thanks steggs.

based on the way the website looks, the Shortbus CC ranks on about the same level as the Sony Ericcson Tourny.

jac...Had to laugh at your academic dilemma. Those hallowed halls of ivy are more treacherous than a snake pit.

steggs...thanks for the carpet/curtain comments. Very funny.

All for now!

Easter dinner looked more like Christmas--it snowed the whole day!

Mapplesugar,
yeah, my favourite metaphors for them were a pack of dogs or a bunch of sharks- in fact any blood -attracted carnivores would do.

Ivanovic is more Davenport-ish, Vaidisova is more Sharapova-ish.

So, in other words, ptenis is right.

LOL

---

jac,

Sympathies, man. That's a horror story and a half. In a year plus of blogging, I've never taken that kind of hit. Makes the Internet look like a pretty nice place.

As an old diesel mechanic, I have some theories about the ivory tower types, and I'm afraid you didn't help them a bit. ;-)

Almagro & some dude took down Cermak & Friedl!

are "Tempurpedic" and "Gallery Furniture" the actual names of the courts at shortbus? Awesome.

Codepoke,

Sorry about further erosion of Ivory Tower theories, man.But your probably immensely better off without them-nasty pieces of work some of them.

"Jac, that story of your presentation was horrific. Wow. Kudos to you for ever recovering from that experience. With supervisors like that, who needs enemies, eh?"

Just read your story, jac. Wow, that was brutal.

Oh, great, that's what we need, a new summer hardcourt event. Let's go ahead and turn Amelia Island and Charleston into hardcourt events too. The Americans are already so dominant on clay, it's only fair to even playing field.

are "Tempurpedic" and "Gallery Furniture" the actual names of the courts at shortbus?
jeez.

Snoo,

Far be it for me to suggest it, but is it just remotely possible that there is just the faintest hint of advertising and sponsor name reminders in those court names? I'm dammed if I know.

A summer hc tournament in Houston would have to be the Masochist's Open.

ptennis,

Is that cricket match done and dusted yet? *trying to suppress some NZ. connections*

FWIW, I've been following Nicole since she won the orange bowl as a 14 year old, and she definitely looked 14 going on 15.

http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/news/newsarticle.asp?id=11251

Ptenis: Oh, wait. You haven't seen the *half* of it. I feel like I'm being assaulted by foofy leather couches everywhere I walk. Thousands of them around this clubhouse.. I think they're breeding when my back is turned.

steggs :-)

jac, still on NZ's inning . 205/7 off 45 overs.

I do have to say one thing, though. They've got good office chairs for the media to work on. Good back support, with wheels. That's massively important.

Hi everyone,

I'm back from my trip to SF and all caught up on all the latest posts. Visions of clay courts are now dancing in my head. I actually watched James Blake slide a few times on the Winston Salem hard court yesterday during his match with Lopez. He was pretty impressive.

Anyway, congratulations to U.S. team for their victory. Like most of us, I was disappointed that Rafa didn't go, but the event turned out to be quite a success that's a very good thing.

How about Mr. Safin? I hope we will get to see a US v Russia DC final. Wouldn't that be delicious?

ptennis,

That's not a lot as it stands. But those last 5 innings typically make all the difference, right?

Well, it used to be that the batting team played the last 10 overs more aggressively, coz you dont really want to conserve wickets.

You are right, it's not a lot. Slightly less than 5/over. It might very well be adequate considering that it's Ireland they are playing.

highpockets, did you have fun? Was the media blackout a success?

as for Blakesy, I thought you weren't actually supposed to slide on hardcourts. Not that that's ever stopped Monfils.

Snoo Foo
Are you following the NZ match?
did one of the irish get injured?

I don't know what the hail's going on out there except NZ has busted out a 11.80 rr over the past 5 overs.

Wow. That's just ridiculous.

From what I can tell, McCallum (?) & Franklin just went bonkers, they were something like 185 at the 42nd over and then those two woke up.

looks like it.
they were 205 off 45.
So it's just the last 5 overs that they went critical.

Franklin was 31 from 20 and the other dude was 47 from 37. altogether NZ was 45 for the last 3 overs. Dang. I thought Ireland was on its way to being the next Bangladesh. Unappealing as that may sound.

I can just see the tourism ads.

Ireland, The Next Bangladesh.

Snoo,

Had a great time ... cool but gorgeous weather ... probably walked 15 miles altogether which is what I love about SF ... delicious food ... great hotel with excellent service ... I did one "touristy" thing--the WWII submarine tour (I'm a submarine movie lover). Talk about claustraphobia!

Did not see anyone wearing Crocs, as it was a little too cold for that, but lots people eating goat cheese and olives and drinking every kind of wine imaginable. I'm sorry, but goat cheese smells like my son's room when his friends are over ... end of story.

Tech blackout successful, but I have to admit I did have withdrawal symptoms ... I am an admitted techno-holic and can't imagine what 12 step meeting for that would be like.

Anyway, thanks for asking ... boy, did you get an earful!

Blake did some sliding on the hard dourts, but it was usually after he hit the ball. He didn't slide into the ball as on clay. If Blake could work on being more consistent, he'd probably do okay on clay with all his speed. It's just that if he's not hitting winners, he doesn't seem to have a plan "b".

Wonder how Roddick will do in the clay season this year. He seemed to take a "grinding" approach to his match versus Verdasco the Fiasco.

BTW- The US Davis Cup team needs to work on the outfits. The Spanish guys had the cool, red and yellow uniforms. The US davis cup team uniforms didn't exactly say "USA."

Welcome back, highpockets! :)

Interesting about the submarine visit. I did the same in the Chareleston area. Wow. Tight quarters indeed, but fascinating. I too, love the movies set on submarines.

And about the goat cheese - to sum it up...pungent. ;-) That's being nice.

I've always thought that, because of the way she behaves, Vaidisova was actually younger than her reported age. After a piece I saw on TTC with her , Donald Young, and some other Bolletieri kids in a PR training session, I was even more convinced than I had been before of her chronologuical and emotional "youth."

I haven't yet seen a response to someone's (Juri?) question about someone else's comments re what excuses Petrova, specifically, had given for her loss yesterday and the excuses that WTA players, in general, I'll have to check it out for myself when I get home. And if, her "excuses" are the same as the dozens of excuses I've heard from ATP players in the past dozen months, I swear....!

Petrova mentioned that she couldn't concentrate, then went on to say that she basically tanked the second set after the first went so badly.