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Post by ILR on Sept 11, 2003 12:35:13 GMT -5
Thanks for the report of day 1 Glad you felt a little better
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Post by Sjengster on Sept 11, 2003 14:31:26 GMT -5
Ah Becca, you simply do not understand the mystical attraction of Stefan K, aka Mr. Fashionista, with his sleek attire and immaculate appearance. I gather his slick finesse and silver tongue have women fainting in his arms the world over as they marvel at his elegant game and array of talented groundstrokes.
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Post by Doris on Sept 11, 2003 14:42:02 GMT -5
Thanks Becca good read
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 11, 2003 17:07:58 GMT -5
Ah Becca, you simply do not understand the mystical attraction of Stefan K, aka Mr. Fashionista, with his sleek attire and immaculate appearance. I gather his slick finesse and silver tongue have women fainting in his arms the world over as they marvel at his elegant game and array of talented groundstrokes. hehe... more to come on Koubek, btw. You'll hold him in a whole new light once I tell you of my (and Hurleys) Day Two sighting...
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Post by Lee on Sept 11, 2003 17:46:13 GMT -5
Thanks Becca!
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Post by DBBN on Sept 11, 2003 23:54:19 GMT -5
have women fainting in his arms the world over LOL!! LOL!! LOL!! Think again.
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 12, 2003 17:02:29 GMT -5
Day TwoAt various points of the day, I saw all of the following practice: Ferrero-Robredo (nekkid!... erm, half ), Sharapova, Shaughnessy (twice), Nestor/Knowles (about ten times... I'm convinced they never left the court ), Hewitt, and Clijsters. Most of this was on the covered courts, and I was watching them from above, so I don't have pictures of most, unfortunately Nestor and Knowles were always practicing on the courts we could stand and watch at though, so if there are any Knowles fans I have a bunch of pictures of him I took one of Daniel, and some guy came up to me and asked who it was. I felt very knowledgeble Knowles is quite good looking in person, imo. There wasn't one match that I had my heart set on seeing first, so I wandered between matches. I tried to watch some of Pierce-Gehrlein on court 8, but the standing room was several people deep and I only got to see Mary once, so I didn't stay there very long. I thought she looked pretty good though, especially considering some of those awful pictures of her circulating on the internet. Yeah she could likely be a bit fitter, but she certainly didn't look obese or like a "blimp" or whatever else people have been calling her on other boards. I watched Schuettler and Arthurs come on and wamup, but decided to wander around. I went back and watched a few games, but since Wayne won the first set I wasn't all that pumped to stick around I snuck over to catch some games of Gaudio-Acasuso vs Arnold-Hood. I hadn't seen Gaudio in person before, and that was pretty much my entire reason for going over there. I don't really see what is so apparently "girly" about him I do wish he'd do something about that hair though... It was clear from the onset that it wasn't going to be a great doubles match, so I took off after a few games I ended up watching almost a full set of Mikaelian vs Weingartner. I hadn't intended on it. I only stopped to take a couple pictures of both, but Mikaelian was very impressive. It didnt' hurt that Marlene was playing like ass that day, but Mikaelian was damn fun to watch that day. She sort of reminds me of Davenport... in more ways than one... Too bad she lost her next match! I was hoping she could win a couple rounds here, but oh well. Some guy was standing beside me and seemed to be in awe of her - i guess he'd never seen her either. He turned to me a couple times to comment on things like "wow, she plays really good, huh?". Heh. ~more to come~
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 12, 2003 17:14:46 GMT -5
Of course I made sure to be over to court 6 in time for Lopez and Stepanek to come on! I had watched some of MSL vs Beygelzimer before that... likely about a set and a half of that match. I decided a while ago that I like Maria because she's very pretty and nobody cares ;D That match was kind of bleh - Yulia ended up double faulting when she was down matchpoint, which sucks. I hate watching people lose that way! Lopez-Stepanek was a match that I had expected a lot more from! I was pretty dissapointed. Lopez wasn't playing all that hot, but Stepanek wouldn't let him. Grrrr. True story - before the match i ran into Burley who was like "so Lopez and Radek!" and I thought he was saying "Lopez and Roddick!" and I was like "dude, no. If lopez was playing Roddick it wouldn't be on this court - that, and Lopez is seeded and wouldn't play Roddick now anyways". Damn his accent! Damn it! He laughed at me I was watching Lopez-RADEK when somebody I had been hanging out with earlier came over and said "Ferrero shirtless practice - over there". I shamelessly up and ran over "there" ;D The bonus was not even that it was Ferrero though - he had Robredo with him! Damn. I felt like it was my birthday! It took me a while to determine it was Robredo since I have poor distance vision and i couldn't make out his face with the hat he had on... the people around me weren't much help. Most of them looked confused when I said the name Robredo This one lady beside me was going spastic over Ferrero. She kept telling people "oh my, that's Juan Carlos Ferrero! The Roland Garros Champion! Oh my my my!" She was pretty excited - it was kind of cute She did the same thing when David Nalbandian came on (also nekkid!), and kept commenting on how cute she thought he was David has nice curly hair when it's not all sweaty or in a cap! Near the end of the afternoon I decided to go over to court 14 to catch Robredo-Portas/Jonas-Todd in doubles. I like Robredo, and Jonas/Todd being there was a definate bonus. Woodbridge will shortly break the record for double titles won, so I figured I should check him out while I still could to see what the deal was Apologies to Portas, but he was the weakest link. Robredo is a pretty decent doubles player - great reflexes, pretty good decision making... Portas was clearly not on the ball that day. I know the two of them made the Oz QF so surely Portas isn't that bad... likely just looked bad compared to the other three (especiall the guys across the net). Despite the fact that it was a one sided match, it was incredibley entertaining. There were some jaw dropping points that just had the crowd gasping. I had to stand pinned to a fence to see this, since the Standing area was stuffed and I was getting shoved since I was at the front of it all ;D A guy who was standing near me (and clearly knew his shit) kept going on about "the ATP wants to can doubles... don't they realize how entertaining it is? It's more entertaining than the singles game, and every bit as challenging. They just need to market it"... and I agree with him to an extent. Doubles doesn't get it's due. ~more to come~
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 12, 2003 17:34:38 GMT -5
There were these hilarious Aussie fans at the match. One of them had one of those gigantic blow up kangaroos, and was waving it around when they sang songs lol. They got really loud towards the end of the match, but they picked their spots. You could tell it was annoying Robredo on the changeovers though, and he actualyl said something to the ump about it... the ump didn't do anything though, which I'm pleased about. They weren't distrupting play with their songs and only did it after good points and on changeovers. At the end of the match when Jonas and Todd were about to go off, Todd looked up as they were singing to him again. Todd's exit was right behind the players chairs which are on the opposite side of where the Aussie fans were. So Todd walked across court to sign for these guys. It was incredible. He signed the guys Kangaroo, and stood there for several minutes talking to them and signing for them. Jonas came over and joined him for a minute or so... it was one of my favourite moments of the Open, really. I got a ton of pictures of them doing this, and will scan them when I scan the rest (next year sometime ) Other matches I saw bits and pieces of: Safina-Gullikson, Myskina-Nagyova, Hrbaty-Gimelstob, Reeves-Benesova, Dementieva-Vaskova, Perebiynis-Marrero. I like Safina now... I wasn't all that impressed with Gullikson. Don't see what the big deal with her is at all If Benesova was higher ranked you would never hear the end of her Best looking tennis player I've seen. Figures all of my pictures of her are fuzzy That covers almost all of day two except for one thing... We were wandering between the practice area at the edge of the part near Court 18, when we spotted the sex machine, Koubek. Koubek was also pretty nekkid, which made for fine viewing - of his NAVEL RING that is! KOUBEK HAS A NAVEL RING! Hurley could hardly contain himself. He took 60 pictures and openly wondered aloud if he had a chance with Koubek, who had made his sexuality clear to us
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Post by DBBN on Sept 12, 2003 17:37:35 GMT -5
If Benesova was higher ranked you would never hear the end of her For fucking real. Iveta is a babe, I've only been saying this for 8 years. Okay, 1. Yeah, I regret not calling him over and chatting him up. I would have impressed him with my "suntan."
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Post by DBBN on Sept 12, 2003 17:40:31 GMT -5
And also...let's be honest. I wasn't wondering if I had a chance with him. I was determining if I would allow him to have a chance with me. He has a good figure but the neck up is iffy and we all know about the questionable fashion sense.
I suppose if he decided to buy me drinks, I would put out. I am a gay man, after all.
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 12, 2003 17:44:59 GMT -5
I forgot about something from Day One! I've always rooted for Andreas Vinciguerra - since late 2000 - but I've never seen him in person. I actually didn't even know very much about his game, I just rooted for him because erm - I think it had to do with there not being many promising young Sweeds and he looked like he was a solid top 50 player. Anyways, he played Robret Kendrick - an american - on court 4. Originally I stood in the standing area (which was pretty empty;)) on the side facing the play chairs, but eventually I felt dumb being the only one to clap when he won a point So I looked over behind his chair at this group of about 6 really loud sweed fans who had been singing songs, and decided that if I sat beside them I wouldn't feel so silly I watched the majority of this match, though I did leave for about set to find the person I was staying with. Kendrick has a big serve, and that's all I really remember about him Vinciguerra is a good player - if he can just have one healthy season for once, I see no reason he can't get back into the top 40 where he once was. He's still young, so who knows. He looks better in person - if only for the nose, he's actually not a bad looking kid Seeing Vinciguerra on day one made my entire day, lol.
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 13, 2003 16:08:01 GMT -5
WARNING: Those who are NOT interested in reading half a dozen paragraphs on why Rafael Nadal is the best thing since sliced bread... read no further! Don't say that I didn't warn you! Day ThreeI stuck around day three, because there were a few people I really really wanted to see - that I hadn't seen in Montreal and hadn't seen before. Namely, after following him most of this year I really really really wanted to see a full Nadal match. I also wanted to see Scott Draper, who I have always rooted for casually, whenever I saw him in the draw. I checked the internet in the hotel the night before so that I could find out when Nadal played... if he played first, I was going to leave early so that I could get in when the gates opened and eat and buy drinks before the match. He played second, so there was no rush. First on court 7 was Enqvist-Portas, and I decided to take a pass until it was the last game I was pretty sure that Thomas would win easily, after coming through qualies, and was right. Instead, I prowled all the practice courts like a madman. I must have ran around the park three times Finally I was standing on the bleachers of court 4 where you can overlook the covered courts and on the very far end I saw somebody who *might* have been Nadal (erm funny story... I somehow failed to notice Moya on the other side of the net from that far away ). I sure as hell couldn't see faces from that far, but I essentialyl found him based on his complexion... I had ruled out Zabaleta since he was practicing on a court really near me and I could see his face Anyways, so I went over and watched Moya and Nadal practice for about half an hour. There were these really annoying chicks sitting beside me who were there to gawk at Moya. They were talking about the women for a while and were bitching that Justine was a cheater who wasn't glamorous enough... I smirked just for them when she won Anyways... the practice wasn't like, that exciting. It was just like any other practicing... no crawling on the ground games like Layla saw Most of the people wandering around didnt' seem to know who the heck Rafael was... they were there for Moya, obviously. Rafael's nametag thing was on the ground right by the fence, and i noticed a few people walk over to look at it (ie: trying to figure out if that was a player or hitting partner or whatever). Some guys behind me were chatting and one of them was like "if that is who i think it is, he's only 17"... and then a minute later he commented on how Moya lost to a 15 year old this year I was going to point out they were the same person, but decided not to bother Myskina was on the court beside them... she seems like a bit of a perfectionist But hey, aren't they all? Some older couple was talking beside me and was like "We just saw her yesterday... what's her name? grrr" so I told them it was Myskina, and they thanked me Sharapova walked off behind them at one point, and I was shoved out of the way by some 50ish looking man who "just wanted a shot" ~more to come~
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 13, 2003 16:15:12 GMT -5
Whoever has said that Nadal looks better in person, was right. Like, some of his pictures are rather fugly, but he just looks normal in person - erm, from the neck up at least (he looks very young in the face). Put a bag on his head and there is absolutely notway that I would believe he just turned 17 this year. He's pretty tall too- he looked taller than Moya now, but that could just be that he's built bigger so it just looked that way Regardless, I'm like 5'8 and he was a head taller than me. Moving on... After they left, I went over to watch then end of Thomas and Portas. Thomas won easily, as I expected. He stayed after to sign for some people and was talked to a couple of guys. I'm kicking myself for not taking a closeup pic when I had the chance... Thomas was talking to these two guys about two feet from where I was sitting and DAMN he looked good. The hair was good, and really... as long as his hair is good, he looks incredible. Even better in person. Great eyes. Somebody pinch me I guess I must have ran over to Nalbandian and Kohlschreiber sometime before that, because I have David pictures I do recall being amused at the age confusion over Philipp earlier this year, after he played Nadal in erm...some tournament I think that I only watched two games though, because I wanted to get back to court 7 for when Vincente and Nadal came on. I saw a bit of Jarkko too.. but again... only a couple minutes. ~more to come~
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 13, 2003 16:29:10 GMT -5
I hadn't sat through a full match since I got to the US Open, and I knew that sitting in the sun for a couple hours without moving would make me a little faint So I took about half an hour at some point before the match, to eat and grab a couple drinks. I ended up sitting with this couple - the woman was there as a guest since she had lecturedabout nutrition to the coaches earlier in the week. Her and her husband seemed to find it really interesting that I had came in all the way from Toronto area to see the US Open. Here I was thinking that was normal The day before I ended up chatting with some 16 year old boy for like, half an hour while his mom made phone calls lol. At first I was like "ugh, why me?" then I realized he just wan'ted to talk about tennis and it was okay I told him a few things he didnt' already know, and he talked about how excited he was to see this match or that, so it was fun. Anyways... So I got a seat behind the players chairs for Vincente-Nadal. Some lady was sitting beside me and wanted to make sure I wasn't saving a seat for anybody else and I was like "no, and I might move anyways " (that is, change seating location)... she misunderstood and was like "once you see him play, you might not want to leave afterall so stick around a bit"... and I was like "I'm not leaving the match!" hehe. She was a big fan too, so I talked to her for a little bit. She also likes Acasuso and some others... she actually had the same general taste in players that I do. As for the actual match... I didn't really write up a report about it, as I never do But it was pretty clear from the get go that it would be a one sided match. Nadal just had too much game for Vincente... it looked like Nadal was the vet and Vincente was the new pro The first set was even until Vincente got broken serving at 4-5. But Nadal had had many chances on Vincente's serve before that, and failed to capitalize. In the last game of the set, he won the first point and all of a sudden got super pumped. It was as if he'd just been warming up the rest of the set and finally was like "alright, time to finish this off" and broke at will The rest of the match pretty much went the same way... there were some great points that had the crowd going for a bit, but it was pretty onesided, as the score indicates. But man... Nadal can do everything. He just needs to work on the serve. His net game is good, his groundies are fabulous, he's good off both wings, he constructs points... that's what impressed me the most. He could easily have just outhit Vincente and won the match; but he picked his spots to come in, you could tell he was thinking. Such maturity... hell, you don't usually see that in guys who are in their early 20's. He's also very sporting, as Layla mentioned in her own report... there was one point on Vincente's serve at 40-30 where he thought he hit an ace and the umpire overruled it. Nadal just looked at him and shook his head then motioned at the ballkid to give him some balls so that he could start serving. There was a slightly amusing moment at one point, when Rafael lost his headband midpoint, lol. The umpire called a let on it and they replayed it. Vincente looked super impressed as Rafael took almost a full minute to fix his hair back into his headband and tie it up, lol. Anyways... that pretty much ends my Nadal talk, although I'll add some shite later (people I was talking to, etc). Needless to say, I was very impressed Then again, I was expecting to me, so I'm not offering a very objective opinion here! But I will say that I've never, ever been so impressed with a young player. I'm more impressed with him than i was the first time I saw Ferrero, and Ferrero had several years on him. I'll root for him over anybody now - even Ferrero (although Ferrero is considerably more attractive ) ~more to come~
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Post by Ilhame on Sept 13, 2003 16:31:45 GMT -5
Thanks a lot Like the part on Nadal
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 13, 2003 16:40:09 GMT -5
Okay... one more thing His mental stregth - seriously, absolutely incredible. I'm not just basing that on this match, but in general. It makes me think of Hewitt - the 2002 version. Although he has considerably more game than Hewitt Players that young - at least, normal player that young - aren't usually so focussed and tough mentally... his concentration never waivered, he was calm and collected the entire time, with only one clear objective in mind: to win. Just work on that serve, and damn... There was a couple sitting behind me that match that I was chatting with quite a bit. It started when these people behind us were wondering if Rafael was also playing the junior competition They wanted to know the cut off for juniors, so I pointed out that while it was 18, I was pretty sure Nadal wouldn't be playing Juniors again They wanted my opinion on the womens competition ( I told them that the winner of Jennifer-Justine would win - boo ya!), and the mens (I told them Roddick would do it ). The guy was like "what about Federer?" and I said "only if he pays Nalbandian to lose first" (boo ya!) and he was like "wow, you really do know your stuff!" .... I felt very tennis smart Anyways, after the match I wanted the end of Moya-Draper on the big screen. I was a little annoyed that Scott didnt' pull out the fourth set, but oh well At some point I saw Rainer practicing - Nekkid! I took pictures, which of course, turned out blurry I also saw Kafel-Davydenko practicing... some guy asked me who Davydenko was, because I was taking his picture and obviously knew he then asked if Davydenko was seeded or not, and I saw he was about ten spots too low. To be honest... I didn't do a whole lot else Wednesday. I had to leave around 730 because I was taking a night bus back to Toronto. I also sort of took crappy notes after Vincent-Nadal was over. I did see some of Petrova-Chladkova... it was a pretty shitty match. Denisa couldn't really do anything that day. I also watched a bit of Shaughnessy-Matevzic and some of Kuznetsova-Mandula. That about sums it up. Any questions?
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 13, 2003 16:40:43 GMT -5
Thanks a lot Like the part on Nadal Which part? All 14 paragraphs?
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Post by Ilhame on Sept 13, 2003 16:58:52 GMT -5
YES
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 13, 2003 17:04:19 GMT -5
I forgot to add - Nadal really does adjust his underwear ever few points. You can't help but notice, since he doesn't try to be descreet about it You'd think by now that he would have noticed his ass was big and bought something that fit properly
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Post by Ilhame on Sept 13, 2003 17:07:32 GMT -5
lmao more players seem to do that
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Post by Vera on Sept 13, 2003 20:19:17 GMT -5
( I told them that the winner of Jennifer-Justine would win - boo ya!), and the mens (I told them Roddick would do it ). The guy was like "what about Federer?" and I said "only if he pays Nalbandian to lose first" (boo ya!) and he was like "wow, you really do know your stuff!" .... I felt very tennis smart Pointing out the obvious, didn't you? ;D Thanks for your report. Very nice! The US Open crowd, do they know anything? Seems like they don't know any player. Maybe USO is just a carnival to them. Hey, by what you told us, I'm very impressed with Nadal too. Well, I only watched his match once so far, when he lost to Coria in one of those TMS on clay. But he was pretty impressive then and I'm sure he's more impressive now. And Vinciguerra. Dont think I've ever saw him until this USO when he played Agassi. He made an impression in that match, those big FH is quite fun to watch. And he's trying so hard, it's great that he's competing so hard when we knew he had no chance to come back from down 2 set to love. And his look, reminded me of that lawyer guy in Ally McBeal, that Richard guy, only that he is better looking than Richard.
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 16, 2003 20:58:58 GMT -5
*quietly wonders if most people tuned out her thread after she started raving that Rafael Nadal is the best thing since oxygen* Pointing out the obvious, didn't you? ;D Obvious to people like us, who make a hobby out of this - apparently not obvious to your average tenns goer Well some of them do... it's the same in Canada. You have your knobs, and you have people like us. For every person who complains that Justine doesn't wear enough makeup, there is some other guy walking by with his friend saying "have you see this Chela guy? No? He's EXCELLENT. You MUST go see him" (and yes, that really happened) I worry that I've raved about him so much, that by the time most of you finally see him you'll be like "what is the big deal?" Although Layla says the same stuff, so it's not just me being a crackhead! You think he looked like the guy from Ally McBeal? Hmmm. I'm not sure I see it - maybe the head shape or something, but eh. Anyways, I was pleased with the Andre match. Wish he'd have won a set, but at least he fought to the bitter end, and showed that he still has some game.
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Post by Vera on Sept 17, 2003 1:55:39 GMT -5
Well some of them do... it's the same in Canada. You have your knobs, and you have people like us. For every person who complains that Justine doesn't wear enough makeup, there is some other guy walking by with his friend saying "have you see this Chela guy? No? He's EXCELLENT. You MUST go see him" (and yes, that really happened) Hmmmm, you might have given Canada too much credit for her tennis knowledge. If they know anything about tennis, they won't put Davis Cup tie in Calgary every freaking time (no offense to Calgarians ). Okay, may be these 2 things are irrelevant to each other, but i just need a place to rant .
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Post by Lee on Sept 17, 2003 12:42:34 GMT -5
Hmmmm, you might have given Canada too much credit for her tennis knowledge. If they know anything about tennis, they won't put Davis Cup tie in Calgary every freaking time (no offense to Calgarians ). Okay, may be these 2 things are irrelevant to each other, but i just need a place to rant . Calgary's climate is the total opposite of Brazil. In addition to the fast indoor carpet court, the high altitude in Calgary (air is thinner) makes the ball faster which will make the Brazilians miserable.
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Post by Vera on Sept 17, 2003 13:29:00 GMT -5
Calgary's climate is the total opposite of Brazil. In addition to the fast indoor carpet court, the high altitude in Calgary (air is thinner) makes the ball faster which will make the Brazilians miserable. Pretty much the whole Canada has a complete opposite climate than Brazil. But it's true that Calgary is currently the only place in Canada that has snow, way to go. If it's only about the condition, they should be playing the tie somewhere in Northwest Territories. But it's not. And my rant is not against Calgary. I'm just thinking that if Tennis Canada is seriously wanting to promote the sports, maybe they will move the DC tie around in different city so more ppl can get a chance to watch. I mean, BC is about to host the Olympics, I would think we are high profile enough to help them to promote a sports. And I don't know about Calgary, but the amount of public tennis courts here are so abundant, and hardly anyone is using most of the time. Our weather is mild enough that you can almost play outdoor the whole year (of course it does rain a lot during winter, but at least there's no snow on the ground). If I'm Tennis Canada, I would think hard to consider the option. Then again, if Tennis Canada knows how to do their job, we would have at least ONE player ranks in the Top 200, wouldn't we ? And maybe Rusedski would still be a Canadian, not that I missed him or anything.
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 17, 2003 14:46:32 GMT -5
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Post by Lee on Sept 17, 2003 14:55:14 GMT -5
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Post by RogiFan on Sept 17, 2003 15:12:25 GMT -5
What weather in Calgary for the Brazilians! How crazy is that?! I don't know why they insist on having the DC in Calgary for most of the ties... if they had it in TO I'd be there this weekend... to see Guga! I think some weird station is showing it -- Sport sth or other, here it's channel 53?!! I don't get that channel... I think it shows sports scores most of the time...
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Post by Lee on Sept 17, 2003 15:18:56 GMT -5
What weather in Calgary for the Brazilians! How crazy is that?! I don't know why they insist on having the DC in Calgary for most of the ties... if they had it in TO I'd be there this weekend... to see Guga! Canada is undefeated in all 10 DC matches in Calgary! ;D ;D So, until Canada lost......
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