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Post by The Chloe on Sept 2, 2004 17:51:01 GMT -5
I went to Thursday and Friday of qualies, as well as Monday and Tuesday of the main draw. Right now... I'm going to go buy groceries ;D I made this thread so that I'd remember to write all about it when I got home. Leo, if oyu want to blab about what you did, feel free to use this thread too
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Post by Jasper on Sept 2, 2004 23:08:24 GMT -5
Cool. I definitely will. Right now I'm working on getting the pics off my camera so hopefully I'll be done soon.
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 2, 2004 23:20:46 GMT -5
Maybe I'll change the title to "Rebecca and Leo's USO adventures" or something very lame ;D Although that might confuse some people... whatever, they'll get it when they read the thread Mine are coming shortly
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 2, 2004 23:49:00 GMT -5
Some of you may recall my bus adventures from last year... remember? The puking escapades? Yeah, I learned from that experience. I took a night bus to New York and loaded up on the gravol (which is an anti nauseant intended to prevent motion sickness). I left Wednesday August 25th at 730 pm and arrived in New York City around 830am Thursday morning. It was a very uneventful bus ride. I slept through almost all of it. I only got off the bus twice... once for customs (uneventful) and once around 430am to use the restroom in Sarasota. When I got off the second time I had taken so much gravol that I was actually incredibly woozy! Good thing that I was going right back to sleep after that My bus was actually a little late, since traffic was bad. Meh. I had to call my friend to meet me at the USO a little later than planned. It turned out to not be a big deal at all. I took a subway to the USO park and got there around 10am, and ended up having to wait for my friend since I told him to come late. Heh. After dropping my stuff off in the car, we went into the USO and split up to watch different matches. I'm going over the order of play... and I didn't really take any notes. i just like, circled what I saw. Silly me. I'm doing most of this from memory, which is fine since it was... memorable. Unfortunately, almost everybody I wanted to see was playing the very first match... as in, they were all starting at the same time I was interested in seeing: Tipsarevic, Dancevic, Vahaly/Heuberger, Karatencheva, Vligegen, Bogdanovic, Drake, Vaidisova, Guccione (I had plans to heckle him ;D).... and really, all of those except Frank, Drake, Nicole, and Guccione were on first. So I ended up running between Tipsarevic and Sesil. I watched most of Sesil's match against Alexandra Mueller. Mueller was actually surprisingly good! She's a big girl.. very strong. I dont' follow challengers for women, so I hadn't heard anything about this girl before. I wouldn't be surprised if she started doing better in the future though. As for Sesil... well, she's 15 Her shot selection is terrible... but she has a lot of shots One has to think that once she learns when to use them and when to not, she's going to be awfully damn good. She was hampered a bit by an ankle or foot injury though. That was bothering her in all three matches that I saw her in, if memory serves. She really really struggled to pull it out against Mueller. As I said, her shot selection blows and she was playing like ass for a good part of the match. Everytime she went to hit a lob, I would cringe because she was missing almost all of them. However... despite playing like ass and being injured, she still won. Overall I was impressed with her potential... just not her play on the particular day. She is quite obviously 15 As for Tipsarevic... I had no idea he was so short! Wow. He dwarfs me. He must be 5'6 at best. He's a big guy though... just very compact. He has tree trunks for legs, I mean. The guy he was playing, Salavador Navarro had a hilarious grunt. It was very distinctive. He's a Spaniard, Salvador is, and he pretty much played like a stereotypical Spaniard does. I can't remember if his backhand was one or two handed though. I totally needed to be taking notes. I was really just there to see Tipsarevic though, hence the lack of detail on the uh, match. Tipsarevic sports a sunglasses and bandana look ala Clement. My friend and I were trying to determine if he would be attractive if he took that stuff off and weren't entirely sure. He has tatoos up his arm too. He amuses me. I don't know why. Actually, that is lie. I know exactly why, but it's a very long and stupid story. At some point I went to see Nicole Vaidisova. WOW. I can NOT believe that girl is 15! I mean... I believe it, but it's unbelievable. You follow? She's about 6' and.... as somebody before me said it best "looks like a 25 year old cheerleader". She's not ultra skinny like some of the other very tall girls. She has a good solid frame. Good serve, amazing groundies... very imposing. I was extremely impressed with her right now... more so than I was with Sesil. Nicole has a LOT of game RIGHT now. Too bad she drew Justine. Nicole was playing a girl named Galina Voskoboeva, who is a Russian. Galina was pretty upset with herself that day, and I don't blame her. She was getting eaten alive! I think Nicole lost 1 or 2 games I saw the final but can't.... remember... for some reason. Again... lack of notes. I watched Widjaja win, but didn't really see enough of her match to say anything about her or her opponent, Baltacha. I watched all of Dancevic and Udomchoke. Udomchoke is a fun player to watch. He's very very very little, both in height and in frame. So... he doesn't have a BIG game, but he has some nice shots to make up for it Frank, well... he served for it at 5-3 in the second set and failed. He was a couple points away a few times, but wasn't able to close it out. I left after the second set to go to Long Island where I was staying, and didn't see him lose. I had a feeling he would though, judging by his body language at that point. He certainly is an expressive player, Frank is. I saw the last few points of Vahaly-Heuberger. Too bad Vahaly lost, but man... you have to see Ivo in person! He is a GOD. He looks like some sort of statue that some artist has crafted Or... an underwear model. Or something. Definatley not a tennis player. After tennis I went back to where I was staying, ate, and then hit the hay early. That was it!
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Post by Jasper on Sept 2, 2004 23:56:30 GMT -5
Maybe I'll change the title to "Rebecca and Leo's USO adventures" or something very lame ;D Although that might confuse some people... whatever, they'll get it when they read the thread Mine are coming shortly Hey, the cornier the better.
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Post by Lee on Sept 2, 2004 23:59:47 GMT -5
Thanks for the report, will there be more coming?
Is Heuberger one of Hingis' ex-bfs?
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Post by Jasper on Sept 3, 2004 0:05:02 GMT -5
I think you're right, Lee.
I think I have a good pic of Heubeurger that I was proud of. ;D
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 3, 2004 0:10:05 GMT -5
Friday... the last round of qualies. Being at qualies is so great. It's not as crowded as the main draw and you can just roam around and pop into matches right near the end and have somewhere to sit. Also, they don't make you wait during qualies, so you can go grab a close seat between games and not be stuck behind a wall for ten minutes waiting for a changeover. Some people take this too far of course and rumble in during points Thankfully, most people get *it* After looking at the order of play I decided that I wanted to see Sesil, Nicole, and Tipsarevic again. I was also really interested in seeing Baghdatis.. .again. Somehow I failed to mention that I saw him on Thursday. Detour... Baghdatis on thursday! He was playing an American, Jeff Salzenstein, out on court 7. Jeff, being an American, had most of the crowd support. Baghdatis though, is just a joy to watch. He comes up with some amazing shots, and he just seems so thrilled to be playing out there. I fist pumps and points at his "people" a lot. I watched the first set and thought "wow, Marcos is going ot wrap this up in no time" .... so I took off. Boy, was I wrong! Somehow, Jeff remembered how to play tennis and made it a match. I watched most of the third set, which Marcos eventually won. I remember thinking that Marcos has a great set of wheels on him. He comes up with some real beauties off the defensive too. I told Hurley on the way back to Long Island that I was a fan Okay, back ot Friday.... NIcole was first up on court 10, playing Nuria Liagostera Vives. Nuria is a Spaniard, and was seeded 3rd in qualies... so she was in whether she won this match or not, if anybody pulled out of the main draw. But... that didn't stop her from working like Hell to win it. Nicole, again, was just incredibly impressive. I'm not in the least bit surprised that this girl already has her first WTA title under wraps. She also totally lacks the bratty, bitchy demeaner that a lot of young girls in her place *cough*Sesil*cough*Hingis*cough* often do. If one can "seem" like a nice player, she does. I was so exhausted though, that I actually fell asleep leaning against the back wall while watching part of her match I only know that I fell asleep, because I awoke to find all these people sitting around me who weren't there before ;D Marcos was playing right after Nicole, but I wanted to go see Tipsarevic again. He lost.... badly, to a guy named Alexander Peya. You might be familiar with the name... he's still in the draw Peya, man. His hair is distinctive. It's blonde and highlighty, and a bit long. He seems to gel the hell out of it so that it's like, sticking out Um, I don't know either. You really have to see his hair to understand what I'm talking about! He really outplayed Tipsarevic, who was playing like total crust that day. The silver lining of this was that Tipsarevic was seeded high enough in qualies that he got in as a lucky loser. Um, yay. Another bonus was that he lost SO quickly that I still had time to catch the last set and a half of Marcos and Marc Giquel. Marcos, again, has a great set of wheels. And always looks like he's having fun. I LOVE that guy. I hope he ends up doing really well. When he won his match he jumped for joy and fist pumped at his camp again, and this random dude beside me yelled "you're in the open now, baby!" Hee. It made me giggle. Also, there was some random camera guy taping Baghdatis' big "qualifying moment". I guess they are doing a show on him on Eurosport (something about trying to make in on tour?), so maybe it was for that. I made a note to see him in the main draw. I meant to go see Anna-Lena Groenefeld, but something else was going on, and knowing that she was the number 1 seed in qualies... she was in the main draw no matter what. So I made I note to see her in the first round. I was wandering over to see Domachowska and Obziler on court 4. I walked by the covered practice courts on my way there and heard some very loud, barbaric, animalistic grunting coming from behing the covers. I thought oy myself "that... can only be ONE person". So i wander over to the section that you can see through and saw Nadal and Robredo practicing! I watched them for about 20 minutes. My camera was busted so I don't have any decent pictures this trip Sesil was the last match on court 8, against Eva Binerova. Eva is a strong girl... she was overpowering Sesil a lot of the time. Sesil's foot was bothering her, and she called the trainer out again at some point. Again... I'm impressed with her potential. Very, very impressed. I'm also impressed with her ability to fight when she's not 100%. I'm not impressed with her shot selection Seriously... she would be right there in the point and then do something completely boneheaded She's very, very 15 She struggled to win it in three, but she did it I watched Drake win her match.... and that is pretty much my Friday! After the matches we went back to Long Island again. I don't remember if we went to the bar that night or if we just watched the olympics? I have Saturday and Friday confused
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 3, 2004 0:12:11 GMT -5
Thanks for the report, will there be more coming? Is Heuberger one of Hingis' ex-bfs? Yes, Ivo is one of the few hot men that Hingis has actually dated. There will be more coming, yes. Monday and Tuesday I will do now. I'll save my weekend, non tennis related blurbs for afterwards
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 3, 2004 0:12:41 GMT -5
I think you're right, Lee. I think I have a good pic of Heubeurger that I was proud of. ;D Do share ;D
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 3, 2004 0:37:00 GMT -5
On Monday... I lost my pen. Thus, I made no notes whatsoever, not even check marks to indicate which matches I had seen like I had on my qualie sheets. So.... memory... work with me here! I watched all of Sprem-Kostanic. I met a friend from another board at that match... well, i actually met her the night before, but I watched part of the match with her. I watched the rest with somebody that I have known from there for a couple of years. It was an ugly match. Sprem was all over the place. I like Sprem, so it was a bit dissapointing. I was going to leave several times, but after seeing Sprem lose the first I wanted to see if she would rebound... then when she did, I wanted to see how the third set would pan out The good thing about court 7, is that if you sit right on top like I was, you can see about 4 other courts from afar, so you can have a general idea about what is going on elsewhere. I stood up and peered over the side to watch a bit of Dulko and Tanasugarn. I would have liked to have seen Duko close up, but meh. Next year. I know that I had made a note to see Baghdatis, but since I spent soo much time at Sprem's match.... I missed it After Sprem lost I went over to court 8 to watch Tipsarevic get his ass handed to him in the last set by Delic. He was actually up a break, but then started missing. A whole lot. He was sort of pissy about a couple of calls, but when it was all over he uh, really didn't seem that upset about it. I saw him not 30 minutes later walking around Verdasco-Andreev Delic is sort of attractive and sort of not. He has a good serve and moves okay for somebody who is 700 feet tall. Right after that match I went ot Verdasco-Andreev, expecting a tightly contested forehand bonanzo. It.... was not living up to my expectations. I left after the first set, in which Andreev was playing horribly. I went over to court 7 from that to watch Golovin finish her beating of Barna. It was hard to get a view over those 600 photographers, but I managed. I really like Golovin a lot. She's very smooth. Too bad she's going to get her ass handed to her by Serena. Again. At some point I watched Bogdanovic serve out the third set against Calatrava. I figured he was going to win and left. My bad At some point during the day I took about an hour break just to relax and get out of the sun. I called Susan (of vamosrafael fame, who I actually met on Sunday.. more on that later) and sat with her and chatted for a while. She's a lot of fun! (Which reminds me, I should post my thoughts on her site when I'm done here) During the break she made a comment about Verdasco and Andreev going on and on.. and I was like "um, WHAT?! that match was SO awful when I left it! How can it still be going on?!" Indeed... they were going into a fifth I went over there after I finished chatting with - and getting a Tuesday schedule from - Susan (she had media credientials, which came in handy for getting schedule information early - we were both hoping that Rafa would play on Tuesday, and yay! He did!) Andreev and Verdasco had somehow actually turned into an exciting match. Who knew? It's amazing what happens when you step out for a couple of hours ;D I watched the last half of the fifth set, from about 4-3. Andreev ended up having three match points at 5-4... all on Verdasco's serve. Verdasco came up with an ace or service winner on all three Before the match I thought that I was happy with either winner.... but I learned that I actually like Andreev better after seeing him lose He didn't win another game after failing to convert his matchpoints. So... let that be a lesson. Next time you aren't sure which player you like better, just make them play a tigh fifth set and that will teach you Verdasco has... groupies. Wow. Who knew? He had a band of girls screaming his name all match. Hilarious! I guess they think he's really cute or something. Meh. I watched the last set of Pavel-Nieminen. It was pretty good. I hope that oyu weren't too dissapointed, Hackie. Jarkko really, really fought to hang in there. Pavel was just too good at the end and had too much of a lead for Jarkko to overcome. You had to tip your hat to Jarkko for his effort, though. After the match, Jarkko hung around to sign and chat with a few fans behind his chair. Then he went to exit on the opposite side, where he also signed for a few people. The whole process took several minutes, since he spoke with some guy for some long. One man sitting near me smiled at Jarkko and said "Nice man", and Jarkko smiled at him. I can see why you like him, Hackie. But... you know, he didn't seem exactly dissapointed. Perhaps he internalizes it, or was just happy to be back. But do you suppose that like... he's "too nice" ? From Jarkko-Pavel I could see court 4 in the distance. When I had last checked, Malissa was up 2-1 sets and 4-1 in the fourth. I had heard a lot of clapping and people leaving, so I figured that match was long over. Well... I looked up after Jarkko's match, some time later, and saw it was still going on So I wandered over to discover that somehow, Malisse had lost it and Kucera was in winning position. I was one of three people cheering for Kucera. Who died and made Malisse so popular in the US? Capriati, did oyu do that? I watched Dechy and Dokic for most of the first set. Dokic looked to be rolling, but I see she lost it eventually. I really used to like Dokic... she's not what she once was. And how could she be with all the problems going on in her life? I really feel for her and hope that she can get it together again. I don't even just mean her tennis. It would be nice to see her smile and mean it. Before that I had watched some of the first set of Gaudio-Monaco. I hadn't seen Monaco before and wanted to get a read on him. He's good, but meh. I wasn't excited with that match, which is why I left to watch Dokic. I went by Corretja-Sargisian again.... the Armenia fans might not be numerous, but they are loud and they sing. ;D That's pretty much it for MOnday. Tuesday to come.
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Post by Jasper on Sept 3, 2004 0:47:56 GMT -5
I was wandering over to see Domachowska and Obziler on court 4. I walked by the covered practice courts on my way there and heard some very loud, barbaric, animalistic grunting coming from behing the covers. I thought oy myself "that... can only be ONE person". So i wander over to the section that you can see through and saw Nadal and Robredo practicing! Good description.
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Post by Vera on Sept 3, 2004 1:20:37 GMT -5
Who died and made Malisse so popular in the US? Capriati, did oyu do that? Love your stuffs, keep it coming. And thx for sharing. Leo too, can't wait to see your photos as well.
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 3, 2004 1:20:45 GMT -5
My last day.... Tuesday! I was pretty tired and ready to go home at this point. Burley didn't come with me this day, he just dropped me off and went back to wherever it is that he goes to school and what not. I checked my baggage and planned to pick it up afterwards to catch the subway to the bus station. It was 5 dollars a bag, but the guy let me only pay for one bag and tagged both of them. He must have thought I was poor or something ;D I guess I was wearing my badge that day. The first match I decided to check out was Kirilenko- Likhotseva. I have sort of rooted for Kirilenko to do well and wanted to see if this had been a good idea or not! It turned out okay, she's quite likable. She's so very petite though. I mean, she's tall, but she's tiny. She was having shoulder problems, but eventually won the match. I didn't see the second set, but Likhotseva was playing like total ass in the last few games of the third During the second set I went to watch Massu-Acasuso. I watched the end of the first set, and all the games were pretty close. It looked like it might be a pretty good match. I was.... so very wrong. Apparently Acasuso got treatment on his shoulder and was very suck from then on out. After all that I watched most of Robredo and Udomchoke. Again, Udomchoke is fun to watch, if only because he is so small and has to compensate for it somehow. I have a soft spot for all midget players. Robredo was having a pretty good day. Serving well, moving well, hitting the ball well. Me likes Robredo! He has fantastic upper legs. He was up 5-2 in the second set and served for it once or twice before Udomchoke levelled it at 5 all, but he eventually won it 7-5, so it's okay There was a big group of Thai fans who all had matching tshirts there to cheer on Danai in his first Grand Slam main draw match. Too bad he didn't get a better draw, but I'm sure he and they were proud with how well he fought. There were also some people there with a camera taping him. Perhaps related ot the red tshirt people, I'm not sure. I like the Thai fans, though. They aren't loud like the Chile fans, although I like them too! They are just very happy and respectful, while clearly pulling for their player. There was no negativity when Danai got down, just happiness over him being there and putting up a good fight. After the match, not too many people bothered Tommy, but he did stop for photos with a couple people, which was nice to see. At some point I queued to get on to see the end ot hte fifth set of Peya-Reynolds. Peya, again, has really distinctive hair. I'm going ot have look for a picture of it in order to get this point across. The last few games were really, really exciting. Bobby was fighting really hard to stay in it and get back on level terms. He had the entire crowd behind him and was loving every second of it. If not for them, I'm not sure he would have dug tooth and nail like that. I think that they made him better than he is, you know? It was wonderful to see. In the end, Peya was just too much and wrapped it up on a well disguised drop shot that Reynolds just couldn't run down in time. Hey, if Reynolds never ever does anything, he'll always have his few minutes in the sun where 1000 people were chanting "Bob-by! Bob-by!" I know that some of you find Americans rooting for random Americans annoying for whatever reason, but really, it doesn't bother me.... everybody everwhere does it, and it really made this match worth seeing the end of. After this, I called Susan to catch up with her for Nadal's match. She told me where she was in Ferrero-Zib, so I went over to find her. It took a changeover or two, but I found her and got nice media seating in exchange ;D I watched the second set with her, and Ferrero really looked to be a shadow of his former self. His strokes didn't have the same zip on them that they used to, he was inconsistent.... one great point followed by a complete shank. It was painful to watch. I'm so glad to hear that the match picked up and he pulled it out. I sincerely hope that it was enough to turn his year around, if that is at all possible. I miss the "real" Ferrero! After that we went over near the media place where I wanted while Susan grabbed us some drinks and the wednesday schedule. We went over to the grandstand to watch the end of Sesil-Kuznetsova and get good seats for Nadal's match... whicn turned out to be totally unnecessary, since the Grandstand didn't draw much of a night crowd (it didn't for Dent this evening against Mattieu, actually). Sesil, not surpringly, lost easily. She was injured anyways, so she should be pleased with making the main draw at this point. I figured that Kuznetsova would beat her easily, but thought Sesil would get a few more games in. Oh well. Susan ran to get some sandwiches for us before Nadal-Ivo came on. Since she's in media blah, she gets "free" food, and was very generous with it The first two sets of Nadal-Ivo was a complete and total blow out. Nadal was just on fire, and Ivo was just totally lost. He couldn't get a read on Nadal's game at all. Then... Nadal played a loose service game in the third, and all of a sudden Ivo was right in it again. I never really thought that Nadal would lose, not even when he was down 4-0 in the fourth. I just figured that when it came to crunch time, he had more in the tank mentally than Ivo did. And... I was right. In that fifth set, I've never seen anybody that pumped up... ever. He was like Hewitt on speed. It was amazing. I'm getting tired so I'm going to wrap this up... I'll tell you about the weekend when I met a lot of people and add in stuff that I forgot tomorrow. After the match I ran into some friends from another board. See, I had won on a scratch ticket - a 50 dollar USO gift certificate. I figured I'd buy a tshirt with it or something. But when Rafa finished his match... the booth was closed Since I wasn't coming back Wednesday, I just gave it away to my friends and told them to fight for it. I got a ride to the sbuway with them, where I gave away my metro card - that had 16 remaining dollars on it - to a couple women who gave me directions. They literally did fight over it ;D Then I wanted for two hours in the bus station, and got home 15 hours later... exhausted, after having slept on a bus all night. Some girl at the bust station gave me food. More on that tomorrow. ;D
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Post by Rassklovn on Sept 3, 2004 1:35:43 GMT -5
Thanks for the reports Chloe. I could never see myself ever going to the US Open, it would only if I got free tickets.
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Post by Jasper on Sept 3, 2004 1:44:34 GMT -5
Cool reports! We didn't go to like any of the same matches on Tuesday until the very end, but whatever. And I'm amazed and very impressed that you actually won something with those scratch-offs. I could barely scratch the damn silver shit off, let alone win something.
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 3, 2004 2:03:27 GMT -5
Thanks for the reports Chloe. I could never see myself ever going to the US Open, it would only if I got free tickets. It's really no different to going to a tournament in Canada It costs more, and is more crowded... but either than that, I don't see any serious differences.
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Post by Rassklovn on Sept 3, 2004 2:15:59 GMT -5
It's really no different to going to a tournament in Canada It costs more, and is more crowded... but either than that, I don't see any serious differences. You answered the differences yourself. It costs more and it's more crowded give me Roland Garros and Australian Open anyday, anytime. They might have plenty of people, but it doesn't feel like they are everywhere.
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Post by Ilhame on Sept 3, 2004 9:20:22 GMT -5
Thanks for the reports Rebecca!!!! Did you watch any players practice? Any Marat sightings?
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 3, 2004 9:46:50 GMT -5
Teehee, thanks for the reports, Becca. Tell Hurley to get his ass on this board again! I'll come back and reply more in detail. Did you ever get to see Anna-Lena? I was so bowled over that she qualified but then a bit disappointed when she couldn't finish off Callens in the first round. She has problems with her serve but other than that I don't really know much about her specs.
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Post by ILR on Sept 3, 2004 10:06:28 GMT -5
Thanks for the reports ;D Really good read, looking forward to some of the other details that you've yet to post
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Post by Jasper on Sept 4, 2004 2:15:28 GMT -5
You answered the differences yourself. It costs more and it's more crowded give me Roland Garros and Australian Open anyday, anytime. They might have plenty of people, but it doesn't feel like they are everywhere. Is the US Open more crowded than the other Slams? And if so, there's nothing wrong with that. The more people there is, the better atmosphere for the players. And I think the whole deal at the French Open with them only allowing you to buy tickets for one of the show courts absolutely sucks. It's not a big deal if all the tennis you want to see is on the side courts, but otherwise, it's baaaaad. At the US Open you can see matches on all of the main courts.
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Post by Rassklovn on Sept 4, 2004 3:07:25 GMT -5
Is the US Open more crowded than the other Slams? And if so, there's nothing wrong with that. The more people there is, the better atmosphere for the players. And I think the whole deal at the French Open with them only allowing you to buy tickets for one of the show courts absolutely sucks. It's not a big deal if all the tennis you want to see is on the side courts, but otherwise, it's baaaaad. At the US Open you can see matches on all of the main courts. It's just the venue and all the US propaganda about bigger and best about it's Open and it's not true. It's voted by the majority of players as the worst Slam, though it has got better from the old days. The French all it takes is a bit of creativity, people are swapping tickets around, if they really want to see a show court match they can, but in reality in the first few days centre court matches aren't that great. Maybe I am spoilt, when it comes to seeing Slams, though to be fair I have only been to the other three Slams and nothing compares to the AO and French Open, and that's not because of the standard of play, it's the other factors.
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 4, 2004 12:32:42 GMT -5
At some point I went to see Nicole Vaidisova. WOW. I can NOT believe that girl is 15! I mean... I believe it, but it's unbelievable. You follow? She's about 6' and.... as somebody before me said it best "looks like a 25 year old cheerleader". She's not ultra skinny like some of the other very tall girls. She has a good solid frame. Good serve, amazing groundies... very imposing. I was extremely impressed with her right now... more so than I was with Sesil. Nicole has a LOT of game RIGHT now. Too bad she drew Justine. When I saw that she had I was expecting a much better match. H-H won 61 64, but I understand it was harder than it looked. I'm interested to see Vaidisova. If there's one thing this USO got right, it was that all the youngsters fell into parts of the draw where they could be exposed on TV. Well, except Anna-Lena Vancouver was a pretty weak event, even for a Tier V, but she has had other good results this year as well. LMAO! Seriously? I saw him in Cincy last year and yeah, he has a nice physique, but I wasn't blown away or anything. He was practicing with Feds and had a solid-looking game. I wonder why he doesn't do better.
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 4, 2004 12:37:23 GMT -5
Nicole, again, was just incredibly impressive. I'm not in the least bit surprised that this girl already has her first WTA title under wraps. She also totally lacks the bratty, bitchy demeaner that a lot of young girls in her place *cough*Sesil*cough*Hingis*cough* often do. If one can "seem" like a nice player, she does. Hmm, interesting. I always kinda got the feeling she was rather arrogant, though not so much of a shoot-off-the-mouth like Sesil. I know, I know, all good players are arrogant, but this description seems really Kim-like to me, and it wasn't what I was thinking. I guess I'll have to watch her match with H-H. Well he certainly had a "breakthrough" here. He's really struggled with life after juniors but taking a set off Feds ought to give him some confidence. That's great that he's so full of positive energy
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 4, 2004 12:45:40 GMT -5
Verdasco has... groupies. Wow. Who knew? He had a band of girls screaming his name all match. Hilarious! I guess they think he's really cute or something. Meh. LOL, that's exactly what it is Probably the same ones who were falling all over themselves to get to Lopez last year. What is it about the long hair? I just don't get it Well, he's been called "too nice", and his coach has even said that he doesn't have enough fire in his belly, but I think, normally, he is plenty firey He probably was not disappointed because he was out for three months with a broken wrist. I wasn't disappointed so much about him losing as that he has lost everything and has to start over from scratch. The consistency just isn't there yet, but hopefully he can make it up this fall. He is one of the nicest guys on the tour, and I'm glad he stuck around for his fans We've missed him terribly He's not really one to internalize, I just think he doesn't take it be-all end-all seriously. I've seem him yelling and screaming before. The intensity is just quiet, not Hewitt-like.
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 4, 2004 12:48:37 GMT -5
In that fifth set, I've never seen anybody that pumped up... ever. He was like Hewitt on speed. It was amazing. LMAO!!
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 4, 2004 14:48:57 GMT -5
Teehee, thanks for the reports, Becca. Tell Hurley to get his ass on this board again! I'll come back and reply more in detail. Did you ever get to see Anna-Lena? I was so bowled over that she qualified but then a bit disappointed when she couldn't finish off Callens in the first round. She has problems with her serve but other than that I don't really know much about her specs. I saw her, but only for a few games. In those few games, her serve was okay She is a big girl, and has nice big groundies. That's about all I remember. Nothing you didn't already know
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Post by The Chloe on Sept 4, 2004 14:50:34 GMT -5
Thanks for the reports Rebecca!!!! Did you watch any players practice? Any Marat sightings? They changed the main practice courts - that is, they put a cover where it used to be easy to see. You can still see, but it's irritating. I only saw Robredo and Nadal and didn't bother to go back there. I wouldn't have gone in the first place, but I *heard* Nadal and that is why I went over. No Marat sightings. I tried to gte on court for his match, but I waited until too long and they were checking tickets at that point.
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Post by Slaughterhouse on Sept 4, 2004 14:51:48 GMT -5
Thanks for all the reports, next tournament I go to I will come up with something, though don't ever expect any WTA stuff.
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