The Cult's reports from SW19

[GoDom]

So I'm going again. For some reason I like this tournament.
Weather forecast is very good which is probably a cruel joke at my expense.
I will be leaving tomorrow morning. When I arrive in London it will be 1 pm or so and I have no clue what to do. I intend to watch some tennis so I will probably just head down to Southfields and check things out. Maybe I'll get in at 5 pm, or earlier. Who knows.

If I get in, I guess I'll eventually try to get a seat on Court 3 to watch Llodra vs. Ancic and also the three dwarves (Pin, Sela and Rochus). Niculescu vs. Rybarikova on Court 7 would be quite interesting also, and Radwanska vs. Benesova TBA.
Stadler vs. Karlovic on Court 19, that's on the other side. Leena, I will see what I can do, if not I will watch Ivo's 2r match for sure.

Three more days to follow, then I'll leave early Friday morning.

[Denise49IQ]

I'm going too! We should meet up!

[sasha]

On Court 19. Reports of Nikki and Ivo's 1R losses!

[Edna Krabappel]

I still can't quite fathom that people are able to go to another country just like that, whenever they feel like it. But that's another story.

Have fun!

[DBBN]

Jun 22, 2008 15:06:22 GMT -5 Denise49IQ said:

I'm going too! We should meet up!

OMG. It will be just like in movies where people despise each other at first and then fall madly in love.

This is one of those moments where they get the templates for clichés. OMG.

[Edna Krabappel]

It has to include Tim rushing madly to the airport to stop the heartbroken GoDom from leaving the city, for good.

[Wagasi]

Be sure to take lots of pictures together

[DBBN]

Be sure to make lots of babies together

Jun 22, 2008 18:14:31 GMT -5 Edna Krabappel said:

It has to include Tim rushing madly to the airport to stop the heartbroken GoDom from leaving the city, for good.

Hee! Yes, but he rushes to Gatwick and GoDom is at Heathrow! OH NO! Sequel???

[R. Black]

[lexpretend]

I'm going as well! But I wouldn't want to get in the way of the romance above

Also, I still don't know when I'm going. Probably Wednesday or Friday. I haven't booked any time off work yet either.

[DBBN]

Wow. Threesome!

[lexpretend]

I'm going with my friend Annabel on Wednesday. Foursome!

[Denise49IQ]

I'm going with my French friend, maybe another friend and a couple of people from AUS (no, not from WTA World).

I hope GoDom is good looking. ;D

[DBBN]

ZOMG orgy.

[sasha]

Orgy in the queue.

[R. Black]

Queue means penis in French, so it is the perfect place.

[GoDom]

I'm very close to deleting this thread. And damn this weird keyboard where the y is not where it should be.

[GoDom]

Anyway, because I'm so nice:

Landed in Stansted at 9.30. Bus left 10, arrived 11.15 at Victoria Station. Arrived at hotel at 11.45. Joined queue 12.45, was inside the Grounds at 1.45 pm. Couldn't believe it. Weather great. Sunburnt.
Started at Courts 15-17.
Kamke too weak against Seppi who's definitely no grass court player. Why was KamKe LL anyway?
Pavly def. Cornet: a match of chokes. Something wasn't right with Alize, she was bitching the whole time and also lacked focus. Pavly looks fat but is still quite fast and very solid. In the second set Alize was totally out of it but Pavly choked horribly from 5-2 to 5-6. Then she called for the trainer. The break took 15 minutes which is ridiculous. Alize still had a set-point but choked. The end. Some good points though.
Beth def. Bremond: Beth played very well in the last two sets. Even some great serve-and-volleying. I like her now. Sev had a huge strap on her knee, kinda like Goran Prpic if anyone remembers him. She was a bit slow but Beth was just too good.
KBond def. Fuji: Sad. Rika is very small but has great touch, good volleys, fast and fights very well. Problem: she is Asian/Japanese, which means choke. At 6-1 4-4 she had 30-0 and then played several stupid shots. KBond hits extremely and this was always her match to win or lose. In the end she was too good on the big points.
Stadler def. Ivo: I watched some of it! Last three points of the first set - great passing shot Ivo, two DF's Stadler. Tie-break of second set. Ivo got broken twice, great return Stadler and a messed-up shot Ivo. Stadler DFed again but it didn't matter. End of third set. Missed the break but Stadler played well while Ivo sucked. Ivo certainly has some mental block now but Stadler is very talented, lots of S+V. Actually I'm happy that he won!
Chak def. Steph: I watched the third set from 5-4 Steph (didn't see the first two match-points). There were three reasons why Chak won: Chak played extremely well and aggressive whenever she was down, Steph played a bit too tentatively (but she didn't really choke), and Chak had some luck with net-cords, while Steph's drop-shot attempt at 6-6 30-15 didn't go over. Tense match. Felt very sorry for Steph who fought so well.
Yeah, so many retirements. That blows.
Rochus def. Sela: Oli played great. It was funny because these two play almost identical. But Oli was a bit better in every category.
Ryba vs. Monica 6-1 3-6 4-2 susp: very fun match. Magda dominated the first set with power-tennis, Mon was helpless. Second set, finally forehand slice galore from Mon. Awesome. And she has great volleys too. But, she's also a crazy bitch. Screams wild, then laughs, then cries. All within one game. Anyway, the forehand slice approach worked perfectly, also because Magda played too passive all of the sudden. Third set, unlucky loss of serve for Mon, I think Magda will win tomorrow.

[GoDom]

Some more but can't remember now. And no, I'm not good-looking, so you all better stay away from me.

[DBBN]

[sasha]

I wish I could see Pouty Magda play. I think she has high favorite potential.

[Denise49IQ]

Hmmm, a non good looking sunburnt German. Shouldn't be too difficult to spot!

[Brinyi]

Jun 23, 2008 17:14:34 GMT -5 GoDom said:

Second set, finally forehand slice galore from Mon. Awesome. And she has great volleys too. But, she's also a crazy bitch. Screams wild, then laughs, then cries. All within one game.

Thanks for the report, Doc.

[GoDom]

Since the whole Cult is going to Wimblz I thought I would make this thread inclusive. Post your reports here if you want.

[GoDom]

Day 2. More sun. More burn. More tennis. Little time.

Sugi def. Yanina: Sugi played well, great defense which frustrated the hell out of Wick.
Monica def. Ryba: Go Monica! My prediction was totally off as usual but I don't care. Magda couldn't get into the match at all today, she made tons of bad errors. I don't understand why she never got back to the aggressive (and very impressive) game that she played in the first set. Monica held her nerve even after the obligatory fake 15 min. injury timeout and served it out. She was happy (duh).
Loit def. Lucie. Some choking from Emilie but she served very well, about a dozen aces. Lucie very inconsistent. Lots of jumping from Emilie after winning.
MATCH OF THE DAY GOERGES-KATA 16-14. First set was error galore. Missed second set as I fell asleep on Henman Hill. Woke up just in the time for the end (or so I thought) of the third set. What a set. Lots of choking of course. Julia hits so well especially on the forehand but she got tight on the backhand whenever she was serving for the match (six times in total). I lost count of how many match-points both had. Goerges always blew it with backhand errors or being too passive. But she was aggressive when down. They kept battling but in the end it was Julia's match to win or lose because Kata's serve sucked badly. Still, a German (!) winning a match (!!) at a GS (!!!) from match-point down (!!!!) .... (I could add more) is simply incredible. Well done and standing ovations from the pro-Goerges crowd!!

[lexpretend]

Aw, you saw the epic! Jealous. How was Goerges' reaction at the end?

I had a great time yesterday, will write it up when I retrieve my brain from whatever champagne-filled hole it fell into.

[Dina]

I went yesterday, got in at 11.30 so decided to go to the practice courts, I didn't realise the access was so crap and when I pushed my way to the front I saw it was only gaymo Lopez practicing with Al Costa and fed was somewhere around according to the mutterings of other people, well i wasn't going to bother with that.

i strted off on on court 18 for dancing frank and his cool hair. Reynolds has a big serve and basically nothing else, frank has a nice backhand and basically not a lot else and they both have girly grunts. The highlight was some guy at the front who whenever dancevic won a point would shout out "massive frank" much to the amusement of some in the same row. I left after reynolds won the second set, I was with my mum and she didn't want to go running around the courts so we got stuck watching kanepi/castano playing the chinese pair in the doubles. It looked like it would never end and in the end we left before it finished, kanepi or castano's coach was shouting Vamos kata and comeon Kaia after practically every point and was getting frustrted as was everyone else in the crowd at their inability to finish points off. Then it was off to the main attraction, Gonzo-Bolelli, we had to cue for about 45 minuted to get on so missed the first set. as well as being cute Bollelli also has a decent game whereas I thought he was just a clay court player, Gonzo's mind wasn't on the match as he kept looking around and complaining about the movement in the crowd as well as smashing his racket on the side of a chair, neither really had much joy returning serve but once Gonzo took the third and was a break up in the fourth it looked like it was going to five but he then fell quite badly on his hip and lost that game and his serve. Bollelli forged ahead in the tiebreak then Gonzo choked and double faulted and lost. There was a good atmosphere on the court with Gonzo getting most of the support and there were a couple of chilean flags. I maintain the best fans were the Dusth in their funny hats from when I went the last time who were watching Verkerk. there arn't enough scoreboards and seeing Marat was two sets up and was playing a good match for the first time in three years I found a TV screen to see the last game. Other players spotted walking in the alley, Mahut who looks quite tall and someone else who I think was Nestor

[DBBN]

Thank you Dina!!

Jun 26, 2008 15:41:08 GMT -5 Dina said:

I went yesterday, got in at 11.30 so decided to go to the practice courts, I didn't realise the access was so crap and when I pushed my way to the front I saw it was only gaymo Lopez practicing with Al Costa

Psssh

I was with my mum and she didn't want to go running around the courts so we got stuck watching kanepi/castano playing the chinese pair in the doubles.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhh, this is why I refuse to go to the USO with people.

[:rolleyes:]

I'm going to be in London in early October. I'm staying at the Copthorne Tara from a priceline bid of $130 after tax. I plan to spend a ton on food and admission prices.

This isn't really relevant to Godom's thread, but yeaah.

[GoDom]

On my way out of London already. Like last year I chose the crazy ass route home, leaving with the bus at Victoria at 2.40 am which blows because London closes down at 1 am. But, it is for the better because I would never be able to leave on a wonderful morning, knowing that tennis matches are about to start.

I will write some notes about yesterday and today now, but only from what I remember. Ask if you want more.