Tennis adventures

[kiro]

lee said:

Thanks for the report.

From what you say, if Bai has a good coach, he may be able to crack the ATP tour later.

Yep, he is our "star of hope". He played Wimbly juniors this year, but had a bad luck to draw the top seed in the 1st round.
He definitely needs a good coach to bring him up a step, but coaching is one of the main problems we're facing now.

[Lee]

kiro said:

lee said:

Thanks for the report.

From what you say, if Bai has a good coach, he may be able to crack the ATP tour later.

Yep, he is our "star of hope". He played Wimbly juniors this year, but had a bad luck to draw the top seed in the 1st round.
He definitely needs a good coach to bring him up a step, but coaching is one of the main problems we're facing now.

Well, football has hired many foreigners as players and coaches. I believe the tennis federation should hire coaches from Spain or Europe.

[cert. murse aphex]

Aphex at DC Swe-Arg, Göteborg, 6/4-8/4, 2007

Fri 6/4

Thomas Johansson vs David Nalbandian
I was late to the venue so I missed most of the opening ceremony and all places close to the court were taken so I was sitting in the top row. The place wasn’t so big so I got a pretty good overview of the action. My photos got a little smallish though due to my cheapo camera. It was pretty much sold out, and the atmosphere was pretty thick. The Swedish ‘Heja’ crowd and the Argentine ‘Olé’ crowd was sitting very close to eachother, only a couple of rows between. Typical tennis I guess. At a soccer match that would never happen.

The first set I think Nalbandian was better. He played more focused on the decisive points. ToJo almost always made an unforced error when the pressure was on. Maybe he was nervous. Hence Nalbandian got the early break. In some manner ToJo broke back to 4-4. Then ToJo slipped up when he was serving to save the set and Nalby had seated himself thinking he had won it, but the out call had been drowned in the roar from the Olé crowd, so Thomas was able to hold. On to the tie-break. David looked even more focused and Thomas more tight so 5-0 to Nalby pretty fast. Nalbandian is Nalbandian though so he choked away a couple of points before Thomas handed him a set point. Nalbandian won the first set totally deservedly imo.

The second set Thomas raised his game a notch. He served better and didn’t make so many unforced. Actually the play was pretty good in this match. Not many very long rallies, but lots of nice volley putaways, lobs, passing shots, down the line winners and of course the occassional ace(33 from ToJo!!!). This set was the mirror image of the first. Thomas got the early break to massive cheers. Nalbandian broke back somewhat unexpected to 4-4. In this set I noticed a guy sitting next to me, cheering very intently for Thomas, all classic gestures, the double fist pump, the single thumbs up, the double thumbs up, the head covered in his hands in despair, the YEAAAAAAAAAAH!, the trying to make eye contact with Thomas, I called him Crazy Fan Guy, he was my true idol of the week-end. He was the one who glanced at my sky blue David Sylvian t-shirt suspiciously. He probably thought it was a sky blue David Nalbandian one! Another cool fan was the moslim lady(I think) who was there with her sons dressed in a yellow dress and a blue scarf/ veil. At the end of this set Nalbandian hit someone in the crowd to huge jeers, after he lost an important point. Later Mancini apologized through the umpire. ToJo won the tiebrek pretty easily and the roof fell off from the applause.

The third set also had two breaks of serve. The difference being Thomas took both of them. I don’t know what happened to Nalbandian in this set. I thought he played the same. ToJo just won all important points I guess. Sometimes tennis is subtle. 6-2 to Johansson.

In the fourth the crowd was pretty into it of course. Their man was leading. The olé crowd hadn’t given up though and found a new hobby. Jumping in the benches. In this set both hold serve until the tie break and you thought you were in for a real exciting horror style epic. To my surpise (or maybe not), Nalbandian folded like a leaf, whileJohansson was rock solid to win it at love. Total approval from the crowd. Crazy Fan Guy looked a little red, but he survived. The atmosphere in this match was electric as the cliché says. Just fantastic. And I must say ToJo is the real Swedish #1 even if his ranking says otherwise. The Toad is nowhere near his merits or skills. I guess both the Argies and the crowd concurred because this match felt as it was the most important of the tie.

Robin Söderling vs Juan-Martin Del Potro
This match turned out as I expected it to be. Well from Söderling at least as I’ve only seen Del Potro play a couple of points in Indian Wells. Serve, serve, serve ad nauseum. Not many nice rallies or vollies or anything. Maybe the odd played point here and there. No breaks of serve in the first and second sets. They both went to tie-breaks which the Toad won close but pretty comfortably. I usually don’t talk about charisma. It’s too new-age for me, but Robin ‘The Toad’ Söderling must be the most dull player ever. All the other players in this tie was Elvis Presley or Clark Gable compared to him. Not only me, but the rest of the crowd was also sedated by the average and monotonous play. Maybe they were a little spent by the the total emotional high of the previous match. In the tie-breaks they got into it more. In the second set the Swedish discovered they could stomp their feet in the benches to make a thunderous sound. So something good came out of this match at least.

The surprise of the match came at 4-3 to the Toad in the 3rd. He broke Del Potros serve!!! Of course he squandered his opportunity to serve it out. But he redeemed himself by breaking Del Potro again to win the set and the match. Foot stomping and applause ensued. The Toad waved to the crowd with his usual smug grin. I really dislike this guy. Not so much I didn’t applaud his win though. Sweden 2-0 up after the first day!

DC rocks!

[cert. murse aphex]

Sat 7/4

Jonas Björkman/Thomas Johansson vs. David Nalbandian/Guillermo Canas
This day I was at venue one hour early. I had learned my lesson. I got a seat very close to the court, 4-5 steps up. While I was reading my paper and listening to techno on my mp3 player, I got a very mucho nice surprise. The announcer said there had been some late changes to the doubles line-ups. ToJo replacing Robert Lindstedt and (big drumroll) Canas!!! replacing Sebastian Prieto. The dream teams come true! I guess the coaches recognized the importance of this match. Sweden wanted to take advantage of Johansson riding a wave of confidence. Argentina was in a do or die situation so they put on their best and most experienced players. Needless to say I was really excited for this match. CANAS THE FED SLAYER WAS ON!

I was sitting opposite of the Swedes’ bench and behind them sat their player friends. I saw Norman, Larsson and Vinciguerra. A little bit weird was Vinci appearing to stare me in the eyes 2 or 3 times when I was looking over there. Maybe he was trying to read what was on my hoody. Maybe he was wondering what a fat slob like me was doing there.

This match was the best of the tie quality wise. It had everything you wish for when it comes to shots, except drop-shots. Especially lobs where abundant. Both teams were excellent volley players. To my surprise both Thomas and Canas were good at it. According to Mats it was Canas’ lack of net skills that cost Argentina , but I think another factor was decisive. First set was close, but no breaks of serve until the very last game when Argentina converted on set point for 6-4. The Olè crowd did some sort of conga dance together with the Argentine bench in celebration. It was interesting to sit up close. Not only did I get better pics with my crappy camera, I could also compare the different gestures and body languages of the teams. Sweden it was more stiff upper lips and clenched teeth and looking very firm. Argentina it was more vivid, and especially Canas was extremely positive all the time, smiling almost maniacally, lots of palm to palm as is usual in doubles. What was a bit negative though was that the stands weren’t anywhere near as full as on Friday. Maybe they were 2/3 or 3/4 of capacity. According to my aunt it was because Easter Saturday is a big family day. I’m so out of the loop. Foot stomping, flag waving, singing were pretty much on still. The ‘Heja’ crowd had their own specialty, a high pitched humming of a TV theme which I can’t name.

Second set was more of the same close high quality battle. A couple of breaks were traded. Nalbandian faced the music again when he hit a ball into the roof after the Argies lost an important point. Canas was still very positive. At the end end of the set something happened to him though. I think he reinjured his thigh. He was about to sit down for an injury time-out, but decided against it for some reason. I don’t know why. Maybe he wanted to be a good sport, since he got some heat from Swedish media for his suspension. I must say the crowd respected him though. He got a big hand at the presentation before the match. As he should. He has after all beaten Federer twice in a couple of weeks. After this incident I think he moved a little bit more stiffly. He didn’t limp or anything. But I think you could tell a difference, albeit slight. Sweden won a quite close tie-break, to thunder stomps, standing ovations and craziness from the crowd. The Argies took a break, perhaps to re-bandage Canas’ thigh.

Third set, analogous to the day before, ToJo and Bjösse ran away with it. I actually think Canas’ injury came into play here and it was this Mats Wilander meant when he said Canas wasn’t able to help out as much by covering the net in Nabandian’s service games as vice versa. Nalbandian did one funny shot though, a lob that started rolling on a ledge on one of the rafters and stayed there. It’s probably still there. After this set I took a break and had my #1 fanboy moment when I came close to Mats and Jonas outside the players bathroom.

Fourth set, as I’m not used to live tennis so I moved up again to get a better overview. Guess who I found there, still pumping his fists after every point we won? You guessed right. Crazy Fan Guy was there doing us Swedes proud. This set was closer. The teams traded breaks once. Sweden got the last decisive one, to the dismay of Nalbandian who broke his racket and got the whistles from the crowd again. Canas was positive until the end though. And why not. I actually thought and hoped for a five-set classic. It wasn’t to be as Sweden won game, set, match and tie. Standing ovations from the crowd of course. Hugs, waves, Björkman step and a Mexican wave from the Swedish players and coaches. Del Potro was the only one of the Argies who didn’t leave almost immediately. He thanked almost everyone of the Swedes for a good match. The hugging, high-fiving and celebrations went on for a while. Even Björkmans baby-boy got a little piece of the action. Sweden leads and had won the tie 3-0. For some reason the sunny weather before the match had turned ino very cold rain mixed with snow. www.godhatessweden.com/

I'm hooked on DC live now. Even if it's all indoor idiot play.

[cert. murse aphex]

Sun 8/4

Jonas Björkman vs. Sebastian Prieto
On to meaningless exo day. Jonas Björkman had the less fortunate pleasure (according to himself) to play the first match. His opposition was discarded doubles specialist #1 Sebastian Prieto. This guy really looked out of place in singles, or maybe he didn’t even care to pretend motivation, I don’t know. In the first set he had no chance at all. His groundies and overall play were just to soft for Björkman who actually is the second best ranked Swedish singles player, although ToJo and Pim-pim probably are better players than him. Prieto was a really non-descript character. I wonder why he was on the team at all. Isn’t Argie tennis supposed to be very deep? Or was that two years ago? Bjösse won the first set 6-1.

This day the crowd was even smaller, perhaps 35-40% of the 4000 capacity. The atmosphere was really mellow and hung-over from the excitement of the previous days. For this match I was late again. So I got a place in the middle height wise.

In the beginning of the second set Prieto actually broke Björkman’s serve and RACED to a 2-0 lead, so excitement for a while, which in about 20 minutes or so turned into 6-2 win for Jonas. Björkman wore a yellow jersey for this match. Only WTA style action going on in this match. I think Prieto didn’t really try.

Robert Lindstedt vs. Juan-Martin Del Potro
Discarded doubles specialist #2, little known Robert Lindstedt, up for slaughter against Argentinian prospect, Juan-Martin Del Potro. Well, it didn’t turn out that way. But I was thinking why Mancini and Wilander didn’t pit doubles specialist against doubles specialist to get an exciting match. Maybe the deal was for Argentina to get a consolation point. For this match I moved down close to the court since I wanted better pics of the players. And there he was again, my best friend, not so intense this time, but still cheering on, Crazy Fan Guy. I think he looked at me and recognized me. But we didn’t talk. This is after all Sweden.

Robert Lindstedt was actually a surprise to me. He played very aggressive, attacking tennis, huge serve, pretty hard groundies and the occasional clever volley. I wonder why he is stuck playing doubles. He’s at least as good as for example Michael Ryderstedt. He definitely has better groundies technique. Perhaps it’s money or mental? Del Potro should switch nationality to Sweden. He plays Swedish or American tennis with his big serve and winners based game. His mimicks and gestures are very latin and funny though. Lindstedt made himself proud by taking the first set to a tie-break and only losing his serve once. Del Potro is after all a top 100 singles player. For some reason Juan-Martin was pissed-off after the match and didn’t obey Mancini urging him to thank the crowd. Maybe he didn’t want to play either?

All in all the week-end was awesome, especially Friday and Saturday. Actually I can picture myself going to watch Sweden vs. USA. Blake, Roddick et al. fancies the same surfaces as the Swedes and dare I say are slightly better at it than us. Blake is actually undefeated indoors in Sweden, 10-0. Even Fish has won the Stockholm Open. Wilander wants to play in another venue in Göteborg, Scandinavium, where I think all Sweden’s wins against the Americans have come and I think we’re undefeated against them there. So very different circumstances for September. Hopefully Pim-pim will be back by then to put the fear into Roddick.

[Francine]

Thanks Aphex! Did you take a pic of the Crazy Fan guy?

[cert. murse aphex]

Yes, unfortunately not in action, I didn't want to upset anyone.

[TennisHack]

LMAO fabulous reports aphex! Thank you very much!

Hehe can't wait to see your pics. Crazy Fan Guy sounds like a lot of fun. I'm glad he forsake Easter to come for the third day of "meaningless exo matches".

Robert Lindstedt was quite impressive when I watched him in Memphis. He's quite old, I think that's why he's trying to stick to doubles now. He just needs the right partner because he has a decent game.

If you go to the SWE-USA tie I may see you on TV! Woohoo.

[choupi]

Thanks for those reports Aphex. Very good reading and it's nice to see you got hooked onto live DC ties!! ;D I repeat what I said somewhere else, you saw bunch of players I like and you got very close to Mats....... How I envy you!!

[Lee]

Thanks for the report. I can feel the excitement there.