Memphis 2007, or The Swedish Love Fest!!

[Lee]

Thanks for the great report, Hackie! Take care. You can do the reports later.

[choupi]

It's ok Hackie. Have some good rest. Reports can wait.

[TennisHack]

Well I did sleep well last night I thought I'd have time to do my reports before housekeeping came and kicked us out, but they are up here early today. So I'll at least start, I suppose.

Meilen Tu was down at breakfast this morning, the first I've seen of her. I think the Swedes are staying at the other hotel that's across the street from the club, the one Fish talks about in his blog from last year in Memphis. We saw some French players walking that way one day this week.

Onward...

Day 5: Wed 2/21
Breakfast was very quiet, only Sequera came in, with her coach (not, as previously thought, Dancevic) and that was at the very end of serving hours.

We went early, to start Swedes Day off right with (1R) Aspelin/Lindstedt vs Auckland/Haggard. James Auckland is pretty cute

and not a half-bad doubles player. The other Brit in the doubles draw, Jamie Murray, is getting more attention, but not from me ;D

Aspelin/Lindstedt won the match 6-3, 6-3. It was pretty interesting, but I was so tired I didn't take many detailed notes. There were no extra Swedes in attendance (I was looking for Magnus Norman all over the place!); the only players I saw were Julian Knowle (who only stayed for the first set and didn't want his picture taken again, LOL), and Nathalie Grandin & Chanelle Scheepers.

After the match, we left the stadium for greener pastures (who wants to watch Mattek vs Perry?), and happened to get to the main walkway at the same time as the Swedes, who were signing autographs. I accidentally hit one of them with my bag as I was trying to push through the crowd of kids! Oops!

Pics from doubles -- Auckland

Aspelin & Lindstedt

[cert. murse aphex]

Lindstedt looks as if he 'snusar'(put tobacco under your upper lip) while playing, like the tough guys did when I played football/soccer as a kid. How they managed to pull that off without a significant loss in stamina still eludes me.

[TennisHack]

After running over the Swedes, we made our way over to the Grandstand to see (2R) Teimuraz Gabashvili vs Alex Kuznetsov. The score was 57 52 Gabashvili. Gabashvili won the second set 6-3 and we settled in for the final set. I sensed that Gabashvili was on edge, like he was ready to explode with nervous energy. However, he was able to keep himself under control, and his serve was cooking by the third set.

Kuznetsov melted down instead. He reminds me of the 'old' Blake, very impatient and trying to hit winners from every part of the court. He has a big serve and after one of them was called out, he completely broke down. He was broken at 4-4, very feebly. When he gave himself a chance in the rally, he was usually able to win the point, but he didn't want to be patient. He wanted to out-serve Gabashvili.

Gabashvili was able to serve it out, and the qualifier is the first into the quarters!

It was going to be awhile before the next men's match, so we waited for Stosur to stop gagging it up to continue All Swede Day. Stosur went from 5-1 in the second to losing it in a TB to Camille Pin. We didn't watch this match. Instead, I listened to the score from the Grandstand, where we were stuck with Laura Granville vs Jarmila Gadjosova. I got a good shot of the Slovak, but the match was so boring we almost cried. As soon as Stosur found her serve, we were happy to leave the court. It took Granville about 2 hours to beat Gadjosova, and it was probably epically boring!

[TennisHack]

After Stosur, it was (2R) Sofia Arvidsson vs Nicole Pratt. The stands emptied out pretty quickly after Stosur's match. Personally, I can't believe the defending women's champion was never allowed to play on the stadium court. The fact that she bothered to come back to defend her title at this tiny event should count for something!

Anyway, we sat in front of her coach, who's name is Frederik something-or-other. [Today we rode the elevator with them, so at least those Swedes are staying at this hotel.]

Arvidsson started out overpowering her tiny, boyish opponent. She broke for 4-2 and held serve, then called for the trainer and took a medical timeout.

She was not noticeably injured, but she got her lower leg taped up, right above her ankle. She wasn't the same, losing 5 straight games and the first set. Pratt ran her ragged in those five games and seemed to destroy some of her confidence. She wasn't hitting with the same sort of authority. Her pretty Swedish coach was stone-faced through the whole ordeal, though she looked to him for some help.

The second set went on serve until Granville finally won, when I bounced over to the Grandstand to see the start of Benneteau vs Lee. In that time, Arvidsson broke and won the second set 6-4.

In the third set, both players struggled on serve. Arvidsson was reduced to some clay-length points and dragging out every bit of craftiness she has to squeak past Pratt, who is not noted for her singles anymore. Arvidsson looked slow as she loped around the court, too, but at least she didn't lose.

There was some old guy sitting in front of us who was very impressed with Arvidsson. He crossed the court at the end of the match and shook her hand, telling her she played some beautiful tennis. She accepted his congrats and walked over to her coach, and they went out the public way, signing autographs all the way.

[TennisHack]

Next up: (2R) Stefan Koubek vs Evgeny Korolev. We couldn't miss the Fashionista! And we seemed to not be able to get away from Korolev, having witnessed at least part of all of his matches.

Koubek's crew of Austrians was at the other end of the court, but I sat at the opposite end from his first match, so I could film some of his serve points. I focused on filming him, so I can only offer these few photos from the match:

There wasn't much to this match. Korolev just plain did not play well. His serve took a holiday, and the rest of his game was down a notch from previous matches. Koubek was of course 10 ft behind the baseline playing defense, and Korolev's answer was to try to hit through Koubek. That didn't work.

The first set went to a TB, and Koubek broke away for the win. I was expecting a much bigger display from him after such a close first set. Korolev received a racquet abuse warning for throwing his racquet around in the first set, and I guess he cracked the frame when he threw it at the end of the first set.

Koubek quickly went up 4-0 in the second before Korolev got on board. His ground game did not tighten up significantly, and he didn't seem to have a back-up plan. Koubek was the second man into the quarters, and the crazy Austrian antics will continue!

[TennisHack]

We had dinner and stargazed between matches, and finally it was time for the big finale to All Swedes Day, (1R) Thomas Johansson vs Andy Roddick. The entire Swedish contingent came out in support of Thomas. They all got there before the match started, except for Robert Lindstedt. Sofia Arvidsson and her coach, and Simon Aspelin, ended up sitting in front of us, while the others sat in the unofficial players' box.

And this is the reason Magnus Norman said hello to me after the match...because he saw me in the stands This one's for you, Francine, and I have a larger version if you want it.

It was taken between sets, I believe, and he just happened to look right at me when I snapped the pic.

Anyway, about the match...

The cute chair umpire was in charge, so that was some extra excitement on my part

Thomas played like shit in the first set. His first serve was practically nonexistent, and it was very hard to cheer for him, although we certainly did our best. We weren't his only fans in the building, but it seemed like they were concentrated in our section. I took pics throughout the match, so I couldn't take detailed match notes.

Roddick spent a good deal of the match arguing with the chair umpire about line calls. The line calling at this event has been pretty horrible, but the Duck was being ducky and calling the chair all kinds of names.

After one such explosion about a fault serve, Thomas had this reaction:

which I thought was hilarious

Thomas had his share of bad calls, but never said anything about them...and he generally had a better case to question them.

He played better in the second set, but the combination of bad calls and frustration over his own errors left him looking resigned to losing before it actually happened. You could practically see him thinking, "7-5, that's a decent set score..." Poor boy

[TennisHack]

I spent the match trying to take pics, because I didn't know how many times I'd have the chance to see him again. Most of them didn't turn out clear, but since Francine is a fellow big fan, I saved as many as was possible.

[TennisHack]