Memphis 2007, or The Swedish Love Fest!!

[Francine]

admin said:

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.

Aww, bless you You should go and sit next to him during Thomas's next double match and make friends, lol.

Thanks for your Thomas Johansson photo collection, he's probably never been photographed that often in a single tournament, lol. I've seen him play two or three times and never took a single photo

[Stefan Koubek Fashion Guru]

admin said:

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 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!

for Koubek winning.

Koubek only stands that far behind the baseline to get a towel from the ballkids.

[Stefan Koubek Fashion Guru]

choupi said:

Thanks for the pics & reports Hackie. I'm sad you've been disappointed by Del Potro, but every player has bad days one day. Btw, it's not his coach that you spotted, but his physical trainer Cristian Elseser (coach being Infantino).

Good to see your eyes are working well and you have for Cristian.

[choupi]

gwh said:

Good to see your eyes are working well and you have for Cristian.

Thanks for the laugh!! Yes, my eyes are working well

[TennisHack]

aphex said:

So has Magnus done the respectable thing to do and asked you out yet, Hackie?

LOL, I think he's more interested in staying far, far away from me and my prying camera. Isn't he married or something?

[TennisHack]

francine said:

Aww, bless you You should go and sit next to him during Thomas's next double match and make friends, lol.

Hehe, if I had more courage, maybe...But I'm a big wuss. I've had chances to talk to several players and just clammed up *sigh*

Thanks for your Thomas Johansson photo collection, he's probably never been photographed that often in a single tournament, lol. I've seen him play two or three times and never took a single photo

LOL, maybe that's why they know who I am! We're some of the few week-long ticketholders who have gone everyday, and the tournament workers are starting to recognize us on site. And, one of our seatmates complimented me on my picture-taking. I spent the whole Duck-ToJo match looking through the viewer of my camera

[TennisHack]

gwh said:

for Koubek winning.

Koubek only stands that far behind the baseline to get a towel from the ballkids.

He's been hugging the backdrop the whole tourney here. I crop those photos close, but not that close He's been playing players who hit very hard, but he's so far been able to keep them from hitting through him. We'll see how he does vs Murray and his cheese.

[TennisHack]

Well we decided to make any early night of it tonight, so I'm back. Most of our faves lost today

I think my internet connection is going to cut off on Sat/Sun midnight, so final reports may be delayed.

[TennisHack]

Day 7: Fri 2/23

Goodness, it's hard to believe the tourney is winding down. I hate the end of the week, because players start to leave, and the ones left are ones I generally don't like...man, if I could follow the Tour around, I totally would. It's so much fun being at an event from start to finish

Anyway, today we went in late, not wanting to sit through too much of the first women's semi, but wanting to catch the first 3 men's quarters. We sat through the second set of (SF) Shahar Peer vs Meilen Tu and it was pure torture. It took Peer over 2 hours to polish off a qualifier with no serve. Shudder!!

The first men's match was (QF) Mardy "Lady Legs" Fish vs Teimuraz Gabashvili. Gabashvili was supposed to have lost 2 rounds ago, but here he is, and I had a bad feeling that he would be overwhelmed in the moment.

Fish looked like he raided Spadea's closet. His clothes were at least two sizes too large. And of course, his legs looked very dainty (and short) between those big baggy pimp pants and his short socks. Even his underwear looked baggy.

He also had his knee strapped, which he called the trainer to adjust in the first set.

It would not be the trainer's last visit to court...

Gabashvili was very visibly nervous at the beginning of the match. He also had two incredibly obnoxious cheerleaders, the same from his 2R match, who whooped and screamed after every point with such force that the rest of the crowd spent the match trying to shut them up. Out NZ chair didn't say anything to them, but you can imagine...it's like if the US Open were held in an echo chamber, they were that loud. And it was to the point of, were they cheering for Gabashvili or just making fun of him?

Anyway, Fish got out to a very quick lead (breaking for 4-2) and continued to serve very well. Gabashvili found his first serve at the end of the set, but it wasn't enough to save him; he's broken again for the set, 6-2. His first serves were landing in the bottom of the net, and he was talking to himself furiously. It was the meltdown I had been expecting for the last match or so.

The only good thing about his sorry, nervous play was that it shut up his cheering section.

Fish jumped out to a 3-0 lead and Gabashvili started screaming at the chair umpires about the line calls, telling him sarcastically at one point, that "you must be God, you can see better than everybody else on this court!"

Gabashvili asked for the trainer at this changeover; the trainer and the doctor came onto court. I tried to figure out what they were doing; he was given some tablets to take and they didn't otherwise touch him.

They didn't take a medical timeout, but they talked for quite awhile on the side, with the chair umpire. Neither the trainer nor the doctor left the court on the changeover, always a bad sign!

Sure enough, two games later, Gabashvili retired because of illness. I guess he caught the Memphis flu...

[TennisHack]

The hottie chair umpire was watching this match, up behind the announcer guy. I was just working up the courage to ask him for a pic when Gabashvili retired. I looked back for him again, and he was gone! Like a shot Oh, well. He'd probably think I was nuts to want a pic of him, since he's merely an official...

Speaking of the announcer guy, he and the WTA supervisor have some weird thing going, where they announce the chair is from some crazy nonexistent place like Bucksnort, TN or Frankenstein, MN. They apparently like to get a reaction from the chair, who they are on eye level with in the stadium. Apparently they've gotten at least a smile (if not some nasty reply via walkie talkie) from everybody...except Norm Chryst!

Turns out, Mr. Hotness was the chair umpire for the next match, (QF) Tommy Haas vs Sam Querrey.

Haas looked like he was ready to take care of business, but Querrey...he stumped me. Of course I've heard the hype, and I've seen him play on TV, but his performance today was bizarre.

First of all, he played like he'd never heard of the term "knee bend". He made Sjeng Schalken look flexible, especially when he served! Even in ready position, he stood almost straight, like a robot.

He apparently also shopped around in Spadea's closet.

He played very listlessly, making me wonder if he was also sick. It seems this virus has ripped through the players' lounge.

Haas got out to a 3-0 lead, winning the first 9 points of the match before Querrey finally put himself on the board. Haas broke him again for 4-1, and Querrey started tossing his racquet around. Haas grabbed the first set in 18 minutes, 6-2

Querrey's response? Spend the set break changeover in the middle of the court. Bizarre!

Of course, during the first set he looked like he wandered into a different sport and had no idea how to work his way out of a paper bag. 'Deer in headlights' would be very generous!

Anyway, whatever he did while sitting on the sideline worked because he displayed his serve and held easily to start the second set. That lasts for about 4.5 games; Querrey breaks himself for 2-3 on a feeble DF. A shame, because he fought his way back from 0-40 in that game.

Haas breaks again for 5-2 with back-to-back backhands down the line, one as a rally winner and the other as a passing shot. Really gorgeous stuff from him! He served for it and easily held, 6-2 6-2 in 43 minutes. That was the shortest completed match of the tournament -- and the women are supposed to be the quick ones!

Thus far, Haas has been damn near perfect in his defense, and Fish hasn't been too far behind, serving extremely well in his last 2 matches. That should be a good semi, and probably deserves to be the title match.