Indian Wells 2007

[Lee]

aphex said:

Lee! So does this mean I owe you?

You do ;D

[Lee]

March 10

Lots more people than Friday and before gate open, staff announced Stadium 1 sold out so people without tickets could only buy a ground pass. Once I was inside, I debated whether I wanted to buy tickets for Sunday but after much analyzing, I determined to leave Indian Wells in the morning so I didn’t.

The practice courts were filled with doubles players. Dlouhy and Skoch (I guess) Nestor and Knowles. They were to meet in first round. I didn’t know the pair practicing with Nestor and Knowles. They were pretty good. They played a set and Knowles was playing like shit. His serve was not there and neither his volley. Nestor was OK but not super great. As a hindsight, I shouldn’t be surprised that they lost 1st round. Since I took a pic of Nestor with his wife, I was obliged to take a pic of Nestor with his other partner.

Since not many practices I’m interested and the matches lined up were really good, I planned to spend most of my last day watching matches.

First match was Ivanovic vs King in Stadium 2. Ana played terrible in the first 4 games. She needed a longer warm up. She was down 1-3, woke up and won the remaining games. Winning 6-3 6-0. I left after 1st set because I wanted to see Cañas. When I reached court 6, it’s very crowded and the score was 6-1 Cañas already so I told myself forgot about it.

I went to court 4 to watch Benjamin Becker vs Alejandro Falla. When I arrived, the score was 5-4 Falla. Both hold serve and TB for 1st set. Becker was playing OK but not good while the Colombian Stud was smoking. In TB, other than winning a point from Falla’s 1st serve, Becker lost all the points, including all his service points, losing 1-7 in TB. Becker continued to play like shit and Falla gained confidence wining 7-6 6-3. Falla had quite a cheering squad there and they were his friends. At the end of the match, they got onto the court and talked with him, took a picture with a little kid and some of his friends helped themselves with the water/soda in the cooler there. At one point during the match, a guy called out “He’s not Boris” (referring to Becker) and it’s a little bit mean, IMO.

A side note on this match. Not long after I sat, a guy with credential came and sat right next to me. I took a peek and he’s Michael Kohlmann, came to cheer on his compatriot. He was with his girlfriend. Guess an OK doubles specialist won’t make much money on the tour. His girlfriend has no manicure, pedicure or babbles on her fingers, around her neck or anywhere else. Her clothes were more likely from Old Navy than Newman Marcus. But she’s quite pretty and nice. And Michael is a good boy friend. She put her soda cup on top of a garbage can but Michael picked it up and held it for her. Michael yelled some encouraging words (I guess as they were in German) toward Becker but not much help there.

[Lee]

Then I went to watch Sugiyama vs Yuan. Every game took forever and Ai finally won 1st set 7-5. Both players were not playing well. Yuan had her thigh wrapped tight and Ai DF on break point twice. Moved onto watch Volandri vs Horna. You can imagine how bad the match was when Horna bagelled Volandri in 1st set and Volandri was downed a break in 2nd already when I sat in court 5. I watched 2 games and left right away when allowed. This was the worst match I ever saw in the whole tournament.

I returned to Stadium 2 for Moya vs Capdeville. It’s almost noon and was really hot out there now. Most of the fans were cheering for Moya although there were a big Argentina flag and a Chile flag. As expected, Moya’s cheerleaders were mostly ladies in their 30s to 50s. Well, Moya is HOT!!!!! Paul has potential but Moya was playing well and more experienced. Many left after the match but I stayed for Youzhny vs Acasuso. The sun was roasting me but I was talking with an senior couple from Phoenix so I stayed. Misha played great for 2 service games but than he seemed bothered by his shoulder/neck. Acasuso was playing very well and more patient, winning most long points. The most funny thing was Chucco kept sucking Misha in a sliced backhand limbo contest. The ball kept going lower and softer with each backhand slice from both players. Obviously, Misha was the one who lost his patience and tried something else and hit an UE. Misha managed to hang onto his serve for the first set but lost in a very tight TB where both players had set points. After 1st set, it’s time for the Nadal/Clement match so I left.

Next stop, Stadium 1 for Nadal vs Clement. Match not yet started when I got there and I kept to my ticket’s section but it’s toasting there. While they were warming up, a girl screamed “Nadal, I love you”. That killed half of my mood. Nadal’s play is very good and this was the first time I saw him played life. His forehand created incredible angles. Clement played at the same level as the day before but across the net was not Troicki. Didn’t take him long to lose his serve. I saw there were still vacant seats on the other side of the stadium so I moved to where the shade was. Although I was then totally surrounded by seniors, those over 60s. Some ladies were there because of their hubbies I thought because I saw a few reading novels instead of watching the match. Since Clement was losing, he nasty treatment for ballboys or girls were up. I liked him but he’s a real prick towards those little kids. One in particular he had a problem with and during one of his serve, after getting the ball, he threw it back to the ballkid, teaching him/her (I could not remember the gender) how to throw the ball to him. Of course, this earned him a few booos from the stands. I really had enough after a few games in 2nd set with more yelling from Nadal’s young admirers and left. This proved to be another excellent decision.

When I left Stadium 1, I saw Rainer practiced on the same court as yesterday. The one right next to the grass area and he’s shirtless this time. I thought he would left for Sunrise already after his lost in 1st round and he’s not in the doubles draw. (later found out he withdrew and it’s obvious he had problem with his wrapped up knee). I didn’t want him to think I was stalking him so before he left his practice, I left. Actually because there were many matches I wanted to watch.

[Lee]

I wanted to check on Tipsarvic vs Paradorn but like yesterday’s Mayer match, I heard Janko won the match while I was approaching Stadium 3. Then I noticed it’s Jarkko on Stadium 2 so I went there immediately. Jarkko was downed 1-6 and a break in 2nd set when I finally seated in Stadium 2. I thought, bye bye Jarkko he broke Goldstein back. When Goldstein tried to stay at the set at 4-5, Jarkko broke him and even the sets 1-1. I wanted to check on Verdasco/Seppi match at court 5 so I left after the set. But court 5 was very crowded and no shade. I also wanted to check out Max vs Tojo but court 4 was overflew so I returned to Stadium 2. Earlier during the Jarkko/Goldstein match, I started talking to other tennis fans and they waved me back to the seat I abandoned when I returned. Jarkko was up 4-1 when I returned and he’s serving for the match at 5-1. Lost his serve to 5-2. Served for the match at 5-3. Again lost his serve. He finally hold at 5-5. Goldstein needed to hold serve to force a TB but he really ran out of steam and Jarkko won 7-5. Jarkko’s serve is really weak. His first serves are around 85-90 mph.

Next on Stadium 2 was Gasquet vs Del Potro. One of the tennis fan I talked to, his wife is a BIG Gasquet fan. And sitting next to her, was a supporter of Del Potro. But both parties were very civil. Gasquet was in trouble early, down a break but Juan handed the break right back with some stupid points and DF. Afterward, Richard got a handle on Del Potro’s powerful first serve and winning more points returning serve. Anyway, 1st set went to TB. Richard started with a brain cramp and lost 1st point on his serve. But, Del Potro was even worse, brain cramp all the way to lost the TB. 2nd set, more UEs and brain cramp from Juan while Richard played very steady and won 2nd set 6-2. After watching 2 matches of Del Potro, I believe he’s one of the young balls that we need to keep our eyes on. He has very explosive forehand and good serve. If he matures and cut down on his DFs and brain cramps, he will be a force to be reckon with.

After the match, Gasquet was very happy and sent a tennis ball right to where I sat. The ball landed between me and the guy next to me. He’s the one whose wife is the BIG Gasquet fan so I didn’t fight for the ball with him. I joked to him that probably Gasquet heard him cheering in his 100% American accent (Go Richard with Richard pronounced in English way) and Richard was happy he has an American fan so he sent the ball to him.

I was terribly hungry then and the only food stand I passed (there were other places for food but I was too lazy to walk there) only had one sausage left for a “cold” dog. It cost $5 but as I said, I was terribly hungry so I took it. Worst I ever had.

I took the “cold” dog with me to Stadium 3 to eat. I wanted to watch Ferrero vs Mayer. I heard so much about Flo’s unorthodox technique and I had to watch before I left. But I had to endure my cold dog and Golovin/Nakamura match. They were really texting my patience as I was very very tired. I was at the tournament site for over 25 hours in the last 35 hours. Golovin served for the match but managed to lost serve at love. At least she broke right back and managed to serve out the match.

Finally, Mayer and Ferrero were on court. Unfortunately, the only interesting thing for this match was Flo’s double backhand slice and his forehand slice. He has the weirdest motion I ever saw. Even Mohammed’s umpiring could not safe the boring match. Flo was brilliant in the first 3 points of Ferrero’s serve, having 3 bps but suddenly, it went downhill like jumping off a cliff. JCF saved all 3 bps and won the first game. I thought it was 6-0 3-0 when Flo finally won a game on his serve. He won another game but finally, could hold his serve at 2-5, losing 0-6 2-6.

And this concluded my 2 days stint in Indian Wells 2007.

[TennisHack]

lee said:

When I left after the match, I almost wanted to hug him and cry but he is really determined to play bettern so I didn't want him to think his fan lost confidence in him.

I was so upset for him because of the way he was treated in his last match at Cincy. The crowd totally crawled all over him and was very inappropriate and there was absolutely no reason for it.

I did see him during his halcyon days, tho...I cried when he beat Jarkko, too, and I'm fairly sure both players saw him as they left the court, TOTALLY embarrassing

I am really surprised too but considered Alejandro Falla from Colombia also had quite a cheering squad there. That match will be in my 2nd day report.

Well whatever. I'll take what I can get!

[TennisHack]

lee said:

A side note on this match. Not long after I sat, a guy with credential came and sat right next to me. I took a peek and he’s Michael Kohlmann, came to cheer on his compatriot. He was with his girlfriend. Guess an OK doubles specialist won’t make much money on the tour. His girlfriend has no manicure, pedicure or babbles on her fingers, around her neck or anywhere else. Her clothes were more likely from Old Navy than Newman Marcus. But she’s quite pretty and nice. And Michael is a good boy friend. She put her soda cup on top of a garbage can but Michael picked it up and held it for her. Michael yelled some encouraging words (I guess as they were in German) toward Becker but not much help there.

These are the kinda things I like to hear! Even the doubles players usually manage to have incredibly hot, pampered girlfriends...but on that note, Julian Knowle's girlfriend looked pretty normal, too

A big to players cheering for their compatriots, too.

[TennisHack]

Thanks for your reports, Lee! Hehe, sounds like you were drowning in seniors as aphex predicted Maybe one day I'll have the patience to deal with MTF's weird gallery system cause it sounds like you saw some good matches.

I'm sorry Florian disappointed. I'd like to see him play, too, but he's sucked for about a year and a half now and thus, is nowhere near a TV court. I'd have been ecstatic that JCF won a match at Indian Wells, personally, considering his history at that tourney!

@ Nadal's admirers. Guess he's better than Ducko, tho...

[Lee]

I think I have the extra sense to stay away from Roddick considered that he was practising there and drew a big crowd.

Flo is playing incredible inconsistent. He did show his potential even in that disastrous match. He really needed to put all his weird strokes together.

JCF also has this problem. The way I saw him play, I just couldn't believe he would get wipe by Nadal with double breadsticks in later round.

[Francine]

Thanks for all your reports Lee! You look very on your pic with Rainer