More Tennis Stuff

There are sportscasters I like and there are sportscasters I do not like. I like Patrick and John MacEnroe and there's an English guy that's very good. I have to say that I lean toward the commentators who actually play the sport, but that could be star bias. When I went to the tournaments live, I did miss the commentary, so I was envious to see at the Open that they had headsets and little individual tv's for the crowd for rent that they could take to their seats to listen in the stadium. How cool. Now if they could just do something about the sun.

Having said all this about liking the commentary and having a star bias, I hate player interviews. I won't watch them. I love many of those players, but quite frankly, I'm too nervous before a match so I can't imagine that they would have anything constructive to say on camera when they should be mentally preparing for the game before a match. After a match, I'm too mentally drained from the excitement, so I can't imagine that they can have anything interesting to say that soon after the match either. And later at the little press conference style thing they do, the match is over--move on--bigger fish to fry. The time I want to hear the commentary is during their next match when the commentator reminds us about their style of play or their choices and decisions in their last match and how they are making adjustments, etc. in the current match.

Anyhoo, given all this, it is no surprise that I missed all the holaballo after the Djokovic/Roddick match last night. Djok had to know the fans might be a little cranky--Nadal's match the night before went past 2 a.m.. Many fans buy blocks of tickets so that they go every day and Djok had just beat America's greatest hope in the tournament. Djok yelled at the fans to shut up. Doesn't he know where they get the money to pay out the big prizes? Big dummy. So apparently he made some not so smart comments and got in big trouble with the fans after the match. The article said that he didn't get a cheer when he left--the winner was not cheered. That stadium is huge, so I can't imagine how that went. When he was asked about the next match (he plays Fedder) he said, Fedder is a big favorite, but the reporter commented in the article I read this morning, sorry Djokovic, too late for humility.

Tonight it's Nadal v. Murray. Murray is playing much better this year and this is as far as Nadal has ever reached at the U.S. Open (the hard court is not his strongest surface), but I'm still calling Nadal to win the whole thing. He is playing so well this year that he seems unstoppable and Fedder is showing signs of weakness. I still haven't seen him sweat, but I have seen more scowls this year and more errors.

On the women's side, Safina v. Serena--I have to like Safina's changes. Serena is up and down and Safina is extremely hot right now. And Safina wins an extra million dollars if she wins. That's a big incentive. In the other half of the draw it is Dementiava v. Jankovic. Dementiava has the advantage of playing really well coming off her gold medal win, but don't count Jelena out--she's tough. Whoever wins the Open for the women becomes the new number one. I have to say, I'm rooting for Dani Safina, but I like them all.

Coverage on USA network is done (bummer), so I'll be left scrambling to figure out what CBS is going to do with their coverage. They do not have the Nadal match tonight on the tv schedule--how can that be?? I hope that cooler minds prevail and something gets pre-empted.