Finals

Well, I stayed up last night until around midnight watching the score updates of the mens semi-finals (and about an hour later 'getting ready for bed', am starting to think that staying up til 1am, and getting up at 11am may not be great for my skin if nothing else) and today I watched the hightlights on the ole TV.  But I decided not to watch the live score for the womens final and wait entirely for the tv highlights (it is a final afterall), which meant I had to occupy myself until 6:15pm for the highlights programme to start.  I did go into town and bought a newspaper, and agonised over whether to read the sports section for a sillyly long amount of time, since we all know I have no will power and so I read it.

Erm, this is how they prepare for a final, US style.

But was saved by the fact that all the newspapers had gone to sleep before the womens final too, it was a sign that I should keep waiting and I defo did not want the result ruined by turning on my iGoogle page and having the score flashing up.  And so (understanding my lack of will power) I havent turned my laptop on all day, possibly the first time since I bought it, apart from the several times it was broken.   And was the match worth it, erm no, predictably not.  Clijsters beat Zvonarava 6-2 6-1 ouch, poor Zvon who lost the wimbledon final too and is starting to become the new Safina (playing great, getting to a final, then crumbling under nerves).  But as Clijster's herself put it, it took her '7 or 8' finals before she won her first.

Moving on then to the mens semis, Nadal up first againts Youzhny and I dont have any pictures.  Nadal has boring hair and shirts now and Youzhny was creamed 6-2 6-3 6-3 or something.  Nadal has not dropped a set yet, been a little lucky with the draw, but still looking ominous for his final opponent.  But who would that be?

Federer against Djokovic in the second semi was gonna be the big one- Fed with the winning record against Djo (his shirt says Nole and apparently thats his nickname but without a good understanding of Serbian language or culture I'm gonna work the surname, okay?), but Djokovic has won 3 of the last 6 (which to me doesnt sound that impressive but whatevs).  It was a super close first set, both having break points in the first three games, it stayed on serve though until 5-5 when Djo was broken and Federer took the first set.  But the man previously known as the Djoker, and with a record for inconsistency was being far more balanced and mature than Captain boring (Federer). And once Novak was on top in the second set Feds faded away, 1-6.  Then they decided to do it all again and the next two sets went 7-5, 2-6.

And so it would come down to a crucial 5th set, which again was super close. Until about 3-3 when Djoko had a few chances on Feds serve but he held him off, then at 5-4 up (I think Fed served first in every set lucky ducky) Federer had two match points on Djo's serve.  But he saves them masterfully.  Mature and brave, if you wanted to sum it up.  It goes to deuce a few times but Novak holds.  And Federer...doesn't!!! Djokovic breaks fairly comfortably.  And Djo serves for the match. And Fed has a break back point.  And misses.  And now Djo has a match point.  And wins.
And for the first time since 2003 Federer will not be in a US Open final, which just seems a crazy thing (that he has been in 6 finals, and won fve, I just looked it up to check).

Roger Federer's father wears an RF outfit, Novak's follow the theme to a rather more insane degree.

And so to the men's final.
Well, after a fashion, a rainy fashion not a sartorial one as Federer was remarkably absent so was Anna Wintour, who on examination appears to have been at everyone of his matches, you would think she has more to do?   Anyway, the rain stopped play before the final on Sunday and it was postponed to Monday, where it interrupted the match at the end of the second set, which is when I went to bed.   In fact the spectators were told to leave the stadium as thunder and lightning was expected.  Nadal had just won the first set 6-4 (broke Novak in the first game of the match), and Novak had been 4-1 up in the second but had been broken back to 4-4.   By good fortune I saw the final in unscheduled highlights today whilst flicking around as my mother strove to find a film to watch on her day off sick.  (We settled on a Miss Marple once the tennis had finished)  Novak did take the second set with some lovely tennis, 7-5.  But Nadal broke early in the third and took it 6-4, and in the fourth erm Nadal took it 6-2 but Novak had a chance to break back at 4-1 but didnt quite happen for him.  And Nadal has now won all four of the grand slams, the seventh man to do so, which is impressive. And he's won three of the four of this years.

No more live...all highlights

Well youll be pleased to hear that after replacing my Laptop's hands (touchpad), mouth (keyboard), heart (motherboard), and brain (delete harddrive, and reboot from disc... twice) it is working perfectly...although the speaker is still clogged up with yoghurt.  And so to the blog, after a mediocre interview showing I was looking forward to some live evening tennis the other day to discover that, of course, Eurosport no longer shows the live tennis (expensive rights, also I guess its hard to tell what time the matches will start as there are less senior singles matches and they surround them with juniors and doubles and they dont think anyone would want to see that), and I have to wait until 12pm the next day to watch the highlights.

Anyway, heres a catch up:
Nadal plays Verdasco in the quarter finals (6 of the last 16 men were Spanish), Wwarinka (who beat Murray and Querry, remember) plays Youhzny who one time hit his head on the racket so much he was ordered off the court to get a medical time out, as he was bleeding so much.  In the other half, in the semis Federer beat Soderling (who beat him at the French Open remember) and will play Djockovic which could be an awesome match, although Ive been saying that a lot recently (Ivanovic vs Clijsters, Wozniaki vs Sharapova, Federer vs Soderling, Djockovic vs Monfils, and all have kinda fizzled).
In Monfils vs Djockovic Monfils showed why people like him and why he never wins matches he should when he jumped 6 feet in the air and attempting to hit the ball between his legs:

He missed.

In the Womens, its Wozniaki vs Zvonarava (Woz got to the final here last year, and Zvon the Wimby final), and Venus against Clijsters, okay one of those matches has to be a bit good?  So Im hoping for a Zvonerva victory not sure about the other semi, Venus has a 7-1 record over Zvon, and Clijsters 5-2 but Zvonarava has won theyre only matches in 2010 (theyre first since 2006 when Clijsters retired).  Laura Robson's lost in her quarter final match if you were interested, which I doubt you were since shes annoying and southern.  Anyway, Ive got live match stats to eagle eye...until next time.

More on Murray, and dress stress.

Theres something about Murray, most of the time hes talked up as the new sliced bread that can walk on water, then he loses a match and suddenly hes wasting his talent and ripe for the taking.  Rather exemplary of the attitude towards British tennis: win a round at wimbledon and youre the new hero, lose in the next and we always knew you would.  I take the opposite approach, most of the time I hate him, then he loses and people are mean to him and feel sorry for him and notice how nicely symetrical his face is these days (his nose is such a nice halfway divider), and he cant be happy with that annoying hair girl really, and ooh lets check how much money hes won shall we (gazillions).   As you may guess, he lost. 

To Stanislav Wawrinka (the good looking womble guy, who apparently has a baby now which is nice), you remember him he lost to Murray at Wimbledon that time.   I watched the live text updates and the highlights, Stan was firing winners a-go-go during the first set and took an early break.  He had 7 aces and about 20 winners to 7 unforced errors, Murray has 0, 6,5 respectively.  Murray broke back though and it went to a tie break which Murray won.  And he broke early in the next set, and it seemed like he would run away with it (this is when I disliked him), but it was a funny topsy turvy game, both having chances in the second set it eventually went tie break, which Stan won.  And the next two sets.  But it was up and down for both, Stan playing more consistently despite needed time out for a thigh cramp.  Murray sounded his usually misery self in press conference although being mpre appropiate than usual this is where I felt sorry for him.

In other news my touchpads broken, but Dell are sending an engineer out tomorrow and have extended my warranty another year (for £60 natch), but theyll also replace my keyboard and so Ill be with T key once more.  I couldnt bring myself to mention the yoghurt in my speaker so Ill leave that for a surprise for the engineer.  Anyway not have a touchpad is highly aggravating, and I feel my blogging productivity has suffered at least 27%.   In other tennis news, Dementiava lost about 15 match points against Stosur before Stosur took it in a third set tie break, shame for Dem (she won the olympic gold medal, but not slams), good for Stosur (she got to the French Open final and was the favourite but rather underperformed).  Shell play Clijsters I believe who beat Ivanovic quite easily, in fact I didnt see any of it because it was over before Eurosport went to air (oh it says its on from 4:45 but its been 5pm all week thankyou very much).  

Today Sharapova (who beat the young American who took out 20th seed Rezai 6-0 6-0) takes on Wozniaki, and Djockovic takes on Fish (not sure who to root for, Fish is playing great and does some nice net work but Djocko has the most awesome hair in tennis).

Its so round.  And the Murray pic is old but a useful comparison IMO.



In other pictures I found a snap of Monfils snazzy shorts, and Venus' other dress (has 7, one for each match apparently, and this year her outfits have been representing a different city for some reason according to the commentators, this time its New York- makes sense).  Its just the sparkly one in pink (ran out of ideas V?). 

Snazzy shorts and snazzy shots.  He totally does this for the cameras.

The day that was...

Well I spoke too soon, as Venus clearly realised her underewear style dresses were inappropriate for day, and saved it for the evening. I saw it in highlights, and it was extremely sparkly under the lights, and camera flashes, these pics dont do that justice.

Am I a prude? Or does this rate highly on the yikes-o-meter?

Anyway Venus won, and the top women are stringy it together a bit now.  Wozniaki cruising her first two rounds, Ivanovic, Clijsters, Dementiava, and Sharapova all coming through round three.  (Clijsters against Ivanovic Sunday may be a good one), but Jankovic losing in straight sets today after fighting through the first two rounds.  Shame for Janko but she did better the second round defeat of last year.

And Murray won, Nadal won fairly comfortably.  Murray gonna play Wawrinka now who beat Chela.  Is it just me or does mens tennis get very boring very fast (maybe cos they all wear the same clothes?  I thought Andy Roddicks shirt looked quite nice but hes out now).  Gets to third round or so and suddenly youre watching good medium ranked players no ones heard of.  Okay, Ive heard of them but Chela vs Wawrinka- does anyone care? Actually Wawrinka is known to Murray and Winmbledon fans as the guy Andy beat in that long match which Wawrinka should have won as he was two sets up, but Murray came back and flexed his muscles in a nauseating manner.  I also think of him, affectionately, as the one that looks a bit like a womble, but is surprisingly attractive as such.

Stanislav Wawrinka

 Is it just me, or did this blog drastically improve when I started shoving in loads of pics and not really writing that much? Ive found my stregnth.

On that note Ill see if I can find any interestingly dressed men players:

Scottish style versus Jamaican style.  Murray vs Brown, aparrently Brownie (may have to find less potentially racist nickname for him?) wants to switch to British and be on our Davis Cup, think he must have been looking at our old record in that particular tournament?  And I did look for Monfils as he was wearing some exciting shorts but apparently no one took a photo of him.  So here's the best of the rest (dressed, who were photographed).

Ok, thats basically it.  Quite dull in fact.  And did I mention Rafa has sensible hair?  But Sharapovas other dress is quite nice, nice colour I think and collar, weird waist perhaps.

Wish I was there...

When I went to bed last night Baltacha had just  lost the first set in a tie break, and when I woke up she had lost the second too- I mean I checked the score this morning, not that they played through the night.  But Baltacha is out of the singles alas, but her and Keothavong are still in the doubles (dont think theyre playing together, doubles doesnt really get any press so I dunno).  And Roddick's out, beaten by Tipsaravic who was gonna be tough, but then Andy shouted at a lineswoman over a foot fault (at least Serena got to the semis before acting like a buffoon (new word, trying it out) Andy's just gott himself back in the top ten following a bout of mono and now hes out of the US Open in the second round.  Luckily he only got to the third round last year so he wont lost many points, Emily and I want to see him at the Tour Finals.

Anyway, Zvonerava just won her match (I like her), ditto Kusnetsova, Fish, and Gasquet.  Gasquet (you remember him from that silly drugs ban, where he took cocaine by kissing a girl called pamela) beat Davydenko the 6th seed who will loose enough point to knock him out of the top ten, and not able to defend his Tour Final Title he'll drop out of the top 20.  Big match for him.  And 18 yr old Beatrice Capra (half american and half italian) beat 20th seed Rezai (half french, half iranian, you remember her from wearing a fancy schmancy outfit at the french, Im sure I rovided visual aids) despite being ranked 351 places below her.  Not bad.  And my interactive slam tracker has frozen so I cant really tell you anythin else.

I am enjoying the coordianted nail polish and frocks look which the top women often exploit, although their nails look perfect EVERY SINGLE MATCH prooving that they have far too much free time on their...ahem...hands.

A better look at the Wozniaki dress, and also Anna Ivanovic who is playing nicely here, and I would be happy for her but for the seemingly prolific topless photo shoots she seems to do (why????).  And heres a better look at Venus William unattractive get up (but its not an underwear dress, huzzah).

When the going gets tough

Well, the suns got to some of the top players and seeds are falling out of the tournament all over the place.  Djocovic, Fish, and Soderling were taken to five sets, and Jankovic and Sharapova to three.  But they won.  Berdych (wimbledon finalist remember, hes very tall), Bagdahtis (he got to Aussie Open final a few years back) and Ljubicic (dunno, but hes a seed and was beaten by a teenage american so itll be big news over the atlantic). Even Nadal was taken to two tie break sets, I was priviledged enough to be unemployed and therefore home in the middle of the day so I could watch the match highlights and Teymuraz Gabashvili gave good tennis for the first two sets.  BTW Teymraz Gabashvili is no where near as exotic as his name would suggests, rather disappointing, he could have been called Steve Smith really.  Nadal on the other hand looks exactly as a Nadal should, although hes cut his hair to a sensible length now. Apparently Nadal means Christmas in Catalan, a commentator said so- not sure if its true or where this mysterious land of Catalonia is.

So Baltacha is in the second round, playing tonight, and so is Murray who beat some random in the first round, really hes ranked and seeded fourth so if he doesnt get to the semi hes underacheived, still we're all giddy that hes won.  Anne Keothovong however lost her first round match 6-1 2-6 2-6, shame she had a treatment for her foot in the match but mainly it was a missed opportunity.  She said afterwards that she isnt playing as well as a few years ago (her ranking is almost 100 places lower) and shell have to reassess her future (was a 35 second clip so I dont have any more info for you).  And my lovely Mahut, who lost in third round of qualifying for singles is playing doubles this evening too. Hes already down 1-5 in the first set.  Hmm. Mahut then Baltacha on court 6- defo the place to be. 

More importantly, lets judge what people were wearing...

 Unbelievably it was Sharapova was wearing the best dress so far, good thing she won her first round match as apparently she has a different day dress.  Which may make her crazy, or styling...?

I think the colour is nice, although I can see myself in more of a pink number, perhaps a pale blue.  I like the collar and buttons details.  Although I still dont see dresses as sportswear, although a quick google search of Sharapova and Im just glad she kept her clothes on at all.
Ah to Wozniaki who I thought wore a supremely unflattering dress in last years final (both colour and style), and seems to making it a bad habit.  Although not sure which is worse (Left is lasts years, right is this):

To be fair this one is not a pic for the family album, close up action shots seldom bringing out the best in one.  But the new dress has the obligatory bright yellow shorts underneath to match the random yellow straps at the top I suppose...If she wins this year, pictures of her in this odd scuba dress with yellow pants will haunt her through out her career.

Ive read Venus Williams was wearing something odd (surprising I know), but cant seem to find pics, bare with me.  Hmm this is the best I can do...Very tie-dye esque?

Aw, my lovely Mahut has lost 6-1 6-4, playing with Arnauld Clement against the 4th seeds Bhupathi and Mirhyi.  Shame.  Needs to get his ranking up that boy, the Ill be able to watch him in every slam.  And blog accordingly, now Im not really sure I care anymore.  But it does mean Baltachas on next...ooh should I stay up? Decisions...Watch this space.