Topaz
Legend
Hello everyone! I've put up some pics in the Day 6 thread, sorry they were late.
Here is my Day 7 wrap up:
OMG! What a long day! I had package tickets, so I had a ticket to both the afternoon and evening sessions.
*We start with Lleyton Hewitt vs. Arnaud Clement. Honestly, I went into this thinking Hewitt without too much of a problem, even though I saw a very strong Clement take out Hrbaty without much fuss. I was rooting for Clement all through the first set, and was delighted when he took the first set tiebreak. Then I was hoping to see a three set match, but when Clement got a break in that second set, I started to really think...he's gonna do it. He's going to beat Hewitt. And he did. IMO, the difference in this match was Clement's aggressive play at the net, as well as Hewitt's inability to convert many, many, many break opportunities. After this match, we were all wondering, ok, so who's gonna win this tournament anyway???
Which also makes it very exciting!
*This was followed by Murray vs. Fish. I was really looking forward to this match after watching Fish take down Stoppini. He was so sharp and aggressive in that match. Unfortunately, that Mardy Fish wasn't the one who showed up to play today. He just missed too much, and Murray was never really threatened. Fish showed a bit of life in the second set, but Murray prevailed. Murray still likes those drop shots though! Fish threw a few at him as well.
*Now there is a big break between the two sessions. There wasn't really time for me to leave and then get back in time (DC rush hour traffic...I wasn't even going to attempt trying to get out to Alexandria and then back in, and there was no way I was going to be late to the evening session). So I wondered around the outside courts, and found Nicole Pratt locked in a tight match with Varvara Lepchenko from Uzbekistan. This was one of the best women's matches I've seen this week...no moon balls here. Nice hard hitting, and lots of placement. Nicole prevailed in the third set tiebreak. It is nice to see her playing well, and I would love to see her win the women's singles title here.
*By now it is almost 6pm, and women's doubles was starting on another outside court. I watched Maria Fernanda Alves (Brazil)/Eva Hrdinova(CZE) vs. Chin-Wei Chan (Taipei)/Tetiana Luzhanska (Ukraine). This was actually a greata doubles match. Hrdinova played much better than her singles match that I watched, when she couldn't keep the ball in the court. Chan was especially strong at net, and by the end of the match her and her partner were just controlling things at the net, and they took it in straight sets.
*For the evening schedule, they had Safin vs. Moodie on the stadium court, which left Henman and Tursunov on the grandstand court. I was very surprised by this, because Tursunov is the highest seed left in the tournament, and Tim Henman is...Tim Henman. I staked out a spot in the grandstand to watch this match, because I thought Safin would just have his way with Moodie and that that match would be a blowout.
I was wrong.
Tursunov handled Tim like he owned him. And he kinda does. More often that not this year, Tursunov has been the one to send Tim home from a tournament (I think something like four times now?). They always seem to meet up in the draw. Dmitry took care of his serve, and Tim did not, and before I knew it, it was game, set, match.
*This left me plenty of time to catch the second set of Safin vs. Moodie. When I walked in Safin had taken the first set in a tiebreaker (what is it with Safin and tiebreakers?), and they were on serve at 2-1 Moodie. Now, Moodie has been upsetting the apple cart ever since he took out Sam Querrey in round one. He was on court last night for 6 hours (including the rain delay), and hasn't won in straight sets at all during this tournament. He was playing some fantastic tennis...match Safin stroke for stroke, and of course using his net play to attack. This was very high quality tennis from both players, and Safin looked even sharper to me tonight than he did last night when he took out Blake. You could almost see him want to explode at times, but I thought he was just so mentally strong. Again, he prevailed when it mattered most, and won this match with the same score he had last night 7-6, 7-6. If he keeps playing like this, then he is definitely a contender, and I don't mean just in this tournament.
*The Bryan brothers were the last match of the night (along with Ramon Delgado/Rick Leach taking on Igor Kunitsyn/Dmitry Tursunov. I have no idea who won here). The brothers were taking on the strong team of Paul Goldstein and Jim Thomas. I expected this to be a great match, thinking that Goldstein and Thomas could definitely hang with the brothers.
The Bryans took the set 6-2. Hmmm, I seem to be way off tonight.
Except, GT get their groove going again. They started getting a better read on Bob's serve (who was just rocketing out some serves tonight...whew!), and Thomas especially, I think, stepped up his play. It seemed to give Goldstein the confidence to do the same. GT took the second set in a tiebreak.
And now, courtesy to the ATP doubles rules, we get a 10 point tiebreak instead of a third set. The Bryans took an early lead, but GT never let them get too far ahead. That is, until the Bryans had multiple match points! GT saved a few, the crowd was going nuts (plenty had stayed to watch). But here comes Bob Bryan to serve, and it is game set match.
It was also Paul Goldstein's 30th birthday, and Wayne Bryan and some tournament officials presented him with a cake after the match. The brothers had some kind of remark such as "Gee, if I knew it was your birthday, I would have given you the tiebreak!"...and a few quippy things ensued.
All in all...a great day of tennis. Pics to follow.
Here is my Day 7 wrap up:
OMG! What a long day! I had package tickets, so I had a ticket to both the afternoon and evening sessions.
*We start with Lleyton Hewitt vs. Arnaud Clement. Honestly, I went into this thinking Hewitt without too much of a problem, even though I saw a very strong Clement take out Hrbaty without much fuss. I was rooting for Clement all through the first set, and was delighted when he took the first set tiebreak. Then I was hoping to see a three set match, but when Clement got a break in that second set, I started to really think...he's gonna do it. He's going to beat Hewitt. And he did. IMO, the difference in this match was Clement's aggressive play at the net, as well as Hewitt's inability to convert many, many, many break opportunities. After this match, we were all wondering, ok, so who's gonna win this tournament anyway???
Which also makes it very exciting!
*This was followed by Murray vs. Fish. I was really looking forward to this match after watching Fish take down Stoppini. He was so sharp and aggressive in that match. Unfortunately, that Mardy Fish wasn't the one who showed up to play today. He just missed too much, and Murray was never really threatened. Fish showed a bit of life in the second set, but Murray prevailed. Murray still likes those drop shots though! Fish threw a few at him as well.
*Now there is a big break between the two sessions. There wasn't really time for me to leave and then get back in time (DC rush hour traffic...I wasn't even going to attempt trying to get out to Alexandria and then back in, and there was no way I was going to be late to the evening session). So I wondered around the outside courts, and found Nicole Pratt locked in a tight match with Varvara Lepchenko from Uzbekistan. This was one of the best women's matches I've seen this week...no moon balls here. Nice hard hitting, and lots of placement. Nicole prevailed in the third set tiebreak. It is nice to see her playing well, and I would love to see her win the women's singles title here.
*By now it is almost 6pm, and women's doubles was starting on another outside court. I watched Maria Fernanda Alves (Brazil)/Eva Hrdinova(CZE) vs. Chin-Wei Chan (Taipei)/Tetiana Luzhanska (Ukraine). This was actually a greata doubles match. Hrdinova played much better than her singles match that I watched, when she couldn't keep the ball in the court. Chan was especially strong at net, and by the end of the match her and her partner were just controlling things at the net, and they took it in straight sets.
*For the evening schedule, they had Safin vs. Moodie on the stadium court, which left Henman and Tursunov on the grandstand court. I was very surprised by this, because Tursunov is the highest seed left in the tournament, and Tim Henman is...Tim Henman. I staked out a spot in the grandstand to watch this match, because I thought Safin would just have his way with Moodie and that that match would be a blowout.
I was wrong.
Tursunov handled Tim like he owned him. And he kinda does. More often that not this year, Tursunov has been the one to send Tim home from a tournament (I think something like four times now?). They always seem to meet up in the draw. Dmitry took care of his serve, and Tim did not, and before I knew it, it was game, set, match.
*This left me plenty of time to catch the second set of Safin vs. Moodie. When I walked in Safin had taken the first set in a tiebreaker (what is it with Safin and tiebreakers?), and they were on serve at 2-1 Moodie. Now, Moodie has been upsetting the apple cart ever since he took out Sam Querrey in round one. He was on court last night for 6 hours (including the rain delay), and hasn't won in straight sets at all during this tournament. He was playing some fantastic tennis...match Safin stroke for stroke, and of course using his net play to attack. This was very high quality tennis from both players, and Safin looked even sharper to me tonight than he did last night when he took out Blake. You could almost see him want to explode at times, but I thought he was just so mentally strong. Again, he prevailed when it mattered most, and won this match with the same score he had last night 7-6, 7-6. If he keeps playing like this, then he is definitely a contender, and I don't mean just in this tournament.
*The Bryan brothers were the last match of the night (along with Ramon Delgado/Rick Leach taking on Igor Kunitsyn/Dmitry Tursunov. I have no idea who won here). The brothers were taking on the strong team of Paul Goldstein and Jim Thomas. I expected this to be a great match, thinking that Goldstein and Thomas could definitely hang with the brothers.
The Bryans took the set 6-2. Hmmm, I seem to be way off tonight.
Except, GT get their groove going again. They started getting a better read on Bob's serve (who was just rocketing out some serves tonight...whew!), and Thomas especially, I think, stepped up his play. It seemed to give Goldstein the confidence to do the same. GT took the second set in a tiebreak.
And now, courtesy to the ATP doubles rules, we get a 10 point tiebreak instead of a third set. The Bryans took an early lead, but GT never let them get too far ahead. That is, until the Bryans had multiple match points! GT saved a few, the crowd was going nuts (plenty had stayed to watch). But here comes Bob Bryan to serve, and it is game set match.
It was also Paul Goldstein's 30th birthday, and Wayne Bryan and some tournament officials presented him with a cake after the match. The brothers had some kind of remark such as "Gee, if I knew it was your birthday, I would have given you the tiebreak!"...and a few quippy things ensued.
All in all...a great day of tennis. Pics to follow.
