Looking forward to this weekend’s matches
Should be some great tennis on tap. On the Women’s side, we’ve got the aforementioned Fed Cup Quarterfinal’s, and on the Men’s side Federer and Nadal will most likely be grinding it out in the first major clay-court final of the season in Monte Carlo. Before the final, the semifinal matches should be somewhat intriguing as well. Nadal will take on Berdych, who was down early to Robin Soderling before steamrolling twelve games in a row off Robin Soderling. Meanwhile, Federer will take on former world number 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, who also had to claw back in his quarterfinal win against Gasquet.
Quick sidenote on the young Frenchman who graced the cover of a French tennis magazine at age 9, I think he earned plenty of respect from his peers this week. He seems to have a reputation of a guy who has plenty of skill, but doesn’t appear to have the determination of some of the other top players. He certainly put that theory to rest this week; even though his probably should’ve defeated Ferrero, his previous two matches were epic, three set victories against Fernando Verdasco - 7-5, 6-7(12), 7-6(3) - and Ivan Ljubicic - 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-5. Anyway, while the semi’s should be entertaining, they will be nothing compared to the Federer-Nadal final, a rematch of last year’s four set victory for Nadal. I can’t wait to watch.
Wait a minute, I can’t watch! I have done some extensive research and have found out the following. If I wanted to, I could subscribe to Dish Network and watch a replay of the Semi’s and the Final live on the Tennis Channel or I could watch a Monte Carlo highlight show 3:30 am, Monday morning on ESPN 2. Well here’s the thing - neither of those are plausible. Signing up for the Dish Network is enticing, but highly unlikely I would get it installed in time. Staying up to watch highlights at 3:30 am makes no sense either, and will completely ruin the work week for me. Maybe I will write to Comcast and request they get the Tennis Channel on their lineup (I’m sure no one has ever done that before). Better yet, I’ll call up the boys in Bristol and see if ESPN can somehow throw a feed of the match into ESPN 2 on Sunday. That won’t work either though, because I just browsed the Sunday lineup at ESPN 2. Here’s how it looks starting at 8am, the time coverage for a live showing of the Monte Carlo Final would most likely start: Offshore Adventures, Mad Fin Shark Tournament (I admit, I’m slightly intrigued), NHRA Lucas Oil Sportsmen Series, Funkmaster Flex Car Wars, Metric Revolution Motorcycle Build, 2006 Jump Rope Championship, UCA College Cheerleading Parts 1 and 2 back to back, finishing up with 2006 Skate America ending at 3 pm. I think you get my point.
Here are some links to entertain you for the weekend:
Great ideas from Peter Bodo
regarding scheduling: Bonnie DeSimone’s preview of the Fed Cup.
Some funny blogging from Tommy Robredo, although he seems to have stopped once he lost.