So like, you're dating a girl, right? It's groovy. You're on Cloud 9. She's sweet and cute and you grew up loving The Muppet Show so her voice is, like, the Siren Song to your soul. She's really good at her sport, you're really good at your sport, and united you can rule the Kids Who Are Good At Their Sports world. You may or may not have broken up with your ex-girlfriend to be with her. So yeah, you're totally in it to win it. This ain't a fling. THIS IS FOREVER.
And then you meet her crazy family and the tires screech in your head. GOOD LORD WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO. On one hand, they're reaaaaaally nice and welcoming. They actually totally adore you and they're just so excited that you're in their lives now. It's like that dinner scene in Notting Hill, but without an ignorant Bernie.
So basically, you're getting bombarded with questions, her cousins are winking and nudging, her brothers are basically threatening to stuff a tennis ball down your fucking throat if you fuck this up, and meanwhile, everybody's asking you for...golf lessons? I don't know. I'm just saying shit got more complicated pretty damn quick.
So good luck if you're planning to accompany Caro to any tournaments in the U.S. this summer. I have no helpful advice for you. The reality is, yeah, our family is FUCKING NUTS and we are SHAMELESS.
See the entire conversation between Mardy, Caro, Rory, Vika, Dani, and Feli after the jump.
Nice to know that Robbo watches the tennis the same way most tennis nerds do: Smart phone in hand.
Celebrities. They're just like us!
All the women who're independent, throw your hands up at me. All the honeys who makin' money, throw you hands up at me. All the mommas who profit dollars, throw your hands up at me. All the ladies who truly feel me, throw your hands up at me.
"Can I just touch it? For a second?" "No. Get the fuck away."
The boys took the footie pitch last night for a charity footie match organized by Novak and Kei to benefit Japan. It was great fun and if you missed the stream that was commentated by a random dude who had no idea who any of the tennis players were, let's just say that much like the above picture, it was an unintentionally comedic fail of rather epic proportions.
First of all, the guy only recognized Novak and Andy. So the commentary went like this: "Oh, great switch by one tennis player to another tennis player. Nice touch to Novak Djokovic, Novak Djokovic takes it up the field, Novak Djokovic passes to Andy Murray, great move by Andy Murray, crosses to a tennis player, GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL Tennis player!"
If you think I'm exaggerating, I'm not. Pretty sure others who watched the stream can vouch for me here.
Of course, Judy Murray was on-hand providing much better commentary via her ever-awesome Twitter. Let's just say she has her clear favorites.
She's the best.
Anyway, the boys seemed to have great fun, the crowd was genuinely enjoying it, and Baggy and my pale-faced dork of a boyfriend, who showed up in tennis trainers and full ankle braces, scored goals. Honey, you're just lucky you got picked on a team.
Interestingly, Rafa was in attendance but he didn't take the pitch. I wonder if Tio put the kibash on that the minute he landed. You know he would have loved to. No word on whether he sprinted on the field to tackle Nole. Again, you know he would have loved to.
Great stuff for a great cause. My sister's charity of choice has been Second Harvest Japan, an organization dedicated to getting much needed food and supplies to the hard-hit areas. You can donate here. I've also heard that the players are planning more fund-raising activities for Friday night. Stay tuned.
"I could definitely do pizza. Burritos sound good, too. Sushi, maybe?"
"Although, I could do pasta. I mean, I can always do pasta. You like pasta, right? Yeah, let's do pasta. I'm not gonna lie, I could eat the shit out of some pasta."
"ALLLLLLLBBBBBBBBEEEEEEEEERRRRRTOOOOOOOOOOOO. Are you even listening?"
"What's that dude's problem? Anyway, you guys feel like some 'za?"
"Hey, you feel like pizza? Feli! FELI!!!
Fine. Whatever. Don't talk to me."
"BRO! CAN YOU ORDER UP SOME PAPA JOHNS, DUDE? EXTRA RANCH!"
You know, if you take the time to position this picture correctly on your desktop, it is pretty amazing.
Go ahead. I'll wait.
Nole needed three sets to take out an inspired Feli, who was the first player to take a set off Nole in 2011. After two straight serve and volleyers, Noley's got the tricky Mayer next. Can we just book him to the finals?
First off, it was Heineken Day at the Australian Open which basically means, if I understand it correctly, cheap beer. If you had a grounds pass you could get in and drink pretty cheaply on site. So things were already kicking by the time I arrived at noon.
The sun was out and the Ozone-less Aussie sky was beating down pretty good for much of the day. The heat only contributed to the odd happenings around the grounds. I'm sure the crowd over at Court 6 was settled in just to watch some hot Pico on Feli doubles action with a side of thigh porn. But you knew it wasn't going to be that straightforward when Pico came out with his hair tied back like Baggy.
So of course we didn't get much hot Pico on Feli action. Instead, we got gross Pico/Feli on Mahesh action. DID NOT WANT.
I was watching the match and my take on the haps is this: Pico and Feli took exception to Leander and Manesh yelling "Vamos" after points, taking cheap shots at them, and there are some reports that Leander kept trying to body check Pico on the changeovers. After Mahesh "Vamosed" loudly after Pico missed an easy volley late in the second set, all hell broke loose.
Feli jumped in and all four started barking at each other at the net, getting into each other's faces. Pico tried to pull Leander aside to discuss the sitch and Pascal jumped down off his chair like Batman and tournament officials got into it and started to separate the four. Pico got mad that the officials were physically pushing and pulling him away when all he was trying to do was talk it out with Mahesh.
Of course the cuties would lose and Feli refused to shake hands and words were had. I guess I'll let the boys explain themselves:
I mean, we were playing, match was quiet, and one of the players, he was trying to provoke us all the time. At one point, we were a little bit tired of the style he was using on the court, and that's all what happened. But at the end, I was talking to Mahesh and everything was fine. Nothing else to comment.
He was trying to provoke us all the time. I know it's the style he been using the past 20 years. But that's okay. Nothing else.
What say ye, Mahesh?
We always do play a very aggressive style of doubles. That's what's given us all our good results. They, being two singles players, they've probably never seen it before. They probably were taken aback a little bit. They were probably not happy that we used the word 'vamos'. I don't think they have a patent on that one. Small things like that added up. Kept adding to their frustration that we were playing good tennis as well.
Unfortunately, believe it or not, this is not the first time it's happened to me. When Leander and me were playing Orsanic and Oncins in Dubai 95, they got upset because we used 'vamos'. This was in 2000. Two years ago when I was playing González and Acasuso at the French Open, I used 'vamos' and they got upset. I've been using it for a long time. If these guys are going to get upset, I'm going to continue to use it.
LEANDER PAES: At the end of the day, whether it's 'vamos' or 'allez', we're Indian, nobody has patent, we're saying it to each other.
I would probably side with Leander and Mahesh if they didn't come off as so damn smug in their presser. I suppose being on the winning side earns you the right to be smug. They're right, the Spaniards/Argies don't "own" the language, just like the Serbs don't own "ajde". But don't pretend that you don't know what you're doing and that you're all innocent and taking the high road. I saw the match, dudes. You, Mahesh, were being an intentional prick.
From there I tuned in to see Vera cruising over Lucie, having pocketed the first set and up 4-2 in the second, only to double fault to give Lucie the break back. From there Lucie found a whole 'nother gear and would force a tiebreak that was tight and involved a lot of fantastic rallies. Finally, Vera would hit an incredible lob winner reminiscent of the one Kim hit against Venus at the USO10 that got her match point and she was able to close it out. But it was very close to calamity on Laver.
So there I am, reclining in my chair, when I tune over to watch Moose vs. GGL, and this is what I see on the second point:
As Andy would say after he cruised to victory in an hour and 20ish minutes, "It's a bit embarrassing."
Of course, while Andy was plastering GGL, Jo was running out of gas against Dolgopolov. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! But yes. He seems to have picked up a lower back issue and after fighting as best he could for three sets, he dropped the last two 1 and 1. So super cutie Jo is out and Dolgo lives on to take on The Sodness Monster. Barf.
Oh, but it would get weirder.
Big John was locked in a dogfight with Marin "The last 10 months never happened" Cilic and he looked well on his way to winning when he battled back and eeked out the third-set tiebreaker to go up 2-1. But as is the case with most of John's matches, it came down to a few points and with the sun beating down, John looked gassed. Instead of just blasting and trying to put pressure on Marin, he sat back, content to rally and hoped for Marin to miss.
Marin didn't and the match went into extra innings, the first five setter that Big John would play since Wimbledon. Marin would finally win 9-7 in the fifth. John was absolutely gutted in press. He would have played Rafa.
To round out the day's weirdness, The Cone actually made a match of it with Kim (though it was more Kim being wonky than Cone doing anything other than monologue in French and slam her racquet a bunch), Marcos retired in his match with Melzer with a PINKY INJURY, and Makarova and IVETA BENESOVA are in the fourth round after they each bounced seeds, Nadia and Pavs, respectively.
Holy hell. Haven't seen you in a while. Still cute, if not slightly chunkier than when I saw you last.
With the sun out, all the boys were hitting the practice courts. Why were they wearing shirts? I DO NOT KNOW. Even Mikey was wearing a shirt. MIKEY. But it was happening and there was nothing I could do about it.
Andy took to the courts for his second hit of the day. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he played a match over at Kooyong later. Either that or he just REALLY loves his argyle kit.
From there it was over to see Rendy hitting with...
Even his thighs are emo.
But the highlight of my afternoon sausage tour was finally getting to see Grigor in person. Watch him for five minutes and you can just see the talent oozing out of him. He's also way taller than I thought he was. That is one big, tall, strong boy.
The first thing that strikes you as you make your way to the Sydney Olympic Park is just how much of a hike it is from Sydney proper. According to Twitter, I was sitting on a relatively slow moving train for about an hour (I know this because I complained on Twitter for about an hour), then had to transfer to a shuttle train to take me to the Park. Sounds simple, right? Well when you tack on a good 20 minute walk from the station to the actual tennis venue (Sydney Olympic Park housed multiple venues so it's more like a college campus than anything else), we're talking over an hour and a half door to door. In hotter temperatures (it was relatively mild today because of the morning rain) I could see that 20 minute walk being a deal breaker.
I'm also from San Francisco. Put simply, I am an impatient candyass. Please disregard all prior (and, if you want, subsequent) comments, complaints, and criticisms.
But once you find your way to the tennis venue, this is, as far as I can tell so far, yet another quality event that should give tennis fans lots of bang for their buck. The grounds are fairly compact, with no more than a 3-5 minute walk from the outside courts to the main stadium and the for the most part you get unobstructed viewing access to my raison d'etre: the practice courts. Sure, the sun gets a little toasty during the late afternoon, but something tells me you Aussies would scoff if I said that out loud. As for me, I hid out in the air conditioned media center for much of the day. Please see paragraph 2.
After picking up my media cred, I did what I always do at tournaments: I got distracted at the practice courts. Now mind you, I had a 4 hour red-eye that got me into Sydney at 7am, a 1.5 hour meandering, f-bomb-filled sweat-fest as I tried to find the place I was staying, and then a figurative punch to the gut on the news of the crazy happenings in Arizona today.
In short, I was in a really crappy mood, especially after that long commute in from the city. But you know what? Tennis absolutely never lets me down.
Ok, that's a total lie but let's not talk about AO10, RG10, SW19 09, etc. Ruins my super uplifting story.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, tennis absolutely never lets me down. The minute I put that distinctive blue lanyard over my head (by the by, should I be concerned that there's an Emergency Action Plan printed on the back of my credential?) and heard the sweet sweet ping of a tennis ball, everything seemed worth it. Not even Vika's banshee wail could leave me in my funk.
Also a lie. It did. When I saw her practicing I spun on my heel and took the opportunity to go to the restroom.
Feli was in Madrid promoting a documentary (on him, natch) airing on Bio, a Spanish TV station.
What's he giving classes on?
How to Be Emo on Twitter 101?
Whatever. I'm a sucker for a man in cardigans. I am also a sucker for in a tie. Thricely, I am a sucker for a man in tweed. Obviously, this is all working on me.
There are still five Spaniards into the Round of 16 (there were six but Montanes lost to Sod). Unfortunately, four of them have to play each other in the next round: Rafa vs. Feli, Fer vs. Daveed. Quit dominating all the sports, you swarthy sexy bastards. It's unfair to all the pasty ugly people who lose early in Grand Slams despite getting all the hype.
Today, Sunday, was awesome. With qualies done the players took to all of the courts to practice for extended sessions, and I got to see a lot players from up close. It was relatively quiet around the grounds but concessions were still open (ahem, beer, ahem) and I highly recommend coming to the grounds (still free!) on the Sunday before play starts. This was absolutely my favorite day so far. Saw some Sod, Flavia, Nenad and Daniel, Rafa, Errani, Rodionova, Corretja, Pico, Nico, Aravane, hell, we saw a lot of people and made drunken fools of ourselves. It was fantastic.
The "sexy" USO pick, Vika, grunting her way through her session.
Vika was practicing next to Venus, who kept looking over at the grunter.
Courage, nee Believe, was out on court hitting with Snooki.
You could see those things from space.
Uh, duh.
Because I can.
Dinara hitting with Agnes.
Pop it, Tomas. And no, I have no idea what Ana's doing in the background.
Bojangles!
Ula, shorts hiked, hitting with Bojangles.
Aaaaaaand Aga, who can't get a sponsor but refuses to be silenced.
Sticking to tradition, Andy drove from Toronto to Cincinnati, so he only took to the practice courts for the first time yesterday. But it was glorious for a number of reasons.
First, he took the court over from Fer and Feli, who were practicing for their dubs match later in the day. Basically everything you need to know about my friendship with DG can be captured in this picture of our two favorite players. She dresses to the nines and looks sharp pretty much 24/7. I on the other hand consistently rock a confused and sullen look and am a dork. So there you go.
"Yo, Andy. Say hi to your mutha for me, ok?"
And then there was this girl, who stood up against the fence when no one else was, holding up a picture of Andy that she wanted him to sign as though it were the boombox in Say Anything. It was adorable. I wanted to join her with an actual boombox.
And then he grabbed his ass. And I squealed. No, really, I did.
But last and not least, my new buddy Andrew (@BigShots_Photo) caught me photobombing. Which, let's face it, is pretty fucking awesome.
So I walk onto the grounds, check into the media center, drop off my shit, head to the practice grounds, and what do I see? A little Feli vs. Pico practice action.
For some inexplicable reason, despite the humidity being particularly horrible today (or so says resident Cincy expert @tisenfine), the boys practiced with their shirts on.
I mean, they were soaked in their sweat and their shirts were basically see through, but still, THAT'S BULLSHIT.
Thankfully, Feli knows what's up and gave us a nice little show at the end of the practice session:
Thanks, dude. Your'e a gem.
I mean, you're so Sam Stosur, but what can you do.
The Rafa-less Armada is in France awaiting their Davis Cup tie. I don't think they have tennis on the brain quite yet.
So cute. Tip of the cap to you, Spain. You were the better team.
No word on whether Rafa's going to hop a plane for the final. But you'd be an idiot to bet against it. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. That said, it'd be kind of a dick move considering the rest of the Armada can't go and the only reason Rafa could go is that he's skipping the tie.
I'm a bit busy with some personal stuff this week (don't worry, it's nothing serious or anything) so I apologize for falling behind on the blogging. To be honest, I normally don't feel bad about it (because I'm a dick) but seeing as how Wimbledon starts in less than a week, I feel particularly derelict in my responsibilities to you, the sometimes-loyal-but-would-totally-stab-me-in-the-back reader.
Thankfully there are other great tennis bloggers who aren't ignoring the tennis. I don't really like churning links, but again, it's the week before Wimbledon and I feel like if I don't set the table for all the jokes I plan to drop in the next couple of weeks, well, the jokes will fail. And nothing pisses me off more than someone making unfunny jokes especially when that someone is me.
So here's my churnalistic attempt to get you caught up with the goings on in Yellow Ball Land. And by "Yellow Ball Land" I mean tennis, not Asian porn. Get your head out of the gutter and into the game, pervies.
Stephanie Myles, thankfully, breaks down how the Wimbledon seeds are calculated for the ATP side. Why did she feel compelled to Mathnet? Because Fed has been seeded #1 and the Twitterverse had a cow. And by Twitterverse I mean me because I was apparently the only one in the world who didn't know that the formula only applies to the ATP, not the WTA. My thoughts in a nutshell: I don't really care that Fed's #1. It had no effect on the draw. It's more symbolic than anything else, you know, like THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND. But what does annoy me is that this formula isn't used for the ladies. Think about it and you will come to the same conclusion that I did: Wimbledon hates Venus.
C Note read at Down The Line that Franny is referring to herself in the third-person. C Note thinks it's just...weird.
GoToTennis sat on a conference call with Brad and Mary and didn't bother asking whether there would be a "Big Babe Tennis 2: Electric Buggaloo" installment this year. Also they both pick Rafa to win. Where was Aunty Pimmy?!?
Sam just wants to make the fourth round at Wimbledon. Now if people could please stop paying attention to her, I'd appreciate it. Thanks. Meanwhile, she's doing ok on grass so far, making the quarters of Eastbourne against Elena Baltacha.
WTA Boo Boo Boo Watch: MaKiri retired with an ab injury; Aravane retired with a right wrist injury; Nails also retired.
ATP Boo Boo Boo Watch: Nico retired with a right hip injury; Feli retired two points from losing with some sort of injury, I'm thinking it was either a brain injury or World Cup fever; Special Kei also retired.
Via Twitter, Nalby announced he's not playing Wimbledon. So enjoy your crumpets as per yoosh.
Red, White, and Green. An appropriate headline for World Cup (I mean, Seriously???) and for Queens, where Sunday will see an All-American final after Mardy knocked off Feli and Sam bounced Rainer. That's what we call adding insult to serious injury. Two Americans, vying for the Queens trophy, one of whom wears no socks and needs to eat a sandwich or four, and the other wears stupid hats.
Ick.
Please accept this picture of Flashdance Feli as an olive branch.
It was a generally upset-free day (not that it wasn't upsetting -- more on that later), but the Armada did lose two of its prettier characters. Ok, one and a half. Florence was ousted in straight sets (1, 6, 2) by a German dude I've never heard of and Tommy suffered a somewhat more respectable loss to Viktor, 4 4 and 3.
Rumors have been swirling on the internets and the Spanish tabloids for weeks that Feli knocked up his girlfriend, Maria Jose Suarez. But without confirmation from the spermer or the spermee, we were left just giggling by our lockers while Finn and Quinn shuffled by in sunglasses.
But thanks to James LaRosa, we now have confirmation:
I'm sure more info will come out soon. But from what I can gather from the Twitterverse, she's a bit pissed at him and it sounds like she ambushed him by talking to the press first. Something tells me his Barca pressers are gonna be off the hook.
Oh, and if you haven't, you should check out James' Twitter page. His background image is just...love.
The Armada did their thing again, posing for wet and shirtless for Spanish Elle.
What can we conclude?
(1) The Armada is hot.
(2) Jeans > Sarongs. I mean, I know we call him Florence but putting him in a skirt was just wrong.
(3) As much as anyone with a brain hates Abercrombie, we have to thank them for introducing the hip-crack to the world. Because seriously, it is a glorious thing.
I honestly don't know what to make of this picture. All I know is that the sarong should not be there. And I don't even mean that in a "OOH! LET'S LOOK AT NEKKID FER!" way. It is wet, it is clingy, it is see through, and it is gross.
Even Tommy's pointing and laughing.
It's really the pink flops that elevate this picture from "Daveed contemplates the meaning of life" to "Shit. What the hell happened last night..." awesomeness.
So one of the many little tidbits that I've learned about these two from DonkeyGrooming is the fact that Fernando makes fun of Feli all the time for being fat. This was confirmed during my impromptu screening of The Montenegro Method, wherein Feli tells the world that he really doesn't watch what he eats unless it's during a tournament.
Some video from some of some sexy doubles teams. I highly recommend hitting up the doubles matches at any tournament. Not only is it more bang for your buck (ahem) but they're usually on the smaller side courts where you can easily find a seat courtside.
This reminds of this one time when I came out to the parking lot to go to the park with my then-boyfriend and saw him throwing a football to himself for a good 15 minutes. Apparently, according to my cousin who I catch doing the same thing, this is something only-children do. Not sure what Feli's excuse is, though.
Five and a half years. That's the last time Feli won a title. So kudos for snapping that streak, dude, with a 75 61 win over Christophe Robert.
Marin defended his title in Zagreb, giving him his fifth title of his career. He's also 15-1 on the year. But more impressive? He didn't let Goran's one week coaching stint derail him. Seriously, that's huge.
And in Santiago, the man with the schnoz followed up his big win over Gonzo to take his second title over Pico. As soon as the Pico fans climb out of their heavy metal aided depression, I'd like to offer my condolences.
Well Johannesburg got weird. Daveed fell in straight sets to Stephane Robert (!) 75 64. Robert is ranked 100 in the world. So...yeah.
On the other side, Flyin' Feli chalked up a solid win over Gael, 36 61 76(1) to make the finals.
In Zagreb, Marin is cruising. He beat Ivo yesterday and ousted Douchestamp today to cruise into the finals, where he'll face Michael Berrer. Way to not fuck shit up, Goran.
As for Santiago, the semis are yet to be played but it's shaping up to be a Gonzo/Pico final. Nice.
It wasn't easy, but they're through. Some in spectacular fashion (Johnny!) and some in grinding fashion (Elf and Andy) and some in "last woman standing" fashion (Justine and Jay Z).
67(4) 64 46 76(3)
Florence played a fantastic match against A-Rod, but this not being Davis Cup, he faltered at the key moments. A-Rod played passively and refused to get anywhere near an attacking mode, and Feli took advantage. But in the end, it wasn't enough. He definitely gave A-Rod a scare though.
61 46 76(4) 76(5)
This was the match of the day for me, as Gael and Halpert played a fantastic three sets after Gael finally woke up after the first. This match pretty much came down to Halpert playing two *amazing* tiebreaks. He showed tremendous poise and guts, and its clear that he's improved in all aspects of his game: groundies, net, and movement. Gael played well, Halpert was just better. Really happy for him.
36 64 62
If Kleybs was going to pull this off it had to be in straight sets. Once she couldn't take that second set, eventually losing 4-6, she was gassed and Justine cruised. But I think she encouraged the field, showing that Justine is still vulnerable to big hitters. She also clearly suffered physically from her grueling match against Lena. She was a step slow and off on her groundies during the first set and a half. So kudos to Kleybs (who seems a good 10 pounds lighter) for making her play a tough 3 sets. Perhaps the field will tire Justine out as the tourney goes on. She doesn't have a break in the next round: Bring on Wickmayer.
57 63 60
I'm going to assume that somewhere in the middle of the second set, Mono found out that JJ lost that morning. And then all motivation left her. Or, you know, she's Mono and she ran out of gas. But yay, China!
63 06 64 75
As for Elf, I don't know what's up but he was fiddling with his forearm taping throughout the first set. Is it injury? Is it rust? I don't know. Hope he figures it out soon. Those big legs won't have enough left if he keeps this up.
And so Spain clinches the Davis Cup for the second straight year with a 76(7) 75 62 win over Steps and Tomas.
It was a compete and clean kill for the Spaniards, as Feli's serve was booming and Fernando's forehand was adjective-similar-to-booming-but-I-can't-use-booming-twice-in-one-sentence.
And now, for the celebration pics:
I love this pic. Primarily because it reminded me of this scene in New Moon (shut up. I'm going to keep bringing it up until it's out of my system).
"Dude! We sold FOUR Big Macs!"
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"You smell like french fries. I'll be your hot mustard."
Photobomb.
Trust Fall: You're Doing It Wrong.
"Is it raining? I hadn't noticed."
Seriously, dude, GET OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY AND LET THEM HAVE THEIR MOMENT!
Fer's cute and all, but I cannot stop looking at Feli's amazing receding hairline.
I honestly don't know who I'm rooting for here but I think it's Spain, if for no other reason than that I want Rafa to end his season on a high note. Speaking of high notes...what's up with Feli's hair? Or Fer's for that matter.
That said, I'd be totally super duper happy for the Czechs if they win.
Spain comes into Davis Cup severely hobbled, both emotionally and physically. We all know Rafa's struggling, but Fernando also expended a crapload of energy at in London, and he's now injured. So much so that Costa has swapped in Daveed for singles, who we last saw withdraw from a match due to a hamstring injury. That's...disconcerting, though Costa has indicated that Fer might be tapped to play Sunday if needed. And have I mentioned Feli's hair?
The Czechs on the other hand come in very relaxed and high in confidence. Well, at least Steps is feeling confident. He had a great run to end the regular season. As for Tomas, you never know what you're going to get with him but I have to think he's going to be pretty relaxed here, which is worrisome if you're on Team Spain. If this tie were played in the Czech Republic, I'd be more worried for Tomas. But playing away in Spain? Something tells me the Czechs totally buy into the underdog mentality here.
As per usual in Davis Cup, doubles will be the key here. Rafa can't do this all himself. Despite the fact that Dlouhy/Hajek were officially tapped for the Czechs, unless they find themselves up 2-0 after the first day, expect Tomas and Steps to play dubs against Fer/Feli. I expect it'll be 1-1 after Friday, so whoever wins dubs will clearly be in the driving seat.
All this is to say, this is going to be a VERY interesting tie. I am REALLY worried for Spain.
Friday 4 December – Play starts at 1600 (1500 GMT) Rafael Nadal (ESP) v Tomas Berdych (CZE) David Ferrer (ESP) v Radek Stepanek (CZE)
Saturday 5 December – Play starts at 1600 (1500 GMT) Feliciano Lopez / Fernando Verdasco (ESP) v Lukas Dlouhy / Jan Hajek (CZE)
Sunday 6 December – Play starts at 1200 (1100 GMT) Rafael Nadal (ESP) v Radek Stepanek (CZE) David Ferrer (ESP) v Tomas Berdych (CZE)
