[Ed. Note: Lisa McDermott, seasoned Reuters reporter and favorite TW flake, is on-site this week at the Regions Morgan Keegan/Cellular South Cup in Memphis. --S.]
Well, today was my Day of Revelations.
First Rev: I found out that I couldn’t trust my up-market hotel’s clock. The AM/PM indicator was reversed, so the alarm never went off the other day and I slept the sleep of the innocent, waking nearly three hours later than I had planned this morning. Result: I missed Shahar Peer’s match. Last night, I decided to trust the good, old-fashioned wake-up call instead. No great crisis, Peer won so I’ll see her I action later today.
I also “missed” out on the very average $21 room-service breakfast. When I got to the tournament, site it was alive and bustling, but I still wasn’t. I took my glasses with me in case my contacts dried out again from the ocular feast, and what do ya know? I lost one before it had the chance to dry out. So I hooked the specs over my ears and tried to get my bearings. Once a Girl Scout, Always a Girl Scout. I am one “prepared” chica!
!FishheadSecond Rev: I found out up close and personal that we’ve got a fleet-footed American who really loves to play the net in Mardy Fish. He beat Bjorn Phau, coming to the net so frequently that you would easily take Fish for a serve-and-volleyer. Mardy confessed after that match that becoming something like that was indeed one of his goals. He wants to play aggressively and get to the net. “I always have been that way, from when I first started playing. I loved coming into the net. I loved shortening the points and when I was 10 years old I did that.”
He added that the result was that everyone he played in the 12-and-unders tried moonballing or lobbing over him. Fish’s father is a tennis teaching pro but he said neither of his tennis nut parents was a net rusher. He shrugged, admitting: “That’s just the way I like to play.”
One element that has really helped his net play, Fish said, is playing doubles frequently, especially with his great friend, James Blake.
While he was out with injury and getting ready to make his present comeback, Fish retooled his game, strengthening what had been his more vulnerable forehand wing and tinkering with his serve. Of his off-season, he said: “I think I worked more on the practice court in the off-season than I ever have before. I went through quite a few boring practices in November and December where Todd (Martin, Fish’s coach) fed me balls for hours on end, time after time. It was just that repetitive.”
Fish, who’s known as one of the few tennis players who not only listens to country music but prefers it, likes Memphis. And he’s looking at two big Masters Series tournaments (Indian Wells and Key Biscayne) where the vibe will be similar and the courts equally friendly to his game. He said, “I’ve put myself in a good position here at the beginning of the year, playing so well. I’m in unfamiliar territory, starting out so well. This year, I got my 10th win in February instead of June, like I did last year. Sure I started a little later last year, but this still feels very good.”
!VincestripeyThird Rev: Vince Spadea cares. He really does. When Tommy Haas broke Spadea’s serve in the first game of his straight-sets win over rapping Vince, Spadea flung his racquet from the baseline so hard that it landed at the net. Spadea strolled over and picked a new one out of his bag, leaving a ball boy to fetch the hurled racquet and place it by Spadea's chair.
That gesture of frustration told me that we (me plus the mouse in my pocket) don’t take Spadea as seriously as Spadea takes his game, if not his self. In fact, I focused on Spadea so intently that I missed a prime Tommy Haas shirt-changing moment. Grrrrrrr.
I also missed a Spadea shirt change (when he was down 1-4 in the second set), but no problemo. Some things I can live without more easily than others. When it was over, Haas, the defending champ, was glad to survive, while Spadea was bummed to have lost in Round One after coming off such a good run in San Jose.
Haas has plenty of reason to feel happy. He played well at the Australian Open, and he led Germany to a big Davis Cup win just two weeks later. And while he said he doesn’t feel much pressure as the defending champ here, he conceded : “Every week, every match you go out and give yourself a little bit of pressure to do well and live up to your potential.”
Fourth Rev: Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki has a lot of self-belief. You need that, to be able to come roaring back from an 0-4 second set deficit against Venus Williams to tie it up at 4-all. Still, Williams went on to win in straights.
Wozniacki’s serve is rather light, but she maximizes her placements and converted an outstanding 74 percent of her first serves. This is one smart player! I never thought that Wozniacki was going to be an easy opponent for Venus – or anyone else. Sure, she’s only 16 years old, but she was a quarterfinalist, as well as doubles finalist (with Victoria Azarenka of Belarus), here last year. Williams was pleased with how positively she played, especially when she had to hit second serves of her own. “My second serve was pretty aggressive,” she beamed. “Getting to the quarters is really awesome.”
Fifth Rev:The Adidas Lady line-up, with the plum top featuring Pepto-pink ribbon straps that loop over the shoulders and meet at the waist in a V, is as awful looking in person as it is on television and Internet sites.
Sixth Rev: Russ, my husband, tells me that he misses me. And for a change, he’s calling me more than I call him daily. Awwwww. Our three basset hounds miss me, too—one is on a hunger strike of sorts, and I’ve told Russ just to sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on her dog food, or give her some real meat. Yes, she is spoiled.
Well, I’ve been asked to go out on a limb and make some match predictions. Although I’m not a limb-crawling kind of girl, here goes :
Benjamin Becker v. Robert Kendrick: Becker is the vastly more consistent player, but Kendrick is an American playing in his home country. So what? I'm going with Becker.
Andy Roddick v. Thomas Johansson: I’ve gotta favor Roddick in this one. He’s the stronger all-around player - and this pick doesn’t have anything to do with his serve.
Andy Murray v. Frank Dancevic: This is almost like shooting fish in a barrel for Murray, and you can trust the easiest pick I make to be the one that leads me to hang my head in shame. I’m still going with Murray.
Ivo Karlovic v. Sam Querrey: Big boys with big serves. I can’t decide, help, Tribe!
- Lisa McDermott