Keeping Tabs: July 30

Since I last checked the world’s newspapers Friday morning, the general feeling about the 2012 Olympics appears to have done a 180. Leave it to a really, really long opening ceremony to silence the doubters and kvetchers. Danny Boyle’s epic wiped away, at least for the moment, those drab concerns over traffic jams, rookie bus drivers, and money not well spent.

Or, as the Sun put it:

OLYMPIC OPENING CEREMONY IS FLAMING FANTASTIC

The flame part was pretty fantastic, as were the fiery rings, as was the sight of eight tennis players carrying their nation’s flags into the stadium—Novak Djokovic’s obvious pride and joy was a highlight. As for the rest of the ceremony...I know I’m in the minority, so I’ll just say that you maybe you had to be there; or maybe you had to be British; or maybe you had to be into those kinds of things. If only the country’s finest export, the Rolling Stones, had been there to give us a rude jolt at the end. Somehow, according to Mick, the boys “weren’t ready.” Was 50 years of playing together not enough?

As I said, though, I’m in the minority. Here’s what our friend Simon Barnes had to say about Boyle's prodcution, and the tone it set, in the Times:

"At the exact centre of the world last night, London turned down the option to celebrate giants and supermen and power and might and chose instead to celebrate people. It was on this fine and not unexpected note that the Olympic Games began—a Games fit for humanity, a Games that might stress joy rather than triumphalism."

I''ll go with that for now.

As for the tennis, the coverage in the papers has been overshadowed by other sports so far—the men’s gymnastic team in Britain, the men’s swimming and women's gymnastics in the United States. I like seeing tennis players take their places alongside the world’s athletes; the downside is that it leaves us with fewer over-the-top headlines to round up here.

As for the matches themselves, see my Racquet Reaction on Roger Federer's second-round win over Julien Benneteau here.

Big Brother Knows...Nothing?
The Sun did its best to hold up its end of the tabloid bargain this weekend:

JUST SHUT IT, ANDY!
Jamie Murray will try and make sure his little brother Andy listens to his every word today

“As the older brother,” Jamie said, “I’d like to take charge, but whether he listens to me, I don’t know. I enjoy playing with Andy. I don’t know whether he enjoys playing with me.”

Jamie is probably still wondering that. Apparently Andy listened a little too well to big brother, because the Murray boys went out in the first round of the doubles, 7-5 in the third set to Melzer and Peya of Austria.

Opening the Roof
The Mirror reports on a potentially distressing story:

DRIP, DRIP HOORAY! ANDY MURRAY THROUGH DESPITE CENTRE COURT WATERWORKS

You know that multi-million dollar roof that Wimbledon built to keep out the rain? Apparently it’s letting some in. Murray, echoing the concerns of Lisa Raymond during Wimbledon, said on Saturday that “there were actually a few drips coming in next to my bag for pretty much the whole match. Might need to sort that out.”

Sticking with Murray for a minute, it’s always interesting to hear how much differently the players answer questions put to them by former players, as opposed to reporters. I’ve written about how loose they are when they talk to Jim Courier on court in Melbourne,but by the time they get to the interview room a few minutes later, their grim and guarded selves have returned. The same was true, to a slightly lesser degree, when Murray talked to NBC/Bravo's Justin Gimelstob after his first-round win.

Gimelstob caught him before he had even left the court, yet Murray, still wiping sweat off his face, came up with more thoughtful answers than he typically does with the British media. He said that when Wimbledon is going on, it seems to him as if that’s the only thing happening in the entire world, and that he lives inside its bubble. He said that he had sat inside Centre Court and "had a think” after the Wimbledon final (he told the press that last week, but it still seemed like an exceptionally revealing thing to say two minutes after a match). Murray also said that after his previous Grand Slam final losses, he hadn’t felt like practicing or going to the gym or doing much of anything, but this time he had been forced to by the quick turnaround for the Olympics. It wasn't the quality of Murray's answers, which don't seem that amazing now that I've written them down, but the more open manner in which he said them—he almost looked like he enjoyed being interviewed.

Either Murray was reacting to a familiar face quizzing him, or he was very relieved to get past Stan Wawrinka so easily, or the Olympic atmosphere has finally put a smile on his face. Or a little of all three.

Who Would You Like to Play, Exactly?
At ESPN.com, Kamakshi Tandon quizzes the Bryan brothers about each team in the men’s doubles draw. A pattern emerges:

Cilic/Dodig: “Big hitters. Dangerous. Don’t want to see them.”

Cabal/Giraldo: “They’ve played a lot of big matches together for Davis Cup. They’re crafty.”

Bopanna/Bhupathi: “I’m sure they’ll be very happy that they’re in the draw, so they’re going to play with nothing to lose.”

Davydenko/Youzhny: “Two really good returners. good ball strikers....They’ll be tough.”

Tecau/Ungur: “Ungur I’m not familiar with, but I’m sure he’s a great player!”

I guess this is a secret to success: Always be on your guard; never underestimate anyone. Either that or the Bros should just pack up and go home now, because they have no chance.

Pippa’s Personal Olympics
It’s left to the Telegraph to give us the biggest tennis-related scoop of the Games thus far:

PIPPA MIDDLETON IS A TENNIS STAR

Kate's little sister, it turns out, has “won a place in the women’s first team at the Queen’s Club in West London. They will play in the Middlesex Premier Division.”

Maybe Bravo can send Pat O'Brien and Jon Wertheim out to call a few of those matches.