PacLife CC/Scout Report - Day 11

!Afandab2By TennisWorld Contributing Editor Andrew Burton

Morning, all.

Well, was that fun last night?

James Blake and Rafael Nadal clearly studied the playbooks Andrew Friedman and I set out for them, and played one of the matches of the tournament.  Out of 173 points played, Blake took 86 and Nadal 87 ("What was Nadal like from the free throw line?" asked Joel Drucker).  Now, of course, the actual number of points won in a match matters as much as the popular vote in a Presidential contest or primary race - we have another scoring system to deal with.

And no score, points tally, statistic or equation could adequately the way Nadal stepped up at the end of the match.  Early in the third set, I muttered to Andrew Friedman and Elizabeth Kaye, a writer/journalist who's an honarary member of the RNKAS, that it was one of those matches that you don't want either player to lose.  And happily, neither player did lose - Blake didn't lose, Nadal won.  There are times when you're playing well, and all of a sudden, your opponent lifts his own level, and tekes it from you.  So you say "well played, opponent," and move on.

Today is a big day for me, so this early CC/Scouting Report is going to be a bit briefer than most.   Andrew Friedman and I did battle at the hotel tennis court at 8:15am.  The set we played resembled Nadal-Tsonga, as we swapped breaks in the first two games (truth in advertising - any comparison between our play and that of Nadal and Tsonga probably ought to stop there.)

We both began to find our range after that, and (though I say so myself) I thought we played some pretty good points.  There was one more break of serve, at 2-1, then the games went with serve until Andrew F served 2-5 down.  I was telling myself to be aggressive on the return, but Andrew was telling himself the same about his own serve.  An ace down the T at 15-30, then a superb flat, deep wide serve at advantage out contributed to a hold, but I managed to serve out at 15 for the set.  Man, it was fun - most of you know that I've been nursing a strained calf back into shape over the past month, and hitting with Andrew for an hour was a real pleasure.

Well, I'm off to Palm Springs Airport to collect Sylvia and Cathleen, who are flying in from Calgary.  They plan to let me continue to do my thing at IW, but after Sunday's finals I'm theirs - a chauffeur to take them to Disneyland.

Lots of tennis to be played before then.  First up for the men is Nalbandian-Fish, then Sharapova takes on Kuznetsova in the first WTA SF.  Federer-Haas is due after 4pm PT (late Update - Haas has withdrawn from the tournament with a sinus infection).  Then the two Serbs, Ivanovic and Jankovic, see us out in the evening session.

Enjoy today's tennis!