* !103647558
*
By Jackie Roe, TW Social Director
Hey, everyone. As I post this, the Typepad servers are still acting up. We've been told the problems should be resolved shortly, so I hope you'll stick around; what's a Deuce Club without Comments, right?
Today's DC is packed with both a look ahead to the U.S. Open and a look back at Toronto and Cincy, so let's jump right in.
First up is your official invite to the U.S. Open TW gathering. A number of you have asked me about it, so I think we'll have a good turnout! Here are the details:
When: Sunday, 9/5. Let's set the start time as 9 PM, but night session ticketholders, feel free to come later in the evening.
Where: Dublin House. Address: 225 W. 79th St. (between Amsterdam and Broadway). According to Pete, the place has "a lot of authentic character." They don't serve food but there are plenty of restaurants nearby, and you can have food delivered or even bring your own. Don't worry about missing the tennis as they have flat-screen TVs. Click here for more info.
Please RSVP here in the Comments (provided Typepad is running normally), via e-mail at rasslinpriestess@hotmail.com, or by sending me a note on Facebook or Twitter (@JackieRoe), as I need to reserve space for our group. And if you could pass the word along to other TWibers who might not catch this invite, that'd be great. Thanks, everyone. I hope to see many of you there!
Next is your Suicide Pool reminder:
The U.S. Open Suicide Pool (SP) is on at TalkAboutTennis.com. If you have played it before, you know what to do. Click here to play.You should find the instructions and the thread for the first day (after the OOP is announced) at that link.
If you don't know how to play the Suicide Pool, read on.
The basic idea of the Suicide Pool is to pick, for each day of the tournament (in this case the U.S. Open), one player from the OOP who you think is going to win his/her match. If he/she wins his/her match you get to pick a fresh player from the next day's OOP. The end goal, of course, is to progress to the final and pick the eventual winner. There is a catch, in that you can only pick a player once for the entire tournament (so, for instance, you might want to save Federer for a later round).
There are separate games for the ATP and WTA singles draws and you can play one or both of them.
Additional rules:
You have to be a registered member of TAT, which you can easily become by registering here for free.
We will be keeping track of the fortunes of the TWibe. If you want your name to be tracked, please indicate this with the text "TW" in your first day's (and ONLY your first day's) pick. Only include your TW name if it’s different from your username on TAT. Check out the example below:
*
Thomaz Bellucci
ptenisnet
TW
*
There will be a fresh thread open every day of the tournament, for both the ATP and WTA. You'll also see a thread which tracks updated results once the tournament begins.
You have to get your picks for each day, not round, before play starts for the day. The entry deadline into the contest is the scheduled start of play on Day 1 - Monday, August 30th.
Good luck, TWibe!
So now that we're set for the Open, let's take one last look at Toronto and Cincinnati. Hungover, clearly...
Don't worry, you won't have to hear me yap about those tournaments for the millionth time. Instead, I asked a few of the TWibers I met up with at these tournaments to share some of their favorite memories, and they graciously obliged. Happy reading!
From A_gallivant, aka Andreen:
Last year I was a complete tournament junkie and went to Indian Wells, Miami, Roland Garros, Halle, Eastbourne, Wimbledon, Montreal, Cincinnati, US Open, Shanghai, and the WTFs. [JR: Holy cow, Andreen! You’ll have to guest host a DC and give us a summary of your year in tennis!] Montreal was one my favorite tournaments because of its intimate atmosphere, so I promised myself I’d make the trek to Toronto in '10.
On Tuesday, after two buses and a 15-minute walk, I arrived at the Rexall Centre at York University. As I’m no tourney novice, I quickly bought myself a hot dog outside the stadium for the relatively cheap price of $3, and armed with my two frozen bottles of water, I bought the only reasonable price ticket left for nosebleed seats at $36. I didn’t really care about my seat for the main stadium, as I usually camp out on the outside courts; I like being close to the action and discovering players that rarely get face time on TV.
My initial impression of this tourney site is that it is as intimate as the one in Montreal. They also do a great job of posting player practice schedules not only on the daily printed order of play but also by the practice courts. Sadly, I was only able to get a peek at Federer, but I did manage to catch shirtless Robredo, Almagro, and Verdasco practicing. On my second visit on Thursday, I caught shirtless Feliciano Lopez and David Ferrer, and Marin Cilic. The Spanish boys like to show skin, huh?
On Tuesday, I pretty much camped out on Grandstand. A great perk of this site is that the reserved seats for premium ticket holders are pretty limited, so you can sit in the front row with very little hassle. I discovered this when I wandered over to catch Baghdatis vs. Chardy; that match turned out to be more interesting than I had anticipated. I thought Baghdatis would take it easily, but from the time I sat down it was clear that Baghdatis was irritated. Chardy hung around, forced him to play one more shot, and before I knew it they were going to a third set.
Next, I watched some of Gulbis vs. Soderling, but after just a few games, I missed being close to the action so I went to see Tipsarevic vs. Kohlschreiber. That was short-lived as Tipsy hurt his ankle and had to retire early on. I stuck around for Monfils vs. Devvarman. It wasn’t the cleanest or best played match by either guy, but the crowd was enthusiastic and I enjoyed Monfils’s booming forehand and ridiculous slides. I stayed on for the Verdasco vs. Schwank match but Schwank was playing so poorly that I thought I’d better head home before it got too late. Imagine my surprise when I checked Twitter and saw that Schwank took Verdasco to a third set!
On Thursday, instead of watching Nalbandian vs. Soderling like most folks, I wanted to see Berdych vs. Dolgopolov. I remembered seeing Dolgopolov play Nadal in Madrid on TV without the slightest bit of reserve or fear, and he was just as fearless this time around. Nothing was going right for him, though – lots of flying forehands and netted volleys. I broke my no-stadium rule to catch Federer vs. Llodra which turned out to be a really entertaining, almost light-hearted affair. I was initially worried when Federer lost his serve early on, but Llodra didn’t carry himself like a guy who thought he was going to win it, so the match turned out to be less stressful than I had anticipated. I ventured down to the 100 level to get better pictures of Federer, but I ended up missing the underhanded serve and the shirt exchange in the process!
After that, I watched some of Murray vs. Monfils, then checked out Kohlschreiber vs. Lu. Lu had an awesome cheering section which gave the match a great vibe. When I heard that Monfils bageled Murray in the second set, I hustled back to the stadium to catch what I hoped would be a competitive final set, but by then Monfils had run out of steam. I caught some of Djokovic vs. Hanescu, then left shortly thereafter as I was totally wiped out by the heat and rollercoaster matches from the day.
I have some fun mementos from my Rogers Cup experience: A poster for participating in a roving survey and two pairs of Rogers Cup sweatbands, which I won! Click here to view my photos.
From Shelley:
My top three memories from Cincinnati:
1. What I'll remember most? The great people I met while I was there, including TWibers Jackie and Jenni. The Cincinnati tournament is a wonderful one and I highly recommend that everyone attend it at least once in their life! Mason, OH will always hold a special place in my heart.
**
