Howdy. I just had to walk all the way back up to the house because I left my Blackberry behind this morning, so this one will be brief - Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych are going to march out onto Centre Court in about, oh, five minutes.
Last night, I had a nice dinner with a bunch of folks, including Brad Gilbert and Cliff Drysdale. Brad's two kids, Zack and Julie, were there. They're impressive kids - smart, polite, personable; I'm sure some of you would have trouble believing they're spawn of Brad, one of my favorite people in this screwy sport. Uncouth American, motormouth, all that. . . None of which I buy. I mean, the guy loves tennis with a passion, had all the street cred you could ask as former player and coach, and he'll talk to anyone. And talk. I love that Brad calls Cliffy "Lord Drysdale."
You can't always judge parents by the quality of the kids they produce, at least not when those kids fall victim to adolescent struggles or temptations. But good kids almost always suggest good parents. Anyway, Brad is really high on Novak Djokovic and thinks he'll have little trouble with Tomas Berdych today. I'm going the other way. Berdych in four.
This morning, we (the media) also met with Stacy Allaster of the WTA Tour (check Tom Perrotta's Wimbledon Wire for the little hard news that came out of that). And we also had our last supper, er, presser, with Serena Williams. Now that Justine Henin is out of action with a bum elbow, Serena has been recruited to replace her in the Belgian exhibition next week. So the Best of Belgium has suddenly morphed into Best of the World.
It occurred to me that this Wimbledon is shaping up as Serena's Grand Slam masterpiece, as exemplified by the way she's been serving (80 aces so far). So I asked her about it. She replied: "I definitely think that my serve so far has done well, I'm hoping to do well one more match. Then I kind of have to analyze it, more than anything."
Enjoy the tennis, feel free to post your thoughts on today's action below.
-- Pete