11.8.2007 - It seems that crazy things occur in fours in tennis and I’m not impressed.1. Betting Scandal.2. Martina Hingis’s Cocaine Scandal.3. Alleged Tommy Haas food poisoning incident in Moscow.4. Former LTA coach Claire Lyte is found guilty sexual activity with a child. I’m a positive guy so I going to stick with what’s going well in the game today. It was great to see Sharapova advance to the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Championships. She’s struggled the entire season with injuries, so it’s been nice to see her competing so well this week in Madrid and I hope it carries over to 2008….I bet the fellas in Shanghai are glad to see that Nalbadian is not going as an alternate, as he did in 2005 when he won the event beating Fed in a five set final. I have two big questions on my mind for next week will Davydenko have shaken his serving yips and can anybody stop Fed?
11.11.2007 - Big props to ESPN for showing the men’s singles matches live and no props to VS for showing the women’s semis and final on tape delay. Tennis Channel also deserves respect for showing the Masters doubles…Sparky rallied past Maria in what turned out to be the longest three-set final in the WTA year end championships history. Following her semifinal loss to Bartoli at Wimbledon, Henin finished the year with 25 straight wins, the longest streak since Venus won 35 in a row in 2000. The record is 38 by Steffi, who started her streak after losing in the 1989 French Open final. Anytime you can be mentioned in the same sentence as Steffi, you’ve done something special. Sparky gets my 2007 game ball for her outstanding effort this season. Kudos to Maria for being the only one to take a set off Henin this week and ending her season on a high note…Dicky Gasquet put in a good effort taking the opening set off of Ralph in the Masters. There was a bit of a shocker in the other men’s match today with Ferrer taking out Djockovic. The joker had a long year and has come into Shanghai running on fumes…Italian Alessio Di Mauro gets my turkey award for being the first player to get busted under the ATP's new anti-corruption rules. Hopefully this will put the fear of god into any player stupid enough to gamble on tennis matches.
11.13.2007 - Huge props to David Ferrer for beating Ralph and again showing why he’s the most improved player on the ATP tour this year. The guy plays great defense, but it’s his improved offense that has vaulted him from being a top twenty five player to where he is today. This guy is a real workhorse, he gets up punches the time clock, puts his hard hat on and gets the job done. If you would have told me two years ago that he would be in the top five I would have said no way. It just goes to show you that you can’t measure heart. Who would have thought that Club Fed would have to win his next two round robin matches to make the semifinals of the Masters Cup? I’m predicting the Roddick and Federer advance from the Red group and that Nadal and Ferrer advance from the Gold group.
