Beers by the river (@ The Lucky Shag) http://t.co/d55KKf8d (my latest tweet, posted )

probably the best tennis for an entire week you could possibly watch all year. the top 8 players, based on their season's ranking points, play each other in two randomly selected groups of four. the top two players of each group progress into the semi finals and ultimately at the end of the week winners of the semi finals battle it out in the finals.

• Roger Federer
• Rafael Nadal
• Novak Djokovic
• Andy Murray
• Juan Martin del Potro
• Nikolay Davydenko
• Fernando Verdasco
• Robin Soderling

now do excuse me, i need to go watch some tennis!

• barclaysatpworldtourfinals.com 

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as with all the other tennis grand slams, the week after is always a tough one. next one is the oz open in january 2010.

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On average, I break my tennis racquet strings every 3 hours of play. And this for about the last 20 yrs. Already back in the days my dad thought it be a good idea for me to restring my racquets myself. So he bought me a drop weight restringing machine, which I replaced a few years back with a brand new Pro's Pro TX-500 electronic restringing machine.

It's a treat restringing with this machine! The video is about a 10min summary of restringing one of my racquets (A restringing session generally lasts about 45min in total).

• view high definition version 

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• http://imgur.com/tzJWT.jpg 

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i went to watch the quarter final matches of the bmw open here in munich. that's right, in total four matches, one ticket, one match after the other and all on the same court. besides watching the guys play, and given my recent ankle debacle, i notice that i tend to gander at people's ankles more than before. isn't it weird! anyhow, i was surprised to see so many of the players wear ankle braces! got to get myself one of those too!

highlight for me was to see the australian llyeton hewitt play. i can't say i've been a big fan of his, but i do admire his never-die-attitude! what a trooper! it was awesome to watch him play!!!

• bmwopen.de • my bmw open photos • my bmw open tweet 

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seeing federer's supremo tennis skills fade away over the last year or so, is not a pretty sight. what makes it even more frustrating for me as a spectator and a fan of course, is how nonchalant he is, or at least was, about loosing. sure, sportsmanship needs to be there but where's that fighting spirit?

finally the frustration, for me a clear indicator of a fighting spirit, surfaced in his miami semi final match again djokovic. he smashed up his racquet in a big way. something one might associate with safin, but not federer. boy, that must have felt good. about time too i reckon!

ok, he lost the match but hopefully this is a turning point for the "old" fed express.

• youtube clip • djokovic defeats federer 

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looks like any numbnuts can be a tennis player interviewer these days!! here's an extract from an interview with Andy Roddick after losing in the Australian Tennis Open against Roger Federer in the semi finals:

Q. When it was 5‑2 in the first set, the umpire or chair engaged you when you carried on, and he said neither you nor him were going to win here. That didn't affect you at all?

ANDY RODDICK: What?

Q. When it was 5‑2 in the first set.

ANDY RODDICK: I was already down two breaks in that set.

Q. I get that.

ANDY RODDICK: Then get it.

Q. It was an unusual stage for the chair to engage you and carry on a dialogue after two breakpoints went against you.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, what do you want from me? The guy made a judgment call. I didn't agree with the judgment call. I made it known. I asked pointed questions that when he answered them they completely contradicted what he said before. What do you want me to say?

Q. Well, I guess you didn't beat yourself here, you were beaten by a better player.

ANDY RODDICK: Have you been here for the entire press conference?

Q. Yes.

ANDY RODDICK: I feel like I've gotten that point across.

Q. You handled that quite well. I'm impressed.

ANDY RODDICK: Thank you. You make a lot of statements and don't ask any questions.

• post semi-final interview 

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it's been how many years since i've played in a knock-out tournament. that all changes this weekend. i'll be taking part in a tournament organized mainly for league tennis players, here in münchen at a local tennis club called sportscheck. this afternoon i received a call from the tournament organizers informing me who i will be playing tomorrow and at what time. rightio! bring it on! very exciting! i guess now is a good time to start restringing two of my recently "broken" racquets!

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besides the good tennis, these must be the most colourful tennis courts i've ever seen. colourful, russia...do these go hand in hand? thought not! still, how cool is that! i'd love to play on one of those....

• st. petersburg open 

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for a while there (2 weeks) i had my daily dose of grand slam tennis. bliss i tell ya! the men's tennis ladder is experiencing a change of the guards. federer is no longer #1! instead nadal is the newly crowned numero uno, after settling for 2nd spot for three consecutive years. but besides those two big guns, there's loads of new blood in the top 10. watching guys like gulbis, djokovic, del potro and murray giving the big boys a run for their money was quite the spectator treat.

it's gonna be a long wait till the next grand slam in australia early 2009!

• atptennis.com 

• comments (1)

               

my recent tweets

• Beers by the river (@ The Lucky Shag) http://t.co/d55KKf8d (posted )

• Not quite the München #Oktoberfest but close enough http://t.co/50Q7yGlU (posted )

• At least I didn't have pesky snakes #perth @ Herdsman Lake Wildlife Centre http://t.co/sXGizmGN (posted )