only these two matter from hereon out.  after watching three of today’s four quarterfinal matches, everyone else has faded into a forgettable background and the only two players who stand out for me are my beloved captain, marat safin and mi el toro, rafael nadal.  anything else that makes me smile are bonus points, lighting up my tennis life beyond its already thrilling glow.

marat safin argues with the umpire over… er, something

marat gives the most disarming press conference.  read pete bodo’s interesting commentary of that presser here.

rafa, as usual, is quirky in his own press conference.  one of my favourite lines had to do with his insistence on spain being number one in tennis when the journalist had actually been trying to bait him into a “let’s dethrone roger a la nole” statement.  backfire, thy name is rafa.

win or lose, feliciano lopez is beautiful and brooding, and the first few seconds of his press conference video show you why.

you have to get a laugh out of serena williams in her joint press conference with older sis venus after they won their doubles match against betthany mattek and sania mirza.

rafa in the shadow of greatness

the best article written today was murray-centred but well worth the read:  witty, biting, matter of fact, and simply a feast of words and images.  alliteration, poetry, assonance, punch, this one had it all.  the last line had to be the coup de grace.  bless your writer’s soul!

i’m ill today probably due to fatigue over the last six weeks and some pressing emotional issues over in cyberworld and not even the green of wimbledon grass has helped keep me together.

rafa attempts to get into his third wimbledon semifinal when he squares off against britain’s andy murray on a highly partisan centre court tomorrow

but i need not worry for tomorrow is men’s quarterfinals day and there are mouthwatering matches on centre court featuring roger federer and mario ancic in the first clash, followed by rafael nadal and andy murray (who will no doubt have the crowd on his side).  the swiss maestro and his croat counterpart share the dubious distinction of having struggled with mononucleosis and of the eight quarterfinalists, boast of fine grasscourt games that will surely be pitted against each other in what promises to be a scintillating display of brilliant winners.  the spanish number two seed will be flexing his muscles against the pale scot who has been manned up by his five-set conquest of fellow junior in the talented richard gasquet.  i am absolutely positively sure that this match will light up centre court in both tennis and drama aspects.  you can count on that!

court one will feature marat safin and the delicious feliciano lopez (he of the see-through whites and grecian profile) followed by the veterans of the tour, arnaud clement and rainer schuettler.  my beloved captain seeks to reach his first semifinals, as well as his spanish opponent who has a 4-1 lead over him.  lopez was the last one to beat him at wimbledon in the third round two years ago.  this will be a game of big serves, fine volleys, and pounding ground strokes.  count on the battle of the 30-somethings clement and schuettler to be filled with fine baseline play and exquisite net play as both doubles specialists bring out their all-court games.

feliciano lopez swings against marcos baghdatis in their fourth round match monday

i will have our laptop on and logged into my wimbledon live account for court one action while bbc will be aired into my living room through our tv.  the minute they show both matches simultaneously on bbc 1 & 2, i will be switching between the two channels between points.  most probably most of my attention will be on the marat-feli match for the first time slot and definitely the rafa-andy match for the second.

i was thrilled last sunday when spain won the euro 2008 title and thought of rafa and feli watching the match together and celebrating afterwards.  it comes as a pleasant bonus to see them both through to the quarterfinals (i had hoped that verdasco might have completed the trio but he fell to a determinded ancic 13-11 in their fifth set last monday).  rafa is aiming for a spanish double on the pitch, although he knows it will be more difficult to do it on wimby’s grass. 

bring on my men!  methinks my fever might just scale new heights tomorrow. 

tamarine tanasugarn, jelena’s bane 

tamarine tanasugarn of thailand (neighbour!) knocked out second seed jelena jankovic in their round 4 match today.  diminutive doubles specialist jie zheng knocked out first seed ana ivanovic in round 3.  are these hardworking asian girls the bad luck charms of the winsome serbian top seeds?

zheng jie, ana’s bane

whatever the reason, asian girls rock!  woohooo!

one swiss down, another looming in a possible semifinal encounter on friday.  but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

marat at full stretch

it’s been two years since marat safin has won four matches in a row yet he has done it at wimbledon.  let us pause to let this sink in.  the last time he was in a grand slam quarterfinal, he went on to win the title (australia 2005).

is it possible? dare i hope?  do i risk the heartache that will definitely come should you lose?

you dismissed stanislas wawrinka, switzerland’s number 2 and 13th seed in commanding fashion.  your backhand never looked better, your soft touch at the net belied your hulking size, your footwork nimble. 

o captain, my captain, i will follow you until the ends of your tennis earth.  no matter what.

*rafa, if you get by andy murray on wednesday and whoever will be waiting in the semifinals on friday, and marat is across the net on sunday…  i will not know what to do at that moment.  more on these thoughts in another post.

when was the last time this happened?  the top 4 women seeds are out.  teenager agnieszka radwanska (14) upended svetlana kuznetsova in a see-saw three-set affair that ended with the unflappable pole and former wimbledon junior champion into the quarterfinals. 

 agnieszka radwanska of poland

although i agree with justine henin’s sentiment that with her retirement, it could be sveta’s time to shine, i have seen sveta often give away improbably leads and find a way not to win a match that was hers for the taking.  she has been a perennial runner-up in several of her recent tournament outings, winning just 1 of them when her opponent retired while up a set.  when will sveta get her act together?  maybe she and richard gasquet need to set up a support group of “talented chokers”.

and what of serbia’s underachieving drama queen, perenially injured jelena jankovic?  like her highly seeded compatriot ana ivanovic, she ran out of her get out of jail passes today as the thai veteran tamarine tanasugarn beat her with a solid baseline game.  a part of the defeat could have been put down to the serbian diva’s annoyance at being scheduled to play on court 18 which, though being a tv court, was considered a demotion by the serbian.  “I also think No. 1, No. 2 seeds should always be on these top show courts. The ranking shows, you know, who deserves it, who has this ranking. Who is in the top of the game should play on the top courts. I was almost playing in the parking lot. I almost need a helicopter to go to my court.”

bye bye, jeco

frankly, i’m glad these girls are out.  i’m getting tired of cheering for my beloved jelena who can’t break into the finals of a slam, or pulling for sveta who has bucketloads of talent to blow all her compatriots off the court but couldn’t save her life if it depended on the outcome of one match.

let the williams sisters march to their inevitable final on saturday and show the tour just what it takes to win this tournament.  unlike the top 3 seeds who skipped grass tournaments, the williams sisters are still in the tournament, ready to play their quarterfinal matches tomorrow while playing doubles together. 

24 years ago, in 1984, they had the chance of winning it all when they reached the final of the european football competition but were beaten by michel platini and his les bleus in a heartbreaking match. 

nearly half a century ago, in 1964, they won their first european championship title.  since then, they have struggled to reach the big stage, becoming known as a talented team that chokes when it most matters.  but not anymore.  not last night.  suddenly the world cup 2010 is looking brighter for this young team of under 30 players.

fernando torres is surrounded by his spain teammates after scoring in the euro 2008 final in the 33rd minute against germany

after overturning the curse of june 22 in their quarterfinal victory over italy, spain strode forth on the pitch of vienna against the six-time euro cup finalist germany, hoping to hoist the championship trophy.

on the strength of fernando torres’ speed, determination, and will, spain are delirious.  from madrid to barcelona to valencia to vienna (and even to wimbledon where rafael nadal and his spanish compatriots watched the final together), spanish fans are beside themselves with joy and you can expect them to fiesta long into the night.

rafa, you have a key match tomorrow against mikhail youzhny — please don’t let this sap your strength or lower your focus, ok?

VIVA ESPAÑA!

you would think that any self-loving sports fan of tennis would know that nothing can be shocking in a grand slam, which usually holds true in the second week of proceedings.  but no one ever wrote the manual on how to deal with multiple shocks on three consecutive days of the first week. 

first it was patty schnyder and david nalbandian.

then it was novak djokovic.

then it was maria sharapova, andy roddick, james blake, daniela hantuchova, tommy robredo, and lindsay davenport.  (and some others, too)

today it was ana ivanovic, david ferrer, and amelie mauresmo.  what other seeds are hiding beneath a rock whom i have failed to acknowledge?

lessons to be learned from such defeats?  (or near defeats, as in the case of venus williams who, as the defending champion, has had to struggle through her first two matches against lowly ranked wild cards.)

1. first, hey girls, kick your butts into shape for the grass season, will ya?  you think skipping the warm-up tournaments is still ok?  you think that the first few rounds of wimbledon will warm you up for what lies ahead?  thank god for the kudryavtseva’s and zheng’s and radwanska’s of the women’s tour who send out a clarion call to the complacent top seeds to kick themselves into the right shape and mentality for these slams!
2. second, hype is not everything.  it’s not anything at all.  the press is stumbling all over itself, fumbling with the ‘new’ names and data they need to dig up on the ’sudden’ winners sprouting up all over the first week lawns.  does it cross any sane journalist’s mind that these surprise winners are the best prepared players on tour?  aside from qualifying rounds, these girls have to be practising in less than ideal conditions without any spiffy endorsements to lighten the financial burdens of playing on tour.

now for some happy thoughts and they come in m & m shapes, sizes, and colours.

M is for marat!  my sweet captain slugged it out against italy’s andreas seppi and won in four thrilling sets — hardly anything separated the two if one is just to look at the match statistics and scoreline.  the match was won on the big first serve and the ace count.  both men were just even on just about all aspects of the game:  net play, error count, break points won, total points won.  marat was clearly ahead in the first serve percentage of points won and aces count. 

i have yet to watch the match since i had to work during the match — for marat i would have given up the chance to earn some needed moolah but of course real life needs attention, too.

M is for mario ancic!  the baby-faced croat who missed last year’s wimbledon due to injury and illness booted out fifth seed david ferrer in a fine display of grass court tennis, showing us the mettle that had him in the top 10 three years ago.

last thought for the night:  i hope janko and jelena make it deep in the draw.  now that the high-publicity buddies/party animal group of novak, maria, and ana are out, maybe more attention will be given to the more low-key serbs with the more complete games, j & j. 

i’m still holding out for a jelena win, crazy as it may be.  who knows?  marat could still win his first wimbledon title, you know!

for your viewing pleasure, an 8-minute interview clip on espn of rafa following his win over ernests gulbis last thursday.

serb #2 janko tipsarevic 

S is for serbia.  you read it in my previous entry, how andy roddick was upset on day 4 of wimbledon and how.  his conqueror who nearly took him to five sets (which roddick made sure didn’t happen with his horrendous error count) was the same man who took roger federer to five thrilling sets at this year’s australian open, serbian janko tipsarevic.  one day after his friend and compatriot novak djokovic fell to the charismatic russian marat safin, tipsarevic kept serbian hopes alive in his stirring centre court victory.  he has admitted that he brings his best game on the big stage of centre courts but falters when he’s facing lower-ranked opponents on outer courts, an aspect of his mentality and game that he hopes to eliminate. 

a surefire top 10′r in teenage sensation from latvia, ernests gulbis

S is for spanish rafael nadal, mi rafalito, who overcame the brilliant latvian, ernests gulbis, in four sets in a thrilling second round match on court 1 yesterday.  gulbis took the first set on the strength of his killer serves, punishing forehand, and deft dropshots and volleys at the net that had rafa scrambling and tumbling on the grass.  in the second set, however, rafa adjusted court position to better return gulbis’ second serves, moving back a few metres, a tactic that started to pay dividends as he broke the teenager early on and race away with the set.  after the third set tiebreaker, i heaved a sigh of relief — he had weathered the crisis moments of the match and i was confident he would be able to close out the match in the fourth, which he did by 6 games to 4.

after struggling to come to terms with gulbis’ powerful and precise play…

… rafa triumphs after four thrilling sets.  vamos!

S is for spain!  three goals from xavi hernandez, daniel guiza, and david silva were more than enough to prove spain’s brilliance in offence, attractive football, an unbeaten record at the euro 2008 tournament so far, and a fitting titlist — hopefully!!! — after 44 years.  russia could not do much to prevent the spanish squad from moving forward, with amazing passing from cesc fabregas in the last ten minutes of the game to set up silva for the third goal. 

david silva and cesc fabregas following their third goal

didn’t i say rafa had a nose for victory?  in his press conference, he said that a win and only a win is what he expected out of last night’s outcome. :)  if rafa says so, it will be so, it seems.  now i wish he is thinking the same thing about his wimbledon chances this year.  please, my sweet, wipe out the sad terrible memory of last year’s final?

and the seeds keep falling.  the biggest shocks of yesterday’s day 4 at the championships at wimbledon were the upsets of third seed maria sharapova, former wimbledon champion, and sixth seed andy roddick, two-time finalist on the green lawns.  they weren’t alone, however. 

sharapova was joined by other seeds daniela hantuchova (10), compatriot vera zvonareva (13), and injured lindsay davenport (25) who may have played her last at sw19.    roddick, on the other hand, was joined by compatriot james blake (9), spanish tommy robredo (23) who fell to german tommy haas, and finnish jarko nieminem (24). 

a lot of snarky articles have been written — note this LA times piece that smacks of beyatchiness — of sharapova’s loss to her 154th ranked russian opponent, alla kudryavtseva, who admitted not liking the world number 2’s nike outfit, an opinion shared by this blogger.  out with the tux, i say.  it was, as kudryavtseva said, a little bit of everything.  a see-through tux top, accompanying shorts and tiffany earrings, not to mention the nike evening coat.  bye bye, nike, you’ve disappointed a lot on court this year.  adidas and reebok have come up with better choices — adidas for the men (marat safin looks best in mine eyes) and reebok for the women (nicole vaidisova, amelie mauresmo, and jelena jankovic are fetching in their white frocks)

for a team as lucky as turkey has been in the euro 2008 tournament thus far, you would have to say that their lucky 3 would have been tonight in their semi-final encounter with germany in basel, switzerland.  down 2-1 in the last 12 minutes of regular time, turkish hero sehmik slotted in the ball past the outstretched arms of a disjointed jens lehman and i thought, ok we’re heading into extra time.

but phillip lahm, defensive nightmare of germany the entire evening, decided to put an end to his dismal performance by putting in the winning goal in the 90th minute, catapulting the less-than-impressive german side into its 6th european final.

personally i had been hoping turkey would pull off yet another magical victory as they had conjured against the czech republic and croatia.  they played brilliant attacking football, confidently handling the ball in the german’s half for most of the 90 minutes.  but this is sport, and anything can happen.  as it did tonight.  looks like lady fate decided that it was germany’s turn to have that magical piece of luck.