2014 Australian Open Preview

I still haven't finished my music list from last year and here it is already time for the Australian Open. Since getting this posted is time sensitive I decided to procrastinate even longer on the music post in lieu of getting this done on time.

US Open 2013 -- Women's Preview

Back in the day, probably until about 2005 or so, women's tennis was far more interesting to me than men's tennis. I never really loved that whole Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang era. There were male players over the years that I really liked – Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker – but never as much as players like Evonne Goolagong, Tracy Austin and Steffi Graf. After Graf retired, we had a minute or two that wasn't so interesting, but then the Williams sisters showed up, Jennifer Capriati returned, Kim Clijsters and Amelie Mauresmo were in the mix. The early 2000s were filled with great players and fun tennis.

US Open 2013 -- Men's Preview

Juan Martin Del Potro 2009

Note: Had to abandon the one word title format for tonight and tomorrow

The US Open starts Monday. It's been nice not having a full-time job all year. I get to watch way more tennis than usual. Today we preview the men's draw, tomorrow the women's. As usual, I only list the seeded players that interest me. 

2012 US Open -- Women's Preview

As I was making the video to go with this post, I realized that after this tournament Kim Clijsters will be gone. I know she retired once before, but I'm pretty sure it's for real and forever this time. She made the statement that she her body won't let her play the way she wants to play anymore. I feel ya girl! Getting old sucks and she plays a game almost as physical as Rafael Nadal.

With Kim retiring and Venus Williams only good for two or three wins a tournament now, I'm down to rooting for Maria Sharapova and hoping Sabine Lisicki can learn how play on another surface besides grass. Honestly, it's pretty depressing. But we still have one more chance – however slim – to see Kim and Jada holding up the US Open trophy, so let's get on with it.

2012 US Open -- Men's Preview

The Olympics sure did crowd up the schedule. Usually by the time the US Open rolls around it seems like Wimbledon was ages ago. Thanks to the fact that they essentially played it twice this summer, it seems like it was just yesterday. Anyone who showed up to the blog today looking for more wacky adventures of psquared will have to wait until Saturday for that to resume. Men's draw analysis tonight, women's tomorrow.

I'm not as excited about the Open as I usually am. I'm not sure if it's because how quickly it seems to have gotten here or what. But on we go anyway. I'll try to make it as “me” as always. You'll notice that the player's home country is in parentheses. There is no reason for that except that when I copied and pasted the list, that's how I got it. I listed all 32 seeds, but I'm sure you'll figure out quickly who I'm not impressed by.

Right Back At Ya Makayla

I saw this picture at the zoo over the weekend and the first thing I thought was, "He looks just like Makayla." It wasn't till I got home that I realized his name was Silver. How awesome is that?

Silver appears as unimpressed with Makaya as she was with Silver.

This doesn't count as today's post. I just wanted to put it on my blog.

AusO 2012 -- The Men's Draw

So, I'm totally not as excited to write about the Australian Open men's draw as I was for the women. It's not because I don't enjoy watching men's tennis. These days, in fact, it's far more interesting to watch the men than the women. But there is always so much more drama swirling around the women that it's easy to find ways to spice up the post. In contrast, the men are fairly professional these days. Roger Federer is offering the most controversial quotes in press conferences, which means there's not much drama to report. The best thing about reviewing the men's draw is that I get to pore over all the shirtless (and sometimes pants-less) pictures of the ATP's hottest guys. Of course, I do it for you. I know you don't have time to waste typing Nadal shirtless, Federer shirtless, Djokovic naked into internet search engines. And you shouldn't have to. I'm here for you. Now let's get it on … I mean get on with it.

AusO 2012 -- The Women's Draw

Jennifer Capriati

It's time for the Australian Open. If I'm being perfectly honest, this is my favorite tournament to watch on TV. It's usually on at times that don't conflict with anything I want to watch (that's not quite as true here as it was in NYC but since the last two weeks of January are usually chock full o' reruns the AusO* being in prime time is perfect) and the sun is always shining there. I don't know what their winters are like, but if I were going to choose a different country to live in for a time (and I'd love to do that) Australia would almost certainly be the one I chose.

US Open Week 1 Review

I’m mostly taking Labor Day weekend off, but I figured a short post would be easy enough to do. However, the post I’ve decided to do is a mid-tournament assessment of my tournament preview. I was looking forward to doing this a couple of days ago, but after playing some of my worst tennis of the summer (and that’s saying something) and watching about 10 hours of tennis over the last two days I’m less than enthusiastic about this endeavor. But I will soldier on because this new commitment to writing more often is something I’m enthusiastic about.

A Nerd's Guide to the Greatest US Open Champs -- Women

The New York Times has created a mock US Open draw pitting eight US Open champions of the last 30 years against each other. They did one for both the men and women, but I’m just focusing on the women here. Their explanation of how they selected and seeded players is almost reasonable, but I found it a bit haphazard and lacking in a real ability to judge relative merits of the careers of these women. Plus, I think it puts people in the draw that really shouldn’t make an eight-person US Open draw of past champions. So, let me briefly explain some of the issues I have with their draw and then fashion something similar myself.

2011 Men's US Open Preview -- Young Gun Edition

Verdasco's a must have

The mens. Mens, mens, mens. My favorite thing about writing the men’s preview is looking for and posting the pictures. I’m a bit tired of the same ole same ole though. To mix things up a little, I’ll be posting pics of the next generation of potentially great players (but only the ones that are 18 or older – I’m not interested in being THAT creepy). If I remember I’ll caption them to let you know who they are. And there will probably be some of the regulars mixed in as well. Enjoy!

2011 US Open Women's Preview

Here’s the crux of the women’s preview for this year’s US Open: Unless she falls down and breaks a hip, Serena Williams should easily win the tournament. Since that’s not at least a hundred words, I’ll handicap the rest of the field – although most of them are handicapped enough already.

The Spirit of the Yankees Saves New York

I really need to get to writing the US Open preview posts, but here’s a little bonus for Friday afternoon. Here’s a story a NY Yankee fan will someday tell his grandchildren.


Come on over here kids. I want to tell you about how the Yankees saved New York – AGAIN – in the summer of 2011. It was a terrible, dark and stormy night. New York was under attack from the forces of evil.