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. 

Slumber in the Grass -- 2013 Wimbledon Women's Preview

Chris Evert / Martina Navratilova

Tonight we look at the women's draw. Unfortunately, I can't only preview the women who have a real shot at winning the tournament because then it would just be a blog post about Serena Williams. And while there certainly is enough material to fill an entire blog just about her last few weeks, this post is about Wimbledon. So, we'll run down most of the usual suspects (and maybe one or two unusual ones). Onward.

The Men of the All-England Club -- 2013 Wimbledon Preview

Feliciano Lopez

It's been a while. I haven't written about tennis since last August (hell, I haven't written about anything here since March). It's strange though, because being in grad school has given me the opportunity to watch way more tennis this year than I have in about the last three. Spread the textbooks all over the bed and pretend to read them while watching eight hours of the Tennis Channel. Sadly, I won't get to watch as much of Wimbledon because: A. Research Methodology (or whatever the class is called) is sucking the life out of me; and 2. I'll be in Philly the first week of the tournament for my nephew's wedding.

Since we all know how bored I get writing about players I don't care about, I'm not even going to bother listing the ones that don't matter this time. It's just a waste of a strike-through. Enough chit-chat. Here we go.

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.

Don't Stop Me Now (or Ever)

Fortunately for me, my idea of writing every day just means that I post it on my blog before I go to bed. Good thing, because there's little chance this will be written and posted before midnight tonight (**actually, I'm posting this at 11:50 pm so I guess I made it). It's only day three and I'm already fighting myself to actually sit here and type words. Plus, I wasn't all that pleased with yesterday's post and now I'm certain I'll never write anything good ever again.

I'm also going to do it a little backward tonight. Instead of picking the song and then writing about the memory or ideas it invokes, I'm choosing my topic first and with any luck I'll find a suitable song to attach to it by the end of the post. The reason for that is I have a list of almost 30 songs selected for this month (almost 30 because I figured more would come to me during the month) and not one of them struck my fancy tonight.

2012 Wimbledon -- Women's Preview

Every time another major rolls around for the past year, I think “I couldn't possibly be less interested in women's tennis than I am right now.” And yet the next one arrives and voila! I'm less interested.

In the interest of getting through this preview, I'm going to list the odds published on pregame.com and then just deal with the players that have a reasonable chance of winning. Here we go.

Wimbledon 2012 -- Men's Preview

Marat Safin, Goran Ivanisevic, Lleyton Hewitt, Thomas Johannson, Albert Costa, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Andy Roddick, Gaston Gaudio. This is the list (minus Roger Federer) of guys that won a major for the first time (AusO, French, Wimby, US Open) from 2000-2004. Combined they won nine majors during that time. Since then, they have played in a combined 126 majors. They have won ONE of those. And that was the very first major of 2005. So, currently that group (only three of them are still active) is approximately 0 for 118.

What does that have to do with this year's Wimbledon draw? Nothing really. I just noticed that the number one seed here – Novak Djokovic – is playing a former French Open champion in the first round and I had to chuckle. If there was ever a period of time in any sport that deserved an asterisk next to all its champions, it's that one. Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi were definitely past their primes by then (although they still managed to win as many or more than every player on that list during that time). Roger Federer didn't win his first major until 2003 (and still won more than every player on that list during that same time period). Rafael Nadal hadn't even played in his first French Open in 2004 (he turned 14 in 2000). Djokovic didn't play in his first major (any of them) until 2005.

Like I said, nothing to do with this tournament but I can't imagine when I'll ever have an opportunity to point that out again – possibly in a post about how Andy Roddick really doesn't deserve to be inducted into the Hall of Fame (and there is only a 100% chance that he will be).

I do love to ramble and digress. Back to Wimbledon.

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.

Six Unforgettable US Open Matches (Women)

I’m still feeling a bit tennis-y tonight. And this is a blog post I’ve probably wanted to write every year since I started watching tennis. I love the US Open. Don’t get me wrong. Wimbledon is something special for sure, but I think it’s more special for the players than the fans. The US Open is where you get some knock-down drag-out battles where both players just leave everything out on the court trying to win. And while it hasn’t been as true the last five years, the Open is the place where you get to see some truly memorable women’s tennis matches. Here are six I think are unforgettable. I’m sure if you’re a fan you want one added that I don’t have on here, but that’s the other thing that makes the US Open so great. Trying to choose just five or six great matches is virtually impossible.

Not-So Great Dane

The US Open starts Monday, which means that at least half the posts between now and then will be about tennis. That’s probably not so good for some of you. But I’m sure a few people will be happy about it. Normally I just do the preview of the draws, but since I’m writing every day this month I can spend a little more time on some things.

2011 French Open Women's Preview

It says as much as the state of women's tennis right now as it does about Kim Clijsters that many people are picking her to win the French Open even though she hasn't played a single match on red clay this year. It's a little bit hard to believe that four times a year someone wins one of these things yet looking at the list, no one looks capable of doing it. Let's take a closer look.

French Open Men's Topless Preview

Feliciano Lopez

Since the French Open starts tomorrow, just a quick and dirty preview.