My Wimbledon Prediction

Nadal

Nadal seems to be in better shape than at the same time last year when he was having to play almost every day in the last week due to rain. This year Nadal's preparation has been better - not losing a single set at Roland Garros always helps. He has also had simpler games this year at Wimbledon and he seems to be playing more aggressive tennis... with the Wimbledon courts slowing down and Nadal playing more aggressively, that does make for a more dangerous combination. Nadal has made some easy work of some dangerous opponents such as Gulbis, Youzny and Keifer. His true test will come against Murray who is playing some erratic but inspired tennis. If he gets through his quarter, Nadal is guaranteed a semi against an un-seeded player which really improves his chances of making the finals.

Federer

Federer has had it pretty easy until now, when he takes on the last man to beat him on grass, Ancic in the quarters. Fed while not very impressive in his win over Hewitt, was still very clinical. He will definitely raise the quality of his game as the quality of his opponents increases. The game against Ancic will be a good test and a possible test in the sems against a composed and resurgent Safin awaits,

\\ Current Form \\

- "He no longer plays short balls as he did in the past. You can no longer attack him on his forehand, as I could in the past. He is getting much more aggressive, and it's becoming much more difficult."

Federer on Nadal after the 08 Roland Garros Final

- "If he survives the first couple of rounds this year, I pick him to win Wimbledon"

Borg on Nadal after the 08 Roland Garros Final

- Most of the "pundits" are picking Nadal over Federer. But this is the kind of talk that will motivate Federer and works against Nadals favored position of being teh underdog on grass.

- I believe the main factor in Nadal losing to Federer in last years Wimbledon was his fitness and tendinitis of the knees. Assuming that Nadal is in good physical condition this year, I expect him to be mentally stronger than Federer specially with the way Federer gave up midway through the Roland Garros final. The last thing I expect from Nadal is throwing down the flag in a Wimbledon final - I think he truly believes he can win Wimbledon while Federer is plagued with self-doubt when it comes to winning Roland Garros. Is Federer over the ROland Garros loss?

I hope we get to find out in the Wimbledon finals. I personally have a feeling that its going to be Nadal over Federer in 4.

What do you think?

Plus do you even care who wins on the womens side?

Cool video of Federer and Mirka playing together

I was doing some research for another post when I came across this cool video on youtube. I didnt know Mirka is Swiss too... whats better, I found her and Federer playing together in the Hopman cup (Dec 01 - Jan 02), getting thrashed by Hewitt and Alicia Molik. Apparently this video is from the 2002 Hopman Cup.

You may ask whats changed since then?

- Federer discovered his inner quoa... he owns Hewitt now even though he lost to Robredo and Hewitt in this Hopman cup.

- Federer used to play the Hopman cup back then - I cant imagine him doing the same now

- Federer and Mirka have been going steady for a while... you can see the chemistry on the court. This sees to be more of a social mixed double game for the Swiss rather than a Hopman cup game... but that could also be because this is a dead rubber

- Then there is the small matter of Fed winning 12 Grand Slams since then... the difference is obvious :)

Music in Seattle

The other day I was given a task to find out cool music acs in town... here is what i came up with


The Ting Tings (June 10th, Chop Suey)
Moby (June 11th)
Robyn (Neumos, May 14th)

You can listen to all three here: My Rhapsody Playlist

Here are also some picks from Sasquatch (May 24-26) at the Gorge

- REM
- The Cure
- Death Cab for Cutie
- MIA
- Modest Mouse
- Beirut
- Tegan and Sara
- The Flaming Lips

NCAA MEns Indoor Tennis Championships - Day 3 and wrapup

I spent most of my weekend at the Nordstrom Tennis center at UW, while I didnt get to watch all the games= I did watch some exciting ones. The Ohio vs Georgia doubles action last night was amazing and was probably the highlight in terms of adrenaline packed action. Ohio won the first doubles game, and the #1 and #2 doubles games were oscillating back and forth between match points, breakpoints etc at 7-7. It was amazing to monitor 2 courts at a time waiting for Ohio to win it and get a point on the board. Imagine what the players must ve been thinking since they were playing on adjacent courts.

Also watched 2 games played by Somdev (the #1 ranked player in the country), one against UCLA (Srugo) and another against Ole Miss (Tveit). In both games he lost the 1st set but came back to win the match in 3 sets He doesnt have any standout weapons and an ok serve... he does play a very strategic game - hes got great court coverage and waits for the opponent to go for too much or fall apart mentally. Srugo missed a crucial sitter of a volley when he was serving for the match (and quarter finals) while Tveit was up a break in the 2nd and was on course to winning, but almost couldnt believe he was about to beat the #1 player - he fell apart then and lost it.

Also chatted briefly with Somdev who mentioned that he got back on Monday from India having played Istomin in India's Davis cup win against Uzbekistan. Somdev lost in straight sets but was clearly a bit jet lagged

Other highlights from the weekend

- This German guy Matthias from Ole Miss who is 6 7" and has a huge serve. His groundies arent that great, but volleys are decent. I think he's ranked #5 in the country (not sure). Could he be another Isner?

- The #3 guy in the country, Dominic Inglot, who is 6 4" and from England. He has a huge serve along with a great serve and volley. His volleys were sweet and he had great touch, especially on his one handed backhand. He beat Matthais in their semi final match

- All players have great form and are superb athletes. I know that sounds a bit cliche, but thats the truth. The reflexes on the doubles games were simply amazing. I even saw one guy do something like this, i.e hit a smash of a smash.

- Most of the players on the top teams are foreign. Its interesting that teams like Stanford which primarily recruit from the US as a policy arent doing so well recently while the top teams have crammed their rosters with talent from around the world.

- The future of Indian tennis looks good. Somdev (#1 in the country) and Sanam Singh (played and won #6 singles for Virginia) both play for Virgina. There is a 6 4" Indian guy called Saketh on the Alabama team and Jeevan is anotehr great player for UW who plays #2 singles. Most of the Indian talent seems to come from Chennai in the South

- It was interesting to see Holden Seguso in action for UCLA. The name sounded familiar and when I google him I found out that his dad is one of the great doubles players - Robert Seguso (partnered with Ken Flach). He married a Canadian tennis player Carling Bassett (grad daughter of John Carling of the beer fame). Talk about tennis genes and legacies!

Anyway, I know Mike, Ken, Radha and others were there with me... please leave comments on your experiences/take ways.

Personally I hope to use some of the stuff I saw for some O Quoa action!

NCAA indoor tennis championships, day 2

So this is me reporting courtside, its going to be short and concise :)

I just watched #5 seeded Missispi beat #11 seed Oklahoma

5/6 Oklahoma players are from Ukraine, the 6th is Australian

Missisipi has 3 Swedes, a Norwegian, a South African, a German and a Dutch guy. There is also an American on the team.

The German guy, Matthias is 6 7" and has an amazing serve, he was hitting bombs down the T on his second serve - he played #2 singles

Ucla plays Virginia next, can't wait to see Somdev in action

More to follow, with a video of Matthias' serve action and a few pictures as well

What should team Quoa do for fun

So tennis season is starting, the cries of O Quoa Tenzing waaa are ringing out but we havent reallly done anything fun to promote team bonding! Here are some ideas that I came up with (please vote if you you are on team Quoa). If you dont like the ideas or have other suggestions, please leave a comment in the poll or at the bottom of the post.

Happy voting!

ITA - National Team Indoor Championships, Day 1

I was pretty lucky to watch some great tennis tonight along with Aaron (USTA teammate), Scott Daniels (USTA team coach) and Chris (a friend from work). We watched #2 seed Georgia beat # 15 seeded UW in a thriller - after losing the doubles court (1-2), UW turned up the heat in singles. They were down 0-1 already in the best of 7 games fixture due to losing the doubles (outcome of best of 3 doubles matches count as 1 point) and needed to win 4 out of 6 singles games if they wanted to win the tie.

I wont give a recap of the whole chain of events - you can find them here,but I would like to talk about some of the amazing highlights of the day. The #1 memory of the day was watching Ryo Sekiguchi from Tokyo, and now playing for the huskies, beat his opponent from Georgia. Not only was Ryo the first guy to get the job done for UW in singles, he has the most unique game Ive seen (and that included Santoro). He hits with both hands on both sides and what is wierd is that so did his opponent! What is the probability of that happening? Ryo wore his opponent down by chasing balls and maintaining a nagging and piercing depth on his shots. I think having bo\th hands on each side gives him greater control which he utilizes to guide the ball down the line a lot. The other interesting thing is that he makes up for the reduced reach by being a superb athlete, taking the ball very early and stretching with one hand for the wider ones. I asked him after the game if he had always hit with two hanhs and his reply was 'yes'.

Here is a picture of him:
Among other players in action, the Georgia team included the #1 Spanish jnr of 06, the #1 ranked African jnr of 05 & 06 and the boys US Open Doubles champions... UW had some funky players too... they had this amazing lefty Indian guy on the team who won #2 singles called Jeevan. Then the #1 singles guy from UW, a swiss named Patrik Fischer served lefty but played righty, amazing! Also there are only 2 american players on the UW team

I also chatted with a swede on the Ole Miss team - its turns out theres 3 swedes on that team. Im going to turn up early tomorrow to watch them in action against Oklahoma. #1 seeded Virginia plays next at 11 - they have the #1 ranked singles guy in the country, who beat Isner at last years NCAA championshop. His name is Somdev, he's Indian, and he is just back from playing Davis cup tennis for India... amazing isnt it. UW plays again at 8pm on Sat night

More updates to follow from the court tomorrow using my iPhone!