Beauty and the Beast.

This is hilarious. Did anyone see this about the 5-setter Tipsarevic and Stepanek engaged in for Davis Cup competition? Looks like Tipsy never read “Break Point” where Spadea goes into great detail about playing Stepanek in the 2005 Australian Open and Monte Carlo and what a schmuck Stepanek was. From stalling to pumping his fist at his coach all the time to just being a real annoying individual.

Stepanek Gives Tipsy the finger

Scoop, help me out here. Did you see the match? Fish loses 1 and 3 to Monaco??!! How did that happen? What did they force-feed Fish a pizza before the match? Monaco is one of those players who looks great beating up on the lesser-ranks of the tour, but when he faces a top player, he usually is worse than Almagro in coming up with a big win. Geez, what a terrible event for the American men in Miami.

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I did not see the match last night. It started really late, but I was shocked to see Isner get beat in straight sets by Florian Mayer. Now I like Mayer’s funky game. He’s like the guy you see playing on the court next to you who’s chopping and slicing and you say to yourself, “I’d kill that guy.” But then when you face him, you realize he’s no pushover.

And Up Comes Fish!

Ok, folks, just took a great Bikram Yoga class in Palm Desert studio. Yoga people are nice people. Tennis people are, too, but there are more exceptions, I believe, in the tennis crowd.

Anyway, I’m back in my motel room at the Palm Shadow (it’s amazing how we’re affected by advertising. I started staying in the Motel 6 here, which is in a shady part of Indio, and the room looks like you’ve just been incarcerated. Then I went to the Travellodge,

It's Isner-Fed or LA

Roger doesn’t like the lack of umpire-player verbal battles and I agree with him. Read this little tidbit:

Roger Federer says he enjoyed watching Juan Martin del Potro argue with chair umpire Mohammed Lahyani in his quarterfinal victory over the Argentine. Federer, who is no fan of HawkEye, believes the line calling system takes personality out of the game.

Hawkeye Messes With the Drama of Reacting to Human Error

I played some doubles for the first time in many months b/c of my shoulder surgery. Now I’ve made my way to stadium as Isner-Djoko enter 3rd set. Big John has already hit a few baselines with his fh blasts. Djoko looks a little out of sorts. Again, there are chants for Isner, but few for Nole. But now that I say that, Nole chants erupt. Funny, Americans will call out something direct like, “c’mon John,” but the chant for Nole are said with brio.

Djoko loses in two semis and is 1-3 in 2012

I’ve been having some interesting conversations with some very esteemed tennis writers about this very point. Did you see Djokovic’s surgical dissection of Almagro today? I’d never watched much of Almagro in person before, thinking he was just some charged clay-courter, but I enjoyed watching the beauty and sizzle of his one-handed backhand and his fight. He’s never gotten further than the quarters of a slam, and then only at Roland Garros, but he is a dynamic player.

Hangin' In Indy Wells

Todd Robinson works for Tennis Channel, setting up the “talent,” like Justin Gimelstob, with wise statistics about pro tennis. He also writes a really interesting blog on tennis/basketball (my two passions, as well) http://spdbrnr.wordpress.com/. Check it out. He’s a big Dolgopolov and Rios fan and here are his comments on them:

Here are Todd’s thoughts on Rios/Dolgopolov…

Dolgo-Nadal to follow

Here’s my post on the Djokovic win at Tennis.com. http://blogs.tennis.com/racquet_reaction/2012/03/indian-wells-djokovic-d-andujar.html.

Djokovic is so calm and collected in the press conference. Very nice guy, talked about how he’s still thinking of playing in Davis Cup against the Czech Republic in Prague on red clay. Said he’ll make up his mind after Miami.

Djokovic v. Nadal/Federer

I waited for Roger to make his way to the press room last night. He was supposed to come in just 15 minutes after the match, but apparently he got into a discussion with Seal and was delayed. He came in over an hour after the match, looking a little sallow, but very gracious. Roger Federer is a nice man, especially after he wins.

" Leander Paes · "I feel the energy of the universe