Interesting article on Frank via Washington D.C.-area and the Maryland regional USTA academy, helmed by the effervescent Ray Benton, Jimmy Connors former partner, where Denis Kudla also came out of. Frank is a very interesting young player. At 18 and a freshman at UVA, he is the No. 1-player in the NCAA’s, having won two big national tournaments to start the year. Frank was the No. 5-junior player in the year last year, but he decided to go to college to hone his game.

Mitchell Frank is an old school grinder

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

A masterclass performance by Paes and Step. They moved the match to court one because Maria and Caro went long. I get there at 3-2 Paes/Step and they are up a break already. The court is packed, I mean jam packed.

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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!

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Tsonga was down 0-3 to Malisse but won 75 75 on court one. The court was jammed with Tsonga fans.

Dolgopolov struggled with Veic, was down a break early but came back to win 64 75 on court three. Dolgo had a good sized crowd cheering him on and he did not disappoint. The best point of the tournament I’ve seen so far was Dolgo ripping a serve to the ad court which he followed to the net…

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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