What is almost as cool as live hockey?!

LIVE TENNIS!

Yup. So for anyone who cares, the Rogers Cup is in town for the week. This means BIG tennis names come to my hockey city at a time when us hockey fans are ready to check ourselves into the insane asylum because there is no hockey. Because all the big names are so cool, they got a bye into the second round which meant us people watching the first round didn't get to see them on Monday. HOWEVER! All was not lost! Nope. Mr. Marat "I have Anger Management Issues" Safin saved the night by blowing up when he lost to the Monfils dude. Not the highest quality match ever but totally fun just the same. I loved it when Safin blew up and tried to homer one of the balls. He should've takened up baseball instead *g*

Monfils vs Safin

My session was supposed to include Gilles "EP still hates you for knocking out Roger last year" Simon and Frank "Umm I'm the top ranked Canadian guy at 105th in the world. Yay?" Dancevic but the weather didn't cooperate so we left after the match being delayed TWICE.

I'm was a little mopey because STAN was playing in the earlier part of the day on Monday while ROGER was going to be playing on Tueday NIGHT when I had tix for the afternoon.... but as it happened, I was supposed to end up with Muz and Nole instead. Of course I was really worried about the weather and how that would screw up my plans to see these guys but I worried pretty much for naught.

Today started off with Hewitt and Ferrero. I was hoping for a bit more from Hewitt but it was not to be and he lost to Ferrero. No worries! Muz was next! Oh wait, I don't like Muz... But Muz is a talented player and now I can say I've seen (and quietly) booed Muz. It's nothing personal Muz. It's just you know.... you're not nice to Roger. ANYWAY. Muzzy smushed Chardy and the hot weather smushed me... And I wanted to smush those annoying group of kids across the court who kept screaming "ANDY MURRAY". Poop. At there were long rallies! And no more fail dropshots of last night. And no more failsmashes from earlier.

Chardy and Muz at the coin toss

Because the weather stopped working after Muz won, we had to wait an HOUR before Nole could come back onto the court and win.

I am the weather. I suck.

So after wondering if the weather would clear up... It did! So they dried the court up...

They dry the courts with a billion of these things!

And play got underway!

I am Super Novak! POW!

Umm excuse me? Umm over here! Yeah. I exist you know *pouts*

Anyway... despite actually liking Nole, I had a problem. Because Nole was playing a canuck. Never heard of poor Peter Polansky before today (and apparently neither had the umpire as he kept on forgetting his name *G*). I didn't really know who to cheer for. It wasn't easy. Mind you...we Canadians are NOT patriotic about our tennis. Mainly because we suck at tennis. But we tried to back our guys a bit. Even if they were getting beat up. Simon ended up decimating Dancevic after I left yesterday, Polansky put up a good fight - probably the best out of the three Canucks even if I missed most of Roger/Niemeyer match - but lost in straight sets... and Niemeyer? Well, he was killed tonight by the Fed. Speaking of which....

While I was trying to cheer for Polansky while hoping that Nole would win so I could go home and eat dinner (it was 6:00 by this time), guess who showed up in the box seats not that far from me? ROGER! HE WAS THERE. Probably like... 50 feet from me. I was going to be content with being in the same city as him but NO. He just had to SHOW UP! I guess he was wondering how long Nole was going to take... While the stupid rules said I wasn't allowed to use my awesome camera during the match, I just ignored it and took a pic of Roger anyway. It's Roger. I may not get a chance to take a pic of the TMF (the Mighty Fed) this close again. Behold:

I am Roger. I am reading something. You can see my perfect hair through the glass even

So really, spent a good part of Nole's match looking at Roger. Didn't want to get into any trouble (the dudes are seriously strict at this stupid event) so I didn't take any more pics of the TMF. So sorry to my Canuck and to Nole. You're just not in the same level of awesomness as the TMF.

CONLUSION: I LOVE LIVE TENNIS! Even if it follow no time frame whatsoever. And even though the weather can screw you over. And even if they hire dumbos. I will be back Friday with a final assement =)

Two random things:

• There were WAAAAAAAAY too many people in Yankees stuff. There was a kid in a Crysob shirt. And there was a guy in a Leafs hat. I went insane.
• However, I did see this among the items that they were randomly auctioning off:

OVIE!!!! There was some Crysob failthing too but Ovie was cooler. Obviously.

The Federer twins will get a playmate!

I know it's not my style, but I really do have to give a *squeak* to Stan (aka Switzerland's OTHER tennis player) who's girlfriend will be expecting a kid in February. Yay! If you've ever seen a picture of Stan a baby... Let's just say he was adorable. I'm SURE his kid will inherit some of that baby cuteness.

Okay that was my ridiculously stupid fangirl moment of the year.

Enjoy it while it lasts because tomorrow I'm going back to dissing Crysob (it's his birthday so he deserves an extra dose of dissing). Bwahahahahahahahahah...

Okay listen up, Habs....

You need to win tonight. Okay? No "ifs", "ands" or "buts". You need to win and put this little winning streak of the Senators to an end. Right now. I want a resounding win that will show those Senator fans just how much their team stinks. Please, please, don't die on me just because the Sens supposedly stink. No one ever said that a team can't win 10-0. Seriously. My concern with you guys is that you won't try while the Sens will try really hard to get something going. I dont' want to see that. You have WAY more talent. And Halak can SO beat that newbie that they've pulled up. Just score, score, score, and keep Heatley/Spezza/Alfredsson away from Halak. And stay away from Ruutu unless you want to end up as a snack.

TEEEEEENNIIIIIIISSSS

While it was really nice to see Federer cream Wawrinka, I'm really tired now....But anyway, while I was either not paying attention or was asleep there's some good news on the Argentina tennis front:

1) Del Potro beat out Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-4. I actually saw about two seconds of the match but the point I saw was Delpo getting his serve broken...Apparently the first set went "Delpo breaks serve. Delpo gets serve broken. Delpo breaks serve again. And again. End of first set." Second set saw more breaks as Querrey broke twice and Delpo broke three times. Well, a win is a win but Delpo's going to need to work on holding serve.

2) David Nalbandian won! I was sound asleep throughout the entire match (hey, it was 3:30 in the morning for me) so I missed it. Amazingly, he kept his focus and beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-7(9), 6-2. Sounds like that second set was quite the barnburner. That's good for David and now I hope that he continues this good form into Melbourne.

Of birds on skates and a Swiss tennis star or two

Saw most of the Pens and Ducks game. It was quite boring for the most part - I almost fell asleep! Nothing exciting happened really until Malkin decided to get into a fight with I think Corey Perry, maybe not, I forgot, at the end of the game.I missed the first period but stats say the Cooke scored at 19:39 in the first period and only two penalties were dished out for fighting. I had to wait all of 23 seconds for the Pens to score again in the second. Giguere completely lost sight and control of the puck and pulled a Toskala move and got caught completely out of his crease. So the empty net was there for Cooke to take (yes, yes, Cooke scored again). Pens outshot the Duckies 10-7 but they only had that one goal. Getzlaf would get a goal in on Fleury on the powerplay. It happened to be the only powerplay goal of the game. Penalties were again even in this period (2 each) and again, the only goal was Getzlaf's. The Ducks really had no luck on scoring and after coming off a lame powerplay, they got further burned when the Pens got a third goal off the face off in the Ducks's zone. And that was it. Well, actually, the Pens had at least two really good chances to score when Giguere again missed the puck entirely and it very nearly went in. Staal looked completely screw up on getting another goal in a half open net but video replay showed that the Ducks got a very lucky break when their defenseman turned at just the right moment and the puck deflected (safely) away from Giguere. Lucky!

Yes, I'm aware of the fact that if I was a die-hard Pens fan instead of the casual fan, I would be jumping up and down at the win. As it is, I'm just really pleased for the team who just proved that they don't need Sidney Crosby for every game.

Around the league in 30 seconds

• Blue Jackets lost 2-1 to the Devils. Apparently the game winning goal was just a tad controversial...
  
• Leafs wasted a 3-0 lead and get thomped by the Thrashers 4-3 in OT. I hope the Hurricanes weren't watching that game.... Silly Hurricanes can't win against the Leafs...
  
• Flyers eke out win in S/O over the Panthers who clearly stink in shootouts... Prospal didn't score so the Flyers were not treated to an insane victory celebration. Too bad.
  
• And Rangers squeak by Blackhawks in OT. Oo...
  

Oh let him at least get a point, Roger!

Poor Stan. I felt so bad for him. Federer came out and demolished him in under an hour with a score of 6-1, 6-3. In all honesty, Wawrinka really only deserved to win one of the games. But ah well. Federer just looked really good. Granted, there was no pressure on him, and he was clearly the best player in the entire tournament AND he was playing a tired Wawrinka.... but still.... he looked good! Poor poor Stan though.... and he could be facing Roger again at Melbourne!

Quote of the hour: "I wish I could play him more often" Roger in his vitory speech after the match. Yeah, Roger, we'll pretend that you meant that in the "I want to play him more often because it's cool to play someone I know well" rather than "I want to play him more often because I know I will win every time" *g* He kept apologizing for winning in his little speech thing. Poor Stan!

My top 10 events for this year

...or half the year. I only came to this whole thing in April. Talk about late to the party...Anyway. The list. It's late because I was waiting to see what Team Canada could do.

1. Wimbledon final between Roger and Rafa. What can I say?It was one heck of a fantastic match that had me permanently hooked on tennis.
   
2. Spain winning the Euro Cup. That was really cool for Spain, who hadn't won in over 40 years. I was screaming for a while *G*
   
3. Canada vs. Russia in the World Junior Hockey Championship semi-finals. That was a game for the ages. Canada came very close to losing the tournament and seeing their four gold medal streak come to an end. But Jordan Eberle had a different idea and with just 5.4 seconds left in the game, he tied the goal. Canada ultimately won it in shoutouts but man... that game will be one for the ages!
4. Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. Pittsburgh showed a lot of determination in extending their stay in the finals. Sykora getting that goal in the third period of OT was really awesome. Okay, so I was actually asleep when he scored and missed the party but yeah.... sue me...
   
5. Federer winning the Olympic gold medal with Wawrinka. I've never seen the guy so incredibly happy after winning a match before.
   
6. Rafa winning the Olympics gold medal. That was a great way to pretty much finish off his amazing summer. Two grand slams, an Olympic gold medal AND the no. 1 spot? Come on...!
   
7. The Canada/US game in the round robbin stage of the Junior World event thing. Great hockey. Better than a lot of NHL games I've had to sit through...
8. That match in the round-robbin stages of the Tennis Masters Cup between Roger and Murray. Too bad Roger was again on the losing side of that one but it was a really good match nonetheless and it completely tired out Murray *g*
   
9. The Davis Cup final. Okay, so I didn't want Spain to win but you have to admit that it was quite the feat for the Rafa-less team to beat the odds and win it. Yes, it's very tragic for Argentina but hopefully that can get things together and win it another time.
10. Team Canada winning the Junior World Championship for the 5th time in a row and 15th time overall right here at home in Canada. Fantastic stuff!
    
11. Game 2 of the Montreal-Boston series in the Stanley playoffs. No, the game itself wasn't particularly amazing but I wouldn't be hear writing any of this stuff if it wasn't for that game. So it's SPECIAL *g*2