I decorated an heirloom pumpkin last night. God bless having friends who own craft kits. I got burned by a glue gun, though 🙁 Not fun. Anyway, here we go with some short balls…
Robert Waltz won’t answer my e-mails: My friend Chris passed along this article co-written by him (and Tennis.com editor Kamakshi Tandon) about the race to the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. This is why I love the statistician extraodinaire. (Tennis.com)
The Scud hits the skids: As a true testament to his focus on the sport (or perhaps conveniently hiding behind it), Aussie Mark Philippoussis — via IMG rep Carlos Fleming — has rubbed out Age of Love flame Amanda Salinas from his life. His focus is now the upcoming Stanford Championships in Dallas.
(OT) Romanticizing rail travel: It’s good to know that train stations this gorgeous are still being built. (Gabion)
Swiss Miss to miss rest of 2007: Sad end to Martina Hingis‘ revived career? (ESPN via women’s tennis blog)
Murray mouths off; Novak says he doesn’t partake in fixing: Andy Murray incensed the ATP by telling the press that scams happen all the time. And Novak makes a strong stance against match fixing, reasoning that there’s too much at stake to dick around. (Eurosport)
(OT) On experimental houses: Designer and architect Sean Briski‘s experimental house in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles uses tire treads as blinds and basketball hoops as interior decoration. (LAT)
2008 matches in place: Nadal and Djokovic might join the elite field at the AAMI Classic aka the Kooyong exhibition. Who the last spot’ll go to is still up in the air. Confirmed are Federer, Fernando Gonzalez, Andy Roddick, Tommy Haas, Ivan Ljubicic, Andy Murray, and Marat Safin. (The Age)
It’s not all about amazing tennis in Serbia: The December 10th deadline to hammer out a deal between Kosovars and Serbs casts a dark shadow over Serbia entering the EU. (CSM)
Dane’s done: Kenneth Carlsen announces his retirement from the ATP tour. We hardly knew ye. I’m serious. (ATP)
(OT) One last building: A fun structure designed by TEN Arquitectos for the Televisa company in Mexico City. (arcspace.com)
For the buhskyooze files: Hewitt and Nadal will might again pair up in Madrid, and the team of Carlos Moya and Gustavo Kuerten will join them in the draw. (source)
Tennis trivia: Music legend Elton John loves tennis. (source)
More on victory moves: Nafari Vanaski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wants Federer to get a new post-match celebratory move. (The collapse, apparently, is unbecoming.) Kuerten’s cute move — drawing a huge heart on the red clay of Roland Garros and collapsing in it — comes to mind.
i think does mean alot to him…but to US we’ve seen it soo much we want something new. i was 10? or 9? when roger cried when he won something and i thought it must’ve been so hard to beat that guy…and now that he just falls on his knees and yells something (who knows what.) it kinda seems like a routine. anyways if he’s a going to keep on winning like that he needs a better victory dance thing to show us.
keep us watching roger.
I do sort of agree about the falling-to-one’s-knees. I wish I had been a bigger fan of tennis back when Feds was winning those tournaments that made him cry. I do think his emotion winning Wimbledon this year was real- because of the record- but watching him do it at the US Open felt sort of empty. I mean, I’m sure he’s happy to have won, but it can’t mean that much anymore, can it?