So, when my mom gets to the tennis, she likes to watch the pros practice, since she never gets to see them otherwise. I kinda miss watching the qualifying matches, but I like watching the practices, too. Plus, there's more shade at the practice courts. What can I say? I'm a sun wimp. When we arrived on Thursday, Viktoria Azarenka from Belarus was practicing on Armstrong. Neither one of us had any need to watch (or listen) to her practice. Then we saw Maria Sharapova come into the Grandstand. We figured we could hang on for a few minutes, unless Maria started getting too loud, too. But, to our happy surprise, Maria only used the grandstand for a warm-up. After a few minutes, she left and two Spaniards came in to practice. Oh happy day. Did you know the Spaniards like to practice shirtless?? Mom was quite happy. :)
We spent a very happy hour watching the convivial and handsome practice session with Feliciano Lopez and David Ferrer. They practiced hard, but they also had fun. They are now the gold standard by which all practices will be judged in the future. Though not everyone should practice shirtless. 
After the happy Spaniards, we watched Janko Tipsarevic, Serbia, practice with Mikhail Youzhny (my, he is getting in a lot of practice) for a bit. He and his coach were shirtless, Youzhny was not. Probably for the best. After watching Tipsarevic for a bit, I told Mom I wanted to see how Dmitry Tursunov was doing in his second round match. We went to watch him, but didn't stay long. He broke his racquet after losing a game and Mom didn't like that one bit. Goodbye, Dmitry, hello back to practice courts.
We watched another yummy Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco, practice with his coach for a bit. I don't know where he was earlier when his chums were practicing. Verdasco is always a fun one to watch - he makes a point of talking to any kids who are sitting near him in the stands. He even high-fives them, or ruffles their hair. Seeing the kids' faces light up because this tennis star noticed them is really great to see. I always root for Verdasco and was happy to see he's as nice on the inside as he is good-looking on the outside.
We also watched newly-minted Olympic gold medalist Andy Murray practice for a bit with Juan Monaco from Argentina; American Mardy Fish practiced with Aussie Lleyton Hewitt; Belgian Kim Clijsters (who is retiring after the Open) practiced with her coach; France's Gilles Simon and Russia's Nikolay Davydenko also graced our practice viewing. I'll put photos of them at the end.
Two ends of the spectrum of the joy and pain of watching practice - I FINALLY got to see Roger practice! Woo hoo! He practiced with Marin Cilic. What a beautiful treat it is to watch Roger glide over the court in person. Sigh. Just lovely. I probably should've given him a post all to himself, just so I could load it up with photos. Oh well. Suffice it to say, I was happy happy happy I got to watch him. My mom was happy I got to watch him. And it's so great to hear everyone scream for him. He's so appreciative of the support - he's always laughing and smiling during practice. Did I mention I love him? This was the joy.
The pain? Watching Andy Roddick practice. My goodness, he was unpleasant. He may have been joking around with his practice partner, Somdev Devvarman from India, but it didn't seem that way. And when he broke his racquet because Devvarman was beating him in a PRACTICE GAME? My mom was completely turned off. I tried to think that maybe Andy was doing it to get the crowd going, but it didn't work. It turned a lot of people off. I just don't know. I want to like Andy, but his frat boy attitude just leaves me cold. And now my mom will never like him again. He probably doesn't care, but still...
As always, Tennis Week was my favorite week of the year. This year, the weather mostly cooperated, and my mom and I got to see lots of great players. Mom and I always have fun together (well, except for the broken tooth - that may be its own post someday soon) and we laughed a lot. We also finally got around to looking at some of the monuments in Corona Park - we've been meaning to do it for years and just never have. The George Washington statue was cool, he's wearing Masonic regalia (which my dad will love). And the Column of Jerash was also very neat. Photos at the end of the post.
I don't know what I'm going to do with myself once the Open is over. Since Wimbledon, I've been pretty much on "all tennis, all the time" mode. My life is going to seem so...empty. Good thing the new theater season is starting...
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