(Indian Wells 2009) Federer def. Karlovic 7-6(4), 6-3; French players dropped like flies.
written: 8:55 p.m. on Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2009

My Husband

I was going to wake up to watch the match; even set my alarm and all. But when I was still awake at 2.17 a.m., I thought of the two horrible, virtually sleepless nights I had, about how I had to go out for lunch later on in the day, and I eventually decided, "Fuck this shit. I'm going to sleep." So I turned off my alarm and at the same time thinking to myself that if I woke up by myself at 5, 6 a.m., then it was meant to be; otherwise, I'd either download or watch a repeat.

When I suddenly jolted awake and remembered, "OMG ROGER", it was already daytime. And even though I remembred OMG ROGER and wanted to check if he won, I was WAY too tired to pull myself out of bed. In the end I only got up at 10 a.m. and needless to say the first thing I did was to check if he won - and he did, obviously.

So I just caught the repeat and boy, am I glad I didn't wake up for this snoozefest. There was maybe one heart attack moment - during the tie-break, when Roger lost the first point on his serve. But he eventually got the mini-break back by I can't even remember how and won the tie-break. And, well, I guess another heart attack moment was when he was serving for the match and had triple match points but lost the first two. I might have panicked if I'd watched that live.

Then again, that's assuming I stayed awake long enough to panic. Karlovic just wasn't an opponent at all. AT ALL. His game is his first serve; when he loses his first serve, everything goes haywire. It felt like Roger won every point on Karlovic's second serve, but because his first serve percentage was rather respectable, half the match was spent watching Roger walk from one end of the court to the other, or just barely getting his racquet on the ball but failing to get it back into play.

VERY SUPER BORING. The only exciting bits were Roger's service games (always more fun to watch HIM hit aces and service winners than his opponents) and the instances in which Karlovic missed his first serve (which didn't happen often enough). Roger played a few gorgeous inside-out forehands, an AMAZING backhand down the line passing shot that had the entire stadium yelling away, and this amazing backhand volley really close to the net with an IMPOSSIBLE angle; it almost went parallel to the net. Like what the fuck? Roger isn't human!

I think he played much better here than the previous one. Halfway through the first set it suddenly hit me that I hadn't cursed at an unforced error, like, the entire set! Like, omg? To be fair, there weren't a lot of rallies because Karlovic only knows one shot and that's the serve (and sometimes the volley, if he's lucky); but still, seven (I think it was) unforced errors the whole match? That's pretty incredible. That's like Federer stats from like, 2004-2007! Okay, at least, only the huge matches, like Grand Slam finals...but still. I can't remember the last time his UFEs was a single digit since I started following him.

He plays Fernando Gonzalez next which should be interesting. I hope he gets a night match this time so that I don't have to wake up before daylight breaks, but if he gets a day match again, I'll FORCE myself to wake up for it! Karlovic I could miss because, yeah, freaking boring; but Gonzalez, I can't miss! He actually can play real tennis.

Poor French Players

Four French players lost at Indian Wells on the same day: Richard Gasquet (omg I hate Fernando Verdasco!), Paul-Henri Mathieu, JO-WILFRIED TSONGA, and GILLES SIMON.

I'm so sad. I have Gilles reaching the quarter-finals in my ATP Challenge Draw. ARGH! I can't believe Tsonga lost too, and to IGOR ANDREEV! OMG. I saw that match and Andreev was playing unbelievable tennis. I still don't care for him much though, but Tsonga? I love watching him play. He has some seriously natural athletic ability, all agile and...tribal, for some strange reason. I'm so sad he lost.

I'm even sadder that Gilles lost. WAHHH! My poor boyfriend. See, I knew I was right when I told him to be more aggressive and do what Andy Murray does with that sudden switch from defence to offence. I don't even need to watch the match to know that the reason he lost must've been his passivity. He's not going to hang around the top 10 for long if he doesn't improve his game! He should hang out with Tsonga and learn to volley!

And poor Richard (Ree-shard haha I love saying it; it's so fun)! I couldn't stand watching half of the match because I couldn't stand watching Verdasco and his stupid fugly hair play his stupid fugly game and desecrate Gasquet's gorgeous one-handed backhand so I switched it off after a while and played Pet Society. But - POOR REE-SHARD. He actually said "YES!" - in ENGLISH - when he got a break of serve in the second set (and promptly went on to lose the next five games). That alone endeared him to me. I still don't think his old BabyFed nickname was justified at all, but whatever, I don't care anymore. His backhand? It's GORGEOUS. And it's probably more powerful than Roger's, considering it's his best shot. I saw him hit more backhand winners in those few games that I watched than I've seen Roger hit during this entire tournament.

I'd mourn for Mathieu but to be honest I don't know who he is, but since he lost to Murray, I mourn the fact that Murray has advanced. BLEAH.

before sunrise // before sunset


Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010