Tennis and Idol.
written: 12:55 a.m. on Thursday, Apr. 01, 2010

ROGER TOTALLY LOST TO TOMAS BERDYCH. EVEN HAD MATCH POINT ON HIS SERVE IN THE THIRD SET TIE-BREAK. HAD TEN BREAK POINTS, CONVERTED TWO. AND MADE A TOTAL OF 62 UNFORCED ERRORS.

SIGH. I saw him dump a backhand slice into the net on break point on Berdych's serve in the second set and his reaction was quite heart-breaking. Being the masochist that I am, I kept switching back to the match during American Idol and the whole thing was just heart-breaking. See, no matter how many Grand Slams he wins, no matter how it makes sense for him to lose more often now in this stage of his career ('cause he's old and all), it still hurts immensely to know that he lost, and worse still, to see him lose.

The ONLY thing that makes this slightly better is seeing the look of joy on Tomas' face when he won the match. I like him - his forehand is nice to look at. And he's a really good player. So yeah, considering he caught Roger on an awful bad day, good for him that he registered a victory over him.

Still, I hope he stops the bleeding come his next tournament, which is freaking 1 month later. Oh my god, I have to wait another one-month period to see him AGAIN. I was thinking I'd finally get to watch him live this Friday as there's no work, but noooo he just had to lose.

Sigh. I am so sad.

On a brighter note, I played tennis with Ben and I'm pleased to say I played pretty well - that is, until we reached the end at which time I was so tired that I totally died. Wow do I hate to run or what. It wasn't as bad, running-wise, as playing with Wei Chuen (he likes to push the ball around the court and hit short balls or sometimes super high balls and make me run up and down the court. Left and right still can, but up and down? Oh my god please kill me); but I still had to run. At first it was okay 'cause I was fresh and relatively energised; but as the game wore on, I started to get more and more tired, and the more tired I was, the less I wanted to run. I didn't even bother running forward to hit a short ball and just let it bounce twice (which screws up timing, by the way. Running forward is easier on the timing).

But I must say, I was muchly pleased with myself when I hit a nice winner up the line off the backhand side when Ben served me a nicely-placed ball to the backhand. Better still, when he feed the same ball to me for the next point, I wondered if I could do it again - AND I DID.

Actually, all things considered, it's amazing that I'm still in love with tennis after so long. It's actually reached a point where I can choose to hit flat or with topspin. Before, all my shots were flat because I didn't know how to get the spin, and thus I didn't know how to variate my swing to get the different effect. But now I can do that, and I can TELL when a player is hitting a flat shot or one with spin.

The only thing, really, that I need to learn is the stupid slice. See, the slice is very useful to know, especially for lazy people like me - many times I'm too lazy to run and lunge for the ball, especially on the backhand side, and I know that there's no way I can get the ball over if I don't put in the extra effort to get to it. But because it's so tiring, I'm sometimes too lazy to do it. If I knew how to slice, I could just slice it back into play without any extra effort.

I tried that a few times. It only worked once, and it was a fluke. Other times the ball didn't make it anywhere near the net. I need to get NUS Wall Guy to sort this mess out for me, seriously. When I get the basics right I'd get my boyfriend to teach me how he does his slice thing that makes the ball skid - and I mean, SKID - away from you.

I'm also muchly pleased that the forehand's getting more consistent, and that the backhand's coming together with the new racquet. The old one let me get away with not hitting properly 'cause the hitting area was so large; but the new one absolutely punishes me when I hit a backhand wrong. Not just in terms of the sound and the obvious mishit, but also the way it actually hurts.

Speaking of hurting, I think I nearly injured my wrist. It's been a while since I last felt pain in my wrist when I hit a ball.

I LOVE TENNIS.

*

2. Idol

I didn't care for Siobhan Magnus before, but after this week, I downright loathe her. I cannot stand her stupid screaming - absolutely CANNOT stand it. I didn't even like it when Adam Lambert did it, and trust me, she's no Adam Lambert. Doing it at the end of every goddamn song and threatening to destroy my eardrums? Goddamn, I wish she were off the show.

The kid also butchered Ain't No Sunshine. I bet Simon was referring to Kris' performance last year, which totally made me fall in love with him, when he said that he's heard others do it brilliantly on the show before. That was Kris' first "moment", first real breakthrough performance. And it remains my favourite Kris Allen performance. All I heard when the kid sang it was Kris singing it in my head, and I got annoyed when what was transmitted via TV didn't match what I heard in my head.

Sigh. This season sucks so much ass. My other horse, Didi, is probably doomed tomorrow; her performance was rancid, and Kara's right about her losing herself. I liked the singer-songwriter vibe and she's totally ditched that for whatever reason.

Thank goodness, then, for Lee Dewyze. Seriously. People like him are what the show's about - charting the growth of a person from an ordinary, anonymous face with a good voice to a legitimate star. He's especially interesting 'cause he pretty much had zero stage presence and personality before, but after this week's performance, I can safely say that he's my favourite by far. His growth will only be more interesting to watch as he's starting to make me believe that it's coming together for him.

Yay!

As for the rest of them, colour me utterly bored and unimpressed. Casey's rock star schtick is exactly that, I liked Michael at first but he's seriously pissing me off, and Katie's pageant robot thing is creepy as hell, and I still hold her responsible for Lilly Scott's departure. I can't remember who else is there.

This season sucks. I like Lee but he's probably my least favourite favourite contestant. Maybe that'd change. Maybe not.

I still miss David Cook.

*

I really should sleep.

Before that, I'm pleased to announce that I've finally gotten off my lazy rotting ass and started work on the paper that I intended to write two, three years ago. And can I just say - OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW BADLY WRITTEN IT WAS.

Just terrible. I'm practically re-writing it.

Good thing, too - it's giving me a sense of direction at a time when I most need it. No matter what subject matter, writing still guides me home, every single time.

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