Madrid Masters 2010: AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
written: 4:03 p.m. on Saturday, May. 15, 2010

OH MY GOD THE GULBIS MATCH WAS INCREDIBLE!!!!

This is what tennis is about, none of the ball-bashing, wait-for-opponent's-error nonsense. The shot-making on display from both players was incredible. I've always preferred watching Roger play an opponent that has variety similar to his: it makes the match more exciting and interesting to watch, because the trick isn't to wait for the error, but to find ways to win the point. Gulbis played AWESOME attacking, varied tennis. And this match was especially sweet because ROGER WON IN THE END.

I so totally wish I'd watched this live, but if I had I might've died of a heart attack, since he lost the first set and all. In fact, when I fast-forwarded my recording this morning to check the score and saw that he lost the first set, I was bracing myself to see that he'd lost. The imposter that pretended to be Roger in Rome and Estoril would've LOST THE WHOLE DAMN MATCH. He wouldn't have came back from a set down, have enough belief in himself, and won it.

OH MY GOD HAPPY DAY FOR ALL ROGER FANS BECAUSE HE'S BACK!!!! He hit so many different shots today. He practically threw the entire encyclopedia of tennis shots at Ernests Gulbis. I loved the backhand lob that Gulbis couldn't reach, the AMAZING inside-in down-the-line forehand winner on break point in the second set (he saved break point), his INCREDIBLE return-of-serve, especially off the backhand. I'm so happy to have finally watched a quality Federer match against a quality opponent. IT'S ABOUT TIME!

If there's one shot of Roger's that I absolutely covet though, more than any other shots, especially after this match, it definitely has to be his backhand slice. It's such a crafty, sneaky shot, and silently effective, too. It bounces low and gives the opponent all sorts of trouble returning it. It also takes a lot of pace off the ball and lets Roger do whatever he wants with the ball, especially when he gets a weak return from the opponent. Stan had a lot of trouble with it; Del Potro (bless him, he's nowhere to be found) lost to the backhand slice in Australia and Madrid last year; and Gulbis handled it better, but still couldn't defeat it in the end. IT'S THAT GOOD. I'd choose to have his backhand slice over all his other amazing incredible GodFed shots if I could.

(That, and I STILL can't slice which is damn annoying so an instant fix-it would be great.)

*

Since I'm on the subject of tennis: Tennis today was pretty awesome. I HIT A BACKHAND VOLLEY OMG!

But the really stupid thing was, I could have hit another one and I knew it but I panicked when I reached the net and decided to wait for the ball to drop. It dropped. It bounced. It went over my head.

THAT was really, really stupid.

Also, I totally forgot to change my overgrip, which I intended to do like last week, and today when I took my racquet out of my bag I smelled something bad. After some sniffing around I discovered that it was from my overgrip. I was really perturbed for the whole two hours. The first thing I did when we stopped playing was to remove it.

I won't be playing tennis for the next 3 weeks oh my god. Sadness. Shall try to find some alternatives to Saturday morning.

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