Cordless in (Almost) Canada

Well, I'm just a few miles from the Canada border this weekend spending time with family celebrating the 4th. Meanwhile, I was all excited to get out of the hot weather and do a video for you guys in some AC this afternoon when I realized the cord I use to hook up my camera to my laptop somehow didn't make the trip to Northeastern Montana. Therefore, no video post tonight.

But, I would like to write a bit on what an inspiring weekend this promises to be for tennis. Seeing champions like Venus, Serena, Roger and Rafa come through upset-laden draws was really impressive, and it'll be fun to see them on tennis' biggest stage no matter how they play. Sure, it would be great if the tennis was competitive, but we have four future Hall of Famers playing for the greatest title in tennis - that has to make a lot of people pretty happy.

One tournament that always comes to mind when the domino effect starts rolling through a draw is the 2004 women's French Open. Mauresmo, Davenport and the Williams sisters all crashed out in the quarterfinals, leaving a resurgent Jennifer Capriati to hold up the trophy. But alas, Jenny came out flat, and that soon-forgotten (and now mother?!?) Anastasia Myskina was crowned champion.

To many of you, that may seem like an obscure recollection, but my point is that Slams can become Slums in just a matter of a couple of days. Day three of this Championships we lost Roddick, Sharapova and Djokovic; soon thereafter Jankovic and Ivanovic were out, too. However, these four champions that have maintained their grit and game through it all deserve to be rewarded this weekend whether they produce the top of their games or not.

Too much the big names in tennis are celebrated, making it hard for new stars to breakthrough. For the next 48 hours, however, I see it entirely appropriate to celebrate these big names and to make sure that they stay engaged in the game that we love watching them play. They certainly owe it to the sport, and in a lot of ways, the sport owes it to them.

Dream Finals

It's hard to imagine that tournament referree Andrew Jarrett could be more happy than to enforce the rules upon these four finalists at this year's Championships.

As wacky as week one was in London, the tournament mostly followed form in week two, and we're into the final weekend with four storied champions looking to add a Wimbledon title to his or her resume.

I'll have a video post up later today, but I'm enjoying family time in Glasgow (yes, Glasgow), Montana right now, so it might be a bit later!

Predictions:
Women: Venus 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
Men: Nadal 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(9), 6-3

Video Post: Now It's Getting Good

Really, I mean Wimbledon is so exciting this year that I'm actually into the men's draw - that never happens!

Here are my thoughts on yesterday, today, tomorrow and nothing more:

LIVE BLOG: Quarterfinal Day

8:30 AM - Well, folks, my ESPN2 coverage has cut out and NBC will run tape delay starting in 90 minutes. Dementieva and Petrova are still fighting each other on who can lose to whom. I'll be back later tonight with a video post on all today's action!

7:48 AM - Williams defeats Tanasugarn 6-4, 6-3. I really wanted to see Venus serve it out, but she's through to the semifinals without facing a Top 50 player on her way. Has this ever happened before? This tournament has had a lot of firsts, so I'll have to do a little digging on this one. Meanwhile, Dementieva lost the second in the breaker, but leads 2-0, 30-0 in the third.

7:41 AM - Venus just hit an abysmal forehand long (or, as Pam Shriver called it, a "fearhand") to keep Tanasugarn in this set, 4-3. Meanwhile, Elena is pulling the ultimate choke job after leaded 6-1, 5-1 and is now at 5-6 in the second set against Petrova.

7:25 AM - Venus has continued to play mediocre tennis in this second set. She's 8-0 on service points, but her groundstrokes continue to spray long. Elena Dementieva is crawling toward the finish line against Nadia Petrova. The two winners will meet in the semis.

7:08 AM - First set to V, 6-4. Some quality and exciting tennis to close the first set. It will be interesting to see if Tanasugarn keeps fighting in set two the way she did in the first or she go away rather silently, as she has in the past.

6:55 AM - Great point at 3-5, 30-all for Tammy. Venus' backhand has been more problematic in this first set than I would have thought, showing that her first four matches against lower-ranked players don't have her playing at her best level. Two backhand errors give Tsquared - who has struggled to close out games - the game for 4-5.

6:46 AM - This match has been more of a seesaw battle since Venus broke. V has certainly struggled on her serve, but so has Tsquared. Williams saved six break points in her last service games, which may become a stat that tells the story of this match. After a few hiccups for both players, they each hold to go to 4-3, first set.

6:24 AM - Venus holds and then breaks for 2-1. As James Martin talked about a few days ago over at TENNIS.com, these commentators really are running their mouths. But it's good to be in front of the tube watching some live tennis, I haven't done that in who knows how long. And for Tsquared, it feels good for her to be here, too.

6:14 AM - Good morning, everyone! Already Venus and Tamarine Tanasugarn are on the court and Tanasugarn has taken the first game of the match and leads, 1-0. Tanasugarn started the match out well before two straight double faults. It's windy down there, too. Advantage Tsquared?

LIVE BLOG: Tuesday, July 1st

I'm ringing in the new month and celebrating Ladies' Day (all four women's quarters will be played Tuesday) by doing a LIVE blog from 6 AM to 9 AM Mountain Time. Yes, my friends, I'm in the metropolitan known as Helena, Montana watching lots and lots of tennis.

You know you are jealous.

Swing by on your lunch break (East Coast), or breakfast (West), or perhaps dinner (London)!

Oh, and I'll have a video up tomorrow, too :)

A Williams' Wimbledon

Jelena Jankovic has just crashed out of Wimbledon in dismal fashion.

Now, it's all up to the Williams sisters.

More tonight - let the driving begin!

Middle Sunday

I'm taking the day off to finish up what has been an epic run of cleaning and packing the house the myself and four others lived in in Seattle for over two years. When that many people are in one place for that amount of time, you accumulate stuff. And, being the ignorant one in the house, I didn't realize that if you leave last, you're most likely to end up taking care of all the extra accumulation, even if it's not yours.

Tomorrow (Monday), I'm hitting the road for the Queen City of the Rockies, better known as my hometown of Helena, Montana. It's a 600-plus mile drive, so I'll be sure to be thinking all about how week two could go and should go while watching the hills of Eastern Washington roll by.

Be back with a video tomorrow night!

Halfway There

Well, getting up at 6:30 AM and not watching or listening to any tennis certainly wasn't in my day's plan, but I ended getting a lot of cleaning and packing done, and also took in a lot of reading and poking around the web. Not a bad morning at all.

What a first week we've had at Wimbledon. Some champions have risen to the occasion, while others have exposed gaping holes in their tennis armor that we didn't really know exist. Overall, it was a week of quality tennis. Lots of three set matches on the women's side (40) and five setters on the men's (17).

Fellow blogger and the much more fashionably-minded Erwin Ong was interviewed by the Globe and Mail in Saturday's issue talking about fashion in the world of tennis. A big kudos to Erwin for this interview as he continues to emerge as one of the sport's most knowledgeable fashion critics.

One of those fashion-wearing tennis players Erwin often talks about is Miss Jelena Jankovic, who avoided the upset bug and is into week two of Wimbledon following a three-set win over Caroline Wozniacki today. Lately I've been all superstitious when it comes to Janky, and wrote an article for Sportingo.com comparing her to Jennifer Capriati and her "early years."

Now, this might be a stretch, but in 2001, in the "later years" (will there be "later later years?") of Capriati's career, she fell to Justine Henin in the semifinals of Wimbledon. She did so by losing the match 2-6 6-4 6-2 after winning the first two slams of the year. Today, Jankovic (or, as I like to call her, Jelena Capriankovic), beat Wozy 2-6 6-4 6-2. Yes, more Capriankovic-ing going on, but Justine did go on to win the tournament after that scoreline. Same result for Jelena? Venus is one who certainly stands in her way.

Superstitions aside, my favorite Kiwi, Marina Erakovic ended her bid at Wimby today with a tight, three-set loss to tour veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn 4-6 6-4 6-4. It's great to see such a young and spirited player like Erakovic play consistent and tough tennis over the last two grand slams. One thing I really appreciated about this match was two women representing such nations that aren't traditionally tennis havens in Thailand and New Zealand. For a couple hours on Court 11 today, Wimbledon was the Official Grand Slam of the Asia Pacific!

(Note: I said the Globe and Mail was based in London - that's the London Globe - in my video post. It is located in Toronto.)

Early and Agitated

It's a little past 6:30 AM in Seattle and for some reason I'm already awake. I wasn't happy to hear construction going on outside my window this morning so early, but I didn't mind that much because today was the day I was splurging a little and watching LIVE Wimbledon coverage on the tournament's web site!

I was as giddy and anxious as a young child on Christmas morning, so I pawed at my computer at my bedside and logged on as quickly as I could, wiping the sleep out of my eyes and blocking out the sounds of hammering and power drills as I do.

I went through all the steps to sign up, and just couldn't help but check the scoreboard to see which action I should check out first. "Oh!" I thought. "Janky is already in a tough battle with Caroline Wozniacki ... but, look! My favorite Marina Erakovic is serving to stay in her match against Tamarine Tanasugarn."

So I pointed and clicked my mouse as fast as I used to tear open presents and excitedly selected Court 11 to watch my Koala girl go at it. But wait! What's this?!? A message pops up and tells me that LIVE Wimbledon coverage doesn't work with MACs. I feel as crushed and disappointed as that kid who get coal in his stalking. (But really, who is that kid?!?)

I open Firefox in hope that maybe I can work around the system, but, alas, it wasn't meant to be. It's early and now I'm agitated, sent back to the world of YouTube highlight clips and online scoreboard gazing.

My live blogging from Wimbledon just wasn't meant to be, but I'll be near a TV in the near future ... so Christmas will come again soon, and I'll be as ready and excited as ever.

Live Blogging: Saturday, June 28

It's Breakfast at Wimbledon without all that cheesy NBC music and camera pans of strawberries and cream! I'm doing a live blog tomorrow, Saturday, of third-round matches from the All England Club.

No, no, my friends, I won't actually be there, but I will be buying a one-day pass off of Wimbledon's web site to watch any and all matches I please.

Stop on by to check out what middle Saturday will bring before the tournament takes its traditional Sunday break. Or, pop in sometime Sunday to check out my Wimbledon U mid-term grade video post!