Refreshments And Roddick At The US Open

Last night was Andy Roddick's first big test of this US Open as he took on Ernests Gulbis in the second round. It was muggy as anything in NYC and Roddick was dripping sweat off his hat brim straight away, so to help him cool off, The Jess and I decided some cool refreshments were needed. I decided to try a new spin on old standbys, here's what I ended up with:

G & T For The Jess

1.5 oz Tanqueray Ten gin

Schweppes tonic water (the small bottle)

2/3 of a fresh lime, cut into thick wedges

Add gin to highball glass, add 4 large cubes of ice. Squeeze each lime wedge (should have 4 total) over ice and then drop each on top of ice. Pour over tonic until 1/4 left in bottle. Use bar spoon to gently stir.

This was crisp, cold, limey goodness. Plenty of aromatic spice from the gin, and the lime was just going everywhichaway!

Twisted 7 & 7

1.5 oz Seagram's 7
1/2 can 7up

1 thick lime wedge

Pour Seagram's into highball glass. Add 4 large ice cubes. Squeeze in lime juice, then drop in wedge. Add 7up until can nearly empty. Gently stir.

Oh yes, lime and whisky play well together! The juice amps the 7up just the right amount, so the whisky and fruit are just dancing.

I can say that these two drinks were a smashing success, and so was Roddick. After dropping the first set and nearly letting the second get away, he settled down and rolled to a 4 set victory. He'll be back on court tomorrow on CBS.

Also on the men's side, kudos to Mardy Fish, who just finished stomping James Blake in three sets, and Sam Querrey, who steamrolled the 14th seeded Ivo Karlovic to move into the Round of 16 for the first time at a Grand Slam event. In the process, he hit an absolutely ridiculous topspin lob winner against the 6 foot, 10 inch Ivanovic. Querrey will have his work cut out for him next round, as he'll face Rafa Nadal, who is playing tremendous tennis (and his blog is as funny as ever).
The Jilted Kilt advanced with a 5 set victory over journeyman Jurgen Melzer, coming from 2 sets down to win. Nice comeback, but he has no business getting pushed so hard by a player nowhere near his class. Worse yet, he closed out the match with another of his disgraceful bicep flex routines. Just a pathetic display of unsportsmanlike conduct, so no rooting for him!

The women's draw is as turbulent as expected, with the 1 and 3 seeds out after two rounds. We do have a marquee match coming up on the women's drawn, as 9th seed Agnieszka Radwanska faces off against Venus Williams, seeded 7th, on Monday. In such a jumbled draw, this could just have easily been a finals clash, so we're in for a treat.
To wrap us, here's a nice augmentation to USA and CBS' coverage on Youtube.