5 Hours, 36 Minutes in 96 Degree Heat

Aside from sleeping, when was the last time you did one single activity for 5 hours, 36 minutes? It's tough to think of one thing that could hold any level of focus and intensity for nearly a quarter of a day.
Now fold into this recipe a 96 degree oven in which this endeavor takes place. I would venture to say there are precious few of us that would even have the audacity to think they might have, once in their life, by choice done such a thing.
Last night in the first round of the Australian Open, Gilles Muller and Feliciano Lopez brawled in the summer heat for 5 hours, 36 minutes until Muller came out on top 16-14 in the 5th set. No quarter, no complaining, no respite.
And don't be fooled by this 96 degree business. That's what the grounds thermometer showed, but a tennis court is like a cast-iron griddle; it retains and emanates a stunning amount of heat. It's that rugged, dry, enveloping heat that makes your feet burn and your eyes dry up. I've played in those conditions for a few hours, but wouldn't even consider trying to play for that long.
This first round match will likely disappear from our memory as the tournament goes on, but attention must be paid to such an incredible effort. The focus, fitness, and heart these two showed in a first round match is something to marvel at.
Oh, and Wayne Odesnik lost in 4 sets (along with just about every other American male in the draw save Andy Roddick)

Australian Open 2009 Preview: Wayne Odesnik Watch Resumes

It's time to turn our focus down under and get ready for the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open. The theme for this two weeks is quite the same for both the men and women's draw: who wants to stamp the season with their name and make a claim to the world number one ranking.
Make no mistake, world supremacy is most assuredly up for grabs. On the men's side, Rafael Nadal has nothing close to a strong grip on the number one spot, and Roger Federer must deal with the ignominy of being a number two seed for the first time in years. Andy Murray is surging forward and is a sexy pick to break through, but has to play under this mounting pressure and expectation.
The early rounds, which start tomorrow (with TV coverage starting on ESPN2 tomorrow night, have a handful of choice matches, particularly American Sam Querrey vs Philip Kohlschreiber, and Australia's golden boy Lleyton Hewitt taking on the much-disliked Fernando Gonzalez. I'm not watching this because of sentimentality for Hewitt on his home court; these dudes are both obnoxious and loud-mouthed, so the on-court antics should be quite festive.
Best of all, though, is that Wayne Odesnik is back in the main draw after winning three qualifying matches. He takes on Mario Ancic in the first round, and I refuse to pick against him in this clash.
The Tipsy Historian's Picks

Semis: Andy Murray vs Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer vs Andy Roddick (look for Roddick's quarterfinal match against Novak Djokovic to be an all-out brawl)

Finals: Murray vs Federer

Champion: Federer reminds Murray just how hard it is to take that final step and win a Grand Slam by taking the Australian Open 2009 away from him

Day One US Open 2008: San Diego In Primetime!

Ah heaven, the sun is out on this warm early evening, and the first night session of the 2008 US Open is in full swing! There was a big celebration tonight of the US Open's 40th anniversary in the open era, with all the bigwigs and previous winners in attendance, and seeing those famous faces all in one place was quite a sight.
Following that spectacle, our hometown tennis hero, San Diego's own Coco Vandeweghe walked onto center court for her US Open debut. Only 17, she had to do battle with second seeded Jelena Jankovic, and though she lost, this was a blast to watch. Coco played rock-solid tennis and demonstrated a wealth of potential while keeping a positive attitude and huge smile on her face. Anytime she did anything good, the cameras cut to her mom in the stands, who was absolutely beaming with joy. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this San Diegan again in the future.
Now, as we gear up for James Blake and Donald Young, some thoughts on the first day's play...
For every John Isner disappearing act, there is a Wayne Odesnik (remember him?) 5 set slugfest. Isner, America's tallest player and biggest server, came into the Open with the usual fanfare and modest expectations, but today was a disaster for him from a tennis perspective. He went down in three sets to the 122nd ranked player in the world, Andreas Beck of Germany. We all have reasonable expectations around Isner, but this is inexcusable. If he's going to have any sort of serviceable career, losses like this in Grand Slams just have to go away.
On the other side is my favorite tennis journeyman Wayne Odesnik, who went the distance against Fabio Fognini, winning 6-4 in the 5th set. This is the kind of win that makes people your fan, and I am definitely an Odesnik fan. He's not going to win a Grand Slam, but heart and courage like his are a real treat in the tennis world.

Odesnik Watch Day 5

The trivia question asked in my post earlier has an answer below. The question again was, how many times have both Williams sisters lost on the same day at a Grand Slam?
As was posited yesterday, erstwhile American grinder Wayne Odesnik is out of the French Open, after getting crunched by Novak Djokovic. Not to worry, though, as Wayne Odesnik's name will hopefully pop again on your radar either at a tennis tournament or in a game of JUMBLE (I can get YON KIDS WEAN. I guess children in the distance are no longer suckling. Anyway, if you look at the time that this post goes up, you'll see why things are a bit strange)
Other French bits 'n pieces:
-4 Frenchmen advance
-Andy Murray is out (thank goodness, he's a pain)
-Bethanie Mattek learned how to dress, and got a set off Maria Sharapova
-Rafael Nadal is just killing everyone in his path
-Alize Cornet lost, but still looks like Cleopatra

Trivia answer: zero (I'm pretty sure)

Odesnik Watch, Day 4

So this Grand Slam, because so many names are moving right through the draw and so many Americans are washing out in the standard fashion (nice work today James Blake, you lost to the 80th ranked player in the world), we're going to take at least this first week to follow players who go largely unsung.
On the men's side, it's Wayne Odesnik, he of the 4 hour three set first round match. He didn't have to wait long to play his second round match, and didn't have to play too long before he dispatched Taiwan's Hyung Taik-Lee to advance to the second round.
I'm not sure how much we'll have to say about him after tomorrow, except maybe some thoughts about getting to the airport on time, because he faces #3 seed Novak Djokovic. That's a tough road, but also the opportunity of a lifetime. Here's to The Big O pulling of the upset of the year tomorrow!
For the ladies, we must focus on Alize Cornet, who is the tournament's 19th seed and has a nose that is, well, Cleopatra-esque. Best of all, she's French, and any Gallic hope in the home tourney is a big deal. The whole country went ballistic when Yannick Noah won in 1983, so here's to a Frenchwoman pulling off the same feat 25 years later. She'll be in action tomorrow.

Three Days on Clay...

...and very little to show for it. As is becoming an annoying feature of the two Grand Slams played on "the Continent", the early summer rain is the lead theme of the French Open thus far.
After three days of play, the 1st round is just over 1/2 completed. Tomorrow was supposed to kick off the 2nd round action, but instead, matches scheduled for yesterday with either be finished, or, in a few cases, begun.
Ugh!
These weather delays do two things that are profoundly detrimental to the tourney:
1. all the energy and momentum that comes with a Grand Slam kicking off gets sapped away. It's really annoying to sit down to a day of action and find matches being replayed or commentators babbling away.
2. the back-log of matches causes a terrific rush to get everything back on schedule. Unless bad weather persists, which it very well might, the tournament end-date remains the same. This means that matches get crammed together on back-to-back days. Everyone that followed Wimbledon last year remembers the crushing schedule to get the tourney finished on time. The Nadal-Djokovic semifinal ended with Djokovic defaulting in the 3rd set, and the next day in the final (which proved to be a classic), every commentator and writer espoused the view that playing on consecutive days may have cost Nadal the championship. The French is in a similar situation, and with matches lasting longer and taking a greater physical toll on players, this is shaping up to be a battle of attrition.
So what to do? Well, Wimbledon is putting a retractable roof over Centre Court, but it doesn't seem like Roland Garros has any such plans. So we're left with a two week tournament collapsing into 10 days, perhaps less.
There have been some interesting results, none better than American Wayne Odesnik's three set, 4 hour tie-breakerathon win over 29th seed Guillermo Canas. Odesnik only got into the tourney through the USTA's exchange program with the French equivalent, but took advantage of the opportunity. Not only did he take out a seeded, clay-court specialist, but did it in three tiebreakers. Best of all, he broke through a serious mental block that had been plaguing him in big matches. Just last month, he had multiple match points in Houston to advance to his first ATP tournament final, but coughed them up and lost in three sets. Not so against Canas, and the 23 year old got through with probably the biggest victory of his career.
His second round match against Taiwan's Hyung Taik Lee will, at the rate things are going, get started sometime in June.