Yanina Wickmayer defeats Katerina Bondarenko

Some brief comments on tennis and related things (which is everything):

I like the way they make a "story" out of everything on ESPN. Like, instead of Wickmayer being a young tennis player, they do all this humanizing and personal story stuff. Remember when they did that about Maria Sharapova? "They came from Siberia, with 500 dollars to thier name...Maria was only seven..." That story got dropped ages ago, but there was a time where it WAS NON-STOP. I turned off the volume when Bud Collins came out. I feel sorry for him, sort of, but he makes me grab my head and moan, too. I actually liked Wickmayer's tomboyish vibe- her shorts, her lankiness. We here also find both Bondarenko ladies interesting. So, I was like, eh, who cares- both these chicks are cool in thier own way. So it was hard to get fired up. Bondarenko has the rad tat and the pierced nose- I like the bad girl vibe. And - as mentioned- I love Wickmayer's tomboy thingy.

We were at the Nadal/Monfils match last night!!! It was amazing to watch those two rally live as opposed to on TV- it's no comparison. On TV, it's like two people playing really great tennis. But not live, wierdly, which is where you are actually in front of "real" people. It's not tennis to me live like that- it's some strange super human phenomena that scientists have yet to explain. It's abnormal! It's like they look like human beings but really they are aliens from the planet of badasssports. And then I got to thinking, maybe those scientologists are right?! We are ALL aliens, but only certain people have figured it out??? Or something? Just a thought. I mean, Tom Cruise makes alien amounts of money...hm. Aliens. And speaking of Tom Cruise and aliens and tennis, Nicole Kidman was in the audience! They showed her on the big TV screen. I winced. She looks like an alien! Her face is giinormous and martiany glowing and white and her features made me think of those Mr. Potato toys I once loved! Oh MY GOD. We are aliens, just some of us more obviously than others? I'm going to think about this more at cocktail hour.

I left right when it ended (babysitter!) so did not witness the guy coming and hugging Rafa. I will say that Nadal is soooo sweet and handled it well but NO ONE should get on the court and touch a player! It's twice this year now this has happened and it's inexcusable. Security MUST be better. Nadal is being naive...it was a bad scary thing to happen. I love him, but I'm mad at the security people. Really mad. Also, on the ESPN thread, they talk about how "gay" it was. My immediate reaction was "people are idiots". And then a more refined idea came to mind- "people don't know about Spanish culture- it's not nearly as uptight about contact between men."

OK! Speaking of Spanish culture! VERDASCO is coming up....oh yeah.

Yours Truly,
Paula