By Cynthia Lum
It was another beautiful sunny day at The Championships on Tuesday. In the morning, I say at my desk and listened to one of my all time favorite trumpet players… jazz great Horace Silver, and some fresh strawberries and Greek yogurt… forget the cream, the yogurt was yummy and much better for you.
I had a bit of a nerve-wracking situation Monday night. I’m renting a room in a house with a family in Southfields. Normally I share a house with a friend from Australian, but he didn’t get a sponsor this year, so did not come, and I decided to just take a room rather than try to find an apartment just for myself. The place I’m staying is terrific. A loft room at the top of the house, all newly remodeled, with a private bath and power shower. This is huge in England as they mostly have showers that dribble water and it takes forever to get the shampoo out of my long hair.
Anyway, all the houses in this area look alike. Tall skinny Victorians attached on one wall. I remembered my house by the fact that it has a green door. Well, Novak Djokovic went five sets, and now that there is a roof and lights on Center court, they can play late, so the match ended at 10:59 pm. I ended up getting back to the house around midnight. Yes, I said midnight, when it is pitch dark and I couldn’t see which door was green.
You guessed it, I couldn’t find my house. There were four that all looked like possibilities. After pacing the block several times, and trying to pull up a mental image, I decided the only thing to do was to CAREFULLY try my key in the most likely house. As silently as possible, I crept to the door, praying that none of the neighbors would see me, and call the police to report a housebreaker. I tried the key… no go. Okay, I’m going to have to try another. Holding my breath and hoping that the owners didn’t have a dog, I tried the second house. OH NO. This one didn’t work either. Now I’m getting braver, on to the next . Am I going to have to go up and down the whole block? Third time was a charm. Big sigh of relief. Do you have any idea how happy I was to see my nice room? So much for my exciting first night SW19.
Two Brazilians played on court 14 Thomaz Bellucci and Ricardo Mello, which inspired me to switch my Ipod to Samba mode. Listening to drums and percussion with a clear soaring vocal singing BRAAAAAZILLLLL.. great, I could hardly sit still, I wanted to go out dancing.
Bellucci won in three 6-4 sets. He is my player to watch. Tall, and handsome, this lefty has game. I knew he’d be tough on the clay at Roland Garros, controlling points with that huge topspin forehand, but today he looked very comfortable on the green grass of the Big W.
In 2007, he started the year with a No. 582 world ranking and ended at 202. A very nice move up. After a solid performance at Roland Garros, defeating Michael Llodra, Pablo Andujar, and fourteenth seed Ivan Ljubicic, he came into The Championships seeded No. 25. Rafael Nadal stopped his run in the fourth round in Paris, but it was by no means a blow out. It took Nadal a little over two hours of solid tennis to defeat the Brazilian.
Bellucci has been called a diamond in the rough, but it’s looking to me like this diamond is polishing off those rough edges nicely. So dance along with me and I’ll keep you updated on Thomaz. Yes, Thomaz a Z that is not a typo.
Now I have to talk about Blake a little. Sadly, he has struggled for weeks with tendonitis in his right knee. He missed the whole clay court season and has just started to play again, but aggravated it once more, in Eastbourne.
He went out in straight sets in the first round today to the young player from Netherlands, Robin Haase. This prompted talk of possible retirement if the knee doesn’t show improvement. He called his performance “embarrassing,” but it wasn’t the play on court that was embarrassing, it was his confrontation with ESPN announcer, Pam Shriver.
Midway through the second set, I see him looking up, obviously annoyed, to the broadcast box above the court. I train my camera upwards to see what he is looking at and see Shriver leaning out of the box, microphone in hand.
Apparently the former player and veteran announcer was heard by Blake being critical of his less than sparkling performance. Already frustrated and unhappy, Blake yelled up at her that he could hear her comments on court. Shriver then went on to say, on air, “James just yelled at me, I’m way above the court, but evidently he can hear me. He’s got rabbit ears.” To which, James shouted back “You have to be an ass about it, too? . . . And act like I’m at fault.”
I’ve seen a lot of matches, but have never seen or heard an exchange like this one. Already down and disappointed in his play, the former top five player did not need this distraction. Of course if he was really focused and on his game he may never have heard the comments. Then if he was playing at his former level, Shriver wouldn’t be making critical comments.
I hope the upcoming hard court season is better for James. I’d hate to see him go out like this, he’s given a lot to American tennis and fans worldwide, been an outstanding supporter of our Davis Cup team, and an all around good image for young players. It would be great to see him have one good run before bidding us farewell.
And speaking of farewell, once again I see the clock reading 12:25 AM so I’m signing off for today.
Cynthia
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Cynthia Lum is one of the world’s most celebrated sports photographers and has traveled the world covering all the major tennis events for 18 years. In addition to tennis she is currently shooting horse racing, golf, surfing, and beach volleyball. Visit her on-line photo archive at www.cynthialum.com where her photos are for sale for professional and personal use. She is available for hire for corporate and editorial clients. She is based in Hermosa Beach, Calif.