Ricky Dimon

• The greatest road trip in sports: D.C. Day 3

  2008-08-16 16:27:08
  

  TennisTalk’s Ricky Dimon is on stop two of three of his trip through the U.S. Open Series, billed as “The Greatest Road Trip in Sports.” This week he is blogging live from the Legg Mason Classic in Washington D.C.
  
  For the first time in my history of live tennis watching, I spent on entire day in the Stadium. I’ve spent near-full days on Grandstands, but certainly not in a Stadium. At the U.S. Open and Sony Ericsson Open in Miami I sometimes go whole days without setting foot in those Stadiums. Of course this tournament—it’s size, or lack thereof—makes it much different from a Grand Slam or Masters Series. It’s not like I had that much of a choice of which match to watch at any given time; the only two matches outside the Stadium were a bad singles match at 4:00 followed by a mediocre doubles match.
  
  Then, naturally, it was time for an hour of practice courts before the matches started. Vince Spadea and Coach Sanguinetti were on the same court at the same time as yesterday. I watched a little of that even though I had seen more than enough of those two exactly 24 hours earlier. Plus there was some decent action going on the courts next to them (Rajeev Ram, Andrea Stoppini, Marc Gicquel, and Robert Lindstedt, among others). After a while I headed into the Stadium where Haas (what a surprise!) was warming up for his match against Nicolas Mahut. Granted Haas had a match coming up soon so one could only expect him to be practicing around that time, but I swear to God that guy is always on the practice courts. Either that or the two of us just always happen to be at the same spot at the same time.
  
  Jesse Levine came out and watched the end of Haas’ practice. At one point Haas hit a flurry of nice winners against his hitting partner at net, and after one especially stellar topspin lob he said, “Don’t mess with the Zohan” (a reference to a recent Adam Sandler movie). Levine thoroughly enjoyed that and expressed disappointment that he had not seen that movie yet. Haas finished up shortly thereafter and went over to talk further with Levine. I have no idea how or why, but Levine and Haas seem to be really good friends (at least judging from their interaction).
  
  First up in the Stadium was a doubles match between Americans Eric Butorac and James Cerretani against Thai twins Sonchat and Sonchai Ratiwatana. The announcer had Sonchat raise his hand during warm-ups so the crowd could tell them apart, of course that didn’t do much good the minute he put his hand back down. The only way to tell who was who for good was listening to the chair umpire announce who was serving first (Sonchat) and then keeping your eye on him after the service game to see which side he returned from the next game. Then you knew who played forehand and who played backhand (and hopefully they didn’t switch after the first set!).
  
  One fan in the front row kept talking to Butorac during warm-ups and I heard Butorac say to the guy, “I heard Sonchat is better, but I have no idea which one that is.”
  
  Next I watched all of Haas vs. Mahut from the front row. Haas got up 5-2 in the first but then dropped serve at 5-3 and it ended up going into a tiebreaker. Seven double-faults in the first set did not help Haas, but he ended up winning the ‘breaker 7-4. The second was on serve with Mahut leading 3-2 until Haas really started playing well to win the last four games of the match. As expected almost all of the seats in the courtside boxes filled up for the (all-American) match of the day, John Isner vs. Donald Young, so I moved back into the second level; still a great seat right behind the baseline and a great vantage point looking down on the court. The first set showed no signs of doing anything other than going into a tiebreaker, but Isner, who won just three points in Young’s first three service games, suddenly seized a decisive break at 4-4. He closed out the set with ease in the next game by firing three of his six first-set aces.
  
  It would not be an Isner match without a tiebreaker (more like a third-set tiebreaker), and the second set produced one. Neither player had a break point throughout the set no game even when to deuce. Young got up a mini-break in the tiebreaker 2-1 when Isner double-faulted, but Isner got it right back on Young’s next round of serves. After changing sides at 3-3, Isner won the last four points of the match to advance to the quarterfinals.
  
  After waiting around for a while near the media tent (instead of watching the final match of the day between Juan Martin Del Potro and Dudi Sela), Isner finally emerged for his press conference and it was another good one; not surprising since he had every reason to be in a good mood. I wanted to ask him if he was going to watch the current match on Stadium (Del Potro vs. Dudi Sela; Isner plays the winner) and whether he wanted a shot at Del Potro (15-match winning streak) or if he would gladly settle for the “easier” opponent in Sela. Problem was that Del Potro had just won the first set 6-0, so the outcome was a foregone conclusion (at least at the time it was!). Plus someone else asked a similar question anyway.
  
  I eventually asked him if he had now made it deep enough in the tournament to invite the “drunk idiots” (referencing an Isner comment from the previous press conference). He said one friend had just started driving down from New York and would be staying in his hotel room before night’s end. From the sound of it, it will be just that one guy and no more, but who knows. Later I commented that I had noticed Levine and Haas watching Isner’s match against Young and asked him if he would spend tomorrow watching, for example, Somdev or practicing or just relaxing at the hotel. That question was somewhat of a gaffe since I forgot Isner had a doubles match slated for 4:00, but fortunately I didn’t use the phrase “off day” in the question, which I almost did, so it wasn’t a complete party foul on my part. Isner quickly pointed out that he had a doubles question but then added that he would watch some of Somdev, noting that they are “really good friends” (and he’s great friends with Somdev’s opponent, Robert Kendrick, as well). Then it would be back to the hotel early for a good night’s sleep.
  
  He’ll need a good sleep to be properly energized for Del Potro, who took out Sela in three sets. I headed over there after Isner’s press conference and Sela broke to get back on serve in the second. Shockingly, Sela ended up taking it 7-5 to level the match; quite the turnaround after getting bageled in the first. I wanted Sela to pull it out mainly because he would make for an easier match for Isner, but at the same time Isner-Del Potro would be incredible. Del Potro proved to be too much in the end and won the third 6-2, exactly what I predicted at the start of the final set.
  
  That’s all for Day 3! Time to be un-American on Day 4 (among with many others, I’m sure) and root for Somdev in the Kendrick-Devvarman showdown.

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