The transcendentally excellent sketch featuring Andy Murray and the cast of Outnumbered for Comic Relief:
I genuinely love this, not just because Muzz has successfully graduated from the Dan Radcliffe School of Acting and is merely Harry Potter bad as opposed to unbelievably bad, but because of Dad’s final comment: “He was a bit standoffish, wasn’t he?” Because you just know that is Andy’s daily experience; being incredibly nice and gracious to people’s requests and still getting condemned for being, well, him. It’s funny because it’s true.
And I hate saying this because I sound like a horrible TV presenter but … ifyouenjoyedthissketchpleasepleasedonatetoComicRelief. Thanks.
So as you may or may not know, the legendary Linz was at the Memphis 500 last week doing some behind-the-scenes camerawork, and she sent me this fantastic video of Delpo being interviewed by The Koz of indietennis.com.
That’s right, Linz was that close to that much adorableness and somehow survived the experience.
Courtesy of Racquet Required, Linz was also on hand to film Delpo’s pressers after his win against Ivan Dodig and a more dejected Delpo after the semifinal loss to Roddick.
Very, very exciting, people. Delpo beat Michael Russell 64 62 to make the semis of the Memphis 500, thus proving once and for all that elves really do pwn hobbits at everything except ringbearing (and the jury’s out on that one). He still hasn’t lost his serve once in the tournament and will go up against Andy Roddick in tonight’s semi-final.
Roddick had a good win last night over Lleyton Hewitt, but he did come out miserably flat. Either way it should be a good match; both of their most recent encounters went to three sets. And whatever happens, Delpo’s in the semi-finals of a 500. This is very, very good. But don’t take my word for it, let him tell you himself.
The other semi-final will be contested between Mardy Fish, who beat Sam Querrey, and the seemingly unstoppable Milos Raonic, who beat qualifier Robert Kendrick in three aceriffic sets.
I know most of you will be rooting for Raonic (as will I), but the laws of universal justice require me to call attention to the very sweet shoutout to Delpo from Fish in this Q&A, courtesy of the legendary Bobby Chiantapelli:
Juan Martín del Potro mentioned you’d play more doubles together this year. Your thoughts on him and his game right now?
I love Juan! He’s one of the best guys out here, one of the most laid-back guys. I’m a lot older than him. We played a few times. I remember playing him here one year. It might have been 2007 when he was still really young. He was ranked 60 in the world or so. I beat Juan like maybe 6-1, 7-6 in a tight tiebreaker. I played really well, and I thought this guy could be really, really good when I left the court. I remember that. I was happy to see his results. We played doubles in Madrid. We had a great time. So we’ll try to play again. He’s certainly one of the best players in the world and a pretty good doubles partner for me.
Bless. Meanwhile, the ladies final will feature Magdalena Rybarikova against the tournament’s last seed standing, Raonic’s compatriot Rebecca Marino.
Go Canada.
ATP
Singles – Quarter-finals
[1] A Roddick (USA) d L Hewitt (AUS) 46 63 64
[4] M Fish (USA) d [5] S Querrey (USA) 63 64
[WC] J Del Potro (ARG) d [Q] M Russell (USA) 64 62
[WC] M Raonic (CAN) d [Q] R Kendrick (USA) 64 36 63
WTA
Singles – Semifinals
(6) Rebecca Marino (CAN) d. Evgeniya Rodina (RUS) 67(1) 64 61
Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) d. Lucie Hradecka (CZE) 62 46 64
Hold on to whatever you haven’t already shed in despair: Caroline Wozniacki is one win away from taking back the no. 1 ranking in Dubai.
She benefitted from a dramatic collapse from Anna Chakvetadze in the second round, who was suffering from the aftereffects of gastroenteritis, just when the Russian looked to be making an impact in the match:
Wozniacki then beat Ayumi Morita today after the Japanese qualifier upset Petra Kvitova in the opening round. She’ll play Shahar Peer in the quarterfinals. It was Peer who beat her in the third round last year, but she had a tough third-round match against Yanina Wickmayer, so I suspect that no. 1 trophy is headed back Wozniacki’s way, and why not.
Still, let’s not forget the conditions Peer is playing under to even be allowed to participate in this tournament. I hope she goes on winning just to stick it to them. It’s absurd and cynical that the WTA even has a tournament under these conditions, no matter how good the field is. Anyway.
Radwanska will play Kuznetsova after the former beat Bartoli and Svetlana reprised her Melbourne epic with Francesca Schiavone. Six match points went begging again before the Russian closed it out this time. Azarenka flattered to deceive in one of her patented pointless comebacks, taking Pennetta to a third set before losing.
Pennetta will face Alisa Kleybanova, who surprised Vera Zvonareva in straight sets earlier, but the Italian needed an MTO in her singles match and withdrew from her doubles with a leg strain, so maybe don’t expect too much. The remaining quarterfinal will be Sam Stosur against Jelena Jankovic, who came back from losing the first set 2-6 to Kaia Kanepi to win 7-5 in the third. Yay.
Singles – Third Round
(1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (Q) Ayumi Morita (JPN) 61 60
(15) Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) d. (2) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 63 62
(16) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. (3) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 16 60 75
(4) Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. Patty Schnyder (SUI) 63 64
(6) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) d. (12) Kaia Kanepi (EST) 26 63 75
(11) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) d. (7) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 63 67(2) 64
(8) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) d. (10) Marion Bartoli (FRA) 63 62
(9) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 36 64 61
Doubles – Second Round
(1) Peschke/Srebotnik (CZE/SLO) d. Dushevina/Peng (RUS/CHN) 75 62
(2) Huber/Martínez Sánchez (USA/ESP) d. Groth/Zakopalova (AUS/CZE) 64 64
(WC) Kuznetsova/Zvonareva (RUS/RUS) d. (3) Chan/Zheng (TPE/CHN) 63 75
(4) Azarenka/Kirilenko (BLR/RUS) d. Kleybanova/Yan (RUS/CHN) 64 64
(6) Mattek-Sands/Shaughnessy (USA/USA) d. Pennetta/Schiavone (ITA/ITA) w/o (Pennetta: left lower leg muscle strain)
(7) Raymond/Stosur (USA/AUS) d. Niculescu/Peer (ROU/ISR) 75 57 107
Hantuchova/Radwanska (SVK/POL) d. Diatchenko/Poutchek (RUS/BLR) 61 61
Mirza/Vesnina (IND/RUS) d. Dulgheru/Sfar (ROU/TUN) 62 46 1210
Tie a yellow ribbon around whatever you like: there’s signs of life on the Delpo front. He went to Minnesota last week to consult his surgeon Dr. Berger and confirmed via his newly verified twitter that satisfactory progress is being made and after some more strengthening work he should be ready to start hitting again. (Remember when he used to play tennis?).
Delpo was also interviewed on his way out to the States and said that he’s tired of not being able to play and that the September Davis Cup semi-final against France would be a ‘good time to return’ if he can be ready in time. This clearly means he’ll definitely be back then if not sooner and will beat Nadal and Federer at Flushing Meadows so that Roddick can win the US Open, or something.
As you might gather, I’m remaining cautiously pessimistic, because there’s no guarantee that when he starts hitting balls again, his wrist doesn’t just drop off or something. I’m just saying. But, you know, progress appears to be happening. This is a Good Thing. And hey, video.
Let’s see how Argentina’s Davis Cup squad are preparing for this weekend’s tie against Russia, shall we?
Actual training footage.
Let’s not lie, the Argies are up against it and unsurprisingly much of the focus is on whether David ‘El Rey’ Nalbandian, the bad daddy of Davis Cup, can pull off another amazing rescue. Except this time he hasn’t played since Monte-Carlo and will have to face Nikolay Davydenko, Mikhail Youzhny and probably play the doubles as well.
Quietly confident, I assure you.
Anyway. Let’s all look at pictures of the Argies. Quick, before they start having to cry and recriminate.
Fine body of men.
If nothing else, he’s improving his fanboying immensely.
I swear to god, I just want to stick my face in his stomach and keep it there for an hour or so. In other news, here’s some words he said.
And the boys doing some serious physical work (David’s reaction at the end killed me):
As usual, I can only recommend you visit the amazing VamosDavid, who do a great job covering these ties. I’ll just be over there, looking at this photo and sighing a lot.
