1. Every morning I laughed to myself watching Feliciano Lopez reclining on a Starbucks chair pouting sexily to no one in particular. Maybe Fernando Verdasco.
2. SPOTTED: DAVID FERRER SMOKING (my friends were convinced of this. I saw him in the distance. For all I know, he could have been smoking a straw.) It’s odd, because that’s the only time I ever saw David Ferrer. I actually thought he didn’t show up.
3. kudos to Fernando Verdasco, signing autographs and taking pictures with anyone that asked. And then he took the iniative after his practice to gratify all the fans that were screaming his name. He talked to children, he smiled at people, and he must have taken hundreds of photographs. And I saw him do all this after he lost his match too. Similarly, kudos to Mike and Bob Bryan who did much the same thing. I was near Mike mostly, who looked completely exhausted after his doubles match and victory dancing, but he still stayed behind and signed and snapped for as many people as he could reach.
4. this is not a reflection on his personality at all. But Feliciano Lopez confused the hell out of me, since I barely saw sign anything, although I did have a little girl tell me that he talked to her really nicely for a few minutes. But then again, I saw a teenage girl ask him for an autograph and he told her he was busy and just walked away (Emilio Sanchez gave a resigned laugh). Later that day, between listening to his iPod and browsing the gift shop, he signed a few autographs, maybe three. And he did talk to some people in his hotel one night (mostly they were pretty teenage girls; again this is not a reflection on his personality.) But then again, while he was practicing to play his dead rubber, a girl next to me must have screamed his name a hundred times. And either he didn’t hear her screeching voice or she was getting on everyone’s nerves, but Emilio Sanchez finally took her camera and snapped some pictures of Feliciano practicing. And I guess he’s a nice guy because he did smile for them. And he signed a few autographs as he sauntered sexily off court. but I must say that I laughed inside when he spilled coffee on himself.
5. James Blake hung out for a little bit with some children. Andy Roddick got mobbed once when he entered the hotel where his mother was staying. Thomas Blake took some pictures (I guess he’s really making a name for himself with his big career commentating on the tennis channel). Pat McEnroe signed some too, mostly for some older women that were swooning and fainting, but I managed to sneak in there somehow and made him sign some kind of noisemaker that they were handing out for free.
6. Mardy Fish hit some balls at the ceiling of the stadium. I’m not sure what this was all about, maybe it’s his new practicing technique, but he took a nice bow afterwards.
7. SPOTTED: the elusive and talented Donald Young! Soon to take over from Roger Federer, if the shots he were hitting were any indication. (hint: they landed behind the baseline.)
8. Make friends with sponsors, because sometimes they will hand out free tickets in the nice section. Except don’t sit in a section full of Americans and shout ‘vamos’ because everyone will try to stone you with said free noisemakers.
9. the Spanish section is ridiculous. These people are so fucking patriotic. Probably the most interesting thing that happened on the first day (except watching a heckler harass Tommy Robredo and Fernando Verdasco) was this band war! A Spaniard came, armed with a trumpet, prepared to play number of Spanish anthems…and the American band drowned him out with a rousing rendition of ‘We Will Rock You.’
10. It was really fucking cold. The whole time. I think the USTA rigged it that way so that everyone would be forced to buy their million dollar sweatshirts. (can we maybe get some clay courts with that money?) Although, to be fair, they did hand out some noisemakers for free.
11. Feliciano practiced in Hawaiian shorts. bright blue!
12. Women take forever to use the restroom. If you use a tennis analogy, it was like Borg's pants (men's line) to Rafa's pants (the ladies).
13. Davis Cup is a nice environment. Maybe I’m just a sucker for these inspirational and patriotic moments, but watching Andy Roddick close out Fernando Verdasco and watching the crowd jump to their feet screaming was really touching. We may not elect our athletes, but we certainly adopt them as our symbols, and it was never more evident than seeing Spanish fans that paid airfare, the price of front-row seats, the custom t-shirts that they were wearing. Or seeing people crying after America won. Or people waving those obnoxious noisemakers or screaming ‘Ole’ or ‘lets go Bryan lets go’ or playing the trumpet or waving the most ridiculously large flags I have ever seen. I’m no sap, but between Fernando Verdasco and patriotism, it was a good trip.
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