About Last Night

I wanted to comment on the absolutely fabulous tennis match I saw last night. There were so many fabulous storylines in the Blake/Agassi match, but the tennis, for the first time in what seemed like years, actually matched the hype in a big match. That Agassi could come back from 2 sets down, and then that Blake could rally in the fifth, and then Agassi coming back, it was amazing.The crowd was so into it (even at 1 a.m.), and it was wonderful to see the crowd go back and forth (you obviously heard that both had big cheering sections at Arthur Ashe). My only complaint was that there was too much play from the baseline, neither guy really came to the net very often. But that's me being very picky.

I've been very surprised, with the increase in the popularity of golf, we haven't seen the same sort of surge in popularity in tennis. Obviously, the women's game is healthy, but that's primarily because of the personalities, and well, the attractiveness of the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova. But the men's game, in many ways, hasn't been as exciting in many years. I realize the problem, that the dominant player, perhaps the best player of all time, Roger Federer, isn't American and relatively unknown. By relatively, I mean that he could walk into most sports bars wth a shirt reading "I'm Roger Federer, the tennis player" and people still wouldn't know who he was. But tennis is far, and I mean, worlds more athletic than golf, and it allows you to express yourself more athletically. You see more of a tennis players personality on the court than a golfer on the course. Its also far less expensive to play (all it really takes is a racket, which still won't cost you as much as a driver), and tennis courts can be more easily found in cities than golf courses. Maybe its just the yuppie-ization of America that leads people to embrace golf over its country club sibling.

I'll post more about Katrina and Rehnquist/Roberts later today or tomorrow (headed to Adam's tonight to watch the Patriots game and *shrug* the OC).