Roddick wins first match in Miami

Another big tennis tournament is being played right now in Miami. There should be lots of action this upcoming week with the men's final taking place a week from tomorrow. So far there haven't been any notable upsets, although they've just finished the second round. Andy Roddick played yesterday and had no trouble defeating Diego Junqueira from Argentina, another player of whom I'd never heard. Federer and Djokovic were also victorious yesterday. Murray and Nadal are on the other side of the bracket, but they won their second-round matches, too. Looking ahead, there is a potential Roddick-Federer match lurking in the quarters. Assuming both guys make it that far, it will be a match to watch. Roddick is coming off a strong Indian Wells performance, while Federer is looking vulnerable after his defeat at the hands of Andy Murray. And Murray did not give Nadal nearly as much trouble in the final as Roddick did in the semis.

Sixers pick up another W

The Sixers are back from their road trip out west, and last night they hosted the T'wolves. I was able to catch part of the game on the radio before going to bed, and the Sixers had a decent lead (about 11 points), but Minnesota was playing well. Rodney Carney had a hot hand and drained quite a few 3-pointers. But ultimately the Sixers pulled away, outscoring their opponent in both the third and fourth quarters. They trailed 43-37 at halftime but came away with the win, 96-88. Things are looking very good for the Sixers at this point. They have a solid record of 37-33 and have just about wrapped up second place in their division. Unfortunately, the trio of Orlando, Cleveland, and Boston will be waiting in the playoffs. Whichever team the Sixers have to play will be tough.

Nadal takes Indian Wells title

Yesterday's final between Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray was a little bit of a let down for me in that it was so lopsided. I was unable to watch the match, but I did follow it on the internet, and Murray simply could not get anything going. Nadal blew him out of the water, 6-1, 6-2. Articles I've read about the match have stated that there was a lot of wind, and dirt and sand were swirling around in the stadium, but, to Murray's credit, he didn't use that as an excuse for losing. It was still a good tournament for the Scot, who defeated Roger Federer in the semis. Federer is not looking like the player he used to be, and I have to admit I never expected his opponents to catch him this quickly. I realize that Nadal is a great player, but even he has a tough time with Federer at majors. Both of their contests at the Australian Open and Wimbledon went to 5 sets. So, all of this makes the upcoming Miami tournament more interesting. Can Nadal go back-to-back, or will Federer be the one to come out on top?

Federer to clash with Murray

Both Roger Federer and Andy Murray came through their quarterfinal matches unscathed, so now they're set to play each other in the semis. I believe their match is scheduled for just a few minutes from now. It should be an interesting contest, but I won't get to watch it since I have dinner plans. On the other side of the draw, Roddick has a surprisingly easy victory over Djokovic, putting him right in Nadal's path. They'll play after the conclusion of the Federer-Murray match. I don't think I've ever seen Roddick play Nadal before. I know they've played in Davis Cup, and they must have met on tour before, but it's not a common matchup like Roddick-Federer. I'd love to see Roddick pull off the upset, but it really depends on how well Rafa plays.

Quarterfinals set at Indian Wells

The world's top tennis players are in action once again this week at Indian Wells, California. So far there haven't been any major upsets, although Nadal had a close match last night against David Nalbandian. He dropped the first set and won the second one in a tiebreaker. According to reports I've read, the match started pretty late and did not end until around 2am local time. Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic also advanced to the quarterfinals, where they'll play each other. For some reason, they always end up being in the same section of the draw, at least lately. They played in the quarters of the US Open, again in the quarters at Australia, and now at Indian Wells. It would be nice if the "random" draw split them up every once in a while. At least they're not in the same half as Federer. I think a Djokovic-Nadal or a Roddick-Nadal match is more intriguing than either one against Federer, mainly because I've seen those matchups many times. More often than not, Federer comes out on top.

Sixers stun Lakers out west

The Sixers are on a West Coast road trip right now, having played in L.A. last night and continuing with a game in Phoenix tonight. The games start too late for me to follow (last night's didn't begin until 10:30pm), but I see the results the next day. This morning I happened to catch the score on the news and was surprised to see that the Sixers posted a 94-93 victory. Then, while driving to work, I heard a more detailed report on the radio stating that the Sixers had won when Andre Iguodala nailed a 3-pointer right before the buzzer. It made me wish I could have seen it. The Sixers now have a record of 34-31 and remain solidly in second place in their division. It is very encouraging when they win games like they did last night, but I'm still a little concerned that they might play sloppily against some of the not-so-good teams. I have to admit things are looking good so far.

The birthday girl

Things are back to normal for me today after a hectic weekend. I drove down to Baltimore on Friday since my parents were in town, and then we had dinner at my aunt's house. I spent all of Saturday with my dad's side of the family and then drove up to Harrisburg that night to see my brother. One of my nieces had her first birthday yesterday, so there was a big get-together with lots of good food and good company. Later in the afternoon, some of us took the little kids over to a nearby playground. I didn't hit the road until around 7pm, so it was a late night for me. The weekend was fun, though, and I'm glad I got to see as many people as I did.

Sixers win over Toronto

I listened to a few minutes of the Sixers game last night, and I was able to hear the conclusion before I fell asleep. The Sixers outscored the Raptors 37-20 in the second quarter, which proved to be enough of a lead to last for the rest of the game. Toronto came back and outscored the Sixers in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough. Final score: 115-106. This is a very welcome win, especially after losing to Oklahoma City last Sunday. The Sixers have dropped 3 of their last 5 games yet are still at the 500 mark, which I suppose is a reason for optimism. They are 4 games ahead of the Nets in their division and still in second place (the Celtics are out of reach). With a record of 31-31, there should be 20 games left to play. This would be a good time for the Sixers to go on a roll. I'd love to see them go 15-5 for those last 20 games.

U.S. defeats Switzerland in Davis Cup action

The first round of Davis Cup play took place this weekend, and our team hosted Switzerland. The matches were played in Birmingham, Alabama, with the singles occurring Friday & today and the doubles on Saturday. There had been a lot of hype over this matchup due to Roger Federer's plans to participate, but after he pulled out, much of the anticipation dwindled. I personally am not a huge Davis Cup fan, but I do take note of the results. On Friday, James Blake lost his match while Andy Roddick won his. The Bryan brothers then won their doubles match yesterday to give us a 2-1 lead, and today both Roddick and Blake won. I'm not sure how Davis Cup format works, so I don't know which team we'll be playing in the next round. That information is probably available on the internet, but I haven't looked for it yet. I'm much more interested in the Indian Wells tournament, starting at the end of this week. It will be a good test for Federer to see if he can rebound from his Australian Open loss.

A Champion's Mind

This will be my second book review in only two days. Just last weekend I finished reading Pete Sampras's excellent book A Champion's Mind: Lessons From a Life in Tennis. As someone who followed the exploits of Sampras over the years, I thought it was fascinating to discover what was going on in his mind during his time at the top of the tennis world. The first time I remember seriously following a tennis tournament was Wimbledon in 1995. Pete won that one, defeating Boris Becker in the final, and then went on to win the US Open that same year over Andre Agassi. I knew very little about the years prior to that, but this book did a great job describing them. Sampras was a prodigy from an early age and came on to the scene in a big way by winning the 1990 US Open as a 19-year-old. After that, he struggled. He talks about not having the mental willpower to fight to the end of important matches, especially in his 1992 US Open loss to Stefan Edberg. In looking back on that match, Sampras realized that he hadn't fought like a champion should have.

Pete's second Grand Slam title came in 1993 at Wimbledon, a tournament he would eventually win a staggering seven times. His run was ended in 2001 by an up-and-coming star named Roger Federer. Sampras talks about his relationship with his coach Tim Gullikson, and how emotionally devastating it was to see him suffer with cancer before passing away. This had happened before I started following tennis, but I definitely remember reading stories about how Pete broke down and cried during one of his matches in Australia. One incident I do remember was his 5-set match against Alex Corretja at the 1996 US Open, where he became sick and threw up during the match. He went on to win the match and eventually the whole tournament.

I also found his description of his later years to be interesting. Like all athletes, Pete's body did not hold up as well in his 30s as it had years earlier. He needed to be very selective in which tournaments he chose to play. Sampras had a fairy-tale ending to his career, winning the US Open in 2002 over Andre Agassi, who was his opponent in his first Grand Slam victory 12 years prior. A Champion's Mind will surely be enjoyable to any tennis fans out there, and I wholeheartedly give it my recommendation.

Heaven and Hell

I recently finished reading Heaven and Hell, the last novel in a Civil War era trilogy by John Jakes. Like the first two books, this was an enjoyable read. The main character is Charles Main, who, after being truamatized by his experiences in the war, moves west in the hopes of continuing life in the military. This is a problem, though, as certain people do not want a former rebel (or traitor, as they say) serving with them. Charles joins a small trading company, but that quickly ends when his partner is massacred by Indians. He becomes very vengeful and is eventually able to join the army under Custer to fight the Indians. However, after a merciless slaughter of Indian women and children, he has a change of heart and quits. He falls in love with an actress named Willa, whom he met while he was passing through St. Louis. Willa is an ardent supporter of making peace with the Indians, so she and Charles have quite a few quarrels about him wanting to kill them. Of course, there is a happy ending.

The Hazard family is in the background in this book. Billy & Brett have moved to California and only make a brief appearance at the end. Constance is murdered by the villain Elkanah Bent, and a devastated George withdraws from everyone and moves to Europe. Incidentally, Bent's exploits get a lot of coverage. He wants revenge on the Hazards and Mains and has no qualms about killing innocent people to help his quest. Charles has a young son named Gus, whose mother died after giving birth, and Bent kidnaps the boy and takes him into Indian Territory. Charles finally finds them and executes Bent.

Orry's widow Madeline remains in South Carolina and attempts to start a school for blacks. This is very unpopular, of course, and she receives more than one visit from the KKK, which was just getting started at that time. Madeline keeps a journal, written as if it were a letter to Orry, which lets the reader know her thoughts and experiences. I found the portrayal of the Reconstruction-era South to be very interesting. Unlike wars between two countries, where the victor occupies and rules his enemy, the Civil War had no real "loser" since the South became the USA once again. So trying to enforce equal rights for whites and blacks was a nightmare.

Obviously I give Heaven and Hell an overwhelmingly positive review. I love historical fiction, especially that which deals with the Civil War or WWII, and this book (the whole trilogy, actually) never had me bored.

Fernandez runs 3:55 mile

German Fernandez, the young phenom from Oklahoma State, won the Big 12 indoor mile over the weekend with a time of 3:55.02. The NCAA record is 3:55.0 (hand-timed), so I'm not sure if he tied it or broke it. Either way, it was an incredible performance. Fernandez has been impressing track fans for quite a while now, although I first heard of him about a year ago. He ran in the Foot Locker XC meet in high school but did not win. I really took notice of him last spring when he ran a 4:00/8:34 double for the 1600/3200 at the California state meet. That is arguably the greatest performance ever by a high school distance runner. Fernandez started college at OSU this past fall, but he was unable to win (or even finish) the NCAA XC championships due to an Achilles injury suffered mid-race. I'm not entirely convinced he could have won against guys like Rupp and Chelanga, anyway.

Now there is a lot of hype about Fernandez running a spectacular time in the 5,000 this spring. I really don't know what to think. He undoubtedly has more talent than any other American runner I've seen, with the possible exception of Alan Webb, but I just don't know if a 13:20 is in his range. Who knows - he could surprise a lot of people and go 13:10. It will be fun to watch. But first he'll be racing in the World Junior XC Championships against lots of talented Africans, so we'll see how he does there.

Djokovic wins Dubai crown

Novak Djokovic won his first tournament of the year over the weekend, defeating David Ferrer in the final at Dubai. There were a few big-name players absent from the event: Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Roddick. This does not take anything away from the Djoker's victory, but the tournament was surrounded in controversy due to the UAE's denial of a visa to Israeli women's player Shahar Peer. Roddick stated this as his reason for withdrawal, and as the defending Dubai champ, it was a popular move on his part. Federer and Nadal cited injuries.

There were lots of interesting comments on this at Jon Wertheim's mailbag. Incidentally, a comment of mine was included in that mailbag, though it had nothing to do with the Peer controversy. I noted that 7 of the top 8 men's seeds made it to the quarterfinals in Australia. There are three things about this that I found funny. First of all, I did not write "in the Australia" when I submitted the comment. Apparently this was added for clarification since it was published after the tournament was over. But instead of "in Australia" or "in the Australian Open", somebody mixed the two together, making it look like I used poor grammar. I got a good laugh out of that. Secondly, the answer to my question is wrong. The following week's mailbag states that all 8 seeds made the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1960. This right after telling the readers that if Sharko says it's so, it's so. I guess it's possible that Jon was using sarcasm to make fun of Sharko, but I doubt it. Lastly, my inquiry may have been misunderstood. I was actually interested in the last time 7 of the top 8 seeds had made it to the quarterfinals of a major, not necessarily all 8 seeds. But I did get an interesting answer, so I can't complain.

The next big tournament is Indian Wells. That should be a good one, especially if Federer and Nadal are both playing well.