Tennis, Brought To You By Some Bank You've Never Heard Of

So for Christmas, Hubs bought us tickets to go to Palm Springs and see the BNP Paribas Tennis Finals. The tournament is large and attracts all the top-ranked players in the world. Very exciting.

The Women’s Final was first: Number-one-in-the-world-for-way-too-long-now Caroline Wozniacki. Not that I dislike her. She’s lovely, and does well with the media, she’s just not the most exciting player. But consistent she is, so I have to give her props. Her opponent was #14 Marion Bartoli. I’ve seen Marion’s name all the time over the last five years lurking in the top 20, but I’ve never seen her play. She has a two-hand forehand, rare these days, and it was strange to see.

Caroline breezed through the first set, 6-1 and the crowd was not happy. The match seemed like it would be over in a half hour, but then Marion came back and won the second set. The third set started out close, but then Caroline pulled away. Even though she was winning, she still got frustrated at one point and threw down her racket. It felt fake to me, like someone intentionally acting feisty to get the crowd on her side. I hope she was genuinely upset, and not just acting to make her lackluster game more exciting.



"Yea! I win! Am I still boring?"


The strangest part of the match was how some guy, hopefully someone from Caroline's camp, would yell when the crowd was silent, “Come on, cupcake.” At least once per game. Awkward.

And then the Men’s Final. This was the one everyone was excited about. #1 Rafael Nadal vs. Just-surpassed-Roger-Federer-by-beating-him #2 Novak Djokovic. Ah, delightful sigh.

I love Rafa. He’s quick, powerful, top-spinny, has water bottle OCD, and ninety percent of the time wears a completely disgruntled look on his face. And, added bonus, he has the best body on the tour. What’s not to love?



"This is the face of winning."


When Rafa won the first set, I cheered. The crowd was leaning heavily towards Rafa. Lots of red and orange in the crowd waving Spanish flags. But in the second set something happened that I’ve never seen before. Rafa lost his serve.

Tennis players lose their serve all the time and the mental defeat usually ruins their whole game. Sometimes they get it back and all is well. Sometimes they don’t. Maria Sharapova still hasn’t gotten her serve back two years after shoulder surgery, but that’s an extreme case. Rafa has a slower serve (although it’s gotten 10 mph faster in the last year) than many of the players, but the trade-off is that it’s consistent as hell. Well, not in set two. Or set three. And since his serve was off and he was just as baffled as I, there wasn’t as much scurrying behind the baseline and amazing curving shots that seem to defy laws of physics as there usually are. But it was still a good, competitive match and Novak played really well the last two sets.

Nobody pouts better than Novak.

And nobody wins better than Novak.

There were a group of teenage girls sitting not too far from us who knew how to turn every sports chant into a way to say “Novak Djokovic.” Tennis roadies.

But this is really what everyone paid money to see:

When changing his shirt, the number one tennis player in the world gets more cat calls than the Saturday night trannies outside Benitos Tacos on Santa Monica. Slightly degrading, and he deserves better. I remained silent. But made Hubs take photos.

It was a great day, even though Rafa didn't win. It was supposed to rain all day, but not a drop fell from the ominous sky.

And Rafa will get his revenge at the French.