AO Watercooler

First, I'll be posting an AO predictions quiz later today; the idea will be for you to post your selections before the first ball in the tournament is hit, and then we can all see who gets to wear the "genius" cap.

Second, I will also post on the Suicide Pool, with explicit instructions on how to take part as part of the TennisWorld sub-bracket.

Third, we will have a few special features as the tournament progresses, a including Q and A sessions with our man in Melbourne, Tom(ahawk) Perrotta. You can read him daily at his String Theory blog. He and I will also do a live chat in the middle of the event.

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Watercooler2

Finally, as promised, I spoke with Pete Sampras yesterday about the prospect of seeing a Sampras-Federer doubles team entered in the Indian Wells tournament. Pete said:
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So there it is.

In other news on that front, all of the $1000 dollar tickets to the Madison Square Garden exhibition have already been sold, and it's starting to look like the Pete-Roger shootout could sell out the place New Yorkers love to call The world's greatest sports arena. . . That's great for tennis.

And the surface will definitely be slower than the one used in Macao. Pete is actually looking forward to that, even though it will be greater advantage for Roger. Pete said, "I'm glad they're going to slow it down, because I like to play a little bit too. It's fun running around and hitting groundstrokes and having longer points."

One of Pete's most cherished Grand Slam wins was the one he put up against Andre at Wimbledon in 1999 (a match in which Pete struggled a bit in the first set and then played he feels might have been the best tennis of his career to win in straights). He's especially proud and fond of that performance because, unlike his matches against Goran Ivanisevic or other big servers, Pete experienced the joy of playing interesting points.

Back later. . .