Howdy, everyone. I'm back on watch, but I'll spare you the details of my trip to Texas until the smoke clears in Shanghai. We're down to the wire on the season, and we'll have lots of time starting next week to jawbone about things other than the battlefield news of the day.
I have to admit that if you told me that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's chances to qualify for the semifinals at the ATP Masters Cup would be in jeopardy early in the event you would have elicited at least a raised eyebrow. But while nothing is written in stone - as of yet - some warnings to the top two have already been scrawled in blood (theirs). This is shaping up as a wild and woolly season-ender.
One interesting element to me is that Andy Roddick may already be stoking the emotional fires for the upcoming, critical USA vs. Russia Davis Cup final - and drawing inspiration from the process. Roddick is a smart guy and, perhaps more importantly in this context, and emotional guy. Turning in a commanding performance in Shanghai would not only send an intimidating message to the Russians, it would also deposit Roddick in Portland on a towering and perfectly breaking wave of confidence. A more interesting way to put this is that winning (or having a great tournament) in Shanghai would help Roddick in his Davis Cup quest but, just as significantly, Roddick's Davis Cup quest might end up helping him win Shanghai.
There's an interesting dynamic at play; Roddick is a man on a mission (winning the Davis Cup), and that condition always carries over to all aspects of a player's life and actions until that mission is completed. Just something to think about. . .
Meanwhile, as many of you know, Tomahawk Perrotta is already counting coup in Shanghai with his daily Master's Cup blog, ***String Theory***. As Ray Stonada (aka Asad Raza), Andrew Friedman (aka Rolo Tomassi) and my comrade-in-blogs, Pennsyltucky's very own Steve Tignor, can tell you, Tomahawk is a tennis writer and analyst of formidable skills. Our uber-editor James Martin has a great eye for talent and he brought Tom on board at Tennis a few months ago. Now there isn't a website, magazine or newspaper whose line-up can come close to ours, and if that sounds like naked self-promotion, so be it. Read and compare for yourself.
I can confidently say that as a "shoeleather reporter" (meaning a guy who does his homework and leaves no stone unturned in his quest to research a piece), Tom is right up there with the best, a corps that includes (among the U.S. traveling press corps) El Jon, Chris Clarey, Scott Price and Doug Robson. So drop by Tom's blog and say hi, if you haven't done so already.
I'll be around to comment for a couple of days, and you'll have Crisis Center posts right up to the end of the tournament, but Tomahawk is the guy at the eye of the storm. In fact, he has a fresh post (on David Ferrer) up as I write this. . .