The Cup Overfloweth. . .

Afternoon, everyone. This will be your overflow thread for when the Davis Cup Crisis Center post hits the magic 1,000 comments mark; please don't start posting here until that happens. I'm writing a DC post for ESPN, and it should be live later today, so you might want to drop by there to check it out.

When I came in this morning, I was all fired up about watching the Davis Cup in the conference room. We tuned in the Tennis Channel and pulled in the David Nalbandian vs. Igor Andreev match early in the first set. Then, the television started to act up, serving up an nice brunch of digitally scrambled pixels. Turns out we had the same problem with the TV in our publisher's office, so I had to keep track of the tennis like many of you, via the Live Scores module at the ITF Davis Cup website.

I tracked the Andy Roddick vs. David Ferrer match; for a while, it was fascinating. Staring at the live-score screen offers a unique type of uncertainty and drama, just as radio does, in this day of ubiquitious television. But it was weird when, at the conclusion of match point, all the screen did was blink and refresh, saying: Ferrer Wins. Can you say "letdown"? It's not so much the result itself, as the utter banality - and finality - of the verdict. No images of a deliriously happy Ferrer rolling on the clay; no candid of Andy Roddick casting a rueful glance at USA team captain Patrick McEnroe. Oh well. . .

On another front, some members of the TWibe have stepped up to create a special TennisWorld group at Facebook. This is long overdue, and reminds me that, back in the day, Steggy and I had grand plans to create a TennisWorld "cyber-lounge", where readers could gather to get to know each other better. It was to be called the Deuce Club, which is how the posts of the same name came into being when actually creating the official lounge became impractical.

I've never been plugged into social networks, but I went into Facebook this morning and signed up. It's pretty easy, and if do it and log in, just type "tennisworld" into the search bar/box and it ought to let  you view the home page. The page was created by comment poster Jackie (I think of her as Jackie-oh!), and we're discussing ways to increase the linkage between TW and that space. Stay tuned for updates on that in coming days.

I'm off to the farm in game-rich Andes later today, and I'll be tracking the Davis Cup results along with all the rest of you. Have a great weekend, everyone!

-- Pete