The Watercooler: Deep Doo Doo

Mornin', Tribe. I'll be editing and posting another gem from Rosangel a little later today, but I wanted to drop in to say hi and update you on a few things. We'll be moving into holiday mode next week, and some of the festivities will be Tribe-related. I am thinking of having a TennisWorld virtual Christmas cocktail party. We'll select a date and time (probably late evening EST, where I am) and then spend at least an hour just chatting in the Comments. Sound like fun to any of you? Let your feelings be known below.

By next week, I also hope to have formulated some plans for year-end TW awards and citations. You may remember that MarieJ is our 2006 "Poster of the Year",  and Ray Stonada/Asad Raza is our TW Poet Laureate. I will review how we did our year-end citations last year and see if that model will work again, I'd like everyone to participate, though, so be prepared to put on your thinking caps. More next week.

Although it's the off-season, I have some interesting Tennis magazine projects coming up, and I'll blog on them. I'm having drinks with Jim Courier next week, and I hope to go to Las Vegas to spend a little time with Andre Agassi sometime soon.

Most of you know that I write a post fo ESPN on Mondays and Fridays. Today's post over yonder should be live soon. In it, I take a quick look at the 2007 season in men's tennis (the review of the women will be my post next Monday). It's somewhat whimsical, but there's no doubt in my mind that the pivotal moment of this year in men's tennis was the Wimbledon final. It was a very close match, and the more I think about, the more I see it as a "tipping point" - perhaps in the history of this era. Think about the implications if Rafa wins that Wimbledon match:

1 - Virtually no chance for TMF to break the Grand Slam singles title record until at least 2009.

2 - End of TMF's bid to equal Borg's record of 5-consecutive Wimbledon victories.

3 - Potential End of TMF's bid to finish as year-end No. 1 for fourth year in a row, thereby ruining his hopes of surpassing Pete Sampras's record in that department (Sampras finished No. 1 for 6 years running - to me, it's the most impressive of his records).

4 - Huge hit of confidence and inspiration for the likes of Rafa, Novak Djokovic, and David Nalbandian.

5 - Beginning of annoying, premature, but inevitable discussion under the heading: Is the Roger Federer Era in Tennis Over?

6 - Interruption of TMF's blissed-out coast toward tennis immortality, mostly because of implication No. 5 (above), which would put Federer under significant pressure. We would see how he handles something he hasn't had to deal with very often: adversity.

So there it is.

On another subject. I enjoyed El Jon's recent posting  of 25 thoughts following the Davis Cup. I checked out his link to this website, where Marat Safin seems mighty eager to impress us with his work ethic. I was, frankly, shocked by the description of the training session with Hernan Gumy. I mean, all this business of, I want you to turn your left big toe out as you follow through!. Or, Remember on your forehand grip, the knuckle of your index finger needs to be over the second bevel on the racket handle!

I've watched dozens of top pros practice and I have never, ever, witnessed the kind and degree of intensive, micro-management that is described in that long passage at Marat's website. I mean, it sounds like Gumy is training a recalcitrant six-year old (and we all know Marat's is at least as mature as a 16-year old - or 18 on a good day!). If a guy like Marat needs anywhere near the degree of technical direction that Gumy appears to be giving, he's in deep doo-doo.

Have a good weekend, everyone! I'll be around part or all of the time, and Rosangel will continue reporting from London.