What a day, indeed

Dave said it best and first. It was a fantastic day at the AELTC. And it sucks to have to work on The Best Day in Tennis. Here's my take on it all...

The first observation is that my friend Vernon either made my day or took two years off my life. I have yet to decide if I will thank him or demand those two years back.

You see, aside from the Serena/Bartoli match, and a few other random results from early this morning, I was avoiding all tennis news until I could get home and watch the recorded coverage.

So I was mostly avoiding the Internet, Facebook, Twitter and email. And cringing every time someone at work started a conversation. (Actual dialogue today with my co-worker...

• Derek: Can I ask you a question?
  
• Bess (panicked): Not if it has anything to do with tennis! Don't tell me anything! I don't want to know!
  
• Derek: Uh, it's a work question. I have no idea what's going on with tennis.

Welcome to my life... And, sorry Derek.)

But I slipped at one point and checked Facebook and saw that Vernon had mentioned "three big losses" at Wimbledon. Not knowing what Vernon would consider a "big" loss, I assumed one loss would be Serena's. And I feared at least one other would be Nadal or Federer.

I arrived home on edge. I did not want Nadal to lose. I'm watching coverage and see Venus lose. (Did that qualify as "big," I wondered?) I see Wozniacki lose and don't consider that big news in the least! So I'm waiting for the other shoes to drop.

Djokovic wins.
Murray wins.
Eventually Federer wins.
And I'm left watching the entire Nadal/Del Potro match BELIEVING that Nadal would lose.

So imagine my surprise and great delight when he won! I totally didn't see it coming. And it made my night. Still, I'm not sure my blood pressure needed the hours-long scare.

I assume the "three big losses" were considered to be Serena, Venus and Wozniacki. I had seen the first, wasn't completely surprised about the second, and just rolled my eyes in exasperation at the third. (Mary Carillo made some great points about Woz needing to take some time off to actually, you know, improve her game.)

Regardless... my boy was safe.

Now that I've fully conveyed that drama, on to the results:

• So happy for Fish, Tsonga and Bartoli! But sad for my bracket.

• Sad for Venus. But happy for my bracket.

• So happy for Sharapova, Azarenka, Nadal, Federer AND my bracket!

And just happy overall for tennis. A wonderful display of the talent, entertainment and heart that make this sport so compelling.

On the Nadal injury/non-injury issue that Dave raised, I agree the incident seemed suspect. But I just have such a hard time believing Nadal would pull something like that. I know Dave will accuse me of bias here, and maybe I'm deluded. But I don't get the sense that Rafa ever feels such desperation in his matches--especially in a first set. He's the ultimate competitor, fighting every point as if it's the last. Gamesmanship to delay a first set tie-breaker? It seems very anti-thefiberofhisbeing.

Still... who really knows?

The whole incident definitely left its mark on the match. Del Potro was not happy. And the crowd was totally taken out of it for a while, trying to figure out what had happened and who they now should--or shouldn't--root for. Del Potro's later injury and subsequent medical time out/treatment and return to superb play probably smoothed things over a bit. And at the handshake at the net, Del Potro practically wrapped his arm around Rafa. All appeared to be forgiven.

But was it forgotten?

I have yet to see what was said in the press conferences. I hope there's no accusatory hurling of phrases like "bird flu." :-)