quarterfinal marathon

A perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.
- Billie Jean King, about tennis

It's almost midnight, and Rafael Nadal, the number one seed, and Mardy Fish, unseeded, just started playing about 15 minutes ago. What's even more incredible, perhaps, is that Fish has already broken Nadal and is up 3 to 1 in the first set.

To rewind for a moment, earlier today (what seems like an infinity ago at this point) sixth-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia made rather easy work of No. 16 Flavia Pennetta of Italy, 6-2, 6-3. Then, Andy Murray of Britain took on Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in their own quarterfinal battle. Murray took the first two sets in tiebreaks, del Potro the third at 6-4, and then, both players suffering from some serious fatigue, it ended in the fourth set when Murray overtook Del Potro 7-5. All that took almost four hours. The players were tired, we were slightly tired, the linesmen were probably achy, but how could you relax knowing what was to come on the court.

Serena Williams vs. big sister Venus. Now for everyone bemoaning the fact that these two had to meet in the quarterfinals and not the finals, quit your moaning. It's the luck of the draw. The only thing that would seriously prevent that from happening (a meeting two rounds before the final) is if they were seeded 1 and 2, forcing them to be in opposite halves of the draw. But as it turns out, Venus is seeded seventh and Serena is seeded fourth. So voila, you get a quarterfinal match.

And to be honest, I wasn't much looking forward to the audio on this one. Their screaming grates across my ear drums, and I start wondering if maybe, just maybe, I can improve my serve if I start screaming whenever I go to do one. Powerful screams, powerful girls...I guess.

But the visuals were pretty cool. They were pretty evenly matched. The scores say it all: 7-6. 7-6. Serena moves on to the semifinals. What? Only two sets? Yeah, and there in is the disappointing part. There should've been a third set. Serena came from behind not once but twice, and Venus wasted not one, not two, not three, but eight+ set points!! And they weren't the most demanding of shots either, it came down to a mishit overhead here and a volley hit long there. At one point, I kid you not, I let out a yelp, still light decibals away from the anguished screams coming from both Serena and Venus. The end of the match left you feeling like it was more a mental battle we witnessed end in defeat rather than just a friendly sister rivalry.

Meanwhile, my little sister comes into my room to tell me that if we ever meet in the Open, she'll let me win. Thanks for the thought, I say, but the crowd doesn't pay upwards of a chunk of change to watch us be nice to each other. Tennis is made of rivalries, and who's more of a rival than your own sister?

So then here we are. 12:15 now. (It took you that long to write this post? Yes. Things move slow when you're watching the Open.) Mardy Fish has taken the first set 6-3.

But I do like Nadal. I like his capris and willingness to go for every shot and excitement for even the most trivial of forehand winners, even if the odds seems stacked against him, which is seldom these days. But Mardy Fish is unseeded and the underdog here. And Nadal has already won some Slams of his own. A win here for Fish would put him one round closer to his first Slam...which is pretty cool...which is kind of what I want to do one day.

Makes me think there's a name missing from my "Who's Going to Win" blog poll over there, on the side, to the right, of the text, that you're now, currently, reading. (See it yet?)

Let's see...Fish in four, dare I say?