Andy lost his mojo
Have you seen American Express' new promo for the U.S. Open? Andy Roddick goes to bed, but his mojo rises from his body and takes his AmEx card out for a night on the town. The next morning, Andy struggles in practice as his mojo continues to roam the city, card in hand. Will Andy's mojo return, the commercial asks, or is the pull of the AmEx card too much?Talk about bad karma. Roddick was upset last night in the first freakin' round of the only major he's previously won, and by the 69th-ranked player in the world. He was serving for the first set at 5-4, pulled an incredible tank job, and went on to lose the match 6-7, 6-7, 6-7. Guess his mojo never came back. Just give Federer the trophy now.
In other sports news, it's been reported in the LA Times that Michelle Wie will sign with the William Morris Agency, thus ending her amateur career. The agency offered her guaranteed money and cut its commission to nothing, and it's believed she'll initially be worth $10-12 million a year. That number would likely go up if/when she enjoys success and starts to draw endorsements outside of the golf mainstream. Given that she would have finished 11th on the money list this year through sponsor's exemptions alone (7 tournaments), her success is a mortal lock.
It's hard to blame her for not wanting to pass up that kind of money, and it's somewhat surprising that she's held out this long, but it will be disappointing to miss out on seeing her play for the Cardinal men's team, which was one of her dreams and would have been very cool if allowed. Now it's onto the LPGA tour, and if she dominates like Tiger, I may actually watch a final round or two.
A couple of things to watch for this weekend:
- U$C kicks off its quest for a threepeat in Honolulu, against the UH Warriors. Go 'Bows! Gina is pretty bummed to have to miss this one, since she'll be in SoCal for Eddy's wedding. Nice planning, Eddy. Sheesh.
- The U.S. men's soccer team faces Mexico in World Cup qualifying, and the winner clinches a berth in the final draw for Germany '06, though both will easily make it. I know a lot of folks don't "get" soccer (the passion, the creativity...only Jeremy gets this joke), but the U.S. team is now rated #6 in the FIFA World Rankings, its highest ranking ever. Pretty soon, we will have a legitimate contender to root for, if we don't already. Saturday's game ought to be entertaining (Mexico is #5 in the rankings).
- And finally, in WNBA playoff news...
posted by Chang Kim at Wednesday, August 31, 2005
6 Comments:
haha, the passion, the creativity.
man, andy roddick sucks. i need edberg or sampras to return
Ah, the old school serve-and-volleyers. Even Federer, with his beautiful all-around game, is primarily a baseliner. Sad.
I haven't watched tennis as much as I did growing up, but it seems to me that the velocity at which all these players are hitting now, it's difficult to be a serve and volleyer. These guys are significantly more athletic than they used to be. Guys have to take more time on the baseline setting up their approach shots, otherwise they're gonna get passed left and right. Muller hit a good number of winners despite Andy having decent position on his approach. A lot more guys can hit that running forehand (and now backhand) winner like Sampras did, either topspinning it shallow crosscourt, or wrapping it deep down the near line.
On the topic of Michelle Wie, it's about time. What's more appealing than a teenage phenom? She can make a lot of money right now without having to win tournaments.
Yep, that's why McEnroe is always saying that they need to go back to wooden rackets. I wish they would. It would make tennis a lot more fun to watch.
I don't blame the players. I blame the game.
i remember reading about this little experiment that people did - they took roddick and had him hit serves with his racquet than with a wooden racquet - his serves with the wood were still in excess of 130. if you read www.tennisone.com there is a lot of technical breakdown about how the form and strokes are fundamentally different that allow players to hit so much harder now than before, irrespective of strength and equipment.
Very interesting, though all things being equal, today's rackets will hit with more power than the woodies.
You just need to subtract a little power, to allow guys to play at the net consistently.
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