andré says it for me

from my daily dose of tennis news:

Retired four-time Aussie Open champ Andre Agassi is not a fan of the Extreme Heat rule that stops play at the Aussie Open, and says players need to suck it up and get in shape: "It is about being fit and being prepared, and tennis brings both of those things together, and that needs to be respected and appreciated. This is a sport, it's about handling the elements the best. It is not about playing great. We train for this. (If you are not prepared), too bad."

there you have it. conditions are part of the game, hijos and hijas. how can you say you've played well at the australian open if you've been playing three straight games under a roof, in an airconditioned stadium? some people play better inside (read: blake, safin), some prefer the outdoors (read: nadal and other hard-hitting clay courter or spanish speaking player). but part of the australian open magic, or rigour, depending on how you look at it, is dealing with the hand you're given, and the ace is staying fit to fight the heat. just as slugging it out on clay is a test of your endurance, playing on grass is a test of your shot-making ability, and playing in new york is a test of how much jologs screaming you can take from the home crowd, so you have to learn how to play in the searing heat, no matter how delusional you get.

one of my favourites puts it quite well:

As I said after my first match, it doesn't make that much difference to kind of how the court plays. The difficult thing is that obviously I'd been practicing all the time outside.

I'd come in, I mean, it might sound strange, but unless you play tennis, you can't really understand, when you throw the ball up to serve, the clouds and the sun, the blue sky's not there, there's kind of floodlights and stuff.

It's much different to serving during the day. I struggled to find the rhythm on my serve, because the first day I went and played indoors and then I played outside. Obviously then, you know, back to indoors tonight. But I practiced indoors here before my match. That's the one thing that's difficult, but it doesn't really change the way the court plays.

in my next post, i'll be writing about the recent surge of upsets at this year's version of the australian open. or maybe i'll say something about the retreat of the russian brigade. entering the second week, only nikolay davydenko (last man standing), anna chakvetadze, and vera zvonareva are left in the single's draws. but more of that in the next post. stay with me as the heat keeps burning down under!