ATP Blog - Wimbledon 2006
Part One
Sunday June 25, 2006
Hi everyone. It's Mike blogging today. We'll mix it up during the Wimbledon 'fortnight' to keep you on your toes. Bob will make his first post Monday.
We've settled into a three-bedroom apartment about a 10 minute walk from Wimbledon village and we've set up our music studio in the garage. The biggest problem so far is that our neighbors have a six-month-old baby. The other night we were wailing it and they were pounding on the door telling us to shut up but it was so loud we couldn't even hear them. But we've come to a compromise. We can go for it all we want during the day and we keep it down at night.
This is a different apartment to the one we had last year, which was even nicer. But we scratched the floor with the amplifier and the piano so we can't go back there. We had to pay $2500 for a new floor to make good. This place isn't bad... it's not huge but it's got three bedrooms and has wireless internet, which we need, and cable, so we've been watching all the big World Cup soccer games. We were looking at another house which was a lot bigger but they had pets. We've already been struggling with hay fever over here so we didn't want to make our allergies even worse.
Between the two of us our per diem doesn't quite cover the cost of the apartment, which runs us about US$550 to US$600 a night. So we're coming up a little short but we're both playing mixed - Bob with Venus and me with Corina Morariu - and hopefully we'll make up a little of the shortfall there. My girlfriend is also coming in to stay so we'll get her to cook a few meals to save us some cash!
When we got here we went to AC music and rented a piano, guitar and a PR system and we have the garage rigged up pretty sweet. The garage isn't sound proof - there are a couple of holes in the garage so the sound penetrates the walls. And we like to crank it up! Andy said he could hear us from the bottom of the street as he was walking up the other day. We've been practicing a lot since we've been here and we have a gig on Wednesday night. We could be drawn to play on Thursday but we go on at 7.30 and we'll just bust out 10 songs and then get back to the apartment.
Andy's been coming over and listening to our music and we're trying to get him to make a cameo at the gig. But he needs to step out of his comfort zone with 'Ice, Ice, Baby.' We've been rehearsing some new material including Eminem, 8 Mile, Young C and Bust A Move. Glenn Weiner has been here the past couple of hours - he has a great voice.
We're staying pretty close to Andy - we're in the same little subdivision. We had a poker game the other night at Andy's house with the American guys including Mardy, James, Todd Martin and Scott Humphries. I took Andy out in the first five minutes of the game but John Roddick ended up winning the game.
For dinner we just have a 10 minute walk up the hill from our apartment to the restaurants. Our favorite is the Thai Tho - we've been making a lot of take-out runs. Usually the loser of a card game will walk up the hill to get it. We've been having a lot of red curries and green curries. For breakfast we've been meeting Andy each day at Giraffes. I've been going for a full English breakfast of two fried eggs, sausage, bacon, potato wedges and baked beans. They also specialize in fruit smoothies and we've been going for the papaya fruit smoothie: mint, lime and banana. It's called the Giddy Giraffe.
Oh, in the photo of us you'll also see Raj Chaudhuri, who coaches Corina Morariu, Lisa Raymond and Jill Craybas. He's from California and is one of our buddies who loves to sing. Also in the photo is our trainer, Eric Wilkinson, who sings and plays guitar.
Talk to you tomorrow
Mike
Monday June 26, 2006
Okay, It's Bob here. Mike has tagged me in to write today's post.
Mike and I did our own thing tonight. My friend Montse is over from New York and I wanted to show her a good time so we went out to SW19, which is a bar in the Wimbledon village. I saw the schedule and we don't play tomorrow, so it's probably the last chance I'll have to go out. Mike wanted to rest the body and conserve some energy, so he stayed in and played the guitar. Andy came over and they just hung out.
Montse and I watched the World Cup game between Ukraine and Switzerland, which Ukraine won on penalty kicks. The game was tight and we were praying it would come down to penalties. That's the ultimate in all of sports in terms of pressure and excitement. We think the match tie-break in doubles is sudden death, but this takes it to a whole new level. But they're both similar in that they can go either way.
I've gotta tell you, coming from California, where we ban smoking in all indoor establishments, I was dying in the bar. I could see the smoke coming ito my lungs and I had to go for some walks outside just to survive. Tonight I'm hanging my clothes outside to air them out. For dinner I had a good ol' fashioned hamburger.
When we saw the rain coming today we decided not to make plans to practice. Apart from the difficulty in finding a court on day like this we've been practicing pretty hard the past week and Mike wanted to take today off and rest the body. So we opted for an easy day and just had a workout in the gym.
During the day we were followed by British tennis magazine ACE. We did an interview for an hour and he bought us lunch, which was cool.
I have to admit that I've become addicted to downloading on iTunes. Today it was South Park and some episodes of 24. Andy's favorite show is The Office, so he convinced me to watch the first episode of that. Tonight I got a text message from Andy at the bar: Where Are You? We probably see him once a day. We'll either go over to his place and play poker or video games or he'll come over here and listen to some music. And every morning we meet at 10.30 for breakfast. We're not early risers... if we don't have a match we don't like to get out of bed much before 10 o'clock.
You may have noticed in the photos that Mike's hair is pretty short. I woke up a couple of days ago and he'd been to the barber and shaved it down. He said he wanted to go clean for the tournament. Short hair looks much better on Mike than me so I won't be doing anything that drastic. Maybe that'll help people tell us apart a bit better.
Tomorrow our buddy Glenn Weiner and Raj will come over and we'll have one final run through of the songs we'll be playing at the gig on Wednesday night. We seem to have smoothed things out with the neighbors... we're wrapping it up before 9.30 - that's the cutoff.
Bob
Tuesday June 27, 2006
Hey, it's Mike here. It's back to my turn with the blog. Well, we took a little vote over here and my first post seems to have taken the points over Bob's first post. He didn't have a lot in there. Mine had a lot more to offer, more names. But there's still 12 days of the tournament to go (hopefully we'll still be around) so he's got time to work his way back into this blogging contest.
Anyway, he should be happy because he got to use the shower in the house today. After about 15 minutes the hot water runs out and then it takes a couple of hours for it to come back. So we let Bob and Montse have the hot showers and coach Dave and I zipped down early to Wimbledon, where they have a nice selection of showers. The lack of hot water is one of a few things that weren't disclosed when we signed the lease...
The garbage disposal wasn't working so we got that fixed. They told us we had interactive Sky TV where you could watch any court at Wimbledon, but that's not the case. So there have been a few minuses.
And right now we're jamming in the garage by candlelight because the light has blown out. Although we suspect there could be some sabotage involved. There were two strings cut off our guitar and they're missing. I'm not sure if it's vandalism or maybe it's one of the neighbors who think we may be cranking up the music a little loud.
As we started walking to breakfast today Andy had just left his house so we had breakfast at the Giraffe together. We also got a big shipment of Oakley sunglasses come in this morning, which we've been hanging out for. We've been on the road for seven weeks now and while we started out with 10 pairs we were down to one pair between us. We always seem to lose a couple of pairs here and there and often other players will ask us for a pair. Anyway, we've got 12 pairs between us now after today's shipment. We've been with Oakley since we were 16 years old and over the years we've been given hundreds of pairs of glasses and lots of clothes. They've been so good to us we take it for granted but we shouldn't because the other players would die for the stuff we get.
Today I went over early to the gym before practicing with Knowles and Nestor. We played them a set and then after that we played Butts Up, where the loser has to stand facing a wall while everyone else hits a ball as hard as they can at you. We played a reflex volley game where the first person to accumulate 10 points loses. You get one point for each point you lose and five points if you get ‘tagged’ by the ball.
Nestor was losing - he had nine or 10 points - when we had to leave. But we said 'next one to miss gets on the fence.' That, of course, turned out to be me. So I went on the fence but fortunately no-one hit me. I guess we should have outgrown the game by now but we’ve seen James and Mardy play it at Saddlebrook, so we’ll blame them.
Which reminds me... During the French Open Bob and I closed on a house five minutes from Saddlebrook to be close to Mardy and James. It'll be better for us to train out there - especially as our coach Dave Macpherson lives close by in Sarasota - and easier to fly to Europe.
I've been shopping online with my girlfriend looking for couches and beds at CrateandBarrel.com, trying to furnish the new place. My girlfriend's sister is an interior decorator, so she's been helping out a bit. We're going for a masculine, modern theme, but we're not going to paint anything too crazy on the walls. No Doubles Revolution graffiti! We want a little movie room.
We're doing our final rehearsal for tomorrow night's gig. We've got 25 songs which we need to condense to seven or eight, so we're refining our selections now. We're playing at a bar called SW19 at 9pm, so if you're in the area come on down. There is a 15 pound cover charge but players can get in for free if they show their player badge. We haven't seen Thursday's schedule yet, but if we're drawn to play hopefully we won't be on too early.
It was good to see the Americans do well today. We watched some of James' match and also it was particularly good to see Andre win. We've always idolized him and he's one of the reasons we're playing the game. He's an amazing person and an amazing player.
Uh oh, I've just seen a black cat walk in front of the house. The last time I saw a black cat we had the close call in the light plane. Wait... he's got white feet. I think that negates the bad luck.
It's around 8 o'clock so coach Dave will be going out to get some pre-made steaks from an Italian restaurant any minute. This place is getting pretty trashed at the moment... we need a maid. We've got laundry piled up to the ceiling in the garage (Wimbledon is the only tournament not to do laundry - except for your match whites) and it's starting to smell bad. Not the best jamming studio we've ever been in! Let's hope it doesn't affect our performance tomorrow night, or more importantly, tomorrow if we are drawn to play our first match.
That's all for now. Over to you Bob...
Wednesday June 28, 2006
Hey Everyone, it's Bob again. Mike's blogs on Sunday and Tuesday were pretty solid. Supposedly, my Monday blog was a little weak, so I can hopefully pick up the slack starting now.
After our ritual breakfast at Giraffe with Andy, I made a run to my agent's house to pick up our Adidas distribution bags. At all of the Grand Slam tournaments, our sponsors load us each up with 2 full duffle bags of the latest gear. Our flat now looks like a storage facility. With all the product we've been accumulating the past 8 weeks, we're going to need an Airbus to get us back to the States. We have some cousins here watching our matches so hopefully we'll be able to dish some of it on them.
Today is the last day of practice before the tourney kicks into full swing. We both feel like we are seeing the ball well so we only did an hour of touch up on the indoor courts. Once we start up, we'll be potentially playing 2 matches a day so there is no need to leave it all on the practice court.
From the court, I went straight to the training room to take an ice bath. Agassi saw me filling up a huge bucket with ice and was relentlessly grilling me on what I was doing. He'd never heard of anyone taking a bath full of ice water and couldn't believe that a doubles player needed to do that. Luckily, Henman came to the rescue and said he'd just taken one last night after his singles match and his legs felt awesome. Who knows, if Andre would have found out about these ice baths 5 years ago, he might have played until he was 50.
When my legs thawed out from the ice bath, I loaded my tennis bag full of waters and made my way towards the transportation desk at the front of Wimbledon to head home. It took me 45 minutes to get there because I saw 10 people who I had to stop and catch up with. During the first 4 or 5 days of a Grand Slam, there are 300 players with their families, coaches, and trainers. Because of this, it's impossible to get from point A to point B without seeing a ton of people you know. The site is what we like to call a "meat market" and personally I like it better during the second week when it has thinned out.
As I left, I saw the mixed doubles draw that had just been posted. Mike is playing with Corina Morariu and I am playing with Venus Williams. Venus called me 5 days ago and I jumped on the opportunity to play with her. Unfortunately, Martina Navartilova and I had a misunderstanding. She thought I had committed to her at the French Open and I thought she was playing with Leander Paes. Strangely, Mark Knowles thought that Venus had committed to him. So after some interesting text messages, we got it all straightened out and Martina and Mark are now paired together.
Tonight we are playing music at the players’ party. It should be interesting. We just found out today that we don't have a drum kit. Also, our singer, Glenn Weiner, has been busy and is pretty unrehearsed on our material. So instead of rehearsing, I think we'll probably come together 15 minutes before the gig and have a prayer service. We'll need it.
Well, I've got to jump in the shower and get up the street to pub where we'll be playing our gig. I'll check back with you in a couple hours. We might have a record deal by then...or we might be wiping the tomatoes off our faces…
…Just walked in the door. It went pretty darn well. We played a 45 minute set of "covers," highlighted by the U2 tune, One, and Sweet Child of Mine by Guns 'n Roses. A lot of players showed up and were giving us the thumbs up throughout the performance. They either thought it was good or they were just trying to make us feel good. Scott Humphries was especially supportive. He's could've been drunk though...or he might be sucking up to get our ground passes for tomorrow. Who cares, it was a lot of fun! I think being a rock star could top being a professional tennis player. No losing and a lot more groupies.
All right, it's midnight - time to hydrate and get some rest for a big day tomorrow.
Talk to you later,
Bob
Thursday June 29, 2006
Hey, Mike here. Well, what a way to start our Wimbledon campaign. 11-9 in the fifth set in the first round! Here's a summary of how the day went...
Being scheduled fourth match on, we calculated that the earliest we'd be on would be 5pm. That was allowing 90 minutes each for the two women's matches and then at least 2 hours for the men's singles between Pavel and Baghdatis. But the first women's match was a turkey shoot - it went so quick. So when we started to warm up at 2pm Baghdatis and Pavel were going on.
So we had a quick practice and then rushed from the court and went up to eat. We could look down to the courts and see the men's match. When we saw Pavel - a baseliner - serving and volleying on first and second serves we thought, That's a little weird. He called for the trainer and we said 'Oh, crap.' He catches the ball on his toss, shakes his head and we knew we were in trouble.
We threw down a few bites of chicken and potatoes and were told we had 45 minutes to be ready to play. We needed to shower and do our grips - go through our normal routine. So when we took the court we were hoping for a quick match because we didn't have a lot of food in our stomachs and we end up playing for four hours! We were thinking about making Wimbledon history by calling for a pizza at the changeover.
One thing that saved us were the Powergel Gus (pronounced gooz) I had in my bag. There were about 15 and we went through them all. They are like straight sugar and carbohydrates and you're supposed to take one every 45 minutes, but we were sucking 'em down like candy. I'm still shaking now! We also probably ate 10 bananas out there trying to keep our energy level up.
So it was pretty stressful from start to finish, but there were a couple of lighter moments. Bob's friend, Montse, is Chilean, and while she's a big soccer fan she's still learning about tennis. At the end of the second set Bob and I both jogged off court for a bathroom break and Montse thought that the match had ended in a 1-1 draw. (I must have a bladder problem because for weeks I've been having to go to the bathroom at the end of the first set. Maybe I'm drinking too much water or eating too many Gus.) This is just Montse's second tournament, she's still a rookie. In fact, when we played Chile in the Davis Cup earlier in the year I'm still not sure who she was cheering for. My girlfriend, Jen, who should know a little better, thought we had lost when Kerr and Delic went ahead 7-6 in the fifth, not realizing that there is no tie-break in the fifth set.
I haven't seen a replay of my return at 9-9 in the fifth set on the point which gave us the decisive break. But everyone in the locker room said they were watching and said I was totally horizontal. "Helluva dive," they were telling me. From what I can remember Jordan Kerr hit a wide serve and I was expecting him to go to the forehand. My only option was to dive fully laid out and pray. Luckily I got the lob pretty deep which made it a somewhat difficult smash for Amer Delic. Amer can be a little sloppier than Jordan and fortunately for us he put the smash wide. We went straight into the chest bump after that.
Because we play just two sets and a match tie-break at non Grand Slam tournaments, to play an 11-9 in the fifth in the first round at Wimbledon was a tough way to start the tournament. We both took ice baths after the match to recover. Ice baths are tough. It takes about three minutes for the legs to go numb, so you're in the worst pain for all that time. I go in with my iPod. I wanted a fast song so I went with Counting Crows. If you have no music the time goes really slow. And yes, there is shrinkage. You just accept that and move on. I just hope that I don't hurt my fertility chances in the future. It's definitely freezing down there.
A few of the guys are starting to do it. Ljubicic saw me get in and said that he did it at the Australian Open. Andy does it once in a while after long five-setters. I used to do it after every match when I had bad hips. It helps to flush out the lactic acid. Not all tournaments have the facilities to do it but here they have a big cooler of ice and a bath, so it's perfect.
After recovery we did some press, then Radio Wimbledon. The Wimbledon food shut down at 8 so I ate one organic food bar that I travel with straight afterwards and then we had a huge Thai meal for dinner.
It was the toughest first-round match we've ever played and possibly the longest in terms of time. Although in our first Wimbledon in 1999 we lost 10-8 in the fifth to Lareau and O'Brien in a match that was spread across four days due to the weather.
Here's to a good night's sleep. Just hope those Gus don't keep me awake.
Mike
Friday June 30, 2006
Hey Guys, it's Bob. I'm not going to lie, I was a little stiff when I got up this morning. It kind of feels like I've been hit by a truck. Maybe not that bad, but with the new "Doubles Revolution" scoring change at ATP events, Mike and I have been getting soft. We're more used to spending 55 minutes on court, not over 4 hours. The new scoring changes in 2006 have been a huge success and more doubles matches are being played on center court. But with that said, I'm glad that at Wimbledon, arguably the biggest tournament in the world, we play 3 out of 5 sets regular scoring.
On the way to breakfast this morning, Montse and I saw a baby bird on the sidewalk. It had fallen out of its nest from a tree 30 feet above. It looked like it was pretty rattled but in good shape, so we got some big leaves and scooped the little sucker up. I couldn't make my way up the tree, so we took it to the other side of the fence and put it in a safe patch of grass. Being a big believer in Karma, who knows, this good deed might translate into a higher first serve percentage in my next match.
At our usual breakfast spot, Giraffe, we saw an unusual number of eyeballs checking out our table. I guess some Andy Roddick fans have been reading the blog and are now on to his patterns. Sorry Andy, I'm a journalist, and it is my duty not to withhold any information.
After breakfast, I headed over to Wimbledon to leave some tickets for some friends that have just arrived from the States. Their names are Amber and Tiffany. They are from Michigan and design our web site, bobandmike.com. These girls are not hard to pick out in a crowd. You'll often see them at our matches wearing bright neon green shirts that say "Bryan's Bunch." They have been selling these T-shirts on our web site and we'll see 3 to 4 of these green shirts wherever we play. Mike and I are grateful for all the support we get and can't thank Amber and Tiffany enough for all they've done.
By the way, that ticket desk at the player desk is a circus. Everyone is scrambling, jostling for position, and trying to beg for more tickets. Sometimes it can look like the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Wimbledon seems to be the tournament that everyone wants to come to. I get e-mails from people I haven't heard from in years asking me how I'm doing and then asking if I can scrounge them some ground passes. Truthfully, Wimbledon is not a democracy and because we are higher up the food chain than some other players, we get more tickets. Actually, because Mike and I have reached the finals here before, we are eligible for "Final 8" passes and tickets for the rest of our life.
I'm back at my house right now resting up and killing some time before my mixed doubles match with Venus later today. As I write this and look around, I have just realized that our house is now a complete pigsty. Two weeks of laziness and not picking up behind ourselves has done wonders. We were hoping we could make it until Mike's girlfriend, Jenn, gets here tomorrow. She is a magician cleaner, but I think we are past the point of no return. We're going to need more than a magician to clean this place up. We're going to need an act of God or mother nature or something.
Andy just sent me a text and said that the fiddle player for The Dave Matthews Band, Boyd Tinsley, has just arrived at the courts to watch some tennis. Mike and I have been DMB superfans since 1994 when their first album came out. Since then, we've been to over 10 of their concerts. Through Andy, we've had the opportunity to become friends with Boyd, hang out on his tour bus and chill backstage at a few of the shows. He's an incredible guy and not a bad tennis player, too.
Alright, I'm off to warm up and play the match - talk to you when I get home...
......I saw Roger Federer in the locker room after his singles match. He was all smiles as usual and showed me that fashionable blazer that he's been wearing out to his matches. I asked him what he was going to do with his two days off and he said he was going to fly back to Switzerland for the weekend. The funny thing is I actually fell for it. Nothing would surprise me with that guy...he makes his own rules.
Well, after a long day of eating strawberries and cream, watching soccer, and chilling in the locker room, Venus and I strolled out to the court and got a win. It was a lot of fun playing with her. While our opponents were contemplating strategy, we were talking about the South Beach nightlife. She is a really relaxed sweet girl. We've known each other since we were 10 years old growing up in Southern California, so it's cool to be playing together in the "Big Show" almost 20 years later.
Talk to you on Sunday,
Bob
