DramatistDreamer

Also on TV One, Tequan Richmod is set to appear in an original movie that looks as if it may become a series called Ringside.

I was just about to ask whether anyone saw this. I only heard about it this morning.

Yeah, the U.S. men haven't really done that well on clay since the days of Jim Courier, Michael Chang and Andre Agassi in the 80s and 90s. It usually been the U.S. women at least winning titles and making the clay court record looks respectacle. Speaking of a nation not doing well, the Italians are being dispatched really quickly. Mostly qualifiers and wildcards on the Men's side but already Sara Errani is out on the Women's side, bageled by Heather Watson in the 3rd set. The commentator wondered whether this might've been Errani's last singles match in the Foro Italico, as she has mentioned that this may be her last year. In tennis breakup news, Andy Murray has split from Amelie Mauresmo.

Even though this theme was before my time, the first time I actually heard it, I thought it was such a beautiful theme song. I wished they would've used it or even an updated variation of it in the last few years of the show, even once, maybe for an Anniversary show or something.

ESPN3's coverage has been getting worse. Madrid-they only covered women's matches through the Quaterfinals. The Italian Open, again only Women's matches and from what I see on the schedule coverage begins even later than in Madrid-on Wednesday! I wish Internet providers would do deals with Tennis TV for streaming and just forget about the networks, they're just useless, especially ESPN!

JMO but to me, the theme songs appeared to get progressively worse . If they (the producers and execs) knew that ATWT was coming to an end, it might have been a nice nod to history if they could've done a modern variation of the very first theme the show had. If you replace the organs and put in a piano or a guitar, or even sped up the timing of the notes, the first theme could've lent itself surprisingly well to an updated version, in keeping with the 21st century but since I'm reading from comments that the show was cash strapped and couldn't even afford to update the previous openings, I guess they wouldn't have put the time nor the effort into anything requiring more thought or creativity. As a young child, I heard the 1980s theme and I have love for that theme but the first time I heard the original theme (this was after cancellation of the show), I got very misty and began to wish they had acknowledged it in some way before the show went off the air permanently.

There are some terribly tough 1st round matches. The Italian Open draw is a clusterf*ck from several quarters.

iva and john's son right so brother to lily, rose craig and margo so many possibles ughh caseys prison pal matt could have been mj Yeah, Iva & John's son. ATWT did not manage characters (especially young adult ones) very well in the last fifteen years of the show. This mismanagement cost the show a lot in the end.

Thomas Hogstedt, who used to be Sharapova's coach at one time, coaches Keys. I never got the notion that Levine was longterm- it all seemed so casual. Keys, I'm not sure how much to expect from her on clay, she can get to balls but doesn't have the best footwork. Speaking of Sharapova, she sharpened her footwork a great deal because she used to be the least likely to win on clay (even describing herself as a 'cow on ice') but then she really improved her footwork mid-career, so maybe somewhere in the future Keys will improve her footwork so that she can be a future contender on red clay. One British journalist remarked that he thought that Grigor Dimitrov was in a dark emotional place and his meltdown in Istanbul was actually a cry for help. I think everyone was shocked that Sam Querrey got off to such a quick start but we all knew the tide would turn and it was only a question of 'when' not if it would happen. Berdych seems like he's standing still, which in Men's tennis means that he's actually regressing. I say that because I saw the score from his match against Murray and his matchup against Murray seems to tilt more and more heavily in Murray's favor, maybe because Vallverdu, who used to be in Murray's camp and now is in Berdych's camp, gives Murray some type of extra motivation. And they had that run in last year, I remember where Murray got ticked by something Berdych said under his breath (but loud enough for Murray to hear).

Did ATWT ever bring back a teen MJ Dixon? If Aaron returned in his late teens so should've MJ.

I get you, @marceline, when it's your city at the center of this, you want to make sure that you can in whatever way you can, make sure that things don't descend to hell.

I know someone who lives in the Cleveland area who is seriously looking to schedule her vacation time so that she and her family can be out of town during the RNC. I live in a solidly Democratic state which voted twice for Obama, but Trump Towers are less than 30 miles from where I live but I hope that will provide enough distance from having to look at his ugly mug on campaign commericals. I don't watch much TV but I am only constantly and noticed quite a few campaign ads online in the last Congressional elections. Oddly enough, they were for Floridian politicians, which I don't leave anywhere near. No matter what state we all live in, I think we should all brace ourselves for the possibility of a particularly nasty general election.

I wasn't watching regularly between '93-'01. Some years, I could only watch during the summer, others, I really only caught an episode here and there during the holidays, so a year like '94, which I'm trying to watch some episodes, is mostly unfamiliar to me. I have to say, though, '94 is pretty boring. There are pockets of interest, here and there but so many poorly written storylines. A real chore to watch. It's painfully obvious to me when the drop-off in quality began. '93 was depressing but at least the storylines had more interest than some of the pointless drivel I'm enduring watching '94. Nicolas Coster's horrible accent is grating, how did he get away with playing a Maltese?! One positive: Judy Reyes (Scrubs) appeared on an episode!

That video was ridiculously hilarious. Cruz is creep and awkward AF and that closeup on that white particle on his mouth...yuck!

Tennis, like Grigor has had some rough patches this year: French Tennis Federation Offices Raided by Investigators Another day, another tennis scandal, tennis 2016 is too much!

Del Potro beats Thiem 7-6, 6-3 in Madrid. Del Po was very emotional afterwards- he knows what a good, tough opponent Thiem is so for him, I'd guess, this win is the best gauge of how far he has come since his return.

I read a very long form piece that talked about his creepy writings. It sounded like something that would come from the brain of a very intellectually stunted adolescent- except it was from a 30-something year old grown man! That video footage of Fiorina falling and Cruz not even helping her, oh boy!

I agree but she had lost a lot of confidence and she has to rebuild it somewhere. I'd prefer her rebuilding her confidence on the ITF circuit than to be playing on the WTA tour, chalking up loss after loss and losing her confidence piece by piece. I remember when Agassi in his late 20s, returned to pro-tennis after a long layoff (and a significant ranking drop) and was playing Challenger tournaments to rebuild his game. Kind of makes sense. Townsend has a very versatile, effortless game but she's not exactly a power player so she can't really hit her way through opponents and gain confidence the way the Williams Sisters did at her age.

I have been watching a group of episodes from the 1990s are realize that both Allison Janney (West Wing) and Kristin Johnson (Third Rock from the Sun) both had small roles on the show around '93-94. So fun to see them in bit parts before they had bigger success.

I might expect that behavior from a play transitioning from juniors to the ATP but not someone like Dimitrov, who has had some years of experience behind him. Time for the sports psychologist (lol)! Seems like it was not poor officiating but self inflicted. Other than taking the grievance to whoever strung his racquets, it seems like he may have something going on with him personally. Is he carrying a pre-existing injury? Or is there emotional strain? Very odd for him, who is not known for tantrums. Thiem lost to Kohlschreiber, surprising even Kohl's fans (lol). Phillip has won this tournament at least twice before, it's kind of his thing (lol). Yes, I remember reading a NYT article about Gimelstob where he mentioned going through a divorce. I guess he read it and saw in the article that he was doing ten things at once (while defending his ability to do so to the reporter) and thought it probably wouldn't look good for his prospects of even dual custody unless he cut down on some of his activities. Taylor Townsend won an ITF tournament today and she does look to be a bit trimmer than when I last saw her.

@Soapsuds Did you hear about what happened to Dimitrov? I didn't see much of the match but heard about the end result.

Yeah Mr. Bozo…..LOL…..I wonder if John Isner made the trip to Spain? Isner and Gimelstob parted ways, I imagine it may be interesting the next time Gimelstob provides commentary on one of Isner's matches. The only U.S. man that I've seen in Madrid (in pictures) is Jack Sock. Before Madrid, none of the U.S. men were in Europe on clay.

I can't blame you but at least with ESPN3, you don't have to listen to the regular ESPN commentary, it's from the world feed, so generally the same commentators as TennisTV. And no Justin Gimelstob either.

The Madrid tournament has already started, Sloane Stephens had a match today where she beat Teliana Pereira of Brazil in three sets. Definitely not a qualifying match. At least ESPN3 is finally covering a clay court tournament on red clay. It's my only recourse besides those bootleg streams, some of which are blocked by my antivirus software. Last year, ESPN3 livestreamed Monte Carlo, the Family Circle Cup, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome. This year, the only clay court tournament they've streamed prior to Madrid was the Family Circle Cup. And streaming begins tomorrow, not today.

Dominic Thiem beat Alexander Zverev (I was tempted to say Sascha) to advance to the BMW Open in Munich, where he'll face Phillip Kohlschreiber. @Soapsuds, you should also be glad that Grigor Dimitrov beat Ivo Karlovic (in 2 tie-break sets, of course!) to advance to the finals in Istanbul. Lucie Safarova won the Prague Open (on home soil) over Sam Stosur and both had to hustle by plane to the Mutua Madrid Open as the tournament has already started there.