Faulkner

Well, Pablo’s performance tonight is nothing to phone home about.

I could have sworn you liked him at one point. When did the shift happen?

He just seems like a sweet, pure, innocent, spiritual soul. With anyone else it would be nauseating, but it’s endearing.

Tsitsipas is so precious.

ESPN must be pissed with the Puig retirement in New Haven and the lackluster, blink-and-you-missed-it Medvedev/Taro Daniel SF in Winston-Salem. There goes a night of programming. I suppose the Stevie Johnson/PCB match in W-S could still be good???

Puig just retired in tears from her New Haven SF with CSN. Too bad. Seemed like it was her best collection of matches since Rio. It’s a CSN/Sabalenka final.

I might have to go for a grounds pass.

Will be interesting. And Sharapova is playing Patty Schnyder in R1. How’s that for a throwback? They haven’t played in a DECADE, but they usually had tight matches years ago in spite of the lopsided h2h in Maria’s favor (7-1).

Oh snap. I noticed a lot of R1 matches between compatriots, but this is one of the more interesting.

Aretha and Tom Jones...

I didn’t lol. I may go back on a day off and get a grounds pass, so who knows?

If you’re into Vikings...

I got a chance to go to the USO qualies today. I saw parts of... Altamirano/Karlovic (Ivo’s serve was very off, and if there’s a rally, point to the opponent. But dude is enormous. The American kid has a decent serve, but Ivo’s poor returning made it appear to be more of a weapon that it probably was.) Escobedo/Polmans (This was in Armstrong. I left after the first set, which Polmans firmly controlled.) Sonego/Clezar (a pretty tight match...Clezar seemed irritated, and the 5-5 game I think lasted 20 minutes, because I’d left to charge my phone 30 percent, and it was the same score when I returned. Sonego kind of reminds me of a thinner Kokkinakis physically. Matteo Berrettini was in Sonego’s cheering section, and that dude is beautiful.) Estrella Burgos/Fratangelo (VEB was in top form and is really gorgeous in person) Ruud/Purcell (another tight one, but Ruud was just more clutch. Purcell impressed me, though.) Maden/Kokkinakis (I only got to see the end of that. Was surprised to see Thanasi go out like that.) FAA/Eubanks (my goodness is Felix steady. Eubanks kept going up a break, but Felix would just pummel him, and Eubanks finally capitulated in the second set. More experienced players would have made FAA pay for some loose play, but I totally agree that he’ll be a force if he stays healthy) Krueger/Kwiatkowski (The final match of the day. Mitchell sinply outlasted Thai-Son, who held firm for a while but wilted under pressure. Thai-Son’s a looker, though.) Bouchard/Gorgodze (the only women’s match I saw. When I got there, Bouchard was up 5-1 but was having a LOT of trouble closing out the first set. The other girl had to be dire to lose that badly.) Otherwise, I saw Tracy Austin grinning and looking like a big white flashlight while taking selfies with fans. And Verdasco was practicing shirtless (naturally) opposite little Diego Schwartzman, who is as tiny as he looks on TV. No photos (not really my thing), but I was glad to do this for once, since it’s free and a good opportunity to see decent tennis. Highly recommended if you’re in the city the week before the main draw.