Shooting in the Danger Zone

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I’m sporting a large red circle on my temple, not really attractive. Shooting from the pit at the end of the court, one of Djokovic’s forehands flew wide and came right at me... Fortunately I saw it coming and turned my head, so it wasn’t too bad, but it was a clean hit, and I have to admit, it hurt a lot. I looked up and saw Tommy Robredo looking into the pit asking if I was alright... I was stunned and couldn’t answer at first but my head cleared and except for the red mark I’m fine.

I learned to watch carefully when I shoot from this position after getting hit in the eye at the Olympics in Athens with Andy Roddick’s serve. That one was a lot worse. Had a huge black eye for a week.

But let’s start at the beginning. I arrived at the site just as the Djokovic Robredo match was starting, and went up to the Promenade. This is becoming my favorite place to shoot. As stated in an earlier blog, it’s cool and shady, and the photos are interesting. I like the clean background from up above, with the player isolated on the court. When you shoot from the photo pit on the sideline you have the back wall with all the logos, and lines people in the background. However, I do have to thank the USTA for putting the lines people in navy blue so they blend into the background as opposed to the horrible outfits they wear at Wimbledon, with cream pants, blue and white jackets, and blue and white striped shirts. Since when should the officials upstage the player’s who have to wear predominantly white at Wimbledon?

Well, anyway, let’s talk about the match. Tommy Robredo is another one of the great, nice, gorgeous Spaniard’s but truth is, I expected Djokovic to win in three. Surprise surprise, Tommy takes the first set 6-4. Very nice effort Tommy! I have nothing against Novak, but I know Tommy better and I’m always for the underdog. Robredo is seeded 15 and Djokovic 3 so it would be a good win for him. Robr taking the first set is not entirely a surprise, at 26 he’s the veteran, having 5 years on Djokovic, and is one of the most fit guys on the tour. How Pathetic is that... being a veteran at 26? I won’t even comment on that.

Djokovic is obviously hurting. He’s had the trainer out once because of a problem with his hip. He’s not moving well, and he’s starting to look tired. However, he rallied and won the next two sets pretty easily, but Robredo wasn’t done. He came on strong and won the fourth 7-5, at this point Djokovic was looking terrible. He had the trainer and Physician out again and also had to take a bathroom break. At this point, I moved down to the pit at the end of the court. All the photographers in the pit thought it was all over for the Serb, and we were all moving down to the end of the court where Robredo’s team was sitting to get his reaction when he won. Then… another surprise, Novak pulls it together, and ends up winning that fifth set 6-3.

I’m feeling bad for Tommy. He played his heart out. He looked like he had a chance. His press conference was very interesting. He was philosophical about the loss saying, “I think I did a great match, so it’s a loss, but it’s a loss with glory, you know?” He went on to talk about becoming really upset with a linesman. I saw him waving his arms around and obviously being pretty unhappy, but I was still up on the promenade, so I couldn’t hear what was going on.

He later explained, saying that if a player breaks a racquet it’s a $5,000. Fine, but is a linesman makes a mistake it’s nothing. It was a very important point and it could have changed the match. What I’m not getting in this is why he didn’t challenge the call, but that has not been explained. He also commented on Djokovic’s ailments, saying,

“Novak was doing the show, that he was – couldn’t run.” When the reporter asks him if he didn’t believe Novak’s injuries, he replied, “That’s not that I don’t believe. I have pain as well. I was running like hell and my feet were burning but I say nothing, no? I think that if you’re not fit enough then don’t play. But after every time he was asking for a trainer, he was running like hell and he was making the shot, but he does what he does a lot of times.” “So did I trust him? No. No. I think he took his time because he did it because he was a little bit more tired and that’s a part of the game. It helps him a lot.”

Robredo is not the first player to complain about Djokovic stalling on court. His habit of bouncing the ball 20 or 30 times before serving has made a lot of people unhappy. Jim Courier was doing the commentary on this and later remarked on this saying, that even though Djokovic may have been slowing the match down, he didn’t do anything that was against the rules, and you do have to give him credit for winning such a tough match when he was not in top condition.

Okay, that’s it for today, I’ll take you on more NYC adventures tomorrow.