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So on Saturday late at night I got very curious about Andy's match because that's when it finally dawned on me that Andy was supposed to play Rosol on that day to my utter and drunk surprise. I was moderately drunk so I go online and I go to Camelot first to find out about the score (could have easily gone to ATP but no) of all places and I see this thread's name to the right top corner and the thread's name reads 'Emma's Cake'. And I was shocked! I thought 'how could herc changed my Emma's Cafe to Emma's Cake???' Only a few seconds later, after a much closer look, did I realize that I was reading the name wrong. After that I giggled a lot realizing how drunk I was. lmho!
I thought I'd share this lovely and yet drunk story with you guys.
Oh Emma, that is hilarious! Emma's Cake. Sounds like you had a blast. ROFL@you. That was my laugh for the day!
After my giggling stopped, my friends did ask me what was so funny as they noticed that I was fiddling around with the phone for a while. And I had to explain it to them since they don't even know what Emma's Cafe and what's it all about. After my explanation, one of them commented that herc should change the name to Emma's Fake from Emma's Cake and that he'd be quite right too.
... 
You are hilarious! I'll bet your friends get a real kick out you. -
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Okay, so Raonic is next. Very tough opponent as Andy will have 0 luxury to lose his serve and still win. And that's a very big task to ask from Andy right now to serve confidently and go for easy holds. In fact, he is constantly on the verge of losing his serves and he often does and that's what in particular puts him in great trouble initially. And holding serve comfortably is Raonic's main strength and it almost never lets him down. You can see the key problem there now.
So what to expect? I think Andy is perfectly capable of raising his level but his form is nowhere near that. Even if his will/desire is there, he is unable to click it. But things gotta change at some point and one of the players should really does that click for him. Let's see.
Now that Nadal is out and if he gets past Raonic, then may be he can be up for a revenge against Federer but more importantly, he could very well go for the title. Asking a lot much I know but then reality is stranger than fiction!
One step at a time though. Come on, Andy! You can do it.
That would be great. Andy can very well win the title, I think. Although he hasn't hit his stride fully, these last matches have re-ignited the fight in him. Champions usually rise to the occasion and Andy is well aware of Milos's strength. I think Andy will take it, because Andy is too crafty for Raonic. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Andy wins which signals that's he's getting back to his best.
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I am getting ready to go shopping. I am also having lunch with mom and dad at Hollywood Casino.
they arrived yesterday but will be leaving today after lunch.
lot to do today but it is also raining like hell here. I need to go get a bit of a haircut also.
I hate haircuts. I end up losing some of my Herculean strength for a day or so by letting somebody cut my hair.
Ha ha ha. OK, Samson! -
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folks I am baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack from Hollywood Casino. I had an awesome lunch there.
Dimitrov is shaking and baking. he is on one hell of a roll. -
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I am getting ready to go shopping. I am also having lunch with mom and dad at Hollywood Casino.
they arrived yesterday but will be leaving today after lunch.
lot to do today but it is also raining like hell here. I need to go get a bit of a haircut also.
I hate haircuts. I end up losing some of my Herculean strength for a day or so by letting somebody cut my hair.
Ha ha ha. OK, Samson!
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emma was right:
gulbis got by dimitrov today. -
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morning sports fans and noble citizens of Camelot.
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emma was right:
gulbis got by dimitrov today.
Well, I definitely wanted Gulbis to win but I wasn't sure if he was going to win to be honest. I was so happy that I was able to see the 3rd set. Even though Gulbis started off the final set well but there was a momentum shift when he was unable to convert a couple of breaks points by being a bit too tentative (and that's also when he smashed his racquet out of frustration and I was just as frustrated so I kinda enjoyed that smashing lolol). Since that point on, it was Gulbis who was actually having problems holding his serves whereas Dimitrov was holding pretty easily. Momentum shifted again but this time in Gulbis' favour when Dimitrov had problems getting a couple of first serves in and eventually Gulibis broke him. Didn't drop a point while serving for the match so he did very well when he needed to except for those two breakpoints in the final. Very good match. Both have mutual respects for each other judging by the exchanges at the net after the match. -
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That would be great. Andy can very well win the title, I think. Although he hasn't hit his stride fully, these last matches have re-ignited the fight in him. Champions usually rise to the occasion and Andy is well aware of Milos's strength. I think Andy will take it, because Andy is too crafty for Raonic. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Andy wins which signals that's he's getting back to his best.
To be honest, Andy is not the same kind of Champion as Federer or Nadal or even Nole is. Simply because he doesn't want to take his opponents seriously until he's pushed or if his opponents are those top guys. This attitude is pathetic in my opinion but what can you do. His opponents however, not named Federer, Nadal, Nole - are very excited to see him and play him, so they bring their very best, but he doesn't even care about that, whereas I really think he totally should. He should have more respects for his opponents. He should understand that these lesser ranked players are trying to learn from him too so this should be a very lovely experience as I see it.
And given that he's scheduled to play early today (the first match in fact) I am not sure how motivated he will be throughout the match to actually beat Raonic. He wants a big and loud crowd but if it's lukewarm then he's likely to struggle. I can't say that he doesn't like playing Raonic because I believe he does so that should bring up some lost fire in him, but that early match might set him off in the wrong direction. He won't be facing a very big crowd in the middle of the week and that early in the day. Andy doesn't like to create an atmosphere - he wants it to be created for him so that he can thrive in it. It's a bit of a lazy and yet shy attitude as I see it.
Anyway, to be more fair, I do think it's utterly ridiculous to set this big match so early in the day. -
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You are hilarious! I'll bet your friends get a real kick out you.
They say good humour is one of the highest spiritual traits. And yes, they do get a real kick out of me.
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Oh Emma, you crack me up. Those are the kinds of thoughts I have all the time. I can see myself noticing the age of the winners and then wondering how much they lost before they won too.
I guess we always question the whys and the motivations of things and you're right, so many people don't.
It reminds me of when I was younger and the things people would say about things like shopping, jewelry, etc., and I would be curious as to why they felt that way. I would say, why? And they'd look at like I was crazy, and they'd say because..., and I'd be like, because what? and then they'd say, just because..., and after awhile I figured that they couldn't explain why they liked or did a certain thing and I learned who you can talk to about things. Some people never check their motivations or wonder why they feel a certain way, while I can't stop thinking about the wonderful world of observations.
If a person asks me why I feel a certain way about something I can answer in great detail because it's based on my experiences, but throughout life I have met many people who cannot answer any questions regarding why they believe something is so. It's interesting.
I am just generally a very curious person and I am very much interested in the question 'why' rather than 'how'. When I was growing up I had all sorts of questions and I remember my parents would get really tired of my questions after a while and would tell me to leave it alone. But I would never until I got the answer. I have all sorts of curiosity, really. I even count the stairs I take just to see how many stairs there are. lolol
But that has also got me into all sorts of trouble, really since people, as you said, really don't want to answer 'why'. Sometimes, they are even offended. For example, when we were driving to the Niagara Falls, I noticed my friends GPS voice was a male voice so as usual I got curious and I asked why did she have a male voice when the default design is female. She totally reacted to that question and basically told me off. lolol but never answered the question why. My other friend at the backseat said that because she's female she probably likes to hear a male voice and that's why she changed it from female to male. Anyway, one thing led to another and I got really curious about why most computers' voice is initially set as a female voice (the default setting). My other 3 friends agreed because female voice is nicer and sexually more arousing to the male bunch and since we live in a male dominant society therefore, yaddi yaddi yadda stuff. I told them not to give a 'sexual twist' to every explanation there is without knowing for a fact. lolol because honestly, they were all making sweeping generalization to almost everything and everything had something to do with sex.
But of course I wasn't going to leave at that. lolol I came back, I googled it and it turns out it has nothing to do with sex. Yes, the male bunch love to hear a female voice but both men and women prefer the female voice because it sounds warm, friendly and caring (the fact that women are more nurturing by default as well) and not because it's arousing. Also, another very interesting research was, after the character Hal 3000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey came out in 1968, a male computer voice that takes over the space shuttle, left many with creepy feelings, so that was another factor to take into account when they installed the computer voice in most things. Mind you, technology only advanced this much after the 70s and before that we had no GPS, voice-mail and all other stuff that we use on a daily basis right now, so Hal 3000 did have a huge affect on general mass.
So anyway, by nature I am very curious and that's why I never really followed my religion or any other religion because I was more interested in the answer as to why I should be following anything than just go and do it. My biggest beef with science is that (and I love science), it never answers why but only answers how. And it never will because that too its default design. Ultimately it can never answer why. If you ask why there was a Big Bang to begin with, there's absolutely no answer to it even when there's sufficient data to provide that the Big Bang actually happened. -
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Oh did anyone notice Alejandro Gonzalez against Nole yesterday? I was very proud of him although he looked disappointed after the final set as he was leaving but I think he should be proud. I got to watch a bit of him in the 3rd set. He's very cute too, no?
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Not too surprised by Andy's loss really especially given what happened in the final set. Got broken twice back to back while leading the set. Technically Andy's serves are now his biggest liability. And the other biggest liability is his mentality.
Andy's serves started deteriorating right after the 2nd set. In the first set, his first serve was 77%; in the 2nd, 64 % (still good considering) but it then totally collapsed in the final set, 55% only. He was leading Raonic in the first two sets but dropped considerably in the 3rd. Raonic, on the other hand, continued to serve better and better and served highest percentage in the final set. So while Andy dropped his level, Raonic simply raised his.
Raonic hit 15 Aces with only 2 DFs while Andy served only 4 Aces with 3 DFs. Andy served 0 Aces in the final set and yet double faulted twice.
So in retrospect while Andy's game remained okay, his serves really let him down (on both 2nd and 3rd sets and it deteriorated only after a couple of sets). He's not going to win any title until and unless he takes his serves to a more consistent level. I said before the match that this would be the key problem and it was.
But in order for his serves to be really effective and consistent, he'd have to adjust his mentality first. This is no longer an injury issue or fitness issue or the level issued. Personally I don't think he'll be ready until the grass season where his motivation will automatically kick in and he'll start feeling confident once again.
I am not counting too much towards Miami at this point although the thought might cheer him up, somewhat. -
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Gulbis wins although I really think he should have won in 2 but he cleaned up his act in the final set and put out a masterful performance. Agut played well enough to take a set.
Watching Wawrinka/Anderson at the moment and hoping for Anderson to win. He had an early break but Stan broke back immediately.
Dolgo is through. -
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I left work around 2:30 as they let us go due to snow storm and it took me exactly 2.5 hours to get home. I feel sick now because I was out in the cold for too long as I had to walk first and then take the train, followed by bus ride and then walk a bit again. It's deadly for me at this point but there was not much I could do about it.
Anyway, followed Andy's score on the phone however since I taped it, I was able to watch a few points here and there. Didn't make me very happy that he let things go like that in the 3rd set but what can you do. -