Tennishead on Tour, Toronto Masters, Day 3

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Rain, rain, rain was the story of most of the day, but at 3.50pm the sun came out and at 4.30 it was game on.

Check out the Tennishead Day 3 Photo Diary

It was a funny old day really as there is nothing less interesting (but actually very interesting, if you know what I mean) than listening to a bunch of blokes talking about camera equipment and the age-old debate about the virtues of Canon over Nikon and vice versa.

Murray looks astonishingly fit and athletic which has got to count for something during the gruelling American hard court stretch…

Let me answer that once and for all. Nikon probably right now makes better cameras, but Canon have white lenses that look really cool. Game, set and match to Canon, end of debate.

After spending what seemed like a life time listening to the camera debate and working on Tennishead things, 4.30pm couldn’t come around fast enough and as soon as it was announced the players were out, I scuttled down to Centre to watch Rafa Nadal beat Jesse Levine. The American put up a spirited show but Nadal was simply too good.

Then to number one court for Tommy Robredo and Marin Cilic which was a cracking match narrowly won by the very impressive Cilic. From there, next door to Grandstand for Tommy Haas against Nikolay Davydenko, which again was a good match that could have gone either way, but Davydenko snatched it, much to Haas’ dismay.

After Haas and Davydenko I caught was a corking match between Jose Acasuso and Fernando Gonzalez which, astonishingly, the Argentine won. I really like Acasuso, he looks really elegant and laid back on court and is a cool looking guy. Good effort, son!

I then looked on stunned as I watched Jonas Bjorkman take the first set from James Blake with amazing ease and it looked like he could go on to win the match.

Blake recovered sufficiently to take the next two sets, but what an effort by the Swede. He was dynamite in the first set and looked like a man of much younger years. It will be a real shame if he retires this year as he is such a great competitor.

Before the Andy Murray-Thomas Johansson match I dipped into Centre Court to see Federer dominate the end of the first set and start off well in the second. I snapped a few pictures of him thinking it was all over for Gilles Simon and went off to watch Richard Gasquet take on Alexandre Kudryavtsev.

The light was stunning during this match and it was a very closely fought contest with both players absolutely caning the ball. Although Gasquet’s experience won through I reckon Kudryavtsev is going to be a star and I will be following his progress with great interest.

Then on to Murray against Johansson, which again was a close run match with Murray taking both sets 6-4. Murray looked pretty good, not as good as he can be, but it’s still early days in this event.

He also looks astonishingly fit and athletic which has got to count for something during the gruelling American hard court stretch.

Then came the news that Federer had lost to Simon in three sets. There was a definite sense of shock around the court and I am sure Murray would have felt it.

After Murray had polished off the Swede I watched a few games of Nicolas Kiefer and Mikhail Youzhny, which was another hard-hitting battle that looked like it could last all night.

Kiefer was the eventual winner and on balance he deserved it! The final match of the day was Marat Safin against Stan Wawrinka which Stan came through, although the Swiss was pushed hard by the big-hitting Russian.

After a packed schedule of matches, it was back to the Media Centre (at around 11.00pm) to download pictures, select the best and upload them to Tennishead HQ.

I stumbled (although completely sober) into a cab at 2am (no more cars left at that time of night!) and am now back in the hotel writing this at 3.30am. You can never accuse us of not going the extra mile (or should that be ‘hour’) to deliver!

Until tomorrow… no, hang on, it is tomorrow…

Whatever, I’m off to bed.

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Single Jul 24, 10:55 AM

Great blog and what a day at the tennis! Such a shame about Feds, I really hopes he pulls it back.. But great news about the man Murray. BTW, Have you seen any ‘Mounties’ in Canada…??

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