Funnies: Word of the Day at Rotterdam

DelPo Gives a Zombie-Like Press Conference:

Courtesy of DelPo, the word of the day at Rotterdam is “tournament.”"

In his pre-Rotterdam interview, he repeats the word “tournament”seven times in 20 seconds:

“This tournament is a big tournament, 500-tournament, 500-tournament and it’s important for me to play this week…”

Yes, DelPo, Rotterdam is a tournament.  The presser is actually sort of hypnotizing to watch.  That said, I hope DelPo is slightly more alert for his R1 match against Gael.  He was reportedly a bit grumpy during his first training session.  In the rest of his presser, he stresses his need for a strong performance at Rotterdam, given his weak performance at the AO this year.

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FedPotro Training Session:

Perhaps due to Krajicek’s influence as a TD, he was able to bring together last year’s finalists Fed and DelPo for a training session at center court.

Special @abnamrowttNL moment. Both 2012 finalists back on centre court. #federer #delpotro http://t.co/lExP7iSB

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Richard Krajicek (@RichardKrajicek) February 10, 2013

More goofy FedPotro training photos followed:

It looks like Fed is sharing jokes with Franco Davin.  About what?  DelPo’s volleys?  DelPo is all, “Guys, can you not?  I’m sitting RIGHT HERE.”

“Seriously, I’m sitting right next to you!  I’m even playing doubles with Llodra, to brush up on my volleying.  Stop making fun!”

The photos above are taken from the Henk Koster photography site.  Please visit his page, as his gallery contains many fun images from Rotterdam.  I really like his photo of DelPo teeing off on his BH against Fed, during their practice session.

Last year, Fed and DelPo trained together in Rotterdam as well.  It’s nice to see them back after the AO.

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Drama in Rotterdam (Part II):

Last year, Alex Bogomolov Jr. said DelPo was “pathetic,” for not signing an autograph for a child in the rain.  Bogo Jr. later apologized and had a training session with DelPo at Rotterdam (it was his way of making amends).  That incident was kind of funny.

This year, Sergiy Stakhovsky has taken it up a notch.  He criticized the Rotterdam courts for being slow.  On his very active Twitter account, he took a swipe at DelPo in the process:

If in the era of Krajicek they would play on such surfaces he would never made it to the top 10.. @abnamrowtt

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Sergiy Stakhovsky (@Stako_tennis) February 09, 2013

@DanielBarkley @abnamrowtt unfortunately slice is not an option on these courts...high bounce.. #delpo in the finals.

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Sergiy Stakhovsky (@Stako_tennis) February 09, 2013

Stakhs is a career 1-5 at Rotterdam.  Two of his losses came via retirement.  Although Stakhs has two indoor HC titles, he’s never made it past R2 in Paris.  He lost in qualies to Ernests Gulbis at Rotterdam this year.  I’m not sure he should be comparing himself to Krajicek.

Perhaps Stakhs should further establish his indoor HC credentials before making light of DelPo’s run to the final last year (after all, DelPo’s indoor Marseilles and Basel titles weigh more than Stakhovsky’s Zagreb and St. Petersburg.  DelPo’s also not a pushover at the WTF, as seen in ’09 and ’12).

To an extent, I get the complaints about homogenization of surfaces.  Still, I don’t think it’s an excuse for losing.  That seems kind of quaint.  It’s similar to people who spend way too much time complaining about how no one listens to vinyl records anymore.  I understand when Fed brings it up, because Fed has earned his right to comment on this issue.  After all, he’s won on both slow courts and fast courts.  Llodra is another player who excels on fast courts and he’s proven his worth as a player by excelling when he can on that surface.  Stakhovsky, however, is more of a baffling case.  Either way, he’s out this year at Rotterdam (Gulbis, meanwhile, has qualified for the main draw).

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