How is it possible for 2 skaters' scores to be exacly the same?!

Nationals concluded today. No mention of Bowman's death. They did commemorate him there apparently, but no on-air message, which was a shame. Rightfully, the focus was on the melodrama of the Evan Lysacek/Johnny Weir rivalry, but just acknowledging it and doing a 5-minute celebration of his skating would have been nice.

Anyhow, on to the skating...I am so thankful American Men's skating has come back around; oh to be proud of strong, consistent, amazing skaters again! I do like both guys for different reasons, but must say I'm glad Evan won b/c Johnny's attitude and Russophilia are quite obnoxious AND even though Johnny's performances were perfect, he didn't have the quad in the short program and his "Love and War" long program was not as striking as Evan's Tosca (one of my favorite pieces of music). Evan's performances were clean, just kinda of bobbly on his landings, plus he had a quad in each program. Because they sensationalized the rivalry so much, it was so crazy (unbelievable really) that on top of it for them to have identical scores (Lysacek won b/c hen won the long program).

Due to recording issues, I wasn't able to see the pairs, but heard about the proposal of Baldwin to Inoue (can probably check this out on you tube, however). Not a fan of ice dancing, I was hugely impressed with the couples. They made it look less like, well, ice dancing. And the women's (girls), was OK. There were some good performances, but I just wasn't as impressed as I was with the quality of the men. I think it was overshadowed by the fact that the rules aren't aligned with that of the world championships, so b/c the winners of nationals are so young, NONE of them are going to worlds (well maybe the 3rd 4th and 5th place winners). How anticlimactic is that?

Happy Australia Day!

Tsonga (Tsonger, like Killer Cahill calls him)

The Jokester

In the past year, I honestly haven't had much interest in watching tennis on TV, more than likely because I'm tired of Federer, of Americans not doing very well and the lack of coverage. The start of this year, however, has re-piqued my interest in tennis. There were some really exciting matches--I was actually watching the matches nearly from beginning to end, not surfing the web simultaneously. Roddick/Kohlschreiber's high level match with insane stats (Roddick serving 42 aces [his personal record] and the astounding number of winners over unforced errors); Tipsarevic taking Feds to 5; Tsonga steamrolling over Nadal in 3; and of course history that was made yesterday--Djokovic ending Feds' hard court streak, beating him in straight sets.

Oh yeah, I didn't mention the women. Err...uhhh...happy to see someone other than Tylenol (ie Justine Henin; if you recall her giving the match to Mauresmo 2 yrs ago at this very tourney b/c her tummy hurt due to taking too many Tylenol) or Serena win a major. Good for ShaRAPova (they're never going to pronounce her name properly), except here's my beef w/ her: why doesn't she just play for the USA? When she talks you wouldn't even suspect she's Russian b/c she's spent the majority of her life living and training in the US. The second issue is actually with her mom--"too nervous" to watch her daughter play. Yeah, I get that it would be nerve wracking, but how selfish--shouldn't she be thinking of her daughter before herself? She should be there for her, supporting her.

Tomorrow should be exciting! Someone other than Feds and Nads! I love Tsonga's demeanor. He's so relaxed and confident. The way he plays reminds me a lot of Safin, he's just not a hothead. And everyone says he looks like Mohammed Ali. You know how the French version of Vamos! is Allez? Well, if I was at the Aussie Open I'd have a sign for Tsonga that said "Mohammed ALLLEEEZZZZ!." But Djokovic--the Jokester, as I call him--is also a likable character (save for his 15+ ball bouncing prior to each serve). His rise to #3 has given him a solid chance at winning a slam. May the best player win!