Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Because I can't watch the last two rounds of the Australian Open on ESPN3 (they're blacked out if you don't have a cable/satellite subscription), I ended up listening to one match on AO Radio, the official radio broadcast of the tournament. I fell asleep during the match and ended up waking up later after the matches had ended for the day and they were broadcasting music instead. This was how I came to hear "Pleased to Meet You", which I'd never heard before (it was apparently released in 2001). Now I'm earwormed with it.

I fell asleep last night during the first set of the Australian Open men's final. I'm glad that when I woke up I didn't immediately turn the set back on, because there's a chance I might have tuned in during the trophy presentation; that's how long the match lasted. I wondered why the match wasn't showing as available for replay on WatchESPN.com until I realized that they needed a little bit of time after the match ended before posting it. I spent the morning watching one of the most amazing tennis matches. It wasn't the longest tennis match in tennis history (I saw a lot of that one, too), but it was the longest Grand Slam final in the open era, and it was surely a better-played match than that grinding Isner-Mahut 70-68 final set, which was more a case of two big servers who couldn't break the other. It was one of those matches where you say it's a shame anyone had to lose.

I did feel a little sorry for both Nadal and Djokovic while watching the seemingly-endless speeches from the sponsors and organizers, as they were both clearly worn out from having played almost six hours, and I noted that the crowd applauded loudly when they brought chairs over for the two of them to sit down to wait out the talking from the people who were paying the bills.

As I do every year, I put in an entry for Tennis Channel's contest to win a trip to the Australian Open. I've loved both of my visits to Australia and would love to go back.

With the tournament over, I can now get back to a normal sleep schedule, I hope.

I had to set an alarm this morning so I'd be up in time to be part of the Prix Imaginales coverage. I awoke feeling poorly and realized that I'd picked up a bit of a sunburn from my walk yesterday afternoon. It's now sufficiently summer-like that I'll need to start wearing sunscreen when I go out for those walks, even with my floppy hat partially protecting my head and face.

Before the event this morning, I ran down to the Centerville Farmers Market where I wanted to pick up a few things, and that made me a few minutes late, but the coverage started late as well, so it evened out.

I moved my computer into the living room because there was an amazing tennis match going on at the Madrid Open (the Masters event that's a sort of a warm-up for the French Open). ( Just in case you planned on watching it later ) And that's just the warm-up, with Del Potro taking on Federer in the second semi-final. I reckon both of them are hoping for a quick match, seeing as their opponent in the final will be coming off the longest match in ATP Masters history.

I reckon to be taking things fairly easy today, as I haven't had a lot of chances to do that, won't have an opportunity next weekend (BayCon), and there's a World Fantasy Con committee meeting tomorrow morning. I should probably go out for another walk later today, but this time I'll remember the sunscreen. And I'll probably wait until the evening, as we're set for pretty hot weather today. It will be worse inland, but it's still a good day to stay in the shade.

I have been following the Australian Open tennis coverage. (I don't generally follow tennis, but do watch the major tournaments when I can.) They certainly do make Melbourne look very good, and I wouldn't mind being there for the tournament. I did sign up for Tennis Channel's sweepstakes, which includes R/T airfare for two from the US to Australia, a tour of the McWilliams winery, and hotel and tickets for the first four days of next year's tournament. (You end up having to go home before the tournament ends, but not many people have the resources to spend the entire two weeks there unless they're working on the event in some way.)

OTOH, I'm not sure I'd be too thrilled being there in conditions like they were having for the past few days. The air temperatures have been in the Celsius mid-40s, which is ghastly enough, but the temperature on the courts themselves are worse. I saw a camera shot of a thermometer sitting on the Rod Laver Arena court that had gone off the end of the scale at 60 C. One of the commentators sitting in the arena had a little gadget that she pointed at things to take their temperature, and she pointed it at one of the seats at the arena -- 75 degrees! That's inhumanly hot!

I was amazed that it took them so long to recognize that the heat conditions had reached the danger zone and close the roof on the two arenas that have them and suspend play on the outside courts. Yes, I know it's supposed to be an outdoor tournament and that fitness and ability to play in the heat is part of the game, but temperatures that high are so dangerous that if they can't cool down the courts by closing the roof, they should suspend play entirely. They could have killed someone out there!

I wonder, if I won the sweepstakes, if they'd let me swap the travel for August-September 2010 instead of January? As it stands now, I'm not that sure whether I'll be able to make it to Aussiecon Four. Resources are tight, and airlines have raised the requirements for using frequent-travel miles on those long trips.

Australia were not able to pull off the miracle comeback, although the tail-enders made a surprisingly high score as they sort of let loose and swung away. In the end, Australia managed to score 340, which is more than I expected, before the last wicket fell and India won by 72 runs. Thus India ends Australia's winning streak at sixteen games for the second time -- it was India that stopped Australia's previous 16-game streak.

So now I'm back to only having one screen going, instead of having both the cricket and the tennis running. And speaking of tennis, I'm going back to an amazing match where Roger Federer is showing signs of being human instead of the amazing tennis machine.

I have an embarrassment of sport to watch this week, between the Australian Open tennis (starts 4 PM my time) and the India v. Australia cricket in Perth (starts 6:30 PM). This evening, I had the cricket running on streaming video and the tennis on the Tennis Channel, and I was switching the audio back and forth between them trying to keep track of everything going on. And it was all action in the cricket, too, with the last four wickets of India's first innings falling pretty quickly, followed by Australia unaccountably dropping three wickets in short order before the lunch break.

Ironically, I ended up with a break in both at the same time, as the Tennis Channel coverage ended at 8:30 my time just as the cricket went for lunch, and the ESPN2 continuing coverage of tennis is being delayed by a basketball game. Hm, maybe that will give me time to have dinner.

Addendum: And a new episode of MythBusters. Ack! And you can't take your eye off the cricket, as the Australians tried to melt down, dropping two more wickets quickly after lunch.