March 7, 2009
Much better effort from the crowd today and the Bryans did not dissappoint. After cruising through the first two sets, the Swiss team took the third set and fought hard to force a tiebreaker in the fourth set. The Bryans made some unbelievable shots in the tiebreaker and really fired up the crowd.
It was good to see the southern hospitality go out the window for at least one afternoon. We are going to need the same effort tomorrow as Andy will be in for a battle against a hot Wawrinka. Be there and be loud. Go USA!!!
March 6, 2009
Friday, March 6
Well Andy pulled out the third set to save my voice for the rest of the weekend as James Blake took a tough defeat to Stan Wawrinka.
The Netheads were on fire but unfortunately JB was not. He will look to bounce back on Sunday although hopefully we won’t need him if the Bryans and Andy win their matches first.
The crowd was decent although I think they are still disappointed that Federer pulled out. Hopefully the Netheads can rally the troops for the rest of the tie and get more energy in this crowd. Must be Southern Hospitality or something like that.
March 5, 2009
We are gearing up for the big event and making our last minute costume adjustments. The NetHeads are pumped and ready for battle.
We have 60 NetHead members ready to go nuts and support our home squad.
The Phantom is ready to go. I just finished doing an interview with the local paper and Birmingham will be ready for the NetHead invasion.
We will be tailgating in the parking lot at the event at the Civic Center from 11:00 am up until the matches begin so come join us if you dare.
Let’s go USA!
February 27, 2009
Hello tennis fans:
It’s The Phantom from the world famous NetHeads writing to you about the very exciting first round Davis Cup tie between the good guys (Team USA) and the bad guys (Team Switzerland) March 6-8 in Birmingham, Ala. HA!
This did look to be an even more entertaining match up given the commitment of Roger Federer along with countryman Stan “The Man” Wawrinka against our studs from the US: Andy Roddick, James Blake, and the amazing Bryan brothers.
However, Federer, who was coming off the heartbreaking (and tear jerking) Australian Open final match against Rafael Nadal, pulled out of the series with an injury. None-the-less, our American boys need encouragement against the Federer-less Swiss team.
I will be leading the charge as always in Birmingham with my fellow NetHeads. The event is sold out and we have a great NetHead turnout as well with over 60 of our members attending. If you don’t hear me in the arena, who will hear and see me (and us) on television.
I will be contributing to my blog during the three day event and giving you my perspective of this great event.
So remember tennis fans, cheer on our boys and DARE TO BE DIFFERENT!
The Phantom
Good win by Roddick, but I do want to make an observation about the commentating. I believe Justin Gimelstob’s colleague for commentating was Leif Shiras. In the third set tiebreak, Leif said that he was surprised that Roddick hit so few forehand winners. I totally disagree with being surprised about that. Roddick is not an offensive-enough player outside of his serve. He did just what he had to do to beat Chiudinelli, just keeping the ball in play most of the time. If he’s going to challenge the very top players consistently, he really has got to go for his shots more often than he does. Justin himself corrected Leif on this fact.