[Aravanecaravan]

Hi all. I just returned from 4 days at the MPS Group Championships in Ponte Vedra Beach. I have around 13GB of photos and videos to share, so stay tuned to this channel for updates.

Right now I am catastrophically depressed over Tamira losing after MP, so I may not get to the reporting for awhile, but I'm working on uploading photos now.

Here's a teaser--a nice pic of Elena Vesnina, the week's pleasant surprise, signing autographs on Thursday after her win over Patricia Mayr.

[Spaceman.]

Thanks and looking forward to your stuff!

[CrossCourt~Rally]

Vesnina is so cute

[Aravanecaravan]

I am uploading photos at my Flickr photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2830082...7616543285925/

[nevetssllim]

Aww! Vesnina is adorable!

[Aravanecaravan]

Just to let you all know, I have posted pics of the following from PVB at my Flickr photothread:

Wozniak
Craybas
Paszek
Czink
Vesnina
Peng
Amanmuradova
Razzano
Bartoli
Mattek-Sands
Alona and Katya Bondarenko
Hantuchova
Washington
Mayr
Cibulkova
Rodionova
Mirza
Chuang
Osterloh
Petrova
Keys
Wozniacki
Lisicki
Gullickson
Chan
and the Goodwill Peanut

[Tennis-Chick]

Link please

[JeLeNaJfAn]

Great pics I heart Mimi- Well Done
Thank you

[CrossCourt~Rally]

Thanks for posting all those pics MiMi! Especialy the ones of Lilia ( i love her new blue/white Nike outfit and Beth

[Aravanecaravan]

Here goes with the daily reports.

Tuesday April 7

Arrived at the tourney site from home at 9:25 after a 3 hour drive. The conditions were C-O-L-D. And windy. It was not a good day for playing tennis. Mid 50's F with a 35-40 mph wind blowing hard from the due north. The courts are all aligned in a N-S direction so the theme of the day was adjustment. Wozniak and Craybas were first on the stadium court at 10AM, and I stayed only for a few pictures, but long enough to see a few breaks of serve back and forth.

At 11, I went to court 1, one of the two alternate courts during the week. I actually preferred watching matches on these courts as the viewing was better and you felt like you were part of the action, and a participant, rather than an observer from on high.

Paszek v Czink. We were all shivering, sitting on the bleachers, but Tamira and Melinda both showed up in skirts and short sleeve tops. Mimi grabbed an ice cold drink out of the cooler first thing and later complained that they weren't cold enough--lol!

Czink opened stronger, with two breaks, though both players struggled with the wind. I don't recall just how many DFs Czink had from the south end, serving into the wind, but it was a ton. Eventually, Tamira figured out the conditions and reigned in her game some while Czink continued to overhit from both ends. I could be mistaken, but I believe Czink only held serve once all match when serving into the wind.

Tamira fought back from way down in set 1 to level at 5 all and eventually force a TB, but faded a bit to give it to Melinda. Even so, she seemed upbeat and I got the impression she would turn it around. That took awhile, as she was down 6-7, 0-3 before turning it on, but at that point, she began hitting winners more freely, using her trademark BH crosscourt on almost all the big points. When she took that set 6-4, she exclaimed "C'MOOOONNN!" and pointed to Jimenez. The players traded games early in set 3 before Tamira pulled away to win it 6-4. A long match, played in bad conditions, and very ugly to watch, though for me it was a nail-biter. I'd like to think I had a hand in pulling her through it, as everyone else there was pulling for Czink or just watching passively. Afterwards, when she walked off, I shouted "great job!" and Mimi waved and said "thank you." When I said "Now beat Patty!" she rolled her eyes and laughed.

After that it was Vesnina and Peng, who played a really see saw match. Peng opened winning the first set comprehensively, 6-1, and I thought it would be over pretty quickly. I went to get something to eat and when I returned, they were in a third set. Vesnina got up 5-1 in the third, then faltered a bit before closing it out. She was serving pretty well, given the conditions, but making a number of UEs that were just barely out. She exclaimed "Davai!" and "Vishna!" (I think) several times to pump herself up, and eventually Peng folded up and Elena prevailed.

I then watched the first set of Amanmuradova and Razzano, for Elisa, and got some nice photos there. Razzano was more consistent and moving better on the clay, but I think Akgul may have gotten a couple bad line calls against her. She got a little upset and I think her focus went off a bit.

I also watched a bit of Petrova/Govortsova, but it looked like Nadia was having her way in that one so I focused on the court 1 and 2 matches on Tuesday. Bartoli/Mattek-Sands was moved to Court 2 because of the backup on stadium, so I went to watch that one as the sun was starting to set. Marion was flawless for about 6 games, breaking to 4-0 and 5-1 leads, before Mattek slowly began finding her rhythm. She also had almost everybody but me on her side, and the court 2 stands were packed. Behind massive crowd support, she stormed back to 5-5 before Marion was able to close it out.

Interestingly, Marion is like a shadow boxer between points, constantly in motion, bouncing up and down, brandishing her raquet....I don't think she stopped moving other than when her Dad came down for some coaching.

In set 2, again Marion got a big early lead, and it looked like a simple 2 set win for her until the errors crept in and Beth started drop shotting a lot more. She drew Marion in and got some nice passes and that slowly but surely gained her confidence and crowd support, and before I knew it, they were in a tie breaker. Beth held on to force a third and pretty well ran away with it in set 3. I think she just broke Marion's spirit after set 2.

It was freezing cold, twilight, and I was starting to get a sore throat, so I called it a night at that point and by-passed the night session.

[Aravanecaravan]

I should mention, I fully intended to get shots of Schnyder, but figured she would be playing Tamira in R2 so I didn't go see her match with Lepchenko. Little did I know what would happen in that one....

[Aravanecaravan]

My day 1 practice sightings included Paszek, Lisicki, Bondarenkos, Petrova, Peng, and a few others I couldn't readily identify. Incidentally, most of the practice courts were completely fenced in so it was hard getting pics there. I was able to get a few nice shots on a couple of the practice courts (see the ones of Hantuchova) but mostly, I was shooting through fences.

[drake3781]

Hey sounds fun! Thx for the reports and pics - I know that is hard work. I really wanted to go this year but couldn't do it.

[davidmario]

thank you, do you have pics of kveta peschke?

[kinseh]

Originally Posted by I Heart Mimi

She exclaimed "Davai!" and "Vishna!" (I think)

I think you mean "otlichno" -- it often sounds like "lichna" or even, as you said, "vishna". "Vishna" means cherry in Russian.

Great report, I'm looking forward to hear more. I'm so jealous that you got to go to both Miami and Ponte Vedra Beach!!