Blocking off the Days

Lent preparations are underway in my country, and the special days have already been marked out on the calendars. I'm also preparing to block off the next few weeks on my calendar, because the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells started today and will last for a fortnight. Then it'll be followed by another fortnight of tennis at the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami. These are probably my favorite weeks on the tennis calendar aside from the Grand Slam tournaments because they showcase both men's and women's tennis. Also, after the mishmash of smaller competing tournaments after the Australian Open, it's convenient to have all the players converge to play one event.

Andre Agassi will be back after his long absence: he headlines the Pacific Life Open website and will be a major crowd draw. He will have to fight through his section of the draw, though: potential opponents include Tommy Haas in the third round, James Blake in the fourth round, then Andy Roddick in the quarterfinal. Of course, players will always take tournaments one match at a time, and potential may yet go unrealized.

Other players looking to make a splash at the Wells include my favorite female player, Martina Hingis, and Britain's new hope Andy Murray. Can anyone shed light on what the Pacific Life Open website means by these pairings, though? This inquiring mind wants to know.

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HOLY INSTANT REPLAY, BATMAN!: After Indian Wells, the players will descend on Miami, where the ATP, WTA, and USTA will be premiering the use of HawkEye technology in line-calling. TennisReporters.net has the details and analysis on why this is being implemented, and what some players have to say. Always opinionated, Marat Safin (who returned to action at the Dubai Duty Free Open last week) had some pretty strong words about it: "Who was this genius who came up with this stupid idea?... It is bull."

I'm reserving judgment on the electronic line-calling, as it was used to review line calls (but did not overturn them) without much fuss at the Hopman Cup earlier this year. I wonder if HawkEye has sharper eyes than those line judges we see wearing coke-bottle eyeglasses.

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MEN'S DOUBLES: I found this button on the Pacific Life Open website. Being one of the people the ATP duped into taking the survey which they used to justify the radical changes proposed last year (most of which were later junked, thankfully), I'm really very pleased that doubles is getting promoted not only on the ATP website, but also on the various tournament websites. I think there is a market for doubles: the recent addition of a forum for Mike & Bob Bryan on one of the biggest tennis forums on the Internet is a testament to this.

I hope that my television tennis coverage over the next few weeks includes some doubles!

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 9:57 AM