Berries, Cream, Royalty, and Foregone Conclusions.

My tennis and golf viewing habits are very similar, if typical estadunidense towards sports that are non-Big Four (fuck you, hockey’s still big to me) — I watch all four major tourneys; Wimbledon has always been the favorite, but it’s lost something since the coverage migrated away from HBO to the WWL. Wait, that’s an understatement; most of the personnel is the same, but it’s still lost a ton in presentation. HBO’s coverage always seemed classier, although let’s admit it: anyone who doesn’t have a soft spot for Chris Fowler in any arena needs to have their fan pulse checked.

As for the tennis itself, the guessing game always goes to the women’s draw, because if it’s not the French, we’ll presume Roger Federer will be winning until proven otherwise. Despite best efforts, Rog vs. Rafael Nadal isn’t Sampras-Agassi or McEnroe-Borg, because Nadal isn’t even close to competitive with Federer on non-clay surfaces, and I’ll believe the hype about him when he can pull it off on grass or hardcourt at a Grand Slam. I openly root for James Blake to make it as far as he can, if I need an American rooting interest.

Watching Venus Williams nearly lose early is always interesting, because of the reminder that she was the Williams sister who was rocking it earlier. The competition is fiercer with fewer sets and better talents in Maria Sharapova, Serena, Amelie Mauresmo (the defending champ most of us would like to forget) and Justine Henin, whom I find loathsome for being a cheap shotter at best and a cheater at worst against Serena in a prior tourney by sneakily calling time and getting a fault called against Serena when the chair ump didn’t see it. If I’ve got to pick a female winner, give me Serena, I suppose, although it’s not as easy to convince me this year as in prior ones. Sharapova has a habit of breaking down in the quarters and semis lately; Henin gets to finals here but never wins; Mauresmo will run up against someone stronger, and no one else in the draw is really at that high a level.

(Photo: AP/Anja Niedringhaus)