Sharapova vs Wozniacki on now. 1st Wozniacki on the tiebreaker.

boy is Wozniacki fit (in the old school sense of the word:) ) - She's going to run the New York marathon this year, but in tennis you need explosive speed too! She has both.

it's going to 2nd set tiebreak too! After much drama.

Also the commentators are pretty good for this year end tournament - not the usual run of the mill WTA ones. Have Tracy Austin and and even Navratilova too!

Anna Ivanovic is currently hammering Eugenie Bouchard, 6-1 in the first set.
Lets see how the 2nd set goes.

Me, I'm playing tomorrow;)

Haelp continued to play stunning tennis. She ran Williams ragged. I thought Williams might suffer complete exhaustion had it gone to a 3rd set in that vain! The from side to side running was such you rarely see Williams subjected to - her 33 year old legs and lungs were feeling it!

Williams got 2 service holds but never once broke Haelp - Haelp is not known for a big serve but she served well and a few aces at the right times too! she's only 5'6" and is dwarfed by Williams.

So 6-0, 6-2. Haelp leads her group with 2 wins 0 losses. They play on today, of course!

I can't wait for you to put a horn on it...

Test strung my first racquet this evening. Use the cheap polyester strings, not the Nadal Babalat RPM pro ones - they are for when I am really confident with it, perhaps after 2nd or 3rd re-stringing.

The machine (a quick release 6 point frame clamp, lever lock tensioner), meant that is a painless process. Just need to get fast at it now.

Will play with the test result tomorrow and see how I get on.

Forgot to say that Nadal's woes continued. Lost fairly early on in the tournament and now will have his appendix seen to and miss the rest of the years play inc. The ATP final in London.
If Murray wins and does well in the next tournament too, he will cement his play in the finals.

Yeah, just finished watching. 3.5hr or so for a three setter says it all.
The amount of running!!!

So so close! Just squeaking it on 2 tiebreaks!

Yes, pretty much no what happens in Paris next week, Murray will be in the showdown.
Off to recover now!

Murray was in Paris and won his first match, against Benneteau quite nicely.

Federer was also in action and just squeaked the first set but it was close. Charday should have won that one! I've not seen the rest of the match.

After a washout yesterday, I hope to get on court today with my new octagonal grippy Nadal strings.

Here's some pics taken while stringing a couple of racquets

This is yellow polyester string - pretty unflexible during re-stringing.




Here's the Babolat RPM blast - hope to have a blast with this later today 
The strings are coated and very slippery. This means they deflect and then spring back rather than getting stuck in the deflected state - you rarely see the pro's moving strings back on their racquets these days - I guess cos' of strings like these - Cool in black huh! This is my stealth racquet. 



I also bought a couple of extra sets to try: a set of Head Rip Control which is a Multifilament and 17 (1.20mm) gauge so finer strings - softer on the arm and better grip on the ball for spin as it's narrower and a set of Dunlop Hexy fibre which is as the name suggests hexagonal, again to grip the ball better , but in the thicker standard 16 gauge (1.31mm).

So lots to try if i don't like the Babolat.

I'm getting faster re-stringing and practise makes perfect.

Murray was no match for Djokovic.
The first set was close but the second was more of a demo.
Murray lost fitness (he's played a lot of matches and won many so understandable).
He has achieved his goal and got in the top eight showdown where for a long while that looked touch and go. He's certainly tested his back out too. No signs of problems there.
Should be a great show down.

First there is the small matter of the Paris 1000 semis and finals to enjoy:)
Nishikori, Djokovic, Federer I guess and another...