2005 French Open - Safin vs. Robredo

A Russian and a Spaniard kept me up late last night, or should I say 'til the wee hours of the morning. I couldn't turn the TV off because Tony Robredo (esp) and Marat Safin (rus) were both playing such brilliant tennis. It would have been a shame not to know the outcome of the match where the points would go see-sawing from one to the other. I loved the way Safin served, as if he really puts his whole soul into it [heheh reminds me of Ohtori], he would always get faulted at first but had a high percentage of ace serves. While Robredo controlled his game by volleying near the net although at one game Safin also surprisingly volleyed well. As ever Safin is extremely fair on the court and lost a few games because line balls were questioned by Robredo but as expected as well there was this angry moment (at himself I think) when he bent his frustration not just on his poor racket but also on the innocent green Perrier bench which was gashed with an ugly hole after getting smashed with his racket. The guy explodes like a time bomb but after his outburst he would put it behind him and would continue on with the game playing as if he wasn't in a fit of rage a moment ago.
Some memorable moves of Safin would be his smashes that came unexpectedly to Robredo even if he did it a couple of times. At an opportune moment Safin would smash the ball far from Robredo and the ball would bounce up higher than anyone could reach.
Even if Safin is generally a hot head, I rooted for him in the whole game. He would be struggling at times. That game was where there more struggle for breakpoints than any other games I've seen before. The advantage would be shifted from one player to the other on and on. The game lasted for about 3 and a half hour but until the end both were playing their best and kept giving the crowd something to cheer about. The last game was won by Robredo by pure reflex. His reaction to Marat's return happened in a split second.
It was indeed a great game .. one of the best I was able to catch in the 2005 French Open, well that and Acasuso's and Roddick's fast match but that's another story.

bleach so far

I just read the 172nd chapter of bleach and I'm wishing that this arc is just a dream of one of the characters or an elaborate ruse within a ruse. I couldn't bear the thought that the story is going this way. Some of the characters I've come to be interested in are turning out to be major baddies while others are dead or are dying. Eeyaaargh! I think the mangaka is on a major crisis in his life, otherwise he wouldn't be so ...... grrrrr....
Ah! That's it! I'm going back to the comfortable world of PoT. heheheh