My
As most of you know, I played Wimby last year but
lost in the first round of qualifying
with Chris Drake. This year, playing with Jamie Murray, was quite a
different experience.
We arrived to the All England Club the Sunday before the start of tourney after
picking
up our 3rd title of the year in
confidence and had some pretty high expectations placed upon us from the
British Public.
On Sunday I tried to take care of all the business on site, getting rackets
strung,
setting up practice and go find myself a locker. I went to the main
locker room and
asked where my locker was and got a response that my name wasn't on the list.
Now, my
first instinct was to grab my player pass and shove it in the locker room
attendant's
face and go, "Ha! I am a player, thank you very much, where is my
locker?" But, before I
can even get that phrase out, the man behind him replied, "Mr Butorac, you are downstairs
in the Champion's Locker Room." Ohhh. Ok. Excuse me. I'm
sorry. I'll be on my way now.
So, I slide into the "Champions" locker room, say hello to Rafa, Roger and start
searching for my locker. Ah ok. Ljubicic,
Henman, Butorac, Ivansisavic. Yep, that
sounds about right. What is going on here you may ask? Well appearantly this locker
room is for all past champions, top 16 singles seeds and
most importantly, Davis Cup team members' doubles partners! A nice way to start your
To go from a year ago playing with Drake where about 9 people watched our match
to a
pretty full house on court 2 was quite a different experience. Of course
you get chills
walking out onto the grass for the first time. Luckily we had played on
center court
once at Queens and 3 times up at
We cruised in our first round taking out two clay courters
in straight sets. Signed more
autographs after the match than I probably had in my previous 25 years, but it
was great!
Obviously Britain is looking for any kind of success, so in our post match
press
conference, I think the 2nd question we got was.....well....can you guys win
it? "Win
it? C'mon, we just be two dirt ballers who arrived two days ago in the first round and
you guys want us to say we're going to win it?" The press over here
is like nothing I've
ever seen before.
Our 2nd round came the next day against Erlich-Ram,
the #7 seeds. We started slow and
dropped the first, but then rolled on to a 4 set victory. We played real
sharp and
finished the match with some of our best tennis of the tournament. I
don't think we even
faced a break point after the first set.
A couple days later I made my mixed doubles debut with another American, Cornia Morariu.
I'd never played mixed at this level, but I have played a lot of Father/Son
tennis
before. (I'm sure my dad loves me comparing mixed doubles to Father/Son
doubles, but in
a way it's quite similar.) As a the male in
mixed (or the Son in F/S) you are expected
serve first, into the wind and sun and normally cover about 70 percent of the
court. I
actually started the match unbelievable with a couple return winners and a huge
poach to
secure the break. After 4 big first serves, we were up 2-0 and all I
could think was,
this mixed stuff is quite easy. Of course, 12 minutes later, we're
sitting on the
changeover having just lost the first set 6-2. How'd it happen? I
have no idea. They
started firing balls up my line, Stubbs (the woman) was serving what felt like
125 and I
didn't know what to do. Then the skies opened up and I thought, ok, we
can regroup and
take these guys in 3. Corina thought, hey ,
we're down 6-2, my wrist hurts, might as
well pull out and go home before I get stuck here for another week. In
all honesty, I'm
sure she was quite hurt, and felt bad for pulling out.
About 5 rain soaked days later we actually played our
3rd round match. Dlouhy-Vizner
(the 9 seeds) took us out in 4 sets. It was quite an ugly match as the
wind was really
swirling that morning and it made it tough to play good tennis. After
losing the first
set by them hitting a net cord return at 5-6 in the breaker, they broke me in
the 2nd on
a complete mis-hit that was headed for the 6th row
before it got caught in a gale and
knuckled down in the corner. I felt the need to let everyone know how I
felt about that
one by sending a ball over the top of the Southfields tube station. I'm
sorry Wilk,
it
was my first code violation of the year. It won't happen again.
I flew out Saturday to head to
into Roddick in the airport and chatted to him for a
while. I've never been a huge fan
of his, but have gotten to know him a bit better lately. One thing I do
really like
about him is that he leaves it all on the court. He was up two sets to
love on Gasquet
yesterday before going down 7-6, 7-6, 8-6. I
could tell today that it absolutely killed
him. I like that. When I lose a match, it hurts, and I love seeing
the top guys in
world that aren't afraid to show that it means something to them.
That was my Wimby 2007.
- Eric
Couple other notes...
- I have a website, www.bootyandstretch.com, feel free
to check it out. Ian McManus, a
former GAC player designed it and started a company called edigita
where he creates sites
for a number of companies. Also, if you go to the Fan Forum, there is also a
fan forum
for GAC tennis that Ian created. Could be fun if a lot of the
alumni/parents/fans/players all started up some conversation
I think this link should work:
http://www.buzherd.com/group/gacmenstennisalumni
- Duss and I have our wine shop officially open in
start out, so cruise by if you have time!
http://www.parkertannins.com/