A day in Asia -

People always ask what it's like to be a pro tennis player. Everyone thinks it's this fantasy job, but really is SO much tougher than you'd think. Here's a daily recap of what I went through on Tuesday.


Day in the life of a tennis player

6am - wake up - I get over jet lag pretty quick now, but for whatever reason, I've been waking up at 6am all week, so I've just been rolling with it. Usually I drag myself out at 9:45 just in time to catch the close of the breakfast buffet, but this week my body is pumped to get up at 6 and I'm usually hitting the fantastic Shangri-La buffet by 6:15

7am - After a cup of coffee, some fruit and maybe a pastry, I head to the gym. Today being a match day, I biked a bit did some yoga stretching and did very light weights.

8am - The Shangri-La buffet is one of a kind, so I've usually been doing "two-a-days" with my second time through being a serious effort. Today, an omelet, sausage, juice, toast, some chinese stuff that I have no idea what it was, a smoothie and some more fruit consisted of breakfast #2.

9:30am - We caught the shuttle to the courts. Its about a 45 min drive to the site, and I prefer not to watch. Driving in China is insane. They actually have lane painted on the road, but I'm not really even sure why they bother. No one stays in there lane and often it will be six cars wide on a 4 lane road. People just merge regardless of openings and thank god horns aren't that loud cause people are constantly on them. Luckily I was born with an unbelievable ability to sleep in cars, so I've yet to make it a whole journey without dozing off. Possibly why I'm waking up at 6 every day, I get an extra hour per day in the shuttle!

11am - practice - We hit for a good hour today before our doubles match. We were playing Fernando Gonzalez and Adrian Garcia, so we attempted to recreate some patterns to what we might see in the match. Unfortunately neither Ross or I are capable of hitting a forehand mach 10, so it didn't really work that well.

1230pm - China does there food right. Although I'm still feeling a bit heavy from my "double breakfast," I did eat some lunch. I wasn't however ready for the power of the mushroom curry though and let's just say I was lighter on my feet by about 12:50.

130pm - We started real slow and dropped the first set. The match was tricky cause it was quite windy and we were playing against guys who were often playing much more from the baseline than we were used to. We did raise the level in the 2nd and play a great tie-break and are moving on to the next round.

3pm - After the match I was given a nice greeting from one of our favorite people, Mr. Anti-doping tester guy. So, I signed my forms which meant I had an hour to show up in the designated area to provide a sample. In the time being, the doping-tester-guy would provide me with about 2.5 feet of space until I entered the anti-doping room. This includes the time while I shower. Doping tests are never fun and there's always that moment of panic where you start thinking about everything you put in your body in the past week....like..."I had a benadryl on the plane, hope that's ok"...and "I never should have had that poppyseed muffin for breakfast on Monday!"

4pm - One the testing was complete I headed for my daily massage. After such a hard day's work, it's always nice to get a some treatment on your body.

5pm - We took the bus back to the hotel, where I participated in my own afternoon siesta!

7pm - Player's party - We had some dinner and entertainment back at the hotel, which included some singing, dancing and fire-breathing. A very nice event.

9pm - Spa time - Ross and I decided that although our massages were good, we might as well hit up the spa. I spent a good two hours there which consisted of a jacuzzi (where they had reclining stone seats that you lie in, with jets), a quick dip in the pool, back to the jacuzzi, a rinse in the arctic mist room (unreal by the way), followed by a nice stretch session in the steamroom and one more arctic blast before heading in for a shower. Anyone want to trade jobs yet????

11pm - By 11, my body was in full relaxation mode and i was ready for bed. Tomorrow is an off day, so hopefully it won't be so stressful!

There you go....a day in the life of a tennis player!

New York -

US Open 2007

This week I'll be wrapping up my final grand slam of the year. I've never played the US Open before, I've only been here to watch twice before.

We arrived Saturday and things were in full-swing. The US Open is crazy, it seems wilder than all the other slams. I get in at 10am most mornings and am lucky if I leave the courts by 7 or 8. I think the biggest problem is that I LOVE watching tennis. I'm always trying to catch what's happening the back courts in between practices, meals, weight sessions and even the occaisional massage. I know...rough life.

This being my first time in the Open, I had a nice group of fans and friends make the trip out for the week which is always great. Highlights being a night out at ESPN Zone attempting to play every sports simulation game possible, catching a broadway show eating at the top pizza restaurant in all of New York.

Best quote of the week - One of my favorite people on tour is Ron Yu. He's the stringer for Priority One, a company that strings for a number of the top players, including Federer. We were sitting having lunch one day discussing who was going to win the matches of the day, when he throws out the comment of...."Roger and I both feel he's going to be a great player." Wow, Jamie and I instantly burst out laughing. Did he really need to tack on his opinion with Roger's? As if that made it any more valid. Because if just Roger, the greatest player in the game, felt this way, I don't know if if I'd buy it. But since Ron Yu, greatest stringer in the game feels the same, Ok Sure. Funny thing is, I was laughing so hard at the comment, I forgot who we were even talking about!


Henman's Goodbye...

I've had the good fortune of watching Tim play since I was young. Being a serve and volleyer myself, he was always a player I enjoyed watching. One of my first pro tennis experiences was watching him win his first (and only) Master's event in Paris in 2003. Tim will be missed on tour by many people as he hangs it up after Davis Cup, I always enjoyed watching him play and really appreciate all the times I was able to spend with him....listed below are a couple of my favorite moments with Tim.


Tim is a competive guy, and really gets into it in practice. When training one day in London, Jamie and I played him a set one on two. Loser had to walk back to the locker room holding hands (he would have had to do it with his coach). It was my first insight into the true competitivness of Tim.

Tim loves his food, during Indian Wells we spent most of the week dining at the nicer restaurants around Palm Springs, usually dining with Tim, Annecone, Joey (his traininer), Andy Murray, Gilbert, Jamie, Louis (our coach), Bogdanovic and maybe one or two others. Usually, Andy or Tim would graciously pick up the check, sometimes split it. Well one night I happened to sit next to Tim and when the bill came, he opened it, I took a peek as well and as he closed it, he looked and me and said, "wanna split it Boot?" As I nodded, gasped and slowly went for my wallet, he smiled and said, "Just kidding." I think that dinner alone could have put me in the red for the week!

As he finished this week, getting a win over Tursnov (a nemisis of his), he showed his class and humor in his final speech to the crowd. When he was asked, if before EVERY match he played at the open he thought to himself, could this be the last? His response, "well, there's only been two." Classic Henman humor.

Thats it from New York. Off to Beijing now with more stories to come from the far east!

- Booty

US Open Blog -

US Open 2007

This week I'll be wrapping up my final grand slam of the year. I've never played the US Open before, I've only been here to watch twice before.

We arrived Saturday and things were in full-swing. The US Open is crazy, it seems wilder than all the other slams. I get in at 10am most mornings and am lucky if I leave the courts by 7 or 8. I think the biggest problem is that I LOVE watching tennis. I'm always trying to catch what's happening the back courts in between practices, meals, weight sessions and even the occaisional massage. I know...rough life.

This being my first time in the Open, I had a nice group of fans and friends make the trip out for the week which is always great. Highlights being a night out at ESPN Zone attempting to play every sports simulation game possible, catching a broadway show eating at the top pizza restaurant in all of New York.

Best quote of the week - One of my favorite people on tour is Ron Yu. He's the stringer for Priority One, a company that strings for a number of the top players, including Federer. We were sitting having lunch one day discussing who was going to win the matches of the day, when he throws out the comment of...."Roger and I both feel he's going to be a great player." Wow, Jamie and I instantly burst out laughing. Did he really need to tack on his opinion with Roger's? As if that made it any more valid. Because if just Roger, the greatest player in the game, felt this way, I don't know if if I'd buy it. But since Ron Yu, greatest stringer in the game feels the same, Ok Sure. Funny thing is, I was laughing so hard at the comment, I forgot who we were even talking about!


Henman's Goodbye...

I've had the good fortune of watching Tim play since I was young. Being a serve and volleyer myself, he was always a player I enjoyed watching. One of my first pro tennis experiences was watching him win his first (and only) Master's event in Paris in 2003. Tim will be missed on tour by many people as he hangs it up after Davis Cup, I always enjoyed watching him play and really appreciate all the times I was able to spend with him....listed below are a couple of my favorite moments with Tim.


Tim is a competive guy, and really gets into it in practice. When training one day in London, Jamie and I played him a set one on two. Loser had to walk back to the locker room holding hands (he would have had to do it with his coach). It was my first insight into the true competitivness of Tim.

Tim loves his food, during Indian Wells we spent most of the week dining at the nicer restaurants around Palm Springs, usually dining with Tim, Annecone, Joey (his traininer), Andy Murray, Gilbert, Jamie, Louis (our coach), Bogdanovic and maybe one or two others. Usually, Andy or Tim would graciously pick up the check, sometimes split it. Well one night I happened to sit next to Tim and when the bill came, he opened it, I took a peek as well and as he closed it, he looked and me and said, "wanna split it Boot?" As I nodded, gasped and slowly went for my wallet, he smiled and said, "Just kidding." I think that dinner alone could have put me in the red for the week!

As he finished this week, getting a win over Tursnov (a nemisis of his), he showed his class and humor in his final speech to the crowd. When he was asked, if before EVERY match he played at the open he thought to himself, could this be the last? His response, "well, there's only been two." Classic Henman humor.

Thats it from New York. Off to Beijing now with more stories to come from the far east!

- Booty

US Open Blog -

US Open 2007

This week I'll be wrapping up my final grand slam of the year. I've never played the US Open before, I've only been here to watch twice before.

We arrived Saturday and things were in full-swing. The US Open is crazy, it seems wilder than all the other slams. I get in at 10am most mornings and am lucky if I leave the courts by 7 or 8. I think the biggest problem is that I LOVE watching tennis. I'm always trying to catch what's happening the back courts in between practices, meals, weight sessions and even the occaisional massage. I know...rough life.

This being my first time in the Open, I had a nice group of fans and friends make the trip out for the week which is always great. Highlights being a night out at ESPN Zone attempting to play every sports simulation game possible, catching a broadway show eating at the top pizza restaurant in all of New York.

Best quote of the week - One of my favorite people on tour is Ron Yu. He's the stringer for Priority One, a company that strings for a number of the top players, including Federer. We were sitting having lunch one day discussing who was going to win the matches of the day, when he throws out the comment of...."Roger and I both feel he's going to be a great player." Wow, Jamie and I instantly burst out laughing. Did he really need to tack on his opinion with Roger's? As if that made it any more valid. Because if just Roger, the greatest player in the game, felt this way, I don't know if if I'd buy it. But since Ron Yu, greatest stringer in the game feels the same, Ok Sure. Funny thing is, I was laughing so hard at the comment, I forgot who we were even talking about!


Henman's Goodbye...

I've had the good fortune of watching Tim play since I was young. Being a serve and volleyer myself, he was always a player I enjoyed watching. One of my first pro tennis experiences was watching him win his first (and only) Master's event in Paris in 2003. Tim will be missed on tour by many people as he hangs it up after Davis Cup, I always enjoyed watching him play and really appreciate all the times I was able to spend with him....listed below are a couple of my favorite moments with Tim.


Tim is a competive guy, and really gets into it in practice. When training one day in London, Jamie and I played him a set one on two. Loser had to walk back to the locker room holding hands (he would have had to do it with his coach). It was my first insight into the true competitivness of Tim.

Tim loves his food, during Indian Wells we spent most of the week dining at the nicer restaurants around Palm Springs, usually dining with Tim, Annecone, Joey (his traininer), Andy Murray, Gilbert, Jamie, Louis (our coach), Bogdanovic and maybe one or two others. Usually, Andy or Tim would graciously pick up the check, sometimes split it. Well one night I happened to sit next to Tim and when the bill came, he opened it, I took a peek as well and as he closed it, he looked and me and said, "wanna split it Boot?" As I nodded, gasped and slowly went for my wallet, he smiled and said, "Just kidding." I think that dinner alone could have put me in the red for the week!

As he finished this week, getting a win over Tursnov (a nemisis of his), he showed his class and humor in his final speech to the crowd. When he was asked, if before EVERY match he played at the open he thought to himself, could this be the last? His response, "well, there's only been two." Classic Henman humor.

Thats it from New York. Off to Beijing now with more stories to come from the far east!

- Booty