Lisa's Memphis Diary - Day 6

[Ed. Note: Lisa McDermott, seasoned Reuters reporter and favorite TW flake, is on-site at the Regions Morgan Keegan/Cellular South Cup in Memphis.]

It was my fifth day of tennis yesterday, yet I was still hungry for more.

At any given time, there are usually three matches going on at the joint-tour Memphis event. For any fan of the game, this is a buffet. Thank goodness that I’m here, plate in hand.

I watched Shahar Peer deliver a straight set (6-0, 6-2) win against Bethanie Mattek. Over the course of the 61-minute match, I was a bag of emotions. It ended sooner than I wanted it to -- and probably a few games longer than Peer would have liked. It took me a while to put my finger on the reason why.

I like Peer’s attitude but I also enjoy her game. This is strange, as she largely plays a baseline game and I’m not all that fond of players who smother the baseline. With Peer, I didn’t mind watching her hog the baseline because she moves well. I was struck by her movement; she refused to let any ball go without a bashing, and she did her dead-level best to retrieve each and every one. Without a doubt, both these tactics caught Mattek off-guard.

Bethanie Mattek is the Vince Spadea of the women’s tour when it comes to fan appeal: she rarely gets any respect for her game, due to the outrageous clothes she wears. Here in Memphis, Mattek has been sporting relatively subdued outfits from Stella McCartney's Adidas line. Perhaps she is wanting to be taken more seriously this year?

Her choice of clothing aside, Mattek followed up the drubbing she received in the first set with a feisty and powerful second set performance. She broke Peer, forcing her to crawl her way back into the match. Both women traded heavyweight shots that the scoreline didn't reflect.

On the men's side, Andy Murray’s match scores are reflecting changes in his gameplay. On Wednesday, Murray won, trading a lot of pace with Frank Dancevic along the way to victory. However, his game was off; Andy's serve was average, his attitude listless, and he didn’t make use of his all-court game.

Yesterday was another story.

Murray beat Kristian Pless, 6-3; 7-6, and he was back to normal -- he got angry, fussed with the chair umpire when some of the calls appeared legitimately off, and he moped.

At one point, Murray was heckled by a lady in the Stands when he kept muttering about the score. He also he played his cat-and-mouse, all-court game.

He simply awed the crowd, which was inattentive at first but came alive when Murray would hit passing shots on the run. Add to that, his serve was better.

I’ve tracked this kid for a number of years. I’ve read all of the articles that say someday, he's going to be a Grand Slam champion. I’m not going to be that generous; instead, I’ll remain cautiously optimistic -- I think he has the makings of a Slam winner, but I think he’s still got a couple of years until he bakes that pie.

In other men's happenings, you can mark the day and save this blog. I’m gonna admit it: Andy Roddick was fantastic in his straight-set (7-6, 6-4) win against Germany’s Benjamin Becker. Roddick only lost four points in his service game in the first set. He bettered himself in the second set, losing only a single point on serve. This wasn’t an easy win for Roddick; he had to work for the win, using unusually diverse shots. His drop shots were especially effective against Becker.

But, even though he wasn’t the better player, Becker still benefitted from the ranking points he's collected here in Memphis. At this time last year, he was still playing Challlengers and hoping to qualify for the senior events. He is definitely a player to watch out for in 2007.

--Lisa McDermott