Wednesday Racket (OT) 7.11

I'm happy to report that we will have coverage of the USA vs. Russia Fed Cup tie in 'Vermont this weekend, courtesy of road warrior Ed MCGrogan, who will be winding his way from his bucolic home in Whitesboro, in upstate New York, to the heart of northeastern ski and cow country, Stowe.

Ed may post as early as Friday night (depending on what time he gets to Stowe and what's going on there), and will give you full-on weekend coverage of the matches. This will be a great tie to attend: the U.S. Squad features Venus and Serena Williams (although Serena's injured thumb may keep her from playing) and doubles expert Lisa Raymond, and the Russians will be represented by, among others, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Anna Chakvetadze. You can really get in close proximity to the players at an event like this. If anyone of you are attending and want to hook up with other Tribe members, post a Comment.

Also, I mentioned a while back that I plan to resurrect Tribe Notes, running it as a weekly, stand-alone post that will also serve as an OT (Off-Topic) entry where you can discuss anything you like, including tennis. A few weeks ago, I introduced our TW Social Director, Heidi. Now that Wimbledon is over, she will be posting an entry introducing herself, and giving you an idea of what she might be looking for to get Tribe Notes jump started as regular feature - of course, standard joys and concerns, news of your triumphs and tribulations, will be welcome.

I'm hoping to get Heidi's introductory Tribe Notes posted next week. With Cincinnati and the US Open coming up, many of you will be interested in putting together a TW gathering for people in your region - TN will facilitate those kinds of Tribal interactions.

I am working on a story on the Serbian lasses, Jankovic and Ivanovic, for an upcoming issue of Tennis, so blogging will be sporadic over the next few days,  but I still have a few things left over from Wimbledon, which I'll post in the next day or two.