Off Week and Some Fun

Regarding Rainer
Rainer isn't playing in an event this week, but there are still things going on that can be grouped together for an entry. Of course there is still some talk about Germany falling out of the World Group, but I'll keep all that contained to the Davis Cup posting, so check there for further articles and mentions.

Schuettler is preparing for the AIG Open in Japan (also known as AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships 2003), which runs Monday 29 September to Sunday 5 October. He was seeded second behind Andy Roddick, however the American withdrew on Wednesday and Rainer has become the top seed. Earlier in the week Roddick also withdrew from the Thailand event due to the hamstring injury. Other German players who will also participate in the Japan Open are Nicolas Kiefer, Lars Burgsmuller and Alexander Waske. On a side note, I am happy to report that Sjeng Schalken isn't going to play in this tournament.
Rainer and Lars Burgsmuller see their first action in the AIG Open as a doubles team Monday on Court 2. They face Humphries and Merklein who as a team were finalists in Costa Do Sauipe and semifinalists in Los Angeles. Nicolas Kiefer is playing with Justin Gimelstob and Rainer's previous partner Yves Allegro is paired with Petr Luxa.

Other tennis related items...

• The first ATP event in Thailand is going on this week, and the Bangkok event has provided some interesting results. Local hero Paradorn Srichaphan was upset by Ivan Ljubicic, the sixth seed, 46 76(4) 75. Ljubicic, you may recall, was involved in the war of the words after losing to Roddick in the US Open. He next takes on the top seed, Juan Carlos Ferrero - whom he has beaten twice before. Another upset came when Jarkko Nieminen (#5) defeated third seeded Carlos Moya 67(5) 64 64. However, their runs came to an end as the eight seed Taylor Dent defeated Nieminen 76(3) 62 and Ferrero dispatched Ljubicic 63 63. In the finals, Dent nabbed his second title of the year and career third in beating Juan Carlos Ferrero 63 76(5). Ferrero keeps his #1 ranking and next prepares for Vienna.
  Reuters had this quick JCF mention: World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero hinted that he might miss the Australian Open in January as he needs time to recover from a hectic 2003 season. Ferrero, who is expected to travel to Melbourne with the Spanish team for the Davis Cup final against Australia in November, said he needs a long rest before beginning his 2004 campaign. Asked if he would be returning to Australia just six weeks after playing the Nov. 28-30 Davis Cup final, he said: "I don't know. If I finish the year No. 1 and we win the Davis Cup at the end of November, I will have done everything. Then I would find it very difficult to practice again straight away to be ready for the Australian Open," added the French Open champion after reaching his sixth final of the season at the Thailand Open on Saturday. Ferrero achieved his best result at the Australian Open, which begins on Jan. 19, this year when he reached the quarterfinals.



• The third seed Mark Philippoussis downed top-seeded Jiri Novak 62 61 to take the ATP Heineken Open in Shanghai. Both players now head to Japan for the AIG Open.



• Yes, this is Davis Cup related, but not Rainer or German related... there was a great photo in this week's Sports Illustrated of Lleyton Hewitt reacting to a point during his amazing come-from-near-defeat win over Federer (57 26 76(4) 75 61) to advance Australia to the finals. This is a poor copy of it, but the only version I can find online at this point. In reality it's crystal clear and Hewitt is looking right at you, yelling in triumph, you can almost feel him cheering in your face. I think this match was a great example of how much the Davis Cup means to the players and to those fans who follow tennis even somewhat regularly. "The feeling I had out there on centre court when I was serving for the match, you just want to box that up and keep it forever," he said. Lleyton stated after the match that the victory meant more to him than winning Wimbledon and the US Open - please people, reread that - that shows you how much these players want their country to taste Davis Cup glory. That photo helped show it, even to those non-tennis fans.



• Agassi withdraws from three European tournaments. Two of these are Tennis Masters Series (Madrid and Paris) events.

Indulge me...
In doing this site for almost a month, I have already come across literally 400+ photos of Rainer Schuettler, with about 98% of them all being on the court. However, for my own dorky reasons, I wanted to publish my favorite... and wouldn't ya know, it's not tennis-related.

I've been skiing since I was 4 and it's the one thing in my life that I can see myself doing in fifty-some years if I make it to a healthy 80. I think I like the photo most because you can tell he's having fun, as I would be if I were skiing in Europe (Diablerets Glacier) in July - if even for a few runs. I also like it because it makes me "think snow" as I am already looking forward to hitting the slopes. My best year skiing was a few years ago when I set my record of 73 days in a season, and that was all while working full-time.
The photo is from the ATP Insider and shot while Rainer was in Gstaad for the Swiss Open. A couple things to note... do check out the cross-promotion of Head Racquets with his Head Skis (of course the Fila sweatshirt), official Phenix pants (not into fashion, just used to work in a ski shop, I'm a N Face/Helly Hansen girl), and the reason as to why the picture is so frighteningly large... check out the lift on those bindings! (For non-skiers it's the gap between the bottom of the boot and the ski, has to do with edge hold and carving; the bigger the lift, the harder the carve but the more precise you have to be.) As shaped skis grow in popularity, some people sometimes do a centimeter or so lift, but that gap he has is certainly much larger. The skier in me would assume he was into some big speed and great turns, but I would wager that he has a pair of bump skis stashed somewhere.
It leads to another question I'd want answered by Rainer, what's the DIN?

Let's all just hope Rainer has a busy schedule and stays healthy because for the next "Off Week" I could post one of the two "funniest Rainer" photos I've come across.