Rain or shine?!?!

After sitting through the start of stormy weather at noon today, I figured it was just going to stay that way until Saturday, but I was wrong, the clouds parted, the sun showed its face, and things started to dry. At around 3pm, the courts were still really wet, and were going to stay that way, but 530pm Competitors was still going to happen. Coach Ped and I tried to dry the courts with the rollers that we had available, we got the court somewhat dry, and had class, two kids showed up. I was happy that they came out, and endured the slick courts and listened to all the instruction that Ped and I were giving, and I was really pleased with the results. Competitor's theme was to learn how to drive the ball cross court through the baseline instead of angling the ball off the court into the singles sideline, an advanced drill, but effective if you can master it. Forehands were great, but backhands were a little shaky, but we only needed to tweak both players' footwork, and what they were doing with their hands on that particular side. Result deep backhand rallies crosscourt. Hip loading and the step down are important in learning how to drive the ball deep. Great class, looking forward to the next dry day, hoping the rain doesn't take over. Now watching the Lakers close out a win against the Magic and Roger Federer struggle at the Aussie??!?!?! Early round jitters? His footwork doesn't seem as clean, and at first glance he looks....older. His strokes require so much precision with his footwork, if he's off one step he'll look off balance the whole day. Much like Sharapova looked yesterday, Fed looks to be struggling, Nadal was able to pull off a bad day first round showing, because he wears his opponents down with those high loopy heavy groundstrokes, and he'll just sit out there all day long until you miss. Federer likes to intimidate his opponents, and doesn't like to give them space on the court, and if those pinpoint angles and forehands aren't there, it equals a long day ahead. Wind a factor? Let's not forget that Andreev is out there as well, so he has to play with the elements as well. Let's see what happens.