Well (starting off the paragraph with another "well" you see), as I might have said I've secured a role in the Estrado theatre group's upcoming play The Road (it was just Road initially but that's been changed), which is an adaptation of the play by Jim Cartwright, which took place back in England in the early 80's under Thatcher's regime, and how the unemployed affected people back then. The difference with Estrado's version is that its updated to contemporary day Glasgow. The role is of McVay, a grumpy cantankerous old git, who doesn't like his peace being disturbed and his wife winds him up all the time. Initially it was to be a very small role, but our director Thom McEwan has very kindly extended the role to incorporate a full scene between McVay and Mrs McVay (or Jim and Ingrid being their first names) where they discuss their lack of communication. The scene is a work in progress but its shaping up nicely and we did a re-write so to speak last night with Thom, which I've just read and is looking really good already. The scene is again going to be something of an emotional piece, which reminds me of The Glass Menagerie, since doing the Menagerie I actually feel that bit more comfortable taking on more dramatic roles, but there will be some comic elements to McVay too. But I'm hoping this scene will be funny and touching all at once. Estrado are also having a fundraiser night tomorrow so there will be plenty of activity there with some of the cast/crew doing some live music, comedy and other stuff, so should be interesting and fun. The cast of the play is very big indeed with well over 30 people in it, so it will also be a nice way to meet up and chat with some of them more, than we've had before now.
In fact just back in from the Fundraiser night and it was a lot of fun, there were some good fun acts from some of the Estrado members (including the director Thom, who told a hilarious joke!) and also a great funky band to whom the name I don't know who played a fair bit of the night, and John Rodgers from the Estrado cast did some fine covers of T-Rex songs including 20th Century Boy (his guitar sounded just like it does in the track!). So all in all it was a good night and well worth going along to support the Estrado drama group, I hope they get the funding they are looking for their future shows. And we have another rehearsal for The Road on Sunday coming, which should be good. My only concern with Thom having changed the name of the play from Road to The Road might pre-empt alot of people into thinking they are coming to see an adaptation of the Viggo Mortensen film, but of course its not. Perhaps they should put that in the posters and flyers, this is nothing to do with the film of the same name. ;-)
Now guess what? Guess what? (OK I am the only person (that I know of) that's reading this!). More tennis!
I've been following the WTA tennis and the ATP results too, and on the WTA side of tennis there has been a couple of surprises in yesteday's matches. The first surprise saw Caroline Wozniacki, who was up against the world no 23, Andrea Petkovic, crash out as she lost to the Petkovic in 3 sets, the result being 7-5 3-6 6-3 to Petkovic. I had caught the first few games of the match last night before I went out and I could already see Petkovic was fighting back with a great deal of self assurance, exploiting the weakeness in Caroline's game which is her forehand. It just shows even if you are number 1 in the world there will always be some surprising upsets in your game.
Which brings me onto the second surprise of the day, which was the match between Agnieszka Radwanska and Francesca Schiavone, which on paper sounded like a terrific battle was going to take place. But it was unfortunately a big disappointment as Schiavone struggled to get anything going at all against Radwanska, making a record number of double faults (20 I think!) and over 50 unforced errors, with the first set being a disastrous 6-0 loss to Schiavone. In the second set Schiavone fought back a bit more, and the opening game featured a terrific rally from both players, but unfortunately Schiavone still produced too many errors and lost the match with a poor score of 6-2 to Radwanska. In fact it was so poor it made Andy Murray's defeat look not too bad in comparsion, mind you at least Schiavone made it that far into the tournament! I think though Schiavone has struggled to get past the 4th round at Miami in the past and this year was no exception, it also marked her first defeat to Radwanska in their last five meetings. So today see's Jelena Jankovic who is back on form take on Andrea Petkovic, and Ana Ivanovic taken on Kim Clijsters.
And on another surprising up turn Andrea Petkovic carried on with her winning streak as she defeated world no 7 Jelena Jankovic in a very tight close 3 set battle, finally scoring 2-6 6-2 6-4, in what turned out to be a cracking match after a slow start. Andrea who is now into the semi final, is starting to look like a firm favourite if not to at least win the title but definitely getting into the final, her play has been incredibly strong and on court she shows a great deal of positive energy and confidence, as well as doing her cheesy dances after her victories. I actually quite like Andrea, she's got a positive attitude, she's a terrific player, and let's face it, she's pretty nice looking too! In fact I watched a video of her at the Australian Open interviewing a few players on the tour and she's pretty funny, a really good sense of humour, in fact you could almost say she's the female Novak Djokovic, in her video they shared a funny moment where Novak said she's the most beatiful player on the tour, and after she slipped him a 100 dollars for it! Another thing about her I like is how she plays and reacts when scoring points she does it in a completely non-girly way, she has a real tomboy quality about her in her style, which I have to say is rather sexy.
Following that match were two other absolute crackers which alas I wasn't able to see, Kim Clijsters in the 4th round battled it out with Ana Ivanovic to a very tight 3 set match, Kim came back from 5-1 games down in the 3rd set to make it 5-5 all, and carried onto a tiebreak, again she was 5 match points down and she made them up all the way and took the game to the foxy Ana and defeated her. Kim Clijsters from this match alone has proved what an incredible champion she is, she really is the female Roger Federer of her time, the fact she can come back from the 5-1 down is the sort of thing Federer frequently did back in his heyday (and still does to an extent). The other amazing match was a lengthy battle between Maria Sharapova and Alexandra Delgheru which was stretched to an incredible 3 hours and 30 minutes, where Maria defeated Alexandra by 3-6 7-6 7-6. I caught the last couple of minutes of it, but it appeared to be an absolute belter of a match. On other news, Vera Zvonareva is through to the semis having defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets 7-5 6-3, so she'll face Victoria Azarenka ( the mad grunter!) who in another surprising turn defeated Kim Clijsters in straight sets 6-3 6-3.
In the first semi finals match Maria Sharapova and Andrea Petkovic battled it out against blustery conditions on court, with the first set Petkovic took control, but in the 2nd Maria came right back in and steamrolled over Petkovic, and pretty much kept her control in the 3rd apart from a few double faults, that let Petkovic back into the game. But Sharapova came back and won the match 3-6 6-0 6-2, which marks her third final at Miami, and with other women's semi final remaining between Vera Zvonareva and Victoria Azarenka, which should be a fine match, on paper Vera might have the edge, but its hard to say how it will go since they are both great players. However as it turned out Azarenka defeated Vera quite convincingly with a 6-0 6-3 win, which means it will be the battle of the screams on Saturday afternoon Sharapova vs Azarenka, should be a good match but for the audience get your earplugs ready!! Its gonna be a loud one!!! I hope Sharapova wins as its been good to see her come back into the game after so many injuries and time out, she already has an impressive record behind her with 3 grand slam wins, at the Australian and US Open and Wimbledon, and this will see her get back into the top 10. Plus she's also so hungry and determined to get back into the big time and win the big titles and winning the Sony Ericsson Open would be the perfect place to start.
On the ATP side of the tour, top seeds Federer and Nadal managed to get through their matches to reach the 4th round. Federer had a fairly tough match against Juan Monaco, as he eventually won the watch 7-6(4) 6-4. Nadal faired better against his fellow spaniard Feliciano Lopez winning 6-3 6-3. And well Djokovic so far has been doing his usual demolition jobs against his last two opponents, one of which was James Blake, whom he defeated 6-0 6-2. Its surprising to see just how unrelenting Djokovic is in his play just now, as he's really destroying the opposition, but funny how with Federer and Nadal you can take a few games off them and even give them some discomfort before they win. Unfortunately due to rain delays Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Alexandr Dolgopolov's match was interrupted, but it looked to be a fairly tight 3 set match before it was called off, which the Dog eventually won, and went on to face Nadal who defeated Dogly in straight sets 6-1 6-2.
In the quarter finals Djokovic had a tough match against the south african Kevin Anderson, who he defated in straight sets 6-4 6-2, despite the scores Djokovic said the match itself was really tough and didn't reflect the score board. Djokovic will go on to face Mardy Fish who defeated David Ferrer in straight sets 7-5 6-2, which will leave it a tough match to call as Mardy is on top form just now as well as he previously defeated Del Potro and Richard Gasquet. Mardy has also as a result of his win against Ferrer has become the top US player in tennis will enter the top 10 for the first time, as he will replace Andy Roddick in the rankings. And Roger and Rafa also have their quarter final matches today against Gilles Simon and Tomas Berdych respectively. I initially though that Roger's match would be the tougher of the two, but it was quite the reverse, mainly in part due to the fact that Gilles Simon had to retire due to a neck injury after 3 games. Rafa's match went to a 3 set stretch as the two of them had it out, with Rafa gaining the upper hand very early on in the first set, however in the second Rafa showed signs of struggling as he needed treatment for his shoulder which helped Berdych take the second set, but in the end Rafa triumphed in the 3rd, winning 6-2 3-6 6-3. So it will be the dream semi-final after all Roger vs Rafa. Can't wait to follow that one! Unfortunately and rather predictably for Mardy Fish, he couldn't withstand Djokovic and was defeated in straight sets in the semi final 6-3 6-1, it makes for a disappointing result but to be entirely expected. But all credit to Djokovic who has had an exceptional start to the year and he's a terrific player so it looks very possible he will take his 4th title of the year and remain unbeaten on hard court. The clay court season looms though, so will he be able to dominate Rafa? Hmmmm, most possibly not, we shall see.
Right that's enough of that.
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