Let’s be honest folks. As one who has given myself up to the tennis gods and created a tennis blog, I’m a tennis nerd. I spend a lot of time watching it, reading, and being in the know. I have people’s tweets go to my phone so I’m always on top of things.

So then how ridiculous is that in one day away from the game, I can’t keep up with the amount of injuries?

Superhero Sam busted up her forcep and lost. Rusty Lleyton is out of Toronto. Venus has knee pain, and is advised not to play until said knee pain goes away, so she’s withdrawn from Cincy, and no word on Montreal (did I not totally call that she would skip out of Montreal cause her sister wouldn’t be there?). It could also be coincidence, but Tree isn’t playing Toronto and no one really seems to know why (if you do, hit me up, I haven’t been able to find out why).

There was some grumblings before the hard court season about injuries. It’s been a pretty ridiculous year for injuries, many wondered who would be out (or left…) come USO times. Obviously some huge gaps already, with Justine and Delpo missing the USO, Serena missing the whole hard court season, and a whole other slew of injuries as well as less serious ones causing players to retire from matches.

It’s been such a rough year for injuries, this 2010. I really hope the ATP and WTA sit down and have some serious talks about injuries and the tour schedule. Here’s an idea: screw with the ranking system a bit, and how points are awarded. Just an idea.

Weapons: Loves grass more than the hippies, excellent shot selector, willing to play psycho aggressive.
Weaknesses: A bit past the best before date, a little too psycho sometimes.

Start that lawnmower! How’s this for consistency? Lleyton has made at least the fourth round of nine of his last ten Wimbledons. Oh, and he won it in 2002. That’s pretty damn impressive. We’ve all seen Lleyton chew up grass like it’s his day job. Hell, if he beat Dick last year (they went to five) he might have snuck himself into the final. Coming off a huge win over Fed in the Halle final, the dude is clearly playing well and is full of confidence. Rusty Lawnmower isn’t a floater, he’s got a serious chance of going far here.

Well, well, well. Have a banana everyone.

Stupid ass Hanescu fell to Rusty Lawnmower, in what ended up being a rather epic match, that finished in a third set tiebreak. Rusty was looking… well, Rusty, but so was Hanescu. Which meant a lot of dumb errors, and a decent amount of solid rallies. And a whole lot of “come on!”s from Rusty, which was usually when I flipped to my stream. “Oh what the hell do you want Lleyton? Yeah that wasn’t THAT exciting.” Anyway, somehow, despite Australia having the best doubles player out of the four of them (Superhero) Team Romania came out 7-5, 6-1. Dunno, didn’t see it. But don’t mess with Banana, y’all. Kind of really hoping she can make a push for the top 20 this year, she’s got the game, easily.

In a sort of interesting match-up, Spain (T-Rob and MJMS) take on USA (Oudin and Tree). So pretty well, Spain just need to win one of their singles matches, and they’ve got it. Because Mel and Tree? Neither are that good, and chances are Queen Volleyer MJMS could beat the two of them with Bozo the Clown on her team. Whatevs, fucking tennis is back y’all, I’ll be watching (and MJMS’s throwback serve and volley can be fun to watch, and I’m curious to see how Mel is looking).

Well, that’s impressive. Rusty Lawnmower took out Tree 2 and 4 in just over an hour and 15, without being broken. Not exactly what happened to Tree, he had that huge win over Dick at the USO, great American hard court season, and has been kinda absent ever since. As for Rusty, at 28, the dude has put together a pretty solid year and could find himself in the top 20 before the year is over.

A couple other interesting results include Nic Almagro firing 23 aces on his way to taking out Kohlswhatever in a third set tiebreak, and the big Berd taking out Marin in three. Those Czech boys sure do know how to handle their Croats.

In other WTF news:

Dick apparently fell awkwardly on his ankle and then needed… leg… and back massages?… and then retired in the first set against Stan The Man. He’s apparently headed straight back to the US. Yeah, reluctant to strike, but not reluctant to get the hell out of Asia. He still shouldn’t have much trouble qualifying for London anyway.

Lots of other business as usual stuff, Old Men Ljubs and Haas, Monf, Koyla, Gonzo and Steps all winning. And Pico losing badly on hard courts once again. WTF dude. I know you’re a clay specialist, but you CAN win a match on hard courts, you’re allowed. Really.

Muzz apparently brought his game face today, laying JCF to waste pretty easily, 75 63 62. Props to JCF for making it this far as a wild card, but I don’t think anyone thought this would be much of a contest.  I didn’t see the match, but I sure hope the test against Stan helped Muzz  realize you can’t stumble out of the gate against the best.  Muzz had 18 aces, 49 winners, and only lost serve once. I (and the rest of Britain) will definitely take those numbers.

Put it back in your pants! Dick Slap took out Rusty Lawnmower in what sounds like was quite the epic 5 setter. Both players play pretty similar, a game that is great for grass, and it shouldn’t be too surprising that The Scales Of Mo landed pretty evenly on this match. Dick fired 41 43 aces compared to the ‘Mower’s  21, which I’m sure is a good point in the fact that Dick’s firepower is just a little less rusty.

This leaves us with the highly anticipated Andy/Andy semifinal. Stats? Muzz leads the head to head 6-2, including a win on grass (straight sets) in the round of 32, at Wimbledon in 2006. Muzz has also won the last three matches, dating back to 2007.  The Scales Of Mo already lean towards Muzz, to be sure.

Muzz’s record against Fed? 6-2, with all matches on hard courts. I’m not saying anything. I’m just sayin’.