Rajeev Ram may have lost today to two-time Grand Slam Champion Lleyton Hewitt in a three setter to past Hall of Fame Tennis Champion Ram, but the memory of Rajeev dominating Kei Nishikori in Wednesday’s quarterfinal is still fresh in my mental cache. It takes a lot to get Nishikori to start dropping F-bombs midway through the first set, but that is exactly what happened twenty seconds into the three-minute video above.
May I also say that there’s no place like home? Judy Garland may have laid claim to it already. But the broadband at home is 6 times faster than any of the hotels and media centers on the road. And the waterfront cottage where I spent my off time was powered by a phone. And in 1990’s ‘style of the time’, I literally ran out of the internet in 2 days. 5GB a month was chewed up in 48 hours, and I couldn’t even upload a photo after that. The Ram video loaded in 8 minutes back at the old Baltimore rowhouse, which would have been 95 anywhere else during my travels in Little Rhody or Greater Tennisdom, for that matter.
So, Lleyton and Isner? I know who I don’t want. I’ll let you know tomorrow.
Tennis Atlantic 
Return Serve?