For awhile Henin and Dulko were both having nightmares, but in the third set Justine managed to out-ugly Gisela and bit the dust. I was listening to Ken Thomas on RadioTennis.com say, “10 eunforced errors in 10 minutes!” after Justine barfed the 1^st game and proceeded to lose the next few. She reversed the score in the 2^nd, then promptly got busted in the 3^rd and lost it to Gisela, who hung on through her own nerves. Like I said, ugly. Justine left the court disgusted with her UEs and double-faults.

She had to pull it together to return a few hours later to play the charity exo with partner Navratilova against Graf and Davenport, and sure enough, with the pressure off, she was juicing in her 1^st serve, no problem. She didn't have it against Dulko. Ol' Stef still has the best legs ever in tennis. Martina was MVP and mouth of the match. There's always gotta be one in an exo, I guess. The net girls took it. Justine won the last point, and my guess is she felt better for having spent time with three great ladies. Now she must regroup for Miami.

After that, Federer and Sampras outlasted Nadal and Agassi, who as mouth needled everyone. It stopped being funny when he finally stepped over the line baiting Pete. That after insulting him in his talk-too-much book. The commentators remarked that Rogi and Rafi were maybe feeling uncomfortable, since those two are much nicer to each other. The dynamics of the guys' exo got much tenser and it was uncomfortably quiet for a game or two, but the tennis was better than the girls', sometimes really amazing.

Justin Gimelstob the MC came out doing the changeover and tried to soothe ruffled feathers. Pete and Rafi aren't talkers oncourt, they just play. Maybe Pete will still be blasting aces when he's 90. Betcha he felt really, really good winning the last point and making Baldy eat his words yet another time. I liked that too. I wonder what it would have been like with Djokovic there being a second mouth? But he's learned to control his mouth better than Agassi, I think.

Rogi has a new sharper haircut. His volleys failed him badly at one point and he mumbled something like, “Thank God I have another day to practice.” And then both he and Pete fumbled overheads, which was pretty remarkable.

Thank goodness some players still know how to take the net in doubs, I say. The place was full, Tony Bennett came out and sang, and Larry Ellison the owner of the tournament came out with a cool million $ gift for Haiti. All good, in the end.

FUZZED

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