Ni Hao,

I heard from a friend once who said that he couldn’t decide between two girls. After talking a bit about them both I asked him what their names were, “Milli and Molly” was the reply. I said no wonder he can’t choose between them! It seems as if he didn’t notice the similarity in the names as his response was just, “oh yeah!” Anyway, it can be a little like that when choosing to play tournaments. This past week I chose to play in Beijing for the first time instead of going to Tokyo where I have been many times before. We lost in a close match in the first round so maybe I should have gone with Molly…..

I’m now on my way to Shanghai from Beijing. I’m certainly hoping for a better result in Shanghai. I must say that I am sometimes a little nervous walking around some cities, especially in ones where it is really (REALLY!) obvious that you are a foreigner. A 1.96 metre South African somehow does not blend in too well in China. Generally I have no reason to be nervous though. Speaking of nerves though, it reminds me of someone who said that once they went to watch a movie in Johannesburg and there were gun shots, car-jackings, sirens and car chases – and that was just on the way to the movies! (No seriously, it’s a great country – please come support the 2010 World Cup soccer/football – it’s going to be a great success!)

Hi All,

I’m busy typing this on my flight from Dayton, OH to White Plains, NY. (via Philladelphia) We lost to the Bryans last night. We lost the first set and were 5-1 up in the 2^nd set breaker and it felt as if we lost 6 coin tosses in a row (now that’s unlucky?!?!) to end up losing 13-11 in the 2^nd set breaker. A tie-breaker: Also commonly know as a heart-breaker….

The Bryans, no doubt, were sound asleep and were probably looking forward to playing the semi’s, while I was in my hotel room at midnight trying to plot my next movements across the USA. At 1am I finally decided on a flight and had to go through 3 different websites because they didn’t like the billing address I was using. After that it was on to a car rental, which was a little easier and then I made preparations for arrival with the tournament in New Haven. (Hotel booking, airport pickup etc) I’m arriving Sat afternoon in White Plains and on Sun I’m off to JFK to pick up my wife and daughter (and friend) and then hopefully will make the quick trip back to New Haven, CT.

So....this morning I went to breakfast (at the Marriott in Cincinnati) and I had a quick squizz around to see what they had. All the lids were down and so I noticed this sign for sausages and another for bacon with a little stick-figure man on both (looking as healthy as a stick-figure man can) and the words “FIT carb-conscious” along side our Usain-Bolt-wannabe stick figure. I was suddenly highly impressed with the Marriott and their concern for their guests’ health and so I decided to lift the lids to see this super-duper healthy, low carb….and “FIT” sausage and bacon. However, as I began to lift the lids I wondered why they would put that sign with sausage and bacon? Presumably there would be no carbohydrates in bacon, as it is just protein and fat and the sausages probably have only a very small amount of carbohydrate in them. So for me that was stating the obvious BUT I was still wondering about Stick Man and the word “FIT”. (Yes, I did actually think that all while I was lifting the lids – EFA’s 3, 6 and 9 - $9.99 from WalMart)

Well, to start off, I’d like to apologise to all those avid “Wesley Moodie” blog readers who were eagerly awaiting my next blogging sensation from Wimbledon 2009, only to be let down by a non-appearance. That was due to a combination of writers block, renovations, a semi-final appearance in the doubles, a full house and last but not least, my forever-full-of-energy two year old daughter, Danica.

Well, to touch on Wimbledon….poor Roddick. I’m sure Coach Larry Stefanki did not foresee the importance of practicing Roddicks’ high backhand volley to the open court much. Probably an extra ten high backhand volleys in practice could have won him an extra point in the 2nd set tie-break and given him a two sets to love lead and a very probable Wimbledon victory. Not surprising that Roddick pulled out of Davis Cup and other tournaments. These injuries seem to flare up at the most inconvenient times. (I would have done the same though….) Rogers 15th could be considered a lucky one!