Jim Courier at UCLA

Jim Courier defeated John McEnroe last night 6-3, 4-6, 10-4 which he had done twice before in his career.  But this was the first time main stream America was able to visit inside Courier’s head during the match.  Jim Courier sent updates to his ~900 Twitter followers at each change over.  This was a unique opportunity to understand the self-talk that occurs in a champion’s mind during a contest.  I have added below a sample of Courier’s Tweets:

This historic event illustrates Twitter’s unique role.  Twittering is similar to sending short text messages which anyone can read if they ‘follow’ you on Twitter.com.  Twitter is also similar to Facebook’s status updates, however Twitter offers users the ability to send out updates in a less personal way as their is no need to ‘friend’ each follower.

Highlights from Jim Courier’s Live Twitter During His Exhibition Matches on May 2nd, 2009:

Just landed in Rome. Literally. Rome, NY is the airfield we used to land for the exo. Quick trip. 45 mins from nyc.

6-7 get nervous/stretch/pace endlessly. 7pm go-time, 2 out of 3 sets vs Mac. Mixed dubs to follow w/Anna K-Tracy A (my partner).

20 min warm up was good. Right on schedule. 1 hour til go-time. Court’s good. Medium fast. Lights are dim so a little tough picking the ball

Sharing locker room w/Mac. Will start intimidating him in 30 mins

Gotta regrip a few sticks now/snack on some fruit/turkey. Get some water down. Usual tedium pre-match

Kentucky Derby on in locker room…no interest-gotta focus on match.

Super trainer Gary Kitchell just stretched me out. Loose and ready to roll. A/b 20 til walk out. Extra shoes-grips-wristbands-strings-sticks

All in the bag and set to go. Heart rate-100 and starting to climb. Normal resting rate is 48

Mets are on the tube now in the locker room. Mac is getting pissed. This is good. Every little bit counts.

Good crowd…here we go

Mac 2-1 on serve. Ball’s moving fast w/ppl in bldg. Feel good so far.

Got the break 3-2. Mac df on bp. I need to stay down and go after fh more. Covering it too much. Stay slow on 1st serve. Rushing a bit

Starting to flow a bit. 4-3. Fh better those 2 games. Mac using change up serve-got to lay back a bit to counter it

6-3 JC. Mini McFreak. Broke a stick. Some shaky calls out here. I start serve 2nd set. Feeling better now. Got to keep driving the ball

Gotta keep him off the net. IO fh is working and slice bh too

2-1 jc on serve. Keep aggressive on his serve works well. Almost broke 2nd game. He’s edgy

3-2. Tight service game. Was down bp. Served out of it. Rushed that game 2 dbl flts. Relax!!!

Gagged a fh sitter to lose serve 4-3 mac. Gotta refocus. Loose game there

Gotta break. Stay down and rip returns. No cute shots

4-6. 10 pt breaker for 3d now.

10-4 in the breaker my way…served huge and ripped some passing shots. Felt good to finish big.

I hit a rick-donk-u-lous slice angle pass to go up 2 minibreaks off of a sick mac approach. Yee haw

Now the mixed

Some sick pts…2-1 we’re up on serve. AK great hands. Tracy’s pissed at a bad call

3-2 on serve. Tracy dominating the net but AK ripping too. Guys r wallflowers so far

Almost killed AK w/an oh. Nearly took her midsection out…she’s ok and we’re up 4-1

Tracy just gagged and cost me my serve!

6-4 other way. I gagged it. Had 2 bp’s on my stick. Oops

5-2. In control of set 2. I have the worst hands on court but…we’re ahead now

They just reeled off winner after winner. 10-3 for them in the breaker…whew. I’m tired

Ok…that was a lot of posting. Hopefully it made some sense at times. It was a fun nite of tennis w/a good crowd-vibe. Worse ways to spend

View all of Jim Courier’s Twitter Updates Here:  http://twitter.com/jimcourier

Lepchenko at Indian Wells

Ponte Vedra Beach Singles Results:

Varvara Lepchenko lost a close match to Tamira Paszek 6-3, 3-6, 4-6.  After 8 breaks of serve, Paszek took the final and pivotal 9th break of serve and the match.  Although Paszek had 7 double faults and made only 47% of her first serves, her aggresive serving approach resulted in an 81% winning percentage on her first serve points and 50% of her second serve points.  Lepchenko double faulted only once in the match and made 74% of her first serves, but lost 42% of the first serve points and lost 66% of her second serve points.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands also lost her contest vs. Daniela Hantuchova 3-6, 5-7.  Mattek-Sands (w/Petrova) will take on Chuang & Mirza in the doubles draw tomorrow.

Ponte Vedra Beach Doubles Results:

Angela Haynes in Indian Wells

#1 seed Lisa Raymond (w/ Peschke) defeated Carly Gullickson (w/ Chan) 6-0, 7-5, and Angela Haynes (w/ Dekmeijere) advanced in two tight sets over Peng & Yan 7-6(3), 6-4.

An all American ATP Legends match will be played after the women’s night match between Hantuchova & Wozniacki.

Todd Martin and Brian Gottfried will take on David Witt and Malvai Washington.