When it rains, it pours...

Raining & pouring.

So... The Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai just keeps getting hammered.
First, it was difficult to get a full card of participants to play here.
Hewitt, Roddick and Safin all begged off with injuries or other reasons.
Now, Nadal has withdrawn before playing even one match, and Agassi has bailed after losing his first.

At least Nadal did it with some class, talked to the Tournament Director and the ATP before making an announcement. In addition, he is sticking around and doing some schmoozing with sponsors and doing stints signing autographs for the fans. He's making a few points in my book, even if he does wear capris. Agassi made his announcement in his post game press conference- catching the ATP and the Tournament flat-footed... Not a good thing. In addition, he was on the first flight out of Shanghai this morning. No bedtime story, no kiss goodbye. Tacky tacky.

The TD and the rest of the organizers are ready to slit their wrists. The have a bunch of big-money sponsors who have underwritten this event and are pissed that the are watching Puerta Vs. Gaudio not Roddick vs. Safin. Not to mention the Government of the PRC, who are pissed- it is a respect thing...
The are questioning if there is something wrong with the tournament. Are the organizers doing something wrong? And you don't want the Chinese Govrnment asking hard questions like that...

A great quote from the OC -

"We feel like we bought a Mercedes-Benz only to find 60 percent of the auto parts are no longer the original ones we paid for," Wang Liqun, deputy director of the organising committee, said.

Oh well...

For us, things are going well...
Have a look at the gallery- there are a couple good pics of the ribbon boards out there...

Gallery

Let's see - what else...

Since we head to the site at about 9 AM or so, and don't get back until 11:00pm, I've been eating at the Sino-Colonel's Dumpling house... The soup dumplings are awesome... And Cheap.
After several days of eating, or should I say overeating, at the hotel buffet for breakfast and dinner, an order or two of dumplings are perfect.
These are soup dumplings, and at buck for 6 of them, it is a deal! The buffet was between 16 and 20 dollars, depending on what time you go to the restaurant.

Onward-

By the way- the pics on the Gallery from the restaurant were taken at a Hot Pot restaurant... Our local contact Jocelyn Huang arranged a sumptuous repast... Lots more on that later...

Film at 11...

TBG Out-