Root, root, root for the home team Baseball fans can be loyal to a team but this tennis fan is behind them all

Ron Cioffi/TR
Mark Lyons
The once dominant Rafa Nadal fell in the second round to the ace-machine Joachim Johansson.

Every time I attend a sporting event as a fan (and it's becoming very rare these days), I can't help comparing the conversations I hear in the stands to what might be said in tennis stadiums.

Can you imagine one tennis fan saying to other: “Where do all you people come from? Where were you in April when our teams sucked and there were only a handful of us out here rooting on the home team?” The obvious answer for the besieged fan is: Make better use of my entertainment dollar. In my case, when I was confronted one year, I answered that I belonged at a playoff game because I pay and enormous amount in property taxes and by helping subsidize the team, I actually should be given free tickets. I didn't get anywhere.

In the baseball world, fans try to trump each other by pledging their undying loyalty to the team in question. You know: “My grandfather took me to every home game during the 1975 season even though Team X lost 100 games but I loved every minute of it!”

Such were a few of the conversations during the Oakland A’s last two games, one a clinching American League Division Series victory over the Minnesota Twins game and the other an opening game loss to the Detroit Tigers. For most folks, it's all about root, root, root for the home team, regardless of who is on the squad. As a tennis person, I just can't do that, because my mentality is more orientated toward liking or disliking individuals, based on personality and performance.

For example, even though A's third baseman Eric Chavez blew up my fantasy baseball team this year, I like his calm demeanor, have found him to be pretty thoughtful during interviews and love the way he plays the field. With Frank Thomas (aka the Big Hurt), I just keep waiting for him to assault a reporter after a bad game and hate the way he crawls along the basepaths. I pull for Chavez and sit on my hands when Thomas comes up, even though when they are not playing the Mets or Yankees, I pull for the A’s in general.

In tennis, there is no loyalty to a city or the home team, so there is no blind pulling for any players happening to wear a the right color of uniform. There is also no aggressive attacks on home players based on not being a "true" member of the team (i.e., Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees), or too many absurd insults hurled at players of other teams. There is also less of a mob mentality, which makes tennis much more civilized, unless the competition happens to be Davis Cup. Players are respected and disrespected more for who they really are, even when fans of certain players are real fanatics.

What are common to every sporting event are the absurd prices for food and drink, but I have to say that the offerings are much improved over the ‘70s, when I recall throwing up a warm cherry soda into my grandfather's lap at Shea Stadium. On Tuesday night, as we chugged down Sierra Nevadas, Inside Tennis’ Richard Osborn also reminded me of how bad the beer was back in the '70s and early '80s, starting with the warm Harry M. Stevens brew they used to serve in paper cups in Queens. Pure pee. BTW on baseball: for a fine running blog on the A's-Tigers, go to sfgate.com and read Bruce Jenkins, who has delighted many of you from Wimbledon and the USO.

So much for challenging Roger Federer again any time soon. Rafael Nadal was out-aced by Joachim Johansson 6-4, 7-6(4) at the Stockholm Open. Pim-Pim powered 17 aces in the win. James Blake beat the other Johansson, Thomas, 6-3, 6-2. Rafa better start training hard in defense of his TMS Madrid title.

Vienna has a solid field, with Ivan Ljubicic posting a 6-3, 6-3 win over Florian Mayer, Novak Djokovic taking a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Tomas Zib and Andy "I Am Top 5" Roddick besting Jose Acasuso 6-0, 7-6(2). The 24-year-old Roddick faces Richard Gasquet in the next round. Just in case you were wondering, Dominic Hrbaty beating Tommy Haas is not an upset.

We will shortly end the Russian Fed Cup discussion, but this important news came across on Eurosport: Elena Dementieva said she'll welcome Maria Sharapova to Russia's team next year.

"If she plays it's going to be very helpful for the team," Dementieva said. ”She's a very strong player and we have a lot of chances to win if she's playing." Dementieva added that she's now okay with her father, Yuri. "I don't see any problems with her father. He's an emotional guy but it is nothing to do with his daughter. Maria is a nice girl and I don't see any problems."

At the Kremlin Cup, Vera Zvonareva buried Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3, but don't expect her to back that up. Sharapova edged qualifier Ekaterina Bychkova 6-4, 7-5 and said she was a little sloppy. Nadia Petrova crushed the coach-less Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-2, 6-2, while Patty Schnyder thumped Chanda Rubin 6-3, 6-0, who should be playing Challengers.

On the men's side, Nikolay Davydenko took a 6-4, 6-2 second-round victory over Teimuraz Gabashvili, but Dmitry Tursunov fell 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 to Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky.