Forty Deuce

Stacey Allaster's Pet Project Go To

I have this mental image of her at a SEWTA board meeting taking questions about the business value of on-court coaching, and just hitting play on one of the myriad videos of the Best Little Dysfunctional Couple In Tennis:

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

The commentators not being able to stand it anymore and dissolving into giggles halfway through really makes it. 

It's Official... (UPDATE)

She's in.

After a tough first round match (nerves? anger? both?), Yanina dropped a total of one game to officially qualify for the AO main draw.  She (and the other qualifiers) will be slotted into the draw Saturday night, Australia time (so... basically, in a couple of hours).  Seeds who could play a qualifier early include Sam, Ana, Kim and A-Bond (1r) and CSN, Ana (again), Dani, Flavs, Aravane, A-Bond (again), Masha and Dinara (2r).

UPDATE: Yanina has, indeed, been slotted into Sveta's quarter.  She's on track to play Flavia in the second round.  I would just like to say that (a) I totally called it and (b) wow, that quarter is a Slam unto itself. I'd be okay if we just pretended that was the whole draw.

A Joke About Chicken Legs Seemed Cruel, Considering

Gilles Simon is the latest AO withdrawl, due to his lingering right knee injury.  Godspeed, Poussin.

Pic This: Gravity-- It's The Law

 
See, it's not like how water swirls the other way.  It works exactly the same Down Under, Marcos.

Sara just won't stop complaining about those Samurai assholes.

Crib notes?


The scariest of the scary places-- inside a Safin's head.


Kind of like one of those optical illusions-- some people will look at this and see a picture of Ana Ivanovic.  I look at it and see a picture of Sven.  And start giggling.  Those shorts, dude.

One of the things that makes this photo great is that you can barely tell who its of.

Apricot Bars NOM NOM NOM.

Well-framed.  But I miss the hair.


One more Marcos, just for good measure.  That's a whole other kind of "OPA!!!"

Ermmmm... Nole?

I don't usually take notice of exhibition matches, especially when they're the time-filler, exhibition-at-an-exhibition type matches.

But this one... yeah, that one was noticeable.

For Christ's sake, Novak, if nothing else, don't encourage the Tomics.  They's cah-razy.

 
Only 17 and already wearing a headband in a completely douchey manner.  Tragique.

Saturday OOPs

Auckland

Hobart

Centre (from 12.00hrs)
1. Singles Final: Alona Bondarenko vs. Shahar Peer
2. Doubles Final: Chan/Niculescu vs. Chuang/Peschke

Kooyong
Centre (from 13.00hrs)

1. Novak Djokovic vs. Bernard Tomic

2. Fernando Verdasco vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
3. Pat Cash vs. Henri Leconte

Sydney

 

OPA!!!

There's something just inherently happy about Marcos. And it's even inherently happier when he wins. Of course, big bonus if he beats someone like Mardy Fish, Sockless Wonder on the way. Also, he really brings the, um, "atmosphere" to AO, so it's so great that he's back and seemingly playing pretty well.

One more, for good measure.

 

Auckland
Singles - Semi-finals
A Clement (FRA) d [5] P Kohlschreiber (GER) 63 76(2)
J Isner (USA) d [8] A Montanes (ESP) 62 76(5)

Hobart
Singles - Semifinals
(4) Alona Bondarenko (UKR) d. (1) Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) 46 63 64
(2) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. Sara Errani (ITA) 62 60

Kooyong
Fernando Gonzalez CHI (11) d. Ivan Ljubicic CRO (24) 64 76(9-7)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (10) d. Tommy Haas GER (18) 64 63
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR d. Sam Querrey 75 63

Sydney
Women's Singles - Final
(5) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. (1) Serena Williams (USA) 63 62

Men's Singles - Semi-finals
R Gasquet (FRA) d J Benneteau (FRA) 64 75
M Baghdatis (CYP) d M Fish (USA) 64 67(7) 76(5)

Why Bother?

So, Elena beat Serena in Sydney.  Again.  And word on the street is that Elena looked amazing and Serena looked hobbled and error-prone.  Again.  I get my hopes up momentarily only to have them cruelly dashed two weeks and a bit later.  Again.

It's totally unimportant.  I think we all know where this is going.

So, the only remaining question is, really...

What.  The ever-loving hell.  Is Elena wearing?  (Again.)

What's The Damage? (The Boys)

Soldiering on...

Men's Draw
Top Eight Seeds: Roger, Rafa, Novak, JMDP, Andy M, Kolya, A-Rod, Sod

Potential Quarterfinals: Roger/Kolya, Novak/Sod, JMDP/A-Rod, Rafa/Andy M

Potentially Interesting First Round Matches: Roger/Igor Andreev, Juan Monaco/Ernests (Roger's quarter); Youzhny/Gasquet (Novak's quarter); Marin/Fabrice (JMDP's quarter); Dah-veed/Seppi, Steps/Karlovic (Rafa's quarter)

Who's Where? To me, the big question going into the men's draw was, where would Kolya end up?  And as it turns out, he's landed in pretty much the juiciest place he could-- on the other side of Roger's quarter.  If I'd had to pick a second big question, it would have been about Nando, and it turns out he landed himself right in that quarter, too.  Yowza.  Luckily for Roger, they're slated to meet each other in the 4th round, so he won't have to go through both of them, but he did land himself Igor Andreev in the first round-- he's been a mess lately, but he's given Roger problems before.  (That quarter's also got a potential second round matchup between Gilles Simon and Marcos, which has some potential.)

With Sod pulling out of Kooyong for injury, Novak's quarter looks a little lacklustre.  That being said, he's also got Jo-Willy, My Boyfriend Tommy, and Tommy Haas in his quarter; they're all very capable, obviously, with Jo-Willy's history at AO, MBT taking out Andy M at Hopman Cup, and Tommy Haas having been 5 points from taking Roger out at RG.  Dickie Gasket is also in that quarter, with a potentially tough first round matchup with Misha Y.

With JMDP himself apparently in question for AO, his quarter appears wide open for A-Rod to make a nice run.  Um, yay?  He could be in for a third round Brisbane rematch with Tomas Berdych, and it would be interesting to see how Tomas approached that match, having sacrificed such a great start in their last meeting.  If JMDP is healthy, he's got-- on paper-- a fairly open run to the quarters, with Stan and Victor T the only seeds in his section.  Okay, and there's always Blah.  (As a side note, Bernard Tomic is also in this quarter... do y'all think Lleyton will show up to cheer for him?)

Lastly, Rafa's lined up for another tough quarterfinal, against Andy M.  He's also got a potential date with John Isner in the third round, which could be a good match given Isner's recent good run.  This quarter also has a rematch of the classic Steps/Karlovic Davis Cup match-- watch the fans leave in droves!  Running screaming away from the court!  Andy, for his part, should have a fairly easy run to the fourth round, where he could be in for a matchup with Gael or Dah-veed.  Bringing the pretty to this section of the draw, at least through the second round, will be Julien Benneteau.  Mmmm, Apricot Bars.

Again, I don't do predictions, but if I had to rank the quarters, I guess I'd say...

1) Roger

2) Rafa

3) JMDP

4) Novak  

So... What's The Damage? (The Ladies)

(I love how everyone's picture is from last year's AO except Dinara's, maybe they thought if they had a picture of her in a different outfit, people would forget what happened last year.*)

AO Draws are out, so we might as well take stock, n'est-ce pas?

Women's Draw
Top Eight Seeds: Serena, Dinara, Sveta, Caro, Lena D, Venus, Vika, JJ

Potential Quarterfinals: Serena/Vika, Caro/Venus, Sveta/Lena D, Dinara/JJ

Potentially Interesting First Round Matches: Kimiko/Yaroslava Shvedova (Serena's Quarter); Caro/A-Woz, Alize/Franny, Venus/Lucie (Caro's Quarter); Jelena D/Kleybs (Sveta's Quarter); Masha/Makiri (okay, not really, but I had to come up with something for Dinara's Quarter)

Who's Where?  Obviously, the big questions were Kim and Justine-- both are in Sveta's quarter (Dinara's half), which means that should Yanina make it through qualifying, Sveta could really be the "lucky" winner of the Belgian sweepstakes.  She even has Kirsten Flipkens in there for good measure.

Should Justine get past Flipkens in the first round, she's on track to meet Lena D in the second round.  That quarter is really interesting because it's also got Dokic, Kleybs, Nads, Flavia, Pavs, Sorana, and Aravane Rezai.  Sveta could play Pavs in the second round, Rezai in the third, and Kim in the 4th.  Tough, tough little section for her.

Maria landed in Dinara's quarter, along with Domi, Marion, K-Bond, Jie Zheng, MJMS, and JJ.  And come on, if you don't think it's funny that JJ and Marion could play in the fourth round again, I don't know what to say to you.  Dinara's got a potential date with K-Bond in the third round, and Maria (who would presumably have to go through Domi) in the fourth. 

Serena could meet up with Petra Kvitova in the second round, Sabine in the third, and Sam in the fourth, but on the whole her quarter is pretty unremarkable.  Bepa, Vika and Ana are the other "major" seeds in her quarter-- frankly at this point I'll be surprised if Bepa survives the second round (and I don't mean I think she'll lose).

Caro's quarter is much more intense, including Dani, Nails, A-Woz, Agnes, Shahar, Aga, Franny, Lucie and Venus.  It's not exactly battle of the big names, but they're all excellent, talented players who can beat anyone, anytime.  The two highest seeds (Caro and Venus) have the two most interesting first round matches, too-- against Can-Woz and Lucie, respectively.  Melanie Oudin is also in that quarter, but there aren't any Russians for her to beat, soooo...

I don't do predictions, but if I had to rank the quarters in descending order of toughness, I would say...

1) Sveta

2) Caro

3) Dinara

4) Serena

(Does that mean the halves are pretty equal?  I dunno.)

The last remaining draw question is, should she qualify, where would Yanina Wickmayer end up?  Seeds who drew qualifiers in the first round include Sam, Ana, Kim, and A-Bond.

*Food poisoning, people, she had food poisoning!

Friday OOPs

Auckland
 

Hobart
Centre (from 12.00hrs)
1. Sara Errani vs. Shahar Peer
2. Chuang/Peschke vs. Errani/Vinci (NB 14.00hrs; after suitable rest)
3. Anabel Medina Garrigues vs. Alona Bondarenko (NB 19.00hrs)
4. Hsieh/Peng vs. Chan/Niculescu

Kooyong
Centre (from 11.00hrs)
Fernando Gonzalez CHI (11) vs. Ivan Ljubicic CRO (24)
Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga FRA (10) vs. Tommy Haas GER (18)
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR vs. Sam Querrey USA

Sydney
Ken Rosewall Arena (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Hutchins/Kerr vs. Aspelin/Hanley
2. ATP: Nestor/Zimonjic vs. Andreev/Korolev
3. ATP: Gasquet vs. Benneteau
4. ATP: Baghdatis vs. Fish
5. Singles Final: Serena Williams vs. Elena Dementieva (NB 19.30hrs)
6. Doubles Final: Black/Huber vs. Garbin/Petrova

Come Aboard, We're Expecting You!

He doesn't go that deep in tournaments much anymore, so any chance to throw out that karaoke video must be taken advantage of.

The men's tournaments joined the women's in general WTF-itude today as top seeds (Tommy Robredo) fell, people withdrew-- injured-- from exhibitions days before the start of the first Slam of the year (JMDP, Sod), and Marcos Baghdatis won yet another match. This close to the first Slam, it always seems like withdrawls (and even losses) are hard to read-- are you really that injured/playing that badly, or are you just trying to save yourself for the Big Event?  We'll all find out soon enough.

Auckland
Singles - Quarter-finals
J Isner (USA) d [1] T Robredo (ESP) 76(5) 36 64
[5] P Kohlschreiber (GER) d M Gicquel (FRA) 63 61
A Clement (FRA) d [6] J Melzer (AUT) 62 75
[8] A Montanes (ESP) d [Q] M Lammer (SUI) 63 63

Hobart
Singles - Quarterfinals
(1) Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) d. (8) Gisela Dulko (ARG) 61 57 61
(2) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. (5) Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) 46 76(4) 75
(4) Alona Bondarenko (UKR) d. (7) Zheng Jie (CHN) 75 75
Sara Errani (ITA) d. (Q) Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) 63 64

Kooyong
Fernando Gonzalez CHI (11) d. Tommy Haas GER (18) 62 64
Fernando Verdasco ESP (9) d Novak Djokovic SRB (3) 61 62
Ivan Ljubicic CRO (24) d. Robin Soderling SWE (8) 64 ret.
Andy Murry SCO d. Sam Querrey USA 61 64

Sydney
Women's Singles - Semifinals
(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. Aravane Rezai (FRA) 36 75 64
(5) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. (6) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 63 61

Men's Singles - Quarter-finals
M Baghdatis (CYP) d [4] L Hewitt (AUS) 46 62 63
M Fish (USA) d [WC] P Luczak (AUS) 76(5) 62
R Gasquet (FRA) d P Starace (ITA) 63 76(7)
J Benneteau (FRA) d [Q] L Mayer (ARG) 64 67(5) 60 

Oh, Aravane. You Break My Heart.

[sigh] A set and 5-2 up?  Oh, honey.

Hopefully this bodes well for her at AO, though.  Her game is so interesting to watch.  Plus she had totally one of my favourite quotes  last year.  

Still, even if she lost that amazing lead, her outfit is so fabulous (well... "fabulous") as to deserve its own photo montage.

Hmm.  Not the most flattering angle, perhaps.

Okay, I hadn't noticed the chiffon-ness of the top before.  Curiouser and curiouser.

Me too.  Me too.

Great, World Team Tennis On 'Roids

Call me skeptical, but this proposal to replace Davis Cup with a "tennis World Cup" just makes me roll my eyes.  

Here's the basics:

• 32 teams would play in one venue over 10 days (8 groups of four in round robin to determine 16 finalists)
• Teams would have 3 players and a captain, and in each five set match, at least two players would compete (each player has to play at least 6 games)
• Play would be no-ad 
• Strictly enforced (i.e., publicly displayed) 25 seconds between points 
• Tiebreaks are first to 5, no two point gap retuired 

I think this is an incredibly bad idea, and not just because I really love Davis Cup.  Obviously there are tons of problems with Davis Cup at the moment, mostly arising from scheduling.  The number of tournaments players have to play and the disparate places they play them in make commitment (especially for top players) to Davis Cup very difficult.

But this still seems intensely problematic.  I'm automatically suspicious of sea changes in sports made for business reasons, and it's not because I'm a sports purist (okay, it's not just because I'm a sports purist).  In my experience, big changes made to how a sport is played usually end up hurting the game in the end, years down the road, when it's almost impossible to backtrack.  In this case, as Matt Cronin pointed out, the major problem would be the deterioration of funding for smaller tennis federations.  An awful lot of smaller federations count on a couple of weekends a year of Davis Cup to bring in the bulk of their funds.  Kill those tournaments, kill that funding, kill the game's development in the non-major markets around the world.

For a sport that's trying for a broader global appeal, eliminating the possibility of international play and high level competition at home in smaller, developing markets seems like a distinctly counterintuiitve move.  And not in a clever way.

There are other problems, too.  Like, where in the schedule does an 10-day tournament go?  It seems unlikely that there's anywhere in the calendar for it-- which tournaments are supposed to give up their interests entirely to make room for a World Cup?  And with all the squawking about how long the season is, it seems even less likely that the players would be very enthusiastic about adding 10 days on after the WTF.  (Heh, still funny.)  And what about doubles?  To me, one of the great things about Davis Cup is that it's a high stakes situation where doubles really matters.  I haven't seen one word about it in the World Cup proposal.

I dunno, personally I hope this thing dies a quick death and never resurfaces again.

Thursday OOPs

Auckland
 

Hobart
Centre (from 11.00hrs)
1. Alona Bondarenko vs. Zheng Jie
2. Kirsten Flipkens vs. Sara Errani (NB 12.00hrs)
3. Anabel Medina Garrigues vs. Gisela Dulko
4. Carla Suárez Navarro vs. Shahar Peer (NB 19.00hrs)
5. Dulko/Zheng vs. Chan/Niculescu

Kooyong
Centre (from 11.00hrs)
1. Tommy Haas vs. Fernando Gonzalez
2. Novak Djokovic vs. Fernando Verdasco
3. Robin Soderling vs. Ivan Ljubicic
4. Andy Murray vs. Sam Querrey

Sydney
Ken Rosewall Arena (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Nestor/Zimonjic vs. Kas/Norman
2. Serena Williams vs. Aravane Rezai (NB 12.30hrs)
3. Victoria Azarenka vs. Elena Dementieva
4. ATP: Baghdatis vs. Hewitt (NB 15.00hrs)
5. ATP: Fish vs. Luczak (NB 19.30hrs)
6. Black/Huber vs. Granville/Spears 

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Starace vs. Gasquet
2. ATP: Benneteau vs. Mayer
3. ATP: Aspelin/Hanley vs. Ball/Huss
4. ATP: Becker/Lipsky vs. Andreev/Korolev
5. Groenefeld/King vs. Garbin/Petrova

Wednesday Results

(Sorry, work's crazy today.  Hopefully more tonight, but right now I'm not even 100% sure I'm going to be going home tonight, at least not before some insane hour.)

Auckland
Singles - Second Round
[1] T Robredo (ESP) d S Greul (GER) 76(1) 76(2)
A Clement (FRA) d [2] D Ferrer (ESP) 75 64
[Q] M Lammer (SUI) d [3] J Ferrero (ESP) 31 ret. (right ankle sprain)
M Gicquel (FRA) d [4] N Almagro (ESP) 60 63
[5] P Kohlschreiber (GER) d T Bellucci (BRA) 64 61
[6] J Melzer (AUT) d [WC] S Grosjean (FRA) 62 67(5) 76(1)
J Isner (USA) d [7] J Monaco (ARG) 57 64 63
[8] A Montanes (ESP) d [WC] J Statham (NZL) 76(6) 62

Hobart
Singles - Second Round
(2) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. Jelena Dokic (AUS) 62 62
Sara Errani (ITA) d. (3) Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) 76(8) 64
(5) Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) d. (WC) Alicia Molik (AUS) 76(3) 36 63
(Q) Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) d. (6) Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) 75 62

Kooyong
Juan Martin del Potro ARG (5) d Ivan Ljubicic CRO (24) 63 63
Novak Djokovic SRB (3) d Tommy Haas GER (18) 62 63
Fernando Verdasco ESP (9) d Fernando Gonzalez CHI (11) 75 61
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (10) d Robin Soderling SWE (8) 76(70) 61

Sydney
Women's Singles - Quarterfinals
(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. Vera Dushevina (RUS) 62 62
(5) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. (2) Dinara Safina (RUS) 62 63
(6) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 26 62 75
Aravane Rezai (FRA) d. Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 63 60

Men's Singles - Second Round
[WC] P Luczak (AUS) d [2] T Berdych (CZE) 16 64 62
J Benneteau (FRA) d *[LL] T Dent (USA) 63 57 76(2)
M Baghdatis (CYP) d [6] V Troicki (SRB) 75 63
[4] L Hewitt (AUS) d A Seppi (ITA) 60 62
R Gasquet (FRA) d [8] B Becker (GER) 62 76(4)
M Fish (USA) d E Korolev (KAZ) 61 62
P Starace (ITA) d [LL] D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 63 32 ret. (leg)
[Q] L Mayer (ARG) d P Cuevas (URU) 64 62

Pic This: I Don't Know What To Say, Really

The caption is, "Serena Williams shows off the contents of her handbag."  Sometimes you just have to admit that you're not up to this level of crazy.

Oh Noes!

Joining the ranks of the walking (or otherwise) wounded, Paul-Henri Mathieu has withdrawn from the Australian Open.  Groin injury.  Overcelebrating the birthday, Paulo?

Oh well. [sigh]  He's still awfully pretty.

Wednesday OOPs

Auckland
 

Hobart
Centre (from 11.00hrs)
1. Aleksandra Wozniak vs. Kirsten Flipkens
2. Carla Suárez Navarro vs. Alicia Molik
3. Sara Errani vs. Kateryna Bondarenko
4. Jelena Dokic vs. Shahar Peer (NB 19.00hrs)
5. Errani/Vinci vs. Mirza/Ruano Pascual

Kooyong
Centre (from 11.00hrs)
1. Ivan Ljubicic vs. Juan Martin del Potro
2. Novak Djokovic vs. Tommy Haas
3. Fernando Gonzales vs. Fernando Verdasco
4. Robin Soderling vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Sydney
Ken Rosewall Arena (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Gasquet vs. Becker
2. ATP: Troicki vs. Baghdatis
3. ATP: Seppi vs. Hewitt
4. Serena Williams vs. Vera Dushevina
5. Elena Dementieva vs. Dinara Safina (NB 19.30hrs)
6. ATP: Aspelin/Hanley vs. Ball/Huss

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Cermak/Mertinak vs. Erlich/López
2. ATP: Korolev vs. Fish
3. Flavia Pennetta vs. Aravane Rezai
4. Victoria Azarenka vs. Dominika Cibulkova
5. Garbin/Petrova vs. Dellacqua/Rezai (after suitable rest)

Court 6 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Gimeno-Traver vs. Starace
2. ATP: Hutchins/Kerr vs. Kubot/Marach
3. ATP: Luczak vs. Berdych
4. Black/Huber vs. Dushevina/Rodionova (NB 17.00hrs; after suitable rest)

Court 5 (from 12.00hrs)
1. ATP: Cuevas vs. Mayer
2. ATP: Benneteau vs. Wawrinka

Y'all know where to put the feeds.

Air Quotes: Are You Sure You're Not Thinking of Another Crazy-Eyed Russian?

          "I play Vera Dushevina next and she’s a good player and she’s been 
           ranked high before."
           -- Serena, claiming to know who Vera Dushevina is. I'm not convinced 
              she doesn't think she's playing Bepa tomorrow.

Did They Give Her All of Tiger's Money?

Yesterday, Nike signed an 8-year, $70m deal with Masha. Guess we know who's buying lunch from now on.  She's also going to get a percentage of sales from the line she'll be "developing".  It's almost like she's working on commission!

In other endorsement news, Sergio Tacchini appears to have dropped both my boyfriend Tommy and Flavia in order to fund their Nole deal. Tommy's pretty obvious, but Flavia? Not cool, ST. Not cool.

Also, Dinara has a new sponsor. It's a Russian mining/oilfield equipment company. I have about a million jokes about drill bits running through my head, but I'll spare you.

Hey, Maybe She Means It This Time!

Apparently Serena turned up looking insanely fit, and obviously she absolutely crushed MJMS. As much as I despise Serena, I would be kind of relieved if someone showed up fit and committed to being a constant winning presence on tour, just because it was so tedious to listen to the complaining last year when no one did. And she didn't even threaten to kill anyone this time around! Good work, Serena.

Sydney's cray-cray in general, at least on the women's side. The seeds are either losing or getting pushed hard by much lower ranked players. In fact, only two seeds managed straight set wins in the second round yesterday, Serena and... and...

Uh oh.

Auckland

Singles - First Round
[5] P Kohlschreiber (GER) d [LL] I Cervantes-Huegun (ESP) 62 63
[7] J Monaco (ARG) d H Zeballos (ARG) 63 60
[8] A Montanes (ESP) d [Q] J Lemke (AUS) 61 75
J Isner (USA) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 46 76(3) 62
A Clement (FRA) d J Chardy (FRA) 75 64
S Greul (GER) d [Q] P Lorenzi (ITA) 63 63
[Q] M Lammer (SUI) d [Q] D Evans (GBR) 16 62 64
M Gicquel (FRA) d O Rochus (BEL) 63 62
[WC] S Grosjean (FRA) d F Mayer (GER) 63 36 63

Hobart
Singles - Second Round
(1) Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) d. (Q) Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) 36 63 61
(4) Alona Bondarenko (UKR) d. Alizé Cornet (FRA) 64 36 62
(7) Zheng Jie (CHN) d. Peng Shuai (CHN) 62 61
(8) Gisela Dulko (ARG) d. Tamira Paszek (AUT) 61 06 76(5)

Sydney
Women's Singles - Second Round
(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. María José Martínez Sánchez (ESP) 61 62
(2) Dinara Safina (RUS) d. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 75 64
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) d. (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 75 62
(5) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 62 46 62
(6) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (Q) Kimiko Date Krumm (JPN) 61 57 75
Flavia Pennetta (ITA) d. Li Na (CHN) 62 76(4)
Aravane Rezai (FRA) d. (Q) Agnes Szavay (HUN) 63 76(5)
(Q) Vera Dushevina (RUS) d. Elena Vesnina (RUS) 63 64

Men's Singles - First Round
E Korolev (KAZ) d [5] S Querrey (USA) 62 57 64
[6] V Troicki (SRB) d F Serra (FRA) 76(5) 64
[8] B Becker (GER) d [Q] J Chela (ARG) 63 63
M Fish (USA) d [WC] C Ball (AUS) 64 76(4)
[WC] P Luczak (AUS) d J Acasuso (ARG) 76(1) 64
J Benneteau (FRA) d D Sela (ISR) 63 61

Also, Tonight It Will Get Dark

In news that could surprise no one, Sam Stosur has admitted that the weight of higher expectations is getting to her.

"'It (expectation) is a new thing for me at the moment. Unfortunately, I'm 

  not handling it quite as well.'"

One can debate the wisdom of hashing this all out in the press-- not for the sake of your opponents (I'm pretty sure Flavia's not sitting in her hotel room hitting refresh on Fox News Australia), but for the sake of avoiding being live bait for journalists.  Giving them fresh blood in the water is not going to help you gain confidence, Sam.  I'm sure Dinara and Anne K would be happy to talk to you about that.

"'In some ways it's easier when you've got nothing to lose and you're not 

  expected to win,' she said."

Maybe Martina N should call and tell Sam that pressure is a privilege?  

"'I have to really remember that I am a good player,' Stosur said."

Sad and yikes.  Seriously, a sports psychologist with a decent reputation could make a mint just hanging out around the locker rooms at any WTA tournament.

It is rough for her that all this is peaking in her head at her home Slam.  I mean, she's even got the paparazzi on her.

Good luck, Sam.

Pic This: Shiny, Happy People

Emphasis on "shiny".  Jesus, Australia looks hot.

 

I can't decide if I hope that's Irina's bag or not.

Just a couple of d-bags, chillin'.

Happy and shiny.  Love the shorts.

That seems like it might be a bad idea.

Few people do pure joy like Sabine.  I saw this picture and forgot that she lost that match.

To quote the lady herself, "hahahaha."

So much awesome that you should probably avoid looking directly at it.

And, finally, some more belated C Note birthday presents.

 

Dominos

It's old news by now that Gael Monfils withdrew from Sydney, citing a bad shoulder.  There's some word that he's doubtful for AO, but that kind of speculation this close to an event is hard to take measure of-- it's almost impossible to know whether that's real or whether it's just things people are saying to drum up interest.

Bepa, of course, retired in her match against Elena Vesnina yesterday in Sydney; the ankle she injured last year in Charleston and had surgery on over the off-season swelled up again in Hong Kong and apparently was not fit to be played on yesterday.  Again, hard to know-- was the retirement precautionary, or is she also doubtful for AO?  Time will tell.

However, the week started with David Nalbandian withdrawing from Auckland due to an abdominal injury, and now he's officially withdrawn from AO.  It seems like forever since he's been able to play consistently, and he's not 19-- how much longer can he keep this up?

The Main Event

Boys, screw those little "official tournaments" you've got going on in Auckland and Sydney.  Only pissants play those, pissants who couldn't get into the real party down at Kooyong.

("Kooyong" is so much fun to say.  Kooyong Kooyong Kooyong.)

The action at the AO's old stomping grounds starts the 13th, so... tomorrow.  Even though it's still the 11th.  And... screw it.  Time is an arbitrary measure, anyway.

Today the boys lined up for their press conference, looking like they were having a hall meeting at their college dorm:

Apparently Novak took this opportunity to say that he wants the men's tour to have a shorter schedule, presumably akin to the women's schedule.  It's pretty hard to argue at this point that a 3 week off-season is in any way sufficient.

Roger's not playing Kooyong this year, after "early" losses in his last two events.  He's being replaced by Ivan Ljubicic.  I fully recognize that I might be the only person on Earth who thinks this is a decent trade (including Ivan).

Supposedly the draw is here, but it doesn't make any sense.  Either it hasn't actually been done yet, or someone's going to need to 'splain it in the comments.

Enjoy It While It Lasts!

 
There now, Dina.  Aga's still a top 10 player.  The eyeliner must be the key.

I didn't see it, but that match sounded ridonk.  Dina goes down 0-5 before winning 9 straight games to win the first set and go up a break in the second?  The stats look whack and the reports are that she's rusty and slow and messy, but hell, two and a half months ago her vertebrae were crumbling into bits.  I'll take rusty and slow and messy for a good long while, as long as she's not eating herself alive over it.  I suppose that part remains to be seen.

Tuesday OOPs

Auckland
 

Hobart

 Centre (from 11.00hrs)
1. Alona Bondarenko vs. Alizé Cornet
2. Tamira Paszek vs. Gisela Dulko
3. Peng Shuai vs. Zheng Jie
4. Anabel Medina Garrigues vs. Alla Kudryavtseva (NB 19.00hrs)
5. Dokic/Molik vs. Chan/Niculescu

Sydney
Ken Rosewall Arena (from 11.00hrs)
1. Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Dinara Safina
2. Serena Williams vs. María José Martínez Sánchez
3. ATP: Ball vs. Fish
4. Elena Dementieva vs. Daniela Hantuchova
5. ATP: Luczak vs. Acasuso

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Querrey vs. Korolev
2. Dominika Cibulkova vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova
3. Victoria Azarenka vs. Kimiko Date Krumm (NB 14.00hrs)
4. Li Na vs. Flavia Pennetta
5. Garbin/Petrova vs. Martínez Sánchez/Parra Santonja

Court 6 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Troicki vs. Serra
2. ATP: Benneteau vs. Sela
3. Kleybanova/Schiavone vs. Granville/Spears
4. ATP: Llodra/Ram vs. Kubot/Marach
5. ATP: Nestor/Zimonjic vs. Fyrstenberg/Matkowski

Court 5 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Aravane Rezai vs. Agnes Szavay
2. Vera Dushevina vs. Elena Vesnina
3. Amanmuradova/Coin vs. Groenefeld/King
4. Borwell/Kops-Jones vs. Dushevina/Rodionova (after suitable rest)

Court 8 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Chela vs. Becker
2. ATP: Kas/Norman vs. Cuevas/Seppi (NB 12.00hrs)
3. ATP: Andreev/Korolev vs. Benneteau/Gasquet (after suitable rest)

Feeds down and to the left.

Pic This: Not Enough Money In The World

Godspeed, Ricardo.

Crash & Burn

Things looked rough in Sydney today, with top seeds and high-ranked players crashing out, retiring, and having uncomfortably close calls. Caro, JJ, Bepa (still having problems with that ankle) and Nads all lost, while Vika got played a little too close for comfort by Sabine. And while Sam losing to Flavs is not, on its face, a terrible result, the quality of play she showed was... uh, not good. What up, Sammy?

The only seed that lost on the guy's side was Igor Andreev. I think his hair is getting him down.

And then there was this...

Yeah, they got their asses kicked, but hee, they match. Hee hee.

Auckland

Singles - First Round
[6] J Melzer (AUT) d F Fognini (ITA) 57 63 62
[WC] J Statham (NZL) d [WC] D King-Turner (NZL) 62 75
T Bellucci (BRA) d M Chiudinelli (SUI) 63 63

Hobart
Singles - First Round
(2) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. (WC) Olivia Rogowska (AUS) 63 62
(5) Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) d. Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) 61 62
(7) Zheng Jie (CHN) d. Kaia Kanepi (EST) 46 63 76(4)
(8) Gisela Dulko (ARG) d. Melinda Czink (HUN) 64 62
Sara Errani (ITA) d. Melanie Oudin (USA) 36 63 75
Jelena Dokic (AUS) d. (Q) Elena Baltacha (GBR) 64 62
Tamira Paszek (AUT) d. Roberta Vinci (ITA) 64 63
(Q) Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) d. Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 60 60
(Q) Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) d. (WC) Sophie Ferguson (AUS) 62 62

Sydney
Women's Singles - First Round
Li Na (CHN) d. (4) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 26 63 62
(6) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. Sabine Lisicki (GER) 36 62 75
(Q) Agnes Szavay (HUN) d. (7) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) 57 61 75
Elena Vesnina (RUS) d. (8) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 33 ret. (right ankle injury)
Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) d. Jill Craybas (USA) 60 64
Flavia Pennetta (ITA) d. Samantha Stosur (AUS) 63 61
(Q) Kimiko Date Krumm (JPN) d. Nadia Petrova (RUS) 63 57 64
María José Martínez Sánchez (ESP) d. (Q) Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 63 63 
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) d. (LL) Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) 76(2) 61
Aravane Rezai (FRA) d. (Q) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) 67(3) 62 62
(Q) Vera Dushevina (RUS) d. (WC) Casey Dellacqua (AUS) 62 62

Men's Singles - First Round
[Q] L Mayer (ARG) d [7] I Andreev (RUS) 67(7) 63 76(4)
R Gasquet (FRA) d F Lopez (ESP) 61 64
M Baghdatis (CYP) d [WC] N Lindahl (AUS) 62 75
A Seppi (ITA) d [Q] M Matosevic (AUS) 64 64
P Cuevas (URU) d M Llodra (FRA) 62 76(1)
P Starace (ITA) d [Q] F Gil (POR) 61 64

Psst. Sveta. It's Called, "Pleading the Fifth".

Or whatever the Australian equivalent of the right against self-incrimination is.  Y'all have that down there, right?  

So someone asked Sveta today about Elena Bychkova's gambling suspension, and her reaction was completely bizarre.  

First, she was surprised, and sounded defensive about Bychkova...

  "'For me, when they told me, I was really surprised,' Kuznetsova said.
   'Myself, I had never heard of the rule that you have to report it. I
   don't know exactly the thing going on with her, and definitely I will ask
   and go deeper into the subject because I think it's very important. If
   people come to me and ask something, I say no - I didn't know I had to
   go [and report the approach]. Maybe she didn't know either, so how can
   we say she is guilty?'"

Then she said she wasn't defending her...

  "'I have no idea if she's guilty, this is what I am saying,'' Kuznetsova said.
   'I don't want to defend her because I don't know the topic.'"

Then, of course, she was asked if she had ever been approached to fix a match and her answer was, erm, less than clearly convincing:

  "'Asked if she'd been approached, Kuznetsova offered a less than emphatic
   denial. 'Well, you know, if I say yes, they are going to send me home,' she
   said."

Ummmmmmmmmmm.  Where's that lawyer Yanina used to get her out of the drug suspension?  Sveta might want her card.

That said, Sveta followed that up with a good point about the athletes needing to understand not just the rule about reporting approaches, but also what actually constitutes an approach:

  "Approaches can be different. You can think it's a joke but maybe
   somebody else thinks it can be for real. You might not get if it's an
   approach or not. Do I have to go and tell WTA every joke I get about
   approach? You never know. I think we just need a better explanation
   about that."

The WTA, of course, of course, claims that the athletes have all the information they need:

  "WTA vice-president Andrew Walker said players had been educated
   about corruption in the sport and the association's zero-tolerance policy
   towards it...

  "'The Tour has a comprehensive program in place that included in-person
   education where the Tennis Integrity Program rules were reviewed,
   including affirmative obligations on players such as the requirement to
   report approaches.'"

This is part of a definite pattern of the WTA claiming that it educates its players perfectly well about the rules when it comes to important matters (Roadmap, match-fixing) and the players clearly exhibiting that they have no idea what's going on.  You'll have to forgive me if-- having grown up in close proximity to powerful sports federations-- I always side with the athletes when it comes to these things.  I've seen governing bodies fail to properly inform athletes of major requirements, then punish them for not acting correctly, one too many times.

That said, Sveta may want to read up on that self-incrimination thing.  It can come in really handy.

Pic This: Meanwhile, At The Kiddie Table...

 
I bet Dinara knows all the words to "Party in the U.S.A."

Monday OOPs

Auckland

Hobart

Centre (from 11.00hrs)
1. Melanie Oudin vs. Sara Errani
2. Jelena Dokic vs. Elena Baltacha
3. Olivia Rogowska vs. Shahar Peer
4. Alicia Molik vs. Sania Mirza (NB 19.00hrs)
5. Hsieh/Peng vs. Bondarenko/Bondarenko

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Kirsten Flipkens vs. Sophie Ferguson
2. Melinda Czink vs. Gisela Dulko
3. Tamira Paszek vs. Roberta Vinci
4. Grandin/Woehr vs. Medina Garrigues/Rybarikova (NB 16.00hrs)

Court 8 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Carla Suárez Navarro vs. Yaroslava Shvedova
2. Kaia Kanepi vs. Zheng Jie
3. Alla Kudryavtseva vs. Ekaterina Makarova

Sydney

Ken Rosewall Arena (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: López vs. Gasquet
2. Samantha Stosur vs. Flavia Pennetta
3. ATP: Lindahl vs. Baghdatis
4. Caroline Wozniacki vs. Li Na
5. Victoria Azarenka vs. Sabine Lisicki

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Agnes Szavay vs. Jelena Jankovic
2. Elena Vesnina vs. Vera Zvonareva
3. Black/Huber vs. Kirilenko/Safina
4. Vera Dushevina vs. Casey Dellacqua
5. ATP: Ball/Huss vs. Fish/Knowles

Court 6 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Matosevic vs. Seppi
2. ATP: Llodra vs. Cuevas
3. ATP: Luczak/Nieminen vs. Aspelin/Hanley
4. Nadia Petrova vs. Kimiko Date Krumm

Court 5 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Jill Craybas vs. Agnieszka Radwanska
2. María José Martínez Sánchez vs. Varvara Lepchenko
3. ATP: Starace vs. Gil
4. ATP: Mayer vs. Andreev

Court 8 (From 11.00hrs)
1. Timea Bacsinszky vs. Dominika Cibulkova
2. Aravane Rezai vs. Anna-Lena Groenefeld
3. ATP: Hutchins/Kerr vs. Butorac/Ram (NB 15.00hrs)
4. Uhlirova/Voracova vs. Groenefeld/King

Court TBA (NB 14.00hrs)
1. Kleybanova/Schiavone vs. Pennetta/Zahlavova Strycova

Court TBA (NB 14.00hrs)
1. Vesnina/Voskoboeva vs. Granville/Spears

Feeds below and to the left.

Pic This: It Just Goes to Show, Money Can't Buy Taste

The Sydney player's party was today, or last night, or possibly three nights from now; I don't know, that time difference is starting to fuck with my mind.

Anyway, a lot of people were there, and most of them looked incredibly special.  

First, I think Lacoste needs to rethink their sizing.  Second, Sam, I'm not saying it's a requirement, I'm just saying... a little effort in the hair and makeup department wouldn't kill you.

Dy-no-MITE!

Virginie apparently came straight from an archeological dig.

I don't have the first fucking clue what's going on here.


Intriguing.  Where, exactly, would one even go about buying those jeans?  Or were they a crafts project she and Dinara worked on in the hotel?

A glitter-free halter jumpsuit.  Well, now I just think I'm being Punk'd.


I think I had a very similar outfit to this the summer I was 12.  Is 1990 back?


Is he auditioning to be the dweeby poor kid in a second edition of Laguna Beach?


Someone's girlfriend needs to do a better job of hiding the hair gel.

So many possible snarks.  Most of which involve the possible proximity of Ernests Gulbis.


Annnnnd... scene.

DanceSport's Loss Is Tennis's Gain

I know she says "ballet" but I think she must mean "ballroom". Otherwise it makes no sense. Makiri would have been an adorable DanceSport child.  I can totally see her with eye jewels and glitter hairspray.

But that was not the only fun time to be had on the Auckland Morning Zoo this year...

Flavia and I have pretty much identical reactions to the concept of "New Zealand Pizza".

The Cone throws down over the superiority of French cheese and explains-- hilariously-- all the jokes people make about her name.

False Alarm

Citing a leg injury incurred during the Brisbane final, Justine has withdrawn from Sydney.  

You may all return to your seats now. 

Sunday OOPs

Brisbane
PAT RAFTER ARENA start 2:00 pm
ATP DOUBLES FINAL
[1] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) vs J Chardy (FRA) / M Gicquel (FRA)
Followed by
ATP SINGLES FINAL
[1] A Roddick (USA) vs [2] R Stepanek (CZE)

Chennai

Hobart
Centre (from 10.00hrs)
1. Petra Kvitova vs. Kirsten Flipkens (Singles Q Final)
2. Anabel Medina Garrigues vs. Iveta Benesova (NB 12.00hrs)
3. Alona Bondarenko vs. Sybille Bammer
4. Sorana Cirstea vs. Peng Shuai
5. Lucie Safarova vs. Kateryna Bondarenko

Court 1 (from 10.00hrs)
1. Anna Chakvetadze vs. Elena Baltacha (Singles Q Final)
2. Aleksandra Wozniak vs. Magdalena Rybarikova (NB 11.00hrs)
3. Alexandra Dulgheru vs. Alizé Cornet
4. Chuang/Peschke vs. Kudryavtseva/Makarova (NB 15.00hrs)

Court 8 (from 10.00hrs)
1. Roberta Vinci vs. Alberta Brianti (Singles Q Final)
2. Michaella Krajicek vs. Alla Kudryavtseva (Singles Q Final; NB 11.00hrs)
3. Errani/Vinci vs. Govortsova/Poutchek (NB 15.00hrs)

Sydney
Ken Rosewall Arena (from 11.00hrs)
1. Virginie Razzano vs. Daniela Hantuchova
2. Alisa Kleybanova vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova (NB 12.00hrs)
3. Elena Dementieva vs. Francesca Schiavone
4. Dellacqua/Rezai vs. Raymond/Stubbs

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Jill Craybas vs. Urszula Radwanska (Singles Q Final)
2. ATP: Gil vs. Dent
3. ATP: Bogomolov Jr. vs. Mayer

Court 6 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Vera Dushevina vs. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Singles Q Final)
2. Chanelle Scheepers vs. Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Singles Q Final)
3. Anastasia Rodionova vs. Kimiko Date Krumm (Singles Q Final)

Court 5 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Timea Bacsinszky vs. Varvara Lepchenko (Singles Q Final)
2. Agnes Szavay vs. Ioana Raluca Olaru (Singles Q Final; NB 13.00hrs)
3. Amanmuradova/Coin vs. Jans/Rosolska

Court 4 (from 13.00hrs)
1. ATP: Matosevic vs. Gimeno-Traver
2. ATP: Sweeting vs. Chela

Same as last week; feeds in chat and the comments.

Across The Ditch

Auckland Draw
Top Seeds: Tommy, Dah-veed, JCF, Almagro

Potential Quarterfinals: Tommy/Pico, JCF/Montanes, Almagro/Kohlschreiber, Dah-veed/Melzer

Potentially Interesting First Round Matches: Kohlschreiber/Nalbandian, Melzer/Fognini, Jeremy/Arnaud
Interesting Questions: How's Nalbandian looking?  Will there be an Auckland Morning Zoo video with all the pretty Spanish boys together?

Now With More Co-Ed Action

Boys in Sydney, too...

Draw
Top Seeds: Gael, Tomas, Stan, Lleyton

Potential Quarterfinals: Gael/Benjamin Becker, Stan/Igor, Lleyton/Viktor, Tomas/Sammy Q

Potentially Interesting First Round Matches: Sammy Q/Korolev
Interesting Questions: What is Tomas's mental state after dropping such a lead over A-Rod in Brisbane?  Why do the top men weight their pre-AO schedule so heavily with exhibitions?  It's like Kooyong is a much bigger deal than the two actual tournaments going on.  (Serious.)

AO Warm-Up Junior Championships

It's in Tasmania!  I did not know that.  Tennis is so educational.

Hobart Draw

Top Seeds: AMG, Shahar, KBond, ABond

Potential Quarterfinals: AMG/Gisela, ABond/Zheng Jie, KBond/A-Woz, Shahar/CSN

Potentially Interesting First Round Matches: AMG/Benesova, Sorana/Peng Shuai, Melanie/Sara Errani, Lucie/KBond, CSN/Shvedova, Alicia/Sania
Interesting Questions: Will Shahar be able to keep up her level from Auckland last week?  What kind of shape are KBond, ABond, and CSN in?  Really, both Bonds are ranked higher than Sorana now?

Welcome Back (Kinda)

So nice to see Yanina bounce back from what could have been a really traumatic and destructive experience during her off-season.  Yeah, Flavia really dropped her game (or, more accurately, stopped playing it) after being up 3-0 in the first, but I was still impressed with how Yanina came back to play last week like nothing ever happened.  And crap, Belgium would be looking pretty good for Fed Cup right now in a perfect world where people actually play Fed Cup.

Auckland

Singles - Final
(3/WC) Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) d. (1) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 63 62

Brisbane

Women's Singles - Final
(1) Kim Clijsters (BEL) d. (WC) Justine Henin (BEL) 63 46 76(6)

Men's Singles - Semi-finals

[1] A Roddick (USA) d [4] T Berdych (CZE) 16 63 64

[2] R Stepanek (CZE) d [3] G Monfils (FRA) 62 61

Chennai

Singles - Semi-finals 
[2] M Cilic (CRO) d [4] J Tipsarevic (SRB) 61 63
[3] S Wawrinka (SUI) d [5] D Sela (ISR) 64 26 75

Doha

Singles - Final 
[3] N Davydenko (RUS) d [2] R Nadal (ESP) 06 76(8) 64

Hong Kong
Silver Group Final
Team Americas d Team Asia-Pacific 2-2 (there must be some tiebreak system, but who knows what it is)

• Team Americas (Williams/Chang) d Team Asia-Pacific (Zheng/Srichaphan) 6-4, 3-6, 11-9

Gold Group Final
Team Russia d Team Europe 2-2 (Again with the mystery tiebreaks.)

• Team Russia (Yevgeny Kafelnikov) d Team Europe (Stefan Edberg) 7-5, 6-4 
• Team Russia (Maria Sharapova) d Team Europe (Caroline Wozniacki) 7-5, 6-3 
• Team Europe (Wozniacki/Edberg) d Team Russia (Zvonareva/Kafelnikov) 6-4, 6-3   

Hopman Cup
Final
Spain d Great Britain, 2-1

• Laura Robson d Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-1, 7-6 (8-6) 
• Tommy Robredo d Andy Murray 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 
• Martinez Sanchez/Robredo d Robson/Murray 7-6 (8-6), 7-5

I'm Sorry, Who?

Well, that sounded amazing.  I shall have to find a way to watch it pronto.  I love Rafa, but I love Kolya, and I'm so happy to see him having an impressive win streak.  Gotta enjoy it while it lasts, ya' know.

  "'I did not come here expecting to win. I am surprised that I have
   won," Davydenko said. "It is an amazing feeling to have won here. I
   have played semifinals and finals here but never won.'"

[giggle]

This also makes him only the second player to beat both Roger and Rafa in the same event twice.  (Other is David Nalbandian).  [/pointlesstrivia]

House Hunters International

Dinara's What I Did on My Off-Season report.

Why am I envisioning that her big New Year's with friends involved going over to Yelena Isinbaeva's apartment to play Go Fish and drink Kool Aid?

Fuego! Fuego!

You.  Were.  Awesome.

You were fabulous also.

Hopman Cup was warm fuzzies.  Too bad they couldn't all win.  L-Rob was a completely different player by the end of the week than she was at the beginning.  So awesome to watch her develop the nerves and confidence to really impose herself by the end of the week.  MJMS is the highest ranked player she's ever beaten, and since MJMS is ranked #26, that's no mean feat.  It'll be interesting to see if she can ride this into the regular season-- she was awarded a wild card into AO qualifying, which will be the perfect storm of riding the confidence wave + encountering the mounting stress of almost outlandish expectations.  Godspeed, young L-Rob.

Tommy was playing like he thought he was at Davis Cup.  Team down a point + clutch situation = Spanish players en fuego.  He wasn't playing poorly in the first set, but by the second set it was more like he refused to lose.  Amazing stuff.  Andy's level fell off a little in the third set, and he seemed to have a muscle niggle, but Tommy still stepped it up above and beyond.

The Emporer Has No Clothes

Well.  That was kind of a shit storm.

Oh, it had some good drama.  It even had some really good tennis-- Kim played the first set and a half superbly.  Justine had some flashes. But it would be silly to sit here and pretend that that was a good match, because... it was not.

Justine, understandably rusty and not back at full-strength in her first tournament back after almost two years, was wildly inconsistent.  And Kim rode all over her for the first hour and a half of that match, going up two breaks in the second.  And then, as she is wont to do, she collapsed.  Completely.  Actually, as far as Justine's comeback goes, it was reminiscent of nothing so much as her exhibition match against Flavia-- when Flavia was playing well, Justine could not keep up.  But when Flavia started going nutty, Justine took advantage.  Same thing here.  Sure, her play steps up, but it's hard not to play better when you're pretty confident that your opponent couldn't find the court with a GPS.  After the cycle completely reversed itself-- Justine dominating for a set and a half, it looked like classic WTA... break break break break, crazy tiebreak, fin.  

I'm just still not buying it.  Maybe it seemed especially tortuous because it was 4:30 in the morning, but Kim's mental collapse (you're up a set and two breaks and you have to go to a third set tiebreak to win it?) and Justine's technical inconsistencies (you're up a break in the third against an opponent who's leaking her brain out her ears, and you lose?) made it really hard to watch.  The main thing this match seemed to prove was that Justine is still between Kim's ears; useful for playing Kim, but not so handy for playing Serena.

For my money, I was way more impressed with The Other Belgian in the Auckland final.  Way to go, Yanina.

Pic This: But Can You Juggle?

My, what big hands you have.  Ahem.


Just... praise Jesus he is not wearing those hideous shorts.


Oh, was Kleybs there?

 

Prince's loss, bitches.                      


Caption Contest.


The New Face of Badass.


Look, either cinch it or put it through the dryer a few thousand times.  You're a grown man, your clothes should fit.


Jokes reminding her that she's supposed to be looking at the ball are too easy.  Likewise other jokes I thought of, then thought better of.


Pictures with huge size differences = always funny.

Two In A Row Counts As A Streak, Right?

Hilarious pictures of Kolya are my passion.  It's like a one-woman mission to prove everyone they're wrong about him having no personality.

Anyway, he beat Roger again today.  It looked good on Livescore!  Stupid tournaments in timezones with play during work hours.

  "'It was a tough match. A lot of balls everywhere. He tried to create 
   pressure but I came up with winners when I wanted to,' Davydenko
   said. 

  "'I ran a lot and that made me tired, especially in the second set. But I
   fought for every point. That's why I won."

Well, can't argue with that.

My thoughts exactly.

Kolya will play Rafa, who demolished Viktor Troicki, in the final.  Good to see Rafa having such a strong comeback from, you know, the Inevitable End of His Career.

Shit Steps Up, Y'all

Well, that didn't take long.

Sydney (WTA)
Draw
Top Seeds: Serena, Dinara, Sveta, Caro

Potentially Interesting First Round Matches: Caro/Nails, Bepa/Lena V, Sam/Flava Flav, Vika/Sabine, Kleybs/Sveta, Lena D/Franny, 

700,000% Shitting the Pants Interesting Potential Second Round Match: Justine/Serena

Interesting Questions: What kind of shape is Dinara in?  Since Elena's the defending champion and she's probably not in Sydney yet, did Dinara have to do the draw?  If so, are there pictures and/or video of her drawing Serena and Justine?  How will Justine matchup against a top-10 player?  Will there be a feed for that?  (Please God please God please.)

There's a "Tennis Integrity Unit"??

It sounds like something someone made up just to amuse me.

But apparently it's a real thing.  It should be a show.  Law and Order: Tennis Integrity Unit.

Anyway, they fined Elena Bychkova and suspended her for a month:

  "The Tennis Integrity Unit has fined Ekaterina Bychkova $5,000
    and barred the Russian from playing for 30 days, saying she failed
    to report that she was asked to provide inside information and
    throw matches."

Remember kids, when the bad man asks you to do something wrong, you're supposed to tell a grown-up.

Saturday OOPs

Auckland
Centre Court (from 13.00hrs)
1. Doubles Final: Black/Huber vs. Grandin/Granville
2. Singles Final: Flavia Pennetta vs. Yanina Wickmayer (NB 14.45hrs)

Brisbane
Pat Rafter Arena (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Monfils vs. Stepanek
2. ATP: Roddick vs. Berdych (NB 12.30hrs)
3. ATP: Blake/Roddick vs. Chardy/Gicquel (after suitable rest)
4. Singles Final: Kim Clijsters vs. Justine Henin (NB 19.00hrs)
5. Doubles Final: Hlavackova/Hradecka vs. Czink/Parra Santonja

Chennai
 

Doha
 

Hong Kong
Silver Group Final

• 11:00 am: Team Americas (Williams/Chang) vs Team Asia-Pacific (Zheng/Srichaphan)

Gold Group Final

• NB 2:00 pm: Team Europe (Stefan Edberg) vs Team Russia (Yevgeny Kafelnikov)
• Followed by: Team Europe #1 (Caroline Wozniacki) vs Team Russia #1 (Maria Sharapova)
• (15 minute break)
• Followed by: Team Europe (Azarenka OR Wozniacki/Edberg) vs Team Russia (Zvonareva/Kafelnikov)

Hopman Cup
9:30 am: FINAL Spain vs. Great Britain