Forty Deuce

The Weekend Tee-Up.

Here's a roundup of what's at stake over the weekend:

Kleybs, Agnes, Nadia, and K-Zak are into the semis of Seoul, with Klara ousting Dinara yesterday in straight sets.  If you're an Ana fan, you'll be watching Kleybs' progress over the weekend in hopes that she's exhausted by the time she gets to Tokyo.  Yes, it's come to this.  Over in Tashkent it'll be Vezzie vs. Alla, each of whom are trying to win their first career titles.  Go Vez!

As for the guys, Richard, Gilles, Techno, and Zverev are in the semifinals in Metz.  The result of note?  Techno reeling off 10 of the last 11 games to beat Marin in the quarterfinals.  Seriously, what the french is going with that guy?

In Romania, Montanes, Granollers, Chela, and Andujar will duke it out for the last dirt title of the season.

Lastly, if you're interested at all, the qualie draw in Tokyo is pretty interesting.  L-Rob is there and she won her first round match over #57 Sevastova (not an easy feat -- Sevastova won a title and beat Ana and JJ earlier this year), and she'll play the winner of Halep/Flipkens for a spot in the main draw.  Whoever wins that Halep/Flipper match will have to turn around play Robbie later in the day.  Good luck, Laura!

And as a random aside, I was totally shocked to see MGMT in the qualie draw.  Didn't realize she'd fallen that far.

Relegators! Mount Up.

Huge comeback win for India, who have finally made it into World Group I by coming back from an 0-2 deficit against Brazil to take the next three matches.  Nice wins by Bopanna and Somdev in singles to clinch this one.

Austria was pretty stoked too, bouncing Israel 3-2.

Romania clinched 5-0 over Team Lappenti.

Mardy Fish was the man in Bogota, winning all three of his matches (with a little help from Big John) to take the tie for the Rodless, Bryanless, Americans.

Sod sealed the win over Italy, beating Goth Bols (yes, he still kinda plays tennis) to clinch it today.

Team Techno dusted the South Africans, 5-0.

Rather inexplicably, Team Kazakhstan rolled over the Fedless Swiss, 5-0, to make their first World Group appearance.  Make glorious nation, boys.

Meanwhile, the decisive matches in Cairns were rained out.  They'll resume play tomorrow with the Roos up 2-1.  They'll be without Lleyton though.  He sprained his face mugging.  Or hurt his wrist in doubles.  Either way, he's out for a few weeks.

Inglorious Basterd

Ok, like, I find PEHK totally hilarious.  But that doesn't mean I actually like him as a player.  He's kind of a dick on court and his weird eyes and service motion give me nightmares. So the little drama he tried to drum up tonight against Rafa was not appreciated by me, particularly because I was already in a bad mood after Kim.

First it was like this.

And then it was like this.

But then it was like this.

And Rafa was like this.

And then, thankfully, it was like this. 

Rafa had some really rough patches with his forehand and serve throughout the match and Techno played pretty darn well.  He had something like 9 break points he couldn't convert through the first two sets.  Had he converted them this match would have been completely different (obviously).  Rafa wasn't playing all that well.  But he regrouped and played a strong fourth set to finally close out the match.

After the match Rafa said he felt good physically.  So that's good to hear.  I'll be interested to see how his form improves though.  He's got a tricky one against Ivo in the next round.  Zoinks!

Pic This: Oh, It's *That* Kind of Rave

Don't you have a match you should be practicing for, Techno?

Super creepy.

Deutschland, Deutschland, JA JA JA!

Going a Little Far to Prove a Point, Don't You Think?

I mean, we get it.  The season's long.  People get hurt.  No need for a demo.

 

Hmmm, that makes it look a little like he just went ahead and got it amputated, right on court.  Andy retired against Stan, up 4-3 in the first, due to a knee injury.  He should be okay for qualifying for WTF (God, I love using that), but he doesn't seem to know quite what's wrong with the knee.  That's no good.

The other minor upset of the day was Tomas beating Marin in 3 sets.  I say minor because, although of course Marin is higher ranked and has more success these days, Tomas is dangerous when he can keep his head together.  Also, he is very, very pretty.

 

That's not from today, obviously, it's just illustrative.  Anyway, he plays Marat next.  At 2 a.m. my time.  Don't think I haven't thought about it.

No other huge surprises in Shanghai today, unless you count Ivan Ljubicic winning a match as surprising.  Which, even though I love him, I generally do.  Oh, and Almagro d. Kohlschreiber.  I hope Philipp wasn't up too late programming new music into his homepage or something.

Singles - First Round
[9] R Soderling (SWE) d V Hanescu (ROU) 63 64
[11] G Monfils (FRA) d P Mathieu (FRA) 62 62
T Berdych (CZE) d [12] M Cilic (CRO) 76(8) 36 64
[15] T Haas (GER) d B Becker (GER) 76(5) 64
J Melzer (AUT) d J Chardy (FRA) 64 64 
L Hewitt (AUS) d J Isner (USA) 62 64
I Ljubicic (CRO) d J Benneteau (FRA) 63 36 61
N Almagro (ESP) d P Kohlschreiber (GER) 67(2) 61 76(6)
V Troicki (SRB) d J Monaco (ARG) 61 62 

Singles - Second Round
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [4] A Roddick (USA) 34 ret. (left knee)
[6] N Davydenko (RUS) d I Kunitsyn (RUS) 64 62
[10] F Gonzalez (CHI) d [Q] T Bellucci (BRA) 63 64
[13] R Stepanek (CZE) d A Beck (GER) 75 64

Maybe He's Born With It. Maybe It's Maybelline.

PTL! Pico, Gilly, and Techno won. 

Sad Face: Grigor, Apricot, Fabrice, Chucho, and Janko lost. 

Please excuse me while I go explain to donkeygrooming that Janko is horrible at tennis.

Bastad:

Singles - First Round
J Monaco (ARG) d [8] M Gonzalez (ARG) 76(4) 36 61
D Koellerer (AUT) d S Darcis (BEL) 16 63 64
[Q] P Luczak (AUS) d A Martin (ESP) 62 62
B Phau (GER) d [WC] D Berta (SWE) 63 62
[Q] G Canas (ARG) d [WC] G Dimitrov (BUL) 63 76(2)
[Q] P Starace (ITA) d J Benneteau (FRA) 76(5) 63
K Vliegen (BEL) d M Granollers (ESP) 76(3) 64

Doubles - First Round
R Lindstedt (SWE) / R Soderling (SWE) d [2] J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Rojer (AHO) 64 64
[3] J Levinsky (CZE) / F Polasek (SVK) d J Cerretani (USA) / A Qureshi (PAK) 26 63 10-6
[4] M Lopez (ESP) / T Robredo (ESP) d S Darcis (BEL) / F Gil (POR) 63 62
M Granollers (ESP) / P Starace (ITA) d P Marx (GER) / B Phau (GER) 76(3) 46 10-4

Stuttgart:

Singles - First Round
[1] G Simon (FRA) d P Petzschner (GER) 63 64
N Kiefer (GER) d [3] T Berdych (CZE) 63 63
[5] P Kohlschreiber (GER) d D Junqueira (ARG) 63 62
[LL] A Sidorenko (FRA)* d [Q] D Munoz-De La Nava (ESP) 76(3) 16 62
F Fognini (ITA) d [7] F Santoro (FRA) 57 76(3) 61
J Chardy (FRA) d [8] J Acasuso (ARG) 62 76(4)
M Zverev (GER) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 62 64
[WC] S Greul (GER) d A Beck (GER) 76(4) 76(5)
O Hernandez (ESP) d J Tipsarevic (SRB) 64 64
R Schuettler (GER) d I Minar (CZE) 26 76(2) 64
*[LL] A Sidorenko (FRA) replaced [6] A Montanes (ESP) - left leg

Doubles - First Round
[2] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Melo (BRA) d L Arnold Ker (ARG) / P Cuevas (URU) 61 64
V Hanescu (ROU) / H Tecau (ROU) d [3] L Dlouhy (CZE) / D Skoch (CZE) 62 46 14-12

Davis Cup Day 3: Heroes Rising

That's what Day 3 of Davis Cup is all about: Heroes.  And the great thing about Davis Cup is that these heroes often come from nowhere.  They're journeymen players who experience the biggest wins of their lives on this stage.  And there is something ridiculously awesome about it.

Over in Spain, it was looking like PEHK would be the man of the day.  He fended off a strong comeback from Fernando to notch an 8-6 in the 5th win.  Who knew the German would knock off Nole and Fer on clay in the span of a month and a half.  And if Hero #2 didn't step up in the next match and Germany had taken this tie, I would argue that Techno's win over Fer was the biggest of his career.  But alas.

After the Fer's tough loss Spain had to be feeling a bit of pressure.  Especially with Beck having taken Fer to five challenging sets a couple days earlier.  But in stepped cool as a cucumber JCF, who swashbuckled his way to a fairly businesslike straight set win.  And so Spain advances and Germany goes home.  Sure, it all shook out the way we expected, but the fun is in the process.  Spain will face Israel in their semifinal.

But the thing about heroes is that there's always a goat.  And no, I don't mean GOAT, I mean goat.  And unfortunately for Argentina, that goat was Pico.  Poor guy was unable to notch a singles win during the tie and that's what's why the 2008 finalists are going home.  As for Steps, he was able to fight off some knee pain and help bring this one how for the Czechs, who will have an away tie with...

The Lanktastic Voyage.

This was a hard fought tie for the Croats.  They had that epicly long day on Friday, wherein Ivo and Marin needed 5 sets to take care of Blah and Sockless.  But Marin came out and took care of business in four sets, dumping Blah and sending a very clear message to PMac that JAMES BLAKE IS A HORRIBLE TENNIS PLAYER!!!  It's time for everyone to accept it.  He's clearly in a bad spot.  The fact that Querrey CA was left off this team still chaps me.  Fuckers.

It's Never Boring When Techno's Involved

Spain and Germany ended Day 1 locked in a 1-1 draw after their #1s took care of business.  It took Fer 5 SETS to take out Andreas Beck, who just flat our ran out of gas.  How do you lose the next two sets 2 and 1 after you just won a tiebreaker to take a 2-1 lead?

Meanwhile, in a pretty impressive result on clay, PEHK beat Tommy in straight sets. 

Bring on Team Pretty for dubs!

Vamos!

 

Man, you become a Davis Cup hero and all of a sudden it's shits and giggles all the time.

At least he got Tommy to smile.  That's nice.

Fernando's the man this week, as he's scheduled to play singles and doubles.  And with the way his teammates have been playing lately, don't be surprised if he does have to suit up on Sunday.  He'll kick things off against Beck tomorrow and possibly play Techno on Sunday.

Costa has benched Feli in singles, opting with Tommy instead.  Probably a good move there.

Now What?

"Nole's" quarter is a total crapshoot now.  I mean...

 

 

... this is who we've got left.

It's no collection of schlubs, but it's not exactly a collection of clay court stahs, either.  It's not a complete crapshoot... it seems like the smart pick for the semis would be whoever comes out of the JMDP/Jo-Willy 4th round match.  Both of them have been playing well, JMDP handling the pressure of being "the best of the rest" very well for his first Slam at #5, especially considering it's not his strongest surface.  Same for Jo-Willy, except substitute "playing in front of a volatile, demanding home crowd" for "best of the rest".  Picking this one feels impossible, hopefully that match will live up to its potential.

I don't know what to think about Disco Tommy and PEHK.  Disco Tommy dropped his first set today against Maximo Gonzalez and then ended up beating him 6-4 6-1 6-0.  He's been winning fairly easily, but his draw has been pretty empty.  PEHK, of course, had his decisive win against Novak today, and it was impressive, but it's impossible to discount how tired and uninspired Novak was.  Who knows?  According to Wikipedia (so you know the information is absolutely unassailable), Tommy's made the QFs at RG every other year since 2003.  Continue the pattern or break it?  Who knows?

Yeah.  This is pretty much pointless except to say that this quarter is now hella confusing.  And exciting.

So... I Won't Be Playing "4" In the Lottery Anytime Soon.

Both of them.  Out.  Just like that.  Freaky.  Lena D's been riding a wave of mediocrity ever since she lost the Gaz de France final to Amelie; Novak seemed to have been picking up his pace of late.  Never mind, the end result was the same:

Even the matches were kind of eerily similar.  Sam and PEHK: both relentlessy consistent.  Novak and Elena: both... not.  Elena's serve was, for the most part, predictably horrible.  Novak was mostly spraying shots all over the place.  The elimination of their respecive #4 seeds has kind of opposite effects on the men's and women's draws, though: Novak's quarter is now in complete disarray, while if JJ doesn't make it out of Elena's, she should seriously consider focusing on her design career.  Such as it is.

Nothing but love for PEHK and Sam, though.  Sam's been karmically due a nice run somewhere and, well, who can hate on PhilippKohslchreiber.de*?  Only someone with a far harder heart than I have (mathematically impossible).

*Seriously, if you haven't been, go.  It's awesome.

1-1

That's Serena's new record against Klara Zakopalova for the '09 clay court season.  So... there's that.  I can't really say anything about anyone's level of play since I didn't watch very much of it, but I can say that Serena's knee wrap looked oddly high tech.  Although I could be making that up in my head.

I don't think she's even wearing jewelry from her own line. What kind of marketing strategy is that, Serena?  

There were other matches this morning, of course, mostly wrapped around a two hour rain delay...

Jelena's new not-entirely-horrible, but not-entirely-awesome Anta dress made its debut today. That's also a pretty good summary of how she played against Petra Cetkovska-- it's kind of like her game is currently on a factory reset: the big problem is gone, but none of the old programming has been reinstalled yet. Competent, and certainly enough to get her through the first two or three rounds, but not entirely solid yet. Meanwhile, look who's wearing pink!

Man. If, in some alternate universe, it ended up being a Dinara/Sveta final, Sveta would immediately have the upper hand because Dinara would be so. Jealous. Sveta played a really solid match against Claire Feuerstein, a French journeywoman who turned out to be much better than anyone thought she'd be-- possibly including Feuerstein herself.

'Round the ATP side, Nicolas Lapentti did his part to get Philippe Chartrier back on schedule by retiring down 4-6, 1-3 to Nole.  

  

Lapentti rolled his ankle-- which was already heavily taped-- towards the end of the first set, and obviously never got comfortable again. Nole looked calm and collected, had some silly misses, but mostly looked in perfectly good shape for the beginning of the tournament. 

Other results thus far: Monfils, Kohlscreiber, JMDP, Gicquel, Seppi and Disco Tommy all through easily in straight sets. Juan Monaco just knocked out Marcos-- Marcos, we hardly knew ye.  Caro, unsurprisingly, took the third set against Vera D fairly easily (6-1). The Gypsy prolonged Dani's misery by beating her in straight sets, Ruano Pascal did the same to Nikki V. Aleks Wozniak went through in 3, U-Rad went out in 3. Lena D through in straights, but went down a couple of breaks in the first. Sania's out and Dokic is through (only her second win since the AO?!). Quality guy Ivan Ljubicic is in a deciding set with Ferrero and Jo Willy and Apricot Bars are locked down in battle on Chartrier, but ESPN2 has decided I'd rather watch Blah. They are incorrect. Thank god for livestreaming. One note: conditions today have been terrible-- hours of rain delays this morning, terrible wind ever since. It looks like hell out there.

Random Smatterings From Around The IW Grounds

I will always, always, always love Agi's "who farted" face.  It pwns.

 
Rafa's butt.

Muzz looking good in red while practicing with a shirted (!) Ross.

The Kaiser of Techno trying to jog off his loss to Fer.

Dani heading to practice.

MaKiri noshing on a Drumstick while on her way to watch Igor play Lubey.

"Is now a good time for an autograph?  Oh you can't hear me?  Cool."

New Forty Deuce fave Anastasia Pavlychenkova.  That's the last time you'll see me spell that.  She shall heretoforth be known as "Latisha".  Look it up.

Momes having a grand ole time, playing soccer and pulling a Chastain.

(Pics for Forty Deuce by Love All and C Note)

Thursday @ IW: Andy's Special, Bethanie's Back, and Masha's Homeless

Kind of a Boring Day.

Meh.  Kind of a snoozer in Bercy today.  Not that there wasn't any quality tennis, or anything.  A Rod played REALLY well to dust FeLo, 63 64.  Crazy Train kept on truckin', as he fed Mario a bagel.  At least the kid is eating something.

The only fun thing is that Nole donned his Halloween mask before his match against Dima, which he won when Dima retired in the second with a right shoulder injury:

A Rod played REALLY well to dust FeLo, 63 64.  Crazy Train kept on truckin', as he fed Mario a bagel.  At least the kid is eating something.

LaMonf ousted Safin-killer Juan Monaco, 64 64.  And PEHK did his best Terrell Owens impersonation (he knows you can step outside the lines, right?) and beat Youzhny, 61 64.

Oh yeah.  This fucker won (seriously, is he not the face of pure evil?)
 
Here are the rest of your scores:
T Robredo (ESP) vs [15] F Verdasco (ESP) (in progress)
R Stepanek (CZE) d M Gicquel (FRA) 64 36 64
[Q] I Ljubicic (CRO) d [Q] V Troicki (SRB) 63 64
[LL] F Serra (FRA) d [LL] G Canas (ARG) 46 75 63

PEHK Uber Alles!!!

It has been on my to do list for quite some time but I have never had the chance to take a tour through Phillip Kohlschreiber's web site.  It has been referred to at TennisWorld as the GOAT of player sites.  Well I have now had a chance to check out www.philippkohlschreiber.de/ (make sure your sound is ON)

And now I am tragically sad that I did not discovery this sooner. 

God I FLOVE the Germans!!!  They no sense of irony or self-awareness.  The whole thing is straight out of Sprockets/Alias/30 Rock.