Tokyo Jo

I am so tired of writing ‘I missed this match, but …’

Anyway, I missed this match, but Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets 63 63 for his third title of the year, thus making up rather nicely for not defending Bangkok. Yay.

And his hair looked particularly fluffy.

Congratulations to Mikhail Youzhny too, who played his second final of the year here and seems to be making definite strides to climb out of the hole he’d dug himself into. All in all, one rather feels he deserved a bigger plate, but there you are.

Jo’s got to be close to qualifying for the WTFs, right? Anyone good with numbers?

Sunday’s OOP

Beijing

Center (from 13.00hrs)
1. ATP: Knowles/Roddick vs. Bryan/Bryan
2. ATP: Cilic vs. Djokovic (NB 15.30hrs)
3. Singles Final: Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova (NB 19.00hrs)

Tokyo

Centre (from 11a.m.)
Ross Hutchins/Jordan Kerr vs Julian Knowle/Jurgen Melzer
Mikhail Youzhny vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (NB 1.30 p.m.)

Shanghai (qualifying & main draw)

Tokyo: Jouzhny. Pronounced “Juicy”

Second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will meet unseeded Mikhail Youzhny in the Tokyo finals tomorrow. Jo backed up a win against Gulbis by taking less than an hour to polish off (French polish?) compatriot and good friend Gael Monfils 63 63 in the semi-finals.

Youzhny meanwhile has been on quite a nice little run, beating Berdych, Simon and finally Hewitt to book his place in the finals. No question he can turn it on when he wants to, is there?

Oh, and Ross Hutchins is in the doubles final with some Aussie guy. Go Hutch!

Friday’s OOP

Beijing

Center (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Davydenko vs. Cilic
2. ATP: Verdasco vs. Djokovic
3. Peng Shuai vs. Nadia Petrova (NB 15.00hrs)
4. Elena Dementieva vs. Agnieszka Radwanska
5. ATP: Nadal vs. Safin (NB 19.00hrs)
6. Kudryavtseva/Makarova vs. Yan/Zheng

Court 1 (from 12.00hrs)
1. Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
2. ATP: [Soderling or Robredo] vs. Ljubicic (NB 15.00hrs)
3. Kleybanova/Schiavone vs. Hsieh/Peng (NB 19.00hrs)
4. Marion Bartoli vs. Vera Zvonareva (NB 21.00hrs)

Tokyo

Tokyo: Gulbis Makes It Past Second Round

Crack open the Latvian champagne, he finally did it – won two main draw matches in a row for the first time in 2009. OK, so it came courtesy of a withdrawal from Pico when Gulbis was leading 64 41, but even Ernie wouldn’t have messed up that scoreline, right? Right?

There’s a gaping hole in this photo where a comforting Elf should be.

Ernie will face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals, after Jo topped Richard Gasquet (pfft, who hasn’t?) in three sets.

Daddy cool.

Up at the top of the draw, it’ll be Mikhail Youzhny facing Berdych after he knocked out third seed Gilles Simon 64 in the fifth. Lleyton Hewitt managed to subdue ancient trickster and odour-removal spray Fabrice Santoro 61 in the third, and Eduardo Roger-Vasselin of ruining-my-week fame beat Melzer in three sets. Which I find oddly comforting.

Guys, this is killing me. *Who* does he look like?!

Singles – Second Round
[2] J Tsonga (FRA) d R Gasquet (FRA) 46 62 62
M Youzhny (RUS) d [3] G Simon (FRA) 76(5) 67(5) 64
[5] T Berdych (CZE) d A Beck (GER) 64 61
[8] L Hewitt (AUS) d F Santoro (FRA) 36 63 61
[Q] E Roger-Vasselin (FRA) d J Melzer (AUT) 46 62 63
[Q] E Gulbis (LAT) d J Monaco (ARG) 63 41 ret. (right hip)

Doubles – Quarter-finals
[WC] S Iwabuchi (JPN) / T Suzuki (JPN) d J Tsonga (FRA) / S Wawrinka (SUI) 63 46 10-8
J Knowle (AUT) / J Melzer (AUT) d J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Rojer (AHO) 36 64 11-9

Doubles – First Round
C Kas (GER) / J Levinsky (CZE) d *[Alt] M Chiudinelli (SUI) / D Meffert (GER) 63 62

*[Alt] M Chiudinelli (SUI) / D Meffert (GER) replaced M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) – (Sa – illness)

Thursday’s OOP

Beijing

Center (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Davydenko/Kunitsyn vs. Bryan/Bryan
2. Zhang Shuai vs. Marion Bartoli (NB 13.00hrs)
3. ATP: Nadal vs. Blake (NB 15.00hrs)
4. ATP: Safin vs. González
5. Nadia Petrova vs. Serena Williams (NB 19.00hrs)
6. ATP: Soderling vs. Robredo (NB 21.00hrs)

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Ljubicic vs. Kubot
2. Black/Huber vs. Kleybanova/Schiavone (NB 13.00hrs)
3. Agnieszka Radwanska vs. María José Martínez Sánchez (NB 15.00hrs)
4. Flavia Pennetta vs. Vera Zvonareva
5. ATP: Benneteau/Chardy vs. Blake/Ram (NB 19.00hrs)

Court 2 (NB 14.30hrs)
1. ATP: Dlouhy/Kohlschreiber vs. Kubot/Marach
2. Pavlyuchenkova/Wickmayer vs. Hsieh/Peng (NB 15.30hrs)
3. Kudryavtseva/Makarova vs. Llagostera Vives/Martínez Sánchez (after suitable rest)

Tokyo

Tokyo: Second Round Loss Still On!

Well done to Ernie who, wearing his qualifier hat, beat sixth seed Steps in Tokyo today 64 64.

If I’m not very much mistaken, this is a wally.

Don’t get too excited though, he can still lose in the second round, where he’ll play Pico. Oooh, a clash of the faves. Pico progressed after Armada tugboat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez retired 50 down.

Youzhny beat Nose Job, sadly if not surprisingly, and in other first-round action, ol’ sweaty bum himself, Richard Gasquet, beat Petzchner in straights to progress, as did second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Gael Monfils and Stanislas Wawrinka are both into the quarterfinals after straight set victories over Marco Chiudinelli and Simon Greul respectively. Good stuff.

Oh, and I’m delighted Hutch and Kerr are into the semi-finals. Albeit slightly confused as to how they’ve managed it while everyone else still seems to be playing the first round.

Singles – Second Round
[4] G Monfils (FRA) d [Q] M Chiudinelli (SUI) 76(5) 63
[7] S Wawrinka (SUI) d S Greul (GER) 63 62

Singles – First Round
[2] J Tsonga (FRA) d M Zverev (GER) 64 63
[Q] E Gulbis (LAT) d [6] R Stepanek (CZE) 64 64
M Youzhny (RUS) d T Bellucci (BRA) 62 63
A Beck (GER) d R Schuettler (GER) 63 46 76(3)
J Monaco (ARG) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 50 ret. (illness)
R Gasquet (FRA) d P Petzschner (GER) 63 62

Doubles – Quarter-finals
R Hutchins (GBR) / J Kerr (AUS) d [WC] H Kondo (JPN) / G Soeda (JPN) 62 63

Doubles – First Round
[WC] S Iwabuchi (JPN) / T Suzuki (JPN) d [2] M Damm (CZE) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 61 36 10-6
J Knowle (AUT) / J Melzer (AUT) d [3] S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS) 46 76(5) 14-12
J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Rojer (AHO) d S Huss (AUS) / S Lipsky (USA) 63 36 11-9

Wednesday’s OOP

Beijing

Center (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Benneteau vs. Cilic
2. ATP: Davydenko vs. Kohlschreiber (NB 12.30hrs)
3. Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Alona Bondarenko (NB 15.00hrs)
4. Peng Shuai vs. Maria Sharapova
5. Elena Dementieva vs. Li Na (NB 19.00hrs)
6. ATP: Troicki vs. Djokovic

Court 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Blake/Ram vs. Fyrstenberg/Matkowski
2. Aleksandra Wozniak vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
3. ATP: Acasuso/González vs. Knowles/Roddick (NB 14.00hrs)
4. Groenefeld/Schnyder vs. Yan/Zheng
5. ATP: Verdasco vs. Ferrero (NB 19.00hrs)

Court 2 (from 12.00hrs)
1. Grandin/Kops-Jones vs. Llagostera Vives/Martínez Sánchez
2. ATP: Benneteau/Chardy vs. Butorac/Fisher (after suitable rest)
3. ATP: Hanescu/Wassen vs. Davydenko/Kunitsyn (after suitable rest)
4. Kleybanova/Schiavone vs. Bondarenko/Bondarenko (after suitable rest)
5. Errani/Pennetta vs. Hsieh/Peng (after suitable rest)

Tokyo

Tokyo: Not That Interested Any More, Frankly.

And I hate myself for that, but there you are. Anyway, with the obvious exception of JMDP, the top seeds had a fairly good day in Tokyo. Gilles, Berdych and Hewitt defeated a trio of Japanese wildcards; Horseface sadly fell to Melzer; and Santoro won a marathon against Golubev. Have a vaguely relevant picture.

Singles – First Round
[Q] E Roger-Vasselin (FRA) d [1] J del Potro (ARG) 64 64
[3] G Simon (FRA) d [WC] T Suzuki (JPN) 63 64
[5] T Berdych (CZE) d [WC] G Soeda (JPN) 62 64
[8] L Hewitt (AUS) d [WC] T Ito (JPN) 61 75
J Melzer (AUT) d L Mayer (ARG) 76(4) 63
F Santoro (FRA)  d A Golubev (KAZ) 67(5) 76(2) 62
A Beck (GER) vs R Schuettler (GER) – postponed until Wednesday
T Bellucci (BRA) vs M Youzhny (RUS) – postponed until Wednesday

Doubles – First Round
J Tsonga (FRA) / S Wawrinka (SUI) d J Coetzee (RSA) / R de Voest (RSA) 62 64

Cheesy Times in Tokyo

So I’m not sure whether this was before or after he lost (if it was after, that would kind of extremely suck), but JMDP attended a reception for the Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo at some point, along with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Lleyton Hewitt.

Sorry Gael, you *what* L.A.?

I want to bottle Jo’s expression in this photo.

Why is Ayumi Morita there?

Not that I wouldn’t get hammered with/by JMDP, given half the chance.

I’ve *just* noticed Bambi’s hair is back. Thank god.

To quote IRTTY, “Sir Broods-a-lot”.

But nothing’s that bad when you have a small wooden box.