The Week Ahead Now: Johannesburg, Santiago, Zagreb

Johannesburg

250; Feliciano Lopez defending; draw here.

Top 8 seeds: Feliciano Lopez, Yen-Hsun Lu, Janko Tipsarevic, Kevin Anderson, Florent Serra, Adrian Mannarino, Rainer Schuettler, Michal Przysieny

Points of interest: Adorable Canadian giant Milos Raonic has qualified and will play second seed Yen-Hsun Lu in the first round. Also, that’s once more than I hoped to have to type “Michal Przysieny” in 2011. Twice now.

Santiago

250; Thomaz Bellucci defending; draw here.

Top 8 Seeds: David Nalbandian, Juan Monaco, Thomaz Bellucci, Juan Ignacio Chela, Potito Starace, Tommy Robredo, Fabio Fognini, Santiago Giraldo

Points of interest: David Nalbandian, Juan Monaco, Thomaz Bellucci. Seriously, the South American clay swing? Sexy. Also, Robredo also got through a potentially challenging first round match with Federico Gil. Is Ex-Disco Tommy a thing again? Can he not be?

Zagreb

a.k.a the Marin Cilic peep show

250; Marin Cilic defending; draw here.

Top 8 seeds: Marin Cilic, Ivan Ljubicic, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Richard Gasquet, Florian Mayer, Marcel Granollers, Philipp Petzchner, Michael Berrer

Points of interest: Well, it depends. If you think Marin Cilic has to hit rock bottom before he can begin to climb again, then you probably want him to lose in the second round. If you think he has to arrest the slide somewhere, anywhere, then you probably don’t want to watch his second round. He’s got a tough draw to get to the semis; first a  probable match with Igor Kunitsyn, then either the suddenly-scary Florian Mayer (who beat him in straights at Wimbledon last year) or the always-sexy Radek Stepanek. There’s always Richard Gasquet and last year’s finalist Michael Berrer in his half, too. And watch out for Lukas Lacko hanging around the bottom half as well. No insinuation intended.

Also: Marin is playing doubles with Goran. Seriously. Their first match is 6 p.m. local tomorrow.

Eastbourne: Love is a Battlefield

Some interesting results from a tournament so loaded it is traditionally total carnage. First up, Aravane Rezai beat Caroline Wozniacki in the Battle of the New Outfits:

Wozniacki’s loss, as defending champion, will put JJ up to no. 3 next week, I hear.

Things did not go a lot better for the almost identically-named Aleksandra Wozniak, who lost in straight sets to plucky young thing Heather Watson in the Battle of Being Nearly the Sole Hope of Your Nation:

C’mon Tim!

The Battle of the Belgians was won by Kim Clijsters in emphatic style, downing the somewhat floundering Yanina Wickmayer 61 61 after returning from her foot injury:

Francesca Schiavone followed in the footsteps of last year’s French Open champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in losing in the first round, bundled out by Sorana Cirstea in the Battle of Career Highs at Roland Garros:

Sveta herself, meanwhile, survived the Battle of the Russians, beating Alisa Kleybanova 46 75 62. Then she announced she was playing doubles with Rezai at Wimbledon via twitter. That whacky Sveta.

In younger generation news, Victoria Azarenka took out Agnieszka Radwanska in the Battle of Can I Get Past the Wimbledon Quarters This Year? No:

But she does have amazing hair.

And in the Battle of the Careers Plagued By Injury, Elena Baltacha was left standing for once as Li Na, probably exhausted from her efforts in Edgbaston last week, retired after winning the first set, 76(6):

And that was your WTA wackiness for the day.

Meanwhile, on the ATP side, James Ward and Feliciano Lopez duked it out fiercely to see who could confound expectations the most. Ward looked to have an unassailable lead on that front, as he stunned everyone by not only winning the first set but going up a break in the second. Not to be outdone, however, Lopez abruptly retired at 4-5 down, denying Ward the chance to explode spectactularly when serving for it. A Pyrrhic victory at best, one feels.

ATP – Tuesday’s Results

Singles – Second Round
[5] G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d F Fognini (ITA) 62 62
I Marchenko (UKR) d [6] H Zeballos (ARG) 76(2) 63

Singles – First Round
[1] N Almagro (ESP) d L Kubot (POL) 75 76(3)
[WC] J Ward (GBR) d [2] F Lopez (ESP) 63 54 ret. (shoulder)
Y Lu (TPE) d K Beck (SVK) 64 64
R Schuettler (GER) d A Golubev (KAZ) 62 63

Doubles – First Round
[2] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) d L Friedl (CZE) / D Vemic (SRB) 76(4) 62
[4] S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS) d R Hutchins (GBR) / J Kerr (AUS) 63 63
J Benneteau (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) d [WC] J Delgado (GBR) / D Inglot (GBR) 62 62
L Mayer (ARG) / H Zeballos (ARG) d M Emmrich (GER) / A Siljestrom (SWE) 76(4) 62

WTA – Tuesday’s Results

Singles – First Round
Aravane Rezai (FRA) d. (1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 64 16 63
Sorana Cirstea (ROU) d. (2) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 75 63
Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (4) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 76(2) 61
(5) Kim Clijsters (BEL) d. Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 61 61
(Q) Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) d. (6) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 76(5) 61
(WC) Elena Baltacha (GBR) d. (7) Li Na (CHN) 67(6) ret. (left thigh injury)
Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. (Q) Karolina Sprem (CRO) 26 75 76(4)
Zheng Jie (CHN) d. Shahar Peer (ISR) 16 61 63
(Q) Heather Watson (GBR) d. (Q) Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) 63 62
(WC) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) 46 75 62

Doubles – First Round
(1) Huber/Martínez Sánchez (USA/ESP) d. Gallovits/Petrova (ROU/RUS) 62 64
Ruano Pascual/Shaughnessy (ESP/USA) d. (WC) Keothavong/South (GBR/GBR) 64 36 107
Black/Hantuchova (ZIM/SVK) d. Amanmuradova/Voracova (UZB/CZE) 63 63
Chan/Zheng (TPE/CHN) d. Dushevina/Makarova (RUS/RUS) 75 06 108
Grandin/Spears (RSA/USA) d. Chuang/Govortsova (TPE/BLR) 76(1) 60

Musketeers Are Spanish Now?

Does this make Rafa the Queen of Spain?

Rome: Wednesday’s Results, Thursday’s OOP

Routine day in Rome today. Even the upsets were a bit predictable. As Drew Lilley called it, Lopez and Wawrinka both scored victories in three sets over Marin Cilic and Tomas Berdych respectively.

It happens.

Lopez’s quarter of the draw is now missing the top two seeds; Wawrinka isn’t so lucky, because he’s uncomfortably adjacent to Robin Soderling, a straight sets victor today, and this guy. Ditto.

Elsewhere Nose Job had an excellent win over fourteenth seed John Isner, and Filippo Volandri continues his quest to prove he’s relevant in the world by beating Benneteau to make the third round.

Results

Singles – Second Round
[3] R Nadal (ESP) d P Kohlschreiber (GER) 61 63
[5] R Soderling (SWE) d [WC] P Lorenzi (ITA) 61 75
[6] F Verdasco (ESP) d [WC] S Bolelli (ITA) 76(11) 63
[7] J Tsonga (FRA) d V Troicki (SRB) 62 63
F Lopez (ESP) d [8] M Cilic (CRO) 26 76(2) 64
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [10] T Berdych (CZE) 26 63 76(6)
[11] I Ljubicic (CRO) d N Almagro (ESP) 75 76(3)
[13] D Ferrer (ESP) d [WC] P Starace (ITA) 75 62
T Bellucci (BRA) d [14] J Isner (USA) 76(7) 75
[WC] F Volandri (ITA) d J Benneteau (FRA) 62 60
G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d L Hewitt (AUS) 62 63
[Q] S Giraldo (COL) d [Q] M Llodra (FRA) 63 62

Doubles – Second Round
P Cuevas (URU) / J Monaco (ARG) d [1] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) 62 76(4)
[2] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d F Cermak (CZE) / M Mertinak (SVK) 64 61
[WC] Y Allegro (SUI) / R Federer (SUI) d [6] S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS) 46 63 10-8

Thursday’s OOP is brought to you by the only thing that’s even coming close to cheering me up right now.

OOP

The Boys Are Back In Town

The leading lights of the Monte Carlo field got cleaned up quite nicely for the player’s party:

Those shoes. They’d better be special shoes for vulnerable knees, a la Fred Couples’ deck shoes at the weekend, because if not, there’s no excuse.

I love Jo’s serious tie.

So much happiness in this photo.

Someone’s mum ironed him a shirt between awesome blogs.

Further evidence to add to the ‘how did it take me so long to notice Tomas Berdych is gorgeous?!’ case file.

Dame Shirley f**king Bassey!

Hello, boys.

… Caption competition?

Welcome Back to the Winners’ Circle

Feliciano Lopez won his first ATP title since 2004 today when he defeated eighth-seeded Frenchman and maiden tour finalist Stephane Robert 75 61 to take the SA Tennis Open title in Johannesburg.

Felicitations.

Johannesburg: The ‘Dream’ Final

Two Spaniards against two Frenchmen; two top seeds against two … not, and naturally, it’s ended up with Stephane Robert and Feliciano Lopez facing off in the Johannesburg final.

This is Stephane Robert, in case you didn’t know. (If you did know, what the hell are you doing reading this blog? Start your own, you know more.)  He cracked the top 100 at the start of this week and now he’s in his first ATP final, beating David Ferrer to do it. Respect. And some puzzlement.

I only checked in intermittently on the Lopez-Monfils match, but whenever I did, Lopez was serving great and completely flummoxing Bambi at net. Pretty much all I can say is ‘well done’. This would incidentally be his second ATP title, the first coming in 2004. It feels like he’s due, doesn’t it?

Singles – Semi-finals
[3] F Lopez (ESP) d [1] G Monfils (FRA) 36 61 76(1)
[8] S Robert (FRA) d [2] D Ferrer (ESP) 75 64

Doubles – Semi-finals
K Beck (SVK) / H Levy (ISR) d S Darcis (BEL) / X Malisse (BEL) 75 46 10-7

Tuesday Results: Tipsy, Malisse Out

Did I say things were happening? They are. Not very interesting things, but things. The top four seeds were all in action in Johannesburg today; La Monf and Ferru fairly breezed through over Hrbaty and Beck respectively, but Marco Chiudinelli was ousted by Jamaica’s finest, Dustin Brown, and Feliciano Lopez had a bit of work to do before overcoming  Benjamin Balleret 63 in the third.

The biggest news of the day in Zagreb was fifth seed Janko Tipsarevic falling to Michael Berrer in straight sets, and … that’s it. Daniel Koellerer won a match, so it’s a safe bet some ridiculous behaviour was encountered. Santiago lost seeds Simon Greul and Horacio Zeballos to Souza and Kubot respectively, and Nose Job did well to put away Nico Lapentti 61 in the third. Gonzo’s expected on court a bit later on … and have a photo of Pico, because he beat Massu yesterday and I didn’t get a chance to talk about it until now.

Yay.

Johannesburg

Singles – First Round
[1] G Monfils (FRA) d D Hrbaty (SVK) 62 61
[2] D Ferrer (ESP) d K Beck (SVK) 61 75
[3] F Lopez (ESP) d [Q] B Balleret (MON) 61 67(5) 63
D Brown (JAM) d [4] M Chiudinelli (SUI) 64 36 64
S Devvarman (IND) d [6] X Malisse (BEL) 64 62
[7] Y Lu (TPE) d J Nieminen (FIN) 63 62
J Ouanna (FRA) d H Levy (ISR) 76(4) 62
[WC] R Klaasen (RSA) d D Guez (FRA) 64 63
B Phau (GER) d [Q] F Wolmarans (RSA) 64 75
[WC] I Van Der Merwe (RSA) d [Q] N Okun (ISR) 76(5) 76(2)
T Alves (BRA) d O Dolgopolov Jr. (UKR) 57 62 63
[Q] F Prpic (SWE) d I Navarro (ESP) 63 75

Doubles – First Round
[2] J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Rojer (AHO) d R de Voest (RSA) / Y Lu (TPE) 63 64
[3] E Butorac (USA) / R Ram (USA) d P Marx (GER) / I Zelenay (SVK) 76(6) 63
P Amritraj (IND) / J Cerretani (USA) d [WC] R Roelofse (RSA) / N Scholtz (RSA) 64 61

Santiago

Singles – First Round
[1] F Gonzalez (CHI) d O Hernandez (ESP) 62 61
[3] T Bellucci (BRA) d N Lapentti (ECU) 36 61 61
R Mello (BRA) d [4] P Cuevas (URU) 76(5) 63
L Kubot (POL) d [5] H Zeballos (ARG) 36 75 63
[6] J Acasuso (ARG) d [WC] H Podlipnik-Castillo (CHI) 61 61
[Q] J Souza (BRA) d [7] S Greul (GER) 36 64 76(5)
E Schwank (ARG) d P Lorenzi (ITA) 46 76(3) 63
P Riba (ESP) d S Ventura (ESP) 63 75
P Capdeville (CHI) d [WC] C Saavedra-Corvalan (CHI) 46 62 61
[Q] D Marrero (ESP) d [Q] J Aranguren (ARG) 76(4) 26 76(2)
[Q] R Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) d V Crivoi (ROU) 64 62

Doubles – First Round
[1] L Kubot (POL) / O Marach (AUT) d J Chela (ARG) / S Ventura (ESP) 63 76(7)
B Dabul (ARG) / P Lorenzi (ITA) vs [WC] S Gonzalez (MEX) / N Massu (CHI) (postponed until Wednesday)
S Greul (GER) / P Luczak (AUS) d R Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) / E Schwank (ARG)  76(3) 64

Zagreb

Singles – First Round
M Berrer (GER) d [5] J Tipsarevic (SRB) 76(5) 63
[6] B Becker (GER) d [Q] A Vinciguerra (SWE) 16 61 76(4)
P Petzschner (GER) d C Rochus (BEL) 67(4) 63 61
L Lacko (SVK) d D Istomin (UZB) 62 22 ret. (right hamstring)
D Koellerer (AUT) d A Golubev (KAZ) 63 36 63
[WC] P Jelenic (CRO) d [Q] I Bozoljac (SRB) 76(6) 75
[Q] A Sidorenko (FRA) d [Q] R Bemelmans (BEL) 76(5) 36 63

Doubles – First Round
C Kas (GER) / E Korolev (KAZ) d [2] J Knowle (AUT) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 63 76(6)
A Clement (FRA) / O Rochus (BEL) d J Delgado (GBR) / F Moser (GER) 46 75 10-8
J Melzer (AUT) / P Petzschner (GER) d D Istomin (UZB) / A Motti (ITA) 46 75 10-8

AO Day Five: The Yanks

(I have no idea why I’m doing this by geographical origin, but I’ve started, so I may as well finish.)

Two Americans are into the last sixteen after tough four set wins. Andy Roddick played brilliantly to resist a determined challenge by Feliciano Lopez, who was as good as I’ve ever seen him.

I had one of my moments of Roddick appreciation today. His work rate on the court is just phenomenal and his increasing willingness to adapt to the player he’s facing is really impressive. He could totally come out of this quarter, and it would be very well deserved.

He’ll be joined, perhaps more surprisingly, by John Isner, who’s started the year really well and built on his Auckland win for some serious momentum. Sadly his win came at the expense of the always-exasperating, always-entrancing Gael Monfils.

No more daily Bambi picturage. Sad face.

Isner faces Andy Murray next, and the way that both have been playing, an upset is far from out of the question. Although if he follows it with this celebration, I might have to not like him very much at all.

D Cup Final: Domination

Spain 5, Czech Republic 0

Rafael Nadal d. Tomas Berdych, 75 60 62

Well, hello there, Rafa. Nice to see you.

Big statement from Rafa in his penultimate match of the year. Can we stop with all the ‘Rafa is done’ talk now? He obviously thinks he isn’t, and that’s the only opinion that really matters:

I am lucky to play tennis. Is my hobby and at the same time my job. So for me is not very difficult wake up every day and practice hard. Always the motivation is important, wake up every day with the goal to improve something. The day when I wake up and I don’t feel this thing, I going to play golf or another thing.

source

David Ferrer d. Radek Stepanek, 16 26 64 64 86

Oh, Ferru. You little five-set warrior, you. One of my favourite matches of last year was watching him come back from 1-2 down against Roddick in the semifinals (a match that also ended 8-6 in the third). I didn’t get to see this one, but he basically clinched the tie with his comeback victory, ensuring that Navratil was forced to tap Berdych and Stepanek for the doubles, leaving them exhausted even if they managed to keep the tie alive into Sunday. (Which they didn’t.)

And of course the cheering!Boss photoage was just a bonus:

Feliciano Lopez / Fernando Verdasco d. Tomas Berdych / Radek Stepanek 76(7) 75 62

You kind of knew it was going to end up this way.

I don’t know what it is with Lopez, Verdasco and Davis Cup, but whatever it is, it seems to work. They handed Berdych and Stepanek their first ever Davis Cup doubles defeat, and they did it to clinch the tie and the defense of the trophy. Cue the celebrations that slashers love …

The dead rubbers were also efficiently wrapped up by Spain, with Nadal beating Hajek, 63 64, and Ferrer beating Dlouhy, 64 62.

Really tough weekend for the Czechs, but they’ve done amazingly to get this far. Spain just have too many good players who have the ability to rise to the Davis Cup occasion. Once Ferrer beat Stepanek, it was really all over bar the shouting, hugging, champagne-spraying and trophy-biting …

So that’s the Davis Cup done and dusted for 2009, remaining firmly in the hands of Spain. I do just want to say how pleased I am for Jewell, AmyLu, Rafadoc and the other Rafa/Armada fans who comment here and have not had the best time of late … hope you’re smiling now