So that made-up exo thingy I was talking about was last night – sorry, the BNP Paribas Showdown of Champions in Madison Square Garden for the Billie Jean King Cup – and Venus won it. Well done. She beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 64 before facing Kim Clijsters, who defeated Ana Ivanovic 76(2), and beating her 64 36 75.
Venus just wears winning so well. What a great month for her. Of course, she couldn’t have done it without the help of her supporting cast who each reportedly showcased their special talents.
Sveta emoted.
And Ana … well, you know.
And a good time was had by all. Or possibly not. I hear that the event was fairly sparsely attended but that the tennis was good. Linz, are you out there? What did you think?
Top seeds: Jelena Jankovic, Daniela Hantuchova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Dominika Cibulkova
Not at all a bad field for this international. Top seed and wildcard JJ doesn’t have the easiest draw, starting off with Sevastova and probably having to contend with Iveta Benesova in the second round and Wozniak in the quarters. Alize Cornet will also be sucking and failing in this quarter. She will hopefully face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who made her name by beating her at Indian Wells last year, who should – fingers crossed – be able to contend well with everyone in her quarter, but then you never know with Pavs, do you?
In the bottom half of the draw, we should hopefully see a good quarterfinal clash between Hantuchova and Lucie Safarova, while Cibulkova has a loaded quarter including Agnes Szavay, Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Lucie Hradecka, Sara Errani and Sorana Cirstea (who will be losing to Sara Errani in the first round and therefore doesn’t really count). It’s all fun stuff, although we probably won’t get to see any of it, and frankly if JJ loses to anybody except Safarova or Pavs, I will be despairing of her.
BNP Paribas Showdown of Champions
Were it anything other than a slow week, I wouldn’t mention this nonsense. But it is, so: Kim Clijsters, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams and in-for-an-injured-Serena Ana Ivanovic will be battling it out (except not really) for $1.3 million and the Billie Jean King cup on Monday night. So now you know.
A second exhibition to raise money for victims of the Haitian earthquake will take place during Indian Wells, this one featuring Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in addition to Roger and Rafa.
Bet you a million dollars that it’s not as good as the first one. Not that that’s the point, of course. Oh, now I feel bad.
EDIT: You know, some mornings (like this morning), I wake up with a hangover and I look at this blog and I wonder what the hell I was thinking. This is particularly evident in post titles, like this one, where I honestly don’t even get what I was going for. Sorry about that.
Pete Sampras and Fernando Verdasco played an exhibition match at the SAP Open in San Jose last night. Verdasco – who has spoken in the past about his hero-worship of Andre Agassi – won 63 76(2).
There’s only so much I can say about Pete Sampras.
All I can say is that this was so worth staying up until 4.30 a.m. for. I laughed until I cried and had several moments of rampant sentimentality. At the risk of sounding like someone who collects kitten plates, it made me so proud to be a tennis fan. They did a good thing here.
In somewhat heartwarming news, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Andy Roddick, Kim Clijsters, Novak Djokovic and Kim Clijsters have all agreed to play a special, hastily put-together mixed doubles event at Melbourne Park to raise money for disaster relief in Haiti.
Using their powers for good.
It starts in about three hours and will be streamed via the Australian Open website and available via ESPN360, apparently. More info here.
Definitely the biggest news out of the AAMI Classic was Fernando Verdasco’s 61 62 victory over Novak Djokovic.
Wearing this outfit, too.
I didn’t see the match, but I hear Verdasco played really well and – exhibition or not – this is a warning sign to the rest of the field ahead of the Open. Nobody’s going to want him in their quarter when the draw comes out (which is in about 90 minutes, by the way). Due to del Potro’s withdrawal, Verdasco will play Tsonga in the final tonight.
Playing off for third will be Gonzo – who got himself together enough to beat Tommy Haas – and Ivan Ljubicic, who benefited from Soderling’s retirement.
And in other news, Andy Murray beat Sam Querrey 64 61 in the meta-exhibition.
So there’s that.
Tonight’s matches:
Fernando Gonzalez v Ivan Ljubicic
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Fernando Verdasco
“Crowd Bonus”: Sergiy Stakhovsky v Sam Querrey
Well, he’s back. Juan Martin del Potro kicked off his 2010 season with a straightforward 63 63 victory over Ivan Ljubicic at the Kooyong AAMI Classic.
What can you really tell from an exo, though? Mainly that he hasn’t forgotten how to hit a tennis ball. Not that that stops people from writing rather unconvinced-sounding articles about the increased parity at the top of men’s tennis, etc., etc. …
Del Potro isn’t the package yet. But he thinks he can be the world’s best player and, indeed, that is one of his ambitions for 2010.
”I feel confident,” he said, when asked if he saw himself in the company of the dynastic duo. ”Of course, to beat Roger in the [US Open] final give to me a lot of motivation and confidence to keep, keep trying, keep working and when I get to the court with Roger, ‘Rafa’, I don’t feel too much different, and that [is] important for the career, for the future, and of course if I want to fight for the No. 1.”
Del Potro sounded almost blase about his lofty goals for 2010: ”Maybe win another grand slam, or fighting for the first position.”
Ljubicic, who had the rare experience of looking up at an opponent yesterday (Del Potro, at 198 centimetres, is five centimetres taller), reckoned Del Potro could be a future No. 1, with this rider: ”He will definitely need to play more consistent than what he was doing last year. I mean, he won the US Open, but he didn’t win a match until Paris, so if he wants to get to that level he will definitely need to be more consistent.”
Novak Djokovic not only defeated the often problematic Tommy Haas 62 63, he also – and possibly more importantly – debuted his brand new Sergio Tacchini threads:
Not much to write home about, are they? Although it’s a lovely colour on Nole, and at least he escaped this sort of thing:
Fortunately Verdasco’s game was looking better than his shirt, as he beat Fernando Gonzalez 75 61 in what by all accounts was a rather strange match. Gonzo got hit in the unmentionables by a first serve during Verdasco’s first service game, and thereafter was just … Gonzo, not that he needs an excuse.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rounded off proceedings by beating Robin Soderling, 76(0) 61. I must confess I missed this one, but I’m surprised by the scoreline. Robin a bit patchy of late? Or am I leaping to conclusions based on two exos and one bad day in Chennai? Answers on a postcard.
Anyway, he’s cute.
Tonight’s matches:
Tommy Haas v Fernando Gonzalez
Novak Djokovic v Fernando Verdasco
Robin Soderling v Ivan Ljubicic
“Crowd Bonus” match, Andy Murray v Sam Querrey
So, the AAMI Classic is happening in Kooyong this week. It’s the spiritual home of Australian tennis, you know. To be honest I’ve never really got the point of this one, but it’s an exo, it’s a warm up, it has good players, and I once met a lady in the pub who told me that she used to usher there and once had to hide Steffi Graf in the crowd when she was Andre Agassi’s Secret Love. So there.
And the players do tend to lend themselves to nice photoage …
They’ve more or less lined up the players in order of how much I like them, isn’t that sweet?
I know where you’re coming from, Ivan.
Well hello there, Nole.
And hello to you too, giant tanned man.
Just cute.
So that’s the field, basically. The draw’s here, although it makes me feel lost and confused. Basically, everyone will play, and then at some point someone will be handed a shiny trophy.
Oh, and Andy Murray – despite being turned down for a main draw spot in favour of Ivan Ljubicic (deal with that a minute) – will play a match against someone on Thursday ‘outside the round robin format’. So, basically he’ll be playing a mini-exhibition all by himself. This makes me sad.
Tonight’s action kicks off in about an hour or so:
Ivan Ljubicic v Juan Martin del Potro
Novak Djokovic v Tommy Haas
Fernando Gonzalez v Fernando Verdasco
Robin Soderling v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
New Balls, Please 