Not saying he doesn’t need a coach but…

 

First title of the year. First coachless title ever.

 

AP

Murray d. Federer 7-5 7-5

 

Muzz wasn’t in as breathtaking form as he was against Rafa and the match wasn’t, frankly, the envy of the world.

 

Neither were the conditions, though the rain delays appeared to affect Fed more than they did Muzz.

 

Even so, if his newly unveiled forehand is here to stay it will all have been worth it.

 

AND IT IS NEW.

 

Prior to this week, Murrays forehand, or rather the frequency with which he used it to attack (i.e. almost never), was a barometer of sorts as to his levels of confidence. Now, it appears to be something he can use to end rallies with on a regular basis.

 

With consecutive wins over Daveed, Rafa and Fed (all without dropping a set), the week’s best player won and that is as it should be.

 

Now on to that man in pink, whose escapades in Toronto last week are like some curious hybrid of “Citizen Kane” and “Sesame Street”.

 

One the one hand, reaching the finals on the back of some, frankly, tragic episodes of spontaneous human confunktion should inspire confidence.

 

The opening sets he played against Berd and Djoko in particular were as good as anything we’ve seen from him and suggest he is still in touch with the kind of form that wins Slams.

 

The stuff that transpired after both those first sets, however, suggests he’s also in touch with the type of form that loses them.

 

getty

 

Interestingly enough he may have unwittingly stumbled upon a strategy with which to trouble big-hitting Krakens –part of me wonders how much of this is to do with Annacone.

 

You can’t down a Kraken once it gets going – we all know that, folly to even try.

 

But if his match against Berd tells us anything, it’s that racing through the opening stages of a match in that deadly hypnotic way can smother the “big hitting genie” before it gets out of the bottle - and if he’s able to do that, then he’s in with a chance. A very good chance.

 

It’s an interesting thought. Kraken’s aren’t half so scary with their head forcibly dunked underwater.

What’s a Not-So-Wee, Bonny, Lad like you doing with a Fug Forehand like that anyway?

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Andy Murray doesn’t have a forehand.

 

A big first serve yes. A crafty and deceptively powerful double-hander, HELL YES.

 

But a forehand? …….*crickets chirping*

 

At least not in the top four sense and certainly not as a putaway shot.

 

Unless…

 

 

 

0:09, 0:21 and 1:04, thanks for asking.

 

And those of you that saw the match will know those weren’t the only ones.

 

Rafa was, perhaps, a little rusty but was otherwise neither injured, tired, nor royally pissed off. There were no complaints from him. There should be none from his fans either.

 

Muzz was simply that good.

Class

 

 

Q. A gentleman asked Djokovic before that he told you something at the end of the game, and the answer of Djokovic was, “Ask Roger.” So what did he tell you?

ROGER FEDERER: Um, well, he told me that he thought I should have won the match earlier, so I deserved the victory. (Laughter.)

I was like, Yeah, I kind of agreed. But look, I’m still happy I won either way, you know.

You know, he’s a good sport, and we enjoy, you know, the tough rivalries through guys like him or Murray or Rafa, whoever it is at the top. Makes you a better player. I think we’re, to some degree, thankful that the other guy is around, too.

 

 

The fact is, for whatever reason, and even if he doesn’t always mean it, Djoko does a great job of presenting himself – however much that may unsettle his detractors.

 

For my money, I do believe he means it - those post-match man hugs at the net from his early years would make me hurl.

 

getty

 

But that’s precisely my point. He “unlearned” that unfortunate habit, weaned himself off it once it was made clear to him how pretentious and ill-informed it made him look – especially when his opponents were, sometimes, so obviously uncomfortable with it (Fed would sometimes pull away).

 

Anyhooo.

 

Federer d. Djokovic 6-1 3-6 7-5

 

The match was very obviously a shoestring-budget remake of the original Stanley Kubrick production from only 24 hrs earlier  – this time presented in a smarter, sassy and edgier way -- though no less filled with tempestuous 1st set beatdowns, latter set Fed malfunctions and capped with a period when Fed does at least manage to rise above the gunk to close out the match despite falling far short of his form in the opening set.

 

Shout out to Djoko for rallying back in the way he did – it would have been infinitely easier to actually die after spending the best part of that sado-masochistic first set merely playing dead– and for actually managing to play what looked like his first bout of intelligent, belligerent, fearless tennis in two years. You give me hope.

 

Shout out to Fed for regrouping after enduring his second “go-loco” out-take reel from hell in 24 hours. Your ability to inspire awe, gore and to make me guffaw all in equal measure and in little over two hours, does you proud. This could become a trend.

Wait…Isn’t that THE top four?

 

 

First time since 1987.

 

Can you guess who those others were?

 

I’ll give you a clue: Becker, Edberg, Llendl and Connors.

 

Oh wait, that’s not a clue…

 

In other news, Daveed did finally run out of gas.

 

My scriptwriter says he feels vindicated but has chosen to pursue other opportunities.

A Clockwork Strawberry Milkshake

 

Calling the crowd partisan would be like calling the Berlin wall divisive.

 

It’s getting a bit much when people shout out during your ball toss, but Berd isn’t the first, nor will he be the last, to play in such conditions. It goes with the territory.

 

getty

 

Federer d. Berdych 6-3 5-7 7-6

 

The match was as intense and exhausting as only a Director’s Cut of  a Stanley Kubrick movie can be:  you know you ought to be along for the ride, yet come away unsure whether what you’ve just witnessed qualifies as a visionary work of genius or is simply too provocative for it’s own good.

 

Part of me wants to liken Fed’s play for a set and a half to the AO final this year, a comparison only undone by a stifling, almost Agassi-like, urgency to get things done: it’s rare to see him intimidate his opponents with sheer speed.

 

Yet when Berd did manage to impress himself upon the second set and at 5-6 down, Fed served his first DF of the match.

 

Not normally a problem, except he then served another - just like the proverbial London Bus, and (in keeping with the London Transport analogies) setting in motion another Northern Line runaway train – a whole sex-catalogue of errors that saw him lose the set and end up staring defeat at 2-5 down in the next. You really can’t write this stuff.

 

The rest, as they say, is history.

 

 

Though, as with Kubrick, many, sometimes uncomfortable, questions remain.

 

» Should we laud Fed for rallying back from the brink of defeat?

 

He did have the crowd behind him.

 

Though nowadays none of that normally comes in to it: he either wins playing moderately well, gets blown off court by a Kraken in a match no player would have won, or else gets engulfed in the fury of his own manky, shanky comedy of errors.

 

Clawing his way back after such an erratic episode is relatively unchartered territory.

 

There’s also the question of his losing to the “big hitters”:  already well-chronicled – though to lose to the same one three times in succession, both at and outside of Slams, would have been catastrophic.

 

» Or should we, rather, bear down on him for unleashing so many errors in the first place?

 

The early parts of that final set were not purty.

 

At one point he was 1/10 on break points.

 

At 1-1 he, somehow, managed not to break Berd’s serve despite having been 0-40 up.

 

At other times he simply looked to be flailing around as desperately and pointlessly as some kitsch remake of Clockwork Orange.

 

Like I said, not purty.

 

The take out from this match is, I suspect, any, or all, of the above.

 

His form from the first set in particular, with it’s potent serving, chancey wrong-footing, dancey movement and early ball-striking suggests we should be taking his hopes of ending on “at least” 20 Slams very seriously.

 

On the other hand, what he should be taking seriously is the threat posed by

this spontaneous and (you have to think) innate urge he sometimes has to “go loco”  – a threat that can loom larger than the Kraken on the other side of the net and plays out like the outtake reel from hell.

 

One where we are granted a none-too-rare 15 min courtside window into a nightmarish vision of pervasive pessimism, surreal symbolism and, occasionally, gross-out humour.

 

You can’t write this stuff. But I suspect Kubrick can.

Daveed, 11. The World, Nil.

 

getty

 

Nalbandian d. Soderling 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 

 

My only solace is that Sod will still, most likely, end the week as world #4.

 

Unless, perchance, Daveed and Rafa’s game isn’t quite sufficient to suppress and/or distract the Muzz.

 

Hint: Try diving through a pane of glass. With a broken shoulder. Then call the trainer and grimace violently. Then go out and do it all over again. Works like a bomb.

 

For the record, Sod did nothing wrong. It was one of those days. Daveed-Days. He’s had eleven of them so far. In succession.

 

My script said something about him being out of gas by now.

 

…and here’s where I sue my scriptwriter.

“When in hole stop digging – when thy shoulder is bust, stop frakkin diving”.

 

 

 

 

 

Always good to see the big boys get their acts together and chalk up straight sets wins without mention of conditions, the officials or bad breath.

 

Oh I love to see them writhe around in early-round agony and witness the odd bid-for-freedom from the latest up-and-comer as much as anyone. But the simple truth is the tournament is a better place for their presence.

 

A truth almost universally acknowledged.

 

Oh wait…

 

 

Murray d. Monfils 6-2, 0-6, 6-3

 

I only caught the last set of this hot, sticky mess (was busy watching Masha making crispy pancakes of Aga’s 2nd serve further underlining why Aga will/should only ever be a lowly top tenner – also further underlining why I believe Masha has “arrived”).

 

I’ve yet to understand what exactly went wrong with Muzz in set two. In the interview I saw, Muzz was about as forthcoming as a toothpick.

 

Was Muzzard’s guard down? Or did LaMonf begin unloading in the way we know only he can-but-chooses-not-to?

 

"I wanted to improve certain things, and I think that I did," [Murray]said. "But I shouldn't have allowed myself to get distracted by my opponent in the second set. He's fun to watch but it's difficult to concentrate sometimes against him. But the good thing about tennis is you can regroup and come back – and that's what I did."

-- The Guardian

 

Exhibit A: Class Clown.

Exhbit B: The sound of your career being flushed down the toilet.

 

Comical if it weren’t, for Monfils’s sake,  so tragic.

 

I don’t care. There’s a reason I make a point of not watching what should be the game’s best shotmakers making a fool of themselves behind the baseline. There’s also a reason I’ve, all but, given up on Monfils.

 

To those that missed it – first spend ten mins counting yourselves lucky - LaMonf received treatment on a shoulder he injured diving for a ball I’d guess he was never destined to make. Only to dive on the very same shoulder minutes later in pursuit of another ball he was never destined to make.

 

I only wonder how much more of this Roger Rasheed can take.

Look Away……..NOW

getty

 

1. The shade of Rafa’s shirt can most closely be characterised as:

 

a) Salmon

 

b) Water Melon

 

c) Neon Pink

 

d) None of the above – you were actually viewing the match through a thermal imaging camera.

 

2. “Rafa and Fed’s respective shades of pink most closely resemble their personalities.”

 

This statement is:

 

a) Completely true – Fed embodies reserve, class, restraint, subtlety and dignity. Nadal? Apparently, none of these things. Heh.

 

b) Somewhat true, but mostly b*llocks.

 

c) Unqualified, unalloyed b*llocks – Rafa is the Salmon Wrap to Fed’s Neopolitan Surprise, personalities don’t come into it.

 

3. Stan lost 7-6 6-3. Were you even looking at the score? Should you have been looking at the score?

 

Justify your answer in less than 140 characters.

 

***

 

 

You have 40 mins.

Moratorium

 

 

Djokovic d. Bennetau 7-5, 7-5 (Just)

 

Not funny.

 

"It was obvious that on the court I wasn't feeling the best, but I [overcame] it," he said.
Djokovic described the problem as "nothing unusual, just little heat issues that I have," but added, "I will never ever risk my health just to win. Today I was really on the edge."

-- tennis.com

 

Alright, I’ll admit there was a time when he was both an irritating prick and a bit of a drama-king. Quite a bit of one in fact.

 

It’s one thing taking the occasional jab at his fitness: he’s likely made his peace with his health issues being the butt of jokes until well after his career’s over.

 

It’s also true that his breathing problems are very real and date back to before 2005, something he had nasal surgery to help with.

 

It can’t be helpful knowing you must either push your health to it’s limits or else risk the ire of a merciless tennis media waiting to pounce with it’s agenda.

 

What we have now is a player who’s ditched the sillies (arguably what gave him his edge) yet continues to struggle with what almost, now, seems a chronic condition and, as David Laws would have it, almost seems resigned to it.

 

Man Down = Stop Kicking.

 

Again.

Neopolitan Man.

 

Federer d. Chela 7-6 (9-7) 6-3

 

I confess I kinda like the combo.

 

Take it from one who’s seen it in person. And by ‘person’ I mean the mannequin in the shop window of my local ‘tennisnuts’ outlet. Twist my arm and I might even post an image.

 

The tennis was ok – the speed with which, er, Neo wrapped up that second set after blundering into a tie break he had no business being part of, made it ok.

 

But then it has been six weeks. So we’re good.

 

More Neo.

 

 

Mission Come Forth

 

In the end, Sod needed only a single, decisive ace to seal a three set win over Ernie in a baseline slugfest that was anything but.

 

Ernie failed to convert more breakpoints than his fanbase were comfortable with – he also used his serve to dig himself out of trouble more times than I was comfortable with. Draw your own conclusions.

 

The good news for Sod fans is he was able to work his way into, and impress himself upon, a match that could easily have run away from him: Ernie rarely comes out with less than all 8 guns blazing and Sod hadn’t played since the final of Baastad three weeks ago. 

 

Mission “come-forth” also remains firmly on track.

 

The bad news is he’s on course to play Daveed  - who needed all of three sets to tough out Ferru in a match I couldn’t wait to see the back of.

 

Though I kinda wonder having picked up a title last week and been put through the mill in his opening match here, just how much Nalbie has left - and whether an earlyish exit might, somewhat counter-intuitively, work in his favour going into the USO.

I want my money back.

 

AP

 

Pospisil/Raonic d. Nadal/Djokovic 5-7, 6-3, 10-8

 

That was, well….Raonic.

 

You can still call them the “dream team” if you want, so long as you understand that some dreams are intended to be fleeting and you almost always wake up not remembering anything.

 

And that’s ok, because on the “Benedict Cumberbatch” scale of badass names, Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil score an 8.5.

 

In other doubles news not remotely related to the official doubles tour, Fed revealed how he was approached by Rafa to pair up a few years back in Madrid (he turned him down):

 

“Then I think our rivalry was so intense, I just felt like it was the wrong thing to do,” Federer said. “It would have been great for the game, but I think it would have been a bit of a curveball for everybody. It was fierce rivals, now all a sudden they’re being friendly. I don’t think the press would have enjoyed that so much. They want to put us against each other, not with each other. But today I think we’re much more laid back, me especially, too, because I didn’t have a rival for a long period of time, and then Rafa came up.”

-- Toronto Sun

 

Frankly? No.

 

This is about maintaining a mindset, a singularity of purpose about your rival and not wanting anything or anyone to interfere with that. Completely understandable.

 

But let’s be clear about this: the fans would have had a field day and so too, I suspect, would the press.

 

Sure, the spectacle of the top two players buddying up would warp some people out irrevocably and you’d get the odd article on how it might somehow “dent their singles rivalry”, but it’s not as if it was going to happen that regularly anyway.

"Why on court coaching is a BAD idea" - exhibit A

Still amazed by the fuss, images of Shaza being coached by Joyce (and her response), have caused.

You'd almost think the (hopefully ill-fated) on court coaching experiment just began last week.

Anyway, here's the Sharapova/Joyce coaching clip I was speaking of in my last post.

Pay special attention to the way in which Shaza gestures to Joyce to quieten down about her "tired arm" at around 35 secs.

I've tried to capture them as accurately as I can manage.

Joyce: Coupla things, coupla things.

Joyce: When you hit..when she pushes you back deep, you're behind the baseline, you're trying to do this 'swing your arm', and your arm is tired, you gotta sometimes go back high.

Shaza: What..'push' it!?

Joyce: Not push it, but go back high, then wait till you get the short one, and then step in; and the balls that are sitting in the middle of the court, you gotta move in, if your arm is tired, and you can't swing your arm.....(Shaza interjects)..huh?

Joyce: ...your arm is tired, and you can't swing your arm...(Shaza incomprehensible)...well you just said it louder than I just said it.. you gotta at least get your weight in the court.

Joyce: your serve, you're serving like 80% of your serves to her backhand - just hit your slice serve! If she hits the winners its fine....Aright...s'fine I'm wrong...you do what you wanna do...everybody knows you're tired...you can just either give into yourself, or get outta here, or fight hard, I don't know what you want...do what you wanna do!

Cincy, Toronto Roundup...

(Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Well that was altogether too efficient dontcha think?

Sure, Djoko seemed sapped of the intensity that carried him to the final and Murray seemed sapped of that and just about everything else.

But the way in which Federer seems to have upped his game in those last two matches in particular means he may have come out on top whatever the standard and form of the competition. Top four or top seventy four.

Equally revealing has been the way in which Federer executed two related but otherwise different gameplans against the second and fourth best players in the world.

The Murray match was almost a distilled version of the US Open final last year, with Federer's net rushes and unwillingness to get involved in those frustrate-the-hell-out-of-ya rallies Murray's used to such good effect over the years.

With Djoko, I'd say he knew he could outplay him at his own game, and elected to play clinical, aggressive tennis from the baseline.

Both those performances also had an almost unrelenting uber-aggressive snarkiness about them as he assumed what he presumably thinks of as his rightful position atop the ATP food chain.

You might go as far as to say that he's surpassed anything he produced both at RG and at Wimbledon.

But that as they say, is the nature of the beast.

Slams are won with a quieter and more measured intensity nurtured and then sustained over the course of two weeks.

It's been the shorter, sharp bouts of unremitting intensity that have been missing over the last year or so. Which unsurprisingly coincides rather well with his two year drought at the Masters level.

***

You might say that this last week has promised much and delivered little.

With a top four semi final line up at Cincy, and Elena, Shaza and a seizure-inducing cameo from Serena at the same stage over in Toronto, I think it's fair to say that this hasn't been the US Open Preview it could have been.

Novak Djokovic

Fascinating. I thought he was almost back in there in the early parts of the second set. Too many half court balls and too many at the bottom of the net. After a very worthy semi final performance that promised us so much.

Shame. But also, unfortunately, fast becoming an all too familiar story.

Andy Murray

Too much tennis. That's what I put his semi final blowout down to. That win in Montreal, though impressive, meant that Murray had played more tennis in the last two weeks than anyone else.

del Potro, now wisely it seems, elected to pass.

Bloodied in Battle

It wasn't just the fact that he put about as many first serves in as I might have done. Or that he looked like he'd gone without sleep for a week. Or that he played with about as much flair as a heatproof mat.

His shots lacked bite and purpose, and let's just say I've seen actual slugs slithering down my garden path less sluggishly.

Don't think punching your strings will help though. Time for a good lie down.

Rafael Nadal

Can we really fault a semi final showing? After a quarter final showing the week before? I think not. There were unmistakable signs of rust, and I'm not at all surprised by the way in which Novak overpowered him. But the signs are that he'll be in fine fettle in New York.

Just don't go expecting him to win it.

Elena Dementieva d. Sharapova 6-4, 6-3

OK so let's just forget that final. For half of it no one seemed to want to serve. In the other half Shaza's arm appeared to give way. Elena should have put her away sooner, instead managing to somehow prolong that second set.

(Photo: AP)

There's been a largish debate about whether this win increases her chances at the Open. I'm thinking not. The serve's not in the same place it was at Wimby. I'd say it's regressed.

And not even the fact that she's probably my second favourite player will sway me from that opinion.

But equally I'd say her situation is more hopeful than the Vikas, Wozs and Dinaras of this world. In fact I rather fancy her chances against Serena after Wimbledon.

Sharapova continues to impress. In every respect except that serve, which unfortunately still has some way to go. It made pretty painful viewing watching her flounder away that first set.

Will the serve ever be restored to it's former glory? Probably a safer bet to say no. But that shouldn't prevent her from turning it into something more functional. Those groundstrokes are still as scary as ever.

(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

One other thing. Did anyone else pick up on her insisting that Joyce (her coach) shush up about her 'arm hurting' during the on court coaching session? They're presumably both aware that the entire conversation is broadcast. Except that Joyce didn't seem to think much wrong with it, making reference to the fact that the arm had been talked about before.

It just concerned me a little. The last thing she wants after what by anyone's standards is an electric comeback, is a flare up. And it was very evident in the second set, with the way in which she played almost every stroke like she was wielding a 200 lb racquet, that something was up.

Toronto Semis: Underwhelmed

Elena Dementieva d. Serena Williams 7-6(2), 6-1

Semis of Wimbledon this was not. First set contested evenly enough, with Serena fading into painful insignificance in the second.

“I can’t say I was especially feeling the fire,” Williams said. “Obviously you want to do well, and I always really want to do well. Honestly, I think I could have and should have won, but I didn’t, so … it is what it is.”

I wasn't feeling the fire either. Come to think of it I wasn't feeling much of anything.

“I was really waiting for this match after Wimbledon,” said Dementieva, who has two tournament wins this year but none since January. “It’s always very interesting to play against Serena, and I was looking for revenge after Wimbledon.

“I was very positive on the court, and very satisfied with the way I was playing.”

It's actually great to hear Elena got her teeth into this and was motivated by the loss at Wimbledon. It's not the best tennis I've seen her play in recent months, but barring a mishap or a major serving flunkout, she should edge past Shaza to claim her third title this year.

Sharapova d. Kleybanova 6-2, 4-6, 6-4

This sounds like an equally untidy topsy-turvy affair. Sharapova fought through in the way you might expect her to, but the length of this match and the fact that it should have been Jankovic and not Kleybanova in the semis leave me a little underwhelmed.

Something tells me the final will be a little different though.

Bison Stampede on the Plains of the Serengeti

This is not the first time I've heard this.

With a proliferation of abbreviated service motions on tour recently, I sometimes question how much of it is a knee-jerk reaction prompted by the need to be seen to be doing something different, and how much is the result of diligent biomechanical research.

'M-ROD'
(Photo: AP)

I've heard mixed views on shortened takebacks. Conventional wisdom says it's driven by the need to reduce shoulder strain. But it's critics argue that the over compensation sometimes required to muscle the ball over the net in the latter half of the motion, actually attracts a greater risk of injury over the longer term.

I have to say though, that not every shortened takeback ought to be likened to Andy Roddick's service motion, nor was it the first thing that came to mind when I reexamined Shaza's serve today, although there are some similarities.

My view on Roddick's service motion is that it should be viewed in the same way you might admire a herd of elephants in the Serengeti: safely from a distance and with some awe - not used as a template for advancing your own technique.

As for Shaza's 'atrocious' motion, it's true that without her old serve, she's a fraction of the player that won those three Slam Titles. But is it not just a teensy-bit unfair to set the tone for the remainder of her career on the basis of what's transpired in just three months, and what is after all a work in progress?

***

Federer battled past Ferrer yesterday ... eventually. With Ferrer being one of the founding members of the 'eight-and-oh' club, and with him still nursing those knee complaints, I was expecting this to be over in straights.

I saw parts of the match, and couldn't understand why it was taking so long, nor what Ferrer was doing differently, if anything.

Turns out I was right first time, for Ferrer never really does anything differently, and simply adjusted better to the windy conditions.

That probably means Federer's still a little limp going into the quarters. Which should be of some concern to his fanbase, as this might be the first week on tour, since prior to the French Open that he's had to take on both Muzz and one of Rafa/Djoko back to back.

That'll do away with my tennis apathy quite nicely thanks.

Things are hotting up on the womens tour too. I always thought that Clijsters' reintroduction would throw the cat amongst the pigeons; I did not however expect the bison stampede that's seen many failing causes falling over each other in an effort to shape up.

-- Serena has reached the quarters of a Premier for the first time since records in my memory-banks began. Ok that was a slight exaggeration. But seriously now, was it not Venus wearing the 'Premier' hat up until this week? I haven't seen a single match of Serena's, and intend to keep it that way, at least until she takes on Dementieva in the semis, assuming Elena makes it past Stosur. If they can both put on a repeat of the Wimbledon Semis, apathy will have all but been swept away. And if Serena can somehow win this event, almost all will have been forgiven.

-- You know what else has been good about Kims comeback? How she's had to suffer the odd loss to the players we really ought to consider the tour's top performers. Dinara may be on the slide, but there was something almost righteous and ordered about her win over Kim last week. And if Jelena's managed to rediscover her form at Kim's expense, you'll not find me complaining much either. That said, if anyone was still nursing any doubts about the legitimacy of Kim's comeback, have another look at the way in which she dismantled Azarenka. The one early round ladies match I did manage to catch, and more than glad I did. A harmonious symmetry of an exhibition on both the absorption and injection of pace against perhaps the tour's most intense game face.

-- Meanwhile the Sharapova comeback continues, more or less unabated. I don't want to get into questions about 'where she is'. That discussion is as stale as it is meaningless. But it's very 2007 to have Jelena, Elena, Shaza and Serena contesting quarter finals once again.

Cincy, Toronto: Mental Midgets

With my tennis apathy still not exactly on the wane, I vowed to limit match exposure till late on Wednesday. With very unpalatable flunkdowns like these, it seems I did my senses a favour.

Guccione d. Tsonga 7-6, 6-2

Normal near-atomic levels of instability resumptionalised; contemptuous bouts of grumpiness on my part set to ensue.

Garcia-Lopez d. Verdasco 7-6, 7-6

The more I see of the world the less inclined I am to think well of it'; and the more explosivity I witness on tour, the more I'm convinced that it will be followed by an unceremonious meltdown of Karlovician proportions. To be fair to Nando, he managed to sustain the heights he reached at Melbourne this year for longer than I expected.

And his slide is less pronounced than some of his colleagues I won't sully this post by mentioning; but his star is on the wane...

Rezai d. Safina 3-6, 6-2, 6-4

Someone else whose star is on the wane, and perhaps more officially so, is Dinara Safina. The alarm bells should have been ringing, with the loss she suffered in the final of Cincy. It's not often a dressing down from Zeljko at a non Slam event goes unheeded.

But with her second round loss to Aravanne Rezai today, a match in which she served 17 double faults, I'd say it's time for a long hard think.

I'd also like her to take the moment to reexamine her relationship with Zeljko. I'm not suggesting it come to an end of course - just that things appear to have run their course with their current strategy.

Both Dinara and Zeljko appear to pride themselves with the way in which he hasn't gone about changing her game, preferring instead to nurture her natural baseline power-plays; but it seems what she needs now is a good old fashioned dose of what I call 'organic' growth - tennis development from the ground up, at least in areas as problematic as her serve.

Stosur d. Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-3

I've been cutting Sveta disproportionate amounts of slack, with that incredible win in Paris. But she's stunk out what was meant to be a very protracted victory parade with the way in which she's followed up.