WombleTown: Bring It…

I fear this won’t live up to its billing. Nalbie’s simply been out for too long. His #25 ranking is born mostly of a little surge during the North American Hard Court Season last year. Still, won’t ever say no to this much vintage.

This, on the other hand, could go all the way. And perhaps not, I fear, my way. My guy has already been put through the mill by Petzschner and Hewitt. Depending on your take, that could prove either beneficial or ruinous. Tomic may be evil, but he can play.

WombleTown: Assorted, Unhelpful, Unholy Thoughts

 

Braindump of various (unholy) thoughts…….GO.

-- “Isnut Redux” will be over in under 3 hrs, with Isner winning, very likely, in straight sets. Meh.

-- Isnut aside, Fed’s draw looks like a snapshot from 2005.

-- Progress at an event being inversely proportional to points being defended....Berd goes out in week one. Perhaps even to Donald Young.


-- Murray just had his best FO ever. His Queens match against ARod was likely the best he’s ever played. Anywhere. Winning Queens in its entirety was, on the other hand, a clear case of not knowing when to stop, in the foulest of taste, and amounts to cashing in his chips too early. Just a feeling I can’t seem to dismiss.

-- Fernando Gonzalez in a GS draw: thine eyes doth not deceive thee

-- Federer/Nalbandian scheduled to meet in R3: thine eyes doth not deceive thee

-- New game: Pick a farce, any farce. Chances are AbFab’s already done it, or will find a way of doing it before the end of week one. Expect Milos to get very pissed off, which ought to be interesting as I’m not familiar with that phenomenon.

-- Point and laugh all you want, but I can totally see Rafa going down to Delpo (R4) or Berd (QF).

-- James Ward will continue his Union-Jack-coloured epiphany, and come close to knocking out Michael Llodra, before the latter remembers how great he is at coming through these early round, 5-set (late night) raves. Needless to say, he'll go out meekly in his next match.

-- “Pova is the favourite”. Playing her best post-shoulder-op tennis certainly, but favourite? [in my best, whiney call-waiting voice] “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t know what that word means – please try again later…”


-- I’m looking for a strong run from Serena, but I don’t expect her to win it. It’s simply been too long and the health scare is not something she’s ever had to contend with. Venus represents the more intriguing choice…..

-- Can *just* about see Marion preventing Serena from reaching the quarters. Just. And she’ll need to be lucky.

-- Out of Tsvetana (SF), Kaia (QF) and Petra (SF) – last years result in brackets – only the latter has a chance of not being plunged into rankings free-fall come two weeks time. Which probably means the exact reverse will take place.

-- Incidentally, why is no one talking about Kaia Kanepi? All I’m saying is there’s a lot of hoopla surrounding, say, Tsvetana (who I like btw), who’s only won 4 matches in the 14 events she’s entered since Wimbledon last year.

-- Since the media have done a bout turn and are suddenly shitting on Caro as an early “flameout”, almost as forcibly as they plugged her in RG – I’m gonna put myself out there, and say that she’ll do “great things”. Only, there’s a small chance that most of them take place in the first week.

-- Make no mistake about it: by far the absolute worst thing that could happen next week, is for Li Na to exit the party early. All those euphoria-tinged RG epilogues on how she might now be ready to make good on her talent, will look like nothing more than romantic fallacies. I’ve seen it happen to better players. Of course it may not happen at all. Except it might.

-- Declare thy allegiance then (remembering to balance romance with actual credibility). Here’s mine: Murray, Sod, Fed, Nole (in that order)…..Marion, Pova, Venus, Li, Serena, Petra, Yools (in that order)…..GO.

Oz: Over before sunrise. Call yourself a “night” session?

 

 

 

 

Nalbandian d Hewitt 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(1), 9-7

 

Hewitt and Nalby last on court in a night session at the Aussie Open – how else was this meant to “go down”?

No Country For Old Men

by Craig Hickman


Getty

I know that Lleyton Hewitt, a man who bears the weight of a nation on his shoulders every time he steps into Rod Laver Arena, and David Nalbandian, a man whose body has betrayed his gifts more times than the sport ever needed, are not old, actually.

But by the end of their intense, though sometimes devoid of energy, first-round battle under the lights at Laver Arena last night, the 29-year-olds looked decrepit. Once the match entered overtime at 6-6 in the fifth, after Hewitt failed to hold his fourth-set lead to close out the affair in four; failed to convert 4 break points that would've allowed him to serve for 5-1; after Nalbandian failed to serve out the set at 5-3 taking it instead in a lopsided breaker; failed to serve for the match at 5-4 in the fifth; one thing became clear: whoever prevailed wouldn't live to fight past the third round.

Age isn't really the factor. After all, it was just day before yesterday that world No. 2 and defending champion Roger Federer looked as lithe as a prepubescent school boy. His post-match interview in ESPN's studio revealed an animated, almost agitated demeanor I've never seen from the great champion. Never. It was as though he'd just ingested a pound of sugar, ready to play his second round match right then, right there.

But I digress.

The man who bears the weight of a nation of his shoulders and the man whose body has betrayed him too many times have both had hip surgery at least once. Remember how we lost the great Gustavo Kuerten to such deterioration? It was a long and painful departure from the sport and both of last night's warriors, no matter what they might say, are clearly on their last legs.

They both know it.

Getty

Which is why most of the tennis late in the match, despite the costly coming-in-patches mental lapses, displayed some of the biggest gonads you'll ever see from both sides of the net. Angles. The match was all about angles. Nalbandian and Hewitt can create them out of almost nothing, especially with their backhands, but it was the serve and return angles that predicted the perfection of a point. I can't describe it any further. Perhaps a highlight video will emerge to show you exactly what I'm talking about.

When Nalbandian, who had saved two match points at 5-6 in the fifth, one with a ballsy serve and drop volley, hit the final topspin lob winner that shattered the hopes of a nation, a family, and their aging son, 9-7 in the fifth, no less, we knew we had witnessed a classic.


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Li Na Makes History

by Craig Hickman


AP

Li Na became the first Chinese player to win a Premier event on the WTA tour. The first Chinese player to ever break into the Top 10 and the first to compete in a Slam quarterfinal (Wimbledon 2006), the independent and spirited fighter is poised to make more waves at the Australian Open next week. Last year, she and compatriot Zheng Jie both advanced to the semifinals Down Under. Surely Li will be looking to go at least one step further. She has a draw she can work with, to be sure.

She looked down and out against Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals but fought through. In a blink, she was facing a 0-5 deficit in the finals. Then, almost like clockwork, Kim Clijsters performed one of her characteristic disappearing acts, stinking up the joint with error after error, and in another blink, the set was level at 5-5.

The rest is history.

"I've played here many years. Every time I saw the name of the champion and I would think, 'Oh, when will my name be there?'" Li said. "Also, when you walk to center court, you can see many pictures of champions over there. So after today I talked to me team, saying we will come next year and see my picture.

"But now Sydney is over and I have to focus on Melbourne. After these two hours, I just have to forget everything and start the next day."

The week's other winners.


Getty

Gilles Simon of France holds the trophy after beating Viktor Troicki of Serbia 7-5, 7-6(4) in the 2011 Medibank International final at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre on January 15, 2011 in Sydney, Australia.


AP

David Ferrer of Spain celebrates with his trophy after his 6-3, 6-2 victory over David Nalbandian of Argentina at the final of the Heineken Open men's tennis tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011.

Does the Spanish David play the flute?

AP

Jarmila Groth of Australia celebrates her 6-4, 6-3 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States at the Hobart International women's tennis tournament in Hobart, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011.

Is that a trophy, a splay of organ pipes, or some dried driftwood with a shield affixed?

::

On to Melbourne....

::

Sod ups the ante, Delpo’s return to Oz.

 

 

» Soderling wins Brisbane; up to world #4

 

Having not seen a single ball of live Aussie tennis, I’m going largely on 2nd hand reports when I say that Sod is in scintillating, intimidating form.

 

 

 

This time last year, nursing an elbow injury, he went out in the first rounds of both Chennai and, more worryingly, Oz itself: were we to include the two exhos he took part in prior to that, that would still make a profoundly dispiriting 2 out of 7 matches won (though one of them was a win over Federer :P).

 

It’s not Bercy, but ravaging your way through a 32-man draw with wins over Radek and ARod, all without dropping a single set, should, in theory, mean “good things” ahead of Melbourne.

 

Especially when you consider that it bumps him up ahead of Murray at #4 in the rankings. Amongst other things this means he’ll be seeded #4 in Melbourne and (as he only has a paltry 10 pts to defend there) have a very real shot at the #3 spot (Djoko reached the quarters and defends 360 pts).

 

He also won’t have to face either one of Rafa or Fed prior to the semis – a pleasure now handed down to Muzz at #5. Handy that.

 

Other weekend winners include Fed (avenging last years loss to Davy) in Doha, Stan in Chennai (any chance we can get through a single week free of domestic innuendo?), Kvitova over Petko (no dance) and Greta Arn in Auckland (you have no soul if you’re unhappy about this).

 

» Delpo + Nalbie will underwhelm rather than “upset” at AO

 

Look. I hate to be the spoilsport.

 

And it’s great to have Delpo back – lord knows he’s served his time.

 

 

 

It’s always an especially cruel form of pleasure to watch an under-ranked former Slam-winner/world-number-one working their way back to the big-time, blitzing through the early rounds taking down whatever big names are unfortunate enough to be drawn up against them (see Henin, Justine).

 

For all of that, I don’t think Delpo will be “upsetting” anyone just now. At least not in Oz.

 

[dodges rotten tomato]

 

Boo all you want. I’m happy to play the pantomime arch-villain.

 

Just know that I believe rather than desire this. I want him back as much as anyone out there, but  it normally takes longer than just the one event he’s playing in Sydney to get even a fraction of form back.

 

I know Justine reached the final of her first event back, but a) she wasn’t injured and was presumably playing more than Delpo’s been able to prior to her return, and b) she has a more compact, less injury-prone frame – comebacks for lumbering giants are always to be approached more gingerly and one step at a time (see Sharapova, Maria).

 

Ditto Nalbie, who always tends to blossom post Wimbledon. At the beginning of the year he normally invents new ways of disappointing us.

 

You’re right, I’m coming across as an arrant prick right now. But someone needs to say these things.

 

Needless to say I’m happy to be proved wrong about either, or both of the above.

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.

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.

You had to be there.

 

getty

 

Kuznetsova d. Radwanska 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-3

 

A mostly dominating performance from Sveta apart from a joke of a second set tie break when the wee gremlins occupying her brain took control of the ship, putting the ‘case’ firmly back in front of the ‘head’.

 

In what has to be the the single most spontaneous act of cerebral combustion seen this year, Sveta blew away Championship after Championship point and with it the second set tie break – allowing Aga back in, all after being 4-0 and 6-3 up.

 

"It was very hard to close and I choked for first time in my life," said the two-time Grand Slam champion.

…

"My knees were shaking and I couldn't push on my serve and now I know why people double fault on match points," added Kuznetsova.

"I just shook. The trophy was very important to me. I was very embarrassed and I just got it back together and dictated.

"To play that bad at end of the second set and then to let her come back and see me choke, I had to be twice as strong in the third set and I was.

"It's pretty funny now that I won the match, but if I lost I might be thinking: 'should I finish playing tennis?' I doubt it will happen again."

-- BBC

 

“First time in her life?” Quite possibly.

 

You really had to be there.

 

It’s easy to assume Sveta’s simply talking up her confidence – blowing away unassailable leads is, after all, as familiar to her as the act of creating them in the first place.

 

But that’s mostly been through her aggravating tendency to believe she’ll make winners where none exist.

 

This was about nerve. Nerve so palpable, you could practically taste it behind your teeth – knowing that a double was on it’s way well before Sveta stepped up to serve.  Icky-unnerving and not at all for the faint of heart.

 

Difficult not to feel for Aga who, for two sets, played to the best of her ability. Reaching the finals here should further entrench her top ten ranking and, as I think I said earlier, I think she’s kinda earnt it.

 

getty

 

Nalbandian d. Baghdatis 6-2, 7-6 (4)

 

I know. I know.

 

All the narratives are in place. An unseeded wildcard. Ranked outside the top 100. Back from a hip injury. Not played since April.

 

And yet I remain unmoved.

 

It’s quite simple really. It’s as much a mistake to believe Nalbie will be upended by anything so trifling as hip surgery as it is to believe he’ll carry over this form wreaking havoc in the USO.

 

“If he plays like that,” Baghdatis said, “he can beat a lot of guys in the top 10.”

 

And if he doesn’t?

 

The real joy and wonder comes from knowing that in Sveta and Nalbie we have two stellar players whose form week in week out is as elusive as the location of a quantum particle.

 

In any given week they’re as likely to beat a string of top ten players as they are to exit in the first round of Warsaw.

 

If you were to attempt to jump into a wall a couple of trillion times, quantum theory predicts that your atoms  would, eventually, reconstitute on the other side.

 

Magic when it happens – nothing more than a sore head most of the other time.

 

For now I’ll content myself with knowing that they’ve made themselves relevant again.

Fancy meeting you here.

 

 

 

I’d have liked to have seen a Malisse/Nalbie final -- it’s been that sort of event – but this works too.

“Everybody was Kung-Fu FIghting”

 

My fondness for the tennis on offer in July lies only marginally above my fondness for Steven Segal movies and considerably lower than Andy Roddick’s fondness for clay. Which probably means I should be making more of an effort.

 

Point taken.

 

» France d. Spain 5-0

 

Love it or loath it, Davis Cup has an indisputable knack for bringing the best from talent that should, but doesn’t always quite, cut it at tour level - preferably at home, preferably coming back from a set down and preferably in front of hundreds of face-painted hopefuls wielding breadstick-balloons.

 

Conspire to arrange all of that, and you’ll find them transformed into something altogether more formidable.

 

reuters

 

Whenever I talk about La Monf, I end up lamenting how his remarkable shotmaking ability is only outdone  by his very French insistence on squandering his talent and life away behind the baseline playing, what amounts to, clay-court tennis.

 

He was joined by Llodra, Bennetau and a Gilles Simon on the comeback from injury. No shortage of talent, but hardly a bastion of dependability.

 

And yet Spain somehow came away without a single rubber to their name - not even a dead one – and quite possibly scarred for life.

 

LaMonf’s shotmaking sticks out.  Dasco going down in four to Llodra sticks out. As does Simons straight sets win over Almagro.

 

As, indeed, does Bandian’s electrifying performance against Russia over in Moscow.

 

Very romantic.

 

But it’s a familiar old Davis Cup “picture of imperfection”, is it not?

 

You need talent to succeed at DC, which is after all a tennis tournament like any other. But you feel it’s precisely this grizzled, vulnerable, intensely patriotic and, dare I say it, French sort of talent that’s so perfectly attuned to doing well here.

 

Nadal and Federer may leave us in awe, but they ain’t got nothing on that.

 

Argentina d. Russia 3-2

Serbia d. Croatia 4-1

Czech Rep. d. Chile 4-1

 

» World Cup: Spain d. Netherlands 1-0

 

After winning the Channel Slam and securing the #1 ranking until, quite probably, the end of the year, do we really want to see Rafa playing DC?

 

Or do we want to see the dork dressed like this:

 

 

 

 

I wasn’t the only one to predict he’d do this:

 

 

 getty

 

My Precioussss……

 

 

 

 

Alright. I’ll admit it wasn’t the most cleanly contested final Holland have ever played. It certainly wasn’t “Total Football”, unless that is you’re thinking of “totalling” the opposition.

 

 

 

 

What’s a little axe-kick amongst overpaid footballing superstars anyway?

 

Point is, they had to come through Denmark, Cameroon and favourites Brazil to reach this point. And it’s not their fault they only had to play competent football to get there.

 

Which brings me to my other point.

 

Now that it’s all over, can we agree that, with the exception of Germany and Spain, how uniformly shite the top teams and, in particular, their top players were?

 

Ronaldo, Rooney, Messi and a raft of other top talent all underwhelmed.

 

Germany began the event by missing a penalty, which happens to be about as frequent an occurrence as Federer going out in the first week of a Slam.

 

None of the favourites seemed willing or able to produce anything more daring than draw after draw.

 

Argentina went down Germany 4-0. No shame in going down to the Germans, but that score-line, really?

 

France? Let’s not even go there. Oh ok then.

 

And the defending champions went out to Slovakia. A competent enough side but still, no comment.

 

If I wanted to argue asterisks, I’d say Germany had the tougher route through and were a better team, qualitatively, than Holland. There’s that word again.

 

In the end, however, the #2 ranked team hoisted the trophy having had to go through powerhouses Portugal, Germany and a Dutch side where “everybody was kung-fu fighting”.

 

The best team won.

David Nal-Davis-Cup-Ian

Getty

Argentinian player David Nalbandian celebrates after winning against Russian player Mikhail Youzhny on July 11, 2010, during their quarterfinal match of the Davis Cup World Group in Moscow. Nalbandian won 6-7, 4-6, 3-6.

::

He can't seem to play anywhere else anymore. I can't even remember the last time I've seen him hit a tennis ball at an ATP event, yet here he is doing what he does in Davis Cup once again:

Winning.

Russian team players haven't exactly been in the mood for great tennis of late, but still: DaVEED led Argentina to a victory over Russia in Davis Cup in Moscow.

Mardy Fish added a grass court title to his resume in Newport, completing the career, all-surface title holder list with only his fourth career title.


AP

And Rafael Nadal was in South Africa to witness his nation's history-making performance in the World Cup.

I watched a bit of it. Given that my mate is from the Netherlands and we have a visitor from the Netherlands interning on the farm, it's safe to see I flew solo in the field for most of the day yesterday.

Depressed, they emerged after the final ready to sow fall crops. Carrots, beets, scallions, leeks, lettuce, rutabagas, celeriac, sugar peas, and more carrots. They were quite industrious.

Had to break the news to the mate, after the fact, of course, that while I couldn't exactly cheer for Spain, I didn't see the Netherlands winning their first World Cup title in South Africa. Karma and all that.

But that's an essay for another blog and another time.

Back in Davis Cup, France kicked Spain squarely in the teeth. Guess the Spanish team was somewhere else...

Monte Carlo Fallout.

-- Rafa and Big-Berd have pulled out of Barcelona.

The heavens themselves (much to the chagrin of the Barcelona promoters) could be heard to breath a sigh of relief as Rafa, for the first time in five years, elected to pull out of Barcelona.

“I’m in perfect shape,” Nadal said Tuesday. “I feel very good but I don’t want a repeat of what happened last year. For my tennis to be at the right level, I have to be physically well and that’s my principal objective.”

…

“I’m being as cautious as possible so that I can play the maximum amount possible,” Nadal said. “It wasn’t planned. Tennis isn’t like football, you never know how many games you’re going to have to play.”

-- tennis.com

Perfect shape? Perhaps not, but still exactly the type of tempering of his clay court schedule many of us have been hollering out for. For too long it seems.

Perhaps, with the relatively sodden ten or so months he’s had, and with the eagerness that might foster to get back on dirt, 2010 ought to be an exception. But I’d go as far as saying that missing Monte from next year wouldn’t be the worst decision in the world either. Much like Federer has.

Why, of all people, should Rafa need any more than Rome and Madrid (both mandatory events) to find his feet on clay?

-- Berdych. This year’s Robin Soderling?

Not in terms of inflicting tsunami-like upsets on our generation’s best or narking Rafaelites off so very much - more in terms of late-blooming, suppressing daemons and establishing a more credible and worthy presence at the top of the game. Discuss.

-- Nalbandian out for two events with a hamstring injury. Possible return in Madrid.

Not what you want to hear after witnessing his anatomy-defying “hip” exploits over the past month.

Take solace if you can, however, in noting that it could be worse. Much worse.

Hip surgery remains a career-ender for the most part, ushering in a post-traumatic age where simply remaining competitive begins to make one resemble those foolhardy salmon that hurl themselves the wrong way up a waterfall.

Very often into the jaws of a hungry bear. Guys like Kohlschreiber for example.

I don’t detect anything nearly so grim in Daveed’s case but maybe, like Nadal, there’s something to be said on the benefits of a more staggered comeback.

-- Stosur demolished Bepa 6-0 6-3 to pick up her second career singles title and her first ever on clay.

“This is bigger than Osaka, and to do it here and on clay and be playing well all week and everything is just a great feeling,” Stosur said. “You can’t really compare the two, but this is definitely a bigger event, and I’m very pleased that I was able to play so well.”

-- tennis.com

Darn right it’s bigger than Osaka. Before the great WTA Premier switchover of 2009, Charleston was a tier one event, with an illustrious Champions Roll of Honour (Evert won here eight times) and a well-respected sponsor in Family Circle.

Sammy’s efforts have landed her a #10 ranking.

Much has been made of the dilapidated state of the draw, but only that pedantic analyst would elect not to grossly fanfare about her having largely followed up on her well-publicised intent to target singles – and who knows, maybe pick up a title or two? And I currently have him in a headlock.

She’ll find it considerably tougher going repeating her great run of RG 2009, especially given the way in which the presence of the Belgians might affect things, but she’s as well placed to score a high profile upset as she’s ever been.

Monte Carlo: Elephants on clay?

Nadal d. Ferrero 6-4 6-2

He lost only two games in reaching the quarters – and only a further six in putting paid to the Mosquito.

Is there still an elephant in the room?

If there is, I should imagine it’s fearing extinction.

That said, I’m still happy to err on the side of caution.

I don’t think we can dismiss what happened in the second half of that match in Miami as an irrelevance.

I’ve no doubt that Rafa will rebound on his favourite surface – I only expect the journey to be a little bumpier this time round.

The upshot of course, is I won’t be catastrophising in the way I expect much of the media too if, God forbid, he somehow doesn’t win all three of Monte/Barca/Rome – which probably ought to be collapsed into a single title anyway, with Rafa getting a bye to the final each year.

Djokovic d. Nalbandian 6-2, 6-3

Tis a shame.

Not the cheesepuff victory pose (though that too is, in it’s own way, quite damning).

This should have been match of the day, but Daveed never really got going and truth be told wasn’t really allowed to (No matter Daveed – you still win the ‘hippest’ hip surgery award).

Not that I’m complaining - Nole was arguably the second best clay courter out there last year – if he’s begun finding his feet on clay (rather than his feet of clay) it exponentially increases our chances of a Rafa/Nole final.

I hear they hit a good ball on dirt.

(Photos by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Face Of The Day

by Craig Hickman


Getty

Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts against David Nalbandian of Argentina during day six of the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open at Crandon Park Tennis Center on March 28, 2010 in Key Biscayne, Florida.

::

Singles - Third Round
[4] R Nadal (ESP) d [WC] D Nalbandian (ARG) 67(8) 62 62
[6] A Roddick (USA) d S Stakhovsky (UKR) 62 61
[8] J Tsonga (FRA) d [28] P Kohlschreiber (GER) 62 75
[12] J Ferrero (ESP) d [17] J Isner (USA) 62 36 63
[15] D Ferrer (ESP) d [24] I Karlovic (CRO) 76(5) 63
B Becker (GER) d [18] T Robredo (ESP) 16 64 76(1)
[27] T Bellucci (BRA) d O Rochus (BEL) 63 64
[33] N Almagro (ESP) d J Chardy (FRA) 62 67(9) 63

About the only tennis I saw yesterday was a set and a half of Rafa against Nalby and a bit of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga against Philip Kohlschreiber. Nalby still has it all, but needs to get his cardio back in order. Rafa simply refused to lose and wore Nalby into the cement by the middle of the third set. Tsonga still has brain farts and for all his talent, Kohlschreiber is basically a weakling.

It was good to see some tennis finally. I almost forgot what it looked like.

::

Doubles - First Round
[1] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d [LL] D Istomin (UZB) / F Moser (GER) 60 62
[3] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) d R Hutchins (GBR) / J Kerr (AUS) 64 76(4)
[4] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Mirnyi (BLR) d S Huss (AUS) / W Moodie (RSA) 64 75
[6] S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS) d J Melzer (AUT) / P Petzschner (GER) 63 67(4) 14-12
[7] F Cermak (CZE) / M Mertinak (SVK) d R Lindstedt (SWE) / H Tecau (ROU) 76(1) 64
F Lopez (ESP) / F Verdasco (ESP) d M Llodra (FRA) / A Ram (ISR) 62 75
E Butorac (USA) / R Ram (USA) d [WC] R Harrison (USA) / N Lapentti (ECU) 61 75
I Andreev (RUS) / M Youzhny (RUS) d M Fish (USA) / M Knowles (BAH) 75 64

::

Women's Singles - Third Round
(2) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (32) Maria Kirilenko (RUS) 16 61 64
(4) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. Lucie Safarova (CZE) 64 62
(7) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) d. (28) Elena Vesnina (RUS) 76(3) 63
(9) Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. Virginie Razzano (FRA) 46 75 61
(11) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) d. Sara Errani (ITA) 62 63
(14) Kim Clijsters (BEL) d. (17) Shahar Peer (ISR) 60 61
(22) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) d. (15) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 75 63
(WC) Justine Henin (BEL) d. (26) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 64 64

Clijsters looks like she's on a mission. Wonder how she'll fare against Justine this time around.

::

Women's Doubles - Second Round
Dulko/Pennetta (ARG/ITA) d. (2) Llagostera Vives/Martínez Sánchez (ESP/ESP) 46 63 10-7
(3) Petrova/Stosur (RUS/AUS) d. Govortsova/Kudryavtseva (BLR/RUS) 60 75
Chan/Zheng (TPE/CHN) d. Grandin/Spears (RSA/USA) 64 46 119
Coin/King (FRA/USA) d. Jans/Uhlirova (POL/CZE) 64 62
Kirilenko/Radwanska (RUS/POL) d. (WC) Clijsters/Flipkens (BEL/BEL) 62 75

::

Miami: “Lazy Brilliance”

Nadal d. Nalbandian 6-7 (8), 6-2, 6-2

For a set and a half, it seemed like it was 2007 all over again, as Daveed caressed us with what Leif Shiras lovingly termed “lazy brilliance”.

That dreamy mix of flat ball striking and fairy-tale movement that leaves the court shimmering in his wake.

I suppose you can call it lazy: there’s certainly something casual and unassuming about the way in which he appears to expect brilliance. But the sight of Daveed making those silky smooth transitions into court seemingly drunk in a haze of his own brilliance usually spells trouble.

This time last year Nadal all but admitted to being in awe of his backhand – in fact he spent the best part of their encounter at IW last year avoiding it (let’s just say that play backfired even though he won the match).

He didn’t make the same mistake today, though appeared both shaken and vulnerable after losing that first set – that losing H2H surely playing on his mind in part.

It’s as well he held things together, as more and more of Nalbie’s brilliance gradually began to unravel before us. The trouble with naturally gifted players like Nalbie and Sveta is they don’t know when to stop demanding brilliance, lazily or otherwise.

Perhaps it was also his lack of match fitness (so widely prefigured) that came to the fore – that at least would appear to suggest he wouldn’t have survived his next match even if he found his way past Rafa.

I don’t care. This ranks amongst the best comebacks from hip-surgery I’ve ever been privy to – a scarred wasteland from which only the most battle-hardened even dare attempt to emerge.

He’s still only 28 – and there’s still a certain easy brilliance about him. Long may he laze in it.

Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images

Davis Cup Heroics

Reuters

John Isner took Novak Djokovic, arguably the third best clay court player in the world last year, to five sets on clay in Serbia.

I'm going to say that again:

John Isner took Novak Djokovic, arguably the third best clay court player in the world last year, to five sets on clay in Serbia.

Make of the American's game whatever you will, but that was some effort.

Apparently, Venus Williams was tweeting about her nerves. If one believes Justin Gimelstob, President Obama was watching the match.

Whatever the case, Isner spilled his blood and guts all over the place. Made a temperamental Djoke earn it.

All this after pinch hitting for Mike Bryan in doubles the day before and getting the win to give himself a chance to do it again in singles.

Who knows what would have happened had Isner been fresh for the crucial singles rubber, but what did happen was fantabulous. One of our guests who doesn't even watch tennis couldn't avert her eyes in the match's final game.

I think this new American team has a foundation upon which to build a competitive team.

::

Reuters

David Nalbandian plays Davis Cup ties like no other. Just when you thought it was safe to write him off once again....

Injured a few weeks back, he kept Argentina in the tie against Sweden in Sweden by winning the doubles rubber with Horacio Zeballos and then clinches the tie with a four-set win in the live fifth.

Most Valuable Player.

::

Complete Davis Cup results.

Hamburgers and French Fries...

Alright enough.

Even I know when to call a halt.

So enough on the 'American Beauty' of single handed backhands.

Enough with the fanciful and giddy kung-fu tennis fusions.

And Enough with the Andy Murray film scripts that sound like they've been written by an intern. During their lunch break.

We're returning to tennis we are.

But biding time is fun. Know that I intend to do a lot more of it. Especially when the most interesting thing to report on tour is that Gilles Simon continues to have only a slightly worse time of it than the German Open itself. That's the new no-frills deMASTERised ATP 500 name for Hamburg btw.

A tournament that's had it's new director Michael Stich mucking in at doubles this week in an effort at staving off declining interest. A tournament Simon (the #1 seed) was unceremoniously ejected from by a qualifier, a wildcard no-name somebody called Daniel Brands. So sorry Danny. Congratulations, until yesterday I hadn't heard of you. Now you're a label in my tag cloud. A label that's currently too feint to be detected. But Go Germany, nevertheless.

And that wasn't the end of it. Wawrinka, of Wimbledon single-handed shootouts under-the-roof fame: comprehensively duffed-up, I think is the phrase. Tommy Robredo, clay-court extraordinaire, supposedly out of a funk: Now he's out of the event too. And Melzer out to Uruguayan qualifier Cuevas. Remember folks, it's the depth in men's tennis is what it is.

There's still a watchable enough cast with Davydenko, Sod, Ferrer and Kohlschreiber holding fort, I suppose. But it won't stop me feeling that the event's effectively been crippled, an event that was already having trouble these last few years, with it's placement immediately prior to Roland Garros. A situation that meant the marquee names either didn't show up at all, or came hobbling in after taking part in some of those other historic battles of Rome.

Well it's been pinioned alright, and moving it to mid July, that no-mans-land of the tennis calendar seems too much like adding insult to injury.

It also goes without saying, but I'm going to anyway (even at the risk of sounding smug), that I was largely unimpressed with Simon's rise to the top. And now, as they say, those factory-fed chickens are coming home to roost. They're set to arrive over the next few months as the points he accrued over that marvelous run of last year drop off.

But Gilles is an easy target. His top ten position is after all reflective of a 52-week rankings system. It seems to be swipe-Simon season, but I'm not much more impressed with Tsonga either. Great start to the year with those titles in Jo'burg and Marseille and that quarter final appearance in Oz, but now beginning to settle into what looks like a Nalbandian-like hangover, recovery from which is only possible late into the indoor season. If that.

I haven't much time for French tennis these days. It's easy on the eye, but not on the nerves. Monfils' short-lived stay in the top ten has rightfully come to an end. One wonders if Gasquet can rebound from Dopesville. Not by the sounds of it. Not if 'Pamela' has anything to do with it.

But it's like that across the board. If anything I see Simon as a lower case Dinara, castigated for the failings of a necessarily imperfect system, that rewards every win you've had in the last year. Wins, the totality of which is against only a slice of the field anyway. Not that reflective of very much at the best of times.

The unglamorous reality is that apart from a handful of guys and girls at the very top, most every player has an inconsistent shoddy looking performance sheet. Full of potholes and pockmarks. And bunkers, to bring in those recent golfing metaphors I lovingly introduced. It's the point at which I think the rankings system really comes into its own. Seemingly custom built to mediate between a field of wildly fluctuating neurotics.

Nice to know it's good at something.