Week 39 Review and Week 40 Preview

The last week of tennis actually turned out to be pretty exciting - I'm sorry I wasn't around to cover it more while it was actually going on. I'll do a quick recap, though.

In Thailand, it looked like things were going to be pretty boring. All of the top contenders dropped, one by one. Verdasco looked sluggish in his loss to Benjamin Becker, as did Gulbis to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Del Potro and Melzer were beaten by players who had great days, Olivier Rochus and Jarkko Nieminen, in particular. Nieminen had also beaten Viktor Troicki, which is a pretty good pair of scalps for the top Finn. With all of these guys gone, it looked like Rafael Nadal would cruise to the title. He was the only seed to make the semifinals, after all.

But then something unusual happened. In his match against fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Nadal managed to do something I've never seen anyone do, much less him. He lost 24 of 26 break point chances in the match. Garcia-Lopez won the second set in the tiebreak and managed one break in the third set to take the match. It was a pretty stunning performance from Garcia-Lopez, who followed it up with a win over Jarkko Nieminen in the final. He had a great week as well, but Guillermo was riding high after that incredibly gutsy performance against Nadal. This was a great week for these two vets, who between the two of them beat five of the eight seeds in the draw. Both of them jump into the top 50 in the rankings this week, as well.

In Malaysia, there were quite a few stories to pay attention to over the course of the week. Davydenko's slide continues while another Russian is finally back on the rise when Nikolay lost in his first match to Igor Andreev. Andreev also beat one of the other interesting stories of the tournament, as young Canadian player beat Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round before he went out. Keep an eye out for Raonic. Andreev eventually lost to a third Russian, Mikhail Youzhny - and I predict that he's going to be the top Russian player in the game, in not too long. The best match on that side of the draw was Youzhny over Baghdatis, which went for two close sets before the Russian closed out the Cypriot with relative ease in the third.

On the other side of the draw, the best match-up was between David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych, which also went three sets, and the eventual winner (Ferrer) had to come back from a set down to do it. But while Youzhny was able to build on his win, the Spaniard seemed to be tired from his tough victory over this year's Wimbledon finalist, and he fell to Andrey Golubev. Now Golubev had just notched an impressive win over top seed Robin Soderling. The Kazakh player actually won nine sets in a row before Youzhny came back in the final and beat him in a third-set tiebreak. Despite not quite being able to close the deal, this was a great week for Golubev. I love his game, and I think we'll see him in the top ten at some point soon. And credit to Youzhny as well. Great performances from both guys.

Meanwhile, we're getting closer to the mandatory Masters event in Shanghai, so the tournament draws are getting more and more stacked in preparation. The two 500 events taking place this week in Beijing and Tokyo have 18 of the world's top 20 players in action. The only two missing are both Swiss: Federer and Wawrinka. In Japan, Nadal is the top seed, but the rest of the draw is not as strong. In China, we have seven of the world's top ten players, which is just unbelievable. I'll look at the Tokyo draw, first.

In addition to Nadal's presence, the other noteworthy thing about this tournament is that it marks JW Tsonga's return to action and will be his first tournament played since Wimbledon. He has a tough opening round against last week's finalist in Thailand, Jarkko Nieminen, but that's far from the best opening match-up you'll see thsi week. Eighth-seeded Michael Llodra gets Marco Chiudinelli (ironically, the top Swiss player in action this week), Viktor Troicki plays home-town hope Kei Nishikori, Ernests Gulbis gets former top-tenner Dmitry Tursunov, Richard Gasquet plays Thiemo de Bakker, and Juan Martin Del Potro gets Feliciano Lopez! That match is actually in progress now, and I am upset that I can't find any streaming coverage of it.

Looking ahead a bit, Nadal could get Milos Raonic in the second round, which could be interesting. If Nishikori wins his first round, he could play Jurgen Melzer next, which is a stern challenge for the Japanese 20-year old. It would be great to see Michael Llodra play Radek Stepanek in the second round, as these guys are two fun, veteran players who love to serve and volley. That would be like old-school tennis! Also keep an eye out for a potential match-up between Roddick and Monfils. There are a lot of players who can make noise in this draw, so it's tough to know just how it will shake out. Roddick needs a good run, to try to get his year back on track and finish strong. He said he's 100% healthy again, which is what he'll need to be against this level of competition.

But that group of first-round match-ups is nothing compared to the smorgasbord you'll find in Beijing. Here's the first-round matches I find particularly exciting: Fish-Tipsarev, Querrey-Simon, Cilic-Bellucci, Kohlschreiber-Verdasco, Istomin-Ferrer, Soderling-Robredo, Ljubicic-Youzhny, and Dolgopolov-Baghdatis. I mean, are you kidding? That's an all-star line-up of top players for a 32-player draw. And by the second round, the possibilities are just too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say I'll be watching this tournament with a great deal of excitement.

We'll see what the week brings! It's getting pretty late in the year, and only three of the top eight players have sealed their passage into the year-end tournament. The race is getting tight, now.

Week 38 Review and Week 39 Preview

I'm somewhat reluctant to admit it, but I have to say that it was tough to get excited about pretty much anything that happened over the course of the past week - the biggest story of the past week was Rafael Nadal's commitment to play in Queens next year. There was almost an enticing final in Metz, as Gilles Simon and Richard Gasquet looked prime to meet, but then Gasquet withdrew from his semifinal match with a fever. The Frenchman won, but it was a pretty depleted field. And Chela beat Andujar in Bucharest - a tournament that was filled with steady but unexciting clay court players.

But fortunately, things are starting to heat up. Last week, the 14th-ranked player in the world was the top player in action - but now, six of the top ten are playing. This is the start of the Asian swing, with tournaments in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Nadal is playing, along with Soderling, Davydenko, Berdych, Youzhny, and Verdasco. But the biggest story of the week is that this marks former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro's return to action after spending most of the year recovering from surgery. He starts off with a tricky encounter against Olivier Rochus, so there's not much time to get back in the groove. It will be very interesting to see how the Argentine does in his return. Assuming DelPo gets past Rochus, it's likely that he'll meet Nadal in the quarters, which should be interesting. Del Potro just blew Nadal off the court the last few times they've played.

Unfortunately for the tournament, except for the top couple of players and Juan Martin Del Potro, the rest of the draw is a bit weak. The second quarter of the draw is headed up by Ernests Gulbis, but it also has Rainer Schuettler and Teymuraz Gabasvhili. The third quarter has a handful of guys who could make the semis - Jurgen Melzer, Dudi Sela, Marco Chiudinelli, Viktor Troicki, and Jarkko Nieminen. The last quarter belongs to Fernando Verdasco - who doesn't have anyone comparable to a DelPo to challenge him. Thiemo de Bakker and Feliciano Lopez are fine players, but I'd be shocked not to see Verdasco come through his quarter. It's likely that we'll get the top seeds through to that stage - and Nadal-Gulbis plus Melzer-Verdasco would be a pretty great line-up for such a small torunament.

In Kuala Lumpur, there are more top players - four of the six top ten guys in action are in Malaysia. Robin Soderling is the top seed, and he could have a tricky path through the draw - his section has Andrey Golubev, tall, big-serving South African Kevin Anderson, and Yen-Hsun Lu. Soderling hasn't played his best in small tournaments like these this year, so he could use a good run.

While Bangkok has the bigger stars, the depth of field is better in Kuala Lumpur. The second quarter has Berdych and Ferrer, as well as a pair of young wildcards - Yuki Bhambri and Bernard Tomic. Tough to bet against Berdych in that group, though he hasn't played particularly well since Wimbledon. Istomin is also in this group - he's got an outside chance of making the quarters.

The third quarter has one of the best opening-round matches in this tournament, in which Marcos Baghdatis faces off against Kei Nishikori. Dolgopolov is also in this group, and could get Mikhail Youzhny in the second round. Any of these four guys could get through. The last quarter has Sergiy Stakhovsky against Michael Russel as another pretty good first-round match, and a potential match between Russians Davydenko and Andreev in the second round. The young Canadian player Milos Raonic is also in this section. There are some very interesting top players and young guns in this tournament - there could be some fun matches.

It's still early, but there's a chance for some fireworks this week, with so many of the top players and talented young guns in action. I'm looking forward to the tennis.

Asian Swing, part 2

No big surprises in the quarterfinals at either Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok. All eight players in the semifinals are seeded, and at Kuala Lumpur it's the top four seeds. I think the only surprises might have been Troicki over Isner (it's Troicki's first win over a top-50 player since Rainer Schuettler at the World Team Championship in May, and before that it was an injured David Nalbandian in Miami) and the fact that none of the quarterfinals in Kuala Lumpur were really competitive.

So the semis are Davydenko-Soderling, a rematch of their U.S. Open encounter, and Gonzalez-Verdasco, a battle of the Fernandos. I'm guessing it will be a Soderling-Gonzalez final, but it could go either way. In Bangkok, Tsonga and Simon should both come through easily against Troicki and Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer.

Looking ahead to Tokyo and Beijing, there are some great players all set for qualifying. Tomaz Bellucci and Somdev Devvarman are both trying to make it into Tokyo's main draw, along with Marco Chiudinelli, who beat Safin last week and is trying to make Switzerland's list of notable tennis players one name longer. The Tokyo draw is stacked with relatively low-ranking Japanese players, so these guys should be able to make it into the main draw.

Donald Young, who is trying to get in Beijing, may not be so lucky. He was unfortunate enough to draw Feliciano Lopez in the first round of qualifying. Why Lopez, who is ranked 34, is going through the quallies is a bit beyond me. But it's just bad luck for the Donald. Robby Ginepri is also in the qualifying draw, and he has an easier time of it, with a Chinese wildcard in the first round, but Michael Llodra could be a tough opponent in the second round. The Frenchman has not been having a banner year, but he's still a solid player.

It's interesting that the Asian swing is growing in importance on the schedule, even though the men's tour has not had an Asian player break onto the scene in a long time. This is highlighted by Paradorn Srichipan's attempt to start to his comeback in doubles this week, which probably didn't go the way he had hoped. Here's hoping he can return to the tour regularly next year, along with Japanese player Kei Nishikori. These Asian tournaments would be doing even better if the home crowds had some big-name players they could cheer for.

Asian Swing

The time after the U.S. Open is often disregarded by many tennis fans. Particularly for American fans, the U.S. Open is understood to be the end of any tennis that people are interested in. As it is the final grand slam of the year, the tournaments that follow (even the end-of-year championships) can be a bit anticlimactic for your average tennis fan. As in football (up until this year), the Pro Bowl was always played after the Superbowl, but nobody cared.

While I can see why some tennis fans ignore the Asian swing and the European indoor seasons, they're really missing out. This is often the time for up-and-coming or underachieving players to really make their mark, since the top players can begin to feel worn down by the year-long grind - two years ago, David Nalbandian beat both Federer and Nadal in back-to-back tournaments. Last year, JW Tsonga emerged victorious in his first Masters Series event in Paris. And Murray won Madrid's last Master Series shield.

There has already been some exciting tennis this year, just a week and a half into this part of the year. Tsonga played Ernests Gulbis (ranked just inside the top 100) to three tiebreaks, Monfils broke a four year title drought, and Monaco lost in his third final this year in the last clay court event on the calendar, giving him the most clay court wins of any player on tour this year. Still, no titles.

While this week's Bangkok draw may not be the flashiest (Tsonga, Simon, Isner are the highlights after Safin lost and Querrey withdrew with injury) the quarterfinals in Kuala Lumpur are nothing but fireworks: Davydenko-Monfils, Soderling-Berdych, Youzhny-Gonzalez, and Gasquet-Verdasco. That's the top six seeds, all in the ATP top sixteen, and two former top ten players in Gasquet and Youzhny. Despite not having any of the huge names, that's an incredbily strong draw for a low-level tournament in Malaysia. Mouth-watering, really.

I think the higher-ranked player is the favorite in every one of these matches (with the possible exception of Davydenko-Monfils) but all of them could be close. It's good to Gasquet back on the tournament trail, and Youzhny had a good win over David Ferrer. Any of the players left in the draw could pull out a win in this tournament, not only because of the strength of every player remaining, but also because a fair number of these players have been dealing with some injuries over the course of the year.

I'll try to watch as much of it streaming as I can. We'll see how it goes!