Week 30 Wrap-up and Week 31 Preview

Well, three out of the four finals today actually turned out to be a bit of a let-down. Three straight set victories, in which the losing player was basically never in the match. I'll get to the thriller last.

Unfortunately, Richard Gasquet seemed to have some sort of an injury - I was watching a video feed with no commentator, so I'm not sure exactly what it was, but it was clear that Gasquet was not serving as well as he had been up to this point in the tournament. The Frenchman had been serving at about 55% and winning 70% of his first serve points up to now. In the final, though, those numbers were almost reversed - Gasquet served at 80% first serves and only won 56% of those points. Honestly, that's a sign of an injury - you don't suddenly start serving that weakly out of strategy. It's a shame, because there were some very good points, but Gasquet just couldn't keep up the level of play he needed.

In Umag, Ferrero was just too strong for his Italian opponent. Starace never had a break point against the former world number one. Ferrero only had one in each set, but that was all he needed. It was a good match, but not an exciting one.

The more star-studded of the women's final was something of a surprise - Victoria Azarenka won her first title since April last year, beating Sharapova thoroughly. The match would have been tighter, but I think Sharapova suffered from her late three-setter last night against Radwanska, and her three-setter the night before against Dementieva. She was tired, she hadn't played during the day, and she was facing an invigorated opponent. There were some stunning points, particularly in the first set, but not a lot of great serving - there were five breaks in the first set. Their games are similar, but the intangibles were with the Belarussian today. On another day, Sharapova could have easily taken the match.

The most exciting final today was definitely in Los Angeles - Sam Querrey lost the first set in a dispiriting fashion, double-faulting on break and set point after having held a one-break lead earlier in the set. He could have easily gone away, playing a higher-ranked, more experienced player who he had never even managed a single set against in four previous meetings. But Sam had already escaped defeat in his previous two matches, so he was playing with house money. Querrey upped his level of play significantly, smacking unbelievable winners that even Murray couldn't run down consistently. He didn't get frustrated by everything that the Scot was getting back, and he played well within himself.

That almost wasn't enough. Murray had another break and set point in the second set, but Querrey saved that, then ran away with the tiebreak. He really outplayed the world number four at that stage of the match, and he took the momentum and ran away with it. He kept his cool and went up a break in the third, served supremely well, and closed out the match. This is huge win for Querrey, who does not have a great record against the players at the top tier of the game. It may not have been on the biggest stage, but this was an excellent win. On the other hand, this is a bad sign for Andy Murray, who has still not won a title this year. He's losing almost 1400 points this month from his strong performances at last year's Summer hard court Masters events. He's not playing at that form this year, and he could drop out of the top four for the first time in a long while. I don't know if he's still hungover from that Aussie Open loss in the final or what, but we haven't seen classic Andy Murray since that tournament in 2010.

Looking ahead, after a week of so many tournaments taking place, it will be nice to be able to focus on one bigger event: the Legg Mason tennis championships in Washington, D.C. This will be an interesting event, because more of the top players are starting to come out of the post-Wimbledon woodwork, and the second European clay court season is finally over, so those players are crossing the Atlantic and joining the pre-U.S. Open party.

The top seed in Washington is Tomas Berdych, who hasn't played since the Wimbledon final. Considering his lack of match play, can't really be considered the favorite here, especially not with such a strong field. While two-time defending champ Juan Martin Del Potro can't defend his title, Andy Roddick is here, who won in 2007, when he beat John Isner. This was Isner's break-out tournament, and see how far he's come since then.

Sam Querrey is also here, and if he's not jaded after playing four three-set matches in as many days last week, can have a strong week. Mardy Fish is also back, after taking last week off, still riding a ten match winning streak. And while James Blake may have been unable to get over the hump against Feliciano Lopez last week, he still played as well as he has since January. That's a lot of strong Americans in the field.

And in addition to the home-town boys, Verdasco and Cilic are also in action, as are Baghdatis and Gulbis. Former champions Lleyton Hewitt and Arnaud Clement are also here. Radek Stepanek is getting back into action, after a long injury layoff, and the surprise winner in Hamburg, Andrey Golubev, is the 16th seed. Two wildcards also went to David Nalbandian and Richard Gasquet. And one of my favorite up-and-coming players, Kei Nishikori, made it through qualifying. Plenty of space for fireworks this week.

The best opening-round matches are between last week's almost semifinalist Janko Tipsarevic and Arnaud Clement, a former champion here. And they're playing for the privilege of getting Sam Querrey in the second round! Also look for James Blake against U.S. qualifier Ryan Sweeting, who has a good career ahead of him. Dmitry Tursonov, who has been having a really rough year, plays Roddick's conqueror at the French Open, Teymuraz Gabashvili. David Nalbandian plays Rajeev Ram, and Yen-Hsun Lu (Roddick's conqueror at Wimbledon) plays Alejandro Falla. Those are some pretty good first-rounds.

I have a busy week ahead of me, with some travel, so I won't be able to focus on the tennis as much as I would like, which is a shame. But I'll try to catch and write about what I can.

Newport Preview

With Wimbledon done, we have one last grass court gasp before the surface fades into memory for the next 11 months: the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, Rhode Island. Since it's the week after Wimbledon, it doesn't usually draw the greatest players in the game (since they're either resting or readying themselves for the Davis Cup) but it is the first tournament on U.S. soil for several weeks, and always has a handful of middle-tier American players happy to be back in action after what was surely a long and often frustration European clay court tour. I'll take a quick look today at some of the interesting storylines heading into this week.

Sam Querrey is the top seed in this tournament, and he opens against Jesse Levine another young American who doesn't really have Querrey's weaponry. Sam made it to the final here last year, where he lost (surprisingly) to Rajeev Ram. I think he'll do one better this year - he already won at the Queens Club, which had a much, much tougher field to work through. If he wins that, he'll get to play the number one Jamaican player Dustin Brown, who is starting to put his game together and become a solid top-100 player, which I'm excited about.

Unfortunately for another American in the draw, Taylor Dent lost to perennial qualifier Go Soeda from Japan in the first round. Dent wasn't able to put together the kind of grass court season that he was hoping for, and this isn't the best way to end it. It's a benefit for another player in this section, though - young Australian Carsten Ball, who I think should see Querrey in the third round. They played in last year's Los Angeles final, and it was a fine match.

The second quarter of the draw has Olivier Rochus, fresh off his near-upset of Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, as well as big Australian lefty server (much like Ball) Chris Guccione. The defending champ, Rajeev Ram, is also in this section, but I admit that I'll be shocked if he can repeat his title run from last year. He's good on the grass, but he was a lucky loser here last year - everything broke his way.

Mardy Fish is in the third quarter, as well as Federer's recent near-upset opponent Alejandro Falla. We'll see how Falla can deal with that close call - his first round opponent should have a bit of understanding about it, because it's former Rhode Island finalist and loser of the longest match in tennis history, Nicolas Mahut. I hope he can win this one - he deserves a win after player for so long and coming up empty.

I'm really excited about the last quarter, for one reason - it has young American Ryan Harrison, who upset sixth seed Karol Beck in the first round already. I think that he has a good draw, and could possibly make it to the quarterfinals here. Maybe this will be his coming out tournament; I really think Harrison is the next big name in U.S. tennis, and he should be top-20 bound, at comparable levels to where Isner and Querrey are right now. But he'll have to get there one step at a time, and a deep run into this tournament for the 18-year old would be a fine way to do it.

Week 23 Wrap-up and Week 24 Preview

Well, that was a surprise. The two finals which took place yesterday ended up going exactly the opposite way I would have expected. The match between Fish and Querrey, while a fairly tight match, ended up with a convincing win for Querrey, while Federer somehow managed to lose to Hewitt in a tough three-setter.

The match between Fish and Querrey was dominated by serve, but it looked like the veteran had the stronger start. He started the match with 0-40 in Querrey's first service game. Unfortunately, after Querrey served his way out of that problem, then Fish didn't get another break point chance. The set went to a tiebreak, where Sam dominated. In the second set, Fish looked like he might turn the match around. He broke Querrey and served for the set at 5-4, but unfortunately couldn't keep it together and lost the next three games.

This is about par for both players, as Fish drops to a miserable 3-11 in tournament finals, while Querrey wins his third title of the year, and on three different surfaces no less. Unfortunately, Querrey doesn't have a lot to gain, ranking-wise, from winning more of these 250-level tournaments. He needs to make some noise at the masters and grand slams in order to move any further up the rankings. Fish, on the other hand, gained a great deal from his final appearance, and while he's only up to 70 in the world, that is an increase of 20 places from where he was last week. A good result from both players.

The Federer-Hewitt match, on the other hand, was somewhat bizarre. Federer looked to be cruising, up a set, and having come back from a break down already in the second, he had break points on Hewitt's serve at 4-all, which would have essentially sealed the deal. But after Hewitt saved those, he somehow managed to pull out the tiebreak and then break Federer at the start of the third set. At that point, Federer's game started getting sloppy, as he began hitting more errors and outright shanking a few balls. Hewitt held serve through to the end, and notched his first win against Federer in his last 15 tries, and Federer got only his second loss on grass in his last 77 matches on the surface. Really stunning stuff, and it's tough to imagine that Federer is going to be very confident heading into Wimbledon, considering that he hasn't won a title this year since the Australian Open.

Looking ahead to the two tournaments on offer this week - the week before a slam is always interesting, because the top players generally take the week off to rest up for the coming tournament, but the players who are just outside the top 100 need to qualifying to get into the slam, so you get a bunch of players mostly outside the top 20 but inside the top 100 competing. It can lead to some interesting match-ups.

This is particularly true due to several players who are coming off long lay-offs to resume play this week. In Eastbourne, James Blake opens against Julien Benneteau and Gilles Simon opens against Evgeny Korolev. Also look for the opening-round match between qualifiers Nishikori and Kuznetsov, who could get Simon in the second round. Almagro is the top seed here, and he should do well, despite having an atrocious 3-6 career record on grass. Also be on the lookout for Dudi Sela and Feliciano Lopez, who had big wins last week at Queens.

Also in Eastbourne, Kim Clijsters is back in action, as well as Caroline Wozniacki, French Open champ Francesca Schiavone, Li Na - who had a great win yesterday over Maria Sharapova in the final at Birmingham - and even slumping Svetlana Kuznetsova got a wildcard into the tourney. In one of the best opening rounds, Sam Stosur opens against Melanie Oudin, who's having a bit of a sophomore slump this year. That's a pretty impressive draw, I have to say. The top eight seeds are from the top 12 players in the world! After how barren last week's draw was, that is amazing.

The other tournament going on this week is in s'Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands, but I'm just going to refer to it as the Unicef Open in the tags, because I'll never spell that right again. The draw here isn't quite as stacked on either side, but it still has some great players. Ljubicic is the top seed on the men's side, and he'll have to watch out for Marcos Baghdatis and Tommy Robredo. Chardy and Clement are floating there in the draw, as are Malisse and Becker. It could develop into a good tournament too, depending on how the first couple rounds go.

On the women's side, it's all about one person: top seeded Justine Henin, who is aching to win Wimbledon this year and needs this warm-up tournament to get her into a grass-court mentality. She shouldn't have too much trouble with this event, though, as second seeded Dinara Safina has - regrettably - already lost in the first round. Other than that, Ivanovic is in the dra, and a lot of very strong but not especially accomplished players. Henin couldn't have asked for much more to get her in the right frame of mind for a big run at Wimbledon.

In a day or two, I'll take a look at the qualifying draws for Wimbledon, which have some exciting match-ups of their own. Enjoy the tennis!

Week 23 Final

For an off-week, the pair of finals that we have on offer tomorrow promise some fairly exciting tennis. In a stacked field at Queen's club, the surprising All-American final features Sam Querrey against Mardy Fish. It should be a good match, as both are big servers and competent volleyers. On the one hand, I hope that Fish comes out on top - Querrey already has a couple of titles this year, and doesn't stand to gain that much (in terms of ranking) if he lifts the trophy. Fish, on the other hand, could go up about 40 places next week.

The other final has the bigger names, but the conclusion is probably already decided. Hewitt has lost the last 15 against Federer, and Federer hasn't lost in Halle in more than half a decade. It should be a fun match, but it's hard to imagine Rusty pulling out a victory.

There's not much else to say about these match-ups, I'm sorry to say. They should feature some fun tennis, but they don't have a lot of resonance for the bigger picture of the tennis season. I'll still be watching, though!

Week 23 Quarterfinals

We're most of the way through the first week of the grass court season, and things are pretty bizarre. In Halle, six of the eight seeds are already out of action. The only players remaining are Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt. Five of the remaining eight players are actually German, if you can believe that. Considering that there were only eight Germans in the draw to begin with, that's a pretty impressive line-up. That said, I think the odds of a German taking home the Halle title are pretty small, since Federer is still there. I was wrong when I mentioned that Haas beat Fed here last year - Federer didn't play Halle after he won the French Open. Haas beat Djokovic to win the title.

So that means that Federer is riding a ridiculous winning streak in Halle - it's got to be one of the longest winning streaks of any player at any tournament, if not the longest. I don't know who's going to beat him. Kohlschreiber is 0-4 against Federer, and he's really the toughest competition remaining, with the exception of Hewitt. It would be a pretty intense meltdown from Fed if he fails to break his title-less streak and continue his unbeaten run in Halle.

In Queens, things were rolling along as one might expect until today, when everything went to hell. There was some trouble with rain, and here are the casualties: Gasquet withdrew with a back injury, Roddick lost to Dudi Sela, Djokovic lost to Xavier Malisse, Cilic lost to Llodra, and Andy Murray was tied 3-all in the third against Mardy Fish when the match was called on account of darkness. And Nadal nearly lost to Denis Istomin of all people. Sometimes, unusual weather can be a real leveler.

A lot of the players who lost were really hoping to get some match practice in before Wimbledon, so expect a few players to start angling for wildcards to next week's tournament, which usually has a lack of top players. Andy Roddick in particular has won three matches in the last two and a half months. That's not the kind of preparation he wants heading into Wimbledon. Sam Querrey, on the other hand, seems to have recovered from the ennui that plagued him at the French and has a real shot of making the final here. We'll see how the weekend plays out, and if the big upsets are already past, or if they might continue.

French Open Day 3

Now that we're through round one of the French Open, everyone who's going to have played a match has done so. Half the field is cleared out - well, almost. There's one match left to play - Xavier Malisse is up two sets to love against Simon Greul. Other than that, everything is set. There were a few relatively minor upsets today, but there's yet to be a big player to fall. One of the players who really wasn't a factor this year despite being the losing finalist last yeast was Dinara Safina, who collapsed against 39-year old Kimiko Date Krumm. It probably wasn't a back injury that cost her this match. She needs to get her head on straight.

The other player who lost because of mental problems was Sam Querrey, who lost to American Robbie Ginepri. After losing the second set in a tiebreak and getting broken to open the third set, Querrey just checked out. He said afterward that he didn't want to be on court, and he played like it. He seemed to be willing to admit his behavior was unprofessional, but the fact is that he's now 0-4 at Roland Garros, and there's no reason for him to have that kind of record.

On the other hand, American Andy Roddick got his clay court season off to a belated but successful start after beating Jarkko Nieminen in five sets. And the other players in Roddick's section of the draw that could have posed the greatest threat also lost today, so rather than a pair of Argentines waiting for him in the next two rounds, he's got a couple of Slovaks instead. He'll have Blaz Kavcic in the next round, and possibly Grega Zemjla instead of Juan Monaco after that.

Beyond that, the players who were expected to win managed to win today. French teen Gianni Mina put up a surprisingly good fight against Rafael Nadal, acquitting himself admirably, despite losing to the tune of 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. We'll see him here again. Other than Roddick, the only other five-set match today was Horacio Zeballos's win over Martin Fischer, 10-8 in the fifth.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, we're back to the top half of the draw. There are actually some pretty good matches tomorrow. Gael Monfils takes on Fabio Fognini, Robin Soderling takes on Taylor Dent, Tsonga takes on Ouanna, and Murray faces Chela. There's an outside chance of an upset in any of those matches - as well as 32nd seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez against Thiemo De Bakker. Leonardo Mayer and Julien Benneteau, Carsten Ball against Viktor Troicki, and John Isner faces Marco Chiudinelli!

This is really a pretty great lineup for a second round of a grand slam. Lots of great matches on outside courts, between players with great stylistic match-ups. Normally, grand slams take more than a round to get going, but I'm pretty excited about quite a few of these. With any luck, the tournament could really kick into high gear tomorrow.

Madrid Round 2

After two days of action at the ATP Madrid Masters (three days for the women) there have been some surprising upsets already. Two of the three men's winners from last week's ATP events are already out, and the third nearly followed them. Albert Montanes's loss was the least surprising, as he was facing big-hitting Ernests Gulbis. Montanes served for the first set at 5-4, but ended up losing 9 of the next 10 games. Tough loss, but Gulbis just blew him off the court. Sam Querrey, on the other hand, had no business losing to Challenger stalwart Daniel Munoz-De La Nava, who had never won an ATP level match before and was ranked 315. Querrey served for the match, again, and was broken, then lost it. Really disappointing performance from Sam, I'm not going to lie. Sam needs to stop losing serve when he's on the verge of winning a match. That's three of his losses since the clay-court season started, if you can believe that.

John Isner, on the other hand, managed to defeat a tougher opponent in Christophe Rochus. Another American made it through to the second when both Tomas Berdych and David Nalbandian withdrew with injury, so lucky losers Mardy Fish and Michael Russell took their places. I'm not sure I've ever seen that before, but Fish came through that one.

Oh right, the other tournament winner. Mikhail Youzhny looked down and out against Lukas Lacko, losing the first set 6-2, before he got back into the match and won it in three. His reward for that win? Ernests Gulbis in the second. If he's flat for as long as he was against Lacko, Gulbis will blow him off the court.

Looking ahead to some of the other exciting matches that we'll see tomorrow, there's quite a bevy of crackerjack matches. On center court, Andy Roddick finally starts his clay-court campaign against Feliciano Lopez, which is not a bad first match for the American. Following that, Nadal gets unfortunate Ukrainian victim Oleksander Dolgopolov Jr., which might last an hour, if Nadal's taking his time. And then Ferrer gets Marcos Baghdatis, a match which would normally be very exciting, but on clay, Ferrer gets better and Baggy gets worse. So expect Ferrer to win that one.

But this would be a great day to have a grounds pass at the Mutua Madrilena. Almagro and Soderling are playing on the second court, as are Andy Murray and Juan Ignacio Chela. The first match should be tight, but the second one is going to be a blowout - I just don't know for which player. If Murray has gotten his head together in the past week, he should win without much trouble, but if he's still playing like he's been playing since the Australian Open, it could be a long day at the office. Or a quick one, and he'll be heading to France early.

Way out on court four, Thomaz Bellucci is playing Juan Monaco, which is a great clay-court match to be on such a way out court. And that's not even mentioning the fact that court three has both of the William sisters in action. I guess they're not very popular in Spain, as their matches could both be exciting. Venus is playing Schiavone, while Serena is playing Petrova. Those could go either way. Meanwhile, on center court, in the second night match, the WTA put on... Lucia Safarova and Alexandra Dulgheru? What? The first WTA match of the day is actually a great one, so it's a bit puzzling that it's on first, as Serbian sensations Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic face off. That could be a good one, too. Strange scheduling going on.

Ah well. Mysteries of court placement and timing aside, that's a great day of tennis, and that's why the second or third round of Masters Series events can be some of the most exciting days in the tennis calendar.

Week 18 Review and Madrid Preview

All three of the men's ATP finals which took place today were good matches. All three went through three tight sets, and it was a question about who was going to take the title in all three matches until the very end.

The all-American showdown in Belgrade was probably the most exciting, because Isner was actually up a set and a break, serving at 5-3 in the second set, and even had a match point on serve. You've got to give that to someone who serves as big as Isner, almost every time. But Isner cracked under the pressure, lost the second set in a tiebreak, and then lost the third set by a single break. Querrey was just a bit more solid, in the final summation.

The same could be said for the other two winners. Frederico Gil looked to be down and out, when Albert Montanes ran away with the first set and looked ready to win the second. But he snuck out a victory in the tiebreak and then broke to start the third. Gil was unable to become the first Portuguese player to win an ATP tournament, as Montanes won the third set 7-5. Shame for the hometown boy. Cilic-Youzhny was not quite as topsy-turvy. The Russian seemed to be the stronger throughout most of the match, and he came out on top in the end. Really good day of tennis.

Looking ahead to Madrid, you've got nine of the top twelve players appearing. Del Potro and Davydenko are still out with injury, while Djokovic is suffering from an illness and/or allergies. Still, it's a pretty stacked field.

Roger Federer has had an abysmal season, after his win at the Australian Open. His inability to even take the title in Estoril of all places, losing to the 31st-ranked Montanes in the semifinals. With that in mind, he has to be both anxious for a win here in Madrid, but also something of a long shot, considering his current form.

And the draw he got is not doing him any favors. After a first-round bye, he'll face either Benjamin Becker or wildcard and former French Open champion Carlos Moya. After that, it's likely that he'll get Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka, who beat him on clay last year. And no matter who his quarterfinal opponent might be, it's going to be a bear of a match. He could face Youzhny, Gulbis, Montanes, or Andy Roddick. Gulbis-Montanes is one of the great opening round matches, but to have three players in this section of the draw coming in with winning streaks, and then the hottest young player on the tour, all in the same group, could spell trouble for Roger.

The second quarter of the draw has Andy Murray as the top seed, who hasn't had a much better season, post-Aussie Open. His section of the draw is mildly less brutal, but it's still no cakewalk. He may open against Cuevas or Chela, two clay-court stalwarts, and then potentially Sam Querrey, who just bagged his first title on clay. He could also get either Igor Andreev or Victor Hanescu in the third round. And then, in the quarterfinals, he may get either Cilic or Ferrer. The outside possibilities for his quarterfinal opponent include the third Swiss player in the draw, Marco Chiudinelli, or his first-round opponent Marcos Baghdatis. That's another cracker of a match tomorrow.

Because the second, fifth, and sixth-ranked players are out of the tournament, the fourth seed here this week is Robin Soderling, who has a quarter all to himself. So far, he hasn't shown the kind of form he would need to get back to the French Open final again. His nemesis so far this year, Fernando Verdasco, is also slated to be his quarterfinal opponent. But before he even gets there, he'll have to win against either Nicolas Almagro or Viktor Troicki, and then Juan Monaco or Tomaz Bellucci. That's almost as close to a group of clay-court ringers as you could get. And the wildcard in this section of the draw is David Nalbandian, who opens against the tall Czech Tomas Berdych. That is my pick for the best first-round match, by the way. And Verdasco has to face Ivo Karlovic in his first match. Almost anyone could find their way out of his quarter.

Because of Djokovic's absence, Nadal is back to his usual place as the second seed. And not only is he the favorite to win the tournament, he's also been gifted the best draw. He'll probably open against perennial underachiever Andreas Seppi, after which he may get John Isner or Phillip Kohlschreiber. No threats so far. His quartefinal opponent is likely to be Tsonga, who he beat without too much trouble early in the year. Gael Monfils is also in that section, but he hasn't played in so long, who knows how his form will be this week.

Except for Nadal, it's tough for me to see any of the other top four seeds making it to the semifinals. So this tournament is pretty wide open, in terms of getting to face Nadal. I don't know who's going to be able to beat him. It's always a possibility, but I wouldn't bet on it at this point, unless you just like really long odds.

Week 18 Semifinals

Of the three ATP tournaments going on this week, two of them are going according to plan, more or less. Not much of particular excitement is taking place in either Estoril or Munich, but we'll address their semifinal lineups momentarily, anyway. First of all, I want to talk about one of the most exciting quarterfinal days we've had all year, at the Serbia Open in Belgrade.

The day opened with John Isner against Richard Gasquet. Despite Gasquet's lower ranking, there was little doubt that he was the favorite. He was the much more accomplished clay court player, and his game should have been suited to the surface. The first set was something of a rout, with Isner losing his serve twice and not even getting a break point against the Frenchman. The second set was tight, and got all the way to 5-all in the tiebreak. At this point, the story was that Isner should have folded under the pressure, but he held tough, took the set, and then won the third 6-3. It's a big win for the American, who has decided he doesn't want to believe the talk about U.S. players or big servers not being able to play on the clay.

The other American in action, Sam Querrey, had a match that I would have bet on him to lose. He took the first set and lost the second, then got up two breaks in the third set. At that point, he completely choked while serving for the match, and let the Russian Igor Andreev get back into the match. It looked similar to his loss in Rome, where he served for the match and was broken. However, here, Sam recovered and managed to serve it out in the second time of asking. Kudos to Querrey for getting out of his own way and winning.

The middle match was supposed to be the highlight, and it was probably the tightest match of the day. Stanislas Wawrinka, a very good clay-court player, was taking on a local favorite, so Viktor Troicki knew he had the crowd behind him. The match went 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-6(6). Wawrinka saved three match points in the third set. It was really a deflating loss for the Serbian fans, but it was nothing compared to what happened in the night match.

Novak Djokovic was slated to play Serbian teenager and wildcard Filip Krajinovic, and he sort of did - for a set. I don't think Djokovic was in any shape to play any kidn of tennis, but he showed up and did his best for a set, because he's the owner of the tournament. This is such a weird situation, but kudos to Djokovic for giving the fans something to see, even if it wasn't what they were hoping for. And it's a lucky break for Krajinovic, who had never won an ATP match before this week and whose previous loss came to a player ranked outside the top 450 in the world. Unless Sam Querrey loses his mind, then Krajinovic is going to get smoked in the semis. The match between Isner and Wawrinka is much more exciting. That one could go either way.

In any case, looking over to Estoril, things have gotten exceptionally boring. I mentioned at the beginning of the week that the only two players who could challenge Federer are Monfils and Ljubicic, who both withdrew before play began. That means that the second-highest ranked player in this tournament is Albert Montanes, ranked 30 places below Federer. That will be Fed's opponent tomorrow, but really, there isn't anyone left who should trouble Roger. A win is a win, but it's almost like he's winning a minor-league event at this point. I don't know how much momentum he can expect to get from notching wins over these guys, who - all respect to their capabilities - are relative scrubs.

There's some potential drama in Munich, at least, as Marcos Baghdatis, who had never been much of a clay court player before, won his match against the top German player, Philipp Kohlschreiber. But the German fans in the audience did get to see one of their own make it through, as Philipp Petzschner upset Tomas Berdych. These players will face the two men are now the favorites to meet in the final, Marin Cilic and Mikhail Youzhny. That could be an exciting match-up. We'll see how things shake out. Cilic has still been a bit shaky, but seems to be more confident than he has been in quite a few weeks.

On the women's tour, Serena Williams was doing her best Roger Federer impersonation in Rome. She lost to Jelena Jankovic, after being up a break in the third set, having a match point on serve, and then being up a mini-break in the third set tiebreak. It's an impressive fightback from Jankovic, who has now beaten both William Sisters back to back, but really a disappointing performance from Serena. Still, does she really need to win Rome again? We'll see how she bounces back in the coming weeks. Jankovic could have faced a resurgent Ana Ivanovic in the final, but her run was upset by another player having a dream week, 26th ranked Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. Not quite the blockbuster final that the organizers were hoping for, but it's good to see Jankovic playing well again.

Monte Carlo Preview and Week 14 Review

With the preview week for the clay court season completed, things are about to get underway in earnest. Well, sort of. First of all, the results.

Sam Querrey ended the potential for a disaster to get any worse by beating Wayne Odesnik, but then he continued his poor performance in finals and lost to Juan Ignacio Chela. In his defense, clay has to be considered Querrey's worst surface, at least according to the way he plays, and it's also Chela's best. Still, Querrey's game really got loose in the final game of the last two sets, which is a shame, because he played well - for the most part. To be a really elite player, though, Sam's going to need to be more focused in finals. Credit to Chela, for winning his first title in three years.

In Casablanca, there was another winner who hadn't won a title in quite a few years. Stan Wawrinka had gone 0-5 since 2006, including a runner-up earlier this year to Marin Cilic. He beat Victor Hanescu to claim the second title of his career. It's surprising to me that Wawrinka can't put a strong week of tennis together more often. He's really a force when he's playing his best. We'll see if he can build off this victory for the rest of the claycourt season, where he generally does well.

Looking ahead to Monte Carlo, there's really only one question: can Rafael Nadal continue his dominance on this surface for another year? He is 29-1 at this event, winning it the last five years, a record which is just unbelievable. Amazingly, there is another multiple titlist in the field, as Juan Carlos Ferrero won here in 2002 and 2003. Everyone else who's won this tournament is out of tennis, if you can believe that.

Nadal's road to another title won't be easy, but he could have gotten a tougher draw. After his first-round bye, he'll get likely get young gun Thiemo De Bakker, who has been anxious for this part of the season to come along, I imagine. But he probably wasn't hoping his second match at the first Masters event on his favorite surface would be against Rafael Nadal. Beyond that, Nadal could face Juan Monaco or Jarkko Nieminen, and then either Tsonga or Ferrero. It's a shame, but it's not unlikely that we'll see the two titlists playing each other in the quarters.

The field at this event is not as strong as it might be, as a number of top players are out injured, and several others are taking their free "skip a Masters event" card at this event. Only five of the top ten players are in attendance, so the top seed at this event is Novak Djokovic. He'll have to get through a pretty tough quarter in his own right. The final between Hanescu and Wawrinka gets repeated as a first-round match here, which is a bit unusual. Another first-round match to watch here is Gulbis-Chiudinelli. Djokovic's quarter also has Robredo facing off against a potentially dangerous Horacio Zeballos, as well Nalbandian and Youzhny in the mix.

Murray's quarter is arguably the weakest, but these smaller Masters events are pretty stacked. He'll open against either Bellucci or Kohlschreiber, and he'll need to up his level to beat either of those guys on red clay. After that, he may get Melzer, and is likely to find David Ferrer waiting for him in the quarters. I don't expect to see Ljubicic make it out of this quarter, but he's been a surprising figure as of late. This is the quarter that's most likely to have a shock contender make it out of, I'd expect.

The last quarter, featuring fourth-seed Marin Cilic, has some big hitters scattered in it as well. Cilic opens against Andreev, who loves the way the clay slows down theb all and lets him really get around and rip his forehand. He'll then face either Seppi, Montanes, or Baghdatis, all tough players. The bottom section of that quarter will likely see Gasquet, Verdasco, or Berdych come out of it. Cilic's career record on clay is only 22-21, so he can make some headway this season. For comparison, though, Murray is only 20-18. They need to really play up to their seeding at this tournament.

We'll see if order will be restored this week, or whether the run of incredible upsets is going to continue as we've seen in the first two Masters Series of the year. The smart money is on Nadal, as in fact, the odds are better for Nadal winning than any of the other players in the draw. But things have not been quite as promising in Nadal's game as they have been in years past, so we'll see if he can play at his usual level.

Week 14 Semifinal Preview

We're up to the semifinals at the first four clay court tournaments of the season, and unfortunately, the biggest story of the week is not a good one. Wayne Odesnik, convicted of possessing and smuggling HGH into Australia earlier in the year, is still playing at this year's U.S. Clay Court Championships in Houston. Pete Bodo has the best look at the whole situation, but the summary is this:

There is no possible way, based on any evidence that we've been presented with thus far, that Odesnik will not get out of a suspension. He's been convicted of possession, and that is punishable in the same way that a positive drug test would have been. So it's a near-certainty that he'll be out of the game for two years, and all of his results between his conviction and his suspension will be nullified. His prize money, too. So that means he's playing in this tournaments - and making the the quarterfinals, thus far - for nothing, except denying other players their shot.

It's either really stupid, or really shameless, or both. I don't have a lot of sympathy for this guy at this point, and I hope that he loses to Querrey in the next round, or else he has a real shot at winning at the tournament, which is absolutely a terrible result for all involved. The ATP needs to review their policies after this whole ordeal and get some sort of a provisional suspension in place so that this does not happen again. It's just not acceptable. Hopefully, Querrey can end this story before it becomes a real problem for the ITF and the WADA.

In any case, the other semifinal in Houston, which looked like it would be Gonzalez and Hewitt, is instead Juan Ignacio Chela and Horacio Zeballos. Not quite the blockbuster that the organizers were hoping for. They're both relatively unknown players in the states, but both very talented clay court players, and either one has a legitimate shot of walking away with the title. Here's hoping that they beat Odesnik, if Querrey can't pull it off.

In Casablanca, things are relatively quiet. Victor Hanescu has been playing some great ball to beat Jarkko Nieminen, who blew through qualifying, and then former top-ten player Richard Gasquet, who still hasn't gotten his career Renaissance. Hanescu faces Florent Serra in one semifinal, while the other is top seed Stan Wawrinka against Italy's Potito Starace, who hasn't had the toughest draw, but hasn't lost a set and has been playing great ball. Really, any one of these players has a legitimate shot at the title, and it's tough to know who's going to come out on top.

Really, everyone's looking ahead to next week's tournament in Monte Carlo - the draw comes out tomorrow, so we'll take a look at that and see the real beginning of the clay court season starting next week. This is all just a warm-up.

Indian Wells Weekend Wrap-up

We're into the third round at Indian Wells, and things are mostly going as expected. By that, I mean that there have been about as many surprising upsets as one usually finds in a tournament of this size. Three of the favorites on the women's side are already out - Justine Henin fell to Gisela Dulko, top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova fell to Carla Suarez Navarro, and Maria Sharapova lost to Jie Zheng. At this point, it's likely that the semifinals could be Clijsters-Azarenka and Dementieva-Wozinacki.

In Men's doubles, the Bryan Brothers have lost as well, losing to Berdych and Kohlschreiber in straights. They were the second seed, and the third and fourth seeds have also dropped; Paes and Dlouhy lost to Marc Lopez and Rafael Nadal, while Bhupathi and Mirnyi lost to Andreev and Korolev. Top seeds Nestor and Zimonjic have survived their only match thus far, and they'll be facing Andy Roddick and James Blake in the second round. If the trend of top singles players beating experienced doubles teams continues, the top seeds are in danger.

There's been nothing resembling that level of upset on the men's side, but there have been a handful of surprises. The highest-seeded casualty is Nikolay Davydenko, who was forced to withdraw with his wrist injury after he beat Ernests Gulbis. As a result, Viktor Troicki is into the round of sixteen after playing only a single game. He had a bye in the first round, Pablo Cuevas retired six points into the match, and now he gets a walkover from Nikolay Davydenko. Oddly enough, this matches Troicki's best ever effort at a Masters 1000 event. I don't give him much of a chance agsinst the winner of Berdych-Verdasco, though.

David Ferrer was also upset, but he was playing James Blake, so it wasn't as big an upset as it may have seemed. Blake was at his imperious best, and if he can keep up that level of play (no easy task) then he could make a deep run into this tournament. He'll face Nicolas Almagro next, who upset Ivo Karlovic in the second round. In fact, let me just do a quick rundown of other seeds to falter.

Marin Cilic was the first big upset of the tourney on the men's side, losing Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in his first match. He must have just been tired, as he did lead the tour in match wins on the year. Gilles Simon lost to Brian Dabul, but Simon hasn't been heard from too much as of late, so it's not the biggest shock in the world. Julien Benneteau lost to Mario Ancic, but Ancic is on the comeback trail as well, and he's a former top ten player.

In the top half of the draw, Monfils and Stepanek both lost, to Simon Gruel and Dudi Sela. Igor Andreev fell to American Michael Russell, and Janko Tipsarevic had to retire against Thiemo De Bakker. It's also worth noting that David Nalbandian lost to Jurgen Melzer, so it doesn't look like he was completely inspired by his performance at Davis Cup.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, the most exciting matches mostly feature the top seeds. Nadal plays Mario Ancic, as I mentioned. Ancic has not been at his best for years, but Nadal hasn't been at his best for the better part of a year, either. A win from Ancic would really announce his intentions to return to the top tier of the game. However, even when Nadal is not at his best, he can handle most players. If Ancic even makes this competitive, it will be an encouraging result.

Djokovic plays Philipp Kohlschreiber, against whom he has a 1-1 record, but Djokovic's one win was on this very court two years ago, and it was decisive, 3 and 2. It's tough to see that result changing too much tomorrow, but Djokovic went walkabout in the second set of his win against Mardy Fish, losing that set 6-0.

John Isner and Sam Querrey are playing in tomorrow's night match, in what is shaping up to be the next big American rivalry. It's not quite Agassi-Sampras - who apparently still aren't too fond of each other - but I think it will be fun to watch. Querrey is just a bit better moving around the court, and I give him the advantage in this match.

I'm also really looking forward to Verdasco-Berdych, who have a 3-4 head to head. This one's a real pick-em, and the winner should have relatively little trouble in the next round, giving them an almost guaranteed path to the quarterfinals, where they could meet a potentially ailing Nadal. Lots riding on this match.

Indian Wells Preview

Well, the qualifiers are over, and my predictions about the qualifiers were not quite the best. It just goes to show that anything can happen, and that anyone who pretends to be knowledgeable about these sorts of things really won't do that much (if any better) than chance, most of the time. That said, let's take a look at the main draw and see how far off I can be this time.

This will be a fascinating month for Roger Federer. I keep waiting for his motivation to fade, but so far he has somehow managed to maintain his unbelievable talent for what is really an unprecedented amount of time. It was thought that he might miss this tournament due a lung infection, and while it looks like he'll play right now, who knows how well he'll do once the tournament gets underway. If he does play, he won't have the easiest road ahead of him. His first match should be a breeze, but after that, things get trickier. It's likely that he'll face Marcos Baghdatis in the third round, followed by a potential match-up with Radek Stepanek. In the quarters, he might find himself playing Andy Roddick, and if he gets through that match, then he'll find the other Andy in the semis. This is, of course, that there are no major upsets along the way. It's worth noting that Federer hasn't won Indian Wells or Miami since 2006.

It should also be interesting for Roddick. He has a relatively soft section of the draw, considering his low seeding at this point. He'll likely open against Yen-Hsun Lu, who he just beat a few weeks ago. He'll probably meet Janko Tipsarevic in the next round, but his subsequent opponent will be an interesting character, no matter what. Roddick is seeded to meet Gael Monfils, but that section also features the former top ten players Richard Gasquet and David Nalbandian. The other seed in that section is Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, but it's tough to see him making it through those other three players. And of course, after that, Roddick gets Federer in the quarters. The top American has been struggling with some niggling injuries as of late, but let's see if skipping Davis Cup has helped his chances here. Roddick, of course, hasn't even been to a Masters Series final since 2006.

Andy Murray has a couple of tricky players in his section of the draw, but nobody prior to the quarters. He may face Igor Andreev in the third round, and if the Russian can play the way he did against Federer at the Aussie Open while Murray plays too defensive, there could be an upset. But it's a tough ask. After that, though, Murray could face either Karlovic, Ferrer, Almagro, or James Blake, all of whom could theoretically pose a problem.

The Brit's quarterfinal opponent is likely to be the winner of the only two top ten players slated to meet in the round of 16. Robin Soderling and JW Tsonga are in that section of the draw, and they're the only real contenders to be found. Feliciano Lopez played well at the Aussie Open against Roddick, but it's not enough to get him to Andy Murray.

Moving to the bottom half of the draw, we find the top ten player who I think is most likely to lose his first-round match. Nikolay Davydenko, who has been dealing with some wrist problems, will likely face Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who is riding a hot streak. Either player that Davydenko faces first could beat him, actually, as his other potential opponent is Swiss number 3 Marco Chiudinelli. Whoever wins between those three players will likely make it to the round of 16, as the other seed in that section is Viktor Troicki, who is a fine player but has faltered in the big moments throughout his career. To get the quarters, the winner will have to face either Tomas Berdych or Fernando Verdasco, and that match is basically a pick-em.

Whoever comes out of that tricky section of the draw will find another potentially random player waiting for them in the quarters, since the top seed there is also not likely to live up to his seeding. Nadal hasn't played since the Australian Open, and who knows how well he's feeling, physically. Nadal might face Mario Ancic, also back from another long injury break, in the third round. In the fourth round, though, if Nadal makes it that far, he'll face the winner of Sam Querrey and John Isner, who are unfortunate to be seeded to meet so early. Here's hoping they weren't too worn out by the trip back from Serbia, since they have a real shot at making a quarterfinal here.

In the last quarter of the draw, the players that are likely to make it to the quarters are much less in doubt. Marin Cilic will have to get through a bevy of clay-court specialists, including Carlos Moya, Tomaz Bellucci, Juan Monaco, and Juan Carlos Ferrero, in order to make the quarters. The wildcard in this section of the draw is Daniel "Crazycakes" Koellerer, who probably won't do anything, but I would love to see him on a show court.

Finally, the bottom section of the draw belongs to newly-minted world number 2 Novak Djokovic. He has some tough players in his section, including Gilles Simon, Phillip Kohlschreiber, and Ivan Ljubicic, who nearly beat Djokovic in Doha. This section of the draw also has three strong Americans - Mardy Fish, who is fighting fit, as well as teenager Ryan Harrison and his doubles partner Taylor Dent, who are unfortunately playing each other in the first round. Still, it's tough to see Djokovic losing before the quarters.

Regardless of what happens, I'm looking forward to the tennis. Lots of great stories taking place, heading into the Indian Wells-Miami double feature, this year. Play starts tomorrow!

Week 8 Preview

First of all, kudos to Sam Querrey for successfully turning his season around, beating the two hottest Americans on tour (and the only two ranked above him) in winning his first title of the season and third overall. This was also his first title in which he beat a player ranked higher than him in the final. No shame for Isner, though, who has continued his strong season. Both of them then teamed up to win the doubles title. Not a bad run for both!

The same thing happened in Marseille, where Llodra beat the higher-ranked Benneteau and then went on to win the doubles title with his opponent, who became his partner. Shame for Benneteau, who remains titleless, but Llodra did one better than his run last year.

Also, props to Juan Carlos Ferrero, who looked like he was going to fall to David Ferrer once again, only to come back and win in three to get his second title in as many weeks. Is the former number one getting back to his top ten form? He hasn't finished a year in the top ten since 2003.

Looking ahead to the next week, the Dubai field has suffered a bit, as Nadal and Del Potro are out with injury, while Roddick and Federer also withdrew in the past few days. It's still the strongest tourney since the Australian Open, with world #2 Djokovic as the new favorite. Unfortunately for the Djoker, he has his nemesis Tsonga in his quarter, who faces last week's Marseille winner in the first round. That was Llodra, by the way.

Other first round matches of interest are Gilles Simon and Marcos Baghdatis. Simon has yet to win a match on tour this year, and this will only be his second. That's a tough one to get back on track with. In addition to four of the top ten players, there are a bevy that seem like they really ought to be in the top twenty, and could make a breakthrough here, with some of the biggest names out of the tourney.

There are some big names out of the tournament on U.S. soil this week as well. In Del Ray beach, the Americans are going to have trouble repeating the feat they had at Memphis this week. The only seeded American is slumping James Blake, ranked 55 in the world. And he faces another American, Taylor Dent, in the first round. Tommy Haas half-counts, and he's the top seed. Also worthy of note, Kei Nishikori returns to action here after more than a year off for injury. He opens against Benjamin Becker. Really, this is the weakest field of the week, so anyone could conceivably run away with the title.

The reason the field is so weak is that the two Americans who made the final in Memphis decided to run down to Mexico to play on the clay, dedicating themselves to playing their best - and maybe getting ready for the Davis Cup match against Serbia. An impressive move by both Isner and Querrey. It's particularly interesting for Querrey, who must have gotten late entry and is unseeded. He'll open against Fernando Gonzalez, in what probably amounts to the best first-round match of the week.

Another first round match of interest is Richard Gasquet against Carlos Moya, which should be a fun one to watch. Ferrer and Ferrero are both in the draw, as are Verdasco, Almagro, and Montanes. These are some of the best clay-courters on tour, so keep an eye on them for the next couple of months. After the Indian Wells-Miami double, that is.

Week 7 Finals Preview

The finals are set for this week 7, and there's going to be at least one new title-winner this year. In France, they've got an all-countrymen final, but it doesn't feature any of the top three Frenchman in the draw, including Tsonga, Monfils, and Simon. But the French crowd should be pretty happy with their final between Benneteau (the eighth seed) and Llodra, who made the final here last year. This is Benneteau's fourth singles final, and he has yet to win one. Llodra lost this final last year, but he has three to his name. His last came in Rotterdam in 2008, where he had beaten Soderling in the final. Coincidentally, Soderling was Llodra's victim in the quarters here in Marseille.

I'm surprised that these two Frenchmen, both in their late twenties, have never played each other on tour before. They played in a futures tournament ten years ago which Llodra won, but it's tough to put much stock in that. Benneteau had the harder road, facing Monfils and Tsonga, while Llodra had to face the relatively minor foe Mischa Zverev in the semis. But Benneteau is the higher-ranked player here, and has been on better form so far this year. This is largely a pick-em, and I hope it will be a good match. It's been a good week for both players, as they are both also in the doubles final, playing together. It should be interesting for them to play that right after completing the singles.

In Buenos Aires, they've got the best match-up they could have hoped for in the final, once David Nalbandian withdrew from the tournament with injury before his quarterfinal against Albert Montanes. Ferrer then steamrolled a well-rested Montanes in the semis, after beating Igor Andreev that same morning, when matches had been pushed back due to rain. Really, that's an astounding performance from Ferrer, to play two-matches in one day, the second against a very well-rested opponent, and win it 6-1, 6-1. He'll be facing Juan Carlos Ferrero, last week's winner in Costa do Sauipe. The only set dropped by either of these players was by Ferrero, inexplicably, in the quarters against Santiago Ventura. The Ferrer-Ferrero rivalry, which is my second-favorite in the sport, name-wise, after Wozniak-Wozniacki, has been pretty one-sided. Ferrer is 5-1 against the older, more experienced Spaniard. Add to that the fact that last year, Ferrer was the highest-ranked player who did not win a title, and the "Bulldog" will be eager to notch his first tour win since the Netherlands in 2008.

An all-French final, an all-Spanish final, and in Memphis, an all-American final. Sam Querrey and John Isner, the two young guns of U.S. Tennis, will be facing here for the first time. They've had very different years up to this tournament, with the tall man winning his first title and going 8-1 to get here. On the other hand, Querrey was 3-4, and is just now getting his record above 500. Querrey is recovering from a pretty terrible arm injury that ended his season last year, so it's good for him to make the final here. While he was struggling to get his year kick-started, Isner was on fire, and ultimately replaced Querrey as the number 2 American behind Andy Roddick. This should also be an interesting match, as these two players are close, and will be playing together in the final after they play against each other in the singles, just like Benneteau and Llodra. I don't know of the last time that's happened twice in the same week, but it hasn't happened recently, to the best of my knowledge.

It's also worth mentioning that Venus Williams won her first title of the year in Dubai, which was also her first successful title defense since Wimbledon in 2007-2008. She beat Victoria Azarenka in the final, and did not drop a set en route to the title. Azarenka may have been the seed that she faced, but it was still an impressive run. Sharapova also won in Memphis without dropping a set, and never even played a tiebreak. She was taken to 7-5 only once, by Elena Baltacha. It's a great way to kick-start the year for both players.

The women's final in Bogata has not yet been decided, and it doesn't feature any big-name players like Sharapova or Venus. But it does have a 20-year old Colombian player named Mariana Duque Marino who may be making her first big splash on the tour level. She's won a bundle of lower-tier ITF titles, but has yet to make much noise at the top. She faces German Angelique Kerber, who is also going for her first overall WTA title. With the home crowd's support, Marino may have the advantage over another first-time finalist. But that's why you play the tennis.

Week 6 Wrap-Up, Week 7 Preview

There were several wild matches to wrap up in the past weekend of tennis, and a couple enticing tournaments on the horizon, so I won't waste any time.

I was at the San Jose tournament for the quarterfinals, which turned out to be an excellent day of tennis. The semifinal between Roddick and Querrey turned out to be the match of the week, though. Roddick won in three sets despite never even getting a break point against Querrey's serve. Tough loss for the young American, but he's shown that he's clearly recovered from last year's injury and ready to be a force again this year. He emphasized that fact by winning the doubles title with Mardy Fish.

Unfortunately, all that tennis turned out to be a little much for Andy Roddick, who lost the final to Verdasco, who had a much easier road to the final. While Roddick was facing Querrey and Berdych, the Spaniard only had to get through Uzbek Denis Istomin and 19-year old Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis. Not really equal competition on each side of the draw, in the end. Still, a strong performance from Roddick, who hopefully won't be too exhausted to perform well in Washington (more on that in a moment).

The finals at the other two tournaments this week weren't quite at the same level, even though though they did also each feature a player who had spent all of his energy just getting to that stage.

In Rotterdam, Youzhny had to retire against Soderling after the Russian had upset Djokovic in the semis, while Soderling notched his first big win of the year over the top-ranked Russian who had been the hottest three-set player on the tour, Nikolay Davydenko. Good for Soderling, who started off the year in poor form, to get things back on track.

In Costa do Sauipe, Ferrero breezed past Lukas Kubot, who apparently used up everything he had to beat Igor Andreev in the semifinals. Kubot managed only one game against the top seed. I was expecting Ferrero to face local favorite Tomaz Bellucci in the semis, but Bellucci was upset by another Brazilian player, the journeyman pro Ricardo Mello. Alas, Mello couldn't mount recapture that magic in the semis.

Looking ahead to next week's action, the next red clay tournament of the year in Buenos Aires features many familiar faces from the past two weeks. Ferrero is back, but Bellucci is taking the week off. The top seed this week is Spaniard David Ferrer, and there are also a handful of fresh faces, including wildcards Carlos Moya and Gaston Gaudio. Gasquet is supposed to be back in action this week, as well as the wayward Argentine, returning to play on home soil at least, David Nalbandian. He's been out of action for almost a year, so I'm eager to see how he does here.

In Marseille, last week's champion Soderling is back in action, as is finalist Youzhny, assuming he can recover from whatever forced him to retire. Tsonga, Monfils, and Benneteau make up the home-crowd seeds, and they're joined by Marcos Baghdatis and Tommy Robredo. Baggy is having a great year, but still hasn't quite reached his top ten form. Robredo hasn't done much of anything since winning the Hopman Cup over Andy Murray. The draw is filled out with a bevy of French and European players, including Arnaud Clement, the Rochus brothers, and Denis Istomin, who flew over from San Jose.

Speaking of San Jose, Roddick and Verdasco are the top seeds once again in Memphis, but who knows how tired they'll be. Surprisingly, Roddick plays unseeded James Blake in his first-round match, and James just had to fly back from the Netherlands. Why are these guys jetting around so much? Verdasco's opener isn't much easier, as he faces young, big-hitting Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. The other seeds in the draw are mostly familiar faces, except for John Isner, who's back in action after his great start to the year.

Isner opens against American teen and qualifier Ryan Harrison. Surprisingly, Harrison qualified while "The Donald" Young fell short. There are a ton of interesting first-round matches here, though. Querrey plays Rajeev Ram, who beat him at the Newport final last year. Radek Stepanek opens against Kevin Anderson, Jarkko Nieminen plays Dudi Sela, Benjamin Becker plays Ivo Karlovic, and Xavier Malisse plays Tommy Haas. That's a lot of matches between players of very comparable skill levels, as of late. There could be some firecrackers in there. And if Roddick and Verdasco are tired from their play in San Jose, this tournament could bust wide open.

Noteworthy upsets and withdrawals plus Aussie Open quallies!

The second week of the season has featured a few surprising upsets and not-so-surprising withdrawals, but I'd imagine the tournament organizers were none too happy to see these players out of their tournaments before Wednesday.

Nalbandian withdrew from Auckland before playing his match against Kohlschreiber, which I think puts the Argentine in doubt for the Australian Open, since this would have been his only tune-up event. Gael Monfils also withdrew from Sydney, which is not so much of a surprise, considering how heavily he was taped last week in Brisbane. Vera Zvonerava also stopped her match against Elena Vesnina after only six games with an ankle injury. This is on top of Justine Henin and Roger Federer withdrawing from their events, earlier in the week.

In Sydney, Evgeny Korolev beat Sam Querrey in the first round, which will mean that the recently-injured American will be 0-2 going into the first grand slam of the year, which is certainly not the way he would have wanted to start out his year, I'm sure. The Bryan Brothers also lost to first time doubles pairing Wassen and Zeballos, which was definitely a shock. On the women's side, Dominika Cibulkova beat third-seeded (and ranked) Svetlana Kuznetsova, Aggi Szavay beat Jelena Jankovic, and Na Li beat fourth-seed Caroline Wozniacki, so the upset bug is all over.

It just goes to show that some of the top players have trouble finding their form at the very start of the season, which is why the Australian Open often has the most surprising winners and finalists of any of the grand slams.

With all these upsets and withdrawals, some players are getting an easy route through their tournaments. Serena Williams can't face another seed until the final, for example. Others are not so lucky. The bottom quarterfinal of the women's draw in Sydney will feature Elena Dementieva against Dinara Safina, which has the potential to be an exciting match, or at least a good bellwether of how these two players' years are starting.

In Kooyong, the organizers were apparently unable to woo either of the Andys into playing the full three days, so they ended up replacing Roger Federer with Ivan Ljubicic, who is a fine player, but probably not what they had hoped for this year. So the Kooyong matchups are Djokovic-Haas, Fernando-Fernando, Soderling-Tsonga, and Ljubicic-Del Potro. It will be interesting to see who out of that group of top players has started the year on form.

Looking to the Aussie Open qualifying draw, there are some very interesting first-round matches. The quallies are incredibly important to the players in them, because getting a few rounds in a grand slam is the best way to rack up a chunk of points for the following year, but you have to win these mini-tournaments to have a chance. Here's my list of significant match-ups:

Xavier Malisse-Alex Kuznetsov, Marc Lopez-Donald Young, Josselin Ouanna-Joseph Sirianni, Yuki Bhambri-Jan Minar, Ryler DeHeart-Stefan Koubek, Grigor Dimitrov-Robert Kendrick, and Peter Polansky-Marcel Ilhan. Sixteen out of these 128 players will get into the main draw, which is a tough cut. There are a ton of up-and-coming players here, as well as more establish challenger pros who are knocking at the door of the top 100. It should be fun to see who makes it through.

First big upset of the year!

Ah, the tennis season is officially underway, now. We've had the first match with a really big and unexpected upset. Robin Soderling, the top seed in Chennai, was in such good form at the end of last season and at the exhibition at the beginning of this year, that I don't think I even mentioned his first-round match against world number 100 Robbie Ginepri. It's clear that was an oversight on my part, because Ginepri has proven in the past that he can occasionally produce the form that allows him to play with the best in the world, and it was on display when he ousted Soderling in straight sets. It's too early to call it a comeback, but it would be nice to see Ginepri put together a couple of good matches this week.

The other interesting result from Chennai was from the rematch of last year's semifinal-that-never-was. Rainer Schuettler withdrew with injury, giving Somdev Devvarman a place in the final. This year, Devvarman again received a wildcard, and again made good use of it by beating the German in straight sets. Can he make it back to the final again, this year?

Another wildcard who is doing very well for himself is Younes el Aynaoui in Doha. Now 38 years old, Aynaoui beat American Ryler DeHeart in two tiebreak sets. This made him the oldest player to win a match on tour since Jimmy Connors in 1995. That's quite a record to have. Aynaoui has a bit of luck, since his second-round opponent is another qualifier, since Steve Darcis beat eighth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. If he makes it to the third round, he may face Nadal.

Speaking of the top three seeds in Doha, Nadal, Federer, and Davydenko all cruised through their matches. This was expected, of course, but it was good to see each of them playing in such fine form. Granted, their opponents may not have been the best set of opponents to demonstrate how they're feeling at the start of this season, but these wins are no doubt encouraging. Each should have a sterner test in their next round, so we can see if they're on the collision course they appear to be on.

In Brisbane, there were some excellent matches yesterday. Sam Querrey and James Blake played in what could have been a changing of the guard, but Blake refused to play along with that storyline. After getting broken in the first set, he started smacking his forehand to places where Querrey could never reach it. Granted, Sam played a little passive, possibly assuming that James would start hitting errors eventually, but Blake stuck to his guns, and ended up winning in three. But Querrey played well, and he did not seem to be too affected by his injury. Also worthy of note is that the Querrey-Blake match was 5-6, 6-4, 6-4 and took only an hour and twenty-eight minutes. This may have been the quickest 31 game match of all-time.

For reference, Mardy Fish lost a tight match to Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 7-5, and those 24 games took an hour and forty-one minutes. Taylor Dent lost a crackerjack to Frenchman Gael Monfils 7-6(1), 6-7(5), 6-2. Hopefully, both Fish and Dent will be inspired by how close these losses were, rather than frustrated. Those were just unlucky first-round opponents, and both players should do better this season.

Australian Qualifier Matthew Ebden (who I'll admit I know nothing about) upset sixth-seeded Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, which gives him a match-up against Richard Gasquet. The winner of that match will play the winner of Andy Roddick and Carsten Ball. Now Carsten has never had a win comparable to a player like Roddick, but Andy's knee has apparently been bothering him. I'm hoping for a Roddick-Gasquet faceoff in the third round, and I imagine the tournament organizers are, too. Despite the fact that it calls for two Australians to lose.

There were a few notable upsets in the doubles, as Jeremy Chardy made up for his disappointing loss in the first round to Alejandro Falla by teaming with Marc Gicquel to beat third seeds Knowle and Lindstedt. While that is an impressive result, it's nothing compared to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Albert Montanes topping top-seeded Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in straight sets! As the second-ranked team after the Bryans, this is not the way the pair was hoping to start their 2010 campaign.

Some good tennis to be played yet, too! It's just started in Brisbane, and as the sun moves across the sky, I'll be able to follow the tennis to India and then to Qatar. If schedules hold up and I can stay awake, I may be able to watch tennis for the next sixteen hours straight. Can't beat that, huh?