Will it be the Vodka lovers or the Gauchos taking home the Davis Cup?

Finally the Davis Cup final is coming and there is great potential for a close final between Russia and Argentina. As the man known as Jimbo said “I couldn’t have had a better final even if I rigged the draw”.

There are so many possible scenarios to this tie and that alone makes it interesting, both the captains Shamil Tarpishev otherwise known as Yeltsin’s stooge and Alberto Mancini are very good leaders and shrewd and their tactics will come into play for sure, as they have to find the right balance and they have multi-dimensional options and that can make things just as difficult as only having a two man team.

First of all I will preview the Russians and they are the home team, yet the only time they have won the Davis Cup was away in France and the two finals at home they lost first of all in 1994 to Swedes on an indoor surface where Boris “boozer” Yeltsin walked in at 5-5 in the 5th set of the Edberg and Volkov match holding up play and then the next year against the inspired Yanks on slow heavy clay. That is one hurdle they have to get over and the fact that they are favourites and haven’t won the Davis Cup while being a favourite.

They have an excellent all round team with Safin, Tursunov, PMK and Youzhny. All four guys that can play on all surfaces and singles as well, so they are likely to lose the doubles tie, then again one can’t tell Davis Cup does strange things to players. The only constant here is that Safin will be playing singles and since he is the number 2 he will be playing Nalbandian on Day 1 and then the vital 5th match if it comes to that. Safin and Nalbandian will be the key players in this tie. Though Tursunov has shown his strong mentality in Davis Cup defeating Gasquet and Roddick in vital matches that have secured Russia’s place and the PMK is solid all around and has a combined 6-0 record against Calleri and Acasuso, though he is negative against Chela and Cañas. Youzhny has been named in the squad, but he will be either head cheerleader or somehow recovered from the broken bone in his foot and play doubles or a blinder in singles.

Onto the Argentines now, this is their golden generation of players and only the second time they have made the DC final. They aren’t favourites at all and that is something they can use to their advantage. Vilas and Clerc were the forerunners and it would mean a lot to Argentina to win the DC for the first time and this team have excellent harmony and that is something that should not be underestimated at all. Like the Russians, they have excellent depth and flexibility in their squad and how Luli uses his squad is vital. Mancini is aware that Shamil has been known to bullshit about his team selection, well claim that one player is playing and then he will substitute for another. Guillermo Cañas has made a wonderful comeback and is there with the team, but it would be too much to ask him to step up from clay challengers to a Davis Cup final indoors and this will mean that chubby Chela will be more than likely the 4th player, though one can never tell. It could be a case that PMK doesn’t play on Day 1 to avoid playing Chela, though if it goes to a 5th match then Chela won’t play a role.

The Order of Play will be intriguing as it would be advantageous for Argentina if Nalbandian plays first against Safin and this is the one arena where he always plays his heart out and tries his best. If Nalle can defeat Safin, then that will liven things up for sure, the other side is that if Nalle has to win the match at 0-1 down it will be a lot of pressure on him, as for Argentina to win the Davis Cup they will need to be 1-1 after Day 1 at worst.

This leads into the next question who will be the second singles player be Chucho Acasuso has been training well and responds well to Luli. His record indoors isn’t that good and while he has the best serve of the Argentines, his return game is streaky and he needs to be more of a man on the backhand and hit more of them. Calleri is another guy who lives for this format and he is the guy that I believe would be better suited to playing Safin in the last match.

Doubles well Nalbandian is the key and he plays well with Chucho or Calleri, so it wouldn’t be too radical to suggest that one of them will be playing in the doubles, but the match does rest on Nalbandian’s shoulders and he knows that. He has an excellent team with him and they are playing against a very good side as well and the tactics are going to be so important here in how they use their combinations.

If Argentina wins the Davis Cup, it will be so much more rewarding because they won 2 out of the 4 ties away from home and that is what the best sides should be able to do win the matches away from home.

The thing about this format is they win as a team and lose a team. The extreme levels of emotion involved as well is different from regular tournament play and this needs to be appreciated, it’s not about the money or individual glory solely, but then again it’s a great thing when the number 1 in the world Federer claims he cares about history, yet likes to piss on one of the most historical tennis events and he doesn’t have the excuse of a dud number 2 player.

As for who will win the final, well I think Russia will, but this is not the outcome that would be preferred. Hopefully it will be a hard fought and well contested final and whoever wins will have deserved it especially since they didn’t make the final on the back of having all ties at home.

Shanghai Showdown

Well the best 8 players of the year have gathered in Shanghai and are playing to see who will in the Masters and whatever prestige that brings with it. I mean just cause Nalbandian won it last year, it doesn't mean he was the true master of 2005 and if someone else besides Federer wins it, it won't change the fact that Federer has been the best player for the past seasons.

One thing I love about the Masters is that the surface is virtually always the same, therefore disadvantaging certain players while always favouring the same ones. Surface rotation would be good for that to spread it around, but hey that would be too sensible for those clowns to understand as a concept, then again there aren't many concepts that the ATP understand.

Better go onto the players and I will do this in groups and whatever order isn't important.

Federer : Well clearly the best player in the world and the only match he has lost in the TMC for the last 3 years was to Nalle in the final last year and he plays him again in the first round and it would be funny if he defeats him in the Round Robin play and then loses in the final. The one thing that will stop that is that Federer will win the final.

Ljubicic : The big serving Croat who has been laid low due to an allergic reaction to antibiotics taken against a virus he got in Madrid. The big man loves a roof and feels confident against any player apart from Federer indoors and would fancy his chances of making the semis and he is fortunate that he plays his "good friend" Roddick in the first round who hasn't the greatest success indoors and also has had some injury problems, so the question is who will be able to return well enough to win this match. His match up with Nalle is dependant on the mood of the happy Argentine and how well Ljubo serves, cause their matches in recent times haven't been close irrespective of who has won them. I wonder how good Ljubo's fitness is at the moment.

Roddick: Quack, quack and well apart from Federer these three are evenly matched and the fact Nalle took a set in his match with Federer means that either Ljubo or Duckboy have to beat Federer or at least take a set as it wouldn't surprise if they split their matches against each other. He can make the semis for sure, but I don't see the Duck getting out of the group.

Nalbandian: What can we expect from the happy Argentine? It seems to me that while Nalle would love to defend his title in Shanghai, his focus is upon playing in the Davis Cup final and that is something he doesn't have a problem with getting motivated for and it's hilarious in one way that he has done as well as he has considering the amount of effort he puts in. He lost to Federer in 3 sets, but would fancy his chances against the other 2 in the group.

Well that group is significantly stronger than the one below with Nadal, Davydenko, Blake and Robredo, but such is life and players have to take their chances.

Nadal : Nadal has been accused of getting some easy draws and the conspiracy theorists will love this for sure. Well Boredo isn't going to be a problem for him, in spite of the indifferent recent form of Nadal. He has to play Blake who has defeated the only two times they played, but Blake isn't always the best pressure player and Davydenko is an unknown quantity, though his record against top players isn't good.

Davydenko: The big Ukranian based in Germany playing for Russia has been rewarded with doing well in 3 of the Slams and winning enough MM events during the year and unlike the real Kafelnikov the PMK won a TMS event, but the PMK hasn't won Slams of yet. He should be able to do quite well on this surface, though he is 0-4 against Blake and hasn't done well against the top players. Well it's time for that to change, then again it might not change.

Blake: He has a hit and miss game which is spectacular when on and woeful when it's off. This is the first time that he is here at this event and he has good records against the other 3 in this group, but this is the big time and time for him to step up.

Robredo: He is there to make the numbers.

Well the only thing here is to see who will meet Federer in the final.

Andreas Seppi won 2 matches in a row and that is more important than the TMS Paris

Paris has again suffered from mass withdrawals of the big stars the arse Nadal, the bald is beautiful Ljubo and if it was likes a duck and struts around like a duck and there is a good chance that it is a duck Andy Roddick. It wouldn't surprise if Federer withdrew, but he just turn up and treat it as a training session and probably win.

Big news and more importantly big Andreas Seppi has won 2 matches in a row for the first time in some time and has qualified for the main draw and that is a big effort considering his poor form and he has a chance to win against Paul-Henri Mathieu who has been stinking more than fish left out in the sun for 4 days. In other words it's a question of who will play the least poorly will win this match.

Grosjean will take Malisse as he has done the previous 8 times and hopefully he can end Boredo's season in the next round, though I wouldn't be surprised if Boredo gets into Shanghai as an alternative.

Chucho is playing Chris Rochus and he has lost to the little gimp 3 times in a row and he should blow him away on this surface, but with him one can't tell and the winner plays the PMK and neither of them have a good record against him. PMK might be distracted as he is going to get married and I hope he has Irina sign a pre-nup agreement and he has already qualified for Shanghai, he might not care as much and this kind of thing happens at the end of the season as well.

One good thing about this week is that Ancic and Gonzalez the warrior 3 finals in a row are in the same section of the draw and there could be a straight elimination for the Shanghai spots, too bad Feña was disappointing in the Slams or he would have qualified by now and he will be very tired when he gets there if he qualifies.

Berdych is back where he made his mark and could do quite well in defending his title or he might do poorly, but it's too early for him to make a TMC and he will have plenty of chances in the future and big Safin is back at the event he loves and can't be discounted and maybe Nadal was scared that he had to play him and as for the seriousness of the last comment, most people with half a brain would know how serious I am.

Well I will get coverage this week and that is better than usual, so hope for another surprise winner in Paris.

Fondue, Vodka and Gastronomy in Lyon in the race for Shanghai

It’s another 3 tournament week and the rush for the Masters is in full force and apart from Federer and Nadal, the other 6 places are still open, but in reality those ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th on the Race should be there in Shanghai.

Basel, Lyon and St Petersburg are the venues for the shenanigans this week and they are played on carpet, which is a surface that isn’t used that much these days. Personally that is a good thing as the horror days of the serving festivals that passed off as tennis were hideous to watch.

First event to be profiled will be Basel. The hometown hero Federer is back playing his home event for the first time since 2003 due to injuries in 04 and 05. This event is special to him as he has never won it and he used to be a ballboy there and is a huge FC Basel fan. Federer has made the final twice losing to Henman and Enqvist and he is coming back from winning in Madrid and if he wins here, then he is unlikely to play in Bercy.

Enough of Federer, there are a few former champs in this field Jiri Novak who will be retiring at the end of the year and he could easily play against Federer in the quarters. Henman is another one who enjoys Basel winning it twice and making the final once, he plays the gimp Chris Rochus in the 1st round and should be an easy win, though he will play the winner of Wawrinka and Calleri which is along with del Potro and Murray are the best matches of the 1st round.

Acasuso has quarter final points to defend and he is in a pretty good section of the draw and hope he can match that result from last year. Gonzalez is back in Basel to defend his title after making his 1st TMS final in Madrid and it will be interesting to see how he backs up from this and Nalbandian another winner of this event is there and loves playing there and should be able to consolidate his place in Shanghai.

Lyon

Lyon the culinary capital of France and home to France’s most successful football team at the moment and an indoor event that has been going for a number of years, well the field isn’t as strong as it could have been with the withdrawals of Ljubo and Roddick,

Baghdatis is the only player that is capable of making Shanghai therefore leaving this event fairly open and as for Marcos he could win this event or lose in the first round. Well he is playing in his nation of residence and the tough dwarf Clement won’t be an easy opponent for him.

Mr overhyped Gasquet and Marat “my farts smell better than others” Safin is the highlight of the 1st round in name anyway. It’s good to see Marat supporting his home country tournament in St Petersburg and decided to play in Lyon, it must be hard to overcome that jet lag from St Petersburg to Paris, then again the appearance fee should just cover the difference. Got to say either this will be a huge beatdown by Safin or a close match.

The main question in Lyon this week is whether Gaudio or Seppi can win a round here.

St Petersburg

Good to see the other Russians are supporting the St Petersburg event and it wouldn’t surprise if there was another Russian victory here. The PMK has drawn Santoro and he is a heavy favourite for this and it will be interesting to see how he approaches this event. He should qualify for Shanghai, but he needs a good result in Paris, as he has done well in the optionals.

Hopefully ToJo and Pavel can get some momentum and win enough matches to make sure that they are able to qualify directly for the Aussie Open. This is getting to the end of the year and some players will be looking forward to a break and then get ready for the Australian summer.

Kunitsyn hope he can do as well here as he does in Moscow, but that has not been a strong point. The ironman Tursunov is starting to rust at the moment, but he will be ready come Davis Cup time.

Just hope young Korolev can beat Hernych, cause he could do well in this tournament and take out Boredo and maybe prevent him from qualifying for Shanghai.

Gaudio is back on tour, Tiriac is a mafioso and the 8th TMS Madrid is here

This is not going to be inspiring at all, rather just functional and there are reasons for that.

Madrid, well this is the 8th TMS event of the year and one played at a slight altitude and that isn't such a bad thing and while the population of indoor idiots love this time of year and at least the horrible servefests are virtually over and that's good.

Also good things are that the Bye is back in business and that most of the top 10 are at this event. A combination of a lack of injuries and Tiriac got some mafia hitmen to intimidate some people the players into turning up this time unlike previous years.

Tati Rascon almost qualified and somehow Youzhny didn't. Rocking Rosie with a love of Latins and shopping must be having a good time and del Potro qualified and playing the Swedish Roddick with much more personality.

Gaudio and Massu are playing and both of these guys haven't played a while and their reward is Federer in the next round, but just see what happens and it's good that they are on centre court as Safin and Acasuso will be later.

LaLo and Ginepri what a match, that will be such quality and one of the rare times I have to cheer for LaLo and that is not easy at all.

Vienna Calling, Aphex in Stockholm and Downing the vodka in Moscow

Yes, it’s that wonderful time of the year where the tennis moves indoors and the big serving indoor idiots come out to play, well it isn’t really like that since they have slowed down the courts over the years, but that is another issue I might explore later.

First tournament that will be previewed is Vienna. They have done very well with the Entry List and it’s easily the overall strongest of the events. I haven’t been to this event for quite a lot of years as I am not a huge fan of indoor tennis, but it’s a good event. It’s very easy to get to and well organised, the court surface not too quick well and some wonderful artery clogging and tasty food now onto the tennis.

There are some potentially very good 1st round results and the victorious Argentine Davis Cup team is there all four of them. I am sorry about that Choupi, but can’t have everything in life.

Ljubo vs. Calleri: Well big Ivan has a 5-0 H2H (Head to Head) record over Calleri, but Ljubo did have an arm problem in Bangkok and he is defending his title here and Calleri had the better of it in their last match in Croatia on a faster surface, but couldn’t close the deal sadly and this best of 3 format might help him. It would be good for Calleri to take this one, but the big bald Croat will get the job done here.

Acasuso vs. Roddick: The thought of making duck schnitzel out of Roddick does sound tempting to say the least. Chucho doesn’t usually play well after a break, then again he does have the knack of defeating top 10 players when he isn’t expected to do and that could easily count in his favour. The main thing in this match will be, who will return serve better, considering both of these guys aren’t exactly going to give classes on how to return serve well.

The good thing is the surface isn’t that quick and that will give Acasuso more hope than he normally would on a faster surface, just hope he can concentrate well, but his mind is on Moscow in December and any good form before that is a bonus.
As for the other things going on in Vienna, well there is Chubby Chela and Nalle in the 1st round, well that will mean that there is at least one Argentine in the 2nd round and as with Nalle, he will be a bit more with it than he normally is. One he likes playing indoors and also with a couple of solid performances he should make Shanghai and wants to be ready for the DC final.

Moya and Mucho Almagro, well at least a Spaniard is through and Almagro in theory could do quite well under a roof, but he still has a lot to learn tactically about the game, but in a few years I can see his results on other surfaces besides clay improving.

The return of Baghdatis and also Cilic and Stani isn’t a bad match and welcome back to the top 100 for Koubek, well just hope he can get rid of those horrible memories of last year losing a lead of a set and 4-0 to Lisnard, that is shameful. Speaking of Koubek he and Labadze are playing doubles and then the team with no power Gonzalez and Calleri are teaming up, watch out ballkids.


Now we move to lovely Stockholm which is a beautiful city and would be even better if they got rid of most of the Stockholmers, though there are some absolute gems to be found there.

Well it’s good to see Pim-Pim Johansson back on the main tour after all his injury problems and he wasn’t too proud to be playing Futures events in Sweden to prepare and it makes sense to give him and Vinciguerra another guy who has had bad injury problems wild cards into this event.

Vinci has drawn a qualifier and Pim Pim plays the Silver Fox who doesn’t seem to be as interested in the game these days and I wouldn’t be surprised if he retired at the end of the year and this could be a big opportunity for Pim-Pim, sure has Nadal in his section, but this court will be quicker than Madrid for sure and he is no guarantee to win this event either and these events while there are good points available, it’s more a prelude to Madrid.

Froggy Ferrer is playing Seppi again and luckily for big Seppi it’s not on clay, though with the way he is playing at the moment, it wouldn’t surprise if he only got 4 or 5 games in this match, it would be fantastic to be proven wrong on this, but this has been a difficult year.

The Swedes well the Toad is playing Chris Rochus and has a potential second round match against Björkman, but the big Toad has the game for indoors and will more than likely be the “bad guy” in a match against Jonas, they are in the Berdych section.

ToJo will be playing James Blake the highlight of the 1st round and Blakey is the defending champ and his buddy “Fisker med Mardy Fish” have done well in the past at this event. Blake can be very erratic, it depends if he decides to play with his eyes open or not.


The Kremlin Cup is the last one and I remember years ago when this had a strong field and no that was not because Rosset won it twice. As a tournament the big Kafelnikov always tried in this one and won it 5 times in a row and there have been some Russian winners of this event and the winner Andreev isn’t here defending his title.

It would far from surprising if a Russian won this event and Moscow means Vladivostok’s finest Igor Kunitsyn comes to life. He always plays well here and like a top 20 player in Russia and then bombs out badly elsewhere and I see him making the quarters again. The metamorphosis from hack to a player who beats good ones when he is in Moscow is something amazing.

Safin, Youzhny, Tursunov, PMK and Korolev give the host nation plenty of representation in this tournament and it’s the weakest of three in overall quality, but still open enough. Safin has had some difficulties when playing in Russia and I remember that he got booed by his own fans and he didn’t take it well. The whole booing issue, well people should be allowed to express their frustrations. I mean these pampered ponies want to take the credit when they play well, but they act all tender when they are criticised, sometimes it’s fair and other times not. As much as I like Safin, he will always find something to complain about, hates Hawkeye and loves Round Robin, it wouldn’t be because he’d be gaining something, nah that would be cynical to suggest that.

No mess in Metz with fan reports from Choupi. It's about the culture and not the appearance money in Tokyo

Goodbye to the clay for the year, well there are still some clay challengers and I will get around to those later. Now the European indoor kicks off in lovely Metz and the field has been weakened sadly with many withdrawals and almost looks like the French Closed Championships, though even then it’s a lot better than the addition in 2004 and we will be getting some reports from there with one of our special reporters.

Back to Metz later, the final in Mumbai has been held over to today and got to love the organisational genius that puts an event outdoors while that’s a good thing, it isn’t the smartest thing to do it in the Indian monsoon season and it would not be surprising if the final was not played at all.

Onto Metz, well for our reporter Choupi, she had some bad luck in that most of her favourites decided to pull out of Metz, this would be Acasuso, Calleri and Chela who are spending some more time at home, before they have to trudge the European indoor circuit and they deserve some time away and it’s too bad that Metz misses out. I am lucky I am not at this event in addition to Chucho and Calleri, Horna, Seppi and Pavel withdrew as well and Luczak lost in qualifying. At the same time it’s live tennis got to see some of it and make the best of it and Santoro is still playing and his uniqueness will be lost very soon.

As for the event itself it’s very open since big Ljubo isn’t there defending his title and the fact that Ferrer and Ferrero are the top 2 seeds mean it’s an open event for sure. Robin “The Toad” Söderling is seeded 8th and has come back from Brazil and he loves playing indoors and suits his game and can see him doing well in this event.

The highlight matches of the 1st round are Santoro vs. Mathieu a battle of guile and versatility against inconsistency and erratic play. Then another battle between countrymen between Safin and Youzhny, well Youzhny is the higher seed, but Safin is an indoor monster who seems to be coming into some form and this is his favourite part of the year. Then there is Richard “The show pony” Gasquet well he is seeded 5th and my feelings for him are pretty clear, he doesn’t support the Round Robin format, has a good backhand and the Pink Panther as coach and those are the best qualities, just wait if he wins here, then all the hoopla about him starts again.

The last outdoor event for the season is the Japan Open and Mr Roger Federer has turned up this time. He likes to play in Asia and he doesn’t mind the appearance money as well, plus the Bye is there and that has to be a good thing as well.

This event looks like a prime candidate for the Round Robin format with its 48 draw and it’s funny to see Benji Becker, Björn Phau and Paul Goldstein seeded for this event, but there are some interesting characters here as well. Koubek who had a SF appearance in Mumbai plays Galvani and if he wins then Moodie and he is in the same section as Federer, well at least he should have enough time to go back home to Vienna for the indoor event. Then señor Fernando Vicente continuing his Asian adventure, he could do quite well with the women being a blonde Spaniard and those Asian girls love the exotic Western look.

Tursunov is stuck in Mumbai and has to get to Tokyo, but he loves the travelling and he will be able to handle it and he has done very well this year and he is a bit like Andreev and Davydenko in the amount of tournaments he plays. Davydenko has taken some time off and 2 weeks free from tennis is like long service leave and maybe Irina is spending too much on his credit card and he is in shock.

Youngster del Potro is up against Stop and Go Soeda the Japanese buzzsaw and hopefully he can win that and take out Captain Charisma Robby Ginepri, that guy is ranked higher than he should be, but he will go down to the LaLo level, though at least LaLo has a good serve.

The match of the first round is over and it was a bit of a fizzer sadly Edgardo “Yayo” Massa who is a bit soft around the midsection played against the big Greek Kostas Economidis. This match should have been standing room only, but Yayo was too classy for the Big Greek and won 6-1 6-3 and imagining shrieking Japanese girls chanting “Yayo” would be enough to get the wax out of my ears.

On a sidenote, bad luck to Michael Russell he couldn’t win his Challenger final against Bobby Reynolds and that is not good, though he should be back in the top 150 soon.

Look forward to the reports Choupi.

Ciao Palermo Clay, Exotic Spices in Mumbai and One Night in Bangkok

The last main level ATP event of the year lovely Palermo is upon us and this means in the meantime I will have to follow clay challengers and then wait for Viña del Mar, while the indoor idiots rule the way. Sicily at this time of year is pleasant as it's not as hot as it is in the summer, but still warm and pleasant enough and there have been some good winners of this event.

The last 2 defending champions Andreev and Berdych aren't here this time around. Igor is still injured and in the loving arms of Tursunov after the successful Russian win on the weekend and the Berdman has gone to Mumbai this time around. Volandri the guy who was beaten in the last 2 finals is the number 2 seed here and has been playing well recently a final in Bucharest and played very well in a losing effort against Spain in DC.

That is the problem with these events after the Davis Cup, it's very hard to predict as to who will do well, either cause they might be still drunk from the celebrations or only having just arrived at the venue after a long flight, but with this tournament it doesn't seem to be the case with long flights. It's an open event and nearly anyone can win this.

Jan Hajek the man who has been on a tear at Challenger level is playing against Ulihrach who has come back from nowhere and winning matches. Seppi a man who is in poor form at the moment is playing Simon and he was a semi finalist last year, hopefully the Sicilians get behind him as he needs a big performance soon to salvage his year which has not been good.

Zabaleta is playing Olivier "Have a Little" Patience and Mariano is struggling badly at the moment losing to Zib is an indication of that, but as long as he can remain fit and fight hard, then the results will come for him. Nico Lapentti the winner of the big challenger in Poland plays Mathieu, who had some ankle problems in Bucharest, but has had about 10 days off and should be ready to go now.

Blogger fave Oli Marach fresh from winning his first 2 DC matches is up against the Spanish 'Superstar' Almagro who has had some injury problems and hasn't played too much. Almagro should win this easily, but with him one can never tell. Then Lucho plays Montañes and vamos Lucho save your season with a good performance in this event.

The tournament from Ho Chi Minh has been moved to Mumbai this year and neither finalist is there this year. Björkman is still in Brazil with Davis Cup and Stepanek is still out with back problems. It seems Martina has been working Thunder Lips too hard in the bedroom and his back has suffered cause of it. It's good that they have bought some big players to India and Moya is back there and he loves it there, it must be the food.

Tursunov will have fun adjusting from clay to outdoor hardcourt, but he should win his first match at least and apart from that anything is a bonus. This event has to be good Berdych, Koubek and Monaco are there and besides this the big Greek Economidis is there and he is literally a big guy. At the start of the year he had to play qualies of the Burnie Challenger 25K event and won it and now he is making it directly into this field. Too bad del Potro didn't get the easiest first round match available.

One night in Bangkok with the huge appearance money kicks off the indoor season and this event has some of the big names Ljubo, Safin, Baghdatis, Blake are there. There has been a coup in Thailand, but it doesn't seem to have to have had too much impact. I mean they played the South African Open when it was the apartheid regime, so they will do what they can.

Got to say it's funny seeing Vicente and Massa in an indoor event as direct entries and they are there for the holiday in reality as they play Ljubo and Nieminen respectively and Marcos has to play Chicken Man for the thrid time this year and he is 0-2 and will want to get a win over him as soon as possible.

Davis Cup Dance

Well it's the Davis Cup semis and promotion ties for the World Group as well this weekend. I will try and cover as much as I can, though there are lot of other things going on at the moment.

The Hewitt sideshow is almost at an end, and the whole "will he or won't he" saga about playing in Argentina, seems to have been answered. Sure Hewitt is disliked in some sections of Argentina, but is the same in Australia and the fact that he is playing this time is a good thing and it creates some interest in a tie that in reality should not be close. Argentina with their strength in depth could easily use Guzman and Roitman and probably still win this tie.

From reports it seems Chucho will be playing the first day against Hewitt and this is a good test for him and though Hewitt might be the higher ranked player and he will use all the negative energy to fire him up. Hopefully Chucho doesn't shit himself, though he is lucky he has Mancini on the sideline. Basic facts that this match will decide whether it goes to the 3rd day, if Chucho wins the singles, then it's match over. I wonder how the crowd will react to little Lleyton. Chucho said allegedly "they must insult Hewitt, but moderately" hehehe.

Russia and the US, it seems the Yanks have been talking up their chances in this one. It would be to Argentina's advantage if they won the tie, but for some reason this is not likely to happen.
Safin plays Roddick first and Marat must be licking his chops to be able to play Roddick on his worst surface and should be able to get the right result. The Russian captain has also decided on using Youzhny against Blake and that is a commonsense decision under the circumstances that the PMK doesn't play well against these guys and they can rotate their players.

The playoffs well the Czechs have a new captain Tomas Berdych's coach Jaro Navratil who has a mullet and while they are away, they are playing on carpet and that will suit Berdych and they should make it back to the main group.

Austria and Mexico: Koubek asked to be left out of this tie to improve on his ranking at the moment and it will be good that Oli Marach, a blogger favourite to make his debut and Melzer who comes off his first ever title win on Bucharest will have a chance to improve on his very poor Davis Cup record, it's something he has struggled with for some reason.

Spain and Italy : Brazil were the last team to beat Spain at home and they had Guga playing for them and as much as I like Seppi, he is definitely no Guga and he got the job of playing Nadal, though it pains me to say this that it would be good if Volandri beat Boredo on Day 1, just to make it go to the 3rd day, but Spain will be back in the World Group.

Brazil and Sweden : I love Brazil, the parties, the beaches, the women and the like, but I will cheer for the Swedes in this one. It's great to see Vinciguerra back after all the injuries and he is the clearly the best Swedish player on clay when fit and it seems Brazil are having internal problems. Marcos Daniel hasn't been named and got the shits, Guga has come out of nowhere to play doubles and Saretta is in poor form.

Switzerland and Serbia : Federer decides to make a comeback that and Wawrinka is good enough to win a singles match, will mean that the Swiss will be back in the World Group again and it would be good to see Federer play in the 1st round for next years competition, though I wonder if he would go to Argentina say for example.

Go the Russians and the Argentines.

Guillermo Cañas back on the tennis circus

The Return of Guillermo Cañas

The tough Argentine Cañas is making his return to the ATP tour on Monday after getting his suspension for taking a masking agent reduced by the Court of Arbritration by 9 months. For those who have not read the verdict, there is a full PDF file on the case, but this is the short version on the ITF site about the case. At the same time the people who still think he is guilty, this proves below why the CAS chose to uphold his appeal. It's not in their interests to favour athletes for the sake of it. There were faults within some part of the process and if there wasn't, then the case would have been dismissed.

http://www.itftennis.com/antidoping...le.asp?id=16515


Cañas has been training very hard and obviously with the time out and having to deal with some negativity and it will obviously take him time to come back into the swing of things and he will have to be more vigilant when it comes to supplements and if he is feeling crap at any point, then declare on the forms that he is taking something and then he can cover his own arse. At the same time as much I am happy to see him back, he can't be stupid again when it comes to this sort of thing and there will be definitely an air of suspicion around the locker room, while he has received the support of many players especially fellow Argentines and others, but there will be dissenting voices as well.


Willy has a new coach the former doubles specialist Gaston Etlis, it is not surprising that he and Hernan Gumy split afterwards, it wouldn't surprise if it had something to do with the case, at the same time the coaching world is like a transit lounge, so many changes in a short time, though there are some exceptions to this. I wonder if Cañas has improved his backhand drive, cause that was something I noticed he wasn't hitting that as well, he has an outstanding backhand passing shot, but with the wrist problem it seems he doesn't hit it with enough penetration or spin and it ends up landing short and he can be punished on that side.


This experience will make Cañas even more determined than he was previously and I have many good memories of watching this matches and he has been in so many battles, some he has lost and others he has won. He and Hewitt had a couple of bruising matches at Roland Garros in 2001 and 2002 and they split them. In the first one Willy was leading 2 sets to 0 and had the match suspended at 2 sets all and then Hewitt came through and this was around the time he was ranked in the 80sand started making some big progress.


The 2002 match was very hard fought match these matches Hewitt was #1 in the world and the first 2 sets of this match were brutal, both were hitting the ball well and scrambling everything back and leaving nothing there on court. Hewitt won the first set TB easily 7-1 and then the big turning point was the 2nd set TB and whoever won that, was going to win the match and both players knew that and they were fighting like 2 rabid dogs with only one bone left and both were hitting to the corners of the court and jerking the other side to side. Cañas had the superior movement on the surface and Hewitt was at his strongest mentally then and neither was going to give in and saving set point after set point and then Willy took it 15-13 and then won the last 2 sets and that sums his up.

He can play on all surfaces and if he returns to form he will be a valuable asset for the Argentine Davis Cup team, as in my view he is the 2nd best all surface player in Argentina behind David Nalbandian, though if Coria returns to form that could be debated. Cañas loves the Davis Cup and would love to play again, but before that can happen, he has to battle through the Challenger events and it is fortunate that the Latin American section of the Challenger tour is active and that he can get some wildcards and be able to establish himself not far from home and away from the major epicentres of the tennis world.

If he is good enough to come through that and determined enough then he will able to make some noise on the main tour eventually, the question is now how well will he bounce back from this setback and he has been successful after having the wrist problems establishing himself, in theory the older he is, the harder it will be form to restablish himself in a sport that continues to evolve.

Bizarre Bucharest and no Nadal to defend the Chinese Clay championships

Bizarre Bucharest and no Nadal to defend the Chinese Clay championships

No, I have not gone mad with the subject title, well no worse than usual. Nadal won Beijing last year and some of the masses still can’t handle the fact that he has won events off clay and last year since Miami was meant to be the “new-clay” as in it’s almost as slow as clay and that is stupid in itself. So when he took the big appearance money and won a hardcourt event, it could not have been possible, it must have been a new surface called Chinese clay. As for charismatic when it comes to Nadal. I am not a huge fan of him and I don’t hate him, but somebody running up and down with the attack of the crabs in his pants doesn’t make someone to be charismatic.

Bizarre Bucharest, well this event is a bit of a Mickey Mouse event, and there are plenty of strange results that happen in here, it maybe the spectre of Vlad Tepes although he is in Transylvania that looms over this event. The example of some of the previous winners like Florent “Que sera” Serra last year coming out of nowhere and winning the title and beating players like Volandri, Mathieu, Pavel and then Igor Andreev in the final with no form to speak of and he doesn’t have much of a game either.

Among some of the fine winners of this event the great Tasmanian Richard Fromberg who was surprise surprise unseeded, but with the afro, he was always cool, even with a visor. The Catalan doubles man Joan Balcells who looks like the character “Monkey Magic” was another bolter to have won. In 2002 a certain young “Froggy” Ferrer won the event as well and yes, he was unseeded as well, then in 2004 the stoner smoking Jose Acasuso won this title thumping Andreev and there is a twist to this tale, in that he was unseeded. This is why the title of bizarre Bucharest, strange results, slightly mysterious place, Ion “Mafioso” Tiriac even though from Brasov, has his fingers involved in the pie and the ladies can be a big distraction as well.

As for the tournament there are some good names or ones that I like anyway. Big Chucho has more important duties ahead that he couldn’t afford a trip to Bucharest, but Yayo Massa is back and maybe he could be the winner of this tournament and I’d love that. He has been playing well in the Bundesliga and just hope he can get a good run. He is in a very good section of the draw, especially since Mathieu is sucking badly at the moment and Tursunov as a #1 seed for a clay event, then you know it’s open.

Zabaleta who has been struggling for form this time around plays against the wildly inconsistent Koubek and as for who I want to win. I can’t lose because at least one is in the 2nd round though with Mariano he is deep in the 300s and he needs the points more, though his fitness is more important. That section is interesting as well with Lucho and Moya playing and that is clearly the best 1st rounder of this event and a tough match for both. In this section the hometown boy Pavel is playing big Boris and should be too good for him and it would be great if he could win his hometown title.

The bottom half of the draw has Florent “Que sera” Serra and the Argentines Martin Vassallo “Che Guevara” Arguello and Roitman could easily make the quarters here, it’s a very open section with the “geeky German” Mayer, Potato Starace in there as well and no huge stand out and with Bucharest as has been shown from previous winners expect the unexpected. Too bad that Luczak decided to lose in the 1st round of qualies, then again the bizarre nature of the event can lead to these sorts of things happening.

Sidenote to finish, the Düsseldorf Challenger final between Korolev and Vinciguerra is something that I am more interested in than the US Open final, it would be great if Vinciguerra could win another challenger, but it will be tough against Korolev who is going places very quickly.

No More Slams for the Year and Federer sending the field into Tears, maybe, maybe not

It’s that time of the year, the last GS event called the US Open. Personally it is not a favourite of mine and there are a multitude of reasons, which I should get out of my system, since this is my blog, it’s the perfect opportunity to do so.

- Shitty organisation playing 1st rounders over 3 days and at a Slam that is very poor form.

- Super Saturday that idiotic marketing gimmick, do they seem to forget that the guys are playing the best of 5 set matches and it’s the epitome of fairness to make them play one of them the day before the final and surprise that gives the advantage to guys who finish first. I love TV marketing gimmicks.

- 5th set tiebreakers, which is not a way to decide a match in a GS, especially in the 5th set, but as they say the Yanks are different.


Enough of what I dislike and onto the subject at hand, the US Open and first of all I am going to start with the qualies and for some reason I can see this being more interesting than the Main Draw itself, the qualies are fun to go to for so many reasons. There are usually legit tennis fans there, it’s a lot cheaper and there are less people around which gives the fan more time to get used to the venue, so when it gets busy, then it’s easier to find things, this in addition that a lot of players are on site training and if you are lucky or some would say smart, then it’s the best time to get photos and the like.

As usual with a qualifying 128 draw, you’d think there was a possibility of fairly even spread of players you like around the draw, but as common as 3 buses go in the opposite direction than the one you want to go and you stand around like a fool, of course they concentrated the ones I like within the same section.

The main match I am talking about is between Michael Russell and Peter Luczak, they both deserve to be in the main draw, but only one of them can do that. The positive is that at least 1 of them will be in the main draw, though it’s a no-win situation and I have seen some of the buffoons that have a chance of qualifying e.g. Minar v Vanek. Alves vs. Lorenzi and Kindlman vs. Witten. This is what is meant to be luck of the draw and as much as I’d like to see this match, it should be hard fought either way.

Also in other qualies the young rising Russian Korolev is in the last round of qualies as well and I hope he gets in as well and Kendrick could be tricky, if he is not firing. Korolev says that hardcourt is his best surface and hope he can make it here next year as a direct entry and I have been impressed the little I have seen.

Speaking of youngsters del Potro is in the last round of qualies as well. His match should be quite funny, not cause Juan Martin is a stand up comedian, it’s because of his opponent Herr Dani Koellerer, who has been known to use some very over the top antics and he got suspended from the ATP for 6 months. They played last year and del Potro is a bit soft and started to cramp and Dani saw that and started taking the piss out of him and he won the mental battle and then took the match and I am sure del Potro hasn’t forgotten. Part of me wants Koellerer to qualify, cause he is such a clown that it needs to be seen to be believed.

As for other Austrians, well the hair Alex Peya is in the last round as well and if you can find a pic of his hair, then it makes it all worthwhile. He plays that fool Jeff Morrison and I’d love him to win, but for some reason Morrison probably will, and it’s not good as he is a true gimp.

Then there is the man “El Fashionista” Stefan Koubek who has been impressive this week and he plays a “Challenger man” Zib who lost 17 matches in a row on the main tour and would have to like his chances of progressing, though with Stef anything can happen, witness his great loss against Lisnard in Vienna last year and getting thumped by Tuksar at the RG qualies. It will be good to see the Koubek in the main draw and he should be able to reach the top 100 by the end of the season.

The Main Draw

Federer and Nadal, only thing I will say about these two, is that there is a chance that they could win or not win this tournament.

Gaudio vs. Seppi: At least someone I like will make the 2nd round that is a given. Seppi hasn’t been in great form lately, but at the same time his level is a bit higher than Gaston’s at the moment. Gaudio doesn’t like the US Open much and doesn’t seem to be really into tennis at the moment and I hope he takes the rest of the year off after this tournament. As for Seppi he started the year very well, but hasn’t been able to string 2 wins together for some time and he is in a good section.

Calleri vs. Moya: This match should be worth watching, though I know many ladies wouldn’t be focused on the tennis in this match. Calleri has been in excellent form since coming back at Wimbledon and if he can keep it up, he is a chance of finishing the year in the top 20, something which would be great considering his problems. One thing that Calleri needs to improve apart from his poor 5 set record is his performances in the Slams and I think these two factors are inter related. He has a 1-4 record against Moya, but he beat him the last time on hardcourt and I hope he can do that again. James “I hit the crap out of everything” Blake is the high seed in that quarter.

Stani vs Chela: Chela has been in solid hardcourt form and Stani needs to do well in a GS event and is capable of a good result there this one could be a long one and it will feature plenty of excellent lateral movement.

Nieminen vs. Malisse : This match is one I’d like to see and I don’t see a straight set walkover for anyone in this one and it depends on how the moody Malisse wakes up and hopefully Jakke can serve well as his 2nd serve is so attackable, and he has QF points to defend from last year. Go Nieminen.

Acasuso vs. Srichaphan: Tennis played like chess won’t be a factor in this match and the Srich has a 2-0 record over Chucho. At the same time Chucho has improved his game, though he can get the right result if he doesn’t try to belt everything, though not be so passive as to stand 10m behind the baseline. The Srich loves pace, so give him what he doesn’t like. It will be a tough one for Acasuso for sure.

Berdych vs Tursunov: I read that esteemed tennis writer Jon Worthless called this a clash of styles and I hope he was just being humorous because that is so funny and I’d love this third round match to happen, then again there could be some great finesse in this match. Just hope it can happen

Almagro vs Ferrer: Nico has the potential to play well on the hardcourts, but he hasn’t had the wins yet and he had 6 match points the last time they played him, but managed to blow the match. With Almagro anything can happen, I just wish Koellerer was the qualify and he had to play Almagro, the fun to be had there.

Ginepri vs Benneteau: Please Julien, just think you are playing Baghdatis instead of Gineprick.

Pavel vs Agassi: Please Pavel finish Agassihole off and get him off the tour, though if he doesn’t, just hope Baghdatis will do it.

Novak Djokovic gets to lay the smackdown on Donald Young this time around, it must be good to have an easy 1st round match. He might even try his serve and volley skills out.

It will be interesting to see how these clowns will handle any rain delays with their first 2 rounds played over a week normal scheduling. Last Slam of the year time to get it over with.

Nutty New Haven Mayhem

First of all before the preview is written about New Haven. I'd like to congratulate the American Michael Russell for winning the Bronx Challenger and I hope he can get through the rest of the year without injury, he has definitely had a bad run with injuries and then he can hopefully qualify for the US Open.

The last event before a Slam usually throws some interesting results before the main event itself, most of the top players don't bother with playing the week before unless they get a good guarantee, though with the Aus Open cause of its lack of lead up play, the fields of Auckland and Sydney tend to be good. At the same time the qualifying rounds of these events are of interest, cause many who would be there are either waiting for the Slam qualies or have WC's into the event.

This is the only time where starting on Sunday is a good thing. As for the results themselves so far, it wasn't a bad day at all. Blogger favourite Andreas Seppi gave Björn Phau a total bitchslapping 6-1 6-1, though it makes me wonder how he can perform like this, yet he can't get past Vinnay Ice and Seppi does need some good performances soon, but he has been lacking consistency and now he plays Chubby Chela in the next round and that could be quite funny. Two tall lanky guys who don't serve that hard playing each other, at least hair colour can tell them apart.

Big Stani Wawrinka had a good week last week in Cincy and he defeated "Superstar" Almagro for the 3rd time in a close match and now plays the Srich who seems to excel at this event for some reason. As for the other matches well Chucho plays Mahut and there are a lot of players I like at this event Nieminen, Calleri, Baghdatis and Lucho who is playing the big Benneteau at the moment and it has gone to the 3rd set and hope Lucho can do it.

Jan Hajek is playing Gicquel and Janne has been the big star of the Challenger circuit, started the year ranked at 354 and is now ranked 84 and that is impressive in anyone's language. He was trying to qualify for Challengers and then he started winning them, hence he is where he is. It's good that he will playing some more main events now and he should be able to do OK, well better than Boris Pashanski or Charly Berlocq.

The results of the events the week before Slams are not usually very indicative of what happens in that event and sure the players don't complain about winning a tournament, but there is always one eye on the larger prize of a Grand Slam and maximising their points there. James Blake is the hometown boy and might win it or he could be out with his friends having a good time and his cooler brother Thomas Blake is playing doubles, he is the one with the cool hair, but since true tennis fans read this or I'd like to think so anyway.

I will get around to profiling one of my all-time favourite players Felix Mantilla soon enough, that was a cheap plug I know.

Mad Michelle in Cincy and that means Fan Reports for Us All

Onto the second of the TMS events in Cincinnati and of course the ATP have dropped the ball and have back to back TMS events, but since when have these clowns had a clue as an organisation.

The common complaint people always seem to have is that the Draw is so hard and all this and all I can say to that is boo fucking hoo. It's a TMS event and there are going to be tough matches and of course there are going to be matches we don't like, and I have already found a few already that aren't the best for me, but this is life and usually they will always pair players who you either like or ones that bitchslap your player in that particular section.

As for what will happen in this event, well who knows but maybe something like Federer or Nadal winning the event could be deemed to be something as a major boilover in the tennis world.

All is good in the tennis world now as the girl known as Jess to me or as savestheday91 on MTF has finally caught up with her dream object Gospodin Novak Djokovic and while Jess has a chest to remember, in all seriousness it's good that she finally had a chance to speak with him.

I have seen Djokovic around quite a lot and he is usually quite friendly with people and that's a good thing, though he doesn't mind the strategic break when it's needed. He plays the Finn Nieminen in the 1st round and I'd like to see that match, however knowing the organisers they won't be on a TV court unless Jess gets them out, but hopefully they will be.

Chucho and big Stani Wawrinka, that is another 1st rounder that is of interest, whether Chucho can perform well 2 weeks in a row on hardcourt will be a challenge and the winner will play Nalle or qualifier and I don't see Nalle playing like he did last week again. Nalle and Stani is a good match up for Nalle as he knows how to work him around the court and highlight Stani's weakness. As for Chucho and Nalle, the DC doubles team of Nalbasuso, they have played only once and Nalle won that. I guarantee that Chucho and Stani will be not on TV.

Massu and Gonzo: At least a Chilean will get through to the next round and that is something and which the way the Chilean fans will swing in this match is of passing interest. Gonzo is a man of the people and has a smile on his face a lot of the time, whereas Massu is not happy unless he is scowling and taking 30 mins in between points.

There are some other good 1st round matches.

Boredo and Gasquet : Well I hope the umpire is not Norm Chryst, cause if it is then I will go for the linespeople. The whole Gasquet bandwagon thing is ridiculous, sure he is a shotmaker and a good one at that and has a cool coach Eric "The Pink Panther" Deblicker. What makes the "Pink Panther" so cool, he doesn't have to try hard and he comes across in a good way and knows his stuff and he is a backgammon genius. The Gasquet hooplah is over the top. How many players go from superstar, chump, forgotten about, potential, has been and the greatest thing ever to hit tennis in a short period of time?

Monfils and Safin: A guy who hasn't played against one whose form is so up and down and there are rumours of a coaching split with him, but with Safin, it's never his own fault for bad and inconsistent results.

Then there is Mr Consistency Paulo Mathieu, who the more he loses, the more I get to appreciate him and as for appreciation he would be doing the tennis world a big favour by knocking out that piece of rubbish and gimp Gineprick in the 1st round, then again with Paulo, he would find a way to make Tulasne lose hair.

As for the qualies big Seppi has a good chance to make it and needs a good tournament and it would be funny if Dropshot Dlouhy got through over Gimelclown, reversing the defeat he had against Justin on clay, by beating him on a hardcourt.

Well the WD's as for Agassi, just retire and be done with it.

Hope The Crazy Canadian Open Tradition Continues

Since I can't be bothered with a long entry here, well I am going to say why I love the Canadian Open.

It's Canada and Canada is cool and not just literally. This event has had so many surprise winners and I love it, though nothing will beat Andrei Chesnokov, Andrei Pavel, Micke Pernfors and Guillermo Cañas. It's the first of the big hardcourt events and maybe that is a reason, but we need more surprise winners, yes that includes Wayne Ferreira in there. There needs to be more diversity among the big titles, then again we are in a clown era, then again we always are, just the amount varies.

Speaking of clowns. Nalle played like a clown who took too many drugs losing to the Silver Fox Sanguinetti 2 and 1, but he was ill. Perhaps Seppi had the same illness losing serve three times to Wayne Arthurs in a set in qualies.

Gaudio was at his best 9 winners and 42 errors and it was not like he was going for too much or even tanking. Moya didn't have to play well, but he kept the ball in and that was enough, sure it was windy, but it's the same for both players.

Hope there can be some upsets that I like and not the Chicken Man beating Baghdatis. I'd love to Kool Kevin Kim take out Gineprick, the humour value would be immense and tennis needs some more humour.

Andreas Vinciguerra : The Long Road Back

Ever since the retirement of Magnus Norman and to a lesser extent Magnus Gustafsson, who did well in the lower level clay events, but couldn’t convert that to success in the big clay events retired, there has been a distinct lack of ability to play on clay by the Swedish players.

From the days of the golden generation of the 80s where even Stefan Edberg who was not at his best on the clay, yet won TMS events and made an RG final to prove that he was very effective on the surface, that many of the Swedes were proficient on the surface, but changed with the retirement of Norman.

The current crop of Swedish players range from indoor idiots thanks Aphex for that term which include mostly Joachim Johansson with his huge canon of serve and to a lesser extent Robin “the Toad” Söderling who has been able to secure some good wins on clay, he lacks consistency to the other guys like Björkman and Thomas Johansson who have never been good on the surface doesn’t help things.

“Vinci” for those who don’t know is a Swedish-Italian, his Italian dad runs a pizzeria in Malmö in the deep south of Sweden where they speak a special dialect which is like eating mouth full of food with a throat problem speaking Swedish and sounding like a Dane and “Vinci” does have the special accent and his mother is Swedish. “Vinci” is good friends with the Ian Thorpe lookalike Zlatan Ibrahimovic, both are from the same city and share an immigrant background, as well having their particular issues with the police at different time.

Vinci was a top 10 junior and he started the year of 1999 ranked at 633 and he finished it ranked 98 and that was a massive leap showing his potential and made his first tour final in Båstad as a WC losing to Cheech Marin and then winning a challenger over the same guy later in the year.

This was a good start for Vinci and I remember when saw him in Båstad that year when he defeated my countryman Christian Ruud in the semis and he played a game quite similar to Muster in the way that he would try and dominate with his heavy left hand forehand with heavy topspin and his fighting hard and running down a lot of shots and he quickly became a favourite with the fans and myself, but even then his backhand was a liability, but it was hard to get to that side.

So I made the annual trip to Melbourne to watch him play and there were plenty of Swedish fans there to support him and saw his first match with Hernan Gumy who didn’t win any prizes for aesthetics when it came to his tennis, but Vinci blew him and Leander Paes away, before losing to Escude.

The funniest thing about that year was that he won his only title the Copenhagen indoor which is the closest he will get to a hometown event and even funnier it was in the middle of a 4-0 head to head victories over Marat Safin who is an indoor monster and Vinci beat him Marseille in straight sets 2 weeks earlier and then beat him at the Copenhagen semis before winning over Magnus Larsson who is now his coach. Then he defeated Safin again in the US before losing to Sampras. After that he struggled on clay and got a bath from Guga at RG where he lost the first 15 games in a row, but then held out to only lose 6-3 in the 3rd.

One of the best Vinci memories was the singing and chanting during his great AO run where he made the 4th round. He defeated Medvedev easily and the Swedish fans were just singing all the way through, well at the change of ends and before the warm up and Vinci really appreciates that and after the matches he has won he speaks with the Swedish fans and jumps in the crowd and he feeds off their support a total contrast to say Thomas Enqvist.

On Show Court 3 it was a late match against big Wayne Ferreira and once the women finished the Swedes started with the songs, one of them is a silly Midsummer song which is fun to sing, but can’t translate among others and it started and while there was plenty of beer to be had, it was a carnival atmosphere, so much so, that during the warm up you couldn’t hear the names being mentioned by the umpire, so it was on for 10 minutes and then Vinci came out smoked Ferreira. When they wanted him to give a wave, he would give them a wave and when the Swedes asked him to dance then he’d dance. After that he’d lost to Kafelnikov as he had done later in the year at Bercy where he defeated Safin and also made the semis in Rome, where the Italian press wanted to adopt him cause of his Italian parentage.

2002 is where all the injury problems began and the motivational ones came in as well, as he has not played a full season since 2001, he injured a bone in his finger and had lower back problems as well. He made the 3rd round at the AO which is his favourite Slam and helped Sweden win against Brazil in Davis Cup and he loves this environment and plays for the team and not just himself, then he later he injured his knee in 2003 and had 2 months off and has been chasing time ever since.

Vinci was out from Feb 04 to July 05 where he made his comeback in Båstad. He got into some trouble and involved in a brawl with some Danes in one of the Malmö pubs, but at least he doesn’t mind going out at night which is something. He had a lot of injury problems with his ankle, feet and knee and including problems with motivation and wasn’t sure whether he wanted to come back even though he is not old as tennis players go. There were minimal steps last year and he had another operation on his foot.

Now the question is can Vinci come back and make the top 100 again. Potentially yes he is capable of doing that and how much he wants to do it as well is the key, well Boris Pashanski is an example the guy won all these challengers last year and made it in the top 70 and he is not a better player than the Vinci. Having watched him recently I am disappointed that he still hasn’t improved his backhand or maybe he has, but it is not significant. He had the time off to do and didn’t manage to do it.

He has only played 2 main draws this year in Båstad and wasn’t impressive against Dlouhy and lost to Massu in Amersfoort. Mainly this year, one thing Aphex ( the great Swede) pointed out that Vinci seems a bit slower these days on his feet and if that is so, then that will hinder him, especially since his speed around the court was one of his main assets, he might have bulked too much, then again this is not likely with Magnus Larsson as one of his coaches and big Magne wasn’t known for his strict physical regiment.

Vinci has had some good wins on the Challenger circuit and is moving up the rankings as he started at 407 for the year and is now in the 230s and he is in the quarter finals this week of another Challenger, just hope he can a few of these performances into finals or victories. He should stick to the challengers for the year and try and stay healthy as that is the key. If he keeps up with some solid performances he can finish the year within the top 200 and considering where he was a year ago where he didn’t have a ranking, he isn’t doing too badly at the moment.

2007 will be a key year to see whether he can make it back to a respectable level or not and one of the ironical things is that he was the prototype playing the Rafa Nadal game before Nadal was around, except Vinci doesn’t use all the antics in between points and or is that particular, plus Rafa just plays it better than him.

It would be great to see Vinci back in the top 100 with that huge forehand, fighting spirit and a Swede that can play on consistently, the thing he has on his side is that he is not old and even if he doesn’t come back to somewhere near his former level, then I can appreciate watching him on the small courts in a football like atmosphere which was always quiet once play started, but very loud when he broke a serve or was doing well. It’s not everyday some player gets 10 mins of cheering before the match and during the warm up, but Mr Charisma Sampras never got that.

Feel free to comment.

Servus Kitzbühel it was nice knowing you and sunburn in Umag

The last ever Kitzbühel event is happening and hope it is a good one, though they have some funny things there about the site. First of all on the tournament web page it has a picture of LaLo on it and he is not even playing the event.

It seems Mafioso Tiriac isn’t happy with the event and also the fact that they didn’t pay their bills on time in the last couple of years, plus the town wouldn’t let him build a big mansion there and Ion the svengali wants to move the event, it’s just a question of where it will go now.

The tournament sees the comeback of the PMK and Boredo and it’s a surprise the PMK took a week off, that is a rare thing for him and Boredo now has a new coach in Jordi Vilaro who used to work with Beto Martin and Felix Mantilla, well 2 out of 3 isn’t bad is it.

It’s good that they play in the mountains with a bit of altitude around, though not as high as the Mexico City or Bogota in the old days, it’s definitely cleaner air wise and the ball does fly further and the players need to adjust their length and be even fitter to play well at altitude.

The field isn’t as strong as it was, especially with the growth of Umag and the fact that Umag has matches starting at 6pm , so people can hang on the beach during the day and then enjoy the parties in the evening. There is no secret that Mr Carlos Moya is the Umag king and he loves the place, a beach and a party. So the question is whether you are a beach or mountains person.

Onto the events itself in Kitzi well the Bye makes an appearance the Bye is always welcomed. The best thing is the big Serbian Maltese living Boris Pashanski has a Bye and with that it’s the first 2nd round he has made in his last 11 tournaments. This was the man who made the top 100 last season, without winning an ATP match, he started out OK this year, but he has gone 0-11 in his last events.

Both finalists Gaudio and Verdasco are in the same section and they would need to improve on their recent form to reach there again. Gaudio has now won more doubles titles this season than singles and he loves playing in Kitzi, but maybe this could give him some impetus to improve his singles results and disappointingly he and Max are not playing doubles in Kitz, so the odd couple are no more. Verdasco is the epitome of talented, but tactically inept player on the tour, so trying to guess his results are like trying to find neo-nazi skinheads in Saudi Arabia.

- As for the rest Seppi has the Bye and could play Yayo Massa.

- Lucho is back and hopefully his shoulder/elbow are ready to go.

- Big Marach after his QF showing in Stuttgart, is now at his best ever ranking and wants to do well at home, he has a potential meeting with Gordo Calleri.

- Nieminen comes back after Davis Cup and that disappointing loss to Boredo in Båstad and this event could be good for him.

- Pavel well he got a Bye and he has done well enough to stay in the top 100 and that’s a good thing as I don’t want him to retire just yet. I mean look at the thighs Jonas Björkman has come out of nowhere and played a couple of good singles events and now can keep going, so there is hope for Pavel.

- Luczak qualified and made the second round over challenger maestro Minar and could make the 3rd round as he plays German ballbasher Kohlschreiber.

Umag sees the new Stuttgart champ David “Froggy” Ferrer as the top seed and whether he has been partying too much or not it should be still enough to defeat Carlos “I thrashed DY 6-0 6-0 on hardcourt” Berlocq. He is in the same section as “Mr Umag” Carlos Moya who will probably do well here and quite possibly win it.

Among the other matches, there is a match between promising youngsters Marin Cilic and Evgeny Korolev. Cilic, like most Cro players is tall with a big serve, but he says clay is his favourite surface and both are familiar to each other, if all goes well then these two will make some noise on the ATP and they have already done well this year.

Vicente plays form horse Ramirez Hidalgo, who has been doing something Vicente hasn’t of late, that is winning matches. Then “Dropshot” Dlouhy against the “Chicken Man” anything could happen there.

French Gnome Choupi and Radical Rosie Reporting From Spätzliland Stuttgart and Amersfoort on the side

Well we are in the lovely south west of Germany this week and also in Amersfoort for the summer clay circus, just wish that they didn't move the event from Amsterdam to Amersfoort and such is life.

Best of all there will be some correspondents there, so that means that there will be some reports from matches that most of us won't be able to see and that is always appreciated. As is the Bye making his return to the Tour and watch the large amount of women that will want to talk to the Bye, this is a given.

Too bad Luczak and Koubek didn't qualify, but Hartfield and del Potro did so there are enough Argentines in the field.

Stuttgart has had stronger fields, but even then there are still enough interest in this field. I have to say I love how they managed to put most of my favourites in the one section. For example Gaudio could play his friend Zabaleta, but Zab has been struggling of late and is no sure thing to defeat Waske. Lucho has a bye and then hopefully Saretta is put off with the rubbish Portas game, though one can never tell how focused Saretta is at times.

Seppi and Acasuso is a possible 2nd round match, though I hope Chucho and Ferrer do end up meeting as I can see Chucho smoking Ferrer out of the match and he has the firepower that can hit through Froggy and he has done that on numerous occasions.

Other guys that I hope to do well are Pavel and he can stay in the top 100 as he has no points to defend for the rest of season. Dlouhy and Wawrinka has some good comedy potential and if Stani doesn't want to run and "dropshot" Dlouhy is on his game, then it could be a bad loss, but Stani is inconsistent to say the least and could play a blinder here. If you get a chance to see Marach, it should be taken as he is quite the fiery guy, but not in the Dani Köllerer league, but he does have some very colourful language.

While it's mainly about Stuttgart, there is another event in the Netherlands and they have had some great finals there in the past, but now the weasel is the number 1 seed and for some reason I see that the Coria slump isn't going to continue for too long and he got a local wild card and a 2nd round potential match with Marin Cilic would be intruiging.
Calleri made the final here last year and would like to go one better and as it's a very open tournament anything can happen. Massu the vampire is lurking and scowling. Moya is playing here as well and loves the small clay events these days and Edgardo Massa is back on tour, it would have been fun if he drew with Massu. Hope Vinciguerra can qualify and the young junior from the Netherlands de Bakker.

Look forward to the Stuttgart reports.

Båstad the best IS event and Gaudio chasing the fondue in Gstaad

The summer clay season is back after 4 weeks of that nauseating Wimbledon, though to be fair it has not been as painful as usual, the slowing down of the courts have had something to do with this.

Enough of the grass crap and back onto the clay and the Båstad event. The organisers have done an excellent job with this event, it clearly used to be poor relation compared to Gstaad when it came to attracting the top claycourt players in the 90s after the golden Swedish generation ceased except for Gusten and Magnus Norman. It was the dark days when Cheech Marin won the title in 1999.

It’s a small town on the beach that is very popular in summer and tennis is a big thing there. Yes, with that, there are a lot of rich snobby wankers from Stockholm and other places with their huge summer houses and other stars that go there to be seen and not care about the tennis. There was a funny incident last year when Zabaleta had enough of these idiots and told them to shut up, then again he was losing to the Berdman at the time.

It’s a very good field and has won the best International Series Event 4x in a row and the fact that they don’t pay appearance money makes it a good thing. Nadal has pulled out, but that is only because of his finalist appearance at Wimbledon and it’s understandable that he has withdrawn.

PMK is the top seed and he plays Beto Martin and that won’t be an easy match and actually it’s quite possible for Beto to take this match and there are some very good 1st round matches.

Massu/Zabaleta: There aren’t many secrets between these 2 guys. Massu is a time wasting Vampire, but a tough guy to play and Zabaleta hasn’t been in great form since his comeback, it’s going to take time and it only takes a couple of good wins to change things for him. Zabaleta is huge in Båstad and 2 of his titles have come at the venue and he loves the place and small things like that can help a player.

Acasuso/Coria: Chucho and the weasel have both taken a break and it will be interesting to see how they both come back from the layoff. Just hope Chucho can smoke the Weasel, previous matches well the last one was 3 years ago and the fact that both are a lot different from then. Coria wasn’t missing and dissecting opponents and Chucho wasn’t as good then as he is now, they do know each other quite well, so this could impact on the quality of the match.

Berdych/Almagro : This is a quality 1st round match and both have been winners of the MTF Bandwagon player of the month award and that is a very prestigious award. They have played only once and what a surprise it was at Båstad last year and the Berdman won 6-4 in the 3rd and wouldn’t be a surprise to see if it was that close again. Berdman did have some problems with his shoulder at Wimbledon, but with some rest he should be OK and he has finalist points to defend from here. It will depend on how Almagro returns the Berdman serve as to how this match will pan out.

Chela/Nieminen: Chela loves the clay and the Shark is quite adept on at as well, this time Nieminen comes in as the higher ranked player and having less time to adjust back to the surface after his Wimbledon exploits. Chela has won the only 2 matches they have played on clay, but Jarkko does quite well here and he is the highest ranked player in Norden (Scandinavia to those people who don’t get the term Norden) , maybe the Shark can win this one.

As for the other matches. Lucho is playing Thomas Johansson, in theory Lucho should win this cause of his greater expertise on the clay, but he could just as easily lose this match. Calleri has a qualifier and I am just happy he is back playing again.

Marach and Prpic are playing each other and the best thing about this match is that one of them will get to the next round, both are pretty good guys and Marach is very funny on court especially when he gets shitty.

Vinciguerra is back at Båstad and I’d love for him one day to win this title, but that will be unlikely, if he can stay injury free then that’s a good thing. He is great to watch, interesting he is played the Nadal game before Nadal, but now that has changed. The thing I don’t like is that his backhand doesn’t seem to have improved.

Hope big Peter Luczak can qualify for the main draw it would be good for him to do, he has had some problems this year after such a good start.

While there are quite a few snobs in Båstad, it’s worse in Gstaad. The good thing is that there is plenty of quality Swiss cheese and chocolate there. So the choice is either hang on the beach or play at altitude, though at least in Gstaad they offer $$$$$$$$$$ in fees and we know that is what makes the world go around.

It’s a weaker draw in Gstaad, and no real standout matches in the 1st round. This is the start of the defense of all his points he has in this 3 week winning in Gstaad and Kitzi with a finalist appearance in Stuttgart, if he does not defend those points, then a decline in the rankings is going to happen and how he bounces back will be a key about his mental state.

Hopefully Gaston, Pavel and Seppi can do well. Moya is back for the first time in a long time in Gstaad, big Saretta is there as well. I am surprised he is there, then again the draw is easier, but parties are better in Båstad.

Good to see the tennis back on the clay again.

Gaston Gaudio Wins a Match on Grass and You Only Need to See the Scores on Grass not the Matches

There were rumours that there wouldn't be a tournament preview for Wimbledon, but those have been proven to be false and sadly I can't take credit for the title. It was a comment from Mats Wilander and it makes sense, though more so during the days of Pete "Charisma Serving Machine" Sampras with the grass so short and huge serving bombs which passed for attacking tennis.

As for Wimbledon itself, it does bring out certain emotions in people and not always positive. Like the 2 week a year tennis fans who know Wimbledon and think it is the only tournament around on the circuit, this myth is propogated by the English-language media and then many act with outrage that there are players and fans on this planet who don't regard it as the be all, end all of tennis and these people aren't lesser beings because of it.

Now the grass has been slowed down and there have been some more watchable matches in the view of the blogger. The Ferrero and Koubek match of 2004 was a very exciting match and the only reason we saw it as Ferrero still had a reasonable ranking at the time and the TV stations decided to show it. Usually they show large amounts of crap and tedious matches even by grasscourt standards, though fortunately I won't have to listen to the Australian commentators too much wank on about Hewitt and show hilarious bias when it comes to the tournament, as there is an international feed available.

The thought of the 2002 Wimbledon is still fresh and it would be funny again if something like that carnage happened as long as Roddick doesn't win that is. He has gone backwards as a player and he is unsure of how he wants to play the game, but cause of the lack of quality grasscourters around he should be able to make the semi finals.

So hope some of the people labelled as claycourters, can win a few matches here and irritate the masses. Though the thought of Gaudio, Ferrer and PMK playing on grass has its own humorous value and there is a lot of seriousness around in tennis.

One funny memory as a the moody and chubby Austrian Horst Skoff had won the title in Athens on the Sunday before Wimbledon on clay and enjoyed it. Then he played John McEnroe in the first round and he clowned around as he normally did, though maybe a bit worse than usual. Horsti didn't care at all about the tournament, and McEnroe was getting shitty with Skoff.

I am sorry John McEnroe complaining about on-court behaviour is ludicrous and is like an alcoholic complaining being stuck in a brewery or distillery with an open key.

As for Federer winning, if he did win Wimbledon again, there would be only one natural reaction. If Federer wins Wimbledon then there will be collective SHOCK that he was able to win Wimbledon and that would send the tennis world into a huge tailspin.

Yay for Wimbledon.