Grow UP, Richou!

God, Richard Gasquet is a little whinger. I used to really like him - I still enjoy his style of play - but I have gone off him altogether. In all my berating of Andy Roddick for not going to the Olympics, I often forget to berate Richou, but he probably deserves it more, truth be told. There was the French Open stunt, the Olympic stunt, the absolutely ridiculous Davis Cup stunt and now this stupid Paris thing. Jesus, Richou, grow up. Even if you don't want to play Paris-Bercy, you don't have to kick up a huge stink about it. What kind of person comes out and says, 'I will be happy once I would be eliminated at the Paris Masters Series.'

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Methinks Richou needs to revamp his attitude and revamp it fast. He's already taken a slide down the rankings this year - no Tennis Masters Cup for him! Is it really necessary to be a complete dickhead while he's doing it?

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Meanwhile, in actual news about matches in which people have played, instead of wussing out like Gasquet, it was very sad to see Dmitry Tursunov's season end with a retirement. He toughed it out for a while but then called it quits in his match against Djokovic with a shoulder injury. See you next year, Dmitry - maybe defend your Sydney title, eh? I'll be there again, watching.

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That, of course, means Djokovic is through... but I wouldn't mind seeing Djokovic doing all right his week, as I don't want him to do well next week. Yes, I am a terrible, horrible person, wishing ill on people, but I just want Roger to win the Masters Cup. Is that so much to ask? He is, after all, the Master. I know Rafa is #1 and all now and he is good and I like him and stuff, but Roger is just special.

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Apparently Marat Safin is thinking about retirement, which is sad. He says he'll keep playing as long as he still enjoys it... and it can't be very fun losing all the time. Still, he has had his best season in a while... and Hopman Cup coming up! It will be rad to play with Dinara - though it must be oddly pressuring to have your baby sister being all awesome while you sort of suck. Still, I guess Dinara has had to live in Marat's shadow for, like, ever - it's her turn to shine. Though Marat has a standby for Hopman Cup - Igor Andreev - all planned out. Much as Andreev is good and stuff, he's not Marat. Don't retire, please!

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Oh, and the seventh Hopman Cup team has been announced. It's not as awesome as I was hoping, but it's still pretty good. It is, of course, the USA, about whom I totally forgot. Actually, it is an awesome team: James Blake and Serena Williams. I guess that sometimes the USA just feel so old hat... and incidentally, where are the Czech Republic this year? I wanted to see Berdych and Safarova make another go of it. There is still one spot remaining, but that is for the winner of the Asian Hopman Cup, so maybe they can come back in 2010...?

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Today's Results

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BNP Paribas Masters (Paris)

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Novak Djokovic def. Dmitry Tursunov, 6-2 4-3 retired

Andy Roddick def. Feliciano Lopez, 6-3 6-4

Juan Martin del Potro def. Mario Ancic, 6-0 6-4

Gael Monfils def. Juan Monaco, 6-4 6-4

Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Mikhail Youzhny, 6-1 6-4

Radek Stepanek def. Marc Gicquel, 6-4 3-6 6-4

Robin Soderling def. Josselin Ouanna, 6-3 6-4

Ivan Ljubicic def. Viktor Troicki, 6-3 6-4

Florent Serra def. Guillermo Canas, 4-6 7-5 6-3

Fernando Verdasco def. Tommy Robredo, 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 6-2

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Bell Challenge (Quebec)

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Nadia Petrova def. Maria Mokh, 6-1 6-2

Severine Brémond def. Tamarine Tanasugarn, 6-2 7-6 (7-4)

Galina Voskoboeva def. Sofia Arvidsson, 6-3 6-2

Melinda Czink def. Sabine Lisicki, 6-2 5-7 6-3

Nathalie Dechy def. Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 6-3 6-1

Varvara Lepchenko def. Rossana de los Ríos, 6-1 6-3

Carly Gullickson def. Ioana Raluca Olaru, 7-6 (8-6) 6-1