Talking Hopman

Well, Marat Safin's tennis year must be pretty much over now, with that loss in Paris. I'm a bit annoyed about that one - a player of his talent should be able to pound someone like Juan Monaco into the ground. But that's Safin for you, I guess. And if we reflect on his tennis year, it's been better than the past couple. He made a final and a couple of quarters, as well as a Slam semi on his least favourite surface. That's not so bad.

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Though who ever thought we'd be saying that about Marat Safin?

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Marin Cilic had a win, though, on a happier note - though, may I ask, where is Ernests Gulbis this tournament? He didn't appear to be on the draw when I did the bracket challenge. That sucks, as he is all awesome and stuff. Maybe next year - which is the same thing I can say for Marat Safin. Maybe next year will be the year. I am hoping that playing Hopman Cup with his sister will be awesome for Marat. Maybe he'll pick up on whatever it is that's making her so fabulous. I am absolutely dying to go - when else will I get the chance to see the Safin(a) siblings playing together? But it is in Perth... and my boss just might kill me...

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There have been six teams announced so far out of the eight for the Hopman Cup, and it looks like it'll be a great competition. We have Lleyton Hewitt and Casey Dellacqua for Australia, Marat and Dinara for Russia (made of awesome!), Dominik Hrbaty and Dominika Cibulkova for the Slovak Republic (I had a vague notion he'd retired - guess not), Flavia Pennetta and Simone Bolelli for Italy, Alize Cornet and Gilles Simon for France and Nicolas Kiefer and Sabine Lisicki for Germany. There are two more teams to go, and there are just so many possibilities! One of the teams has to be from Asia, I think - I'm pretty sure one of the spots is reserved for the winner of the Asian Hopman Cup, which was Chinese Taipei last year. I wouldn't mind seeing Japan coming through this year - how about Kei Nishikori and Ai Sugiyama for you? I'd love to see Kei in particular play Hopman.

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Who else could we have? I'd love to see Federer and Schnyder play for Switzerland because I think they'd be a rad doubles team, but I think the chances of that are less than zero. Federer's played Hopman Cup before - with Hingis and with his girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec - so I guess it's kind of 'been there, done that' for him. I'd love to see Rafa or Ferru play with Anabel Medina Garrigues or Nuria Llagostera Vives, but again, I think the chances are pretty low. There was a great Serbian team last year, Djokovic and Jankovic, but I don't think they'll be coming back... unless we get, say, Tipsarevic and Ivanovic, which could be fun. How about Andy Murray and Anne Keothavong? If only there were a nice Latvian girl or Croatian girl for Gulbis or Cilic to play with. That would be big fun. And are there any Argentinian women that play tennis? There are so many guys, but I seriously can't think of one girl.

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But there is world enough and time for Hopman Cup. This week is Paris-Bercy, so I should probably talk about that I guess... Federer's definitely playing! He's never won this one before, so I'm cheering for him bigtime!

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Today's Results

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BNP Paribas Masters (Paris)

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Marin Cilic def. Andreas Seppi, 7-6 (7-5) 6-2

Nicolas Kiefer def. Ivo Karlovic, 6-4 7-5

Mario Ancic def. Rainer Schuettler, 6-4 3-6 6-1

Sam Querrey def. Marcos Baghdatis, 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 3-2 retired

Tomas Berdych def. Robby Ginepri, 6-4 7-5

Juan Monaco def. Marat Safin, 6-0 7-6 (7-4)

Simone Bolelli def. Jarkko Nieminen, 7-5 6-4

Igor Andreev def. Paul-Henri Mathieu, 7-6 (8-6) 6-3

Feliciano Lopez def. Janko Tipsarevic, 6-3 6-4

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Bell Challenge (Quebec)

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Julie Ditty def. Urszula Radwanska, 7-6 (7-1) 6-2

Valérie Tétreault def. Mathilde Johansson, 6-1 7-5