A World Gone Topsy-Turvy

I think I might be in shock. My world has gone topsy-turvy. Jelena Jankovic lost a match...

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...AND ANA IVANOVIC WON ONE!?!?!?!

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And all it took was for Jankovic to play tennis non-stop for about a month and for Ivanovic to lose twelve hundred times in a row.

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Seriously, I cannot remember the last time Ivanovic won a match. And it wasn't a scrape-through-by-the-skin-of-her-teeth affair either: it was in two reasonably comfortable sets over Marion Bartoli. Bartoli hasn't been in anything even resembling form this year, but she's not a total schlep - so a victory over her, considering the people Ivanovic has been losing to of late, is a victory indeed.

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And so we must ask the question: can she do it again? Can she string another victory onto this one? Is this the week that Ana resurfaces? When you start asking the same questions about a player that you routinely ask about the King of Inconsistency, Marat Safin, there you know there's trouble.

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We had some interesting results in Madrid over night - we have a quality set of quarter-finalists, but not necessarily the ones you'd expect. Juan Martin del Potro aside, all my Stars are out - Marin Cilic went down to Andy Murray. Oh well. He's young. Novak Djokovic also went down - I'd just like to say AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Two tie-breaker sets to Ivo Karlovic. I know Karlovic plays the most boring tennis in the history of the universe, but a Djokovic loss is a Djokovic loss.

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And yes, I am a horrible person.

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R-Fed and the Rafinator are both through, accounting comfortably for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet respectively. I do like Rafa, but I am praying like nobody's business that he loses his next match, because if he wins, he's guaranteed the year-end #1, and I like it when Federer has that. Still, if he can get it back by winning the Australian Open or suchlike, that would be nice too.

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Defending champion David Nalbandian went out to Juan Martin del Potro, who'll now face Federer - I don't know if they've played while del Potro has been on this hot streak, so this'll be interesting. Seriously, has del Potro made Shanghai yet? Because he must be close. And Roddick went out to streaky Gael Monfils. Guess he should have played those Olympics. I am perfectly content to blame every loss he takes from now until the end of his career on his failure to do so.

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And a special shout out today to Victoria Azarenka, who served Monica Niculescu a double bagel. Not so nice for Monica, but that'll be one to tell the grandkids.

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Today's Results

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Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid (Madrid)

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Roger Federer def. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-4 6-1

Gael Monfils def. Andy Roddick, 6-4 3-6 6-3

Ivo Karlovic def. Novak Djokovic, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5)

Andy Murray def. Marin Cilic, 7-5 7-6 (7-2)

Juan Martin Del Potro def. David Nalbandian, 6-4 6-2

Feliciano Lopez def. Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-4 6-4

Gilles Simon def. Robby Ginepri, 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 7-6 (8-6)

Rafael Nadal def. Richard Gasquet, 6-4 6-2

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Tennis.com Zurich Open (Zurich)

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Flavia Pennetta def. Jelena Jankovic, 5-7 6-3 6-3

Ana Ivanovic def. Marion Bartoli, 6-2 6-4

Anabel Medina Garrigues def. Vera Zvonareva, 6-3 3-0 retired

Katarina Srebotnik def. Agnieszka Radwanska, -26 7-6 (8-6) 6-3

Victoria Azarenka def. Monica Niculescu, 6-0 6-0

Petra Kvitova def. Sofia Arvidsson, 6-2 6-1