Dropping Eduardo

I'm making it official. I'm dropping someone from my Stars of the Future club. Bye bye, Eduardo Schwank.

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Schwank shot to fame (well, "fame") last year when he won three Challengers on clay in a row and then nearly burned down a hotel and lost all his prize money. He put in the best performance of all the Argentines at Roland Garros, making it to the third round. He had a good couple of months there.

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But he hasn't delivered since then, and the time has come (the walrus said). The other kids in the Stars club have been steadily performing better and better (current concerns re Ernests Gulbis aside). So, bye, Eduardo. Been nice having you.

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Speaking of Challengers, it's always interesting to see who's been winning them, so let's have a look... am glad to see a couple of Aussie boys on the list, with Brydan Klein and Bernard Tomic winning a couple early one (but I did discuss those at the time... ad nauseam, I do believe.) No one is standing out as someone that is winning a whole pile, but Benjamin Becker is one that's popped up a few times (aka Becker-no-relation.) Andreas Beck is on the list as well. And the French wizard, Fabrice Santoro won one last week. Which is nice for him.

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Other overnight winners include the elusive Mikhail Youzhny, who seems to pop up whenever it suits him, and Gaston Gaudio, whom I have not seen around for some time. (What's up with that? I thought he was gone for good.) But we had some bad losses as well... Marat Safin, Guillermo Canas and, yes, Eduardo Schwank, I'm looking at you.

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Today's Results

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Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell (Barcelona)

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David Ferrer def. Mikahil Kukushkin, 6-3 3-6 6-1

Igor Andreev def. Alberto Martin, 6-2 6-2

Radek Stepanek def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-4 2-6 6-4

Robin Soderling def. Teimuraz Gabashvili, 6-1 6-4

Feliciano Lopez def. Jarkko Nieminen, 6-2 6-1

Daniel Gimeno-Traver def. Fabio Fognini, 6-1 6-3

Oscar Hernandez def. Eduardo Schwank, 6-2 6-4

Arnaud Clement def. Guillermo Canas, 7-6 (7-0) 6-3

Gaston Gaudio def. Diego Junqueira, 6-4 3-6 6-4

Juan Monaco def. Marat Safin, 6-4 6-1

Richard Gasquet def. Jan Hernych, 4-6 6-3 6-2

Nicolas Lapentti def. Paul-Henri Mathieu, 6-4 2-6 6-2

Mikhail Youzhny def. Viktor Troicki, 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4