Chutzpah

I talked so much about the men's final of Madrid yesterday (Federer won! Federer won!) that I totally neglected to talk about the women - so let's devote a bit of space to that now.

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If anyone doubted Dinara Safina's abilities, I think they would be sitting down to a great big slice of humble pie right now. She's made three finals in a row, including two back-to-back whatever-you-call-Tier-I-now tournaments, which is pretty massive. Her run to the final last year came off the back off one such tournament - Berlin - and this year she's brought home the bacon in back to back weeks. She has played, frankly, like the #1 player in the world.

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She has got to be up there in the favourites reckoning for Roland Garros - if not the favourite, because she's certainly pulled the results on clay better than anyone else. That said, you can never count the Sisters Williams, but on clay Serena has been far from impressive. Venus has been much better and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see her go deep, but I'm liking Dinara at the moment. She's got the chutzpah to do it, if nothing else.

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My only worry is the lack of oncourt coaching for Dinara. That has been something she has used really well - even if it is an abomination on the sport, spit spit. When Dinara gets in a funk, all it seems to take is Zeljko shouting at her for a bit for her to pull herself together. Maybe she'll just have to create an inner Zeljko to shout at her. But I'm liking her chances. She's looking very, very good!

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I'd dearly love to see the results of Roland Garros mimic Madrid - Federer and Safina. I realise that this is not very likely, but I would love to see it, nonetheless.

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Oh, and guess what happened today? In a very quiet way in Warsaw, Maria Sharapova walked out on court, ranked about #125, and won her first match back. Tathiana Garbin was her first victim, and let us hope there will be more - women's tennis has needed Sharapova (though possibly not her shrieks).

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Come to think of it... she will be a very, very dangerous floater in the Roland Garros draw. Can you imagine being, oh, I don't know, Jelena Jankovic or someone, and realising that in the first round you have to come out and face Maria? It would be like a strange and unusual nightmare.

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Today's Results

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ARAG ATP World Team Championships (Dusseldorf)

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Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Robby Ginepri, 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-4) 6-0
Viktor Troicki def. Maximo Gonzalez, 6-4 6-1
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Interwetten Austrian Open Kitzbuhel (Kitzbuhel)

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Victor Hanescu def. Nicolas Lapentti, 6-7 (6-8) 683 785
Mikhail Youzhny def. Daniel Gimeno-Traver, 6-2 7-6 (9-7)
Marcel Granollers def. Teimuraz Gabashvili, 7-6 (13-11) 6-3
Nicolas Massu def. Robin Vik, 6-4 6-2
Andreas Beck def. Jan Hernych, 5-7 6-3 7-5
Daniel Koellerer def. Thomaz Bellucci, 6-4 6-4
Agustin Calleri def. Yen-hsun Lu, 3-6 7-5 0-1 retired

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Warsaw Open (Warsaw)

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Zheng Jie def. Olga Govortsova, 4-6 7-6 (7-0) 6-3
Julia Goerges def. Aleksandra Wozniak, 7-6 (7-5) 6-3
Anne Keothavong def. Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6-2 7-6 (7-4)
Alona Bondarenko def. Katarzyna Piter, 6-0 6-0
Kateryna Bondarenko def. Tsvetana Pironkova, 7-5 6-2
Marta Domachowska def. Akgul Amanmuradova, 6-2 6-1
Maria Sharapova def. Tathiana Garbin, 6-1 6-7 (6-8) 6-3
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Internationaux de Strasbourg (Strasbourg)

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Aravane Rezai def. Sybille Bammer, 6-2 6-2
Peng Shuai def. Alexa Glatch, 3-6 6-2 6-0
Gisela Dulko def. Mara Santangelo, 6-1 7-6 (7-3)
Ayumi Morita def. Kinnie Laisne, 6-1 6-3
Kristina Barrois def. Irena Pavlovic, 6-3 6-3