The Other Winners

I could continue cooing over Myla and Charlene Federer for quite some days - and probably there will be more baby talk this week, just so you're warned - but it is weekend winners day, so let's take a survey of who won what where. (Even though the biggest win this week clearly went to Roger and Mirka - welcome twins!)

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Let's start with the no surprises winners. Dinara Safina won in Portoroz - if she hadn't won I would have probably been poised to declare an official Dinara slump, considering most of her opponents there were ranked approximately #5000. She cruised through this week and though it was an odd tournament to choose to play, I'm hoping it just gives her that little bit of confidence she might need going into the US Open series. She can win the Open this year - I believe that. But she needs to believe it, or it ain't gonna happen.

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And then in Hamburg, Nikolay Davydenko came out on top. He wasn't the top seed - that was Gilles Simon - but given Simon's play of late he was effectively the top seed, and he played very well all week, including in his tough semi over David Ferrer. Nice work, Kolya. I have no idea why you insist on playing these silly out-of-place clay tournaments, but well done anyway.

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Then we have our two more surprising winners. Andrea Petkovic won in Bad Gastein. Um, who? Alize Cornet was the top seed here, but she's been hanging out with fellow Frenchie Simon too much, or so it would seem from her tennis. I can't comment anything more, really, because I don't know anything else about Petkovic. Which makes her win pretty sweet, even at one of these smaller satellite tournaments. Well done, Andrea.

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And then in Indy, Robby Ginepri overcame Sam Querrey in an all-American final. Ginepri has been flying under the radar for a number of years now and it is always surprising to me when he wins... I'm sort of used to him being in a slump, because he seems to have been there for sometime now. One thing, though - Querrey seems to have made a few finals this year, but I can't remember him winning any. Am I remembering rightly or did I just make this up?

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But my favourite win of the weekend (Federer twins aside) was in Hamburg, where Dmitry Tursunov and Ernests Gulbis won the doubles. Tursunov is a longtime fave of mine and I haven't seen much of him of late, and we all know that Ernests Gulbis is my favourite of the Stars of the Future, even if he hasn't been doing much this year. I'd like to say that this will rejuvenate them both... but I doubt this, really. However, I do like to see them win. They're a couple of my favourite boys!

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Today's Results

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International German Open (Hamburg)

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Nikolay Davydenko def. Paul-Henri Mathieu, 6-4 6-2

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Indianapolis Tennis Championships (Indianapolis)

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Robby Ginepri def. Sam Querrey, 6-2 6-4

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Banka Koper Slovenia Open (Portoroz)

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Dinara Safina def. Sara Errani, 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 7-5

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Nurnberger Gastein Ladies (Bad Gastein)

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Andrea Petkovic def. Ioana Raluca Olaru, 6-2 6-3

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Allianz Suisse Open Gstaad (Gstaad)

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Mikhail Youzhny def. Gaston Gaudio, 6-3 5-7 6-4

Andreas Beck def. Marco Chiudinelli, 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-4