The Ball Keeps Bouncing

Okay, whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. What is Carsten Ball doing in an ATP final?

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He's the type of player I wouldn't expect to see in a Challenger final, so low down the rankings is he - and, like I said yesterday, the couple of times I've seen him play, I haven't been particularly impressed. But here he is, after overcoming Leonardo Mayer in a scraptastic semi, in the final of LA.

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Well, that's something.

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However, I would like to categorically state that Ball is NOT on my list of candidates for this year's Juan. I'm pretty sure this is what we in this blogging business call a 'fluke'. But still... kudos. And yay for Aussie tennis.

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He'll face either Haas or Querrey in the final, and I think both of these dudes are in the running to be the next Juan. Haas's glory days are probably largely behind him, but as we saw at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, this dude has some game. Much game, in fact. I know his shoulder is, like, held together with paperclips or something, but he's been playing awesomely and I see no reason why he couldn't make a big charge here.

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Same goes for Querrey, but you'd want to hope Querrey's big days are still in front of him . He's definitely in a spot of form - he's been floating around the deep end of draws for the last little while - and a title in LA could really put him on a roll. (Like Ball. Roll. Get it? Hahahahahahaha.)

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Today's Results

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Allianz Suisse Open Gstaad (Gstaad)

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Thomaz Bellucci def. Igor Andreev, 6-4 7-5

Andreas Beck def. Marcos Daniel, 7-6 (7-3) 6-3

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ATP Studena Croatia Open (Umag)

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Nikolay Davydenko def. Jurgen Melzer, 6-1 6-1

Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Andreas Seppi, 6-1 6-7 (1-7) 7-5

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LA Tennis Open (Los Angeles)

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Carsten Ball def. Leonardo Mayer, 7-5 7-6 (7-3)

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Bank of the West Classic (Stanford)

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Venus Williams def. Elena Dementieva, 6-0 6-1

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Istanbul Cup (Istanbul)

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Vera Dushevina def. Timea Bacsinszky, 6-2 6-4

Lucie Hradecka def. Andrea Petkovic, 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 7-5