Coming Home Strong

Wow. We all know that Sabine Lisicki is my homegirl, but congratulations, Timea Bacsinszky! What a great win!

I haven't seen a lot of Timmy playing, to be honest, but I've read a few interviews with her and she seems cute as a button and sweet as pie. This is, I believe, her first career title - the first of several, I hope. I love girls that look genuinely joyful on the tennis court - which is why I'm such a big Sabine fan, among other reasons - and Timmy's one of them. So allez Timea! Looking forward to seeing more of you next year!

And speaking of the WTA, Francesca Schiavone also managed a title, finishing the year very very strongly. She couldn't quite bring home the bacon last week in Osaka, but she defeated Olga Govortsova to come away with the Kremlin Cup. Any woman with a one handed backhand has me as a fan, so awesome work, Francesca!

(One question - Doha starts tomorrow, yeah? Why is the women's year ending championships so much earlier than the men's? That doesn't seem especially fair.)

The male Kremlin Cup winner was Mikhail Youzhny, who produced a blistering second set to level things up against Janko Tipsarevic and then brought it home in the third. It's always nice to see a hometown hero win his local tournament (cough Roger cough Basel cough please cough) and it wouldn't be right, really, to see a non-Russian hold up that cup. It was Kunitsyn last year, and Davydenko and Safin have both been in the mix in the past, and... I feel a bit bad for Janko, because I think he's a really good player and he never seems to get the pay off. But Youzhny's come blazing back after a very slow start to the year, and I love me some of that...

...which is why Marcos Baghdatis's victory in Sweden made me happiest of all. I've talked a lot about my Marcos love this week already so I won't harp on about it, but Marcos, I'm looking forward to cheering for you in Australia (even though the likelihood of me being heard over Melbourne's Greek community = less than zero).


Today's Results

Kremlin Cup (Moscow)

Men's Draw

Mikhail Youzhny def. Janko Tipsarevic, 6-7 (5-7) 6-0 6-4


Women's Draw

Francesca Schiavone def. Olga Govortsova, 6-3 6-0


If Stockholm Open (Stockholm)

Marcos Baghdatis def. Olivier Rochus, 6-1 7-5


BGL Luxembourg Open

Timea Bacsinszky def. Sabine Lisicki, 6-2 7-5