Hey, Leonardo

Not much to report today, other than a) I still don't understand what the hell this Bali tournament is supposed to be and b) everything is continuing apace nicely in Valencia and Basel. The big guys are winning, no one's getting scared, and all things are quiet and peaceful.

Well, I suppose that's not strictly true. Leonardo Mayer gave Andy Murray a bit of a run for his money, extending Mr Newly-beAdidased to three sets. Mayer is another one of this players who seemed to pop out from nowhere and then suddenly you'd see them in every tournament. I can't quite put my finger on when it happened - about six months ago, maybe - but I swear I'd never heard of him before and then he was playing every week. Just like Horacio Zeballos, as discussed yesterday.

They are both Argentinian. Perhaps the Argentines have some super secret tennis program wherein they can just suddenly launch people into the bigtime with no prior warning? If Mayer and Zeballos worked their way up from satellite tournaments, their transition between tours was certainly not gradual. Just bam! ATP! every week. Bizarre. Probably explicable, but then what would I have to talk about?

The other Big Dude who was out on the court today was Djokovic, and he didn't get anything like the scare Murray had... ain't nothing scary about a double bagel drumming (unless, of course, you are the one being bagelled). I don't know whether Jan Hernych, the bagelee, was injured or just played sucktastically, but that's a two-hoof beatdown if ever I saw one... which was certainly not the trend in Basel today, where a couple of guys saved match points before progressing to the next round. Mighty Marin Cilic very nearly succumbed to the Serbian wiles of Viktor Troicki, while Richard Gasquet just managed to edge out John Isner. I think the Swiss public have got their money's worth on this tournament - must be an exciting tournament to watch! And they've still got Stan Wawrinka, Marco Chiudinelli, and, oh yeah, that Roger bloke left in the tournament, so hopp Suisse!

Today's Results

Valencia Open 500 (Valencia)

Andy Murray def. Leonardo Mayer, 6-4 3-6 6-3
Nikolay Davydenko def. Juan Monaco, 6-3 7-5
Fernando Verdasco def. Janko Tipsarevic, 6-3 6-3
Tommy Robredo def. Feliciano Lopez, 4-6 6-3 6-4
Albert Montanes def. David Ferrer, walkover
Mikhail Youzhny def. Pablo Cuevas, 6-2 2-6 6-1


Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel (Basel)

Novak Djokovic def. Jan Hernych, 6-0 6-0
Marin Cilic def. Viktor Troicki, 7-6 (9-7) 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (8-6)
Stanislas Wawrinka def. Jarkko Nieminen, 7-5 2-6 601
Richard Gasquet def. John Isner, 4-6 7-6 (11-9) 6-2
Evgeny Korolev def. Jeremy Chardy, 6-4 7-6 (7-1)
Marco Chiudinelli def. Michael Lammer, 2-6 6-3 6-3


Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions (Bali)

Shahar Peer def. Magdalena Rybarikova, 6-1 7-6 (7-4)
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez def. Agnes Szavay, 4-6 6-4 6-0
Kimiko Date Krumm def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-4 6-3
Aravane Rezai def. Melinda Czink, 6-3 7-5