Thursday, October 2, 2008

The New Garden Square

It's great for Perth to get the Fed Cup tie for next year - the only other tennis event in WA is the Hopman Cup, which gets ignored a lot of the time - but I must admit I am a little disappointed... purely for selfish reasons. WA is much too far away to actually attend.
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I wish Fed Cup had a higher profile. With Stosur back from injury, we might have an okay team now - if she and Dellacqua played singles then Stubbs came in for the doubles, we might stand a good chance of getting back into the World Group. Speaking of Sam, she scored a great win in Tokyo against the second seed, Anabel Medina Garrigues. She made a run to the final last week, but maybe she can go all the way this time...? I'd like to see that.
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Another player to watch in Tokyo is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She is about six years old - well, maybe sixteen or seventeen, but very young - but she's making her presence felt. She's of the same generation as Alize Cornet, and although she hasn't made it up as high in the rankings yet, she's definitely going to be up there one day. Just another cog in the Russian tennis machine.
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Unfortunately, Kei Nishikori got unceremoniously booted out of the Tokyo tournament by Richard Gasquet. Maybe he took offence to me calling him a head case? It'd be great if he'd put those ways behind him, but excuse me if I am unconvinced. It takes more than one good win against an in form opponent to silence the doubters... ie. me. But I wouldn't mind it if Richou won a few matches and played himself back into form - although he, like Andy Roddick, should have gone to the Olympics.
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Nishikori's loss means that my only remaining active Star this week is the hanger-on, Eduardo Schwank, who beat Victor Hanescu in Metz. If he can do well this week, then he will officially be re-adopted back into the fold. I mean, I suppose he's already done well, getting this far, but one more round would not hurt anyone...
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Going back to Tokyo, it was a bit sad to see Jo-W Tsonga retire, but I suppose he's done his dues, winning that title last week... apparently he's only one of eight players to win his first title against a top ten opponent. Good on you, Jo-W.
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Actually, speaking of things that are sad, I have a bone to pick with Tennis Australia. They recently ran a competition to rename Garden Square Cafe, which is the player's cafe at Melbourne Park, where they have the Australian Open. Now, I'm sure they had all kinds of entries, and some must have been horrendous, but surely there was something better than the one they chose. The new name of Garden Square Cafe is... drumroll...
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...wait for it...
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'Player Cafe.'
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What genius came up with that one? And, moreover, what genius decided that was the best possible name? 'Player Cafe.' Real expression of creative genius, that one.
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Today's Results
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Open de Moselle (Metz)
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Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Romain Jouan, 6-3 6-3
Radek Stepanek def. Michael Llodra, 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 7-6 (7-0)
Eduardo Schwank def. Victor Hanescu, 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (5-7) 6-3
Adrian Mannarino def. Rik de Voest, 6-4 7-5
Marc Gicquel def. Nicolas Mahut, 6-3 7-6 (7-4)
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AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships (Tokyo)
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Men's Draw
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David Ferrer def. Takao Suzuki, 4-6 6-3 6-2
Andy Roddick def. Jurgen Melzer, 7-6 (7-2) 6-2
Fernando Gonzalez def. Amer Delic, 6-4 7-6 (7-4)
Richard Gasquet def. Kei Nishikori, 6-1 6-2
Juan Martin Del Potro def. Jarkko Nieminen, 6-1 6-3
Viktor Troicki def. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 5-7 2-1 retired
Tomas Berdych def. Tommy Robredo, 7-6 (8-6) 6-2
Rainer Schuettler def. Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3 6-7 (12-14) 6-4
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Women's Draw
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Caroline Wozniacki def. Ayumi Morita, 6-2 6-1
Samantha Stosur def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-1 7-5
Aleksandra Wozniak def. Ryoko Fuda, 6-1 6-1
Klara Zakopalova def. Marta Domachowska, 6-3 6-0
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Rika Fujiwara, 6-2 6-4
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Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart)
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Jelena Jankovic def. Alona Bondarenko, 6-2 6-0
Dinara Safina def. Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-1 7-6 (8-6)
Venus Williams def. Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-4 6-2
Vera Zvonareva def. Marion Bartoli, 6-2 6-0
Nadia Petrova def. Patty Schnyder, 6-4 6-1
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Tashkent Open (Tashkent)
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Peng Shuai def. Arantxa Rus, 6-1 7-5
Sorana Cirstea def. Anna Lapushchenkova, 6-1 6-4
Monica Niculescu def. Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-3 3-4 retired
Michelle Larcher de Brito def. Tatiana Poutchek, 6-4 6-1

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