Our Jarmila

Unfortunately Sam Stosur got stopped today, but how about Jarmila Gajdosova? She's kind of Australian, and she's into the last four in Tokyo. Good on you, Jarmila! (I think I've said that about twelve times in the past couple of days!) Dinara Safina got beaten as well, and we all know she is my special favourite, so it was very nice to have a bright spot.

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So when is this Australian citizenship/playing-for-Australia going to happen for Jarmila, Tennis Australia? You can bet the whole country will be calling her 'our Jarmila' if she wins this tournament. Not that a whole heap of people in Australia would be following it, but the ones that are... and yeah, I guess I include myself in that, though I like to think that I wouldn't have to qualify it with a tournament victory.

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Over in the blokes, and, with the demise of Schwank, all my Stars are gone... except Juan Martin del Potro, but I don't know if I can in all fairness count him as one of my Stars, as that ship had already sailed by the time I jumped on. Who would have picked that? If you'd asked me in May or whatever which young player was most likely to make a huge splash over the summer (if one was going to) I would have said Gulbis or Cilic. Del Potro has been round for a little while, so that you sort of forget how young he is... he must be in a fair way for qualifying for the Tennis Masters Cup. Now no one would have picked that one at the beginning of the year. But no one could say he doesn't deserve it - he just took out David Ferrer to get to the semis, so more power to him.

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And down in Metz, we have a qualifier into the semis. Adrian Mannarino, I know nothing about you, but you have a cool last name, so kudos. I might even be cheering for you... as long as you're not playing Tursunov, because he, like Dinara Safina, is one of my special favourites. But isn't it nice when some little qualifier guy gets up and does well? I've never cheered for him since, but when Steve Darcis won his first title from #297 in the world or whatever it was last year, I was pulling for him.

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Today's Results

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Open de Moselle (Metz)

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Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Janko Tipsarevic, 7-6 (7-4) 6-3

Dmitry Tursunov def. Carlos Moya, 6-3 6-3

Radek Stepanek def. Eduardo Schwank, 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4

Adrian Mannarino def. Marc Gicquel, 6-4 7-6 (7-3)

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AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships (Tokyo)

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Men's Draw

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Juan Martin Del Potro def. David Ferrer, 6-1 7-5

Andy Roddick def. Viktor Troicki, 6-3 6-4

Tomas Berdych def. Fernando Gonzalez, 6-0 6-4

Richard Gasquet def. Rainer Schuettler, 6-3 6-2

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Women's Draw

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Caroline Wozniacki def. Tamarine Tanasugarn, 6-4 6-1

Kaia Kanepi def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-1)

Aleksandra Wozniak def. Samantha Stosur, 7-5 6-3

Jarmila Gajdosova def. Klara Zakopalova, 7-5 7-5

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Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart)

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Jelena Jankovic def. Vera Zvonareva, 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (7-5)

Venus Williams def. Dinara Safina, 6-4 6-2

Victoria Azarenka def. Elena Dementieva, 7-6 (8-6) 3-6 6-1

Nadia Petrova def. Li Na, 6-2 6-3

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Tashkent Open (Tashkent)

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Peng Shuai def. Monica Niculescu, 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 6-4

Sorana Cirstea def. Michelle Larcher de Brito, 6-2 7-6 (7-5)

Sabine Lisicki def. Urszula Radwanska, 3-6 7-5 7-6 (7-4)

Magdalena Rybarikova def. Ioana Raluca Olaru, 6-1 6-2