The Looch is Loose

Victory!

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Sorry, this is a bit of an overreaction, but Peter Luczak won a tour level match - something I can't remember him doing all year! Victory!

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I really like Peter. He's a genuine nice guy and I think he's had a bit of bad luck with injuries and stuff. He's never going to be a top ten player - he doesn't have that level of talent - but he works hard, and it shows. He's a total trooper, and I have cred for that. And he gets results on clay - how rare is that for an Aussie?

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He may not be a worldbeater, but he's a genuinely lovely guy, and I think it's great for tennis in Australia that we have him. You can never have too many nice guys in sport, and with the badness of rugby league seemingly infecting Aussie tennis via Brydan Klein and his racial sledging case, I think we need people like Peter.

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He beat Alberto Martin in his match, and beat him handily as well - and Martin is a wily old fox, which makes the win even better. And after coming up through qualies - I'm very pleased. The Looch is loose - how far can he go in this tournament? Good on you, Mr Milkshake. Good on you.

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Today's Results

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Catella Swedish Open (Bastad)

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Juan Monaco def. Maximo Gonzalez, 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 6-1

Kristof Vliegen def. Marcel Granollers, 7-6 (7-3) 6-4

Guillermo Canas def. Grigor Dimitrov, 6-3 7-6 (7-2)

Daniel Koellerer def. Steve Darcis, 1-6 6-3 6-4

Potito Starace def. Julien Benneteau, 7-6 (7-5) 6-3

Peter Luczak def. Alberto Martin, 6-2 6-2

Bjorn Phau def. Daniel Berta, 6-3 6-2

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Mercedes Cup (Stuttgart)

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Gilles Simon def. Philipp Petzschner, 6-3 6-4

Nicolas Kiefer def. Tomas Berdych, 6-3 6-3

Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Diego Junqueira, 6-3 6-2

Fabio Fognini def. Fabrice Santoro, 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-1

Jeremy Chardy def. Jose Acasuso, 6-2 7-6 (7-4)

Alexandre Sidorenko def. Daniel Munoz-De La Nava, 7-6 (7-3) 1-6 6-2

Rainer Schuettler def. Ivo Minar, 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4

Simon Greul def. Andreas Beck, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5)

Oscar Hernandez def. Janko Tipsarevic, 6-4 6-4

Mischa Zverev def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-2 6-4

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ECM Prague Open (Prague)

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Iveta Benesova def. Karolina Pliskova, 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-3

Kateryna Bondarenko def. Alona Bondarenko, 6-1 6-3

Timea Bacsinszky def. Magdalena Rybarikova, 6-2 7-6 (7-5)

Lucie Hradecka def. Ksenia Pervak, 6-3 6-2

Petra Kvitova def. Anna Lapushchenkova, 6-1 6-0

Kristina Barrois def. Ioana Raluca Olaru, 5-6 6-1 7-5

Monica Niculescu def. Katie O'Brien, 6-3 6-2

Polona Hercog def. Klara Zakopalova, 7-5 6-4

Stefanie Voegele def. Petra Martic, 3-6 6-4 6-3

Alla Kudryavtseva def. Nicole Vaidisova, 7-5 6-2

Karolina Sprem def. Tatjana Malek, 6-3 6-2

Zarina Diyas def. Kristina Mladenovic, 6-4 6-1

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Internazionali Femminili di Tennis di Palermo (Palermo)

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Flavia Pennetta def. Arantxa Parra Santonja, 6-2 6-3

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez def. Alize Cornet, 6-2 6-2

Sara Errani def. Mariya Koryttseva, 6-4 6-4

Ekaterina Makarova def. Jill Craybas, 6-3 6-1

Anna-Lena Groenefeld def. Gisela Dulko, 6-4 6-1

Yaroslava Shvedova def. Nathalie Vierin, 6-3 6-2

Tathiana Garbin def. Edina Gallovits, 6-4 7-5

Patricia Mayr def. Olga Savchuk, 6-4 6-4

Nuria Llagostera Vives def. Masa Zec Peskiric, 3-6 6-4 6-2

Arantxa Rus def. Anna Floris, 7-6 (7-3) 6-4

Second Year Blues

So I was messing round on the ATP website, minding my own business, when I came across this piece of alarming ranking information under the 'big movers this week' section. Ernests Gulbis - down 29 places.

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Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

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I thought about it and it made sense - Gulbis reached the quarters of Roland Garros last year and did not much of anything this year - and then I thought about it some more and I got mad. Ernests, what gives, dude? What's going on?

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His year started with a bang - beating Djokovic in his first outing of the year in Brisbane - but since then he hasn't been able to string two wins together. It's been an embarrassing string of first and second round defeats for the guy who's supposed to be one of the future big guns of our game. I mean, sure, I understand about second year blues - last year was the year that Ernests announced, 'here I am, I have talent, fear me, fear me!' and sometimes it's hard to follow it up, but this is just ridiculous. He lost to Alberto Martin yesterday. On grass.

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That's right. Alberto Martin. On grass.

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Ernests. Pull yourself together. Spank your inner moppet, whatever. Just win two matches in a row. That's all I'm asking. Two in a row. If you want to go on and make it three or four or whatever, that's fine, but let's walk before we can run, eh?

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Today's Results

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Gerry Weber Open (Halle)

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Mischa Zverev def. Tomas Berdych, 3-6 6-2 7-6 (10-8)

Benjamin Becker def. Rainer Schuettler, 6-4 2-6 6-4

Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Dmitry Tursunov, 6-4 7-6 (8-6)

Tommy Haas def. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-3 7-6 (7-3)

Lukas Lacko def. Harel Levy, 7-6 (8-6) 6-2

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AEGON Championships (Queen's Club)

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Andy Murray def. Andreas Seppi, 6-1 6-4

Gilles Simon def. Grigor Dimitrov, 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-5)

Nicolas Mahut def. Marin Cilic, 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-4)

Ivo Karlovic def. Julien Benneteau, 7-6 (9-7) 6-7 (4-7) 6-2

Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Paul-Henri Mathieu, 6-4 6-4

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Gilles Muller, 7-6 (7-3) 6-3

Mikhail Youzhny def. Marcos Baghdatis, 64 76(3)

Lleyton Hewitt def. Frederico Gil, 3-6 6-2 6-2

Steve Darcis def. Alberto Martin, 6-2 6-4

Xavier Malisse def. Rik De Voest, 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-5)

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AEGON Classic (Birmingham)

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Aleksandra Wozniak def. Olga Govortsova, 6-4 6-4

Sania Mirza def. Anne Keothavong, 6-1 7-6 (7-5)

Stefanie Voegele def. Ekaterina Makarova, 6-3 3-6 6-2

Naomi Cavaday def. Tamarine Tanasugarn, 7-6 (7-5) 2-6 6-4