Hotel Sorrento

Pete Sampras. Cedric Pioline. Could be epic. Here's hoping it is. I'd like to see Pioline avenge his Slam losses, but I'm backing Pistol Pete on this one. Just a feeling.

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Anyway, we're not talking about Pete and le Ced today. No, it's back to local homegrown Aussie tennis and what is apparently the last Pro circuit event of the year, the tournie in Sorrento. Quality tournament, they say... but that doesn't mean people will have heard of most of the guys. Ah, Aussie tennis.

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What is disturbing me is that at least half of Australia's Davis Cup team is playing this tournament - a tournament on a circuit so low I hadn't even heard of its existence until a few months ago. Top seed and hot favourite is Brydan Klein, then second seed is Sam Groth. Marinko Matosevic defeated Bernard Tomic today, who retired after what one presumes was an injury and hopes wasn't a temper tantrum... I've heard he's prone. There's our Davis Cup team, pretty much. Oh dear.

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That said, here's hoping Brydan or Sam can win this one... though I'm liking the form of our old man Andrew Coelho, who pulled that good win the other week in Perth. Maybe he can join team Davis Cup next year when we play our (next) relegation tie?

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...remember when we used to win Davis Cup?

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Bernard will save us. HE MUST!

Perth After Tomic

I am making an active effort to follow this tournament in Perth, but it really is very hard. Tennis Australia provides my only avenue for such following, and they seemed to have lost interest after the Reid/Tomic match. I know Tomic is the next big thing in Aussie tennis and there's all the hype and such... but really, at this time of year, wouldn't following the rest of the results be, you know, giving all the people at TA something to do? Maybe that's just naive, but please, what else is there to write about?

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The Reid/Tomic match was the second round, and the winners of the finals just went up on the website - Andrew Coelho won the men's, and Monica Wejnert the women's. I've never heard of Wejnert before, but she's looking a bit interesting - she's sixteen, this is only her third senior event (it is, I discovered, a Pro tour event) and she beat the top seed to take the title. I'm not saying she's the Tomic of the girls, but that's a bit intriguing. We do have some very good girls coming up in Isabella Holland and Sally Peers and Jessica Moore and the such like - but maybe Miss Monica will be in that pack. Who knows. I know nothing about her outside this match, but she's showing good stats, if that makes any sense.

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Coelho, on the other hand, has been round for a little while - not that he's a veteran or anything (he's a couple of years younger than me!) but he seems to have been floating round for a while... he's left-handed, if I remember rightly (ha ha - I only just realised I made a totally awful pun there... oops!) which is always interesting to watch. Apparently the Fremantle Doctor (a very strong wind, for those of you not up with the lingo) was making conditions very interesting, so kudos to Coelho for pulling out a toughie over Brendan McKenzie. I don't hold any great hopes for Coelho, and he's certainly not a missed opportunity like Todd Reid, but it'd be nice to see him play an ATP event here and there - perhaps qualify for the Aussie Open?

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And in totally un-tennis related news, I've just been awarded first-class Honours for my thesis at university, and I'm quite proud of myself. Not quite a Grand Slam, but when you're studying English, it might just be as close as you get...