The First Awesome Thing To Happen in Australian Sport This Year

I've been focusing on Hopman Cup all week, but let's talk a little about Brisbane. In particular, let's yell out F%^& YEAH MATT EBDEN YOU ARE AWESOME.

Ebden is ranked at about #172, and he took out Denis Istomin, ranked over 130 places higher, at the Brisbane International. He did this by simply playing awesome tennis. Sure, he had a double break in each set and could have won by even more than he did, but at the end of the day, HE WON, and that is an absolutely outstanding achievement.

Ebden is probably my favourite of the young Australians we have hanging around. I really enjoy his game, and although at 23 he might be classified as a late bloomer, it is very obvious that he has talent. If he continues to play like he did against Istomin, then I see no reason why he can't break into the top hundred this year.

He has absolutely nothing to lose against Robin Soderling in his match, so I hope he comes out swinging. I don't think he's quite up to beating-a-member-of-the-top-five level, but I'd really like to see him make a good account of himself. He certainly has the ability to do so!

Over at the Hopman Cup, the Ivanovic/Henin match is one of the best women's matches I have seen in a long time. The commentators have been talking like Ivanovic is 'back' - I think she still has a ways to go before we can say that, but playing in a match like this certainly didn't hurt. But this isn't the Ivanovic story, even though she did play a good match which must be hope-inspiring for her.

It's all about Henin. And if she keeps playing like this... hello, leading contender for the Australian Open.

There is absolutely no reason why Henin cannot win the Open, particularly in the absence of Serena. I know she's been fairly pessimistic about her chances what with coming back after such a long lay off, but if she continues as she has begun at the Hopman Cup, then she has every chance in the world. She wasn't misfiring off any wing, and while her backhand is often lauded as a thing of art, I was in awe of her volleys. Seriously, she has MAD SKILLZ at the net.

Belgium are out of the Hopman Cup after Bemelmans lost to Djokovic (AO organisers, if you find another wildcard under your sofa after you give one to Nicolas Mahut, you could do worse than give it to Ruben Bemelmans), but Henin went undefeated all week and played - well, I can't overstate how impressed I was. Watch out for JuJu in Australia. She could do something incredible.

Florian and the Final

Well, well, well, he didn't need that last win after all. Robin Soderling is through to the world tour finals, and I am confident that he is going to rock them, providing he is uninjured. He wasn't that great last year, but here's hoping he can do something a bit spesh this year. He, after all, very, very much deserves to be there.

But Stockholm has been rolling on without him, and we have the final coming up very soon - Roger Federer vs Florian Mayer. You'd expect that Roger would make the final - he's Roger, after all, and even though he had a bit of a scare against Wawrinka, he makes it good - but this a big result from Florian Mayer, he who conquered Soderling and then backed it up.

Seriously, Florian Mayer has been around forever, and I could not tell you one single thing about him. That's usually a sign that he hasn't done that much, I think. This is certainly the first final I can remember him making. I can't think of too much more to say about this, due to not knowing too much about him, but well done, dude. You'll have your work cut out for against the Federer Express, but you should be pretty proud of coming this far, if nothing else.

There's also been a big result for Denis Istomin in Moscow. I know he lost to Marcos Baghdatis, but it was tight, and with his whole up and comer schtick, semis in a decent field like this is good stuff. And it's a good result for Baghdatis as well - he hasn't had the most awesome year ever and a title here would be a really good result for him. Actually, a final's not bad either. Fun times.

The Spectacular Dullness of New Haven

So if Roger Federer made the final of both the biggest tournaments of the US Open series and won one of them... why is Andy Murray the winner of the series? Can anyone explain this?

Moreover, I'm pretty sure Marcos Baghdatis came second. Explanations, anyone? I just do not get it at all.

I'm really scraping the barrel for something to write about right now (duh), so I guess we have to talk about the lame tournament going on right now. That tournament is New Haven and it is spectacularly uninteresting, but let's see if I can dream up something to say.

Um...

The men's final is between Denis Istomin and Sergiy Stakhovsky, which should give some indication of the quality of the tournament. I wouldn't know who to pick there, because I don't know enough about either player - even though Istomin has been rocking that dark horse thing all year. The women's final is between Nadia Petrova and whoever wins out of Wozniacki and Dementieva.

There is a thought, actually. Why is it that nobody who is anybody on the men's side plays a tournament the week before a Slam - which seems to make sense, because you want to conserve energy, ra ra ra - but a bunch of the ladies do? The ladies who are anybody - because much as I would like to deny it, Wozniacki is anybody.

So... yep. There's a question. Answers, anyone?

Awesome Andrey

Oh my my - who is this handsome young man who has swept into the final of Hamburg like a freight train?

Andrey Golubev, you rock on with your bad self. You are AWESOME. If it was not already abundantly clear, I am your fangirl. Big time.

Andrey has knocked out a bunch of people who should have beaten him this week. Florian Mayer in the semis. Denis Istomin, who I talked about a few days ago as a major up-and-comer suddenly playing awesomely. And, oh yeah, Nikolay Davydenko. How about that?

I've rabbited on and on and on about how impressed I was with him when I saw him play at the Hopman Cup this year. He tailed away after that and although there were flashes of that redline game that saw him beat Andreev, he didn't stay as awesome. But hello, daddy-o, I think the awesome is coming back. This has not been a cakewalk draw to the final, not at all. I repeat - Davydenko. I know Kolya's not exactly the captain of the form squad right now, but DAVYDENKO. C'mon.

And he also had a birthday this week. He might have missed 23 July, tennis's holy day, but he's only one away, and maybe some of that glitter has rubbed off.

You keep your awesome up, Andrey. Because that's what you are - awesome.

Some Watch-This-Spacers

So Denis Istomin has pretty much sprung from nowhere, huh. The first memory of him I have is him playing - and being destroyed by - Federer at the Australian Open some years ago (like '06 or '07 or some long ago time). And then he just sort of hung around for awhile.

And now he's suddenly all awesome.

I mean, there is a limit to his awesomeness. He hasn't been winning titles or anything (that I can remember, anyway.) But's he's troubling people. He's pulling upsets. He's looking a little bit dangerous. Exhibit a - he took out last week's winner Nico Almagro in straights in Hamburg. That's a little bit cool, you know. He's got some good stuff going on. Watch this space, is all I'm saying where this kid is concerned.

I'd like to say the same thing about Julian Reister, who popped up in about the third round of Wimbledon from seemingly nowhere - literally, I had never heard of him before. He just put put bad-tempered on-the-outs I'm-pretty-sure-everyone-hates-him-right-now Victor Hanescu in straights in Hamburg also - tight straights, but straights. I don't know enough about him to talk coherently about him (same with Istomin) but it's kind of cool that some new people have been making a splash. Even if they have been around forever and I just haven't realised it.

Bad luck continues for Simone Bolelli, though. Dude just can't catch a break right now.