The Playing Field

Well, my boy James Ward didn't get too much further - his run stopped in the quarters - but it was still a champion effort for him. Well done Jimbo.

What runs like Ward's are making me aware of is the level of upsettage that is going on in men's tennis at the moment. Sure, at the Slams it's basically the Hispano-Suisse domination machine rolling onwards like a mighty boulder, but in these 250 tournaments we are seeing a very high level of crazy shenanigans going on.

Look at the tournaments this week. The final in Eastbourne is between the #5 seed and the #8 seed. Not a bad result, but not exactly what you'd expect. In s'Hertogenbosch, we have the #7 seed and an unseeded player - and no player seeded higher than #7 made it to the semis. The same thing happened at Queen's, and, to a degree, at Halle. And even at Roland Garros - Nadal and Soderling were pretty decent semi finalists, but Melzer and Berdych? I don't think anyone had any money on that.

What does this prove? I'm not quite sure. Maybe the playing field is evening out a bit. Maybe there isn't quite such a divide between the top ten/twenty and the dudes below. Or maybe I'm just making this up. Who knows. But it's going to be an interesting phenomenon to watch - particularly, I think, in the smaller tournaments - for a little while...

The Woes of Ward

So James Ward, huh. The British kid who has put out Feliciano Lopez and Rainer Schuettler in a row. This would be an all right result for any top hundred guy - Deliciano and Rainer both have serious cojones on grass - but Ward is ranked #342. Good on you, kid.

And yet - for all their 'British tennis is going down the drain we have no one except Andy Murray we lost that one time to Lithuania' malarkey, the British tennis folks haven't wildcarded him into Wimbledon.

Hell, you'd think that with the current state of British tennis, they'd be throwing a tickertape parade for him as he rode into SW19 on the back of an elephant while being serenaded by Elton John. But no, total snub. I just don't get their reasoning here - have they run out of wildcards? What's the deal? What'sa going on? Because it doesn't make any sense at all.

The real loser here (apart from British tennis) is Ward, who will have his hot streak stopped cold in its tracks. It'll be back to satellite tournaments for him, while the entire British public bemoans the state of tennis today (Murray aside). You really have to feel for him. He deserves this wildcard, probably more than any other guy who has been carded into the main draw (from the British populace, at any case.) Is this going to be all he's reduced to? A big run at Eastbourne?

It'd be a sad thing indeed, if Eastbourne was the high point of his career.

That said, I hope he goes on and breaks some more heads at this tournament before his run is over. If he's not going to get a wildcard, then he needs to rub his success in the LTA's face, in my book.

Seed Massacre

Okay, what is with this seed massacre going on in s'Hertogenbosch and Eastbourne this week? It's crazy! It's covering both the men's and women's tournaments, and it seems that no one is immune. Is it grass? Or is it just that we're having a ker-razy week?

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The only draw which seems even a little immune is the men's draw at Eastbourne, we have the #2, #4 and #8 seeds in the semis - but still, they're hardly the four seeds you'd expect! That's Tursunov, Santoro and Garcia-Lopez... and a qualifier, Frank Dancevic. What's the bet that Dancevic goes on to win the title? From memory, he's already knocked out the top seed (which was Andreev, I think). It looks like we're having a bit of a misrule hangover from Roland Garros.

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In the women at Eastbourne, the only seed left standing is #6, which is Caroline Wozniacki. (Odd, isn't it, that the women's draw seems to have attracted a lot more high-end players than the men - Dementieva as a top seed has a lot more pulling power as a name than Andreev). I really would like see Caro go on to win the tournament, and considering the rest of her opposition consists of Razzano, Bartoli and Wozniak, she should be able to do it... though Bartoli is a former Wimbledon finalist, I suppose, and has game on grass. Still, if Caroline can't pull this one off you practically have to write the tournament off as a moment of WTA insanity.

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...which is mirrored over in s'Hertogenbosch, where only top seed Dinara Safina remains standing - and only after a real battle against Daniela Hantuchova. It would be great for her to win this title to get her confidence back up after the Chernobyl incident in the Roland Garros final, and like Wozniacki, she should be able to do it: her opposition is Tanasugarn, Wickmayer and Schiavone, all players she should theoretically be able to beat with one hand tied behind her back. So here's hoping she does.

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And our last bastion of normalcy in the men's s'Hertogenbosch draw is fourth seed Rainer Schuettler - and even though he's the seed, I don't think there's any way in hell I'd pick him to win. Even if he did make the Wimbledon semis last year. Up against him is Becker, Navarro (who put an absolute pounding on defending champ Ferrer) and Sluiter. I think this one might be Becker's. It'd be nice to see him come up through qualies like that - and he really does have a great game.

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So, in conclusion, there's general madness, and I think the only thing you can really attribute it to is the miniscule amount of play that happens on this surface. And why is that? Wimbledon is probably the most important event of the year! Why does Roland Garros get two or three months of lead up clay tournaments when Wimbledon only gets two weeks?

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Today's Results

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Ordina Open (s'Hertogenbosch)

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Men's Draw

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Benjamin Becker def. Michael Llodra, 7-6 (8-6) 7-5

Rainer Schuettler def. Jeremy Chardy, 7-6 (9-7) 3-6 7-6 (13-11)

Ivan Navarro def. David Ferrer, 6-4 6-2

Raemon Sluiter def. Dudi Sela, 4-6 6-4 6-4

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Women's Draw

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Dinara Safina def. Daniela Hantuchova, 1-6 6-4 6-3

Tamarine Tanasugarn def. Flavia Pennetta, 2-6 6-3 6-3

Yanina Wickmayer def. Kristina Barroi, 6-1 6-1

Francesca Schiavone def. Olga Govortsova, 6-1 6-3

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AEGON International (Eastbourne)

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Men's Draw

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Frank Dancevic def. Leonardo Mayer, 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 7-5

Fabrice Santoro def. Ivan Ljubicic, 3-6 4-2 retired

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Janko Tipsarevic, 6-4 3-6 6-3

Dmitry Tursunov def. Denis Istomin, 7-6 (8-) 6-4

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Women's Draw

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Virginie Razzano def. Agnieszka Radwanska, 7-6 (7-5) 7-5

Marion Bartoli def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-1 6-4

Caroline Wozniacki def. Ekaterina Makarova, 6-3 6-2

Aleksandra Wozniak def. Vera Dushevina, 6-1 6-0