Big Fish

So Novak Djokovic is having to save five match points againt Florent Serra these days, eh? He better hope he played himself into form in that saving, because that would have been a bad loss - worse than to Kohlschreiber at Roland Garros, I think. At least Kohlschreiber is a genuine underachiever who coulda bin somebody. Serra is pretty much a journeyman. That would have been a big, big badness for Novak.

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Not that I would have minded that much, obviously, but it might impact on the competition for Wimbledon, and I love tennis. So yeah, you better hope, Novak. You better hope.

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The other member of the Fantastic Four in action today was Andy Murray, and it looks like he had a whale of a time beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Remember how he was pretty much a standard top ten player until he had that big win over Gasquet at Wimbledon last year and suddenly found himself in the upper echelons? It'll be interesting to see how he does at the Big W this year, mark my words.

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Someone it will not be interesting to watch is Gilles Simon. Seriously, how is he still in the top ten? He has done big fat nothing this year, and that big fat nothing is continuing. It was a fluke, yeah? him having that great run last year? I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, but he just seems out of his depth with the fish he's swimming with at the moment...

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...but on a gladder note, glasses should be raised to Andreas Beck - great work Andreas, coming through the Halle draw very nicely right now - and Juan Carlos Ferrero. JC seems to be having his best year in ages so far, what with winning that title and now doing pretty well at Queen's - nice one!

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Today's Results

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Gerry Weber Open (Halle)

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Novak Djokovic def. Florent Serra, 5-7 7-5 6-1

Jurgen Melzer def. Nicolas Kiefer, 6-1 retired

Andreas Beck def. Lukas Lacko, 7-5 7-6 (7-5)

Olivier Rochus def. Philipp Petzschner, 5-7 7-5 6-2

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AEGON Championships (Queen's Club)

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Andy Murray def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-4 6-4

Andy Roddick def. Lleyton Hewitt, 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4)

Mikhail Youzhny def. Gilles Simon, 6-1 2-6 6-2

James Blake def. Sam Querrey, 6-4 4-6 6-3

Mardy Fish def. Feliciano Lopez, 6-1 6-4

Ivo Karlovic def. Nicolas Mahut, 6-3 6-4

Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Xavier Malisse, 6-4 7-6 (7-4)

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AEGON Classic (Birmingham)

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Maria Sharapova def. Alexa Glatch, 6-3 6-4

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Elena Baltacha, 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 7-6 (7-3)

Francesca Schiavone def. Mariya Koryttseva, 6-1 6-1

Yanina Wickmayer def. Michaella Krajicek, 6-2 6-4

Li Na def. Jarmila Groth, 6-4 2-6 6-1

Roberta Vinci def. Lilia Osterloh, 6-4 6-2

Zheng Jie def. Melanie South, 6-3 6-1

Melinda Czink def. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, 6-2 6-3

Ursula Radwanska def. Petra Cetkovska, 6-3 7-5

Julia Goerges def. Sara Errani, 6-4 5-7 7-5

Magdalena Rybarikova def. Chanelle Scheepers, 6-7 (8-10) 6-1 6-3

Aravane Rezai def. Alla Kudryavtseva, 7-6 (14-12) 3-6 6-2

Stefanie Voegele def. Naomi Cavaday, 6-4 6-2

Yanina Wickmayer def. Roberta Vinci, 6-1 6-4

Maria Sharapova def. Francesca Schiavone, 6-1 6-3

Sania Mirza def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 7-6 (7-3) 3-6 6-2

Urszula Radwanska def. Julia Goerges, 7-6 (7-3) 6-3

Melinda Czink def. Aleksandra Wozniak, 6-7 (7-9) 7-5 7-5

Li Na def. Aravane Rezai, 7-5 6-4

Magdalena Rybarikova def. Zheng Jie, 7-6 (12-10) 6-4

Time Capsule

One would be forgiven, looking at the results out of Houston and Casablanca this week, that the tour had gone back in time some four, five years. In each tournament we have a real veteran in the final - Lleyton Hewitt in Houston, in what has to be his first final in a couple of years, and Juan Carlos Ferrero, who is apparently considering pulling a Marat and retiring at the end of the year, in Casablanca.

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Let's start with JC, who for about six months in the earlier part of this decade had a Federesque aura of total invincibility. I would love to see him go out with a bang, if he does intend to retire this year. It was a bit sad when he wasn't able to keep up with the Joneses of the tennis world once the Hispano-Suisse domination machine started to roll, because he is really an awesome player to watch. He has a real elegance to his shots - especially on clay - and he is smart. We mustn't forget that he and Federer are the only two players to beat Rafa on clay in the last five-odd years. Sure, Rafa was injured at the time, but still - quite a feat for JC.

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So now he's in the final of Casablanca against Florent Serra (who is also not exactly a tennis spring chicken, though he hasn't reached the veteran status of JC yet). I would dearly love to see him win it. Wouldn't it be fabulous to see the man who once was so invincible have another great run in the twilight of his tennis years? (Wasn't that a convoluted rhetorical question?)

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Same goes for Lleyton Hewitt, for whom, despite all my best efforts, I have a soft spot. (Yes, even after the Lleyton/Bec/Mia matching outfit fashion disaster at the Logies. I don't know what's wrong with me.) He'll face Wayne Odesnik - who has also been around for quite some years - in the final in Houston, and I think it is safe to say that this is a final no one would have expected! I'm pulling for Lleyton, though I wouldn't be surprised if the home crowd advantage got big Wayne over the line... but it really is lovely to see the old guys (I say old - most of them aren't even in their thirties!) doing so well this week. It is so rare!

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Today's Results

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Grand Prix Hassan II (Casablanca)

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Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Igor Andreev, 7-6 (11-9) 6-3

Florent Serra def. Albert Montanes, 6-4 6-4

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US Men's Clay Court Championships (Houston)

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Wayne Odesnik def. Bjorn Phau, 6-4 6-3

Lleyton Hewitt def. Evgeny Korolev, 7-6 (7-4) 6-4

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Andalucia Tennis Experience (Marbella)

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Jelena Jankovic def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 7-5 6-2

Carla Suárez Navarro def. Sorana Cirstea, 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-2

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MPS Group Championships (Ponte Vedra Beach)

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Aleksandra Wozniak def. Nadia Petrova, 6-4 4-6 6-2

Caroline Wozniacki def. Elena Vesnina, 2-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4)

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ETA: I just read that Roger Federer and Mirka Vavrinec got married over the Easter weekend - how lovely! Congratulations from Tennis From The Backseat!

Mmm, Safin

So it's going to be a pretty dull week, tennis-wise, it seems... at least until the Olympics start on Friday. The only men's tournament going on is in LA, and it's a pretty small one - which is as you would expect, I suppose, what with them Olympics. The one player I'll be following is Safin, who seems to be doing okay so far - he and Igor Kunitsyn took out a pretty decent doubles duo in Ker and Soares. So good work, boys... for what it's worth.

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Actually, this might be Marat's big chance. It's pretty awful, but with all the big guys over at the Olympics, he might stand a decent chance of winning his first title since 2005. Wouldn't that be nice? Right after his little sister won the women's US Open series... (which means that if she wins the US Open she'll win an obscene amount of money - something like two and a half million dollars.) So let's have a bit of a look at the LA draw... Marat's a seed! How cool is that!? He's now ranked #38 in the world, which means all he has to do is scrape a few more places and he can be seeded at the US Open. Which means he can't repeat his Wimbledon feat and remove Djokovic early, but I suppose we can't have everything.

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So Marat faces Isner in the first round, which could be a tough one... but I think I have a tendency to overestimate Isner, Kohlschreiber-style. So let's say Marat comes through that... he'll face the winner of Odesnik and Reynolds, then he'd be seeded to meet Lopez in the quarters, then probably Roddick. Heavy on the Americans, this draw.

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Actually, let's look at the seeds. Roddick, who wussed out on the Olympics. Verdasco, whom I presume got edged by the rest of the Spaniards - Nadal, Ferrer, Robredo, et al. Del Potro - why is he not at the Olympics? - then Lopez, who I presume is another Spanish reject. Then Safin, Fish, Moya and Haas. Oh, Carlos... he's finally taken a bit of a slide down the rankings. All the way to #41... which isn't that bad, I suppose. Still, this isn't the best field ever. Though to be fair, it's really not the worst either. I would have pegged a lot of these guys - especially the Spaniards - as Olympic contenders. But when you come from a country with a deep pool, like Spain, I suppose there always have to be sacrifices.

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Though if we're looking at it that way, where are the French guys? We have Serra, Grosjean and Gicquel in the draw, but you'd think there'd be more... though I suppose that with Tsonga out and Gasquet whimpering under the bed, they don't have their top TOP guys at the Olympics, so someone has to pick up the slack.

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And there are no women's tournaments at all, so I can't revert to my old standby there... so we're going to be following LA this week. But I can't promise we'll follow it with much passion. Except for Safin matches. Because, mmm, Safin.

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Today's Results

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Countrywide Classic (Los Angeles)

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Denis Gremelmayr def. Fabio Fognini, 6-4 6-2

Florent Serra def. Andrey Golubev, 6-4 6-1

Marc Gicquel def. Zack Fleishman, 6-3 6-0