Huge F*cking Idiot

Okay, firstly, Mardy Fish, I rescind my not-hot assessment of you yesterday. I'm still not a massive fan of your game and I don't think you're going to achieve too much more in your career, but if you're going to go and beat Andy Murray in straights, you deserve my respect. Kudos, dude.

Secondly, I think we can all agree that Wayne Odesnik is a huge f*cking idiot.

Drugs and sport do not belong together. If you look at the drug scandals we've had in tennis over the past few years, they're comparatively tame compared to what Odesnik has tried to do. We've had some cocaine scandals - Gasquet and Hingis spring to mind - and then some not turning up to drug tests/reporting whereabouts deals with Wickmayer and Malisse. But to try and smuggle eight vials of human growth hormone into Australia (a country, by the way, with such tight border controls that even the most minute fleck of soil could see you quarantined)?

You f*cking idiot.

There have been a number of reactions to this whole saga and a lot oh-my-god-Odesnik-is-coached-by-Canas-and-Canas-served-a-drug-ban and all that kind of thing, but I think Andy Roddick's reaction is my favourite and the one I endorse the most. He said:

"That's just plain cheating, and they should throw him out of tennis. There's just no room for it."

Word, A-Rod.

The WADA ban for this is two years, but this kind of offence in a sport as clean as tennis is pretty much unforgivable. If Odesnik were to be slapped with a lifetime ban, you would hear no word out of protest from me. Because let's face it - the dude is a huge f*cking idiot.

Dropping Eduardo

I'm making it official. I'm dropping someone from my Stars of the Future club. Bye bye, Eduardo Schwank.

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Schwank shot to fame (well, "fame") last year when he won three Challengers on clay in a row and then nearly burned down a hotel and lost all his prize money. He put in the best performance of all the Argentines at Roland Garros, making it to the third round. He had a good couple of months there.

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But he hasn't delivered since then, and the time has come (the walrus said). The other kids in the Stars club have been steadily performing better and better (current concerns re Ernests Gulbis aside). So, bye, Eduardo. Been nice having you.

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Speaking of Challengers, it's always interesting to see who's been winning them, so let's have a look... am glad to see a couple of Aussie boys on the list, with Brydan Klein and Bernard Tomic winning a couple early one (but I did discuss those at the time... ad nauseam, I do believe.) No one is standing out as someone that is winning a whole pile, but Benjamin Becker is one that's popped up a few times (aka Becker-no-relation.) Andreas Beck is on the list as well. And the French wizard, Fabrice Santoro won one last week. Which is nice for him.

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Other overnight winners include the elusive Mikhail Youzhny, who seems to pop up whenever it suits him, and Gaston Gaudio, whom I have not seen around for some time. (What's up with that? I thought he was gone for good.) But we had some bad losses as well... Marat Safin, Guillermo Canas and, yes, Eduardo Schwank, I'm looking at you.

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Today's Results

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Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell (Barcelona)

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David Ferrer def. Mikahil Kukushkin, 6-3 3-6 6-1

Igor Andreev def. Alberto Martin, 6-2 6-2

Radek Stepanek def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-4 2-6 6-4

Robin Soderling def. Teimuraz Gabashvili, 6-1 6-4

Feliciano Lopez def. Jarkko Nieminen, 6-2 6-1

Daniel Gimeno-Traver def. Fabio Fognini, 6-1 6-3

Oscar Hernandez def. Eduardo Schwank, 6-2 6-4

Arnaud Clement def. Guillermo Canas, 7-6 (7-0) 6-3

Gaston Gaudio def. Diego Junqueira, 6-4 3-6 6-4

Juan Monaco def. Marat Safin, 6-4 6-1

Richard Gasquet def. Jan Hernych, 4-6 6-3 6-2

Nicolas Lapentti def. Paul-Henri Mathieu, 6-4 2-6 6-2

Mikhail Youzhny def. Viktor Troicki, 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4

Throwing Mud

The ATP headlines from Umag are about Guillermo Canas's 'marathon' win over Boris Pashanski. I don't know if you can call a three set match of any description a marathon, but that's a different matter. I'm going to talk about Canas today. Because I can.

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I'm under the impression that Canas is not a very popular player, and I have to say that I am not really a fan. I think that whenever a drugs scandal clouds someone's career, they're going to lose a lot of fans, fast, even if they turn out to be innocent. Canas did his time and came back - and kudos to him for having the guts to come back - but when you throw mud, it sticks, and Canas is never going to get rid of that. Ever.

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I'm not going to weigh in on the issue of whether or not he did the drugs, because I don't know and I don't follow him closely enough to care. But the thing is, it is his defining characteristic. I couldn't tell you a single thing about him and his career other than he served out a drug suspension, and came back to beat Federer twice in two weeks at Indian Wells and Miami last year. So what makes Willy tick? I have absolutely no idea.

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In retrospect, that fact considered, it didn't make a lot of sense to try to write a blog post about him. I'm kind of out of things to say.

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Sadly, Ivan Ljubicic - about whom I am quite capable of writing a post! - had to retire before his match began, handing Roko Karanusic a free pass into the next round. He said he felt sharp pains in his back at dinner, and although he tried to get himself ready to play, it was just about impossible. You've got to wonder what kind of injury that is - a back injury that shows himself at dinner. How bizarre. But poor Ivan.

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Kitzbuhel got basically rained out again. That will learn them for having a clay tournament this week. Because clay and rain are clearly connected.

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I'd really love to write more about Indianapolis, but as I write this, the matches of the day are still continuing there. Which is sort of a pain. The one tournament I give my blessing to, and they have to carry on at such unsuitable hours.

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You may be able to tell that I don't have very much to say today. I'll stop now and end the misery!

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Today's Results

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Austrian Open (Kitzbuhel)

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Jurgen Melzer def. Leonardo Mayer, 6-4 6-2

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Dutch Open Tennis (Amersfoort)

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Jose Acasuso def. Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 6-3 6-4

Marcel Granollers def. Ivan Navarro, 6-4 6-4

Albert Montanes def. Pablo Cuevas, 6-4 6-4

Oscar Hernandez def. Jesse Huta Galung, 6-3 6-2

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Studena Croatia Open (Umag)

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Roko Karanusic def. Ivan Ljubicic, walkover

Guillermo Canas def. Boris Pashanski, 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 7-5

Maximo Gonzalez def. I Karlovic, 3-6 6-3 6-4

Igor Andreev def. Daniel Gimeno-Traver, 6-2 7-6 (7-3)

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Indianapolis Tennis Championships (Indianapolis)

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Bobby Reynolds def. Alejandro Falla, 6-1 6-1

Yen-Hsun Lu def. Rajeev Ram, 6-1 7-6 (7-1)

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Bank of the West Classic (Stanford)

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Aleksandra Wozniak def. Sybille Bammer, 6-4 7-5

Patty Schnyder def. Alisa Kleybanova, 7-6 (10-8) 6-4

Serena Williams def. Michelle Larcher de Brito, 4-6 6-3 6-2

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Gastein Ladies (Bad Gastein)

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Patricia Mayr def. Rossana de los Ríos, 6-3 6-3

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And today in Stars of the Past, Stars of the Future: Fabrice Santoro.

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Marat Safin, at the height of his dominance, said that being told he had to play Santoro was like being told he had to die. He was not the only player who felt like that. The little Frenchman was never going to hit anyone off the court, but the wizard of the men's game was capable of some shots that were nothing short of amazing. A recent article for DEUCE magazine called him the Harry Potter of men's tennis. He plays with cunning and cleverness, not with power.

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Santoro is one of the oldest men on the tour, but he is still going strong. This is because his game is not as hard on his body as that of the power players. He is almost Federesque in the way he glides round the court - and while he has never attained the heights that the current #1 has, he is by no means the poor man's Federer. Santoro has his own brand of magic. His racquet is his wand, and with it he creates spins and angles to bamboozle the best in the world.

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For example, in his quarter final match against David Nalbandian at the 2006 Australian Open, Santoro hit a drop shot of such exquisite precision and with such incredible spin, that by the time Nalbandian had reached it, it had bounced back onto Santoro's side of the net. Santoro did not win that match - the second two sets were 6-0 6-0 in Nalbandian's favour - but it is points like that that people remember. That is what Fabrice Santoro brings to tennis - his Gallic charm, his big grin and a little bit of magic.

An Unlikely Eight

Well, don't we have an unlikely set of semi-finalists in s'Hertogenbosch? And in Nottingham? Nottingham less so, but these are a bunch of guys you wouldn't expect to see, say, in the second week at Wimbledon (mostly.) So... it's interesting.

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This may be a testament more to the calibre of players playing this week more than anything else - Federer, Nadal and Djokovic all conspicuously absent, along with grasscourt heavyweights like Roddick and Hewitt. The one man who was playing this week that I would normally put money on to reach the second round of Wimbledon, Richard Gasquet, got knocked out early. But consider this: Rafa Nadal, who has reached the final of Wimbledon for the past two years, has only just won his first grasscourt title. That says something about how difficult it is to do well on grass. So it will be interesting to see which two of these eight walks away with the prize.

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Let's look at Nottingham first. In the first semi final we have Gael Monfils, recent French Open semi finalist, and Ivo Karlovic, defending champion. I'd venture to say that whoever wins this semi will win the match. It's hard for three set matches to be real throwdown affairs - there is only so long a match like that can go on for. (That is why five set matches are so preferable, in my opinion... they're gladiatorial, and they're amazing tests of endurance, both mental and physical.) Dr Ivo will have the edge with his monstrous serve - we must remember the close shave that Rafa had with him over at Queen's - but Monfils has such flairs of unpredictable brilliance. If Monfils plays like he does in the first and second sets of his semi at Roland Garros against Federer, I'd back him. Otherwise, I might have to come down on the side of Dr Ivo's dull but effective percentage tennis.

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In the other semi we have Fernando Verdasco and Marin Cilic. Verdasco is the higher seed - he's seeded #3 - but I've been quite impressed with Cilic of late. His win at the Australian Open over Gonzalez was nothing short of remarkable, and as he grows in confidence, I think he's going to be a real danger. However, Verdasco has a psychological advantage over him, I think. They played in the semis of St Petersburg last year, a match which Verdasco won. But Verdasco's quarter-final win over Simon seems much scratchier than Cilic's win over Johansson... so I think I'm going to go for the underdog in this one. So my pick for the Nottingham final is Karlovic/Cilic.

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Now, in s'Hertogenbosch, we have four players that are really not grasscourters... Gicquel, maybe, but definitely not the other three. We have Ferrer against Del Potro, and Gicquel against Canas. You've got to back Ferru for the title - especially after he had such a great victory over Ancic, who definitely is a grasscourt player. Del Potro is good, but he isn't exactly Captain Grass, and he has a long way to go before he becomes the player he has the talent to be. He's only a littl'un... not in stature, obviously, but in age, certainly. So I'm saying Ferru, and Ferru easily, because he's awesome and in form and a cool guy, and stuff. Vamos Ferru!

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The other one will be interesting. I think people often fall into the trap of categorising Willy Canas as a claycourter because he's Argentinian, but his best results have come on hard courts. That doesn't make him a grasscourter, but I think it makes him more of one than, say, Nicolas Almagro. I can't say I know a whole lot about Gicquel... I do remember that, ah, incident with him and Benjamin Becker's serve at Halle last year, wherein he ended up in a lot of pain and, although he beat Becker (and that pesky 129km serve, hehehe) he had to retire against Nieminen. I think every man that was watching that day must have winced in unison.

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Just for that, I'm gunning for Gicquel, because I feel sorry for him, and also because I don't like Willy very much. So Ferru/Gicquel for the s'Hertogenbosch final.

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But it's odd, isn't it? Karlovic is probably the closest to a grass courter we have in either of these semis. It's heavy on the Latins, and that's a bit unusual, when it comes down to it. Not that it's bad, but it's definitely weird.

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Today's Results

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Ordina Open (s'Hertogenbosch)

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David Ferrer def. Mario Ancic, 6-4 7-6 (7-4)

Juan Martin del Potro def. Arnaud Clement, 2-6 6-3 6-1

Guillermo Canas def. Viktor Troicki, 6-2 6-2

Marc Gicquel def. Jurgen Melzer, 6-3 6-4

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Elena Dementieva def. Sorana Cirstea, 6-2 6-4

Tamarine Tanasugarn def. Michaella Krajicek, 3-6 6-3 6-4

Alona Bondarenko def. Anna Chakvetadze, 6-2 3-6 6-2

Dinara Safina def. Katerina Srebotnik, walkover

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Slazenger Open (Nottingham)

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Gael Monfils def. Vince Spadea, 7-6 (7-4) 6-2

Ivo Karlovic def. Andreas Seppi, 6-3 3-6 6-4

Fernando Verdasco def. Gilles Simon, 6-3 2-6 6-3

Marin Cilic def. Thomas Johansson, 6-1 6-2

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International Women's Open (Eastbourne)

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Samantha Stosur def. Caroline Wozniacki, 7-6 (7-3) 6-4

Nadia Petrova def. Ekaterina Makarova, 6-4 6-3

Agnieszka Radwanska def. Gisela Dulko, 7-5 7-5

Marion Bartoli def. Alisa Kleybanova, 6-3 6-3

Fairweather Fan?

I have to confess that I was selfishly glad that rain stopped play yesterday, as it was about 1am in the morning here in Australia, and although I was determined to follow the Nadal/Belluci match, the likelihood of me falling asleep would have been quite high. Now it will be on at a much more sane time for we Aussies.

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It will come to no surprise for anyone who read this blog over the Australian summer that I intend to devote a large part of this post to the Federer match, as he is my hero and all and I really, really want him to win. The matches aren't televised here, but I followed his match on Radio Roland Garros (to which I am terribly addicted) and was pretty pleased, overall. I can see how people might say it was a scratchy start - he certainly wasn't in GodMode - but really, he didn't need to be. Kudos to Querrey, who isn't really a claycourter, for staying with him for a good part of the match, but there really wasn't much doubt that the Fed was going to come out on top.

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The official Roland Garros website's roundup of the match refers to Federer as 'in-form' and it's nice that he's finally getting some recognition. His first half of the season has certainly been lacklustre by his standards, but hey! what with the mononucleosis and all, who can blame him. I've seen some of his clay matches this season - that semi in Monte Carlo against Djokovic comes to mind - and I think I can honestly say that this is the best I have ever seen him play on clay. Sure, he didn't win Hamburg by beating Nadal like he did last year, but I really don't think that's the huge psychological blow people are saying it is. Actually, I think Federer might have been hiding his real game - he played very differently in that final to the way he played all week. And even then, if he had managed to hold out in that first set, then he would have won the match in straights. Rafa is the greatest dirtballer in the world, sure - maybe even ever - but Roger's pushing him, I think. And for that, I am glad.

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Speaking of Rafa, I am torn between wanting a throwdown semi between him and Djokovic and wanting Djokovic to get knocked out embarassingly early. It is no secret that Djokovic is potentially my least-liked tennis player - I never thought I'd see the day that someone who overtake Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Murray in that standing, but it has arrived. He had a scratchy start against Gremelmayr yesterday, and, even though he won Rome and reached the semis here last year, has hardly established himself as a force to be reckoned with on clay.

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No one can doubt the prowess of Djokovic as a player - he deserved his Australian Open win - but his personality leaves a lot to be desired. It is understandable that he wants to be #1 - who wouldn't? - but the lack of respect he shows for Federer is criminal. (Did anyone else get a surge of glee when Federer told Djokovic's abrasive family to 'be quiet, okay?' in that semi at Monte Carlo.) This is one reason, actually, that I'd like to see a semi between Nadal and Djokovic. Djokovic is always going on about he's going to be #1 and be better than Federer, and he totally forgets about Nadal. There is no one in the history of tennis that has been a more dominant #2 than Rafa. It was great to see Rafa lay the beatdown on him in Hamburg. It is time that Rafa taught Djokovic some respect.

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The upset of the day yesterday was obviously Willy Canas's loss to Wayne Odesnik. I can't say much about the match as I didn't see it, but I'm not sure what happened there. Willy must've just had an off day, I guess... especially in the breakers! Odesnik is hardly one of the dangerous young guns - whereas Schwank, who took out Moya yesterday, obviously is. And speaking of upsets, I thought Venus Williams was a goner for sure in her match against Obziler. She dug herself out of it, but it was tight. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Venus has ever won the French... and I don't think she ever will. (The Roland Garros website would have you believe that Jankovic had a scare too, but that is melodramatising a bit, I think. That 12-10 final set against Paszek in Australia? That was a scare. Not a straight sets victory.) However, the US is doing better than last year, in the men's at least... anyone else remember that 0 from 9 last year?

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And speaking of nations doing poorly, how 'bout them French? I mean, the ones that are still there are doing okay - Florent Serra and Michael Llodra, for example - but Tsonga out? And Grosjean? And now Gasquet? It ain't so good. I hope the break will be good for Richou at least, of whom I am quite fond... he has semifinal points to defend at Wimbledon, so I hope he gets his head back in the game by then. And if there is going to be a Marcos at this year's Roland Garros, it's not going to be Jo-W this time... or, indeed, Marcos, who got knocked out by Simone Bolelli today. (Although considering it was his first claycourt match of the season, I'm hardly surprised.)

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And can I just say how much I love Radio Roland Garros? Infinitely preferable to the commentators we had in the Australian tennis summer (Jim Courier excepted - he's a champion.) No one has mentioned kitchens yet, and for that I am very glad! It was interesting to hear them talk about David Nalbandian, actually... they agreed that he is the most unpleasant man to interview on the ATP circuit. I always enjoy hearing the gossipy little details like that... often it reinforces my own assumptions! The commentator in Monte Carlo commentating the Federer/Djokovic match said that there was little love lost between them, to which my response was 'ha! I knew it!' I would love to know more about this... about who is friends with whom and who sits alone in the player restaurant because no one likes them. Sometimes tennis gossip is more interesting than tennis itself!

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And finally, poor Robert Smeets. It wasn't a happy day for the Aussies yesterday - Guccione went out as well - but he got pounded by Berdych. That can't have been a happy moment.

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Roland Garros Results - Day 2

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Sam Querrey, 6-4 6-4 6-3

Florent Serra def. Santiago Giraldo, 6-4 6-3 6-2

Tommy Robredo def. Guillermo Coria, 5-7 6-4 6-1 6-4

Michael Llodra def. Olivier Patience, 3-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 7-5

Simone Bolleli def. Marcos Baghdatis, 6-2 6-4 6-2

Nicholas Devilder def. Chris Guccione, 6-4 6-1 6-4

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Sergio Roitman, 6-2 6-4 7-6 (7-5)

Tomas Berdych def. Robert Smeets, 6-1 6-0 6-0

Oscar Hernandez def. Ivo Minar, 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 7-5

Wayne Odesnik def. Guillermo Canas, 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (10-8)

Hyung-taik Lee def. Jonas Bjorkman, 6-4 6-4 6-3

Marcel Granollers def. Michael Berrer, 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-3

Pablo Andujar def. Filippo Volandri, 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 6-3 6-3

Fernando Gonzalez def. Pablo Cuevas, 6-3 6-3 6-1

Fernando Verdasco def. Santiago Ventura, 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-1

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Women's Draw

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Venus Williams def. Tzipora Obziler, 6-3 4-6 6-2

Jelena Jankovic def. Monica Niculescu, 7-6 (7-3) 6-2

Jelena Pandzic def. Severine Bremond, 4-6 6-3 6-2

Patty Schnyder def. Ekaterina Bychkova, 6-3 6-4

Emilie Loit def. Yan Zi, 1-6 6-4 8-6

Gisela Dulko def. Sara Errani, 6-4 4-6 7-5

Agnes Szavay def. Ayumi Morita, 6-1 4-6 6-4

Karin Knapp def. Martina Muller, 6-0 6-4

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Maria-Emilia Salerni, 6-1 6-1

Timea Bacsinszky def. Tamira Paszek, 1-6 6-3 6-3

Petra Cetkovska def. Alona Bondarenko, 6-3 6-0