Sam Slams It

She did it! She finally did it! After an awesomely fantastic breakthrough year, Sam Stosur has finally won her first title.

Now that makes me happy.

Sure, Osaka's not the most massive title in the history of the world, but it's all Sam's now. She really was overdue for this and I can't think of anyone else who deserves it more. Well done, Slammin' Sammy! May this be the beginning of a veritable flood of titles and general awesomeness!

I was also very pleased with the result of Linz, which saw US Open surprise package Yanina Wickmayer take out the title, beating Petra Kvitova in the final. She's got a whole lot of talent - and an awesome story, as we recall from those pressers in New York - and it's good to see her follow up her great run there with a bang. Looks like we might just have a Belgian trifecta at the beginning of next year - I doubt Wickmayer's going to lie down and let Clijsters and Henin take all the glory!

And then we have Kolya, Mr Cellophane himself. He played absolutely wonderfully to take out the Rafinator and there ain't much more to say than that. Is this the start of a Nalbandian-esque run? I don't know. It doesn't matter, really. But I am very glad that Kolya has another one of those glass shields to add to his Miami trophy. A dude as consistent as him deserves some pay off every once in a while. So awesome work, Kolya!


Today's Results

Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 (Shanghai)

Nikolay Davydenko def. Rafael Nadal, 7-6 (7-3) 6-3


Generali Ladies Linz (Linz)

Yanina Wickmayer def. Petra Kvitova, 6-3 6-4


HP Open (Osaka)

Samantha Stosur def. Francesca Schiavone, 7-5 6-1

Restoring Order

I do so love it when Roger Federer wins stuff. It seems like things are happening correctly - like proper order has been restored. In the first part of the year, when he was suffering under the mono-monster, something really was rotten in the state of Denmark. But now, with him, like, winning stuff, chaos has been averted. Order has been restored.

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One thing I really like about his play is how he improves over the course of the tournament - not that I in any way endorse his early round jitters against players like Bobby Reynolds. But he really stepped it up come semis and especially today, in the finals. David Nalbandian is no pushover - even if LameDave shows up, he still has game. He and Roger are old-time rivals and they have a pretty competitive career record: after Basel, Roger now leads 10-8. So it was great for the Fed to beat Headbandian so convincingly. Not having seen the match, I don't know if it was GoodDave or LameDave who turned up, but GoodDave has been in evidence this week, so I'm going to assume it was him. And R-Fed took care of business. All is well.

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The only tournament, men or women, this week in which the top seed did not win was Lyon, where seventh seeded Robin Soderling took out unseeded Julien Benneteau. The top seed was Andy Roddick. Well, I guess he should have gone to the Olympics. Any failings he has for the rest of his career I am going to blame on that.

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So our other winners were Andy Murray (who totally owned Andrey 'who?' Golubev, but kudos to the qualifier for making it to the final!), Elena Dementieva and - guess what!? - Ana Ivanovic. That's right, Ana is back winning stuff, and that is very exciting. It may not have been the biggest tournament in the world, but it certainly wasn't a total schlep tournament: it was Tier II. So well done Ana! Hopefully this will do wonders for her confidence and we'll see her make a good account of herself in Doha.

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And before I go, vale Federico Luzzi. This 28 year old Italian player unfortunately died of leukaemia after being diagnosed over the weekend. What a sad day for Italian tennis.

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Today's Results

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Davidoff Swiss Indoors (Basel)

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Roger Federer def. David Nalbandian, 6-3 6-4

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St Petersburg Open (St Petersburg)

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Andy Murray def. Andrey Golubev, 6-1 6-1

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Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon (Lyon)

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Robin Soderling def. Julien Benneteau, 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-1

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BNP Paribas Masters (Paris)

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Tommy Robredo def. Jeremy Chardy, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5)

Dmitry Tursunov def. Adrian Mannarino, 6-3 6-2

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Generali Ladies Linz (Linz)

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Ana Ivanovic def. Vera Zvonareva, 6-2 6-1

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FORTIS Championships Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

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