Nieminenenenen

I would not be myself if I did not begin this post with a big AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, as is my wont whenever Novak Djokovic gets beaten by someone he shouldn't have. How about Jarkko Nieminen? He played a fabulous match - and this has to be the best win of his career. He's never beaten a top five player before - and in my humble opinion, he couldn't have picked a better one to beat.

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I don't think this is going to have too much bearing on the Open - Djokovic could be playing his way into form - but I would not be unconcerned, were I in the Djokovic camp. That's all I'm saying. Along with AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

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It's going to be an interesting match, this final - who would have picked a Nalbandian/Nieminen match? Certainly not me. It's going to be intriguing to see an inform Nalbandian at the Open - he has got potential to beat any of the top four. He's in the Djokovic quarter, and that would be a very interesting match indeed. I was gunning for him to be in the Nadal quarter, because that would be interesting to the nth degree, but we cannot have everything. I'm going to pick him over Jarkko, but then I picked Djokovic over Jarkko as well. Who knows what Nieminenenenen can pull out of the bag this time?!

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The women's final was a very interesting match as well. It is beyond me why Elena Dementieva can hit such powerful, penetrating groundies and then have a serve which is the equivalent of caressing her opponent with a natural yoghurt (pop culture reference - props to anyone who gets it, as you clearly have excellent taste.) Imagine her game with, say, Serena's serve. She'd be unstoppable. Hell, put Safina's serve on her, and she'd be #1 in a flash.

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Dinara herself did not play badly - I think she got outplayed, mostly. Elena's on a hot streak. What did get me was how frickin' mean her coach was to her! Seriously, oncourt coaching is a dodgy enough enterprise, without your coach coming out and launching a tirade of abuse at you. Maybe that's how Dinara operates - she needs someone to be super-hard to help her knuckle down or whatever - but it didn't even really sound like constructive criticism to me... I hate oncourt coaching. I think it's ridiculous and should be thrown out the window, baby, bathwater and all. If you even mentioned the possibility on the ATP tour, there'd be uproar. Why is it all right on the WTA tour? The girls are not stupider than the guys!

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Speaking of the ATP tour, and the Player Council President in particular, he has a final himself today at Kooyong - which I cannot watch because of work, which saddens me greatly. It's going to be an interesting tussle, Roger vs. Stan - obviously you pick Roger, but Stan obviously knows his game so well... and they're such good mates. I bet that match will be a pleasure to watch - for all the people that aren't me!

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Oh, and props to Marija Mirkovic! I lied yesterday when I said Mr Milkshake was the only Aussie, male or female, left in qualies. Here's hoping Marija can pull it out over Kimiko Date Krumm and win herself a place in the main draw!

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Today's Results

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AAMI Classic (Kooyong)

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Stanislas Wawrinka def. Fernando Gonzalez, 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (1-7) 6-4
Marcos Baghdatis def. Marin Cilic, 6-3 6-2
Carlos Moya def. Ivan Ljubicic, 7-5 3-6 7-5

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Medibank International (Sydney)

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Men's Draw

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Jarkko Nieminen def. Novak Djokovic, 6-4 7-6 (7-3)

David Nalbandian def. Richard Gasquet, 6-4 6-3

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Women's Draw

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Elena Dementieva def. Dinara Safina, 6-3 2-6 6-1

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Heineken Open (Auckland)

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Juan Martin del Potro def. Robin Soderling, 6-4 6-3

Sam Querrey def. David Ferrer, 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4)

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Moorilla Hobart International (Hobart)

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Petra Kvitova def. Iveta Benesova, 7-5 6-1

Playing the Playoff

No, the tennis ain't quite over yet - we have the big Australian playoff starting tomorrow. Playing the playoff (can you say that?) are the winners of the under-18 championships, Marija Mirkovic and Brendan McKenzie. I was a bit sad to see Mirkovic beat Isabella Holland for the spot, but then she got in anyway, so that's all right. And Brendan McKenzie - I like what I am hearing about this kid.

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Let's start with the girls - top seed is Jess Moore, whom one would imagine would find some way or another into the draw whether she does well here or not, what with making the final of the girls' event last year and getting to the second round of the senior event. Another notables (ie. people I have heard of) include Monique Adamczak and Sophie Ferguson, but the really interesting one to watch is going to be Jelena Dokic, she who used to be #4 but who laboured under the shadow of the Damir. She's playing a sixteen year old from Queensland in her first match, and you'd want to hope she could win that one... otherwise I think we could safely say it was curtains for Jelena.

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The men is very interesting - particularly the match between the aforementioned Brendan McKenzie and Peter Luczak. That one could be seriously interesting. Previously, I'd have gone with Mr Milkshake every time, but this Brendan kid is looking seriously dangerous, if one can see that without ever seeing him play. His opponent for the final also made the cut to play the playoff (Dane Propoggia), and McKenzie rolled him 6-2 6-0 or something, so that's making a point. That'll be an intriguing match.

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Bernard Tomic against Colin Ebelthite will also be interesting - Ebelthite may not have the talent of Tomic, but he certainly has some maturity (you'd want to hope - he's 24!) There are some good names in the draw: Joe Sirianni is there, Robert Smeets, Carsten Ball, Sam Groth, Brydan Klein... actually, bar Guccione, the entire Australian Davis Cup team is in this playoff.

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That is frightening.