Dudes' Hot or Not in Miami

I hot-or-notted the ladies of Miami yesterday - surprise, surprise, today it's time of the dudes. (Sidebar - I know I was all like 'Alicia Molik is crushing her opponents' the other day and today she got double bagelled. I still think she's cool).

Okay. Dudes.

Hot: Yen-hsun Lu. He's back inside the top hundred and he's going up. He's had some injury problems but when Rendy plays well, he's awesome. Love this kid.

Not: Nicolas Lapentti. I know he and his brother did that big Davis Cup thing last year, but I think it's heading towards lacy, gently wafting curtains for Nico.

Hot: Marsel Ilhan. He's a Turkish sensation and he's screaming up the rankings. What an exciting new face (and new nationality, for tennis) in the game!

Not: Juan Ignacio Chela. I'm pretty sure the defining moments of his career will be his spats with Lleyton Hewitt. He hasn't been very impressive for a while now.

Hot: Philipp Petzschner. The more I see of this guy the more I like him. He's got some real fire in his tennis and I think there are bright things ahead.

Not: Mardy Fish. I'm just not feeling it. I know he sometimes comes through as a surprise in tournaments and ends up really deep, but he just doesn't do it for me.

Hot: Peter Luczak. No secrets about how much I dig Mr Milkshake. Really excited about his future as we head into the clay season.

Not: Stephane Robert. This may seem a little unfair, but he's suddenly turned up in the top hundred and I have no idea where he's come from. Judgment reserved until I actually see him do something.

Anyone I've missed?

Awesome Andrey

Oh man, my boy Andrey Golubev was SO CLOSE to pulling a big upset in Rotterdam and knocking out sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny. He cantered away with a breadstick in the first but then lost the next two sets in tiebreaks. Clearly he has still got his awesome game going on and it wasn't just an Australian fluke - but he's got to close out these matches instead of coming OMGSOCLOSE. Because I firmly believe that he can skyrocket - and I mean skyrocket - up those rankings. If he keeps playing the way I saw him play in Perth...

...I can't get over how awesome he is and how low his ranking is by comparison. Though he did improve it by about thirty places over the Australian summer - and when you consider that he totally only played the Australian Open, as the Hopman Cup (where he was arguably at his awesomest) has no ranking points attached, that is totally awesome.

If he can only win matches like this one against Youzhny instead of coming agonisingly close, then we will really be cooking with gas. But watch this kid, guys. Andrey Golubev is going places.

Another result from Rotterdam I thought was interesting was Marsel Ilhan's win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Garcia-Lopez can really ball on the red stuff, so this was a good win. But what I want to know is - where did Ilhan come from? I could swear I had never heard of him before the beginning of this year... or maybe late last year. Point is, he popped up so suddenly. Suddenly Turkey is all about tennis. I noticed the same OMGlookatme! appearance of Horacio Zeballos as well - I'd never seen him before and suddenly he was everywhere.

Goes to show you can write about tennis every day and still things surprise you.

One thing that does not surprise me, however, is Alize Cornet losing in Paris. Seriously, when was the last time she actually won a match? Did losing that match to Safina at AO '09 really do this much damage?