Davis Cup Dampener

I am a great fan of the tennis nation of Kazakhstan. It might seem cold and corporate to some, but I like the fact that they care enough about their tennis prowess to go and buy players like Golubev and Korolev and Shvedova to play for them. I appreciate that they care that much about tennis.

But I do, I confess, get a little bit upset when they go and take a 2-0 leave in a relegation tie over my beloved Switzerland.

The Big Swissie isn't there, of course - understandably, due to the whole semis in New York thing (see yesterday's rant) - but Stan Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli are. I expected Golubev to beat Chiudinelli - we all know that Golubev is a) awesome and b) one of my special favourites, making him even more awesome - but Stan? losing in five sets to Mikhail Kukushkin?

Excuse me while my eyes fall out of my head in surprise.

Stan, following you can be incredibly frustrating. Quite aside from your being second banana to my beloved R-Fed, I like watching you play - your backhand is artistry. If you and Gasquet ever played a backhand exhibition match, I would so be in that. I was super happy when you made the quarters of the US Open - that is genuinely a fantastic result.

But it kind of puts a dampener on it when you go and pull a stunt like this.

Despite the fact that Davis Cup is really, really hard to care about, I'm really genuinely annoyed with this result. And I'm a bit annoyed with R-Fed for not playing. Switzerland should be kicking Kazakhstan's arse in this tie and it's just not happening. The whole missing Roger and brainfarting Stan thing is leading to a real misrepresentation of the tennis prowess of Switzerland, and that is frustrating. (Now, if they changed the scheduling and the format...)

But that, I suppose, is the nature of tennis.

A Win Is A Win

All the headlines this morning are about how Federer had a scare in Basel and how he barely scraped through by the skin of his teeth against Bobby Reynolds, but it didn't look like he gave too bad an account of himself to me. Sure, he could have closed it out earlier - he had a match point in the second set - and sure it went to three, but he never exactly looked like he was going to lose, did he? It's probably good for him to sort of play his way into the tournament.

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Not that I wouldn't have been happier if he had cruised his way through. But a win is a win.

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Speaking of wins, one guy that did not get one was Marin Cilic... he was upset by Mikhail Kukushkin. Still, it's exciting that he has now ranked high enough to be able to upset. You know you're getting somewhere when you're the one getting upset rather than being the upsetter. Even if a win, on the whole, would have been preferable.

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But we did have some Star victories today - Jeremy Chardy pulled an upset over seventh seed Mario Ancic, and very remarkably, Ernests Gulbis stomped all over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. I bet Federer wouldn't have minded having a 6-0 6-2 cruise in Basel instead of a lengthy battle. Maybe this is Ernests's tournament. It has to come sooner or later, right? However, even though seeds like Cilic and Ancic were upset, we still have Davydenkos and Youzhnys and the like milling round... but Ernests can beat them. I know he can. Even if Davydenko has just qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup.

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Today's Results

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Davidoff Swiss Indoors (Basel)

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Roger Federer def. Bobby Reynolds, 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3

David Nalbandian def. Albert Montanes, 6-4 6-2

Juan Martin Del Potro def. George Bastl, 6-2 6-4

Simone Bolelli def. Tomas Berdych, 6-4 7-5

Andreas Beck def. Nicolas Devilder, 6-4 6-4

Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Denis Gremelmayr, 6-4 7-6 (7-5)

Oscar Hernandez def. Lukas Dlouhy, 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (5-7) 6-1

Stephane Bohli def. Jose Acasuso, 6-3 6-2

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St Petersburg Open (St Petersburg)

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Nikolay Davydenko def. Chris Guccione, 6-4 6-4

Fernando Verdasco def. Teimuraz Gabashvili, 1-6 6-4 6-3

Mikhail Youzhny def. Ivan Navarro, 6-2 6-1

Mikhail Kukushkin def. Marin Cilic, 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 7-6 (8-6)

Jeremy Chardy def. Mario Ancic, 6-4 3-6 6-4

Ernests Gulbis def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-0 6-2

Janko Tipsarevic def. Potito Starace, 6-3 7-6 (7-4)

Michail Elgin def. Filippo Volandri, 6-4 6-4

Karlis Lejnieks def. Alexandre Kudryavtsev, 3-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-3

Mischa Zverev def. Florent Serra, 6-4 6-2

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Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon (Lyon)

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Andy Roddick def. Nicolas Mahut, 7-6 (7-5) 6-4

Richard Gasquet def. Santiago Giraldo, 5-7 6-3 7-6 (7-3)

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Marc Gicquel, 7-5 4-6 6-3

Nicolas Lapentti def. Ivo Karlovic, 7-6 (7-4) 6-3

Fabrice Santoro def. Fabio Fognini, 6-4 6-1

Andreas Seppi def. David Guez, 6-2 7-5

Robby Ginepri def. Sebastien Grosjean, 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-4

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Generali Ladies Linz (Linz)

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Nadia Petrova def. Kateryna Bondarenko, 3-6 6-3 6-1

Marion Bartoli def. Ai Sugiyama, 6-4 2-6 7-6 (10-8)

Dominika Cibulkova def. Yvonne Meusburger, 6-4 6-2

Maria Kirilenko def. Olga Savchuk, 6-2 7-5

Alona Bondarenko def. Ekaterina Makarova, 6-3 6-3

Nuria Llagostera Vives def. Samantha Stosur, 2-6 6-4 6-2

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FORTIS Championships Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

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Elena Dementieva def. Tatjana Malek, 7-6 (7-5) 6-2

Caroline Wozniacki def. Timea Bacsinszky, 6-2 6-3

Sorana Cirstea def. Yuliana Fedak, 4-6 6-2 6-2

Iveta Benesova def. Laura Robson, 1-6 6-2 6-3

Gisela Dulko def. Tathiana Garbin, 6-4 6-2

Mariya Koryttseva def. Tsvetana Pironkova, 3-6 6-3 6-3

Catalina Castaño def. Marta Domachowska, 6-0 6-2

Man Among Boys

Whatever happened to Ivan Ljubicic? A couple of years ago, he was #3 in the world, head of the pack - when you consider that Roger and Rafa are in a different class to the rest of them. And now? He's the fifth seed of a bit tournament in Umag that he probably never had to play before, and playing Challengers every so often. What happened to big Ivan?

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See, I really like Ivan Ljubicic. Some of the men on the tennis circuit are really boys - they're so young and have been travelling on the tour for so much of their lives that it's all they know. They have no life experience outside tennis, and consequently are usually not very interesting. Ivan Ljubicic is a man. He's one of those people I'd like to go out for a drink with, just to hear him talk. He's mature and interesting and has a great deal of sportsmanship and integrity. He's one of the wise statesmen of tennis.

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Not that you necessarily have to have had some awful wartorn childhood like he did to be interesting. You don't have to have been head of the Players' Council to have integrity either. But when it comes down to it, Ivan Ljubicic is one of a few men among a whole heap of boys. And it's sad not to see him doing as well as he did in the past. His buzzword used to be consistency. That was his thing. You'd rarely see him in the semis of a Slam, and certainly never a final, but he'd hit those quarters, year in, year out, and take out his fair share of the minor tournaments as well. This year, his highlights are a final in Zagreb and two semis (Doha and Poertschach.) He's now ranked #38 in the world.

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One of the casualties of being a man among boys is obviously age, and Ivan is a good deal older than a lot of the players on tour. He must be what? pushing thirty now. Let me check... yes, 29. Not that that is ancient, and it's certainly not dead in tennis terms - one only has to look at the Clement/Schuettler semi final to see that! - but Rafa is 22. Djokovic is 21. And they're both Slam winners.

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Not that I expect Ivan to win a Slam. Maybe in his heyday, if his heyday hadn't been in the Golden Age of Roger Federer (which is still continuing, incidentally) he might have had a shot. But it was nice to see a man of such maturity and integrity up at the top of the game. I mean, technically, #38 ain't half bad. That's #38 out of the three billion or so men in the world. But it's not #3.

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Look at me, coming down hard on Ivan just after he's won a match in spectacular fashion! He brutalised Mikhail Kukushkin in Umag today - 6-1 6-2, winning 100% of the points on his first serve. I mean, sure, Kukushkin is #135 - but that's still #135 of three billion. The difference between players becomes a lot smaller when you think of it in those terms. So well done, Ivan. He's the man I want to win in Umag this week. Because Ivan deserves a title this year. I don't intend to profile him on Stars of the Past, Stars of the Future any time soon, because he is still a Star of the PRESENT.

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That said, I did profile Safin, and he's well and truly proved that there's some game in the ol' Marat yet...

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Today's Results

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Austrian Open (Kitzbuhel)

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Rainer Schuettler def. Andreas Beck, 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-2

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Agustin Calleri, 6-4 6-4

Potito Starace def. Santiago Giraldo, 6-1 6-2

Eduardo Schwank def. Michael Berrer, 6-4 6-1

Jurgen Melzer def. Luis Horna, 6-3 6-1

Juan Martin del Potro def. Josselin Ouanna, 6-3 6-3

Ivo Minar def. Olivier Rochus, 3-6 6-4 6-0

Brian Dabul def. Stephane Bohli, 6-1 6-1

Leonardo Mayer def. Denis Gremelmayr, 6-1 7-6 (7-3)

Jan Hernych def. Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, 7-5 7-5

Victor Hanescu def. Pablo Andujar, 6-3 1-6 7-6 (7-2)

Nicolas Devilder def. Matthias Bachinger, 6-3 6-3

Sergio Roitman def. Martin Fischer, 6-4 6-2

Alexander Peya def. Guillermo Coria, 5-7 retired

Daniel Koellerer def. Philipp Oswald 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4)

Daniel Brands def. Eric Prodon, 6-3 6-4

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Dutch Open Tennis (Amersfoort)

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Albert Montanes def. Kristof Vliegen, 6-4 6-2

Philipp Petzschner def. Florent Serra 2-6 6-4 6-4

Jesse Huta Galung def. Santiago Ventura, 6-1 1-0 retired

Pablo Cuevas def. Werner Eschauer, 7-5 6-2

Oscar Hernandez def. Denis Matsukevitch, 6-1 6-3

Ivan Navarro def. Igor Sijsling, 6-3 6-1

Edouard Roger-Vasselin def. Martin Verkerk, 2-6 7-6 (11-9) 4-3 retired

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Studena Croatia Open (Umag)

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Ivan Ljubicic def. Mikhail Kukushkin, 6-1 6-2

Guillermo Canas def. Nicolas Massu, 7-5 6-2

Marcos Daniel def. Carlos Berlocq, 6-3 4-6 6-4

Mischa Zverev def. Luka Belic, 6-2 6-3

Daniel Gimeno-Traver def. Olivier Patience, 6-2 6-2

Maximo Gonzalez def. Filip Prpic, 7-5 6-3

Victor Troicki def. Jiri Vanek, 6-3 6-1

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Indianapolis Tennis Championships (Indianapolis)

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Paul Capdeville def. Robby Ginepri, 6-4 6-2

Tommy Haas def. Jesse Levine, 7-6 (7-4) 6-2

Rajeev Ram def. Fabrice Santoro, 7-6 (8-6) 6-4

Alejandro Falla def. Thomaz Bellucci, 3-6 6-4 6-1

Wayne Odesnik def. Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi, 6-4 7-5

Bobby Reynolds def. Frank Dancevic, 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 6-2

John Isner def. Robert Kendrick, 7-5 6-4

Woong-Sun Jun def. Chris Guccione, 6-4 7-6 (7-4)

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Bank of the West Classic (Stanford)

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Dominika Cibulkova def. Nadia Petrova, 6-4 3-6 6-3

Samantha Stosur def. Anastasia Rodionova, 6-3 6-1

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Gastein Ladies (Bad Gastein)

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Pauline Parmentier def. Tathiana Garbin, 6-2 7-6 (7-3)

Iveta Benesova def. Kirsten Flipkens, 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 6-4

Maret Ani def. Klara Zakopalova, 7-5 4-6 6-3

Galina Voskoboeva def. Sanda Mamic, 4-6 6-4 6-0

Melanie Klaffner def. Lucie Safarova, 6-3 6-4

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And today in Stars of the Past, Stars of the Future: Jonas Bjorkman.

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Jonas Bjorkman has got used to being the oldest man in the main draw of the singles in Grand Slams. He is thirty six years old, and despite being better known as a doubles player, has enjoyed significant singles success throughout his entire career. In 2006, he reached the semi finals of Wimbledon. For a man in his mid thirties, that isn't a bad effort at all. Most tennis players have long since retired by his age, tucked up in their rocking chairs with carpet slippers, but Bjorkman has continued to play both singles and doubles - an absolutely extraordinary effort.

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The star of Bjorkman has just about burned out - he has just announced that he will retire at the end of the season. His wife Petra has just given birth to their second child, so it is only to be expected. But his career has been a beacon for the tennis world. His reinvention of himself as a doubles player was inspired, and it has allowed him a career that is almost twice the length of that of some other players. And he has enjoyed significant doubles success as well. His partnership with Max Mirnyi was one of the best partnerships in the modern era, and they consistently pressed the Bryan brothers to the limit. Now, playing with fellow doubles specialist Kevin Ullyett, Bjorkman is still enjoying a lot of success. He may be retiring, but he is retiring on his terms, and he is going to play his heart out until that day arrives. His attitude is an excellent example to young tennis players everywhere - and perhaps it is this, rather than his undeniably excellent on court career, that will be his greatest legacy. Jonas Bjorkman is living proof that a tennis career does not end once a player hits the big 3-0.