Missing Ivan Dodig

Here is a list of facts I know about Ivan Dodig:

1) He is from Croatia.
2) His first name is Ivan.
3) His surname is... wait for it, drumroll please... Dodig.
4) He is humanoid. (Probably. I assume.)
5) He plays tennis.
6) He is pretty good at playing tennis. (I think.)

Seriously, had anyone heard of Ivan Dodig before this year? I have totally never heard of him. The first time he popped into my frame of vision was at the Australian Open this year when he played that epic late night match against Karlovic. I could have stopped by and seen a little bit - I was in Rod Laver Arena that night - the night that Djokovic beat Granollers - and that session finished before this outside court epic.

But I didn't stop by. Me and Ivan Dodig missed each other again.

Dodig lost in the second round of the Australian Open (there is another fact I can add to my list!) which seems pretty unremarkable, until you consider who he lost to. You might have heard of him. His name is Novak Djokovic and he's been doing pretty okay recently.

So okay, in fact, that he only dropped one set in the whole tournament. He played a bunch of awesome guys - Federer, Murray, Berdych. But that one set he lost to was to some guy named Ivan Dodig. Of whom I had never heard.

I didn't see the match. I missed Ivan Dodig. Of course.

But clearly his set-winning was a sign, because Ivan Dodig, of whom I have never heard, just went and won himself a title at Zagreb. He's also got a pretty good 2011 record - he's won seven matches and lost twice, or so the ATP website tells me. And those two losses came to Djokovic at the Australian Open and Berdych in Chennai, so he's not exactly losing to Mickey Mouse opponents here. Ivan Dodig - whoever he is - has very suddenly made the big time.

Zagreb had a couple of local hopes in there who were real chances at the title. Marin Cilic was one. Ivan Ljubicic was another. If either of these dudes had taken out the title, then it wouldn't have been surprising. But this Dodig guy? He's the homegrown hero that no one expected. Because as far as I can tell, he just popped into existence this year.

I wish I could say something more meaningful about him, but you've seen all I know about him in my awesome List of Ivan Dodig Facts. (To which I can add this, courtesy of the ATP website - he is coached by a dude called Martin Stepanek. Any relation, do you think?) What it really proves - once again - is the depth of the field. I think I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to, you know, knowing tennis players exist and stuff. Put me in front of a Challenger draw and I'll recognise a bunch of the names. But before this year, Ivan Dodig wouldn't have been one of them. And now he's gone and won not a Challenger title, but a full tour title.

That is a major-ass achievement. There is a whole ton of tennis players out there - very successful ones - who have never won a title. Never come close. Look at Janko Tipsarevic, for example. We all know who he is, but he's never won a title. Same with Potito Starace. Rendy Lu. But this Dodig dude has. He's smashed through the wall that these dudes never have.

And all I can tell you about him is that he is humanoid (probably). Tennis can always surprise you.

Frankie, the Potato, and the Glorious Kazakhs

I could talk about the tennis going on in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok and Beijing and whatnot...

...or I could talk about my favourite tournament of the year, and how awesome it's going to be next year.

That's right. More teams have been announced for the Hopman Cup!

Lleyton Hewitt's partner has been announced - it's Alicia Molik. This isn't exactly awe-inspiring stuff - when Australia managed to pull Stosur last year, that was a bit more of a coup - but Molik is likeable enough, so it should be fun. There's no way Australia's getting to the final, of course, but meh, whatevs. It's all about the exciting international teams anyways.

Speaking of which - Italy! yay! We have Potito 'I have an awesome name that only Jack Sock can rival' Starace paired up with Francesca Schiavone - man, is the women's draw going to be awesome at Hopman '11 or what? We have Serena, Juju, Frankie... pure awesomeness. The Italian team has the possibility of doing what Spain did this year, I think - a relatively underwhelming team on the surface that can totally kill the flashy teams with the big names. I would not be at all surprised to see Frankie and the Potato win the thing. It would be awesome.

But you know who I want to win? Kazakhstan.

That's right - Slava Shvedova and my beloved cutie-patootie Andrey Golubev are back for another year, and some arses are going to be kicked. They very-nearly-almost made the final this year - can they go all the way this time? I wouldn't be ruling them out... as Switzerland can well tell you, you can never count Kazakhstan out...

Haikus for a Dull Week

Romania

Starace is out
Montanes is the top seed
How did that happen?


Metz

Since Australia
Cilic hasn't been red hot
Just kind of tepid


Seoul

Safina is out
Sadly, so is Date Krumm
Seoul is dead to me


Tashkent

Alla beat Masha
At Wimbledon that one time
...that is all I've got.

That Electric Feel

Here I am in an Internet cafe in Melbourne, spending my hard-earned money so I can blog about my experiences. I hope you're all grateful!

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I got to Melbourne Park yesterday a little after eleven, so all the matches had just started. Last year I spent a lot of time hanging out round the practice courts trying to catch big names close up, so this year I promised myself I would actually watch some proper matches during the day. So when I got there, I did a quick trawl round all the courts... and, yes, I did stop at courts fifteen and sixteen and watch some practicing, because there were two big names out - Djokovic on court fifteen (whom I only paused to watch so I could take a commemorative photograph... and because Tipsarevic was on court too) and Nadal on court sixteen, whom I watched for a little while. Anyway, then I sat down in Margaret Court Arena and watched the second set of Vera Zvonareva against Magdalena Rybarikova - the set in which Vera bagelled Magdalena. So a real long set.

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Then I got up and left, and I really wish I hadn't, because I tried to get back in to see some of the Tomic/Starace match and there was not a seat to be found! I was very sad - you know how I like ranting on about Tomic. That has to be the big surprise result of yesterday, considering the lack of other upsets - a sixteen year old kid ranked #800 odd winning big over a top #100 player. It'll be interesting to see how Bernard progresses from here... me, I feel sorry for Starace. It must be a bit embarrassing being beaten by a kid who is basically about twelve.

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I wandered round a bit more and caught the second two sets of Stan Wawrinka against Ivo Minar out on court nineteen. This was actually a really good match - Minar played really well, so it took Stan four to beat him. There were a lot of Federer fans there (noticeable by their Fed shirts!) and they were all cheering for Stan a lot, which I thought was sweet... though I don't know if Stan appreciates having fans simply because he comes from the same country as Roger, but what gives, eh? There were also a lot of Swiss people there, and pretty much everyone, except for a devoted five in one corner, was cheering for Stan. It was really nice.

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I wanted to catch the Cilic match after that, but I had to go back into the city and check into my hostel... stupid late check in times. When I got back, there were literally about two hundred people waiting around an empty court sixteen. The Fed Squad was out in full, so I figured they must be waiting for him. And we waited... and waited... and he didn't show. Which was sad.

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And then being in Rod Laver Arena at night was such a special experience! The only other time I've seen an Aussie play was when I saw Guccione against Tursunov in the final of the Medibank last year, and I was pulling against the crowd then. It was really nice this time to be supporting one of our own! It was such an electric ripple that went through the crowd when they announced, 'and, representing Australia, Casey Dellacqua!' It made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

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I do confess, however, that when Casey lost a HEARTBREAKING first set tiebreaker, I was kind of pulling for her to lose the second as well, because it was getting late and I wanted to see Federer before I inevitably collapsed of exhaustion. (Did I mention it was really, really hot? I have never sweated so much in my life. And looks like it's going to be worse today...) Hantuchova, thankfully, wrapped it up in two, and there was only a very short hiatus until the Man himself came out - and he was received with exactly the same warmth as Casey Dellacqua. He really is a favourite wherever he goes. He has transcended nationality, in some respects.

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I was really nervous - who wouldn't be? - but Roger put my nerves to rest with a beautiful first set, at which he served at 73% and pulled off what has to be one of the most amazing shots of all time to conclude a very amazing rally - a down the line pass behind his back and above his head. Seppi just couldn't compete with that. The first set took about four seconds, but then Roger reeled it in a bit and the second two were much tighter. Seppi had a couple of chances - he even had a set point in the second set - but he never looked like losing. Federer was never behind in the breaker and then he broke Seppi in the last game of the match to win it.

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It was such a privilege and an honour to see him play. I can't express it any better than that. And he handled the crowd really well - and he's really funny! His post-match interview with Jim Courier was hilarious!

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Anyway, my time runs out - so catch you all tomorrow morning!

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Today's Results

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Australian Open

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Andreas Seppi, 6-1 7-6 (7-4) 7-5

Andy Roddick def. Bjorn Rehnquist, 6-0 6-2 6-2

Novak Djokovic def. Andrea Stoppini, 6-2 6-3 7-5

Juan Martin del Potro def. Mischa Zverev, 6-3 6-4 6-2

Marat Safin def. Ivan Navarro, 6-3 6-3 6-4

David Nalbandian def. Marc Gicquel, 6-1 4-6 6-2 6-3

Bernard Tomic def. Potito Starace, 7-6 (7-5) 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (8-6)

Marcos Baghdatis def. Julien Benneteau, 6-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-2

Evgeny Korolev def. Carlos Moya, 6-3 6-1 7-6 (9-7)

Mardy Fish def. Sam Groth, 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 7-5 6-0

Tomas Berdych def. Robby Ginepri, 6-4 6-4 6-3

Viktor Troicki def. Alberto Martin, 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-4

Janko Tipsarevic def. Oscar Hernandez, 4-6 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-0

Fabrice Santoro def. Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-3 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-2

Brydan Klein def. Bjorn Phau, 6-4 6-3 4-6 6-3

Gilles Muller def. Feliciano Lopez, 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 4-6 16-14

Philipp Kohlscheiber def. Sam Querrey, 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 6-2

David Ferrer def. Denis Gremelmayr, 6-1 6-7 (6-8) 6-1 6-7 (4-7) 6-4

Amer Delic def. Taylor Dent, 6-4 3-6 406 6-3 6-4

Brian Dabul def. Philipp Petzschner, 6-1 6-2 6-4

Simone Bolelli def. Kristof Vliegen, 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-3) 7-5

Dominik Hrbaty def. John Isner, 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 6-2 7-5

Robin Soderling def. Robert Kendrick, 5-7 6-4 6-4 7-5

Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Jarkko Nieminen, 6-2 4-1 retired

Jeremy Chardy def. Marcos Daniel, 6-4 6-4 6-1

Florian Mayer def. Lamine Ouahab, 6-2 6-1 6-2

Tommy Robredo def. Bobby Reynolds, 6-2 7-5 6-1

Yen-Hsun Lu def. Thomaz Bellucci, 6-3 7-5 6-4

Marin Cilic def. Kevin Anderson, 6-3 6-2 6-7 (4-7) 6-3

Stanislas Wawrinka def. Ivo Minar, 6-1 2-6 7-5 7-6 (11-9)

Xavier Malisse def. Michael Llodra, 7-6 (10-8) 6-1 6-1

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Agustin Calleri, 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 6-0

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Women's Draw

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Jelena Jankovic def. Yvonne Meusburger, 6-1 6-3

Dinara Safina def. Alla Kudryavtseva, 6-3 6-4

Ana Ivanovic def. Julia Goerges, 7-5 6-3

Vera Zvonareva def. Magdalena Rybarikova, 7-6 (7-2) 6-0

Nadia Petrova def. Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-3 7 6 (7-3)

Caroline Wozniacki def. Shahar Peer, 6-3 6-2

Alizé Cornet def. Mariya Koryttseva, 6-3 6-4

Marion Bartoli def. Melanie South, 6-2 6-4

Anna Chakvetadze def. Anne Keothavong, 6-1 6-7 (4-7) 6-1

Daniela Hantuchova def. Casey Dellacqua, 7-6 (13-11) 6-4

Galina Voskoboeva def. Agnes Szavay, 6-3 3-6 6-4

Lucie Safarova def. Sybille Bammer, 6-3 6-1

Kaia Kanepi def. Kimiko Date Krumm, 6-4 4-6 8-6

Ai Sugiyama def. Stéphanie Dubois, 6-0 7-6 (7-5)

Sara Errani def. Maria Kirilenko, 6-0 6-4

Alisa Kleybanova def. Sofia Arvidsson, 7-5 7-5

Tsvetana Pironkova def. Karolina Sprem, 6-0 6-4

Ekaterina Makarova def. Aravane Rezai, 1-6 7-5 6-4

Monica Niculescu def. Katie O'Brien, 6-4 6-4

Edina Gallovits def. Maria Elena Camerin, 6-3 2-6 6-3

Karin Knapp def. Monika Wejnert, 7-6 (8-6) 6-4

Mathilde Johansson def. Jill Craybas, 6-2 1-6 7-5

Marina Erakovic def. Petra Cetkovska, 6-4 7-5

Nathalie Dechy def. Viktoriya Kutuzova, 6-3 6-0

Virginia Ruano Pascual def. Mariana Duque Marino, 6-3 6-2

Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro def. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, 6-3 6-4

Sania Mirza def. Marta Domachowska, 6-1 6-4

Kirsten Flipkens def. Rossana de los Ríos, 6-3 6-2

Patricia Mayr def. Julia Schruff, 6-4 6-1

Andrea Petkovic def. Kathrin Woerle, 5-7 7-6 (7-0) 4-0 retired

Alberta Brianti def. Yanina Wickmayer, 6-4 6-2

Jelena Dokic def. Tamira Paszek, 6-2 3-6 6-4

Potato

Some players just fly under the radar. You know their names, you know they float around in the top hundred, and usually you know where they come from, but you wouldn't know them if you fell over them in the street and you couldn't name their significant career wins if someone paid you. On the whole, they have never been very deep at Slams - maybe an occasional round of sixteen, but rarely more than that. They do well in the IS and ISG tournaments, but are not particularly remarkable.

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One day, I am going to find out what makes these unremarkable players remarkable. Because they must be remarkable. You don't get to be in the top one hundred in the world without being a little bit remarkable. Let's name names. Potito Starace. Fabio Fognini. Jurgen Melzer. These guys have all been round for a while, but I could tell you next to nothing about them, except that Starace and Fognini are Italian and Melzer is Austrian. Oh, and Starace's name sounds like 'potato.' But that hardly takes rocket science to work out.

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Let's take Starace. He is 27. I know that. He comes from Cervinara. He plays right handed. And that's it. That is the extent of my knowledge.

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But there are other players, ranked in the same sort of area, that I know loads more about. Take Tommy Haas. Actually, he might be a bad example, because he's been up there in the top ten. According to the ATP website, Starace has never been higher than #27. Let's look at Robin Soderling, then. He's ranked #48, with a career high of #23. He plays right handed and lives in Monte Carlo.

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But I can also tell you that Soderling hates Nadal, and that it's apparently reciprocated. Soderling is considered a danger man on tour. He's quite good on grass. He's Swedish, and sometimes plays doubles with Jonas Bjorkman. Not many facts, sure, but some.

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Why do I know about Soderling? Because he's played a big match at a Slam. And I'm not just talking about a match against a big player, because Starace has played his share of those. I remember coming up against Rafa a couple of times, and losing pretty dismally. Soderling, however, was one half of that marathon five day match at Wimbledon last year, where his dislike of Rafa was fomented. And those are the things that make you remember people.

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So what can Potito do, if he wants people to remember him? He already has the advantage of a memorable, vegetablesque name. Actually, I wonder how famous he is in Italy? Is he a Hewitt or a Guccione? Or a Sirianni? There are quite a few good tennis players from Italy - there's equally forgettable Fognini and Bolelli and Seppi and Volandri. (I just went on the ATP website to see if there were any famous Italians I'd missed, and I was stunned to discover that Filippo Volandri is now ranked #138 in the world. When did that happen? He was about #30 last time I checked. What happened?) I wonder what kind of profile tennis has in Italy. How famous are these boys? And it's not like they're totally deficient in the women's draws, either - Flavia Pennetta springs inexorably to mind.

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But I'm talking about Potito's international recognition, not homegrown Italian fame. And not even household name status - just within the tennis community. (Look at me talking like I am one of the tennis community... Potito's probably done loads of wacky things that people talk about.) If you look at the press conference archive on ASAP sports, there is not one single conference from Starace. Not one.

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So if Starace wants to be famous, he has to either:

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- do well at a Slam.

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- do something stupid to get himself in the tennis news.

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- play a really, really long match at a Slam sometime.

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I don't know. Hell, why am I even writing about this? I know nothing about Starace - including whether or not he wants to be famous. Maybe he's content flying under the radar. But we'll never find out unless he does something remarkable.

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Today's Results

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Austrian Open (Kitzbuhel)

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Jurgen Melzer def. Rainer Schuettler, 2-6 7-5 7-5

Potito Starace def. Eduardo Schwank, 6-1 6-2

Juan Martin Del Potro def. Nicolas Devilder, 6-2 6-3

Victor Hanescu def. Brian Dabul, 6-3 6-4

Rainer Schuettler def. Jan Hernych, 2-6 6-4 7-5

Juan Martin Del Potro def. Sergio Roitman, 6-2 6-4

Nicolas Devilder def. Alexander Peya, 6-4 6-4

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Dutch Open Tennis (Amersfoort)

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Marc Gicquel def. Teimuraz Gabashvili, 6-4 6-1

Steve Darcis def. Christophe Rochus, 7-5 6-3

Albert Montanes def. Jose Acasuso, 6-0 6-2

Oscar Hernandez def. Marcel Granollers, 7-5 6-2

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Studena Croatia Open (Umag)

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Fernando Verdasco def. Mischa Zverev, 7-5 7-5

Fabio Fognini def. Carlos Moya, 6-4 6-3

Igor Andreev def. Guillermo Canas, 7-5 6-4

Maximo Gonzalez def. Roko Karanusic, 2-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4)

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Indianapolis Tennis Championships (Indianapolis)

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James Blake def. Woong-Sun Jun, 6-3 7-5

Sam Querrey def. Vince Spadea, 4-6 6-3 6-4

Gilles Simon def. Tommy Haas, 4-6 6-4 6-2

Sam Querrey def. Bobby Reynolds, 6-1 3-6 6-3

James Blake def. Yen-Hsun Lu, 6-2 6-0

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Bank of the West Classic (Stanford)

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Samantha Stosur def. Vera Zvonareva, 6-3 6-2

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

Marion Bartoli def. Anne Keothavong, 6-3 1-6 7-5

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

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Gastein Ladies (Bad Gastein)

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Agnes Szavay def. Melanie Klaffner, 3-6 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (7-3)

Mariya Koryttseva def. Caroline Wozniacki, 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-5)

Pauline Parmentier def. Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 7-5 4-6 6-4

Lucie Hradecka def. Timea Bacsinszky, 6-1 6-4

Iveta Benesova def. Galina Voskoboeva, 6-4 4-6 6-1

Yvonne Meusburger def. Maret Ani 6-2 2-6 6-3

Tereza Hladikova def. Karolina Sprem, 6-3 1-6 6-4

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And in the last installment of Stars of the Past, Stars of the Future (for now!): Ernests Gulbis.

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Ernests Gulbis is the potential #1 that the world never saw coming. Like Jeremy Chardy, he exploded on the scene at Roland Garros 2008, but he's been making inroads for a lot longer than that. He attended the same tennis academy as world number #3 Novak Djokovic, the academy run by Niki Pilic. Djokovic graduated and went on to great things, as we have all seen - but it was for Ernests Gulbis that Pilic actually left the academy for a time so he could focus on one-on-one training. This teenager from Latvia has got a very special talent - perhaps one seen only once in a generation. Roger Federer turned out to be the king of his generation, the New Balls generation. Could Gulbis be the king of his?

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It seems a little pre-emptive to make this claim - and one feels that there is a man by the name of Rafael Nadal that might have something to say about that. But Ernests Gulbis has clearly got something going on. And it does seem unfair to put him in the same generation as Nadal or even his old friend Djokovic. Age is not necessarily the correct demarcation of generation. Gulbis belongs to the generation of Chardy, Cilic and Schwank - and of the four, it seems likely that he will turn out to be the best.

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Gulbis was the only man apart from Roger Federer to take a set from Nadal at Wimbledon this year. Despite the massively powerful groundstrokes of Nadal, Gulbis proved himself capable of dominating at the baseline. He is tall and thin and there seems to be little of him, but he is deceptively strong. He does not play the tennis of Fabrice Santoro, but he clearly has a very high tennis IQ. It seems only a matter of time before Gulbis breaks through with a big tournament win - and after that, who knows? The sky may well be the limit for Ernests Gulbis.