Reconciliation, Double Time

Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi hated each others' guts. But now they're suddenly playing doubles together in Indy. What's with that?

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Maybe India made them reconcile so they can play doubles at the Olympics. But that's naive - you can't just MAKE people reconcile... unless they haven't, and they're just doing this because they've been made to. I would love to know what's gone on behind the scenes there. Are there secret police in the mens' locker room, forcing them to shake hands and talk tennis strategy? Not that I'm suggesting India has secret police. Not that I'm suggesting they don't have them, either.

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Thing is, India has another really good doubles player in Rohan Bopanna. I've never seen him play men's doubles, but I saw him play mixed with Sania Mirza at the Hopman Cup this year, and they were pretty extraordinary. I don't know whether that was just with Sania or whether he's just a good doubles player, but I'm going with the latter. So if the Indian Sporting Federation (or whatever they're called) wants a doubles team for the Olympics, they could partner either Paes or Bhupathi with Bopanna - whichever they preferred. But I suppose that Bopanna probably has a better singles career at the moment than either Bhupathi or Paes, so I guess it wouldn't be fair to cut out either one...

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In which case, the Bhupathi/Paes reconciliation might actually be genuine. Maybe they're both trying to ensure that they get to play in the Olympics - which is a pretty decent motivation. (Cough Roddick cough Gasquet cough.) But surely, if they hated each other as much as I was under the impression that they did, they would be trying to backstab each other and stuff to ensure they got the one spot on offer. Who knows?

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You've got to feel sorry for Rohan Bopanna. No matter what's going on, it's got to be hard for him.

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You never really think of India as a powerhouse of tennis, but they have a few good players coming through now. In the women's game, you obviously have Sania Mirza, but Sunitha Rao is coming up, and she's not half bad. In the men, there are Bhupathi, Paes and Bopanna, and now Prakash Amritraj, who made the Newport final. So on the whole, they're not doing too bad.

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Although, when you consider that approximately one seventh of the earth's population comes from India, you would expect a much higher proportion of good players. I don't think there's any racial disposition that lends itself especially to tennis. So why are there so few Indian tennis players - and Chinese players? I mean, there are a few, but not as many as you would expect.

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The answer, I suppose, is to do with poverty and the lack of opportunity for people in these countries. And it makes you wonder - how much talent is there in the world that goes unrealised, how much potential untapped? Maybe somewhere in the slums of Varanasi or the suburbs of Shanghai, there is someone with talent that could rival Federer - but we will never know, because they have not had the opportunities. Imagine if Roger Federer had somehow never been introduced to the game of tennis. All that talent, all that potential gone to waste. What a tragedy that would have been - except no one would ever, ever know. Not even Roger.

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Kind of makes you question your own life, hey. What box are we not thinking outside of? Maybe you or I or anyone has an amazing talent that we just don't know about. Maybe I could have been, oh, I don't know, the world's best bridge player or aerial skiier, but I'll never know, because I've never tried either. The lesson is, I suppose, to try everything, because you never know what you might be good at.

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Wow. That was deep.

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Today's Results

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Austrian Open (Kitzbuhel)

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Potito Starace def. Daniel Koellerer, 6-4 6-3

Eduardo Schwank def. Daniel Brands, 6-1 6-4

Victor Hanescu def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-2 6-1

Brian Dabul def. Ivo Minar, 6-4 6-3

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Dutch Open Tennis (Amersfoort)

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Marc Gicquel def. Thiemo de Bakker, 7-6 (8-6) 6-3

Steve Darcis def. Alberto Martin, 6-1 7-6 (7-5)

Teimuraz Gabashvili def. Martin Vassallo Arguello, 6-4 6-0

Christophe Rochus def. Philipp Petzschner, 6-3 6-4

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Studena Croatia Open (Umag)

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Fernando Verdasco def. Mathieu Montcourt, 7-6 (7-5) 6-1

Carlos Moya def. Viktor Troicki, 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-5

Fabio Fognini def. Filippo Volandri, 6-4 6-4

Mischa Zverev def. Marcos Daniel, 6-4 6-2

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Indianapolis Tennis Championships (Indianapolis)

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Sam Querrey def. Go Soeda, 6-4 6-4

James Blake def. Dudi Sela, 7-6 (7-2) 6-2

Vince Spadea def. Donald Young, 6-2 6-4

Gilles Simon def. Benjamin Becker, 7-5 3-6 6-0

Dmitry Tursunov def. Wayne Odesnik, walkover

Tommy Haas def. John Isner, 6-3 6-4

Paul Capdeville def. Joseph Sirianni, 6-3 6-4

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Bank of the West Classic (Stanford)

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Anna Chakvetadze def. Shahar Peer, 6-3 6-4

Ai Sugiyama def. Daniela Hantuchova, 6-3 6-1

Dominika Cibulkova def. Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-2 6-3

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Gastein Ladies (Bad Gastein)

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Agnes Szavay def. Viktoriya Kutuzova, 6-4 6-2

Rossana de los Ríos def. Alizé Cornet, 2-6 6-2 3-2 retired

Caroline Wozniacki def. Hsieh Su-Wei, 6-1 6-1

Timea Bacsinszky def. Liana Ungur, 6-3 3-6 6-3

Karolina Sprem def. Vera Dushevina, 6-3 6-4

Mariya Koryttseva def. Tzipora Obziler, 6-2 6-1

Yvonne Meusburger def. Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro, 7-5 6-2

Lucie Hradecka def. Zhang Shuai, 6-3 6-0

Tereza Hladikova def. Nuria Llagostera Vives, 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-5

Anna-Lena Groenefeld def. Julia Vakulenko, 6-1 6-1

Patricia Mayr def. Martina Müller, 6-3 6-3

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And today in Stars of the Past, Stars of the Future: Eduardo Schwank.

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Eduardo Schwank won three Challengers on clay in a row coming into Roland Garros, where he defeated Carlos Moya and was the last Argentinean left standing. However, he is perhaps best known for accidentally starting a fire in a hotel in Paris, which saw other players (including the Ratiawana twins and Rik de Voest) fleeing for their lives, and sent Schwank's winnings from the Rome Challenger up in smoke. It was his own fault, one might argue, but one can't help feeling a bit sorry for him. For a player on the satellite circuit, those winnings can be lifeblood.

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But Schwank appears to have left the satellite circuits behind him. His third round finish at the French Open gave him automatic entry into Wimbledon, and although he lost in the first round, it looks like Eduardo Schwank is here to stay. He is seeded this week at the ATP tournament in Kitzbuhel - a far cry from the Challengers. He is back on clay, his favourite surface. He was the Challenger circuit's Rafael Nadal this season, and it will be interesting to see how he will perform on clay next year, when he won't be playing those satellites, one assumes. No, Schwank is playing with the big boys now - and one gets the feeling that he likes it.

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The real test for Schwank will be the upcoming US hard court season. He is virtually untested on hard courts in the main ATP draw, and his performance here could determine whether or not he falls back to playing those Challengers, or whether he continues his rise towards the upper echelons of tennis. Perhaps it will be a test of Eduardo's character rather than his game - getting to the ATP level is one thing. Staying there is quite another.

Underwhelmers

The tournament in Bastad this week seemed to be the only one playing out the way it should - that is, the seeded players were beating the unseeded, no major upsets, all four top seeds through to the semis. So, following on from this, you'd expect the #1 and #2 seeds (Ferrer and Verdasco) to make it through. But the opposite happened.

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Is this complacency? A sort of 'oh, look it's all been going to plan, we'll make it to the final' sort of mentality? Or is it just that men's tennis is really deep?

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I'm going with the deep. I can't see many top players being complacent. So that was a bit of a pointless debate.

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Nonetheless, it was the #3 and #4 seeds that made it through to the Bastad final - Robredo took out Ferrer and Berdych took out Verdasco. Both these players have been solidly underwhelming this year - unlike Ferrer and Verdasco, who have both had wonderful seasons. Remember when Berdych used to be all good, one of the big rising stars? In 2005, when Federer won four Masters Series events and Nadal won four, it was Berdych who won the remaining one. He was the player that ended Federer's dreams at the 2004 Olympics. And yet what has he done? Pretty much nothing - this year at least. I mean, all you have to do is look at the ATP website. Berdych made the semis at Miami, where he lost to Nadal, and the quarters in Sydney, where he lost to Guccione. I'm sorry, but when one of your year-to-day highlights is a loss to Chris Guccione then there's a problem.

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Robredo has done a little better - his season began incredibly poorly, but since then he's reached a final (Warsaw), a semi (Valencia) and two quarters (Barcelona and Rome.) No titles though - and this is a man that, like Berdych, has held up a Masters Series trophy (Hamburg 2006.)

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Am I expecting too much of these two? Maybe a little. Maybe actually winning a title is a little bit too much to ask. But surely - for Berdych especially - they should be pulling in more consistent results? The wait is over for one of them, as one will walk home with the Bastad trophy. But where have you been this season, guys? The Tomas and the Tommy that we've seen in previous season don't play like this. Both guys have been top ten - and there's a reason they're not any more.

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Look at me, being hard on them when they've just managed to stop the rot and turn it around. But one of the hard truths of tennis, I suppose, is that the more you win the more people are going to notice you - and blog about you.

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Another underwhelmer this season who is now through to a final is Richard Gasquet. I used to be very fond of Richou, but I must say I haven't been particularly impressed with his behaviour of late - not only was there that Davis Cup stunt, but he declined to play the Olympics, which I think is pretty poor form. (Are you listening, Andy Roddick?) Add to that his ridiculous mental fragility and you have a problem. I very much enjoyed his match against Murray at Wimbledon, but let's face it - that was a match Richou never should have lost. And he did. After being two sets and a break up, and serving for it. So I'm being cautious in my Gasquet-supporting right now. His finals opponent, Juan Martin del Potro, should be no match for him. But let's just wait and see, shall we?

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Meanwhile, I am actively excited about the final in Newport. I would be happy whoever won it. On one hand, we have Santoro, who won here last year, bidding to become the oldest winner in the tournament's history, surpassing his own record. I love Fabrice Santoro and his tricksy game and I would love to see him win it. He seems like such a nice man. But on the other hand, we have Prakash Amritraj. Who? I hear you ask. Well, he's an Indian wildcard in his first ever ATP final - go him! - and he's also the son of Vijay Amritraj. He's a second generation player - and I always think that's a bit cool. So yay for both of them.

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Not so in Gstaad, where my man Stan Wawrinka went out to Victor Hanescu. It seemed like such a good chance for Stan to add to his trophy cabinet, so that's a bit sad - but judging by his scores this week, Stan hasn't exactly been playing the best tennis of his career. (Cue rant about the stupidity of this mini claycourt season.) I'm now backing Andreev for the title, provided he wins the last set of his semi against Garcia-Lopez, which got rained out. I like Andreev's game. It always amazes me that he isn't higher in the rankings. He's a Kohlschreiber for me - I think I might think he's better than he actually is.

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Today's Results

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Mercedes Cup (Stuttgart)

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Richard Gasquet def. Agustin Calleri, 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 6-3

Juan Martin del Potro def. Eduardo Schwank, 6-2 6-4

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Allianz Suisse Open (Gstaad)

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Victor Hanescu def. Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-3 3-6 6-4

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Catella Swedish Open (Bastad)

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Tommy Robredo def. David Ferrer, 2-6 6-1 6-2

Tomas Berdych def. Fernando Verdasco, 2-6 6-3 6-2

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Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships (Newport)

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Fabrice Santoro, def. Vince Spadea, 7-6 (7-4) 6-1

Prakash Amritraj def. Frank Dancevic, 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-3

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Gaz de France Grand Prix (Budapest)

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Alizé Cornet def. Greta Arn, 6-1 6-1

Andreja Klepac def. Karolina Sprem, 6-2 4-6 6-4

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Internazionali Femminili di Tennis di Palermo (Palermo)

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Sara Errani def. Flavia Pennetta, 7-5 6-3

Mariya Koryttseva def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-2 6-2

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And today's player in today's Stars of the Past, Stars of the Future feature is Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

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If Safin was a non entity when he won the US Open, then Jeremy Chardy was less than nothing coming into this year's French Open. He was ranked inside the top two hundred - most of the time - but even within his home country of France, not many people had heard of him. He was to France what Joe Sirianni is to Australia - unheard of, till he did something big.

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But Sirianni was 32 when he made it to the semis of the Next Generation Adelaide International this year and drew Australia's attention to himself. Chardy was only nineteen when he not only made it to the second round of Roland Garros, but then went on to win. No one had expected him to. No one had given him the tiniest chance of winning his second round match. His opponent? David Nalbandian, one of only four men currently active on the circuit to reach the semi finals of all four Slams. (The other members of this exclusive club are Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and newly added Marat Safin.) And Jeremy Chardy, the almost totally unknown Frenchman, took him out.

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But this could happen to anyone. A bad day here or there, and anyone can take out anyone. Kevin Anderson could take out Djokovic. Mardy Fish could take out Federer. Both of these have happened this year. The biggest test for the Chardies of this world is whether or not they can back it up - and Jeremy did. Although his next opponent, Dmitry Tursunov, isn't quite in the same class as Nalbandian, he is still well within the top fifty and thus light years away from Chardy. And Jeremy was triumphant once more, through to a fourth round where finally, inevitably, he fell.

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The fourth round might not seem like much to Federer or Nadal or Djokovic - or even Nalbandian. But for someone who had never got into the main draw of an ATP tournament on his own recognisance, the round of sixteen was everything in the world. Jeremy Chardy is rising and rising - and now he has belief. After his win against Dominik Meffert at this week's Allianz Suisse Open in Gstaad, Chardy said that he was not surprised to have done well. This, it seems, is an attitude that will take him far.