The Spectacular Dullness of New Haven

So if Roger Federer made the final of both the biggest tournaments of the US Open series and won one of them... why is Andy Murray the winner of the series? Can anyone explain this?

Moreover, I'm pretty sure Marcos Baghdatis came second. Explanations, anyone? I just do not get it at all.

I'm really scraping the barrel for something to write about right now (duh), so I guess we have to talk about the lame tournament going on right now. That tournament is New Haven and it is spectacularly uninteresting, but let's see if I can dream up something to say.

Um...

The men's final is between Denis Istomin and Sergiy Stakhovsky, which should give some indication of the quality of the tournament. I wouldn't know who to pick there, because I don't know enough about either player - even though Istomin has been rocking that dark horse thing all year. The women's final is between Nadia Petrova and whoever wins out of Wozniacki and Dementieva.

There is a thought, actually. Why is it that nobody who is anybody on the men's side plays a tournament the week before a Slam - which seems to make sense, because you want to conserve energy, ra ra ra - but a bunch of the ladies do? The ladies who are anybody - because much as I would like to deny it, Wozniacki is anybody.

So... yep. There's a question. Answers, anyone?

Where in the World is Anna Chakvetadze?

You know how I'm always whinging about Ana Ivanovic and how she never wins things any more? I think this might have led me to disregard the fall of another top ten player - not one as prominent as Ana, as she never reached #1, but still... whatever happened to Anna Chakvetadze?

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She hasn't done anything all year, pretty much. I can't say I follow her career particularly closely, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a time when she strung two matches together, certainly of late. I know this all supposedly stems back to the time she was held up and tied up and guns were involved and badness like that, but still... does it HAVE to affect her tennis game?

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Not that I was such a huge Chakvetadze fan to begin with. I never really paid her much attention, to tell the truth. But it's nice to keep it competitive at the top, and she's just one of that gang not performing as wel as they should. Silly Anna.

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In case you can't tell, Anna got ousted in Luxembourg yesterday, which is a Tier III tournament, conquered by Iveta Benesova. Benesova isn't rubbish, but she certainly isn't playing at the level Chakvetadze should be. It's a shame.

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We had a couple of upsets over with the blokes, but nothing that major. We lost Mardy Fish in Basel (I'm so sad) and Tommy Robredo in Lyon, but otherwise we're pretty solid. One seed that had a good win was Marat Safin, who beat Sergiy Stakhovsky. I know Stakhovsky isn't anyone that big, but I think I remember him winning a tournament this year, so nice one, Marat. Keep it up. He's a Russian playing in Russia, and that seemed to help him out a bit at the Kremlin Cup... so will THIS be the week?

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Today's Results

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Davidoff Swiss Indoors (Basel)

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Igor Andreev def. Philipp Kohlschreiber, 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (0-7) 7-5

Feliciano Lopez def. Mardy Fish, 7-6 (11-9) 6-4

Benjamin Becker def. Andreas Beck, 3-6 6-3 6-4

James Blake def. Nicolas Kiefer, 3-6 6-3 6-4

Kristof Vliegen def. Philipp Petzschner, 6-2 6-3

Jarkko Nieminen def. Eduardo Schwank, 6-2 6-4

Marcel Granollers def. Marcos Baghdatis, 6-2 4-6 6-2

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St Petersburg Open (St Petersburg)

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Fernando Verdasco def. Karlis Lejnieks, 6-1 6-3

Rainer Schuettler def. Dominik Hrbaty, 6-3 6-3

Andy Murray def. Viktor Troicki, 6-3 6-3

Marat Safin def. Sergiy Stakhovsky, 6-2 6-4

Andrey Golubev def. Olivier Rochus, 6-1 6-4

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Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon (Lyon)

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Julien Benneteau def. Tommy Robredo, 6-2 6-2

Josselin Ouanna def. Nicolas Lapentti, 6-3 1-6 6-3

Gilles Simon def. Juan Monaco, 2-6 6-4 6-1

Robin Soderling def. Thierry Ascione, 6-4 6-1

Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Guillermo Canas, 6-3 6-4

Christophe Rochus def. Gilles Muller, 6-2 6-4

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Generali Ladies Linz (Linz)

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Agnieszka Radwanska def. Kaia Kanepi, 6-2 6-4

Alizé Cornet def. Maria Kirilenko, 1-6 6-2 6-1

Flavia Pennetta def. Agnes Szavay, 6-1 6-2

Sybille Bammer def. Francesca Schiavone, 7-5 6-3

Petra Kvitova def. Tamira Paszek, 6-3 6-3

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FORTIS Championships Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

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Iveta Benesova def. Anna Chakvetadze, 6-2 6-4

Daniela Hantuchova def. Sabine Lisicki, 6-0 6-2

Caroline Wozniacki def. Peng Shuai, 6-4 6-4

Li Na def. Mariya Koryttseva, 7-6 (8-6) 6-3

Sorana Cirstea def. Sara Errani, 6-4 6-2

Amélie Mauresmo def. Stephanie Gehrlein, 6-2 3-6 6-0

Anabel Medina Garrigues def. Virginia Ruano Pascual, 6-2 6-1

Anna-Lena Groenefeld def. Yanina Wickmayer, 7-5 6-4