Keeping On Keeping On

I haven't been paying too much attention to women's tennis lately - naughty me - so I think it's time I rectified that a little. I haven't even really been checking the scores, so I was really very pleasantly surprised to see a new favourite of mine winning her second round match in Portoroz.

That new favourite is Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland and I really think she's going to grow up awesome. And no, I don't just like her because she's Swiss. She played Serena tight and fierce in the first round of Roland Garros this year and she seriously had some game going on - both in her game and in her head. Seriously, the girl's got a serious tennis brain on her shoulders.

I haven't seen too much of her play besides that one match, but if she continues to play like she did in that one match, she is going to be something. And she had a good solid win over the very talented (albeit underachieving) Tamira Paszek. Here's hoping she keeps on keeping on!

Anna Chakvetadze also had a very convincing win over Sara Errani, who was seeded #4. Chakvetadze is a headcase on an Ivanovician (though not quite a Vaidisovan) level. I'm not going to be all 'comeback' or anything, but I guess it's a reminder that headcases stay in the game by pure talent, and sometimes this can happen. There you go.

And another new favourite of mine, Anastasija Sevastova, had a win in Bad Gastein over promising youngster Simona Halep. I really want to see her play Anastasia Pivovarova, who is also still in the draw over there. Can't imagine how the commentators would handle that one...

Ladies' Hot or Not in Miami

So we're in that interesting stage before the seeds turn up to play and we get a whole lot of first round tennis. It's a big melting pot at this level of the rankings, but some people are definitely way more awesome than others. So today, we're doing a hot or not of the women's draw.

Hot: Justine Henin. Yes, she may have been outclubbed by A-Kley in Indian Wells, but she's only just outside the seeds here and I think she's rad. I don't expect her to win the tournament, but let's just say I don't expect her to lose in the next round.

Not: Alize Cornet. I do expect her to lose in the next round. In fact, I'm pretty well flabbergasted she won the first one.

Hot: Carla Suarez Navarro. Not the most consistent player ever, but she plays crushworthy tennis. Her single handed backhand is the only one in the women's game fit to be mentioned in the same paragraph as JuJu's.

Not: Patty Schnyder. She's on the way down, and I don't think she's going to come back up again.

Hot: Elena Baltacha. Where has this girl come from? She's been burning it up - Anne Keothavong better not sit too pretty in that #1 British girl spot and Laura Robson better not start thinking British women's tennis is all about her...

Not: Tamira Paszek. I used to be a huge fan, but she hasn't really done anything to warrant this huge fandom. Come back to me when you've done something slightly more awesome, Tammy P.

Hot: Kimiko Date Krumm. Enough said. She's, what, 40, and still rolling strong? Love and respect.

Not: Melanie Oudin. People rave about her. I don't get it. Get off the stage.

Agreements? Disagreements? Happy to take all views into consideration...

Poor Form in Ponte Vedra Beach

I have to say that I'm a little disappointed. I was really hoping that Dominika Cibulkova would win this week in Ponte Vedra Beach and make me look really clever for talking about her earlier as a real contender in the Roland Garros mix. No such luck. She went out to Elena Vesnina - in three sets, but out nonetheless. I expected a little more.

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I had another one I was watching in this tournament and she also went out. I've been a little intrigued by Tamira Paszek ever since she came so close to knocking out Jelena Jankovic in the first round of the Aussie Open last year. She hasn't had great results, but she's had some good ones, and I keep waiting for her to make a breakthrough, because as soon as she has a decent run, I am fully prepared to admit her to the Stars club with Sabine Lisicki and Anastasia Pavlychenkova. But looks like it won't be this week - she went out to Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada.

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But them's the breaks, I guess.

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Not too much happening over with the blokes... though I think the point about clay being the great leveller was proved over in Houston, where all four of the top seeds have been eliminated. Though that could be a signal of the depth extant in the ATP, unlike the WTA. Who can tell these things?

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Today's Results

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Grand Prix Hassan II (Casablanca)

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Igor Andreev def. Marc Gicquel, 6-1 6-3

Albert Montanes def. Frederico Gil, 7-6 (7-5) 6-4

Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Victor Hanescu, 6-3 7-5

Florent Serra def. Teimuraz Gabashvili, 6-0 6-4

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Andalucia Tennis Experience (Marbella)

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Jelena Jankovic def. Roberta Vinci, 3-6 6-3 7-6 (8-6)

Sorana Cirstea def. Kaia Kanepi, 6-4 2-6 7-5

Anabel Medina Garrigues def. Sara Errani, 6-2 6-7 (4-7) 7-5

Carla Suárez Navarro def. Klara Zakopalova, 6-1 6-2

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MPS Group Championships (Ponte Vedra Beach)

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Nadia Petrova def. Alona Bondarenko, 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-5)

Elena Vesnina def. Dominika Cibulkova, 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-3

Aleksandra Wozniak def. Tamira Paszek, 6-3 3-6 7-6 (9-7)

Corruption Monkey

Well, I guess today's big tennis news is that Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello have both cleared of allegations of corruption over that match they played in Sopot last year, where Davydenko forfeited and bets were suspended by a major gambling site because the amounts of money being bet on the match were strangely large. (I had no idea people even knew the Sopot tournament existed, let alone bet on it, but there you go.)

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So they're innocent. Good for them. But why on earth did it take the ATP this frigging long to decide that? The Sopot tournament was in June last year. That's nearly fifteen months ago. Can you imagine being a professional tennis player having that hang over your head for that long?

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I suppose it's not too bad for Martin Vassallo Arguello, as no one really knows who he is for a start, and also because he wasn't the one that supposedly threw the match. I know I've been ragging on Kolya for over two months now for being an embarrassment to professional tennis players everywhere what with his poor attitude, but you really have to feel for the guy. If he's innocent - which the ATP has finally decided he is - he's had this monkey on his back for more than a year for no reason. Can you imagine the locker room glares he must have got?

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Actually, that's an interesting issue - what did the players think? Did they assume he was guilty and do some quality shunning? Or did they stand behind him? I haven't been able to find any comments on the subject... surely someone must have asked someone about it in a presser at some stage. I don't get the feeling that Davydenko is one of the locker room's most popular guys... and with the label of 'corruption' hanging over his head, I can't imagine that won him too many new pals either.

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Tennis is supposed to be a gentlemen's game. It's very seldom that you get allegations of match-fixing and stuff like that - even cricket, the other gentlemen's game, has more scandal than tennis does. So I can't imagine Kolya was too pleased to be the one that opened the door. Is this the first match-fixing scandal in tennis? It can't be the only one, surely...

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Oh, and on a happier note, well done to the finalists this weekend! Gilles Simon takes on Carlos Moya in Bucharest, and Tamira Paszek, who upset a few biggish names on the way to the final, takes on Patty Schnyder in Bali. Should be interesting matches both!

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Today's Results

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BCR Open Romania (Bucharest)

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Carlos Moya def. Richard Gasquet, 6-2 6-4

Gilles Simon def. Jose Acasuso, 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4

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Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic (Bali)

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Tamira Paszek def. Daniela Hantuchova, 6-2 5-7 6-4

Patty Schnyder def. Nadia Petrova, 7-5 6-1