The Season of Sam

First thing's first: This is my 750th post! Yay me!

Second thing's second: Rafa's decision to skip Barcelona? Smartest thing he could have possibly done.

Third thing's third: Sam Stosur is made of awesome.

It kind of slipped under the radar in Australian tennis this week, mostly because a new president has been elected for Tennis Australia and there's a little bit of controversy there, but Sam Stosur won her second career title in Charleston. This puts her back in the top ten and, if she can keep up her results through the clay court season and accumulate some solid points, I think she's going to be a fixture there - even if she loses some of the points she made by reaching the semis of Roland Garros last year.

Stosur's game is, as I talked about a few days earlier, great on clay. Her kick serve goes from being awesome to practically untouchable, and she's proved this week she has the mental strength you need for the clay court season. She demolished some truly excellent players this week - not least of whom was Vera Zvonareva, who pulverised a racquet so spectacularly it actually shattered.

I'm excited for Stosur and her prospects on clay this season. Because I have an inkling that this season is going to be the Season of Sam.

Mantilla Comes Down Under

I was reading Australian Tennis Magazine yesterday and I was reading an article about Jason Kubler, who, as we know, has been given a wildcard into the Australian Open, despite the fact he is only sixteen. I knew that he was a junior Davis Cup hero for Australia, but what I didn't know was that he was a claycourt specialist - apparently he's being called a right-handed Rafa.

How about that?

And then I was reading another article about Peter Luczak, currently Australia's second ranked man, and his favourite surface is clay too. This one I did know, but had completely forgotten, due to Luczak not really being on my radar.

And now Tennis Australia has gone and hired Felix Mantilla to help bring all our young talent to Slam glory in the future - specifically on clay.

And I said... awesome!

There's this notion that Aussies are totally crap on clay, and, sure, we don't have the bestest group of claycourters ever, but we so don't suck. Not only is there Luczak, but Stosur was the best performing Aussie at the Slams this year with her semi finish in Roland Garros. And we have a great group of youngsters coming up, kids like Kubler - actually, I read a really interesting fact which I did not know: Australia has the top 17 year old, 16 year old and 15 year old in the world (Bernard Tomic, Jason Kubler and Luke Saville). So hiring Mantilla is really a great idea, I think - it will maximise the potential of these youngsters, who might have clay talent but not the opportunity to play on it so much.

So great move, Tennis Australia. Applause everywhere from me!

Clijsters in the Crowd

It's day #2 of not much tennis to talk about, so we're going to talk about something that's been in the news but I've thus far neglected to mention (I think) - the potential comeback of Kim Clijsters.

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The reason I haven't talked about it at all thus far is because, personally, I thought it was rubbish. Ha! thought I. She's only training for the Wimbledon exhibition with Henman and Agassi and Graf. But now it's becoming more and more likely that I'm wrong. I hear rumours of a press conference today. So... maybe Kim is coming back.

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Whether or not she is, let's assume for a moment that she is coming back. What effect would that have on the WTA? Would there be any effect?

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I think what I fear is that Clijsters will come back and shoot straight in the top #5 in a matter of months. Not that there would be anything wrong with that from a Clijsters perspective, but it would really put the nail in the coffin as far as the current WTA high rollers are concerned. I don't think Serena would be too worried - I don't know if Serena gets too worried about anyone - but if Clijsters came back and immediately started picking off your Safinas and Dementievas and even your out of form Jankovics and Ivanovics... then there's really trouble.

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This could work a couple of ways. It could depress everyone or it could encourage them to play better. I really hope it's the later. Clijsters would be a really interesting element in a currently lacklustre WTA. Hingis and Davenport both tried the comeback, with limited success. What can Kim do?

Tennis and Bushfires

Can I just say THANK YOU to Andy Roddick for winning in Memphis, taking out the Worm. I was beginning to think that Radek had magical powers, and I wasn't so keen on the notion. So thank you, A-Rod.

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Not a lot of play today, except in Dubai, where a very bare looking draw started today. No Federer, no Nadal, no Roddick (the only one of the three who pulled out for specifically political reasons... but I wonder...). The draw is now headlined by Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic - and we've already lost our first seed, Ivo Karlovic, who went down to qualifier Marco Chiudinelli. So I think we might see a pretty anti-climactic Dubai this year...

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But today I mostly want to talk about the Tennis Australia bushfire appeal, which I think is totally wonderful and a very admirable initiative. According to the website, some contributions thus far are:

• A commitment from Tennis Australia and Tennis Victoria to work with government and local communities to ensure all facilities are rebuilt, restocked with equipment and restaffed with coaching and administrative help
• Long term plans for tennis days, coaching days, competitions and clinics to help the morale of the communities and further engage community spirit through the sport
• Dozens of Victorian coaches donating their time and resources to run clinics throughout the year in schools and clubs
• Thousands of dollars of donations of cash, equipment and services at club and community level from players, coaches, fans, officials and staff from everywhere from Kooyong to the Gold Coast.
• Offers of signed paraphernalia for auction from players throughout the world, co-ordinated by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and the ATP World Tour officials.
• Donations and offers of help from current players like Bernard Tomic, past players like Geoff Masters, Wayne Arthurs, Alicia Molik, Todd Woodbridge and others
• Lleyton and Bec Hewitt investigating with Tennis Australia the possibility of a fund raising day which will involve past and present players

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It may seem cheesy, but I think it's wonderful to see everyone pulling together to help out after such a tragedy. Hats off, Tennis Australia.

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Today's Results

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Regions Morgan Keenan Championships (Memphis)

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Andy Roddick def. Radek Stepanek, 7-5 7-5

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Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships (Dubai)

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Andy Murray def. Sergiy Stakhovsky, 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 5-3 retired

David Ferrer def. Ivan Ljubicic, 3-6 6-2 6-1

Marin Cilic def. Janko Tipsarevic, 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4

Marco Chiudinelli def. Ivo Karlovic, 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 7-6 (9-7)

Teimuraz Gabashvili def. Laurent Recouderc, 5-7 7-6 (7-4) 6-3

Fabrice Santoro def. Victor Hanescu, 6-4 6-2

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Delray Beach International Tennis Championships (Delray Beach)

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Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Steve Darcis, 6-3 6-3

December Showdown

The 'December Showdown,' as Tennis Australia have labelled the Open wildcard playoff, has yielded some very interesting results over the first couple of days. It's done in round robin format, which I don't normally like, but for the purposes of this tournament I think it's all right... and the results, for those who know who these Aussie players are, have been very intriguing.

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Let's start with the group containing Colin Ebelthite, Joe Sirianni, Bernard Tomic and Dane Propoggia. Propoggia is pretty much out of the running, but any of the others could pull a win here. Sirianni is currently in the lead, but his match against Tomic will be a very interesting one. Tomic is sixteen, Sirianni is thirty-three... veteran versus rookie. Sirianni has beaten both Ebelthite and Propoggia, whereas Tomic beat Propoggia, but went down to Ebelthite in a third set breaker - it looked like an absolute nailbiter. Sirianni won the wildcard into the event last year, so he has good history here... I totally don't even know who I'm going for.

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Mr Milkshake - Peter Luczak - has got to be the odds-on favourite, and he's been cruising along quite happily, claiming the not inconsiderable scalps of Brendan McKenzie and Brydan Klein. The names might not mean much outside Australia yet, but these boys have got potential... particularly McKenzie, in my humble opinion. Klein has made the final of the boy's Aussie Open and has served on Davis Cup, so he's no slouch either. Sam Groth and Carsten Ball, who have also served Davis Cup time, also had wins yesterday.

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In the women, the big story is Monica Wejnert, eighteen years old, victor over Jelena Dokic. Even if she does nothing else in her career, that is a scalp and a half. Dokic has been in the top five in the world. She may be far fallen, but still - I am liking the look of Miss Monica. Australia needs more women players, especially in the wake left by Molik. We have Stosur and Dellacqua... and the wind whistling through the empty spots behind them. Monica Wejnert and Isabella Holland in particular are looking veeeeeery good...

In the Tradition of Middle Earth...

I thought renaming places - even temporarily - was reserved for things like the premiere of the Lord of the Rings movies. (Remember when Wellington got renamed 'Middle Earth' for a week? I thought it was hilarious.) But no - apparently for the duration of the Australian Open next year, Federation Square is going to be called 'Tennis Square.'

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Unimaginative name (right along the lines of Garden Square Cafe getting renamed 'Player Cafe' after A FRIGGING COMPETITION for the best name) but I like the intent. Melbourne in January is going to be the tennis capital of the universe, and I like that there's a huge effort to make tennis cool for the general public and not just the nerds like me. Here's what the Tennis Australia article says:

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"For the duration of the Open, Channel Seven will broadcast tennis on the giant screen and an Australian Open merchandise store and NIKE outlet will be open.

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"Top players will make special appearances, and between Thursday 22 January and Sunday 25 January 2009 Tennis Australia will conduct a variety of free interactive tennis activities, including Aviva Tennis Hot Shots and Talent Search."

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Fun for all the family, basically. Get 'em into tennis while they're young, I say, and then they can grow up fabulous, like me.

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Hmmm. I'm going to be in Melbourne for the first five days of the Open. (Got my tickets yesterday! Am now poor!) Maybe I should swing past this so-called Tennis Square... especially if those star appearances include a certain player whose initials are RF...

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...or MS, for that matter...

Perfect Match

So I'm checking my email today like any normal person would when I come across an email from Tennis Australia. Not unusual - I'm on their mailing list, I get emails from them all the time. But this one was a little... different.

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'Who is your tennis perfect match?' it asked. Intrigued, I clicked, wondering if the trashy title was really some witty cover from an actual tennis story... given as this is my usual technique. But no. It was a link. To a multiple-choice quiz that enabled you to discover which tennis player was your 'perfect match.'

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Questions included things like your reaction to getting fired, which type of guy you would approach at a party, your ideal date, how you'd like a man to dress, a man's most important quality, and your 'dream of a man.' My reaction? I hope to God that this is something someone at Tennis Australia found somewhere - that is, I hope they spent no time or money putting it together. Because they have a friggin' GRAND SLAM to organise.

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Not that I don't appreciate the lighter side of tennis - I love the offcourt segment that Tennis Australia does each week, just like I love the offcourt goss on Down the Line! But this is beyond fun. This is trashy. It's funny, yes... but with the Aussie Open just round the corner, I hope dearly that it's a flip, 'oh, this is amusing!' thing, because if they spent money on that that they could have spent on something good I will be so annoyed. There's already an obscene amount of money being pumped into this ridiculous 'Day on the Baseline' thing. People should not need the encouragement of Gabriella Cilmi and whomever else to come to the tennis. Is not the tennis enough attraction for that? SPEND THE MONEY ON THE TENNIS, DAMN IT!

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Yeah, yeah, I know you're all wondering who my tennis perfect match is. But need you even ask? Do you think it would seriously be anyone other than Roger?

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...though I confess that I did take it a second time and rigged it so I would get Marat...

A Terribly Interesting Topic of Conversation

One of the top stories on the Tennis Australia website at the moment is about the weather for the Australian Open. THE WEATHER.

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It's pretty standard when you have nothing to say to someone to talk about the weather, yeah? But if Tennis Australia is talking about the weather FOR THE END OF JANUARY on the first of December - if that is the sole tennis related thing there is to talk about - then I'm sorry, dear bloggers, but we are screwed.

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Apparently the Australian Open will be mostly sunny, with some rain. What a huge surprise. I am astounded. That sounds totally different to all the other years. Thanks, Bureau of Meteorology. I am so shocked that you can probably feel it rolling off the page. Seriously, the weather? For January? I know that here it's really important to spread the slip slop slap wrap message and stuff, what with, you know, sun and skin cancer and suchlike, but is it really necessary to do that on the first of December.

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Seriously, tennis world. Have we got nothing better to talk about?

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...I clearly haven't. I'm sick of the off-season. I know the players need a holiday, but could they at least do something scandalous I could write about? If I have to write about the weather once more, then badness will ensue!

Perth After Tomic

I am making an active effort to follow this tournament in Perth, but it really is very hard. Tennis Australia provides my only avenue for such following, and they seemed to have lost interest after the Reid/Tomic match. I know Tomic is the next big thing in Aussie tennis and there's all the hype and such... but really, at this time of year, wouldn't following the rest of the results be, you know, giving all the people at TA something to do? Maybe that's just naive, but please, what else is there to write about?

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The Reid/Tomic match was the second round, and the winners of the finals just went up on the website - Andrew Coelho won the men's, and Monica Wejnert the women's. I've never heard of Wejnert before, but she's looking a bit interesting - she's sixteen, this is only her third senior event (it is, I discovered, a Pro tour event) and she beat the top seed to take the title. I'm not saying she's the Tomic of the girls, but that's a bit intriguing. We do have some very good girls coming up in Isabella Holland and Sally Peers and Jessica Moore and the such like - but maybe Miss Monica will be in that pack. Who knows. I know nothing about her outside this match, but she's showing good stats, if that makes any sense.

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Coelho, on the other hand, has been round for a little while - not that he's a veteran or anything (he's a couple of years younger than me!) but he seems to have been floating round for a while... he's left-handed, if I remember rightly (ha ha - I only just realised I made a totally awful pun there... oops!) which is always interesting to watch. Apparently the Fremantle Doctor (a very strong wind, for those of you not up with the lingo) was making conditions very interesting, so kudos to Coelho for pulling out a toughie over Brendan McKenzie. I don't hold any great hopes for Coelho, and he's certainly not a missed opportunity like Todd Reid, but it'd be nice to see him play an ATP event here and there - perhaps qualify for the Aussie Open?

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And in totally un-tennis related news, I've just been awarded first-class Honours for my thesis at university, and I'm quite proud of myself. Not quite a Grand Slam, but when you're studying English, it might just be as close as you get...

The New Garden Square

It's great for Perth to get the Fed Cup tie for next year - the only other tennis event in WA is the Hopman Cup, which gets ignored a lot of the time - but I must admit I am a little disappointed... purely for selfish reasons. WA is much too far away to actually attend.

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I wish Fed Cup had a higher profile. With Stosur back from injury, we might have an okay team now - if she and Dellacqua played singles then Stubbs came in for the doubles, we might stand a good chance of getting back into the World Group. Speaking of Sam, she scored a great win in Tokyo against the second seed, Anabel Medina Garrigues. She made a run to the final last week, but maybe she can go all the way this time...? I'd like to see that.

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Another player to watch in Tokyo is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She is about six years old - well, maybe sixteen or seventeen, but very young - but she's making her presence felt. She's of the same generation as Alize Cornet, and although she hasn't made it up as high in the rankings yet, she's definitely going to be up there one day. Just another cog in the Russian tennis machine.

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Unfortunately, Kei Nishikori got unceremoniously booted out of the Tokyo tournament by Richard Gasquet. Maybe he took offence to me calling him a head case? It'd be great if he'd put those ways behind him, but excuse me if I am unconvinced. It takes more than one good win against an in form opponent to silence the doubters... ie. me. But I wouldn't mind it if Richou won a few matches and played himself back into form - although he, like Andy Roddick, should have gone to the Olympics.

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Nishikori's loss means that my only remaining active Star this week is the hanger-on, Eduardo Schwank, who beat Victor Hanescu in Metz. If he can do well this week, then he will officially be re-adopted back into the fold. I mean, I suppose he's already done well, getting this far, but one more round would not hurt anyone...

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Going back to Tokyo, it was a bit sad to see Jo-W Tsonga retire, but I suppose he's done his dues, winning that title last week... apparently he's only one of eight players to win his first title against a top ten opponent. Good on you, Jo-W.

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Actually, speaking of things that are sad, I have a bone to pick with Tennis Australia. They recently ran a competition to rename Garden Square Cafe, which is the player's cafe at Melbourne Park, where they have the Australian Open. Now, I'm sure they had all kinds of entries, and some must have been horrendous, but surely there was something better than the one they chose. The new name of Garden Square Cafe is... drumroll...

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...wait for it...

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'Player Cafe.'

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What genius came up with that one? And, moreover, what genius decided that was the best possible name? 'Player Cafe.' Real expression of creative genius, that one.

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Today's Results

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Open de Moselle (Metz)

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Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Romain Jouan, 6-3 6-3

Radek Stepanek def. Michael Llodra, 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 7-6 (7-0)

Eduardo Schwank def. Victor Hanescu, 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (5-7) 6-3

Adrian Mannarino def. Rik de Voest, 6-4 7-5

Marc Gicquel def. Nicolas Mahut, 6-3 7-6 (7-4)

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AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships (Tokyo)

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Men's Draw

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David Ferrer def. Takao Suzuki, 4-6 6-3 6-2

Andy Roddick def. Jurgen Melzer, 7-6 (7-2) 6-2

Fernando Gonzalez def. Amer Delic, 6-4 7-6 (7-4)

Richard Gasquet def. Kei Nishikori, 6-1 6-2

Juan Martin Del Potro def. Jarkko Nieminen, 6-1 6-3

Viktor Troicki def. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 5-7 2-1 retired

Tomas Berdych def. Tommy Robredo, 7-6 (8-6) 6-2

Rainer Schuettler def. Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3 6-7 (12-14) 6-4

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Women's Draw

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Caroline Wozniacki def. Ayumi Morita, 6-2 6-1

Samantha Stosur def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-1 7-5

Aleksandra Wozniak def. Ryoko Fuda, 6-1 6-1

Klara Zakopalova def. Marta Domachowska, 6-3 6-0

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Rika Fujiwara, 6-2 6-4

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Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart)

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Jelena Jankovic def. Alona Bondarenko, 6-2 6-0

Dinara Safina def. Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-1 7-6 (8-6)

Venus Williams def. Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-4 6-2

Vera Zvonareva def. Marion Bartoli, 6-2 6-0

Nadia Petrova def. Patty Schnyder, 6-4 6-1

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Tashkent Open (Tashkent)

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Peng Shuai def. Arantxa Rus, 6-1 7-5

Sorana Cirstea def. Anna Lapushchenkova, 6-1 6-4

Monica Niculescu def. Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-3 3-4 retired

Michelle Larcher de Brito def. Tatiana Poutchek, 6-4 6-1