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.

The Foot Of The Mountain

One of the strangest things about the time immediately after a Grand Slam is the fact that there is still tennis going on. There is no quiet time, no downtime... the players who gathered in Melbourne have scattered to all corners of the earth, unable to put their racquets down. Tennis players must feel like they're wearing the fairy tale red shoes sometimes - they just can't stop playing.

Of course, if you're Roger or Rafa or one of the top dudes, you can take a break. But for the little guys, there is none of that. You need the points to claw up the rankings. Every week is another battle. And just because a Slam is over and the whole tennis world is trying to catch its breath doesn't mean that you get the luxury of a break.

No, no, no. You are in Santiago or Zagreb or Johannesburg, trying to win a few rounds and gain some much needed points if you're a little little guy or notch up a tournament win if you're slightly bigger. Or some little guys might be in Courmayeur or Burnie or Kazan playing on the Challenger circuit, trying to grab the win and the valuable points there. And this is what you do, week in, week out.

When you're at the top, you can care about sensible scheduling. When you're not, then every week is another dogfight.

My newfound great love for Nicolas Mahut, he of the awesome hair, means that there'll probably be a lot more of the little guys on this blog - which is a good thing, I think. The little guys need some love. It's easy to be a Fedal fan (which, as you know, I am LIKE WHOA) but when you're not so famous, when you get shunted to the furthest court there is when you manage to qualify for a Slam... you deserve some screentime.

Mahut is the fourth seed in the Challenger in Courmayeur this week, and he had a first round win against Dieter Kindlmann last night in two breakers. Yay! He also jumped fourteen spots in the rankings up to #118 after his second round showing at the Australian Open! Also yay!

I tried to stay up to watch the match - Courmayeur has a livestream - but it didn't, you know, happen. However, I am definitely going to make an effort to watch at least a little of this tournament this week. Challenger tennis is something I don't know much about, and that's something I endeavour to change. Grand Slam tennis may be the pinnacle of the mountain, but Challengers and Futures are all about the climb.

And Cilic Makes Six

So, is Marin Cilic some kind of otherwordly being or what? Is he possibly a zombie? Because only someone with a brain soaked in formaldehyde would play a tournament the week after a Slam wherein they played six best-of-five matches, including three that went the distance. And only someone with a body powered by something supernatural would be able to do it.

Mighty Marin is through to the semis of the tournament in Zagreb. I do not intend to make any kind of lasting comment on this tournament, because you might have noticed that I sure haven't been following it, but I have been following Mighty Marin. To get through to the semis - he came through Ivo Karlovic today - is a big achievement. But to do it when you're staggering around after a fortnight like he had? It seems foolhardy, and it also screams 'INJURE ME!'

It is his home tournament, so I think it would be foolish to suggest that this is the amount of tennis he would play after every deep run... but still. You sit down and put those big feet up, Marin. I have big plans for you and they won't work out if you're injured.

Let's talk about those plans. Obviously they're not anything I have, like, actual influence over or anything, but I have them just the same. Cilic is inside the top ten now, and I seriously wouldn't be surprised if he became this year's Juan Martin del Potro - the dude that took it to the very top guys and became a force in that power dynamic. We've seen that top group get bigger and bigger over the past few years - Federer has largely been on the very top, and it's been very apparent that the heir to the throne is Rafa (injuries nonwithstanding). The Slam records - 22 of the things between them now - and their continual, mostly undisturbed presence at #1 and #2 has shown that tennis is run by a Hispano-Suisse machine.

But then you had Djokovic come into the mix, and we had the Big Three for a while there. Then Murray shot up the rankings, and it was the Fantastic Four. And then Juan Martin del Potro went and won the US Open, and suddenly it's the Fabulous Five.

One guy a year for the past year has leapfrogged the gap into that top group. I used to think that Tsonga would be the guy who'd be next in. But you wait. I think that by the end of the year, the Fabulous Five is going to be the Super Six, and it will be Cilic who takes his rightful place in the upper echelon.

Little Guys in the Big Time

All this talk of the Fed Cup and Aussie women's tennis has made me forget to write about one of the staples of this blog - my Stars! And two of them in particular have done very well this week, so - a little tribute.

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Let's start in Johannesburg, with my Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy. Not one of the more active of my Stars, it is fair to say - he hasn't been burning quite as brightly as some of the others. Nonetheless, whenever I forget about him, he comes out and proves that, yes, he does belong in my Stars program, and this week he did it by reaching the final in Johannesburg, where he did lose, yes - but it was to fellow Frenchie Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and even though he's a Star, Jo-Dub is a bit spesh right now. He was seeded fifth in this tournament, which shows you how he's sneaking up the rankings - so well done, Jeremy. Hope to see more of you.

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And not only did we have a finalist in South Africa, we had a winner in Zagreb. I think it's fair to say that second seed Marin Cilic, who cruised home over fellow Croat Mario Ancic, has well and truly made it. I think he's the first of my Stars that I can legitimately say I picked when he was way down in the rankings and has since made the big time. Seriously, how good is this boy? Two titles this year already, and it's only February. I think we can expect big things from Marin this year - big things. He might even be this year's surprise Juan Martin del Potro, the random young guy who suddenly becomes a gun and makes it to the season-ending championships. Though I do hold out hopes that Gulbis will give him a run for his money...

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And meanwhile, back to Fed Cup - I expected Russia to sweep China, even though neither Safina nor Sharapova were playing the tie, but Italy sweeping France? I never would have picked that one. On one side, you have Schiavone and Pennetta, the other, Cornet and Mauresmo. A sane person would pick the French girls to win every time, yeah? How bizarre. But good work to the Italians, nonetheless.

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Today's Results

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SA Tennis Open (Johannesburg)

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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Jeremy Chardy, 6-4 7-6 (7-5)

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Movistar Open (Vina del Mar)

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Fernando Gonzalez def. Pablo Cuevas, 6-3 6-2

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PBZ Zagreb Indoors (Zagreb)

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Marin Cilic def. Mario Ancic, 6-3 6-4

Coming Down

The Australian tennis summer has spoiled me. From having match after match on live TV to write about and all the time in the world to write it, I've gone to having nothing to see and very little time, what with the whole new world of nine to five. But persevere I must, and persevere I will. I, like Roger Federer, am not predisposed to giving up..

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It feels like the tennis world is still so shaken by the events of Sunday night that they can't quite process that life and tennis go on - there has been virtually no coverage of the tournaments this week at all (that I can find.) I suppose there's always that comedown period after a Slam - except, perhaps, after Roland Garros, when there's Wimbledon looming round the corner in two weeks, and everyone's scrambling to find their grass feet in Halle or Queen's or Nottingham or wherever. But the tournaments this week - Zagreb, Johannesburg and Vina del Mar - have absolutely no way in competing in interest level.

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For starters, the only really big name out there is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga - everyone else is taking a well-earned week off. Somehow, I don't think the beaten finalist is going to weeping at these tournaments. He's probably going to be too psyched just to be there - especially in Zagreb, where just about every seed seems to have been knocked out. Top seed Andreev gone. Melzer gone, Bolelli gone. And the fact that those guys are the seeds really says something, hey.

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The tournament in Johannesburg should be exciting - it's brand new! It's in South Africa! Actually, if it wasn't in February, and, more particularly, the week after the Australian Open, you can bet your bottom dollar Federer would have played, what with his foundation being in South Africa and his mother being from there and whatnot. Instead, their big drawcard is Jo-Dub, with David Ferrer and Marcel Granollers second and third seed. They're good and all, but...

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...it's like when you come down from an adrenaline high, I suppose. Or a sugar high, or a caffeine high, or whatever. There has been so much and it's so intense, and then suddenly... it's gone. And the Australian Open was brought to a fever pitch of intensity by the Nadal/Verdasco match, and then the whole volcano just boiled over and exploded with the epic final and the tears of Federer. Because, in truth, no matter what happens in the next few weeks, that image of Federer in tears is going to be the most powerful one in tennis for a while yet.

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Today's Results

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SA Tennis Open (Johannesburg)

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Ivo Minar def. Kevin Anderson, 7-6 (7-4) 6-4

Frederico Gil def. Daniel Koellerer, 6-4 6-0

Marco Chiudinelli def. Flavio Cipolla, 7-5 1-6 6-4

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Thierry Alves, 6-4 6-1

Kristof Vliegen def. Ross Hutchins, 7-6 (7-3) 6-4

Jeremy Chardy def. Jiri Vanek, 6-0 6-4

David Ferrer def. Dudi Sela, 6-2 6-0

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Movistar Open (Vina del Mar)

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Juan Monaco def. Nicolas Devilder, 6-2 6-4

Paul Capdeville def. Eduardo Schwank, 6-3 6-4

Martin Vassallo Arguello def. Oscar Hernandez, 6-3 7-6 (7-1)

Maximo Gonzalez def. Boris Pashanski, 6-3 6-2

Brian Dabul def. Diego Junqueira, 6-2 6-7 (2-7) 6-1

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PBZ Zagreb Indoors (Zagreb)

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Ivan Dodig def. Igor Andreev, 6-1 6-4

Evgeny Korolev def. Jurgen Melzer, 6-4 6-0

Viktor Troicki def. Simone Bolelli, 6-3 6-4

Jan Hernych def. Nikola Mektic, 6-3 7-5

Sergiy Stakhovsky def. Dominik Hrbaty, 6-2 4-6 6-1

Ernests Gulbis def. Dmitry Tursunov, 4-6 6-4 6-4

Mario Ancic def. Lukas Lacko, 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 7-5