A Question Of Consistency

I'd just, for a moment, like to compare the tournament in Kuala Lumpur currently to the one in Tokyo. Look at the semi finalists. In Kuala Lumpur, we have the top four seeds into the semis, wham bam thankyou ma'am - Davydenko, Verdasco, Soderling and Gonzalez. And the top six made it to the quarters, the only 'wild' cards being Youzhny and Gasquet, and, let's face it, they're much higher quality than their rankings would have you believe.

Tokyo has redeemed itself a bit - Jankovic vs Sharapova is a very respectable final - but you've got to think that the tournament organisers are breathing a sigh of relief after the total mess they had earlier in the week. And still, even though it's Jankovic/Sharapova, that's the #7 seed against someone unseeded. That's certainly not top four in the semis.

Not that there's anything wrong with some upsets and unpredictability. But the way the WTA is playing at the moment, the top girls can't win a match. They're almost underdogs when they go into a match - sometimes it feels like the real leaders of the tour are the ones in the #20-#50 range: ie. the ones doing the upsetting. Being in the top ten is almost a curse at the moment, it seems.

The point I am trying to make, I guess, is the hugely different consistency level across the two tours. In the men, the top four in the semis is pretty standard. Sure, it may be a little predictable sometimes, but people are showing they earn their spots. The WTA... the ranking system seems like a bit of a Russian roulette. And I don't know how long this can keep up before we see a complete change of the guard in the top ten.


Today's Results

PTT Pattaya Open (Bangkok)

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Marco Chiudinelli, 6-7 (7-9) 6-3 6-4
Gilles Simon def. Evgeny Korolev, 4-6 6-3 6-4
Jurgen Melzer def. Andreas Beck, 6-4 6-2
Viktor Troicki def. John Isner, 7-6 (7-3) 6-2


Proton Malaysian Open (Kuala Lumpur)

Nikolay Davydenko def. Gael Monfils, 6-3 6-3
Fernando Verdasco def. Richard Gasquet, 7-5 6-4
Robin Soderling def. Tomas Berdych, 6-2 6-2
Fernando Gonzalez def. Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3 6-4


Toray Pan Pacific Open (Tokyo)

Jelena Jankovic def. Li Na, 6-4 6-3
Maria Sharapova def. Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-3 2-6 6-4

Consistent Chardy

We talked about weekend winner Robin Soderling yesterday - today I'd like to devote a little space to the winner of Stuttgart. He's a member of the Stars club, a French rising player - Jeremy Chardy.

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The first time I remember hearing about Chardy was Roland Garros last year, when he made that fabulous run to the fourth round, beating Tursunov and Nalbandian and a variety of bigname players. It's not unusual to see random players make deep runs - we've seen it a lot in our sport - but Chardy has maintained his run, and this, I think, is testament to his consistency.

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Consistency is really an underrated quality. We often laugh off players like Davydenko, who consistently makes it deep but rarely wins. That's how Jeremy has been playing for the last year or so - going well, but not winning. But the important thing about consistency is that it pays off, and now it has.

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This is Jeremy's first tour title, but I'm sure it won't be his last. I'm sorry this isn't a more in-depth analysis of the Chardy career, but he's so young that I don't know if analysis is fruitful. Instead, I think we need to applaud him for what he's done very well - he's been consistent - and applaud him for the fruits of that labour. Well done, Jeremy - may this be the first title of many for you!

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Today's Results

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Indianapolis Tennis Championships (Indianapolis)

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Marc Gicquel def. Ernests Gulbis, 6-2 6-3

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International Hamburg Open (Hamburg)

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Teimuraz Gabashvili def. Andreas Seppi, 6-3 6-1

Daniel Brands def. Victor Crivoi, 4-6 6-4 6-1

Pablo Cuevas def. Bjorn Phau, 7-6 (7-0) 6-4

Ivan Navarro def. Steve Darcis, 6-4 6-4

Philipp Petzschner def. Florent Serra, 7-6 (7-3) 6-2

Pere Riba def. Evgeny Korolev, 7-6 (7-3) 6-2

Potito Starace def. Maximo Gonzalez, 5-7 6-4 6-3

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Christophe Rochus, 6-4 6-2

Jan Hernych def. Kevin Krawietz, 6-0 4-6 6-3

Simon Greul def. Janko Tipsarevic, 2-6 6-3 6-3

Marcel Granollers def. Martin Vassallo Arguello, 6-4 6-4

Andreas Beck def. Oscar Hernandez, 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 6-4

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Banka Koper Slovenia Open (Portoroz)

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Dinara Safina def. Tadeja Majeric, 6-0 6-4

Olga Govortsova def. Kaia Kanepi, 6-1 6-2

Lucie Safarova def. Katie O'Brien, 6-4 6-4

Rossana de los Rios def. Viktoriya Kutuzova, 5-7 6-4 7-6 (8-6)

Klara Zakopalova def. Masa Zec Peskiric, 6-2 6-4

Petra Martic def. Kristina Barrois, 6-3 6-4

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Nurnberger Gastein Ladies (Bad Gastein)

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Tatjana Malek def. Carla Suarez Navarro, 2-6 6-2 6-4

Ioana Raluca Olaru def. Marta Domachowska, 5-7 6-4 6-3

Andrea Petkovic def. Sandra Kloesel, 6-4 6-3

Russian Roulette

I don't think there is a woman in the world who doesn't have a bit of a soft spot for Marat Safin.

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Understandably.

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I love watching Marat play, but going for him is certainly a gamble. When Marat is on, then he's on. Marat, at his best, can give Roger Federer a run for his money. They've certainly had some classic matches in the past - the Australian Open final in 2004 and the semi-final in 2005 both come to mind. But Marat when he's off... can be almost painful. Maybe because it's so painful for him. Yesterday's match against Andy Roddick at Kooyong was an example of that. Marat did not play well. And you could tell he knew it.

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I don't think I would like to meet Marat after a match like that. He was in a foul mood on the court, and I can't imagine he'd be very pleasant to be around afterwards.

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That's the difference, I think, between Marat and his Russian compatriot Dmitry Tursunov. Dmitry, like Marat, is a hot/cold player. Cheering for Dmitry is a roll of the dice, and you're never quite sure what you're going to get. But Dmitry doesn't seem to get quite so annoyed at himself about it.

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I would love to see Safin and Tursunov play doubles. They have in the past - Davis Cup for Russia comes to mind. They also played at Estoril in 2006, when Dmitry wrote his now-famous blog, much of which was devoted to paying out Marat, especially because they had to pull out in the semi-final because Marat rolled his ankle walking down the hill to get a haircut. I can imagine that their singles careers get in the way of playing doubles, but if they started training together permanently, I think they could take out the Bryans.

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(I'd certainly like to think they could take out the Bryans!)

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Unlike Marat, Dmitry is ON at the moment. He's into the semis at Sydney, where he'll play Fabrice Santoro, and I'm pretty sure he can win. I certainly hope he wins, because I've got tickets to the men's final tomorrow night, and I wouldn't miss that one for anything! The four semi-finalists are actually pretty weird - not who you would have picked. Chris Guccione plays Radek Stepanek and Tursunov plays Santoro. None of them are seeded. When you consider that the four top seeds were Gasquet, Robredo, Blake and Berdych - none of whom are slouches, and all of whom were taken out by these four players - that's a pretty good effort.

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I'm gunning for a Tursunov/Guccione final, with a Tursunov victory. Not very patriotic, I know, but if you ask me, tennis isn't about nationality. Tennis is about personality - and Dmitry Tursunov sounds like someone I wouldn't mind having a few drinks with!

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Today's Results

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Medibank International (Sydney)

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Men's Draw

Chris Guccione def. Tomas Berdych, 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4

Radek Stepanek def. Agustin Calleri, 6-2 6-4

Dmitry Tursunov def. Sebastien Grosjean, 6-4 6-2

Fabrice Santoro def. Evgeny Korolev, 6-3 6-3

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Women's Draw

Justine Henin def. Ana Ivanovic, 6-2 2-6 6-4

Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Nicole Vaidisova, 7-5 7-6 (7-4)

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AAMI Classic (Kooyong)

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Andy Murray def. Ivan Ljubicic, 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-2

Andy Roddick def. Marat Safin, 6-3 6-3

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Heineken Open (Auckland)

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Julien Benneteau def. David Ferrer, 6-4 6-0

Juan Monaco def. Michael Llodra, 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5)

Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Nicolas Massu, 4-6 6-3 6-4

Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Florian Mayer, 6-3 6-4

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Moorilla Hobart International (Hobart)

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Vera Zvonareva def. Ashley Harkleroad, 6-2 6-1

Eleni Daniilidou def. Flavia Pennetta, 6-4 6-3