Those Who Have Made Djokovic Their Bunny

Oh, Mr Federer, I am cross with you, I am cross with you indeed. Letting a 5-1 lead in the third set slip? Not cool, man, not cool.

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Though there are worse people in the world to lose to that Jo-W Tsonga. I believe he has a win over all the other Fantastic Four (including about 94 over Djokovic, who is totally his bunny) - I guess he needed to round out the set. There are worse losses in the world.

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Though speaking of people who have made Djokovic their bitch, I am now officially pulling for Andy Roddick to win this tournament. He deserves a big win after Wimbledon - and I think it would be really good for him to do well here, to prove that Wimbledon was not one big fluke. He is playing the best tennis of his career at the moment - in my opinion anyway - and I would like to see him actualise that in the form of a big-arse win. Montreal would do nicely.

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Though the favourite of the tournament now surely has to be Andy Murray, who has been cruising the whole way through. Rafa is technically the higher seed, but he is slugging it out with delPo as I write this, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if delPo nobbled him. The one real stumbling block for Murray will be, I think, Roddick - Wimbledon semi anyone?

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Oh, and Kim Possible went out today - but it was to the world number #1, so you can't say she's starting at the bottom!

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Today's Results

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Rogers Cup (Montreal)

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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Roger Federer, 7-6 (7-5) 1-6 7-6 (7-3)

Andy Murray def. Nikolay Davydenko, 6-2 6-4

Andy Roddick def. Novak Djokovic, 6-4 7-6 (7-4)

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Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open (Cincinatti)

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Dinara Safina def. Kim Clijsters, 6-2 7-5

Flavia Pennetta def. Daniela Hantuchova, 6-3 6-3

Elena Dementieva def. Caroline Wozniacki, 6-2 6-3

Jelena Jankovic def. Sybille Bammer, 6-0 6-2

Kim Possible

Okay, what has Kim Clijsters been doing while she's been away?

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This is incredible. This is beyond a comeback now - this is sheer brilliance. First she beat Bartoli. Then Schnyder. And now -Kuznetsova?

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These are all serious quality players - like serious quality. And Clijsters is eating them for breakfast.

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Well, 'eating for breakfast' might be a little bit of an exaggeration. It did go to three against Kuznetsova - but then it was 6-2 in the third. Kim is sailing, my friends, sailing!

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And I don't want to put the hoodoo on it... but what if she won the tournament?

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There. I said it.

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Both Williams sisters are out, and so the competition is now, I think, significantly lessened. I think Kim has a good a chance at winning this as anyone. What I really hope is that this is not beginner's luck - some major fluke at the start of her comeback which raises everyone's expectations before it's back down to first and second round losses.

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But if Kim keeps playing at this level, well...

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Oh yeah - that other comeback. Rafa's doing well. More on him soon.

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Today's Results

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Rogers Cup (Montreal)

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Roger Federer def. Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-3 7-6 (7-5)

Rafael Nadal def. Philipp Petzschner, 6-3 6-2

Andy Murray def. Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-1 6-3

Novak Djokovic def. Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3 6-4

Andy Roddick def. Fernando Verdasco, 7-6 (7-2) 4-6 7-6 (7-5)

Juan Martin Del Potro def. Victor Hanescu, 3-6 6-3 6-4

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Gilles Simon, 6-3 6-3

Nikolay Davydenko def. Fernando Gonzalez, 7-6 (7-2) 7-5

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Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open (Cincinatti)

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Sybille Bammer def. Serena Williams, 7-5 6-4

Flavia Pennetta def. Venus Williams, 7-6 (7-2) 6-4

Elena Dementieva def. Sorana Cirstea, 6-4 6-4

Kim Clijsters def. Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-4 4-6 6-2

Daniela Hantuchova def. Vera Zvonareva, 7-6 (8-6) 0-6 7-6 (7-5)

Caroline Wozniacki def. Melinda Czink, 3-0 retired

Crushinating and Burninating

Papa Bear is in the house!

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That's right, Roger's back, with Mama Bear and Baby Bears #1 and #2 in tow, and he's ready to rumble. He may not have exactly been in cruise mode against Frederic Niemeyer, Canadian journeyman, but somehow I'm thinking that doesn't mean too much. A little rust, perhaps, but that machine still looks pretty damn well-oiled to me. The Federer Express is a-rolling on, and it'll be crushinating and burninating again very soon, mark my words.

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Someone who's not crushinating and burninating at the moment, seemingly out of nowhere, is Marin Cilic. Now we all know I'm a Marin fan - he's one of my Stars of the Future who's rapidly growing into a Star of the Present - so I'm monitoring this mini-slump quite closely. He's now had two first round exits in a row, which is unlike him - including one to Somdev Devvarman. I'm sorry, but who? I'm not too worried - I think Marin's pretty resilient - but I'll be keeping an eye on him, nonetheless. Watch yourself, boy!

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Wins also went today to Djokovic, Murray and Davydenko, whom I'll be interested to watch progress in this tournament, as well as to Tommy Haas. Now there's someone whose cranked up the crushinator and the burninator of late. He hasn't played this well for years. First he was ever so close to beating the Rog at Roland Garros. Then there was Halle and the Wimbledon semi final, and some excellent matches since. Today he negated the ever-dangerous Ivo Karlovic - I'm not about to say that he's going to win the title or anything, but I think ol' Tommy has proved he's not going to be underestimated. He's got his game face on, that's for sure!

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And speaking of game faces, the king of the game face, one Mr. Rafael Nadal, will be back on the singles court tomorrow. He's already played a bit of doubles and not looked too shabby - let's see what he's like with the world watching...

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Today's Results

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Rogers Cup (Montreal)

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Andy Roddick def. Igor Andreev, 6-1 7-6 (7-3)

Juan Martin Del Potro def. Jan Hernych, 6-2 7-5

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Rainer Schuettler, 4-6 6-3 6-4

Gilles Simon def. Alejandro Falla, 4-6 6-2 6-2

Fernando Verdasco def. Leonardo Mayer, 6-1 6-1

Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Gael Monfils, 6-3 7-6 (9-7)

Philipp Petzschner def. Tommy Robredo, 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4)

Mikhail Youzhny def. John Isner, 6-7 (8-10) 6-1 6-3

Victor Hanescu def. Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-3 4-6 7-5

Stanislas Wawrinka def. Andrey Golubev, 7-5 6-4

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Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open (Cincincatti)

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Elena Dementieva def. Yanina Wickmayer, 6-3 6-4

Jelena Jankovic def. Maria Kirilenko, 7-6 (8-6) 6-3

Vera Zvonareva def. Alisa Kleybanova, 6-4 1-6 7-5

Caroline Wozniacki def. Aleksandra Wozniak, 4-6 6-4 6-4

Victoria Azarenka def. Anna Chakvetadze, 6-4 6-2

Melinda Czink def. Ana Ivanovic, 7-6 (8-6) 7-5

Sybille Bammer def. Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-0 7-5

Flavia Pennetta def. Agnes Szavay, 6-2 6-4

Sorana Cirstea def. Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 6-3 6-2

Daniela Hantuchova def. Alona Bondarenko, 7-5 1-6 6-4

Peng Shuai def. Maria Jose Martinez Sanches, 5-7 6-2 6-1

Kim Clijsters def. Patty Schnyder, 6-2 7-5

Return of the Kim

She's ba-ack!

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That's right - blonde and bouncy, with entourage and baby Jada in tow, splitstastic Kim Clijsters is back from retirement and she's back with a win!

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And it was not a bad win at all, mark my words - I just went on and on yesterday about Marion Bartoli is not at the top of the game whatever anyone might say, but hello? she won a major tennis tournament a week ago! Like, a big one! Where she beat Venus Williams! And now Kimmy's gone and climbed all over her!

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I like Kim Clijsters. I'm not going to deny it. Sure, she's probably not my favourite player to watch in the world - I wince every time she does the splits - but she's somehow compelling. And I get the sense that she's brought a little somethin' somethin' back with her from the land of retirement and responsible parenthood - joy.

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We saw Justine Henin collapse when she lost it. Kimmy left the game because, presumably, she didn't like it so much any more. Looks like she didn't realise quite how much she'd miss it, because here she is on the comeback trail, and she's back beating the creme. Tennis was routine, all she had ever known before. Now she's tried something different, but tennis still takes the cake. If you love something, let it go, and if it comes back it's yours - that's how you know - and Kimmy's come back to tennis and tennis has come back to Kimmy.

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Welcome back, Kimmy. May your smile ever be radiant, your serve ever powerful and your splits as splitstastic as ever!

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Today's Results
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Rogers Cup (Montreal)

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Andy Murray def. Jeremy Chardy, 6-4 6-2

Nikolay Davydenko def. Paul-Henri Mathieu, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-2)

Fernando Verdasco def. Feliciano Lopez, 6-1 6-7 (5-7) 6-1

Tommy Robredo def. Alex Bogomolov Jr., 6-4 6-2

Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Lleyton Hewitt, 6-1 6-4

Victor Hanescu def. Jurgen Melzer, 6-4 6-3

John Isner def. Jesse Levine, 6-3 6-4

Andrey Golubev def. Radek Stepanek, 6-3 6-4

Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Tomas Berdych, 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (9-11) 6-4

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Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open (Cincinatti)

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Dinara Safina def. Roberta Vinci, 2-6 7-5 6-4

Alona Bondarenko def. Nadia Petrova, 6-2 6-3

Flavia Pennetta def. Ayumi Morita, 6-2 6-3

Peng Shuai def. Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2 6-1

Sorana Cirstea def. Meghann Shaughnessy, 7-5 7-5

Daniela Hantuchova def. Sara Errani, 3-6 6-3 6-1

Agnes Szavay def. Urszula Radwanska, 7-5 7-5

Alisa Kleybanova def. Aravane Rezai, 6-3 6-3

Yanina Wickmayer def. Francesca Schiavone, 6-3 6-4

Maria Kirilenko def. Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-4 6-1

Creme (but not de la creme)

I know the WTA tour is basically a cesspit of despair at the moment, a land of headcases and nut jobs and total freakouts and injuries, etc. All this aside, we have had some pretty surprising winners over the past few weeks.

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Like Marion Bartoli. What was that? She plays the weirdest tennis in the history of the world and I've pretty much considered her a one-Slam wonder since Wimbledon 2007, where she didn't even win the Slam. What was with her beating Venus? That was just bizarre. I don't get it.

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And now Flavia Pennetta! No disrespect to the Flavinator, because I have epic kudos for her, but surely there are people in this draw who should have eaten her for breakfast. But no... Flavia won LA. I was very disappointed that she beat Sam Stosur in the final - I thought Sam should have pulled that one through. All credit for Flavia - and Marion - for coming through tough draws, but still...

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...this should not be happening.

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In tournaments where the creme de la creme are playing, the creme de la creme should be winning. End of story. Instead, Marion Bartoli and Flavia Pennetta, who are creme, but not de la creme, if you know what I mean, are winning and the creme de la creme are being beaten early. I don't get it... I suppose it makes things a bit interesting, but it's also very disappointing.

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So what will happen this week? There's an interesting question. Because if Marion and Flavia are winning, then I think the WTA is primed for a run like Juan Martin del Potro had last year. Who's it gonna be, ladies? Who's gonna step up and play hardball?

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Today's Results

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Rogers Cup (Montreal)

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Mikhail Youzhny def. Marin Cilic, 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-1

Frederic Niemeyer def. Igor Kunitsyn, 7-5 6-1

Rainer Schuettler def. Florent Serra, 6-4 6-0

Igor Andreev def. Dmitry Tursunov, 5-5 retired

Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 7-5 0-6 6-1

Jeremy Chardy def. Yen-hsun Lu, 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-4

Peter Polansky def. Bruno Agostinelli, 6-3 7-6 (8-6)

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Western and Souther Financial Group Women's Open (Cincinatti)

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Roberta Vinci def. Tatjana Malek, 6-4 6-1

Patty Schnyder def. Gisela Dulko, 6-4 6-0

Lucie Safarova def. Iveta Benesova, 6-3 7-6 (9-7)

Olga Govortsova def. Ekaterina Makarova, 6-1 6-3

Aleksandra Wozniak def. Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-0 6-3

Melinda Czink def. Alize Cornet, 6-3 6-2

Ana Ivanovic def. Melanie Oudin, 2-6 6-1 6-1

Anna-Lena Groenefeld def. Virginie Razzano, 6-3 3-6 6-4

Victoria Azarenka def. Kaia Kanepi, 6-3 7-6 (7-2)

Kateryna Bondarenko def. Magdalena Rybarikova, 6-2 6-2

Washington Ramblings

Another how-bout-that-I-missed-it mention - how about you, Andy Roddick?

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I barely even noticed Roddick was in the draw, so smoothly did he cut through it - like a knife through butter. Sure, he had a tough one against Isner in the semis, but considering that he took a loss in the Wimbledon final that could have completely broken him, I think being in a final again is totally admirable. Good on you, Andy - epic kudos. I would really love to see him go deep at the US Open. Obviously I'd like my man R-Fed to win it, but if Andy were to make the final, I would not be devastated.

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He'll face Juan Martin del Potro, who is defending all the points he gained on this stretch last year. I don't yet have a fix on Juan's form - he's been pretty quiet since that epic semi against Federer at Roland Garros, taking an early loss at Wimbledon and then not really being seen since... but he's in the final here in Washington, so he must have a little somethin' somethin' going on...

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...and, look, there you go, he just won it! What a nailbiter of a match - it always seems unfair that these matches have to go to a breaker. I'd be all for a deciding third set where you just played on until someone won by two games, but I don't know if the players would be too keen on that.

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But - one thing I totally forgot to talk about - Isner. Personally, I think he's quite overrated as whenever I see results he always seems to be on the losing end, but where did his performance come from this week? He played some quality players very, very tight indeed. Andy Roddick is lightyears ahead of John Isner in talent and technique and experience and yet Isner hung tough with him. Like, really tough.

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I'm not saying that Isner is one to watch out for this US Open series, because I'm not going to change my mind over one good run. Still - kudos, dude.

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Today's Results

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Legg Mason Tennis Classic (Washington)

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Juan Martin Del Potro def. Andy Roddick, 3-6 7-5 7-6 (8-6)

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LA Women's Tennis Championships

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Flavia Pennetta def. Samantha Stosur, 6-4 6-3

Hanging Tough

You know who has totally snuck under my radar this week? Sam Stosur.

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This is a little unusual, because I usually follow Slammin' Sammy pretty closely, given as she's one of the few good things Australian tennis has going for it at the moment. But in the all the lead up to Montreal next week, with the return of Rafa and Roger and the first pictures of Myla and Charlene and the announcement of their new playmate Baby Wawrinka, I've been a bit distracted when it comes to stuff happening on court this week.

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But no matter. I'm here for you now, Sam - Sam who is into the final of LA! How 'bout that?! And LA was a tough, tough field. Like, really tough. Sure there were no Williams sisters, but there was just about everyone else. And looking back at Sam's scores, she has had a pretty decent run. She's gone to three, but she hasn't had any total down-to-the-wire nailbiters. She's hanging tough and getting it done.

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And ain't that something.

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I seriously believe Stosur can be top ten after the US hardcourt season is over. She has so much in her game to like - her serve and her exquisite volleys probably top the list. She's only really recently come into her own on the singles court after being a doubles specialist and then having Lyme disease, but I like, like, LIKE what I see! And I think the major change is that she's learned to hang in there a whole lot better than she did - even over the last six months or so. I don't think the Stosur would choke away match points like she did against Serena in Sydney.

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No, Sammy is Slammin' and she's here to stay. I would dearly love for her to win LA, which is a biggish tournament - I think it'd be some great validation for all that she's achieved!

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Today's Results

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Legg Mason Tennis Classic (Washington)

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Juan Martin Del Potro def. Fernando Gonzalez, 7-6 (7-2) 6-3

Andy Roddick def. John Isner, 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 7-5

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LA Women's Tennis Classic (Los Angeles)

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Samantha Stosur def. Sorana Cirstea, 6-3 6-2

Flavia Pennetta def. Maria Sharapova, 6-2 4-6 6-3