Babies and Impossibilities

So guess who has a new friend in the collective tennis creche? Why yes, that would be Myla and Charlene Federer, who now have another Swiss tot to hang with. Stanislas Wawrinka's wife Ilham Vuilloud gave birth to a baby girl a few days ago. Welcome to the world, Alexia Wawrinka!

Please let these three girls grow up to be tennis players. Switzerland could totally OWN the WTA in a few years. Now if Chiudinelli would just have a daughter, we could see some awesome all-Swiss doubles.

But I don't want to devote all of this post to future tennis players when there are some, you know, current ones doing stuff. I talked about the Soderling/Youzhny final yesterday, so let's talk the other two finals today. We have Roddick and Verdasco in San Jose. Normally I would be all over that and be talking up what a great match it is, but I'm so not feeling Nando right now. He is not the dude he was this time last year. I mean, I know he almost pulled off an awesome comeback against Davydenko in Australia, but that was more because of a Kolya fold than some Nando awesome. Didn't he hit something like 20 doubles in that match?

Beside the point. The point being that I'm not impressed with Nando right now, and he's got some work to do before I readmit him to the ranks of 'worth even really discussing the possiblity of his winning'. If Roddick isn't injured, he should own him. You heard it here.

The other final - Brazil - we have le veteran de Juan Carlos Ferrero (yes, I realise that is inappropriate Franglais, but whatevs) against Lukasz Kubot, who appears to be trying to prove that his run to the round of sixteen in Australia was not a fluke. Despite the fact that it pretty much was a fluke (beating two virtual nobodies and scoring a walkover does not an awesome run make). This one has JC written all over it.

Wow. Sense my optimism.

Going Nuts

So when Robin Soderling comes back from not-winning-an-ATP-match-all-year-no-not-even-at-the-Australian-Open, he does it in style. He is into the final in Rotterdam after beating Nikolay Davydenko, he who has been talked about more this year already than probably any other year in his career.

Not having seen the match, I don't know if this is a case of Soderling stepping up his game or Davydenko falling off his a bit - Kolya is still obviously a form player, but I think it's going to take us a while to tell how that quarter final loss in Australia after being in such a commanding position is going to treat him. It's not often that you dominate a match like he dominated that match against Federer only for it to turn around in the blink of an eye and for you to find yourself totally crushed instead. But Kolya is a tough nut. I think he'll be OK - even if this round in Rotterdam went to Soderling.

Djokovic, on the other hand, is not exactly what I would call a tough nut. He's more an almond, or a pine nut, or some other really soft nut. He obviously hasn't always been like this in his career, but it's really been a while since Novak seriously looked like winning... which is a problem, considering he is the #2 player in the world in one of the strongest eras of all time. He got edged by Mikhail Youzhny in two tiebreakers today. Youzhny will now go on to play Soderling in the final.

Best of three tennis is difficult in that, yes, you can lose two tiebreakers and find yourself out of the tournament without having done that much wrong. But while a few of these two-breaker upsets do exist, they're not an epidemic. Players like Federer, Nadal, Murray - Roddick is another one you definitely see this with - do end up in breakers, sure, but for them to lose both of them? Two in a row? Not something you see too often.

Again, I didn't actually see the match, so I can't make any profound comment on how well Youzhny played or what went on with Djokovic. But it just worries me that Novak really hasn't looked like a real contender in a while - even in Australia, where he made the quarters. He didn't play a seeded player till the quarters, where he lost. Sure, Jo-W Tsonga has his number and it went five sets, but I would argue that Djokovic probably wouldn't even have got that far if he hadn't had such a total cakewalk draw.

So there's one to keep an eye on. Soderling/Youzhny is not the final most people would have wanted in Rotterdam, but I think it will be a good match nonetheless. These two, if nothing else, are tough nuts.

ETA: Welcome to the world, Alexia Wawrinka! Congrats to Stan and Ilham. And Myla and Charlene... I bet you'll have a new friend in the tournament creche soon enough!

Au Revoir, Amelie

Hey guys! Slightly more lucid today, so I might actually have something worth saying! Or something vaguely readable, anyway. Of course, this is highly dependent on today's tennis news, which is not that exciting.

Probably the biggest thing that happened was not actually tennis, but the formal farewelling of Amelie Mauresmo. I confess I was never a massive Momo fan - I wasn't an antifan either, I was just sort of ambivalent - but it was still sad to see her go. She has definitely been one of the dominant forces in women's tennis in the noughties - not necessarily in Slams won, but in influence? Momo was huge.

I was never a massive fan of Momo's game - not that there was anything wrong with it, but it just wasn't my style - but I don't think anyone will ever forget 2006, when Momo was definitely one of the, if not the, dominant forces in women's tennis. That Australian Open final was not one of the great matches ever, with Juju retiring - understandable, since she had a stomach ulcer, but not so great for Momo, who I'm sure would have preferred to have that match point - but I think Amelie definitely threw down at Wimbledon that year. That was such a brilliant win for her. There may have been 'controversy' around the AO win, but that Wimbledon win...? No. 2006 - that was Momo's tennis legacy.

But I think that Momo's real legacy was not on court, but off court. She was a wonderful ambassador for the game - one of the best in women's tennis, I think. And I really don't think it can be understated what kind of influence Momo had as far as LGBTQ sportspeople go. There are not a lot of openly homosexual sportspeople in the world, and for Momo to be the role model that she was, well - that was something truly special. I might write more about this at a later date, but seriously, Momo... I may not have been the biggest fan of your game, but as an ambassador of tennis, you were made of pure awesome.

We will miss you.

Hollywood Tennisland

So it looks like the trendy thing to do for tennis players nowadays is to become actors. We have Novak Djokovic playing a Serbian king in a miniseries (is this still going ahead?) and now Paradorn Srichaphan looks set to become a action superhero in the manner of Tony Jaa. What's next? Federer as James Bond?

Actually, Federer could totally do James Bond. And Mirka could be Miss Moneypenny.

Tommy Haas has obviously got an in with the acting world as well, what with his relationship with Sara Foster. And I'm sure a few tennis players would be totally awesome in the acting world. I mean, if Richard Gasquet can pull off 'Pamela' in front of a doping trial then anything's possible, right? (I mean, I'm not saying it's not true. But as far as plausibility goes, it does not rate high, that story.)

I could see Nando Verdasco in some kind of edgy Almodovar flick, easy. And Rafa Nadal would be great in something like 'The Other Side of the Bed'. Possibly co-starring Tommy Robredo. And there is totally a Bollywood epic in the feud between Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.

I'm on some pretty heady painkillers at the moment, as might be evidenced by this post. (Wisdom teeth - they get you when you least expect them). But it's an interesting idea. I think there is an element of performance in tennis for sure, and that acting is an important skill, both for the benefit of player and opponent. As far as I see it, players come in two breeds.

There is the 'poker face' player - the Federer, the Cilic, the Nadal, the guys who very, very rarely seem bothered by anything. Of course, the odd thing slips through - a 'c'mon', for example - but on the whole, their opponents rarely know how they are feeling. This is a distinct advantage, because when your opponent knows you're rattled, well, then they're just going to get more motivated.

On the other hand, it can mean you're bottling up a whole lot of frustrating, which is not necessarily the best thing in the world. And sometimes it leads to explosions... like, $92,000 worth of explosion. This is why the second breed of players exist - the showboaters. Think Safin. Think Gonzalez. Think racquets smashed so hard the tremors are felt on Mars. Think Roddick with the verbalising and the mouthing off to the umpire. It's a way of venting, sure, but I think it's also a form of intimidation...

...yeah, I'll elaborate on that one time when I'm more lucid.

Awesome Andrey

Oh man, my boy Andrey Golubev was SO CLOSE to pulling a big upset in Rotterdam and knocking out sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny. He cantered away with a breadstick in the first but then lost the next two sets in tiebreaks. Clearly he has still got his awesome game going on and it wasn't just an Australian fluke - but he's got to close out these matches instead of coming OMGSOCLOSE. Because I firmly believe that he can skyrocket - and I mean skyrocket - up those rankings. If he keeps playing the way I saw him play in Perth...

...I can't get over how awesome he is and how low his ranking is by comparison. Though he did improve it by about thirty places over the Australian summer - and when you consider that he totally only played the Australian Open, as the Hopman Cup (where he was arguably at his awesomest) has no ranking points attached, that is totally awesome.

If he can only win matches like this one against Youzhny instead of coming agonisingly close, then we will really be cooking with gas. But watch this kid, guys. Andrey Golubev is going places.

Another result from Rotterdam I thought was interesting was Marsel Ilhan's win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Garcia-Lopez can really ball on the red stuff, so this was a good win. But what I want to know is - where did Ilhan come from? I could swear I had never heard of him before the beginning of this year... or maybe late last year. Point is, he popped up so suddenly. Suddenly Turkey is all about tennis. I noticed the same OMGlookatme! appearance of Horacio Zeballos as well - I'd never seen him before and suddenly he was everywhere.

Goes to show you can write about tennis every day and still things surprise you.

One thing that does not surprise me, however, is Alize Cornet losing in Paris. Seriously, when was the last time she actually won a match? Did losing that match to Safina at AO '09 really do this much damage?

The World Keeps Turning

So we've managed to have three other whole men's tournaments since the Australian Open final where R-Fed made Muzz look like a schoolboy... it seems simultaneously like yesterday and like ten years ago. Not because the tennis was particularly interesting or anything, but...

...well, anyway. Weekend winners.

I've covered this a few times already in the last few days, but someone needs to tuck Marin Cilic up in bed with a nice cup of tea and a hot water bottle and let him snooze for quite some time. Perhaps he could have a bad TV marathon. (I'm laid up at home with painful wisdom teeth at the moment, and How I Met Your Mother has saved my freaking life). Because Mighty Marin Cilic needs to hang up his racquet and rest for a few weeks. I doubt he planned to have such an intense few weeks - I mean, you don't normally bank on making the semis of a major unless you're Roger Federer - but three solid weeks of tennis? Plus that week in Chennai? That's intense, man.

But kudos to him for winning Zagreb. Two titles already and it's only just February. If he keeps up this rate, he'll be near the top of the rankings in no time.

Feliciano Lopez was another weekend winner - seriously, five years between titles? That is Safinesque... if Safin had managed to win a title after AO '05, which he didn't, so I guess maybe it's not so Safinesque after all. I didn't see any of this tournament, but Feli is always fun to watch and it's always nice seeing a smoking hot hunk of manflesh like 'Deliciano' (thanks for that one, Judy Murray) holding up a trophy. I'm pulling for a nice deep run at Wimbledon for Feli... and I'd love to see him do well at Queen's or Halle or Nottingham or someone. I love his game on grass.

And then the third weekend winner was Thomaz Bellucci. No one much talks about Thomaz, but I think he's a bit of all right. On clay, anyway, he is a machine. Watch out for this kid at Roland Garros. If he gets a kind draw... he's going deep. You heard it here first!

Bad Luck for Lady J

So if I were Jelena Jankovic, I would be in a massive snit right now.

I've been pretty critical of JJ in the past, but she really brought it all to the table in Fed Cup at the weekend. She played some stellar matches to beat first Alisa Kleybanova and then, more tellingly, Svetlana Kuznetsova. And, if we are to believe her website, she came within a hair's breadth of pulling out injured and yet she played and won anyway. Quality work for Lady J.

Ana Ivanovic, on the other hand, has no such excuse. She isn't exactly match tired, given as she managed to win a grand total of a set at this year's Australian Open. She isn't injured, as far as anyone's aware. All she seems to do is lope around on golf courses with Adam Scott, though I presume, she, like, trains and stuff. And she contributed absolutely nothing to the Serbian team on the weekend. She got steamrolled by both Kuznetsova and Kleybanova before dragging Jankovic down with her in the doubles. Who else is on the Serbian team? Couldn't Jankovic have played with a different partner?

It is such a shame, because the Serbian Fed Cup team should be, by all rights, awesome. How did the Ana who won Roland Garros in 2008 and reached the final year before turn into this pale shadow of what she was? What exactly went wrong?

Sigh. Alas for them.

You know who I was impressed with, though? (Apart from Lady J, obviously?) Yanina Wickmayer. Belgium could be such a force in Fed Cup this year if they get Kim and Justine back in the side - or even just one of them, because Yanina is seriously awesome. I really like her chances of breaking into the top ten this year. She has some moves. That match she played against Agnesizka Radwanska has to be the match of the weekend. And Kirsten Flipkens definitely did not disappoint either. Imagine Kim, Justine, Yanina and Flipper making up a Fed Cup team. Now that would be sweet.

Something else that could also be sweet is the Russia/USA match up in the next round. What we should be seeing is some combination of Safina/Dementieva/Kuznetsova/Zvonareva/Sharapova taking on the Williams sisters. What I suspect we'll see is Melanie Oudin vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, but I can hope...