Dope

So, doping rules. What's up with them? Because sure as hell am not understanding them.

How is it than when Richard Gasquet was caught having cocaine in his blood - a drug that probably would not enhance his performance at all, however illegal it might be - he was tossed out of the sport until his name had been cleared... but when Wayne Odesnik gets caught with eight vials of human growth hormone, which is definitely a performance enhancing drug, he... plays Houston?

I'm guessing it has something to do with possession vs it actually being in your bloodstream, but come on. Look at the great debacle of Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse, who were out in the cold for ages. The way I see it, the offenses of Wickmayer, Malisse and Gasquet combined - and, you know what, throw Hingis in there for good measure - are nothing compared to what Odesnik is guilty of here. What Odesnik has done is a serious, serious offence in a clean sport.

So how is it that he's not suspended? If Wickmayer and co are guilty until proven innocent, what's up with the Odesnik ruling?

I have no doubt that if/when Odesnik gets convicted or sentenced or whatever they call it, he will be out on his arse. Andy Roddick said he should be thrown out of tennis and I agree wholeheartedly - and I think a whole lot of the tennis world does too. I don't understand why he is allowed to play at the moment, but the fact stands that he should not be playing. And that's something he should have realised himself. Just because you can play doesn't mean you should.

I bet things are real chilly in the locker room for Odesnik right now...

A Fairy Tale That Wasn't

Farewell America and hello Europe, farewell purple hardcourts - welcome to the red stuff. It seems like just yesterday we were all worried about these two big hardcourt Masters titles - well, it was yesterday, but whatevs. Today, it is all about the clay.

Suddenly, my friends, we are in the lead up to Roland Garros - where, for the first time ever, Roger Federer will be returning as defending champion. Here we have a very interesting few months of tennis. Oh yes we do.

But today let's forget all that. I want to write a little bit about one particular player - a player that opened his clay account (and, indeed, his account for the year, as far as I can tell) with a loss in Casablanca. (So much for 'hello Europe' - we're actually still in America and in Africa this week. Oops). That player is Robin Haase.

A couple of years back, when Haase played Hewitt in the first round of Wimbledon and played him so, so tight (five sets) I seriously thought this Dutch kid was the real deal. He was about twenty at the time, I think, and he played tennis pretty damn spectacularly. He was to me about two, three years back what Ernests Gulbis is now - one of the faces of the future of tennis.

And then he pretty much fell off the face of the planet. And I have no idea what happened to him.

This is the case sometimes, I suppose - when a player with so much promise and talent just never makes it happen. We always hear about the ones that do - I mean, Roger Federer, hello - but there are so, so many that don't. Just take a tour through the winners of junior Slams. For every Federer, even every Monfils, you have a Todd Reid. Who is that? Good question. I only know because he's Australian - he won junior Wimbledon and then did nothing else of note ever, as far as I can tell.

Robin Haase is, I am sad to say, might just be a Todd Reid. He didn't lose badly today - he went down in straights in breakers to Marcel Granollers - but even just playing a match on the tour level is a big thing for him now. I thought he'd have a huge stack of titles by now.

For every fairy tale, there is the one that didn't quite happen. And Robin Haase is one of those stories.

Thinking Andy

I don't know who you were expecting to be the best performer of US hardcourt season mk 1 - hell, I don't know who I was expecting it to be. But I certainly wasn't expecting it to be Andy Roddick. Though, I have to say, I am quite glad that it is.

I am very glad that he pulled out this victory - actually, 'pulled out' is the wrong phrase to use. He dominated T-Berd from beginning to end in the match today. He absolutely owned this match - and, indeed, this tournament. Only two tiebreakers kept him from winning the Indian Wells/Miami double. And if he had done that one, well...

I think Roddick has been due for this excellent little spell - he's deserved it, if nothing else, and he needed it, if he was ever going to come back from Wimbledon last year. That loss at the very end hurt him worse than any early round exit could have done, because it got him square in the mind. But today, he thought his way to this victory.

It's really the mind that makes or breaks Andy Roddick. His game is excellent - the fact that he's been solidly at the top of the game for the better part of a decade shows this perfectly. But the moment when he transcends that line and goes from being a good player to a great one is when he thinks. That's the Roddick that turned up at Wimbledon last year and that's the Roddick it seemed, for a little while, that that Wimbledon killed.

But that's the Roddick that turned up here this week, and he is definitely coming away with the tennis equivalent of Man of the Match for these few post-Australia months. How will this translate onto clay...? Let's wait and see.

Venus Ascending

So I bet Venus Williams isn't feeling too pleased with herself right now. To get absolutely smashed like she got in the final of Miami... well, no one likes that. And I imagine it's pretty hard to simply be glad you got to the final (a la Federer in Roland Garros in 2008).

We have to talk about Kimmie for a little bit, because, come on, that was seriously Kimpressive. There have been a few question marks over her since Australia and that weird loss to Nadia Petrova - was the US Open a fluke? I have to give that one a big resounding no. Kim's comeback is THE comeback against which all comebacks will be judged, even that of her Belgian compatriot and, arguably, tennis superior Justine Henin. The Kim now is better than the Kim then, and I don't think anyone will naysay that.

The Kim then probably couldn't have whaled on Venus like the Kim now did, but I think Venus has to wear a lot of today's loss. She checked out, plain and simple. She just didn't show up to the match. There are definitely two Venuses: the awesome Venus, who has been here for the majority of this week, and the not-awesome Venus. And the not-awesome Venus isn't like Rafa's evil twin Shmafa, who is still a pretty good player. The not-awesome Venus is... well, not awesome.

This said, and this hard loss taken, I think this has been a great result for Venus this week. She has been strong for a couple of months now - it's easy to forget how well she did in Australia because of that dreadful match she played in the quarters, but hello, the quarters is pretty good. And then you have her sweet results in Acapulco and whatnot... Venus has been coming hard all year, and I would argue she's looked better in the early part of this year than she has in a couple of years.

So watch out for Venus on the red stuff - because if she's coming hard now, I think she's going to come hard in the leadup to Paris. And in Wimbledon? That's Venus's turf. And if she continues wearing her awesomepants to matches (unlike today) she is going to be a serious force to be reckoned with.

Shmafa Back In The Picture

Yeah, so, it was not really Rafa that turned up to play Andy Roddick today. It was Shmafa, through and through, Shmafa-ing about and missing balls and making bad play decisions... Shmafa who is still good but not quite good enough. Another one bites the dust for Rafa.

It is almost impossible to conceive that Rafa has not won a title in almost a year - not since Rome last year, if I am not mistaken. Now this is crazy.

But you know who Rafa is looking a lot like at the moment - apart from his evil alter ego Shmafa? He is looking a great deal like another great man did about a year ago - one Roger Federer. One racquet-smashing, 'thank God the gard court season is over' Roger Federer.

And what happened to Roger Federer after that hard court season? Well, there were a couple of tough losses early on, in Monte Carlo and Rome, but then there was a big, big win in Madrid, and an absolute epic of a grinding victory in Paris on the red clay of Roland Garros.

And is there a safer bet than Rafa Nadal in Roland Garros?

So fear not, Rafanatics. Rafa will rise again. Count on it.

Miami Nice

You know who really, really might win this tournament? Robin Soderling. He is playing like a total gun right now. This would be the victory that would totally confirm his status in the top ten, the run that started at Roland Garros last year.

But then I also want Rafa to win. And Roddick. It really looks like we might be set for another happy final like in Indian Wells. It's rare I'm satisfied with the outcome of a tournament when Federer's been knocked out relatively early, but if can get a Yoker/Rafa or a Yoker/A-Rod final, I will be very satisfied indeed. The other contender is Berdych... I can take or leave him. But the other three? Happy whoever wins.

The women's final is also an interesting sitch. I was really looking forward to the Henin/Clijsters match, but even though it went for a thousand hours, it didn't meet the highs of Brisbane. It was decided on errors more than anything else, and JuJu cracked first. Disappointing.

But Clijsters is through, where she will face Venus. This is a happy final, really - people have been talking smack about Venus for a little bit and hopefully this finals appearance will fix this. Same with Kimmie - since that weird loss to Petrova, she's been a bit funked out. Whoever wins, this is a good result. And it's people who should be in the final being in the final, not a whoever loses last.

Good times.

Shmafa Out of Sight

It is super hard to believe that it has been ten months since Rafa Nadal won a title. Anyone who watched him play against Jo-Willy today... well, the Rafa that turned up today is the fierce, true steely Rafa, Captain of the Fight or Die (mostly Fight) squad. I love that Rafa. That dude is fierce.

Since his defeat at Roland Garros, we've seen an awful lot of Shmafa, Rafa's evil twin. Shmafa is still a pretty rad player - he is still, I would say, top ten, and he still wins a lot of stuff, but he's not the dude that won four Roland Garroses in a row, that is for sure. He's the dude that exhibits a little uncertainty, maybe misses an easy shot at a routine moment... the dude that is a half, a quarter, an eighth of a step short of what he should be, and you can tell it frustrates him.

But there was no sign of Shmafa today. It was Rafa, the true, the original and the best, that whaled on Jo-Dub and totally beat him into submission. And as Rafa himself knows, it takes a lot to beat Jo-Dub down.

This probably isn't a popular sentiment, coming from someone so strongly aligned with Camp Fed, but I really hope Rafa cleans up here in Miami. I hope he wins and wins good and carries that momentum forward into the clay season and plays like a god. I hope we don't see Shmafa for a long, long time - because good as Shmafa is, tennis isn't tennis with Rafa.