Wildcard. Mahut. Now. DO IT.

I'm serious, Australian Open. I'm so serious I started a Twitter campaign about it. You may have noticed it. It's grown a lot pretty quickly. The hashtag is #wildcardformahut. And the aim...?

TO GET NICOLAS MAHUT A WILDCARD TO THE 2011 AUSTRALIAN OPEN.

Mahut's already been passed over by his own federation in favour of Benoit Paire (still not entirely sure who that is) so it is up to the Aussies to do right by this guy and give him a wildcard. And he deserves one - more than anyone else I can think of. Let's review:

- He flew all the way to Australia just to play the Hopman Cup.
- He did this to replace someone else, out of the goodness of his heart.
- He has been one of the crowd favourites, if not THE crowd favourite, all week.
- He beat Potito Starace, who is ranked nearly a hundred places above him, in very handy straight sets.
- He gave Andy Murray a very big scare.
- He is a wonderful player to watch - and people WANT to watch him.
- He is all aggression and French flair and dynamic tennis - he plays tennis in the spirit of the game, so to speak.
- He has been inside the top hundred and has the talent, game and desire to get there again - which would be helped by a wildcard.
- He played the longest match ever last year, so it's not like he's some nobody that isn't any kind of drawcard.
- He got absolutely shafted by the US Open last year.
- He got shafted by his own federation, who wildcarded someone else.
- He wore a dress in the mixed doubles at Hopman Cup. Seriously, enough said.
- About a bazillion people want him to get a wildcard (seriously, check Twitter. It's a LOT of people.)
- HE IS AWESOME.

I would write a longer list, but it is two thirty in the morning and even those of us righteously campaigning for the Mahuts of the world to get wildcards need sleep. But please, Australian Open, do right by this guy. He has got the rough end of the stick so many times, and you are in a position to be benevolent. Give Mahut a wildcard. He's not going to win the tournament, but he will play some very stylish, watchable tennis - and people will watch it. They will WANT to watch it. Because Nicolas Mahut is seven kinds of awesome.

The First Awesome Thing To Happen in Australian Sport This Year

I've been focusing on Hopman Cup all week, but let's talk a little about Brisbane. In particular, let's yell out F%^& YEAH MATT EBDEN YOU ARE AWESOME.

Ebden is ranked at about #172, and he took out Denis Istomin, ranked over 130 places higher, at the Brisbane International. He did this by simply playing awesome tennis. Sure, he had a double break in each set and could have won by even more than he did, but at the end of the day, HE WON, and that is an absolutely outstanding achievement.

Ebden is probably my favourite of the young Australians we have hanging around. I really enjoy his game, and although at 23 he might be classified as a late bloomer, it is very obvious that he has talent. If he continues to play like he did against Istomin, then I see no reason why he can't break into the top hundred this year.

He has absolutely nothing to lose against Robin Soderling in his match, so I hope he comes out swinging. I don't think he's quite up to beating-a-member-of-the-top-five level, but I'd really like to see him make a good account of himself. He certainly has the ability to do so!

Over at the Hopman Cup, the Ivanovic/Henin match is one of the best women's matches I have seen in a long time. The commentators have been talking like Ivanovic is 'back' - I think she still has a ways to go before we can say that, but playing in a match like this certainly didn't hurt. But this isn't the Ivanovic story, even though she did play a good match which must be hope-inspiring for her.

It's all about Henin. And if she keeps playing like this... hello, leading contender for the Australian Open.

There is absolutely no reason why Henin cannot win the Open, particularly in the absence of Serena. I know she's been fairly pessimistic about her chances what with coming back after such a long lay off, but if she continues as she has begun at the Hopman Cup, then she has every chance in the world. She wasn't misfiring off any wing, and while her backhand is often lauded as a thing of art, I was in awe of her volleys. Seriously, she has MAD SKILLZ at the net.

Belgium are out of the Hopman Cup after Bemelmans lost to Djokovic (AO organisers, if you find another wildcard under your sofa after you give one to Nicolas Mahut, you could do worse than give it to Ruben Bemelmans), but Henin went undefeated all week and played - well, I can't overstate how impressed I was. Watch out for JuJu in Australia. She could do something incredible.

Give Nicolas Mahut An Australian Open Wildcard. Now.

Seriously, where has Nicolas Mahut been all my life? Even when he loses, he does it very stylishly. And I love a dude with a sense of humour.

Please, Australian Open, if you have a spare wildcard lying around - maybe you left one under the sofa or something - give it to Nicolas Mahut. This dude gets so ripped off all the time, and he plays such awesome tennis. He has MAD SKILLZ. Come on, he's all famous now, after the whole Wimbledon shenanigan. He got shafted by his own federation, who gave the French wildcard to Benoit 'who?' Paire. Have some mercy. Support Nico.

He pushed Andy Murray all the way in the match in Perth tonight. I doubt Andy Murray knew what hit him at some points, to be honest. I know Nicolas is a grass court specialist, but he has some skillz on the hard courts too. He has a good tennis brain, some skillful shots and French flair, which is a wonderful combination - to watch, even if he doesn't always pull it off.

Nico isn't exactly up and coming. He's not the next big thing, he's never going to be in the top ten, he's not going to win a Slam. But he's exactly the kind of player that people like to watch. He has shots and style and he deserves to catch a break. Seriously, he has such extreme bad luck it is not fair. That Wimbledon match? Just the tip of the iceberg.

I meant to actually talk about the match a bit, instead of writing a plea for wildcardishness. Oops. Let's do that now. Whoever thought it would take Andy Murray two tiebreakers to see away Nico? And this match so easily could have gone to three sets... if Nico hadn't missed that shot at 5-all in the breaker in the second set I think it just might have. It was a very close match, and Nico deserved a set... but such is tennis, I suppose.

Watching him play, it makes you wonder how he is not ranked higher. Sure, he is a bit sketchy and has a few problems with execution sometimes, but he has got shots. And his first serve is right up there. There are plenty of players who don't have a serve as good as his. And if you want to know reliable it is, ask John Isner.

I'm glad that Mahut got the chance to play in the Hopman Cup. He is a wonderful character. And I love to watch him play, and I hope I'm not the only one. WILDCARD FOR MAHUT 2011. Spread the word.

Second Year Blues

Oh, glorious nation of Kazakhstan, you are making me a bit sad. After your awesomeness last year, you have had some second year blues.

First, we lost Shvedova. She is injured, which maketh me sad, and I hope she gets well soon, because I like her style. She's been replaced by Sesil Karantcheva, who had about four seconds to get acclimatised, and who had to play Justine Henin the second she got off the plane. Unsurprisingly, she lost in straight sets - though she did make a good show of it.

And then Andrey Golubev - my beloved Andrey Golubev! - went and lost to Ruben Bemelmans.

Now, I am very fond of Bemelmans. I wrote a post a few days ago which was all about how much I love him. But Andrey! my Andrey! whom I have adored for this one year past! This was not a good result for him.

This was the match in his group that you would expect him to win. I expected him to put up a good fight against Djokovic, but to lose eventually. I think he has a solid chance against Hewitt. But I expected him to beat Bemelmans. I expected him to do that.

Now, this is a great result for Bemelmans, who is definitely going into my stable of future stars, and on that count, I am very pleased that he just claimed a top thirty scalp when he is ranked so much lower. But did it have to be my beloved Andrey?

Oh yeah, and Serbia totally hammered Australia. The Hewitt/Djokovic match was a lot more competitive than I thought it would be, but it was still straight sets. But it was eminently watchable. Molik/Ivanovic...? not so much.

Isnut: The Rematch

Well, we needed to have a dooozy of a match, and Mladenovic and Mattek-Sands certainly gave us that. Sure, Mladenovic faded and faded badly towards the end, but this was a match and a half. Is there any better type of tennis than pure aggression meeting pure aggression?

Anyway, I didn't see all of this match, so I don't want to go into it in detail, but this was a quality win for Mattek-Sands. And I also want to see more of Mladenovic in the future. She's a bit cool.

But the real story of the day was always going to be John Isner and Nicolas Mahut: redux.

It was always going to be Isner's match. If these two play off grass, being Mahut's favourite surface, then it is always going to be Isner's match, unless Isner has somehow been handicapped. But that did not mean it was not a little special to see this match - to see the power and wingspan of Isner go head to head with the Gallic flair of Mahut. And with all that history between them... how could that not be special?

I am glad to see these two are such good friends, because honestly, I would not be surprised if they were so totally sick of each other they just wanted to punch themselves whenever someone asked them about that match. In a year where Rafa Nadal achieved a career Slam and essentially made the sport of tennis his bitch, this match still managed to be one of the biggest (if not the biggest) tennis story of the year... and if I were Isner and Mahut, I would want to be over it already. Particularly if I were Isner, with designs on the top ten and second week runs at Slams. I would not want my greatest achievement to be a first round Wimbledon match. Both Isner and Mahut are more than that match.

But that does not mean it is not a bit special to see these two men, who are inexorably linked, play. Even if we are never going to see 70-68 again. And thank you, Hopman Cup, for getting THE REMATCH over and done with in a relatively safe environment, outside the pressure cooker of the tour (or worse, the Slams)!

25 Things I Love About Andrey Golubev

So he didn't beat Novak Djokovic (though he did take a set off him!) Sure, he went off the boil pretty badly there. But I still think Andrey Golubev is the knees of the bees, and he is going to grow up SO AWESOME.

Anyone who follows me on Twitter will have seen this list last night, when I live-tweeted the Djokovic/Golubev match. But I think it's a pretty good list (even if some of it is obviously live-blogged and will have no relevance to someone who didn't see the match!) and so here it is in it's entirety.

25 Things I Love About Andrey Golubev from the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

1. He doesn't mess around with his serve. Quick and dirty. No epic time wasting.
2. He didn't just hit two double faults in a tow.
3. He always tries to make his opponent play an extra shot. Good tennis brain.
4. He has a very stylish serve-forehand one-two punch. Mmm-mmm. Delish.
5. That backhand up the line he just hit. Sexy, sexy shot.
6. SINGLE. HANDED. BACKHAND.
7. The angles he is getting, particularly on the backhand side. UNF.
8. He is delightfully red-headed.
9. That forehand down the line just then was smokin'. UNF UNF.
10. His aggression, even when it doesn't quite work out.
11. The dude can VOLLEY. Seriously.
12. He is annoying the f%^& out of Bert the Unshaven right now.
13. HE JUST BROKE DJOKOVIC. HELLS TO THE YEAH.
14. Clutch first serve. Not all the time, but it's getting there.
15. Right after losing that game, he's straight back on the aggressive horse.
16. FIRST SET BITCHES! HELL YEAH!
17. He's not afraid to hit the ball, even after some demoralising shanks.
18. He freaking GOES FOR IT on the return.
19. He has the ability to dig himself out of a hole.
20. Even if he is losing this set pretty badly, he has some mad HawkEye skillz.
21. That hectic service break he just made. Even if he loses the set, that rocked.
22. He gives credit where credit is due (i.e. he applauds his opponents).
23. He's not afraid to come to the net.
24. He has mad skillz on the return. Always gives his opponent a good ball.
25. He might have lost, but DAMN, can he play.

So there it is - some of the many things I love about Andrey Golubev. What he does need is a little discipline and a little consistency - he's a bit fragile mentally - but he has no real weaknesses and when he is playing well, he is well nigh unstoppable. I talked about Ruben Bemelmans being this year's Golubev yesterday. I think Golubev might like to be this year's Golubev - thank you very much!

A Love Song To Young Ruben Bemelmans

I'm back! And there's tennis! And it's exciting! Time for exclamation marks!

I could talk about Abu Dhabi, but I didn't actually see it, so well done Rafa, well done Roger, keep it up. Here endeth my Abu Dhabi coverage.

But it's Hopman Cup time, and we are opening the year today with a fresh new star. This is my love song to young Ruben Bemelmans.

I always seem to discover an awesome young star at the Hopman Cup, and this year one has been thrown up in the first day. This year's Andrey Golubev is (well, apart from Golubev himself, who is also in this tournament) is Ruben Bemelmans. Sure, he didn't win his singles match yesterday, and he had a bit of a choke in the mixed doubles, but this boy is quivering with talent.

You heard it here. Ruben Bemelmans is going to grow up AWESOME.

He is hyper aggressive, which means that when he is good he is very very good (and when he is bad he is horrid, but a little experience and discipline should give him some consistency). He goes for the lines and he hits them a reasonable percentage of the time. I really like his volleys. He is a lefty so he gets some crazy angles, and his general game plan is good. All that is letting him down is execution.

He is the type of player who could catch alight and go on an absolute tear, and even though he didn't beat Lleyton today, look for him to give Djokovic a bit of a scare and do the same to Andrey Golubev (even though, as we know, Golubev is pure unadulterated awesome). Keep an eye on him this year. He is going to gain at least a hundred places this year, if not more. And in a couple of years... look for this guy in the top twenty, if not the top ten. He has so much talent he just doesn't know what to do with it.

And another person to keep an eye on, albeit for a different reason - Justine Henin. She seems a little pessimistic about her elbow, and she was a little loose against Molik today, even though she put together a very tidy win, but I was very impressed with her, in the mixed doubles in particular. If that injury doesn't get her too far down, she could put together a massive Aussie Open campaign.

Oh, and even though this is a love song to Belgium, Australia did actually win this tie. Well done. And stuff.