Shanghai Masters Cup

A busy schedule has been keeping me from my blog, though it´s not completely stopped me from keeping my eye on the tennis.

I was very excited when I heard about the Terracotta Warriors being made for this year´s Masters Cup in Shanghai. However, upon seeing the finished product I can´t help being rather disappointed (see for yourself here). They obviously had to rush to get them all finished on time - possibly why they gave Gasquet, who qualified at the last minute, a cap. Considering they knew Federer was in right from the start they´ve done a poor job on him, although Nadal´s cheekbones have been captured perfectly. All in all, the best likeness has to be Roddick - the vacant stare in his terracotta counterpart matches his own exactly!

Belated congratulations

I returned from my holiday last Friday to discover that K had swipped the US Open title, helped by the shrewd choices of Szavay and Wawrinka as her unseeded players, thus denying me my last hope of a title this year. I shall have to rethink my planning for 2008, but well done to K on her third win of this year!

Congratulations also to Linsday Davenport who has caused me to think again about my marriage/tennis career theory by winning on her singles return tournament in Bali only three months after giving birth. I'm beyond impressed.

Pants!

Not only does Fish blow a 4-1 lead in the final set - there go lots of giant-killing points - I also lose Dementieva (at least I can stop worrying about her now) and Hewitt, who decides to stop playing well the moment I choose him. Still, at least Tsonga got rid of Henman for me.

Tennis players with weird and wonderful names

Scoville Jenkins - that´s who Federer is up against later today and who I´ve chosen to be the next player in my great names series. Scoville of course is the scale used to rate the piquancy of chilli peppers - named after a Mr William Scoville (thanks Wikipedia) - I´ve never seen it used as a first name before. He´ll have to be pretty hot if he´s to stand a chance against Roger (sorry, I just couldn´t resist the pun!).

Fantasy US Open

This was the toughest draw I've had to battle with this year, with the second half of the men's causing me much distress, as did all of the women's, especially the third quarter. Why do most of the players you want to choose always end up in the same part of the draw? I was also tempted to say 'sod it' and pick both Wiliams sisters, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, even though it's means I'm likely to I lose my last opportunity for a win this year.

So, here are my picks. If anyone else would like to offer up their choice the rules for choosing are here and the draws can be found here .

Henin, Chakvetadze, Dementieva, Hingis, Kirilenko

Federer, Blake, Ljubicic, Hewitt, Fish

Tursunov was calling out to picked, just because it's my last chance for Henman killing points - if only he hadn't been so near Nadal I would've had him in my team him for old time's sakes! Ooh, and I'm worrying about Dementieva already, I always do and then swear I'll never pick her again, will I ever learn? And there were so many choices for unseeded players this time I wonder if I've chosen wisely, too late of course. I shall just have to wait and see. Roll on the US Open!

Player of the week - an early choice

He's only gone and done it! After years of causing me much anguish Tim Henman has finally worked his way into my good books by announcing his retirement next month . I'm so pleased that I am very generously naming him player of the week - no matter how well anybody else plays this week they will not be able to top this. Woo hoo!

Player of the Week

An easy choice this week. Who else could I pick but Novak Djokovic. Taking the scalps of Roddick, Nadal and Federer in one week is no mean feat, although we should've seen it coming. It feels as though the man has been around for a while the way he's seemingly effortlessly made his way up the rankings. In fact, it's only since Roland Garros last year that he's been making waves. I may have the rethink my US Open plan now.

Player of the Week

This week the grand title goes to John Isner. Ranked 416th when play started in Washington last Monday he beat Henman (yay!), Haas and Monfils on the way to the final against Roddick. Although he lost, Isner shouldn't be ashamed of the 4-6, 6-7 final score in his first tour final against one of the world's top players. One to watch for the US Open?

Surprise, surprise

Another quote from the BBC today: 'Tim Henman suffered a shock first-round exit against American wildcard John Isner at the Legg Mason Classic.'

A 'shock defeat' ? Really? Is anyone surprised that he lost? Just how many matches has he been winning recently? I've not been adding them up but I probably wouldn't need the fingers on one hand to do it.

Hopefully this will encourage the man to retire and not 'do an Agassi'. It's not so bad now I'm out of the UK and don't have to watch countless Henman matches on Eurosport before they show the good stuff, but I still wouldn't be happy having to read about Tim mostly losing for four more years.

Obviously he hasn't read the article I mentionned here yesterday.

'When McEnroe, his stomach still flat and his formidable mouth only at the beginning of its development curve, found that he was moving a step slow, he transferred to the seniors. There's a lesson there. Be the first to decide that you've been up there too long.'

Champion commentators

I've just read a very good article on the BBC by Clive James. It's all about ex-tennis champions turned commentators and had it had me grinning right from the start with this insightful question:

'Why is either of Rafael Nadal's upper arms thicker than Tim Henman's neck?'

It carries on from there, incuding a very good section about grunting, staring Maria Sharapova, of course. You can read the full article here.

Also on the BBC, I notice that Lindsay Davenport, as well as returning to doubles tennis, has decided that she's up to playing singles tennis again and is planning to return in Bali in September.

This is good news and I shall be interested to see how well she plays. I have a theory that marriage often ruins the abilty to play well - my favourite example is Andre Agassi in his Brooke Sheilds era. Justine Henin is back to form now, but played her worst tennis whilst married. Pure coincidence? I believe not. However, I will be very pleased should Davenport prove me wrong.

A tennis tournament on sand?!

Yep, that´s exactly what´s being played in Luarca at the moment, here in Asturias. I found out about the tournament last year, but at the last minute and couldn´t change my plans so as to be able to go. This year I´m working today and tomorrow and was busy yesterday and Saturday so I haven´t been able to go again. I must remember to keep my diary clear for next year as I´m intrigued to see what a match is like when played on sand/the beach. Also, this year the line up is impressive for such a low-key tournament- López, Hrbaty, Mantilla and Verdasco are the main stars. It´s not quite Wimbledon, but I´d happily make do.

Player of the Week

Had anybody heard of Kei Nishkori before last week? Me neither, but to get to the quarter-finals of Indianapolis at the age of seventeen before even turning professional merits a the accolade of player of the week, at least.

Tennis players with weird and wonderful names

Whenever I look through a draw for one of the major four tournaments, usually with the aim of picking a winning team for the fantasy competiton I take part in, or glance at the results on livescore I quite often come across a name that stands out for one reason or another. I've never noticed this quite so much in other sports - probably because I pay less interest - but I thought I'd start another little series here, this time commemorating possibly lesser-known players with wonderfully strange (to my English ear) names.

To start off with I've selected the French player Nicolas Devilder, who's just beaten Agustin Calleri in the Dutch Open at Amersfoort. I don't think I need to explain why.

Player of the Week

Another joint win. This time it's Nadia Petrova and Elena Vesnina for their doubles triumph in the Fed Cup yesterday against Venus Williams and doubles specialist Lisa Raymond. After Venus beat Anna Cakvetadze I was expecting a US win but was pleasantly surprised by the Russian duo. Well done!

Player of the week

Or I should say players - Bartoli and Federer. I couldn´t choose between Bartoli for doing so unexpectedly well (it´s a shame Pierce Brosnan wasn´t at the final - see my favourite quotes on the right) or Federer who equalled Bjorg´s record at by claiming his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title and fought off Nadal´s onslaught - I was hooked on the internet all yesterday afternoon and wished desperately for a TV throughout most of the match. Maybe next year.

Curses, foiled again!

A Venus Wiliams victory yesterday handed K Wimbledon, for a fourth year running. I could have drawn had Bartoli won, but I can't say I was expecting it. It's possibly partly my own fault for refusing to have the Wiliams sisters in any of my teams - I still hold it against them for making women's tennis so boring to watch during the period where they both made it to several finals and then just whumped the ball around the court. I refuse to pick Roddick for similar reasons too.

I shall now knuckle down and start plotting for the US Open - my only chance at a title this year. Some serious thinking is called for!

Player of the Week

Another obvious one - Janko Tipsarevic - he's the only choice this week. Had the Roddick-Mathieu match not been rained off I may have plumped for the Frenchman instead (assuming victory for Mathieu) but this Serbian player has stood out most at Wimbledon so far.

What court is this?

I'm currently avoiding comment on play at Wimbledon as I lost two of my players yesterday, Safina and Mirza, and I prefer to sulk! (Although Henman went out too - every cloud has a silver lining.)

However, I got the last of my birthday cards yesterday and found this excellent one waiting for me at the bar where we collect our post, thanks to Tortoiseshell and K.

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to what court it is? After careful study I've decided to plump for court 13. It could be court two but I think it's that fake grass wall at the end of court 13 that's pictured and not the big plastic/metal (?) one on court two. I can't remember what side the umpires sit on on either court so I could be wrong. I think the artists has been very generous to the female line-judges and put them in flattering skirts instead of those horrible billowy ones they make then wear - why not just give them trousers and have done with it?

A inauspicious start

After a busy weekend I had to make my the choices for my Wimbledon team on Monday morning before play began.

A quick half-hour scan of the draw and I elected the following players:


Henin, Ivanovic, Safina, Bartoli and Mirza.

Federer, Berdych, Gasquet, Nalbandian and Stepanek.


It was a tough choice between Sharapova and Henin, and Gasquet and Ljubicic but time was against me and I was forced to pick one without too much oohing and aahing.

The men's unseeded caused me much trouble. I'd had Mahut or Clement in mind, and what happened, yes of course, they were drawn against each other in the first round. I'd been in a similar situation at Roland Garros in 2004 when I spent ages deliberating as to whether Cañas or Gaudio would win their first-round encounter. In the end, I plumped for Cañas and then Gaudio went on to win the tournament - typical. So this time I avoided making such decisions and decided on Grosjean instead. Then I glimpshed Stepanek in the draw and changed my mind. If I'd not been in such a rush and looked more closely I would've noticed he was playing Mathieu in the first round and would've stuck with Sebastien. It's easy to say now. Bah, one player down already. The really annoying thing is that I rushed to get my players chosed before Wimbledon started at 11am UK time, announced them to Tortoiseshell and K, and then play was delayed by rain.

Player of the Week

It's always tempting to go with Henin, but we'll wait and see if she finally gets her Wimbledon trophy first.

So my player of the week this week is Ivo Karlovic. He's also always so self-effacing ("To tell the truth I didn't really expect to win," said Karlovic. "I came here to play a few matches, I was the last player in the draw") that I do like to see him win.

Seedy fiddling

Looking forward the Wimbledon draw later today. However I did get slightly grumpy yesterday when I saw the seedings. Do they really have to manipulate the rankings that much? It happens every year and I should've expected it, but there I was hatching my plans for Wimbledon triumph, carefully selecting players, and what does the LTA (or whoever is responsible for deciding the seeds) go and do? Fiddle with them, that's what they do and spoil my careful planning. I am not amused.

It's that time of year again...

..and I'm getting excited. I'm not sure why since I can't a) go to Wimbledon or b) watch it on my non-existent TV. Even if I had one it's not shown on terrestrial Spanish channels and I can't get cable all the way up here. But still, I'm getting a tingly feeling of anticipation.

I put this down to memories of my visits to Wimbledon (more on them in a later post), memories of all the good times spent in front of the TV watching Wimbledon, and the fantasty tennis competition that Tortoiseshell, K and I take part in during every Slam (The Aus Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US), in its seventh year now (maybe one day we'll beat Ferreira's 55 consecutive slams record). K has been our reigning Wimbledon champ for the last three years and I'm plotting to swipe the crown. Winning Wimbledon would be extra welcome as I've has a dry year so far - K took the Aus Open and Tortoiseshell Roland Garros (beating me by only eight points, serves me right for picking Petrova).

Here's how it works in case anyone else would like to proffer a team. You pick ten players, five women and five men. You can have one top five seed, one top 10 seed, two other seeds and an unseeded player. If a player goes out in the first round that's zero points, second round, 5 points, then 10, 15, 20, 30 with 40 for the runner up and 50 for the eventual winner. Also, if your unseeded player knocks out a seed you're awarded giant-killing points, which can greatly boost your final score, if you choose your player wisely. For example, if you knock out the 32nd seed, you get 1 point, the 31st seed, 2 points and so on, all the way up to 32 extra points for beating the number 1 seed. We also used to have 10 points for knocking out Henman, although we've scrapped that since it became a forgone conclusion and isn't so much fun anymore.

Anyway, time to get back to my scheming and tingling. More later.

Player of the week

It has to be Mahut for getting to the final at Queens. Having beaten Nadal on the way, he almost, almost beat Roddick in the final, and on grass too. He had me squealing at the livescore web page, egging him on. I shall be keeping an eye on him during Wimbledon.