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.