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!