Weekly Winners: David, Delpo, Dulko, Djokey and um D-Vera?

What a nice mix of tourney winners this week, dontcha think?  I try not to overstate things when it comes to tennis, but these weekly winners made some important statements this week.  And in many cases their opponents in the final missed out on their statement-making opportunities.

David Ferrer – Can you think of a more underrated player in recent years other than David Ferrer? Ferru became a solid Top 5 player in 2007, but no one really ever paid that much attention to him. Well, guess what? Very quietly he has snuck up to be in striking distance of getting back in that Elite 5. The feisty Spaniard who always seems to believe in himself on the court has expressed lots of doubt and/or modesty in his ability in the past, but I like the sound of his humble optimism after defending the Acapulco crown (and sombrero) by a score of 76(4) 67(2) 62. “I didn’t think I could win here twice in a row and I realize I am having the best season start of my career this year. I hope I can continue like that this season.” Nicolas Almagro is also enjoying a stellar start to 2011 with an 18-3 record including two titles and a third consecutive final, yet today Nico remained winless in his six attempts against his higher ranked countryman. Almagro also holds a horrible 10-29 record against Top 10 players, with no Top 10 wins at the majors. For someone so close to cracking the Top 10 again, I expect a whole lot more from Nicolas Almagro. He moves up to #12 this week and was as high as #11 in 2008, but I can’t help but think that he should take some notes from his friend Ferru.

Juan Martin Del Potro – El Torre de Tandil won his first title since his comeback from injury and the 2009 US Open. Juan Martin picked up the trophy in style as he did not drop a set in Delray Beach. This is Del Potro’s 8th title, with five of them coming on American hard courts. Delpo beat Janko 6-4 6-4 despite the Serb racing out to a 4-1 lead. This was Janko’s third ATP final, but he will have to wait some more before snagging that elusive first title. Juan Martin will be back in the Top 100 thanks to this win, and I am curious to see how he will compete against the big boys at Indian Wells and Miami.

Gisela Dulko – Casi un catástrofe! Dulko raced to a 63 51 lead against Arantxa Parra Santonja, who then won the next five games in a row to go up 6-5, 40-0 for triple set point. Gisela steadied herself to win five points in a row to force a tie-break in the second and eventually won the match 63 76(5). The usually steady Argentine explained, “Finals are always special and we were both nervous in the first set, but after that I was playing much better. All of a sudden I started to get a bit nervous again and Arantxa started playing so well. I was three set points down. At the end I ended up winning, so I’m really happy.” Acapulco marks Dulko’s fourth title and first since 2008, while this was 28 year-old Parra Santonja’s first final ever.

Novak Djokovic – Undefeated in 2011. That’s 12 wins in a row for Novak, and 17 overall if you include Hopman and Davis Cup. I think it’s worth pointing out that Nole did not face any easy draws as all but 3 of these 17 matches were against Top 50 players. The exceptions were Ruben Bemelmans and Lleyton Hewitt both at Hopman Cup as well as soon-to-be Top 50 Ivan Dodig, the only player Nole lost a set to during his Melbourne run. And a quick congrats to 23 year-old Belgian lefty Ruben Bemelmans who won the Wolfsburg challenger and jumped to a career-high #144. Just like the Aussie semis, Roger lost to Novak in straight sets with a score of 63 63 today. Roger remains ahead 13-8 in their head-to-head, but Novak has looked like the more confident player in these past two matches. It seems like many continue to question if Roger’s descent from greatness has already begun, but I sure wouldn’t write him off just yet.

Vera Zvonareva – I give a lot of credit to Vera for capturing this title in Doha over Caroline Wozniacki by a score of 64 64. While many have questioned the legitimacy of Caro’s year-end #1 ranking for 2010, I couldn’t help but take greater issue with Vera’s year-end #2 ranking. Wozniacki may not have won a Grand Slam, but she did win 6 titles and the most on tour. And Vera in 2010? She only won one title over a very weak field in Pattaya City where #48 Yaroslava Shvedova was the highest ranked player she had to face. Vera remains at #3 in the rankings this week, but I am beginning to become more of a Vera-believer. I might even have to consider her one of the favorites for Roland Garros despite the fact that it has been her least successful Slam so far. And wow, how wide open will that Slam be this year, huh?

Congrats to all of the weekly winners!

Next week is Davis Cup for the ATP, and I will offer a bold prediction for the WTA next week…

Dinara Safina wins Kuala Lumpur!

And Now A Word From Their Sponsors…

Tennis-X featured a recent Spanish shampoo commercial from Fernando Verdasco, and this got me to thinking that it might be fun to share that one with you as well as a few other international commercials from our tennis stars.  Let’s start with Dasco who has already been spotted in Melbourne with a few extra pounds but without the flowing locks.

Nike with Federer and Murray.  Um, Murray from Flight of the Conchords.

Rafael Nadal reunites with Pau Gasol for a recent Nike ad.  And then take a look at their less serious spot for Time Force from a few years back

The secret behind Kimiko’s comeback?  Kirin Beer, of course.

Don’t worry about Slumping Sania, this is just one of her many product deals.

Novak also never met a product that he didn’t want to endorse.

Show us your O face?  Really?  Come on, Prince.  Really?!?!?!?  Still not sure how this made it on to U.S. airwaves a few years back.  Starring Davydenko, Sharapova, the Bryan Brothers, Korolev, Querrey, and Jankovic among others.  O3 = Holes?  Really?!?!?!

That’s all for now, but I have way more where these came from.  Well, so do you….have fun surfing YouTube!

Hopman Cup: The Romantic Comedy

I never intended for this site to be a gossip rag, but who doesn’t love a good tennis love story? Well not many if you count the box office receipts of Wimbledon, the cute rom-com starring Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst. But they should re-tool that movie and call it Hopman Cup or perhaps Mixed Doubles. The question is who will be our romantic leads: Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic or Nicolas Mahut and Kristina Mladenovic?

Rumors of romance for both of these mixed doubles pairings have been bandied about, but there is no confirmation from either couple.  Novak and Ana have that great rom-com back story of knowing each other since they were 5 years old, and while tennis brought them together it is also what keeps them apart from each other except for a few mixed tourneys a year.  That might explain Ana’s service toss issues during the Grand Slams.  Too soon?

Nico and Kristina have the same 10+ year age difference as Paul and Kirsten’s characters in Wimbledon, but I think you will see from these pictures that they have much better on-screen chemistry.

Everybody Loves Mahut could be the more apropos title this week as not only does he seem to have love from young Kristina, but his bromance with John Isner is flourishing as well.  Take a look at the following video of the end of the Mahut/Mladenovic vs Isner/Mattek-Sands match to see the cutest match point ever at around the 6:00 mark.  Kristina looks for Nico’s protection from the booming Isner serve at 9-8 in the tiebreak. 

Even sullen Andy Murray had to crack a smile when Nico the Charmer jumped over the net in order to distract Andy Murray from putting away a sitter volley.  It was actually quite scary to watch as it looked like they would collide, but a hug from Nicolas Mahut cures all.  Mahut lost that match against Murray in two tie-breaks and should have at least won the first as he was serving for it. 

If not romance, I want a happy ending this week for lovable loser Mahut.  There are two discretionary Wild Cards left to be awarded for the 2011 Australian Open.  Just like the 2010 US Open, the French Federation looked over Nicolas Mahut to award their reciprocal wild card to a younger and lower-ranked Frenchman.  First Guillaume Rufin, now Benoit Paire.  What does Nicolas Mahut have to do to catch a lucky break?  Is it blood that you want? 

Unnecessary Diving: The Nicolas Mahut Story

The Hopman Cup Has Balls

Hopman Cup XXIII is off to a rocking start in Perth, Australia with the home nation earning a hard-fought win in their tie against Belgium.  Justine Henin back from injury beat Alicia Molik 64 64 to give Belgium the lead, but Lleyton Hewitt also back from injury tied it up with a 64 63 win over Ruben Bemelmans.  With it all coming down to doubles, Alicia and Lleyton squeaked out the decisive Match Tiebreak by a score of 10-8 over Justine and Ruben.

For those who are unfamiliar with Hopman Cup, allow me to explain since it truly is unlike any other event.  There are 8 nations represented by one male and one female player who are orgainized in 2 Groups of 4 teams.  The order of matches in each tie is the women’s singles, the men’s singles, and the mixed doubles.  The leading teams in each group after three round-robin matches qualify for the Final.  Here are the current standings as well as the full roster of players competing at this special event:

GROUP A STANDINGS:

1-0  SERBIA – Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic
1-0  AUSTRALIA – Alicia Molik and Lleyton Hewitt
0-1  BELGIUM – Justine Henin and Ruben Bemelmans
0-1  KAZAKHSTAN – Yaroslava Shvedova and Andrey Golubev

GROUP B (no matches played yet):

GREAT BRITAIN – Laura Robson and Andy Murray
ITALY – Francesca Schiavone and Potito Starace
FRANCE – Kristina Mladenovic and Nicolas Mahut
USA – Bethanie Mattek-Sands and John Isner

In other Day 1 action, Serbia had far less trouble with a 3-0 win over Kazakhstan.  Other than Novak Djokovic looking rusty in his first set loss to Andrey Golubev, Nole and Ana made easy work of the Kazakh team of Golubev and Yaroslava Shvedova.  After his match Nole explained, “I don’t want to find any excuses, but we got here just two days ago and it’s very hard to get used to the time change and the conditions here.  All in all, I’m just happy to not embarrass Ana and bring her one point because she is playing really great.  I was just trying because I wanted to make her happy. We have known each other since we were five and we played all the junior events that you can imagine, and we have a great relationship. She’s the nicest girl I know in tennis and for me she’s the best in the world.”

There have been rumors for the longest time about a possible romance between Novak and Ana, and all I will say is that they look like a beautiful couple here as they enjoy their time together at the Hopman Cup New Year’s Ball.

Cheers to a beautiful couple....of tennis players.

 

Let’s take a look at a couple more snapshots from the Ball.  Marathon men John Isner and Nicolas Mahut pose for a pic together, and they will face off tomorrow for the first time since the 70-68 in the 5th set win by John at Wimbledon last year.  Andrey Golubev stands alone and looks like he just got stood up at prom.

Nice sneaks, Johnny!

When's the tux due back?

Not So Fast, The ATP Season Ain’t Quite Over Just Yet…..

Roger and Rafa provided a stellar finale to the 2010 season at the ATP World Tour finals, but the French and Serbian teams are just getting warmed up.  This Friday, the Belgrade Arena will showcase this year’s Davis Cup final on an indoor hard court.  Serbia has never been to the Davis Cup final before, while France is vying for their 10th title with their last coming in 2001 over Australia in Melbourne.

Novak Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic have arrived in Belgrade from the World Tour finals in London, and quite frankly they looked quite tired at their Davis Cup press conference.  Who can blame them after such a long season, but they have a couple of days to get their pep back as well as get pumped up by the sure to be raucous crowd.  Victor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic round out the Davis Cup team, although it has not been determined yet what the match lineup will be.

The Frenchies on the other hand look lively and jovial with the official four-man squad consisting of Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Arnaud Clement, and Michael Llodra with Richard Gasquet as an un-official fifth.  Captain Guy Forget explained, “I’ve included Richard Gasquet in my squad of four players as required by the ITF because for an event of this importance it strikes me as essential to prepare five players.  They are all setting out on an equal footing.”  Despite the uncertainty of which players will get the nod from Coach Forget, the French players sure look to be getting on just fine.