Back to Normal?

Things sure got hairy for a moment or two at the All England Club. With what's often referred to as the "Greatest Day in Tennis" largely rained out -- only the ladies and a handful of men were able to complete their Round of Sixteen matches on Monday -- and storms looming overhead for much of today, there was the potential weather and not talent would be the deciding factor of early Week Two matches. And while we did see some shocking upsets, some stunning comebacks and a couple utter dominations, now that we're all caught up, it sure looks like the strongest survived.

The surprises started early on Middle Monday with unseeded Tamira Paszek ousting feisty Italian Roberta Vinci, while Francesca Schiavone, who'd only reached the fourth round here once in her eleven previous tries, took a set lead over defending champion Petra Kvitova. But things got even more interesting as wildcard Yaroslava "Golden Set" Shvedova, a breakout last month at Roland Garros, pushed four-time titleist Serena Williams to a deciding set, risen star Angelique Kerber decimated Kim Clijsters in her last Wimbledon appearance, and often-injured Sabine Lisicki got revenge over world #1 Maria Sharapova for her loss in the semis here last year.

The men weren't spared from drama either. Roger Federer, who'd barely survived a two-set deficit late last week against Julien Benneteau, took a medical time-out before the end of his opener versus Xavier Malisse. He got an early lead against the fellow veteran but after a rain delay found himself down a break in the fourth set. Mikhail Youzhny, trying to get his year back on track post-injury, traded sets with unseeded Denis Istomin and even found himself trailing in the fifth. Both favorites ultimately scored the wins over their opponents and, along with 2011 champion Novak Djokovic, booked their tickets to the quarterfinals before the clouds sun set Monday.

Most everyone else only got a few shots in yesterday. World #4 Andy Murray lost his first service game to Marin Cilic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga dropped a set to Mardy Fish, playing his first tournament since Memphis. They had started to turn things back in their favor by the time play was called and eventually won their matches early Tuesday. With David Ferrer rolling over former U.S. Open winner Juan Martin Del Potro and Philipp Kohlschreiber ending the run of American comeback story Brian Baker, almost all the on-paper favorites succeeded in their efforts. The only exception was world #29 Florian Mayer, just barely seeded at the All England Club -- sporting a middling 9-15 record on the year, the twenty-eight year old German's best result this season was a title at a Challenger event in the Czech Republic. But he took a two-set lead over 2007 semifinalist Ricard Gasquet and eventually closed out the win to make his second Major quarter, his first since 2004.

With the men's quarters set the ladies were free to re-take the court and really get our hearts pumping. Serena got off to a quick start against Kvitova in what should have been a hard-hitting battle on Centre Court, and despite all her recent struggles she proved just how relevant she still is with a straight set win over the defender. Several hours later former world #1 Victoria Azarenka ended the run of Eastbourne champion Paszek by a slightly tighter score than last year, but one which reminded us she might be flying a bit too far under the radar this fortnight.

The tougher battles came in the remaining two matches. Rising Risen star Angelique Kerber took a set and a break from last year's Cinderella Lisicki and had earned match points when her fellow German raised her game and fought through a tiebreak to force a decider. They traded serves throughout the third, but Kerber stayed slightly stronger -- when her opponent failed to serve out the match at 5-4, it was all over for the fifteenth seed and higher-ranked Angelique had scored the win.

And in the last match to end today -- ironically one of the first to begin -- third seed Aggie Radwanska and supremely overlooked Maria Kirilenko were both fighting for their first Slam semi. Odds were squarely on the Pole's side -- she'd won the pair's last four meetings and was playing some of the best tennis of her career. Unfortunately Radwanska was unable to consolidate early breaks, and though she eventually closed out the opening set, she lost the lead in the second as well. Just before rain stopped play for the first time, Kirilenko had forced a third. They stopped again at four-all, waited for Vika and Paszek to finish their quarter, moved to Centre Court and resumed with just over an hour left before Wimbledon curfew. Then, about eight hours after starting their battle, Aggie broke again and finally was successful in serving it out. By securing the semi against a similarly exhausted Kerber -- the woman who beat her last year in New York -- she might just have earned her best shot at actually making a final.

It may have taken a few long and winding roads to get here, but the men and women left standing at Wimbledon have certainly proven just how strong they can be on the lawns of the All England Club. A couple upstarts still remain, yes, but it certainly seems like we're getting to the point where the field represents the best of the bunch. We might not have predicted the eventual king and queen at the outset, but it's looking good that the winners will have earned it.

No Shelter From the Rain

With so many of the top players this week concentrated in a couple of higher-profile tournaments, a couple who've been struggling recently might have hoped to catch a few easy points at events where the draws were more sparse. But things are never as easy as they may first appear, and from the start results have proven that no one should rest easy.

Defending champs in Bucharest and Fes both lost their opening matches. Florian Mayer, who hasn't won a match since Miami, fell after a long struggle with Xavier Malisse in his opener, and Alberta Brianti, just clinging onto a spot in the top hundred, went three sets but still fell to Monterrey finalist Alexandra Cadantu in her first round. But they weren't the only ones leaving the draws earlier than expected.

Marcos Baghdatis has had fits and starts for the last several years, so it shouldn't be a big surprise that his performance is so unpredictable. Still with wins over Juan Martin Del Potro in Sydney and Feliciano Lopez in Indian Wells, he'd earned the fifth seed in Bucharest and should have had a fairly easy time of things early. Unfortunately for him he ran into Fabio Fognini earlier today -- a man who's pulled off a few big wins on the dirt. Just out of seeding territory, the Italian was undervalued on paper, but he wasn't deterred. In a match that saw eleven breaks of serve, Fognini was eventually the winner, earning his first quarterfinal of the year.

Victor Troicki has been even less impressive so far this year -- ranked in the top fifteen just twelve months ago, he's notched only one top-fifty win this season. Still he came to Romania a fourth seed, looking to turn his year around. But against Matthias Bachinger, who he'd already beaten this year in Doha, he came up against a roadblock. He was able to force a third set after losing the first, but the German took control in the tiebreak and after two-and-a-half hours on court dismissed the slumping Serb. Troicki will need to rebuild quickly if he's going to get back on track.

The scalps have been just as big in Fes. One-time U.S. Open semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer, whose ranking peaked at #12 exactly two years ago, has had a couple good runs this year, but hasn't been able to defend a lot of points. Now ranked out of the top thirty, she should nevertheless have been the favorite against Patricia Mayr-Achleitner in her first round. But unable to hold serve and barely making a dent in her return games, the Belgian fell in straight sets.

Second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, fresh off a disappointing loss to Jelena Jankovic last weekend in Fed Cup, has also seen her star fall this year. The former world #3 dropped out of the top twenty after a third-round loss in Doha and hasn't won more than two matches at any event since January. She looked to be in good shape against up-and-comer Irina-Camelia Begu in Morocco, winning the first set 6-1. But after losing the second, she suffered a thigh injury that forced her to retire. Hopefully she'll be back in shape if she's going to try for another French Open crown next month.

The latest casualty in Fes came this morning. Petra Cetkovska hasn't exactly been struggling, ranked just off her career high at #30, but now that she's spending less time on the ITF circuit, she hasn't had many deep tournament runs, making just one third round in Doha. She looked strong early this week, not dropping a set in her first two matches, but against lucky loser Mathilde Johansson, who'd already bumped off a similarly flailing Shahar Peer a round earlier, she couldn't find her game. She got fewer than half her first serves in and won a dismal thirty-one percent on her second attempts. With a ton of Wimbledon points coming off in the next few months, she'll need to remember how to play against the big girls.

Seeded players are certainly getting no passes at this week's events, and that's certainly left a lot of holes in the brackets. For the favorites remaining, they should be warned out of getting too complacent. But perhaps more importantly, the spoilsports out there should be encouraged to take advantage. After all, no one is unbeatable in this sport, and whoever pounces first could reap quite the reward.

And So It Begins...

It's that time of year again -- the boys have officially made the shift to the clay season, and began their French Open warm-ups in earnest this week.

The Casablanca field was full of dirt specialists, with the top four seeds winning all of their titles on the surface. But that didn't mean the favorites all advanced without drama -- top seeded Florian Mayer lost his opener in a fairly one-sided straight setter to Jeremy Chardy while Alexandr Dolgopolov, playing well off the game that brought him to #13 in the world earlier this year, dropped just as quickly to Flavio Cipolla in his first match. In fact only two seeds made it to the quarterfinals -- defending champion Pablo Andujar and rising star Albert Ramos, who'd already beaten the likes of Fernando Verdasco, Richard Gasquet and Feliciano Lopez this year.

The two Spaniards eventually made their way to final on Sunday, though Ramos had a slightly easier trip -- though he lost serve a handful of times during the week, he never dropped a set. Andujar, on the other hand, was breadstick-ed in his middle quarterfinal set by qualifier Sergio Guttierrez-Ferrol before rebounding in the semis. But he took control early in his third career meeting with Ramos today, allowing his countryman just eight points on serve in the first set. The underdog raised his game in the second, though, but it was too late -- he managed to eke out one more point than Andujar, but eventually fell in the tiebreak, 7-5, and last year's champion kept his record against Ramos undefeated.

Things got a little more interesting in Houston where, even though most of the top seeds stayed deep into the draw, a couple big story-lines emerged. Thirty-three year old Michael Russell, ranked #136 in the world, dismissed top-seed Mardy Fish in the second round and kept his run going all the way to the semis. And fellow Americans Ryan Harrison, Sam Querrey and 2011 champ Ryan Sweeting, all put in some nice showings during the week, proving the country may not be quite as hard-up on the clay as so many think.

But in the end it was two of the players who've been on the hottest roll in recent month. John Isner, recent vanquisher of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, faced fifteen break points in his first three matches and never lost serve -- his win over Feliciano Lopez in the semis earned him the #1 ranking in the U.S. And Juan Monaco, who made a run to the Miami semis with wins over Gael Monfils, Andy Roddick and Fish, survived a test from Russell on Saturday, but came to his second final of the year the fresher man. Finally delivering the first break of serve to Isner in the opening set, he was the one to get the go-ahead in the third, winning the last three games of the two-and-a-half hour match and sealing the deal.

So with the first salvos of this year's clay court season now launched, it's now up to these guys to follow through. The winners, of course, have a bit of a leg up for now, but every player who showed he can put up a fight this week can turn himself into a force during the spring. And with the way things have shaken out so far this year, any one of them might make an even deeper impact than anyone expects.

Before Moving On...

This week the men begin their tour of Asia in the last leg of the 2011 season. But before traveling to the other side of the globe, a couple spent this past weekend getting in their last blows in Europe, and those that prospered most are on their way to ending their year on the highest note.

On the red clay of Bucharest -- that's right, we're still not done with the dirt -- some players were right at home. Defending champion and top-seed Juan Ignacio Chela made his way to the semis without dropping a set, but he was eventually bested by Casablanca winner Pablo Andujar. On the bottom half of the draw, Munich finalist Florian Mayer, who survived a close call to Carlos Berlocq in his opener, eventually reached his fifth career championship match, playing in top form.

Mayer's experience eventually got the better of the Spaniard as he survived a trade-of-breaks in the first set and capitalized on a double fault by his opponent to draw even. He won eight games in a row and ran off to a 5-0 lead in the second, virtually sealing the match. After just over an hour the twenty-seven year old German was hoisting his first ever trophy, proving it's never too late to make a stand in this sport.



A little further west in Metz, the top seeds were again putting on a show. Fresh off a Davis Cup drubbing, hometown boy Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rebounded quickly and ran to the final -- his third of the year -- with wins over (lower case) marathon man Nicolas Mahut and rising star Alexandr Dolgopolov. And though world #15 Richard Gasquet was upended in his second match, veteran Ivan Ljubicic made good on the opening to advance to his second final of the year, outperforming his fourth seeding.

But things again proceeded as the numbers suggested. Tsonga got off to a quick start, taking the opening set in under forty minutes, but squandered a break lead in the second as the Croat forced a tiebreak and a deciding set. The Frenchman regained control, though, forging ahead early in the third and finally closing out the match. It was his first title since 2009, but more importantly it bumped him up the World Tour Finals rankings, where he now stands at #7. If he holds on, it would be his first appearance at the year-end championships since 2008, and the way he's playing recently, could be his best chance yet to make a big statement.



While most other players in the sport were traveling to Asia, it seems the decision to stay in the Western Hemisphere has behooved both of this weekend's champions. And as the season winds down there could be no better time to take advantage of every opportunity. Because once they make it over to the other continent, everyone should be put on notice.

No Signs of Fatigue

Sure, it's nice to be such a great tennis player that you can hang around 'til the end of a tournament, playing in the late rounds week after week. Of course you do run the risk of exhaustion, especially when you enter an event right before a Grand Slam.

But so far the men and women who played this past finals weekend have followed up on their success -- and those that still have their first rounds to play hope their luck also doesn't run out.

Both Brussels champion Caroline Wozniacki and runner-up Shaui Peng began their Paris campaigns today in style. Though taped up from a thigh injury -- one that caused her to take a medical time-out during Saturday's final -- the #1 seed had no trouble dispatching uber-veteran Kimiko Date Krumm. She made just nine errors and kept her opponent to under thirty percent on her return games. After just an hour, Wozniacki had advanced to the second round, proving she has plenty of steam left in her.

Peng was similarly impressive against Austria's Tamira Paszek -- though she needed just a few more minutes to get the win, she was never in trouble, saving all four break chances against her and winning nearly eighty percent of her first serves.

Strasbourg finalist Marion Bartoli struggled a bit more than the other ladies. After retiring from her championship match while trailing by a set and a game, the Frenchwoman found herself in trouble in Paris against the little-known Anna Tatishvili. The Georgian broke the eleventh seed in all of her service games during the first set, running off to a lead in just over half an hour. But ultimately experience prevailed -- Bartoli was able to get her game together and brought the momentum to her side of the court, winning the match 6-1 in the third set.

The woman who claimed the title in Strasbourg, Andrea Petkovic, will begin her Roland Garros campaign tomorrow against up-and-coming Serb Bojana Jovanovski. The two have never met before, but both had nice starts to the year, and ostensibly are better suited to hard courts. But Petko will do her best to back up her highest career ranking and, I expect, should come out on top.

Over in Nice, unseeded Victor Hanescu made a surprising run to the finals, kicking off that campaign with a one-sided defeat of Frenchman Benoit Paire. Ironically, he faced him again in his French Open first round earlier today and was in for a bigger fight this time around. After dropping the second set and rebounding with a breadstick in the third, Hanescu was forced to a tiebreak in the final set, eventually prospering in more than two-and-a-half hours. I'm not sure the result will completely mirror that of last week's event, but at least he's off to a good start.

Nicolas Almagro, who won the Nice title, will open tomorrow against Poland's Lukasz Kubot, a man against whom he's 3-0. I don't suspect he'll have much trouble this time around, either, but hopefully he'll use the match to make a statement on just how much he's contending for this championship.

All four of the men who played singles in the Dusseldorf final will play their openers on Tuesday. Florian Mayer and Philipp Kohlschreiber, who led the Germans to victory, will face Igor Kunitsyn and Sam Querrey respectively. Mayer, who's never lost to his opponent, should improve his streak, but Kohlschreiber, one-and-one against the American, will have to strike early. Querrey is hanging onto a seed in Paris by the slimmest of margins, and he's more than beatable, so look for the veteran German to force an upset.

The Argentines failed to defend their World Team Cup title over the weekend, so they'll be out for revenge. Juan Ignacio Chela meets young American Tim Smyczek, a man who's lost his only Tour-level clay court match, and should not have too much trouble. But Juan Monaco, ranked #43 in the world, faces a faltering Fernando Verdasco. The Argentine has a convincing 6-2 record against his opponent, so he should bring plenty of confidence into the match and could very well send the seed packing early.

It's a hectic and demanding life these athletes lead, but so far they're proving they have the strength and endurance to keep their campaigns going for at least a little while longer. Of course, not everyone can keep it up forever, but the ones that do will sure make for some exciting matches in the coming weeks.

The Masters

Okay, so the tournaments contested this week may not boast the highest level grade, but that didn't mean the players holding the trophies at the end of the day weren't the best quality. With the early rounds of an actual Masters event underway a few hundred miles away, we saw the same quality play -- or better -- at the championship matches of 250s in the rest of Europe.

At the BMW Open in Munich, defending champion Mikhail Youzhny lost early and the man he beat last year, Marin Cilic, exited a round later. And that allowed 2004 winner Nikolay Davydenko to power through the draw and earn his first title in more than a year. Seeded seventh at the tournament thanks to a long climb back from an injury-addled 2010, the former world #3 saw his biggest challenge in the second round, finding himself just two points from a loss to Julian Reister. But he was back in form after that and didn't lose another set on his way to the final.

There he met hometown favorite Florian Mayer, a talented right-hander who was playing in his third career clay-court final. He'd made a nice run a few weeks back to the fourth round in Miami, but didn't face a single player ranked higher than him in Munich. He must not have been up to the challenge posed by his twenty-title opponent on Sunday. Though Mayer was able to even the score in the second set, converting his one break point opportunity, Davydenko came through in the decider, winning nearly seventy-five percent of his service points and never giving the German a look at the lead. And after just under two hours it was Nikolay holding the crown and reminding us all that he's still a force to contend with.

Speaking of forces, red-hot Novak Djokovic proved he was in no hurry to end his winning streak when he took to the courts in his own homeland of Serbia. He was clearly the favorite at the tournament he owns and was barely challenged on the way to his fifth championship match of the year.

On the other side of the draw a resurgent Feliciano Lopez finally began looking comfortable again on clay -- it was only the second tournament of the year in which he'd advanced past the second round. In Belgrade, though, he fought his way through three tough opponents to start his campaign -- veteran Juan Monaco, Fernando Gonzalez, making his own comeback, and fourth seeded Albert Montanes. But Djokovic was too much to handle in the final -- the world #1 was within arm's reach during the first set, squeaking out a win in a tiebreak, but took control in the second, winning all but one of his first serve points and eventually improving his record on the year to 27-0 -- exactly the kind of mark he'd want before making his way to Madrid.

But perhaps the biggest statement was made in Estoril, where two A-listers clawed their way to the final. Second seeded Fernando Verdasco, whose play has been lackluster most of the year, found a way to win early in Portugal, and got a huge reprieve in the semis when, after a rain-induded double-header, Milos Raonic -- already twice his vanquisher this year -- retired with a back injury. In the bracket's top half, 2009 U.S. Open winner Juan Martin was playing his first clay court event in almost two years and showed his comeback was for real when he took out top seed Robin Soderling on his way to Sunday's match.

And he didn't slow down a notch when playing for the title -- though he was broken in his first game of the match, DelPo didn't look back again. He only allowed Verdasco to hold serve once in the opening set and took control early in the second. After just over an hour he'd claimed his ninth career crown and, somewhat surprising for an Argentine, only his third on clay. If you were writing him off as a threat for Roland Garros, you just might want to think again.

It was quite a rewarding week for all these guys -- Nole continues to close the gap between himself and the top spot in the sport, which both Nikolay and Juan Martin got themselves back into seeding territory for the upcoming Major. But more than that, they've re-established themselves as real powers on a surface where they haven't necessarily been forces before. And it should make a couple others out there sit up and take notice.

Does Size Matter?

It's easy to forget that the tennis season is comprised of much more than just the four Major tournaments that players plan their years around. But these smaller events at the end of the year can be just as important, not only for the potential purse they carry or additional ranking points, but also for the confidence they can bring a player as they round out their year.

Take Viktor Troicki, a talented Serb who's career was previously highlighted by a stunning comeback against Andy Roddick on his way to the 2008 Washington finals. But a gutsy five-setter against his friend Novak Djokovic in the first round of this year's U.S. Open made the tennis world sit up and take notice, and he's been eager to back up the hype. He played a solid semifinal against Rafael Nadal in Tokyo and soundly defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round in Moscow earlier this week. It took him two more matches, both of which he won without dropping a set, to make his third career championship round.

In today's final he met Marcos Baghdatis, a former Australian Open runner-up who's having his own comeback year. The Cypriot won their only previous meeting in Sydney this past January, and has scored wins over Nadal and Roger Federer already this year. The fourth seed had his path to the title match fairly cleared and didn't have to face any player ranked higher than him all week.

The on-paper favorite got off to a quick start, securing the only break in the first set, but Troicki raised his level in the second, winning every one of his second serve points and never allowing a break opportunity. In the third and deciding set, Viktor stayed strong, saving an early break opportunity and eventually converted against his opponent to secure the lead and his first career title. It might not have been the grandest stage on which to make a statement, but after plugging away all year, it certainly was a well-deserved payoff for all his work.

A little further west a man who is slightly more used to winning the big titles took the court in Stockholm for only the second time in his storied career. Roger Federer last played here at the turn of the century, in 2000 when he was ranked only twenty-ninth in the world and lost in the second round. He's accomplished quite a lot since then, of course, but has been struggling a bit this year, falling short of expectations at the last three Grand Slams he's played. And, for the first time since 2001, he's actually lost more finals than he won.

But in Sweden this week, he was in top form. He came from behind against compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarterfinal and held off a tough Ivan Ljubicic in the semis. For the trophy he face Florian Mayer, a man he hadn't met since Australia in 2006. The twenty-seven year old German had dismissed a tough Feliciano Lopez in his opener and powered through hometown hero Robin Soderling a few rounds later. Having only played in two finals before, both on clay courts and both more than four years ago, he might have been a little out of his element today.

Mayer actually was the one with an early lead, however, breaker Federer early to lead 4-3 in the first set, but the all-time Major winner leader rattled off three straight games in response. He was slightly more solid in the second set, winning more than ninety percent of his first serves and never allowing his opponent to make a dent on his games. Roger only had one chance to break Mayer, but that was all he needed. Just slightly more than an hour after taking the court, he walked off with his third crown of the year and the sixty-fourth of his career. Of course, it might not be the most significant win, but in a year which saw his #1 ranking taken away from him, it certainly comes at an important time.

Of course it's nice to win the Majors, capture a Masters title or two. But the smaller tournaments that really make up the year's schedule can be just as rewarding. Troicki has finally let the world know he's a force to contend with, while Federer has reminded us all that he always will be.

After all, no matter how big the trophy, it sure feels good to bring one home.