An End to the Dry Spell

We're just about ready to make the full shift to the summer hardcourt season, and as the dust from the soon-to-be abandoned clay settles, a couple players brushed the cobwebs off themselves as they made the return to the winner's circle this weekend.

Two-time French Open finalist Robin Soderling has been a little quiet on Tour since the early part of the year, when he captured three titles in four events. And though he was the top seed in Bastad, he had a tough road with players like Potito Starace and Tomas Berdych in his path. Still he was able to advance to the final without dropping a set and made surprisingly quick work of David Ferrer in Sunday's championship. Only dropping three points on his first serve and limiting his opponent to less than thirty percent on the return, he was able to lift the trophy in his homeland for the second time and claim his first title since February -- not exactly a drought, but a bit of a relief given how absent he was from the winner's podium during his best part of the year.

Anabel Medina Garrigues had been mired in a slightly longer dry spell, losing a slew of first round matches over the last eighteen months, but she finally won her first title in almost two years this past April in Estoril. She's climbed her way back into the top forty since then and earned the fifth seed in Palermo, where she avenged a semifinal loss to Irina-Camelia Begu in the third round. With many of the higher-ranked players eliminated for her, she marched to the final without much drama and summarily ended Bastad champion Polona Hercog's nine-match win streak in about eighty minutes. The victory -- her fifth in Palermo -- made Anabel the winning-est clay court player still active on Tour, surpassing Venus Williams with her tenth title on the dirt. Not a bad way to remind us all she's still a force to be reckoned with.

The same can be said for the action in Stuttgart last week, where uber-veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero was trying to make his latest career comeback. Since knee and wrist surgery late last year, he's only played a handful of matches in 2011, making a nice run in Barcelona, but skipping the Majors, and has seen his ranking fall back out of the top eighty. JCF is not a man to be ignored, however, and though he was unseeded in Germany, he handled his biggest challenge in world #17 Mikhail Youzhny and never looked back. Against quickly rising Pablo Andujar in the final, Ferrero took advantage of weak serving and seven double faults, blanking his countryman in the second set. It was his first crown since last July and, at thirty-one years of age, the latest announcement that the Spaniard is still relevant.

A little further east in Bad Gastein, the draw had been opened early, but it was really some seasoned talent that made its way through the week. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who reached a career high rank of #19 in the world after a title in Rome last year, had struggled to rebound from a knee injury and didn't progress past a second round this year until Wimbledon. In Austria she battled through a close first round against qualifier Paula Ormaechea, but saw largely smooth sailing after that. In Sunday's final against Patricia Mayr-Achleitner, she fired off nine aces and, though she missed a bunch of first serves herself, she broke her opponent six times in nine return games, securing her first championship in over a year.

As these ladies and gentlemen next move to U.S. Open prep, it's encouraging to see them each show they can still make an impact. Whether that translates into more titles this year is yet to be seen. But a return to the spotlight for each at least ensures that no one will take them lightly.

Time Warp

I've never understood the rationale, these few weeks after the end of Wimbledon, of taking players directly from the super-short grass court season, just weeks away from the hard court U.S. Open, and sticking them back on the red clay, a surface on which they won't be chasing any big titles again for another eight months.

It's a jarring shift for the athletes, I'd wager, but one which suits some significantly more than others -- and it's not necessarily the ones who'd been favored to win.

There were very few surprises in Palermo, Italy, where a struggling Flavia Pennetta took the top seed here. She'd only won a handful of matches since Dubai and fell in four straight openers during the spring. But she seems to have regained her footing in her hometown, reaching the quarters along with six other seeds. She'll next face Tsvetana Pironkova, another semi-elite player trying to rebuild her year -- and though the Bulgarian has more recent success, I feel Pennetta's prowess on the surface should help her through.

The only big surprise of the tournament so far has been the loss of red-hot (okay, maybe just pink-hot) Roberta Vinci. A three-time titleist already this year, the twenty-eight year old was sitting on a career-best ranking of #23 in the world. But in a rematch of last Sunday's final in Budapest -- which she won -- Vinci didn't have many answers to rising star Irina-Camelia Begu this time, getting less than half her first serves in and only making a slight dent in her return games. Begu's recently beaten her next opponent, too, but Anabel Medina Garrigues could easily avenge that loss and further make the case for the veterans in Italy.

The seeds have had similar luck in Sweden where two-time French Open runner-up Robin Soderling looks to reverse some of his recent luck. After kicking off the year winning three trophies in four tournaments, he lost in the quarters at Roland Garros and was summarily upset in the third round of Wimbledon. He only lost one game in his opener in Bastad, and didn't allow Potito Starace a break chance in the quarters. From here it'll be difficult for someone else to wrest the crown in his homeland from the world #5.

But that's not to say it can't be done. David Ferrer is coming off a solid Davis Cup showing last week, and had one of his best clay court seasons this year. And Nicolas Almagro, a winner of three titles on dirt himself in 2011, should have a fairly easy road until at least the semis. And with so much talent left in the field, we should see at the very least some high-quality matches the next few days.

Things have been a little more surprising elsewhere this week. In Bad Gastein only one seed made it out of the first round -- defending champion Julia Goerges and top-thirty player Jarmila Gajdosova, among others all lost their openers, leaving world #61 Ksenia Pervak as the on-paper favorite. The twenty-year-old has won a couple ITF titles and has wins over Goerges and Andrea Petkovic already this year. But though her future road is less bumpy thanks to her colleagues' losses, some with more experience may win out in the end.

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez has been climbing her way back from injury after a stellar start to 2010. Last year's champion in Rome, MJM hasn't won more than two matches at one event all year, but as a former top-twenty player, she's probably the most accomplished of the field. And Carla Suarez Navarro, who lost most of last season with an ankle injury, has been marking time this year at ITF events. She still hasn't won a Tour title, but with wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova and Venus Williams on her record, she certainly has the ability to make her mark.

It was just as hard a road for the favorites in Stuttgart. Mikhail Youzhny and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez both won their first round matches, but that was as far as either made it. In their place qualifier Federico Del Bonis and wildcard Cedrik-Marcel Stebe have emerged as the big spoilers. But here, again, it might be the journeymen who are standing at the end of the day.

Juan Carlos Ferrero, making his umpteenth career comeback, took out Youzhny on Thursday and has fought back from breaks down against Marcel Granollers to get the win in his quarterfinal. And twenty-nine year old Lukasz Kubot, who caused upsets this year at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, seems to be putting out his best career performances these days. With a battle against Santiago Giraldo for a spot in the semis, he has a more-than-likely shot at getting the win.

The return to clay has proven something of a comfort for these players as they get back to their winning ways. Hopefully it won't be too tough a transition when they begin their U.S. Open prep in earnest, but with the wins they've accumulated, they should at least bring the confidence they need when they come back to the present.

Seeds of Change

The Asian hardcourt season is in full swing as more than a few familiar names took the court in Seoul this week. But with only two players in the top twenty entered in the Hansol Korea Open, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to see some big upsets.

And that's certainly what we've gotten.

Defending champion Kimiko Date Krumm has been one of the best feel-good stories of the past two years, breaking back into the top fifty at nearly forty years of age.

And as she tries to defend a title for the first time since 1995, she's gotten off to a good start. She rolled over qualifier Junri Namigata in the first round and took on second-seeded Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the next. Proving age is no issue, she needed just over an hour to dispatch the girl woman, more than two decades her junior. Of course she needs three more wins before she can claim the repeat, but some of her colleagues are helping clear the path.

Twenty-two year old Ekaterina Makarova first made us take notice when she won the title in Eastbourne as a qualifier, dropping five top twenty players along the way. She hasn't made quite the splash since then, but we should know how capable she is of staging an upset.

In her Seoul opener she survived a two-plus hour battle against Iveta Benesova, a woman who'd beaten her in their last two meetings. But she had a far easier time against fourth seed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez on Thursday, converting five of her seven break chances and earning the right to meet Alisa Kleybanova in the quarters.

Possibly more impressive has been the success of former world #1 Dinara Safina this week. A wildcard entry ranked #59 these days -- below Makarova and Kimiko -- she's been having fits during her comeback. After losing six matches in a row from April through June and pulling out of Wimbledon, she beat Nadia Petrova in Montreal and Francesca Schiavone in New Haven. Then she fell in straights in the first round of New York.

In her first round in Seould she soundly defeated rising star Simona Halep to set up a rematch with countrywoman Maria Kirilenko, the third seed in Korea who beat her soundly at the Pilot Pen last month. Though I would've given the on-paper favorite the advantage, Safina was on a mission, firing off aces and winning more than three-fourths of her first serves. Though her second-attempt percentage -- 15%! -- left a lot to be desired, it's certainly encouraging to see her winning again.

With Yaroslava Shvedova also losing her second round on Thursday, that leaves only three seeds still contending for the title, and it certainly doesn't look like anyone is safe. The underdogs are out to mark a change in the current standings, and with the way they're playing this week, it could very well happen soon!

Turning Doubles Talent into Singles Strength

For years women have seemed to understand that playing doubles can, in fact, improve your singles game. Martina Navratilova, Lindsey Davenport and Kim Clijsters are just a few of the ladies who've been ranked #1 in both disciplines. It might make sense that a talented singles player could easily translate his or her ability onto the doubles court. But these days, pairs specialists are finding their stride all on their own.


Take Sam Stosur, ranked #1 for sixty-one weeks in 2006-07 -- she reached a career high #11 singles ranking in February. Though she's won two Major doubles titles and finished runner-up a handful of times, she just took home her maiden singles trophy last year. Despite some disappointing results to start the year -- she lost in the first round of her hometown Slam, the Australian Open -- this week at the BNP Paribas Open she's been in top form. Through her first three matches she hasn't dropped a set, last beating defending champion Vera Zvonareva in less than ninety minutes.

In the quarterfinals she'll meet Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, currently half of the #3 doubles team on Tour. She's only ranked thirty-third in singles, but she's been mighty impressive in Indian Wells, taking out world #6 Victoria Azarenka and #15 Yanina Wickmayer, both in straight sets. She's probably still a long-shot for the title, but it's certainly been a good week for her solo game.

In the meantime the men are beginning to take their cue from the ladies. While the only gentleman to my knowledge to hold the top spot in both singles and doubles was John McEnroe, we're starting to see a few more of the sport's elite try out the wider court.

The pair of John Isner and Sam Querrey, who played the singles and doubles finals on the same day in Memphis last month, have also made the semis in California. They'll face their first seeded team of the tournament next, but regardless of the result their performance already surpasses what either did in the singles bracket. Even Rafael Nadal, who held a doubles ranking of #26 way back before you knew who he was, has teamed up with Marc Lopez as a wildcard entry in the desert. They opened with a victory over third seeds and perennial powerhouses Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy.

Sure there's the argument that spending so much time on court can tire out the men's singles players who already face longer yearly schedules than the women and have to withstand best-of-five set matches at the Majors. But there is clearly something -- net work, quick reflexes, discipline -- learned on a doubles court that serves a purpose to players on their own, and there are plenty of guys out there who can use the benefits.

And, if nothing else, it sure is fun for us all to watch!

Taking a Breather

We've reached that time in the tennis calendar where a lot of the top players are still sleeping off their Wimbledon hangovers and aren't yet ready to hit the pavement on the hard courts quite yet.

Rafael Nadal is of course recovering from his knee injury, but plans to make his summer debut in Montreal. Jim Courier told me last week that Roger Federer is taking some time as he prepares for impending fatherhood. Even Andy Roddick, who was supposed to get right back on court for the Davis Cup quarterfinals last weekend, had to pull out.

And that leaves a few weeks in the schedule for some lesser-known names to take advantage and rack up some points. So today I'm taking a look at some of the under-the-radar pros that have been able to stand out over the last week and a half.

Last Sunday Rajeev Ram, ranked in the triple-digits, became the first Lucky Loser this year to claim a Tour title when he battled through the qualifying rounds with a calf injury and defeated third seed Sam Querrey in the finals at Newport. The singles trophy was not only the first of his career, but also shaved seventy-three positions from his ranking.

And in Bastad, Sweden heavy favorite Caroline Wozniacki made her sixth final of the year -- pretty impressive, considering she's played in sixteen tournaments already. She must've been tired when she met Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez for the title, because she lost to the forty-second ranked Spaniard in straight sets.

This week the men took to the clay of Sweden, with Fernando Verdasco taking the top seed. Even still there are plenty of others ready to contend for the final.

Former top-ten player Guillermo Canas has seven career titles to his name, but has only won a handful of Tour-level matches this year. But in Bastad he pulled off a straight-set win over wildcard Grigor Dimitrov in the first round. Next he'll meet Andreas Vinciguerra, who has seen his ranking fall from #33 in the early part of the decade to #460 (!!) now. Andreas was able to score himself an upset over sixth seed Florent Serra, marking only his second match win on the Tour in 2009.

And in Stuttgart another Lucky Loser is trying to make his presence known. When Albert Montanes had to withdraw with a knee injury, Alexandre Sidorenko took his place. The Frenchman has only played one non-challenger match this year -- he lost in Roland Garros to Marat Safin. In fact the relative youngster hasn't yet won a single Tour match. But this week he managed a victory over qualifier Daniel Munoz-de La Nava and followed it up by sending home Oscar Hernandez. He'll have a battle in the next round against Victor Hanescu, but why shouldn't he have a fighting shot?

After all this is the best opportunity some of these guys have had -- or will have -- in a long time. And what better way to start their road to Flushing Meadows than by making a statement now?