Faces Of The Day

AP

Nadia Petrova, of Russia, returns to Maria Sharapova, of Russia, during the Bank of the West tennis tournament in Stanford, California , Wednesday, July 29, 2009.

Bank Of The West Classic

Singles - Second Round
(3) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. Maria Kirilenko (RUS) 61 62
Maria Sharapova (RUS) d. (5) Nadia Petrova (RUS) 61 62
Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) d. (7) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 46 76(6) 61
Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. Monica Niculescu (ROU) 61 75

Doubles - Quarterfinals
(2) Williams/Williams (USA/USA) d. Dekmeijere/Ditty (LAT/USA) 61 60

Doubles - First Round
(1) Black/Huber (ZIM/USA) d. Haynes/Savchuk (USA/UKR) 61 63
(3) Mattek-Sands/Petrova (USA/RUS) d. Kudryavtseva/Poutchek (RUS/BLR) 46 64 104
Chan/Niculescu (TPE/ROU) d. Foretz/Spears (FRA/USA) 64 26 106

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Getty

Russia's Dmitry Tursunov wipes his face as a trainer looks at his ankle during his match against Australia's Carsten Ball at the L.A. Tennis Open tournament in Los Angeles, California, July 29, 2009.

LA Tennis Open

Singles - Second Round
[1] T Haas (GER) d [WC] J Levine (USA) 61 63
[Q] C Ball (AUS) d [3] D Tursunov (RUS) 64 01 ret. (left ankle)
[8] M Safin (RUS) d E Gulbis (LAT) 26 63 64
J Isner (USA) d M Baghdatis (CYP) 63 76(11)

Doubles - First Round
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d [WC] C Ball (AUS) / K Van't Hof (USA) 75 62
E Gulbis (LAT) / D Tursunov (RUS) d [2] B Soares (BRA) / K Ullyett (ZIM) 62 64
J Coetzee (RSA) / J Erlich (ISR) d [3] M Damm (CZE) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 64 64
M Melo (BRA) / A Sa (BRA) d R Ginepri (USA) / J Kerr (AUS) 63 62
B Becker (GER) / F Moser (GER) d J Isner (USA) / S Querrey (USA) w/o (Isner - left ankle)
D Istomin (UZB) / L Mayer (ARG) d E Butorac (USA) / S Lipsky (USA) 76(5) 67(4) 10-4

Lawn Tennis Champions

AP

Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark holds up the trophy after defeating Virginie Razzano of France during their Eastbourne grass court tournament final tennis match in Eastbourne, England, Saturday, June 20, 2009. Wozniacki won 7-6, 7-5.


AP

Dmitry Tursunov of Russia shows off his trophy after defeating Frank Dancevic of Canada during their Eastbourne grass court tournament final tennis match in Eastbourne, England, Saturday, June 20, 2009. Tursunov won by 6-3, 7-6.


Getty

Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand poses with the trophy after beating Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium on June 20, 2009 in the final of the Ordina Open in Rosmalen. Tanasugarn won 6-3, 7-5.


Ordina Open

Benjamin Becker of Germany won his first ATP title with a 6-5, 7-5 victory of Dutchman Raemon Sluiter at the Ordina Open on June 20, 2009.

Face Of The Day

Getty

Rafael Nadal wasn't particularly sharp today, but he beguiled Dmitry Tursunov with his serve.

Eye Candy

If you like Dmitry Tursunov, you'll like this.

Back on Top

The Queen of Absurdity regains the No. 1 ranking with her 6-4, 6-3 victory over Nadia Petrova at the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart today.

Whatever.



Tomas Berdych emerges from relative obscurity to take the Japan Open title with a 6-1, 6-4 rout of Juan Martin del Potro.



Caroline Wozniacki beat Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 for the women's title in Tokyo.



Hard-hitting Romanian Sorana Cirstea, who caught my attention back in Melbourne, rallied to her first WTA title at the Tashkent Open with a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7) over Sabine Lisicki of Germany. And Dmitry Tursunov outlasted homeboy Paul Henri Mathieu 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 to take the Open de Moselle title in Metz.

Who's That Girl?

Her name is Aleksandra Wozniak. She's 20-years-old, hails from Canada where she's to top player, is ranked No. 85 in the world and won her first WTA in her first final as a qualifier at Bank of the West. Along the way, she notched wins over Francesca Schiavone, Sybille Bammer, Samantha Stosur, an injured Serena Williams, and Marion Bartoli.

She's the first Canadian to win a WTA title in 20 years, and only the fifth in history.

Raise your hand if you thought Wozniak would win a Tier II title before Nicole Vaidisova even made a Tier II final.



Gilles Simon battled his way to his first US hardcourt title in his first appearance at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships with a convincing straight-set dismissal of defending champ Dmitry Tursunov.

All the Frenchman wanted to do was play some matches in the grueling heat and humidity. And he takes the title. Fancy that.

It was supposed to be an All-American final. Or so the networks hoped. But James Blake has no confidence, and Sam Querrey still isn't ready to make his first.


Fernando Verdasco, Croatia Open Champion


Juan Martin del Potro, Austrian Open champion


Alberto Montanes, Dutch Open Champion

Tursunov and Kohlschreiber Win Down Under

(AFP/Getty Images)

Dmitry Tursunov, Medibank International Champion
“I'm not really surprised that there were no breaks, because that's kind of his game. He goes for a lot of risky shots on the groundstroke on the returns, and he knows that he's not going to get broken too often. That's pretty much the scenario. That was very expected.

“This week is, I think a result of work that I've been putting in on getting everything together. What I've been doing really well is preparing for my matches and going out with a certain plan of what I want to achieve or what I want to do on the court. I think that is been helping me to do well, so I'm hoping that I'm going to be able to do that as well in Melbourne.”

Philipp Kohlschreiber, Heineken Open Champion
"The match was tight but I was looser than I was in previous matches. It's a good feeling when you have to fight hard for the title.

"It's nice to be on the Tour collecting titles and I hope to take the confidence into Melbourne. I hope I can play the same type of tennis there."

Philipp is the first German to win the title in Auckland.

Tennis Is My Hot Hot...

A Davis Cup Retrospective
by mmmm8, special contributor to Savannah's World



While it's always a great experience to be part of something historic, it was a lot less fun to be a fan of Russian tennis in Portland this weekend. At some points during the tie, I wondered whether it was worth the money and time spent to come to Portland just to see your team come up miles short.



But unlike some of the fans that had traveled to the tie from Russia (and there were not that many), I am a tennis fan first, and a conflicted patriot second. I had some once in a lifetime experiences this past weekend. Being able to watch the draw ceremony on Thursday was worth the extra night's hotel stay. Waiting for luggage with Igor Andreev and Patrick McEnroe was worth the flight cost, and watching history being made was worth the ticket prices. As depressing as Friday and Saturday were for me, I would gladly do it all over again.



The U.S. team deserved this win both behind their strong play this weekend and throughout the Davis Cup stages in 2007, but also on desire alone. As they walked into the draw ceremony, the tension surrounding the US team was palpable, while the Russians were relaxed and almost aloof. Perhaps complacent after having won the Cup last year, perhaps realizing the limitation of their chances in the tie, they seemed to take a "whatever happens, will" approach to the match even before the tie began.

Read The Rest

Davis Cup Day 1: USA 2; Russia Zip

My NetHead and Sweatshirt



The Oregonian Preview



The USA Today Preview



The USA Today Pullout

I'm late, late, late to the party on this one because I stayed out drinking too long last night and slept in too late. Savannah has some recaps on her blog so check them out. I won't even be able to bring you all my great photos and video clips till later today because I don't have the time to format it all correctly.

Meantime, here's a few Yahoo! shots and my drive-by summaries.



James Blake d Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 7-6(3)

Suffice it to say, James Blake had his Mauresmo moment against Mikhail Youzhny. After the match, he said, "You can't get to the Top Ten in the world and make a Davis Cup final and not be mentally tough so I wanted to come out here and prove that today." The crowd roared.

It was a great match. Scintillating shotmaking. Momentum shifts. High drama. The crowd seemed to keep waiting for the other shoe to drop any time Blake got some momentum, the hush that fell over it seemed to say "Here we go again." But playing against his European brother, also known for his lapses, let us know that we could hold on to hope. No heart attacks at all, people. I was calm and revved up all at the same time, and remained extraordinarily positive throughout the second rubber, refusing to curse Blake for even failing to serve out the match at 5-4. He did a great job recovering from all his lapses during the match and right before the fourth set tiebreak, Anthony, one of the founding netheads proclaimed, "It's going to be 7-3 for Blake." I concurred.

Even after Blake fell behind a minibreak, we stuck to our guns. Blake blasted some of his trademark returns that put Mikhail Youzhny on his back foot and he regained ascendency in the tiebreak. 7-3 it was. After his victory, he threw a ball into the crowd towards the NetHeads and guess who caught it?

Yours truly.

As a kid, I used to pray for a baseball to fly my way in the Milwaukee County Stadium that housed all the Brewers games. I never got lucky.

So I will cherish this lucky catch. And make a bid to get him to sign it later.

It was a clutch performance from a man against the most in-form player on the Russian team, and history might tell the tale that he was the hero of this final.



Andy Roddick d Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-4, 6-2

In the opening match, Andy Roddick did what he had to do to take out Dmitry Tursunov in straights. Which was slice the backhand, slice the forehand, slice the backhand and draw error upon error from Tursunov who didn't know if he should slice back or try to hit out. Nothing worked for him.

It was a perfect gameplan executed almost without flaw.

When Andy stepped up to serve for the match on match point, the crowd went crazy. Andy took it all in and his face flushed with emotion. I thought he'd cry before he served. But he held it together to give the USA a 1-0 lead and told us all that we'd have to do what we could to get Blake through the next match.

Mission accomplished.

And since my dungeness crab benedict with chevre and oven roasted tomatoes just arrived, I'll have to sign off for now.

More, more, more later....

Go USA!!!

7 Days and Counting...

Official Team Nominations for 2007 Final
from daviscup.com

Russia and USA have named their teams for the final of the 2007 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas, to be held in Portland on November 30 - December 2.

The official team nominations can be found below. Under Davis Cup rules, up to two nominations may then be changed up to an hour before the draw, which takes place on Thursday 29 November.

World Group Final: USA v Russia
Venue: Portland, Oregon (Hard-indoors)

USA
James Blake
Andy Roddick
Bob Bryan
Mike Bryan
Captain: Patrick McEnroe

Russia
Igor Andreev
Nikolay Davydenko
Dmitry Tursunov
Mikhail Youzhny
Captain: Shamil Tarpischev

Of course, we're thinking Marat Safiin will be an eleventh-hour substitution for Russia since none of this team has a good record against the Americans indoors.

But in Davis Cup competition, anything can happen. Who can forget Dmitry's expertise on indoor clay last year? It came out of nowhere.

That said, the American team is the slight favorite to bring the Cup back to the States from the defending champs, even if Safin is on the team. Can't say he's played much tennis in months, can we? (And I must say, I saw a preview on Tennis Channel, and I was not happy with the doubt I saw from Pete Sampras, Todd Martin, et al. about America's chances to bring the Cup home. Can we not support our own and express confidence in them? Sometimes, I hate how past American players shit on our current top players on the regular.... But I digress. This ain't a Tuesday Tirade.)

I'll be there. In Portland. With NetHead garb on.

I can't wait!

Tursunov Takes Thailand Open

Dmitry Tursunov of Russia is presented with the trophy by President of Thailand Tennis Association Suwat Liptapallop after winning the Thailand Open tennis tournament Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007 in Nonthaburi Province, Thailand. Tursunov thrashed Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-2, 6-1.

Now if only we could see some of these matches on the Asian swing in the United States....