Soderling Wins First Masters Title

Swedish Robin Söderling holds his trophy after winning the Paris masters 1000 ATP tournament final on November 14, 2010 at the Paris Bercy in Paris.

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Still haven't watched a lick of tennis. So much farming to catch up on before the ground freezes and I'm a farmhand short to boot.

I wish I had caught the Gael Monfils - Roger Federer semifinal. That scoreline was loaded.

I see The Sod beat a pair of homeboys back-to-back to take the title, not to mention the one he ousted in his first match. Can you say Frenchmen killer?

A nice penultimate year-end finish for the Big Swede. Let's see if he's got any energy left for London. Surely his confidence will be sky-high.

New Master

He did it. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga became the first Frenchman in seven years to win the BNP Paribas Masters, became the first black player ever to win the men's Paris Indoors, became the new No. 1 French player, and has qualified for the Masters Cup.

"I'm going to go there (Shanghai) really to represent France and all my family and my friends," said Tsonga. "That's it. I'm going to represent everyone and I'm going to give my best. I think the Masters will be a very important moment for me. Maybe another great victory could maybe replace this one."

The son of an African man and a white woman makes history today.

A foreshadowing?

At The Net

That's where Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat James Blake today. Quite a display of all-court prowess. Can he be the first Frenchman to win in Bercy since Sebastien Grosjean in 2001 and qualify for Shanghai in the process? He'll have to topple David Nalbandian, the defending champ, who had a rough time against that pesky Nikolay Davydenko in the other semifinal.

Who you got for the title?

Drama

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga outlasted a demoralized Andy Roddick in a third-set tiebreak to advance to the semifinals in Paris to play James Blake who got a walkover from Roger Federer who had a stiff back. David Nalbandian who dismissed the other Andy will play Nikolay Davydenko who got a retirement from Rafael Nadal who had a stiff knee.

And the shot-spot operator refused to do what the chair umpire told him to do toward the end of the Roddick-Tsonga affair. All parties on the court agreed that Andy had one challenge remaining and could get a replay of a serve that had been called out, but wasn't. The chair ump had to call the supervisor to the court to clear up the matter because the shot-spot operator was such a knucklehead.

The crowd was simply unruly throughout.

Safin Eats Bagel

At Paris Masters. His favorite event. Where he's won multiple titles. What's up with that?

The Man of the Hour

by Savannah


He's beaten Roger Federer twice. Rafael Nadal twice. In as many Masters Series events.

As of now he is the first alternate for Shanghai. If anyone of the eight men who have qualified drops out, he's in.

Congratulations to David Nalbandian. Paris Masters Champion 2007.

Who The Hell Is This Guy?

by Savannah

"He's way better than being ranked 25 in the world. I don't know what the hell he's doing at the other tournaments, but it worked these two."

- Roger Federer after his loss to David Nalbandian in Bercy

The folks who run the Bercy Masters were tired of their event being known as the one at the end of the year that no one comes to play in and went out to establish themselves as a TMS event worthy of the name. Whatever they did to get the big boys to come and play they did. The fans in Paris got to see the wolrd No. 1 and No. 3 go down to defeat while the world No. 2 fought and outlasted a gutsy Marcos Baghdatis to make the final in his first attempt at this event.

As for the man he will play David Nalbandian, once derided by fans as “Fat Dave” is suddenly playing as if he’s part of the Top 3 and not as number three. For the last two weeks he’s been playing No. 1-caliber tennis taking apart Nadal and Federer in Madrid, and Federer once again in Paris. In a tennis tour de force he destroyed Richard Gasquet, picking him to pieces as if Gasquet was a junior playing his first main tour match. Gasquet seemed to revive at the end of the second set but it was too little way too late.

Nalbandian has to be favored going into tomorrow's final. The French tennis crowds don’t care for either Rafa or David so it’ll be interesting to see what they do. Somehow I don’t think the conga drums will be played to support either of the players.

Gasquet Prevails; Positions Himself for Shanghai

"Simply it's incredible. It's only if Baghdatis wins the tournament that I won't be able to go, or else I lose tomorrow. You know, the Seine is not far from me. I'll throw myself into it. He has to beat Nadal. I have many chances of being qualified. I didn't even hope for it. In Madrid I didn't play well. In Lyon I didn't play well either. I was 13 here. It is unexpected, completely unexpected. Even myself, I can't believe it today.

"Yesterday I thought a bit more about it, and today a lot more. Robredo lost. I knew that Nalbandian couldn't qualify. Baghdatis, I knew he was going to play Nadal. It's not easy to beat Nadal. Of course, the level of this match was not very high, but you can understand that with the tension we both had for the Masters."

Those are the words of homeboy Richard Gasquet who beat Andy Murray 6-3, 0-6, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Masters and give himself a great chance to qualify for Masters Cup.

Gasquet is the first Frenchman to make the semifinals of Paris Indoors since Sebastien Grosjean in 2001. Grosjean went on to win the title. If Marcos Baghdatis, who ended Tommy Robredo's hopes of direct entry into Shanghai, wins tomorrow against Rafael Nadal, who beat Mikhael Youzhny in two quality sets crushing the Russian's chances to make the elite eight, then Richie will have to pull himself out of the Seine and try to beat David Nalbandian, who outlasted David Ferrer in three surprisingly boring sets, to reach the final and give himself a chance.

Exhale.

He better not tank any more sets.

He Did It Again

David Nalbandian defeated Roger Federer 6-3, 7-6(3) for the second time in a row to advance to the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.

This is the second time this year that Raja has lost back-to-back Masters Series matches to a player who hails from Argentina. But hey, the world No. 1 can cash his $1.5 bonus check for playing both Madrid and Paris and rest up to defend his Shanghai crown.

And he can take solace in knowing that Dahveed has no chance to qualify for the event with Andy Murray's win over Fabrice Santoro today.

Of course, the Argentine could still get in as an alternate and defeat King Arthur in the final as he did in 2005, so....



Simply put, Nalby beat Fed from everywhere on the court, making Fed hit awkward and defensive shots devoid of any magic. For most of the match, Fed's first serve kept him around, as well as a few tight moments from Nalby who failed to serve out the first set at 5-2 and the match at 5-4. But the dogged competitor recovered and closed out the match in straights to level his lifetime record against Fed at 8 wins apiece and making Fed eat the following words, uttered before the third-round match:

"I come here a big favorite and I'm on a great run again, having played only finals since many months. I think my level of play is very high at the moment. Even when I'm not playing my best I'm still very good."

"I prefer to play him in the second or third round. He shanks balls and doesn't serve that good. His whole entire game is not as sharp as later in the rounds."

Well, alrighty then.

French Fried

I arrived in the Netherlands just in time to see Fabrice Santoro do it again. For the second time in as many weeks, The Magician upended a Top 5 player. This time his victim was Novak Djokovic who didn't stand a chance as the Frenchman Santoroed him 6-3, 6-2.

Before a screaming home crowd, the Frenchman came armed on All Hallow's Eve with a full bag of tricks. Even with a heavy wrapping on his left leg from thigh to shin (a costume, perhaps?), the fabulous Fabrice sliced and diced and diced and sliced, bamboozling the Djoke who didn't know what hit him. One of the commentators called for Djoke to receive a warning similar to the one Nikolay Davydenko received in St. Petersburg for lack of effort, but no such intervention came.



We've seen Fabrice do this to many a higher-ranked opponent. Marat Safin can't stand playing the Frenchman. Andy Roddick had about enough of his tricks after the first set of his first-round match in Lyon last week. But the American managed to win the second before dropping serve early in the third and cussing his way out of the match.

Djoke had no such luck and performed no such theatrics. He simply looked like a deer in headlights from first point to last. Many of his fans suggested this was a tank in order to save himself for Shanghai. Perhaps. Perhaps not. From where I sit, he simply had no idea how to counter Fabrice's game, no will to fight it.

On the bright side, he can cash his $500K bonus check for playing both Madrid and Paris and can rest himself up for Shanghai.

For a spot in the quarterfinals, Santoro will face junkball broker Andy Murray who's trying to salvage an injury-plagued year by qualifying for Shanghai.

Homeboy Federer Clenches Year-End No. 1

Roger Federer defeated Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 6-3 in the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in his hometown of Basel. By defending the title, Federer clenched the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fourth consecutive year.

Fans are speculating that he will now withdraw from the BNP Paribas Masters which began play today. I'm going to go against the trend and say he'll still play in Paris in order to add some ranking points, since he'll be defending a slew of points in Shanghai and Melbourne. With the gap between he and Nadal closing little by little, he'll want to extend his lead in the rankings to have a cushion should he falter in Shanghai or Melbourne.

Another fan speculated that if he withdraws from Paris, he'll be a coward. Facing arguably his toughest draw on paper of any big event this year, he'll play the winner of St. Petersburg finalist Fernando Verdasco (pictured below) and Ivo Karlovic in his first match, and possibly Madrid champion David Nalbandian in the round of 16. His quarterfinal would likely be against No. 12 seed Tomas Berdych, with No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic or No. 15 seed Andy Murray, who just won the St. Petersburg Open (below), awaiting in the semifinal.

Stay tuned.