Monday Net Post

By TW Contributing Editor, Ed McGrogan

Last Week's Tournaments

China Open (ATP & WTA - Hard - Beijing, China)

• Men's Singles Final: Andy Roddick def. Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.
  - Men's Singles Semifinal: Dudi Sela def. Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-3.
  - Men's Singles Semifinal: Andy Roddick def. Bjorn Phau 6-2, 6-7, 6-1.
• Men's Doubles Final: Stephen Huss/Ross Hutchins def. Ashley Fisher/Bobby Reynolds 7-5, 6-4.
  - Men's Doubles Semifinal: Stephen Huss/Ross Hutchins def. Michael Kohlmann/Rainer Schuettler 7-5, 6-4.
  - Men's Doubles Semifinal: Ashley Fisher/Bobby Reynolds def. Frank Moser/Bjorm Phau 6-1, 6-4.
• Men's Singles Draw
• Men's Doubles Draw

• Women's Singles Final: Jelena Jankovic def. Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2.
  - Women's Singles Semifinal: Jelena Jankovic def. Vera Zvonareva 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
  - Women's Singles Semifinal: Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Jie Zheng 7-6, 7-5.
• Doubles Final: Anabel Medina Garrigues/Caroline Wozniacki def. Xinyun Han/Yi-Fan Xu 6-1, 6-3.
  - Women's Doubles Semifinal: Anabel Medina Garrigues/Caroline Wozniacki def. Jingjing Lu/Shuai Zhang 6-1, 6-1.
  - Women's Doubles Semifinal: Xinyun Han/Yi-Fan Xu def. Yaroslava Shvedova/Tamarine Tanasugarn 3-6, 6-2, 10-3.
• Women's Singles & Doubles Draws

Thailand Open (ATP - Hard - Bangkok, Thailand)

• Singles Final: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Novak Djokovic 7-6, 6-4.
  - Singles Semifinal: Novak Djokovic def. Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-1.
  - Singles Semifinal: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Gael Monfils 6-0, 6-3.
• Singles Draw

• Doubles Final: Lukas Dlouhy/Leander Paes def. Scott Lipsky/David Martin 6-4, 7-6.
  - Doubles Semifinal: Lukas Dlouhy/Leander Paes def. Fabrice Santoro/Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-2.
  - Doubles Semifinal: Scott Lipsky/David Martin def. Julien Benneteau/Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.
• Doubles Draw

Hansol Korea Open (WTA - Hard - Seoul, Korea)

• Singles Final: Maria Kirilenko def. Samantha Stosur 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
  - Singles Semifinal: Maria Kirilenko def. Kaia Kanepi 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
  - Singles Semifinal: Samantha Stosur def. Jill Craybas 6-0, 6-1.
• Doubles Final: Chia-Jung Chuang/Su-Wei Hsieh def. Vera Dushevina/Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-0.
  - Doubles Semifinal: Chia-Jung Chuang/Su-Wei Hsieh def. Jill Craybas/Marina Erakovic 6-4, 7-5.
  - Doubles Semifinal: Vera Dushevina/Maria Kirilenko def. Chin-Wei Chan/Natalie Grandin 6-4, 6-4.
• Singles & Doubles Draws

By the Letter

(Thanks to TENNIS.com'sTicker, written by Kamakshi Tandon, for this week's news and notes.)

T...songa, Jo-Wilfried, wins his first tour title, defeating Novak Djokovic 7-6(4), 6-4 in Bangkok.
E...milio Sanchez, Spanish Davis Cup captain, plans to leave his post at the end of the year.
N...ext year will be the final act for "The Magician," Fabrice Santoro.  He plans to play a limited schedule, consisting of the Australian Open, the French Open, Newport (where he is the defending champion) and about seven other events.
N...ovak Djokovic's younger brother Marko loses 6-2, 6-0 in 46 minutes to Jarko Nieminen in Bangkok. Marko, 17, was making his ATP debut after receiving a wildcard into the tournament.
I...vanovic, Ana, lost for the second time in a row to Jie Zheng, this time in the quarterfinals of Beijing (7-6, 2-6, 6-4).  Zheng also defeated Ivanovic at Wimbledon.  Ivanovic has a 5-5 match record since winning the French Open.
S...harapova, Maria, who has been sidelined with a shoulder injury since Montreal, has officially announced that she will not play again this year.
W...illy Canas (Guillermo) was robbed early Tuesday morning near his parents' home in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, according the Argentine police. Three robbers, who did not recognize Canas, took money, credit cards and some personal belongings before driving away in his Mercedes. Canas was not hurt in the attack.
O...bradovic, Bogdan - the Serbian Davis Cup captain - on drawing Spain in the first round next year: "We're playing against Spain, away from home, linking up the two worst combinations.  If you have goal of winning, which we have, then you have to beat the strongest, and the same goes if that has to be in the first round."
R...obson, Laura, the 14-year old Briton who won the Wimbledon Girls' title, defeated 35-year-old and world No. 123 Tzipi Obziler in the quarterfinals of the $75,000 Shrewsbury challenger.  Her run ended after losing to No. 105 Maret Ani in the semis.
L...eft-shoulder injury forced Bob Bryan to miss the Davis Cup semifinals, but he will resume practicing in three weeks. The Bryans are hosting the Bryan brothers All-Star Tennis Smash charity event in Thousand Oaks, California on Saturday.
D...jokovic, Novak, accidentally suffered a cut on his forehead early in the Thailand Open final against Tsonga. "I was watching Jo before the match and was scared that he was going to punch me but obviously I did it myself with my racquet," he joked, referring to Tsonga's resemblance to Muhammad Ali.

McGrogan's Heroes

ATP - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Lest you forgot about him - though with his exuberant celebrations, how could you? - Tsonga reminded us of his explosive brand of tennis this week in Thailand.  In just his second tournament since May, Tsonga won his first career ATP title at the Thailand Open, and did so in very impressive fashion.

Although injuries forced Tsonga to the sidelines during the summer months, he remained in the Top 20 thanks to his run to the Australian Open final.  His ranking earned him a bye into the second round, where he met Lukas Dlouhy, a qualifier known mostly for his abilities in doubles.  But Dlouhy showed his singles prowess in his match with Tsonga, giving the No. 2 seed a stern test in his first match of the week.  Tsonga would need to win two tiebreakers to advance, scraping by the Czech 7-6 (9), 3-6, 7-6 (1).

The match appeared to wake a sleeping giant.  Tsonga dramatically improved his play going forward and didn't lose a set for the rest of the week.  In the quarterfinals, Tsonga had no trouble against No. 8 Jurgen Melzer, winning 6-3, 6-2; in the semifinals, he walloped countryman Gael Monfils 6-0, 6-3.  Tsonga's opponent in the final was top-seeded Novak Djokovic, who he last met on the second Sunday in Melbourne.  Winning the rematch in straight sets (7-6, 6-4) only made Tsonga's week that much more memorable.

Tsonga's play in his last three matches should send a warning signal to those ranked above him trying to qualify for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai.  The flamboyant Frenchman will still need strong results in Madrid and Bercy to crack the Top 8, but his chances shouldn't be discounted, even though he missed nearly half the season.

WTA - Jelena Jankovic

The Tier II China Open had a draw that resembled a Tier I event, with eight of the Top 17 women in the world entered.  The eventual champion turned out to be a name that we've grown accustomed to seeing at the end stages of big tournaments - Jelena Jankovic.

For all that Jankovic has accomplished in 2008, including a brief occupation of the No. 1 world ranking, she had won just one tournament - Tier I Rome, in May.  Since then, Jankovic has reached three quarterfinals (including at the Olympics), two semifinals (including at Roland Garros), and one final - at the U.S. Open.  But while these results mean plenty of big paychecks, it also means that Jankovic lost in every one of these events.  And in a sport where winning hardware requires perfection, that's a cold reality to face.  This week in Beijing, Jankovic won a trophy, but more importantly, acquired some confidence that she can win once she gets to the final matches of tournaments.

After navigating past qualifier Alexsandra Wozniak, Jankovic, like Tsonga, seemed to pick up steam as the week progressed.  She beat No. 7 Daniela Hantuchova 7-5, 6-1, No. 5 Vera Zvonareva in three sets, and No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 6-3, 6-2.  The title is the seventh of Jankovic's career, and it puts her just 21 ranking points behind world No. 1 Serena Williams.

After this year's French Open, we thought that Ana Ivanovic had asserted herself as the stronger of the two top Serbian women.  Ivanovic reached the final of the Australian Open back in January, and won at Roland Garros.  But since then, it's been Jankovic who's had more consistent results, and she's passed Ivanovic in the rankings.  I felt that Ivanovic was due to breakthrough at a Grand Slam earlier this year, and I think it will be Jankovic's time soon - maybe even as soon as the 2009 Australian Open.

Tennis Theatre

I was watching the 1991 French open final between Jim Courier and Andre Agassi this weekend (on Tennis Channel) and they showed some of the older Nike commercials that featured Agassi.  I'd never seen this one before, and it has a much different feel than the rest of the Nike spots.  The neat thing about it is that I can still see Agassi reciting these lines, even today:

(Can't embed video; go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnAPjbju3QQ)

This Week's Tournaments

• TV Schedule

AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships (ATP - Outdoor Hard - Tokyo, Japan)

• Singles Draw
• Doubles Draw
• Website

Open de Moselle (ATP - Indoor Hard - Metz, France)

• Singles Draw
• Doubles Draw
• Website

AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships (WTA - Outdoor Hard - Tokyo, Japan)

• Singles & Doubles Draws
• Website

Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (WTA - Indoor Hard - Stuttgart, Germany)

• Singles & Doubles Draws
• Website

Tashkent Open (WTA - Outdoor Hard - Tashkent, Uzbekistan)

• Singles & Doubles Draws
• Website

Beyond the Bracket

While reading the always-informative and entertaining blogs of Peter Bodo and Steve Tignor last week, each author wrote a sentence that caught my eye.  They pertained to post-U.S. Open tennis in the fall, and both statements made me stop and think.

In Pete's post, he questioned if "it's just hard to penetrate the casual fan's radar with [year-end championships]?" He then concluded that, "Maybe a game dominated by four grand events just can't get enough traction for a year-end playoffs."

Steve led off with a gem in his post, titled "Fired Up for Fall?"  He asked, "How do you know when you're a truly sick fan of a sport?  One measure is how much you like watching your particular game of choice when it's at it's most meaningless."

To me, these two italicized statements land on opposite ends of the "dedicated tennis fan spectrum."  There are plenty of fans who, while ardent supporters of the sport, choose to hibernate until Grand Slam tennis resumes.  Then there are those who will watch anything being broadcast on television, streamed on the web, or updated on a live scoreboard.  Thus, the continuum looks like this:

Pete's sentence <-------------------------------------------------------------------------> Steve's sentence

I fall somewhere in the middle, but more towards the left.  For the most part, I feel that the tennis played after the U.S. Open is relatively meaningless.  But I won't turn away if I'm watching it, which I find myself doing at times.  There's no right or wrong answer here - keep in mind that both Pete and Steve preceded their statements with questions - which is why I put up the current poll on the home page.  As of Monday morning, the results were (with 5306 votes):

Which upcoming tournaments will you follow?

• Every ATP and WTA tournament: 41.73 %
• Just the Masters Series, Tier I, and SEC events: 34.73 %
• Only the season-ending championships (SEC): 9.86 %
• Nothing until the Australian Open: 13.68 %

It looks like I'm in the minority here, but I think that the U.S. Open should close the tennis season, aside from the Tennis Masters Cup.  I'd like the U.S Open to determine another Grand Slam champion, put some finality on a long, grueling season (for both fans, media, and players), and give us something to ponder until January.  I also want it to officially determine the eight players who will play in the SEC's later that month.  Let the playoff predictions begin right there and then.

Here's how to do it: Reshuffle the last few Masters Series and Tier I events into the Spring lull after the Australian Open, then contest the SEC's at the end of September.  It will give everyone three months off before a big start in January, which will be rife with anticipation.  (There can be too much of a good thing.)  The quality of tennis all around should benefit.  I think everybody wins.

But I would love to hear from those located elsewhere on the spectrum.

if...

you've played at some exclusive tennis facilities, what's the most you've spent on an hour's worth of court time?