Monday Net Post

By the Letter + If...

T...ickets for the Davis Cup final in Portland, Oregon sold out within 30 minutes, according to the USTA.
E...nding his season for the second time in the last two months, Marat Safin has also declared that he will not participate in Russia's Davis Cup final.
N...icolas Kiefer's last three tournaments have included two semifinal and one quarterfinal appearance.  After starting the year ranked "0", Kiefer is now ranked No. 64 in the world.
N...ow for another comeback story: Mario Ancic.  The health-plagued Croatian has now reached the quarterfinals in his last two tournaments (Stockholm and Madrid).  He plays this week in St. Petersburg.
I...f...there was an expanded grass court season: (1) How many weeks of grass play would lead up to Wimbledon?/(2) Where would they be held?/(3) Would you give Masters Series status to one?
S...eason-ending ATP and WTA tournaments each got their fifth qualifier, and both were Americans: Andy Roddick and Serena Williams.
W...TA believe it or not: At the Zurich Open, #3 seed Jelena Jankovic, #5 seed Ana Ivanovic, and #6 seed Serena Williams went 0-3, and the trio did not win a set in their matches.
O...nline charity auction (Tennis for Africa) features a number of items from AMS Madrid up for bid.
R...eally obvious announcement of the week: "a British bookmaker said Monday that match-fixing will never be stopped."  But curtailed?  We can only hope.
L...ook at the ESPN.com Tennis page for 3D Ping Pong - fun, free, and all you need is current Shockwave updates.
D...esigns for the annual 2008 Family Circle Cup t-shirt are being accepted - aspiring artists can submit their work in a contest where the winner will receive a plethora of tennis riches.

McGrogan's Heroes

ATP - In one of the most surprising results of the year, David Nalbandian emerged from the dead to win his first career Masters Series tournament by beating not just Roger Federer, but the second and third ranked players in the world as well.  It has been a long time since David was seen in the winner's circle - May 2006 at Estoril was his last victory - but he ended his title drought in unbelievably impressive fashion this week.  Nalbandian had the odd distinction of winning the Tennis Masters Cup without previously winning either a Grand Slam tournament or a Masters Series event, but this week's loot of Waterford crystal spells the end of that oddity.

Nalbandian seemed to get stronger as the week went on.  He scratched and clawed past Arnaud Clement in the first round, and needed a final set tiebreaker to get by Tomas Berdych in round two.  But against Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic?  Straight sets, thank you very much.  At times, it appeared that Nalbandian was playing at a nearly unbeatable level, especially in the final two sets against Federer in Sunday's final.  Cross-court ground strokes were hit at angles that left the world's No. 1-3 expending a lot of their energy just to keep the ball in play.  Nalbandian combined this accuracy with good pace, reminding me of his "glory days".  Yes, there are some on his resume, but they usually were never punctuated with a tournament victory.  But in Madrid, the ending was much more glorious, thanks in large part to a consistent first serve (Nalbandian was around 75% in the final set) and a slew of unforced errors by Federer (38 in the match).

WTA - Justine Henin breezed through another prestigious tournament this week, but given the fact that she received a bye in the first round (of a 32 player draw, no less), and didn't even have to face a ranked opponent, I found a more deserving winner of the WTA hero award - the runner-up in Zurich, Tatiana Golovin.

Golovin, a French player of Russian descent, hasn't had the immediate success on tour that some have expected of her.  The 19-year old's best performance at a Slam was in the 2006 when she reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.  Other than that, it's been mostly first week exits in the majors, unless you count mixed doubles, which she won at Roland Garros (2004) alongside Richard Gasquet.  But Golovin's fortunes may have started to change of late - she's won two out of the four finals she's played in (both losses came against Henin), and has upped her world ranking to No. 15 after a torrid run of play in the last two months.

This past week in Switzerland, Golovin raced through the draw before running into Henin in the finals.  Rarely challenged in her first four matches, Golovin dispatched Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 6-1 in the second round, and surrendered only four games once afain in her semifinal match against Francecsa Schiavone, a potentially tricky opponent.  Tatiana's run to the finals was aided by a Marion Bartoli retirement in the quarters (Golovin was down 4-5 before a knee injury sidelined Bartoli), but there was no doubt that Golovin earned her place in the final two this week thanks to consistent play and mental sharpness.  While Henin got the best of her in the end, Golovin may actually get more out of this tournament in the long run thanks to rejuvenated play and newfound confidence.

St. Petersburg Open (ATP - Indoor Carpet - St. Petersburg, Russia)

• Website
• Singles Bracket
• Doubles Bracket

Davidoff Swiss Indoors (ATP - Indoor Carpet - Basel, Switzerland)

• Website
• Singles Bracket
• Doubles Bracket

Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon (ATP - Indoor Carpet - Lyon, France)

• Website
• Singles Bracket
• Doubles Bracket

Generali Ladies (WTA - Indoor Hard - Linz, Austria)

• Website
• Singles & Doubles Bracket

Television Coverage:

• Saturday: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm (Semifinals; Live)
  2:00 pm - 6:00 pm (Semifinals; Tape)
  8:00 pm - 2:00 am (Semifinals; Tape)
• Sunday: 6:00 am - 8:00 am (Semifinals; Tape)
  8:30 am - 10:30 am (Final; Live)
  2:00 pm - 4:00 pm (Final; Tape)
  8:00 pm - 10:00 pm (Final; Tape)

Beyond the Bracket + Tennis Theatre

Roger Federer's first Wimbledon crown in 2003 may have signaled his arrival as a perenial Grand Slam contender, but the era of Federer's consistent dominance on tour didn't truly get underway until much later in the year at the Tennis Masters Cup.  Federer won only one out of the next eight tournaments that he played in after Wimbledon (Vienna), but ended the year on a high note, winning the year-end championships after pummeling Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 in the TMC finals at Houston.  The win would prove to be the beginning of Pax Federer; from 2004-2007, Federer has reigned supreme with few blemishes.

Boasting an absurd 305-22 record during the last four seasons, it has come as a great surprise whenever Federer loses.  There have been some shockers (2004 Miami Masters against a then-relatively unknown Rafael Nadal), and some not-so-shocking (2006 Roland Garros against the undisputed king of clay Rafael Nadal).  But the most surprising of these 22 defeats - and conversely, the most impressive victory by Roger's opponent - came at the halfway point of Pax Federer; the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup.  Federer's opponent on that day?  You guessed it (or just remembered it) - David Nalbandian.

Nalbandian's performance in the finals of the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup cannot be understated.  Consider the following:

• Up to this point in the year, Federer had only lost three matches all season, and only one of those defeats was on a hard court (Australian Open vs. Safin).
• Federer had already defeated Nalbandian in the round robin portion of the Tennis Masters Cup, winning 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 earlier in the week.
• Nalbandian came back from two sets to none down, and did so after losing tiebreakers in both of the first two sets.

After playing great tennis but without anything to show for it on the scoreboard, it would have been very easy for a deflated Nalbandian to pack it in and collect his hefty second place check.  But the complete opposite occurred - the Argentine not only leveled the match to force a climactic final set, but Nalbandian took it to Federer in blitzkrieg fashion, winning those two sets 6-2 and 6-1.

Here's some of what it looked like, in case you've forgotten (you could also watch the second and third sets of this past week's Madrid final for similar effect):

Nalbandian emerged from a fifth set tiebreaker victorious, becoming one of the few players to dent the polished armor that was Federer's legendary 2005 season.  If Roger had won this match, he would have joined John McEnroe in the tennis record books by having the best winning percentage in a season (82-3; .965 winning %).  Instead, it was Nalbandian that left Shanghai with the Tennis Masters Cup, as well as the most impressive victory in the last four years in the men's game - for those not named Federer of course.

- Ed McGrogan