Mornin', everyone. That was quite a good time last night, hope you all enjoyed the TW music festival. The only thing I have to report here is that the warmest day so far in Andes was April 28th, when the mercury hit 82-degrees. Today, it's in the 70s.
How about that Juan Monaco, reaching the Swedish Open final - which is also guaranteed a Swedish finalist, with Robin Soderling and Andreas Vinceguerra dueling it out in Bastaad. This, by the way, is one of the longest running and most popular (with the ATP pros) tournaments on the calendar; it's nice to see that it's survived the Super-sizing of the game.
This is a subject well worth returning to at some point in the future, because there are few other, comparable gems clinging to their calender slots year after year. The main reason for that? A good tournament organization and nothing less than the simple affection of the players. A tournament promoter's job is made worlds easier when he knows that the players will return faithfully, year after year - a committment that also helps the tournament keep up with increasing demands from the ATP vis a vis prize-money, housing and other infrastructural matter.
By contrast, we've just seen how the Indianapolis draw has been decimated. Indy is a tournament that lost its way on the tennis trail and has to work with some serious liabilities when it comes to the calendar. Yet if somehow the players really felt a strong desire to support Indy - the difference would be enormous.
Anyway, enjoy today's tennis!
-- Pete