Dominika Cibulkova and Jurgen Melzer

Dominika Cibulkova is the Slovakia’s player of the year not surprisingly, since Daniela Hantuchova’s in a slump and while the delightful Magdalena Rybarikova has risen through the ranking alarmingly quickly, she still hovers at the top 50 mark leaving Cibulkova to shine brightly immediately outside the top ten. Besides Cibulkova has her beau Jurgen Melzer to show off and is in danger of becoming part of a star media couple. Might they rival the popular Ana / Fernando show? Probably not, since Ivanovic has the spotlight that comes with winning a Major and achieving the top ranking – even if she then took time out to plummet and flame at subsequent Majors. And Domi is still an upcoming player which most people are unaware of, while no one has ever heard of Melzer. Unless you were an old Myskina fan... Come back Nastya, we miss you.

Ana Ivanovic doesn’t go to nightclubs

10 Tennis Questions

Martina Hingis was left devastated by Radek Stepanek and is still innocent of all charges.

Maybe the reason Nalbandian was unhappy with Del Potro playing Shanghai and getting injured in Davis Cup was that he was demanding more money. Money that would normally go to Nalbandian...

Ana Ivanovic doesn’t go to nightclubs, hmm Fernando looks like a nightclub kind of guy to me...

Fernando Verdasco

photo credit: AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia

Analysis of the top ten women’s years on tennis.com . Summary: Jankovic’s a drama queen who plays a lot, Serena actually had her best season since 2003 – which is a while ago – Safina’s a new star, Dementieva might stop choking (yeah sure), Ivanovic had a crap second half of the year, Venus won the YEC and some tournament in July, Zvonareva is still a work in progress, Kuznetsova has been title-less for a while, Sharapova has a shoulder injury, Radwanska needs more power and Caroline Wozniacki and Nicole Vaidisova also get a mention.

Serena and Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic will play a one-night exhibition in New York in March. One set semi-finals and a best of three sets final.

The Asian only tour can’t get any top players.

Boom Boom Becker got dumped by text message.

Danish Delight Caroline Wozniacki

While the Spanish nurse their hangovers the rest of us contemplate the awful truth that there is no more tennis until January.

So it seems that Nalbandian accused Del Potro of blowing their chances by playing in Shanghai instead of concentrating on the Davis Cup final. Calleri intervened before anything physical happened but clearly Nalbandian is an unhappy camper and he would be a long shot to continue playing D-Cup next year. One also assumes they’ll stick to clay courts...

“Things went badly, but the terrible weekend is over,” Nalbandian said, insisting he’ll still play for Argentina next year.

Murray and / or Nadal playing in Sydney?

Caroline Wozniacki finally blogs again www.carolinewozniacki.dk/blog but doesn’t mention that she’ll be playing the still retired Justine Henin in an exhibition in Denmark sometime this year. Wozniacki won the Nordea Danish Open which is a 100k Challenger that her family is involved in running and the closest thing Denmark has to a proper tournament, which is probably why the Woz is playing amongst all the journeymen when she’s ranked 12 in the world. She’s a one-woman Danish tennis promoting show and no doubt bringing Henin in get more local publicity.

Elena Dementieva in Marie Claire magazine.

Spain Davis Cup champions

photo credit: AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko

Verdasco beat Acasuso, Wozniacki won Odense, Rus won Opole, Tursunov won Helsinki and Nadal must have mixed emotions while he relaxes in paradise.

Spain, Spain and Spain! Sorry Argentina, we know you came close and would have almost certainly won the last match of Nalbandian vs whoever but it only counts if you get to the last match and you didn’t. Five sets and Acasuso had his chances until the last set when he was rolled. But the day belongs to Ana’s man – was she watching? – Fernando Verdasco who played hard and tough to close out the tie. The victory was set up previously by new-found hardman (previously pretty boy) Feliciano Lopez and was a triumph of teamwork in the absence of world number one umm watisname. Captain Emilio Sanchez was so happy he quit.

“In the Davis Cup, you have to fight to the death and you always have to keep your hope of winning. This mental strength helped me win the match,” said Verdasco.

“It isn’t possible for me to be any happier,” Nadal said, with his fingers crossed behind his back. Meanwhile it’s the whole country’s fault Argentina lost, captain Alberto Mancini said, “We have to learn a lot from this but not just the players,” he said. “The country as a whole, everyone, needs to learn to row in the same direction.”

Jose Acasuso: “we’re sad and angry.”

Just remember the Argentines chose a hard-court (over their usual clay) to negate clay court superstar Rafael Nadal who got injured and didn’t play. Oh well they figured, Juan Martin Del Potro is a hard-court hero and Nalbandian can play on anything so we’re still fine. Then Del Potro got injured and they lost. So they can blame it on injuries: Nadal’s and Del Potro’s. Remember we get to do this all again next year.

Davis Cup doubles heroics

photo credit: AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia

Wozniacki won, Rus won, Tursunov won and Jimmy Connors is still a bad boy.

Who’d have known the doubles would be so important, or important at all? Lopez and Verdasco beat Nalbandian and Calleri to all but finish off Argentina in the Davis Cup final. Now they only need one win on the last day – probably against the listless Del Potro – and victory is theirs. Who plays instead of Del Potro if you toss him?

“These are very special matches, when you are playing for your country,” said Feliciano Lopez. “I didn’t expect to win yesterday and didn’t expect to win today.” Hmm, do you expect to win tomorrow?

Davis Cup Final actually to be a contest

photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Wozniacki won, Zahlavova lost, Rus won, Malek lost and Roddick hired Larry Stefanki to listen to his excuses for the next six months.

Nalbandian beat Ferrer and Lopez roared Spain back into contention with a mighty victory against Del Potro who also injured himself. Do the Nadal-less Spain now have a chance against the might of Argentina? Davis Cup is the only time in the whole year that doubles becomes important. For the rest of the year you can safely ignore doubles and the antics of doubles specialists in the secure knowledge that they are either failed singles players or singles players practising. But for the middle day of D-Cup suddenly doubles screams back with a vengeance and we all of us must pay attention to the whims of this most irrelevant of tennis oddities, the doubles match. Now, we know that once doubles was important, once doubles titles were well-fought for and eagerly anticipated but that time is gone. In the current era no top singles players play doubles or take it seriously if they do. Doubles is left confined to those who cannot or will not play singles and is rightly ignored but both fans and tournament organisers. But today all will focus on the doubles teams of Acasuso / Calleri and Lopez / Verdasco, or whoever the captains finally choose, because the country that wins the doubles will only have to win one of the two reverse singles while the loser of the doubles will have a mountain to climb. Today (but only today) tennis belongs to doubles.

So what is it with Feliciano Lopez? We all wrote him off years ago as a good-looking, chronic underachiever and suddenly he does this to Del Potro in the final of finals? What’s going on here?

Davis Cup Final

Wozniacki won, Voegele lost, Zahlavova won, Rus won, Malek won and will Tatiana Golovin feature in the SI Swimsuit edition despite her chronic arthritis?

Clash of the titans in Davis Cup starts soon. Argentina must start favourites against the Nadal-less Spain. Nalbandian and Del Potro should be enough against Ferrer and Lopez although Ferrer does have a good record against Nalbandian. Meanwhile Rafa hit the beach in Mauritius.

David Nalbandian the warrior

David Nalbandian tosses his racket

photo credit: AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia

Zahlavova won, Lyubtsova won, Hladikova won, Krajicek won and Rus beat Piter.

Some board wars about Davenport and Golovin maybe retiring or not. And a lot of tennis fans don’t understand the satire of Jon Wertheim.

Tha ATP and WTA are moving closer together but Larry King’s unlikely to run both gigs as a Tennis Tsar.

Apparently Wimbledon’s bought Wimbledon or something. It’s about time.

Ana’s off to watch her boyfriend play Davis Cup. Hope she's better luck for him then Verdasco was for her at the Year End Championships when Ivanovic flamed out and got sick.

Elena Vesnina

McEnroe beat Borg and Federer beat Blake in Malaysia and Wozniacki and Voegele won in Odense.

McEnroe and Fed both won in one set tiebreakers that presumably mean nothing. What’s this one set nonsense anyway? Next they’ll be ignoring sets and merely playing tiebreakers. Hmmm Fed has a sore back that prevented him winning the Masters Cup and forced him to withdraw from Paris the week before. But he’s dragged himself from the doctors to play an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. What a trouper. Maybe he needs the cash?

Meanwhile Mac finds an open mike and takes the opportunity to dump on women’s tennis. Apparently the men’s side is full of engaging personalities like Nadal, Murray, Djokovic and Tsonga while the only interesting women are both surnamed Williams and they usually can’t be bothered playing much. Nice to see him ignoring his hit-and-giggle partner Blake but women’s tennis has no personalities? I always assumed the problem was Jankovic had too much personality...

Elena Vesnina wins the award for hottest Russian player never to win anything.

Maria Sharapova loves to have her picture taken.

Caroline Wozniacki is playing the Nordea Danish Open

No more tennis news - unless you count Davis Cup – and the silly season is upon us. The players will stop complaining about the too long season and their injury concerns and suddenly pop up in a series of hit-and-giggle tournaments for which they will be well compensated.

World No 12 Caroline Wozniacki is playing a $100K Challenger in Odense, Denmark. Hope the Danish Delight wins as everyone else will be ranked light-years away.

Roger Federer and James Blake will play a hit and giggle exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia today. McEnroe and Borg are pulling a cheque there too. Also in off season news Serena Williams and Elena the (almost) great Dementieva are grabbing the cash playing for charity in Baltimore on Friday. Apparently it’s a comedy show as Baseballers and Footballers are playing tennis with them. Hope the girls win.

Novak Djokovic

photo credit: PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images

Djokovic beat Davydenko although the match started earlier than all the previous ones and I missed most of it on TV as the Djoker ran away with it quickly. All this means that Djokovic starts and finishes the year with a bang – best not to ask to much about the whimper in-between Indian Wells and the Masters Cup.

Novak went for a jaunt to the players’ box and managed to cut himself bouncing around with “his coach, family and a former Miss Universe”. Good to see success hasn’t changed him at all.

Kolya Davendenko says he needs something else to beat the top guys, “In the future I’ll try to find this key to beat these guys.” Anything except practise that is, “I’m really tired of practice,” he said. “Maybe I could sign up for something to give me some power, I don’t know, to give me the feeling I can beat everyone. It’s also mental.”

Kolya!

photo credit: AP /Bullit Marquez

Davydenko beat Murray and Djokovic beat Simon.

Seems Murray should have tanked his match against Fed after all, he didn’t have much left and Davy rode all over him. Hope it’s worth it for the Scot next time he players Federer. Simon looked awesome against Djokovic but somehow still managed to lose. Maybe it’s a curse striking those who beat Fed. Even Davydenko was happy to miss the start of his holiday in the Maldives – will he catch up with Domi and Melzer? – to stay for more tennis. Meanwhile Fed’s not bitter or anything.

The YEC is stuffed according to Pete Bodo.

Andy Murray

photo credit: AP/Bullit Marquez

Simon beat Stepanek and Murray beat Federer.

So Murray comes of age and sends Fed packing. It was a good match and made up for a couple of who cares matches dialled in earlier. You could see Murray knows he is doing himself a disservice for the rest of the tournament but putting in so much effort here but this is the most important match. Betting Federer is more important than winning the tournament. And it’s not just the bragging rights or revenge for his New York beating, it’s that simple notion that across the net is (maybe) the greatest player who ever played and you take every opportunity you can to beat him. That’s the greatest respect you can show him and tennis. Plus Murray won’t have to face him in the final

Wozniacki, Caroline Wozniacki

Davydenko beat Del Potro

photo credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

Davydenko beat Del Potro, Tsonga beat Djokovic and Hamburg will still hold their tournament next year anyway but with reduced prize money of $2.40 and no recognizable players. The ATP is said to be considering a court challenge.

Davy stomped on Del boy Potro to stake a place in the Semis and Djokovic lost interest against Tsonga to give the latter a consolation prize. No word on whether Kiefer gets a run yet.

In an ever increasing effort to save money and destroy Jelena Jankovic, the WTA will make persistent timeout wasters pay for their medical attention. Now how do they fine them for taking extra bathroom breaks? Can’t see this lasting beyond January. This is perfect for punishing the lower ranked players but I can’t see Jankovic going broke soon with only a $500 fee. How much do you get for making a Major quarterfinal again?

Jankovic has superpowers though (and an evil twin), watch her play against herself and stop time in this Serbian ad.

Roger and Mirka

photo credit: AP Photo/Bullit Marquez

Federer beat Stepanek, Murray beat Simon and Martina Navratilova is apparently a Z-list celebrity.

Andy Roddick succumbed to end-of-seasonitis and summoned Radek Stepanek to replace him. Stepanek, who threw off his black cape and laughed theatrically, unfortunately forgot to bring his racquet and lost to Fed baby in straight sets. Apparently Federer’s sick, but not sick enough to lose to Radek. Fed now needs to beat the already qualified Murray to advance or hope Simon loses to Stepanek or goes home sick too. What’s the bet we see Kiefer before the end of the tournament?

Moody Maria in some fashion shoot.

Jurgen Melzer and Dominika Cibulkova

Del Potro beat Tsonga and Djokovic beat Davydenko.

Tsonga’s now out and Djokovic should qualify and it should come down to Del Potro vs Davydenko for the last spot. My money’s (now) on Davy. Not that one should bet or anything (and certainly not on the mischievous Davydenko...). Nice tank by Djoker in the middle set to earn a bagel before miraculously recovering to win the third. One more loss by Federer and he’s out. Anyone think Roddick is up to the challenge? I guess not but Murray could well take the Fedster out in his last match. Shall we start apologising to the Chinese now?

Jurgen Melzer and Dominika Cibulkova getting cute in the Maldives.

Nicole Vaidosova is in India giving dating and career advice pushing stuff for Reebok.

Murray on the move

photo credit: AP/Bullit Marquez

Simon beat Federer, Murray beat Roddick and Ivanovic’s now old enough to drink in the US.

Simon now has a 2-0 record against the Greatest Player of all time. Move over Nadal. Is Fed just framing his inevitable final victory by creating a bit of suspense like last year? It’s anyone’s tournament at the moment. Why does Roddick bother to go to the net? It’s not like he’s going to do anything when he gets there.

Rafa’s not playing D-Cup, shall we call it all off then? No one can still be interested can they?

Sharapova’s now dropped to 9 in the rankings and is unlikely to be seeded in her own quarter for the Oz Open. Probably won’t make a difference for Moody Maria who had to take down Davenport in the second round last time.

Shanghai

Davydenko beat Tsonga, Djokovic beat Del Potro and some Brit called Robson won a title in Sunderland. One of many to come perhaps.

Good to see Tsonga blame the ballboys for his loss yesterday. That’s a new one. "I lost a bit of energy because today, when I asked for my towel, my towel didn't come. When I ask for the ball, the ball didn't come. So sometimes you are tired and you play a long point and you want your towel and the guy look, I don't know, somewhere around. You are here and you want your towel. You ask one time, two times, three times and then you ask the other guy (ball-kid in opposite corner). You have to ask one, two, or three times and then the towel comes. Sometimes in the match I lost energy with that. Sometimes I have to take my towel alone. So for me, perhaps that is 10 metres more. At the end of a match, like one kilometer." Just pick up your own damn towel and stop whinging!

Federer was asked whether he was missing the absent Rafael Nadal: "Well, we're not dating so no, not really."

Draw for Shanghai. Fed and Murray to head Red Group? Djoker and Del Potro to take the Gold? Fed to win all? Roger must have thought he can easily has to win this now that Rafa is out.

Live (official) feed here: www.atpmastersseries.tv/page/Live/0,,11444,00.html?WT.mc_id=shanghaiflash

Venus Williams defeated Vera Zvonareva

photo credit: AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili

Venus beat Zvonareva and won a huge cheque. Props to Vera for a good week and some good confidence against the top players going into 2009. Good to see her not tearing up most of the time (until things fell apart...). Good to see Petrova and Radwanska get to play as the glorified exhibition nature of the tournament unfolds and players drop out like flies. Even the extra $100,000 inducement offered to play a meaningless third match (when you can’t qualify) isn’t enough and you understand why two alternates are required for an eight person field.

Is Venus the player of the year now? Certainly none of the women can lay any sort of claim to the player of the year crown. Jankovic is number one but is Slamless as is Safina. Sharapova, who hasn’t been sighted for half the year, Serena, Ivanovic and Venus all have one slam Major and very little else. Ivanovic went on a slump after Roland Garros and Venus and Serena have played very little. Which means maybe Venus gets the nod as she won the Year End Championship. Anyway it’s been a scrappy year and it’s all Justine Henin’s fault for retiring and leaving us with no clear top player.

The WTA gives in and allows byes for Beijing and Madrid. Now will they allow players to play more Mickey Mouse tournaments to pick up appearance money? That’s the real test of the Road Map.

Venus Williams through to the final

photo credit: Getty Images

Venus Williams beat Jankovic and Zvonareva beat Dementieva.

From Shanghai Tennis Masters Cup:
Journalist: If, I mean if, the three beauties, Sharapova, Ivanovic and Jankovic unluckily fall into water at the same time, which beauty would you choose to save first?
Novak: Pushing the three beauties into water, you just made a huge trouble, I would do my utmost to save the three. (laughs)

Serena Williams, Andy Roddick, John Isner and Caroline Wozniacki will play a Rock-n-Racquets exhibition on Dec 14. mens singles, ladies singles and mixed doubles.

Best Tennis Incidents list www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=362008

Petrova Video Blog 2

Vera Zvonareva beat Jelena Jankovic

Dementieva beat Petrova, Zvonareva beat Jankovic, Radwanska beat Kuznetsova and Serena and Ivanovic took their cheques and went home.

Great win for Vera to take out the number one – even if that number one is only Jankovic – and avoid Venus in the Semis. Vera must finally think she can compete at this level. Hands up if you picked Zvonareva and Venus to go through undefeated? Notice Hawkeye stuffed up during the Dementieva match and the umpire coolly ignored it. “Just trust me,” he told an incredulous Elena, who did. One reporter clearly didn’t believe Serena’s stomach muscle excuse either. Radwanska and Petrova finally got to play and Radwanksa confirmed that Kuznetsova is indeed playing woefully.

Elena Dementieva

Venus beat Serena, Jankovic beat Kuznetsova and Dementieva beat Safina. Also Stevenson won, Strycova won, Radwanska the lesser beat Vesnina and Lindsay should do her talking on the court (not in the commentary box).

So Venus, Vera and Jelena make the semis. One spot left for the winner of Serena vs Elena. Elena finally got her November act together to win a match even if it was only against the slumping Safina. Can she beat Serena? She won the only recent match between them (at the Olympics) but tomorrow’s match may more depend on Elena’s nerves and Serena’s care factor. Serena only won 1 game in the last two sets against her sister as she got frustrated and her game fell apart.

If Jankovic takes a medical timeout when she’s ahead does that mean she’s actually injured?

Still lots of empty seats in Doha. Maybe the marketing campaign has something to do with it.

Jose Acasuso is in the Argentine D-Cup team replacing Guillermo Canas to join David Nalbandian, Juan Martin del Potro and Agustin Calleri. Rafa’s still hoping to be fit in time to play them.

WTA official day 3 highlights

Dinara Safina in Doha

Venus beat Dementieva, Zvonareva beat Ivanovic and Serena beat Safina. Also Shvedova won, Vesnina won, Voegele lost, Strycova won and Tursunov lost.

Nine consecutive breaks of serve in the first set between Elena the (almost) great and Venus (I am great). That’s either really good competitive tennis or a crap fest, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the former. Ana (I used to be number 1) Ivanovic took another of her dizzy spells timeouts at a crucial point in her loss to the resurgent Vera Zvonareva. It certainly helped her as afterwards she her three cracking forehands to win the game from breakpoint down. Good to see Fernando watching on worriedly as his girlfriend got pummeled by Vera. By the strength of her groundstrokes – and doesn’t she love to take the ball early – Zvonareva can match it with anyone. Now if only she gets her head in order she could damage some top ten players more regularly. Ivanovic can rest up for the Aus Open (or go holiday with Verdasco).

Still empty seats in Doha.

WTA official day 2 highlights


Agnieszka Radwanska video blog from Doha
She’s so cute but all she does is sign autographs? Bet she wishes the sick Ivanovic would pull out so she gets to play...

Vera Zvonareva

Venus beat Safina, Zvonareva belted Kuznetsova, Jankovic beat Ivanovic and Serena likes Obama but she won’t vote for him. Also Shvedova won, Vesnina won, Piter lost, Voegele won, Strycova won, Tursunov won and Young lost.

Vera had an easy win over the Kuz who didn’t seem too interested. Jankovic made a slight correction to her 1-6 win record against Ivanovic and Venus took care of Safina. Next it’s Dementieva vs Venus, Safina vs Serena and Ivanovic vs Zvonareva. Will Zvonareva be the only Russian to get a win Wednesday?

Round two of ATP vs the Germans in the courts.

Serena channeling Federer

Serena channeling Federer in this Halloween costume. Yep that’s Fed’s cardigan from Wimbledon which he gave her. Why doesn't it look like that on Roger? Check out her blog and photos on http://www.serenawilliams.com/ .

Maybe she should stick to playing Conan O’Brien at Wii Tennis. Check out this vid below. Is Conan really good or does Serena just suck at video games?



Agnieszka Radwanska video blog from Doha
Seems Radwanska has little to do in Doha except promote Sony products and blog, oh and go to the pool...

Nadal out of Shanghai

Serena plays Safina, Kuznetsova plays Zvonareva and Jankovic plays Ivanovic.

Doha draw is out
Nice grouping should mean that at least one of the Williams sisters goes through, ditto for the Serbs.

The Masters Cup organisers will be ticked off to hear that Nadal is pulling from the end-of-season event to ensure he is right for the Davis Cup final. Gilles Simon is the lucky recipient of Rafa’s spot. Nadal blamed the busy calendar and pointed out that he had already achieved his main goal of becoming number one.

Desert Island Tennis
Ana Ivanovic and Elena Dementieva play on a desert island (Henin and Sharapova did this once before).

Kournikova comeback?

Hottest tennis babe ever (sorry Ana and Maria) Anna Kournikova may return as a double specialist. Kournikova played a hit-and-giggle exhibition last week – no idea whether she was any good – and didn’t completely rule out playing again. That’s good enough for another round of speculation about whether she’ll return to competitive tennis. Especially as she could probably do alright on the doubles circuit which is a form of glorified exhibition anyway since the top singles players usually stay away. She’s certainly keeping fit, running a triathlon or something recently. If the WTA are serious about getting people to watch doubles (and getting tournament directors to care about staging doubles matches) then Anna the doubles specialist would get them lining up in the street.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Tsonga beat Nalbandian in Paris, Petrova beat Mattek in Quebec, Pavlyuchenkova beat Krajicek in Bratislava and Stevenson is on a 10 loss streak.

Tsonga is the last man standing of the eleven vying for a spot in Shanghai after beating Nalbandian to win the Paris Masters. “I’m going to go (to Shanghai) really to represent France and all my family and my friends,” said Tsonga. Tsonga joins Fed, Rafa, Djoker, Murray, Davy, Roddick and Del Potro in the Shanghai field. Nalbandian can watch from the sidelines as an alternate or something.

Love it that Serena’s going to Doha but doesn’t actually know where it is. “In some respects I am going into the unknown because I don’t even know where Qatar is on the map. Somebody told me it’s Kuwait.” Erm, it’s not, but thanks for playing. Doha draw is out.

Pics of Doha courts and players practicing. The courts look amazing and Vera looks hmm, what’s the word, that’s it – hot!

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Nalbandian beat Davydenko, Mattek beat Wozniack, Petrova beat Haynes, Tsonga beat Blake and Radwanska and Petrova will be the two alternates for Doha.

Nalbandian versus Tsonga in Paris. Should be Nalbanidan in a canter, he’s been the form player all week and he seems to get hot this time of year. Krajicek against Pavlyuchenkova in Bratislava, Petrova should flatten Mattek in Quebec. Great run by Lucky Loser Haynes to the Semi.

From Wozniak’s blog:
Has anyone ever confused you with Caroline Wozniacki? We get confused a lot! Sometimes I get faxes or letters delivered to my room, and sometimes people call her thinking they're calling me. Everyone thinks our names are the same, but it's really two completely different names. Mine isn't a short version of hers or anything! But anyway, we're good friends. We grew up playing each other in the juniors. I was actually 3-0 against her in the juniors, but the first time we played since then - at Wimbledon this year - she won. Grass isn't my surface, and she's really good on grass. So anyway, your answer is yes!

Eleven Two players can still qualify for the last spot in Shanghai. Tsonga and Nalbandian who will play in the final of Paris. Del Potro now qualifies. Blake and Simon are out. Fed, Rafa, Djoker, Murray Davy and Roddick are already in the Shanghai field. http://www.masters-cup.com/1/news/2008/oneweektoplay.asp

Serena Halloween Photos

Sam Stosur to finally ignore doubles and focus on singles in 2009 and not before time.

Kantarian for the ATP job now?

Hewitt’s in court again.

Federer and Nadal pull out!

Nalbandian beat Murray, Haynes won, Mattek won, Petrova won, Rybarikova lost, Benesova lost, Blake got a walkover against Federer, Nadal retired against Davydenko, Tsonga beat Roddick and someone keeps hacking the Serbs’ websites

Did you see the umpire speak to the photographer – “that guy in the orange shirt!” – when Murray complained about him changing lens between first and second serves? Time to get some focus and stop looking for excuses. Blake and Tsonga still alive for Shanghai! 14 wins in a row is all Murray is getting.

Fed and Rafa in the locker room discussing their injuries according to Nadal: “I saw him in the locker room five minutes before my match and he told me he had a pain in the back. I said, maybe we are both going to be going home tonight.” The Paris fans booed when both withdrawals were announced. It makes sense though, this Masters is only important for those players trying to get to Shanghai. The others have played a lot of tennis and are on energy conservation mode. And trying to stay healthy. So, apart from Davydenko, who didn’t waste much energy in Nadal’s walkout, the only players left are all competing for a spot in the Masters Cup. So there’s some good competition, as long as you didn’t expect it to be between the very top players...

Watch the Paris Masters live.

Eleven Five players can still qualify for the last three two spots in Shanghai. Del Potro, Simon, Blake, Tsonga and Nalbandian. Fed, Rafa, Djoker, Murray Davy and Roddick are already in the Shanghai field. Del Potro and Simon now sweating on other results to get them in. www.masters-cup.com/1/news/2008/oneweektoplay.asp