Davis Cup and Women's tournament results.

The Davis Cup semifinals are not complete. Like I predicted, Spain crushed Israel, and the Czech Republic beat Croatia.

Here are the match by match results of Spain and Israel.

Match 1: David Ferrer (ESP) defeated Harel Levy (ISR) 6-1, 6-4, 6-3
Match 2: Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) defeated Dudi Sela (ISR) 6-4, 6-2, 6-0
Match 3: Feliciano Lopez/Tommy Robredo (ESP) defeated Jonathan Erlich/Andy Ram (ISR)
7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2
*** Spain clinches after doubles victory.
Match 4: David Ferrer (ESP) defeated Andy Ram (ISR) 6-3, 6-1
Match 5: Harel Levy (ISR) defeated Feliciano Lopez (ESP) 7-5, 6-2

The Spaniards clinched and were up 3-0 going into the last day. David Ferrer was chosen to play his 2nd singles match of the week, which was kind of a surprise. Normally if already clinched the doubles team will play out the 2 remaining singles matches. I think David was given the nod on singles, because it will probably be his last match for the Davis Cup team for this year. With Rafa and Verdasco probably being healthy for the finals the rumors are that Ferrer will be the odd man out and left off the team. I guess this was a "last hurrah" of sorts. In typical fashion Feliciano Lopez goes out and gets his ass kicked in the final match. It didn't mean anything, but for a guy who has been playing like garbage it may be a nice confidence booster to get a singles win. Looks like his downward spiral continues.

The match by match results for Czech Republic and Croatia.

Match 1: Radek Stepanek (CZE) defeated Ivo Karlovic (CRO) 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-7, 16-14
Match 2: Tomas Berdych (CZE) defeated Marin Cilic (CRO) 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3
Match 3: Tomas Berdych/Radek Stepanek (CZE) defeated Marin Cilic/Lovro Zovko (CRO)
6-1, 6-3, 6-4
****** Czech Republic clinches after doubles victory.
Match 4: Jan Hajek (CZE) defeated Roko Karanusic (CRO) 7-6, 6-4
Match 5: Lovro Zovko (CRO) defeated Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) 6-3, 6-4

Match 1 featuring Radek Stepanek and Ivo Karlovic went a grueling 5 hours and 59 minutes. "Dr." Ivo had a record total of 78 aces, and still lost the match. That match was the highlight of the the whole weekend.

Spain and Czech Republic will meet in the Davis Cup finals scheduled for December 4-6 in Spain.


There were 2 women's tournaments this week. One in Quebec City, Canada and the other in Guangzhou, China. Neither tournament featured a tremendous field, but both had some solid players playing.

The tournament in Guangzhou, China featured a final between once top 20 player Shahar Peer of Israel and Alberta Briant of Italy, who is ranked #85 in the world. Peer who was in the top 20 a year and a half ago has been fighting injury troubles, which in return have hampered her game and made her sink to #64. Her comeback has been hard and a struggle with a lot of not so impressive results, but she finally shook off the rust to take the tournament championship 6-3, 6-4.

The Quebec City tournament seemed to have the better field of the two, with #13 Nadia Petrova participating. Petrova though didn't last long losing in the 3rd round to Melinda Czink of Hungary. Czink with her upset victory over Petrova rode that wave of confidence all the way to the championship beating Lucie Safarova 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. It was kind of neat to see Czink get a victory. Melinda Czink I got to see play live in a small ITF tournament in Midland, Michigan this past February. The match I saw her play wasn't even a singles match. It was in doubles. A semifinal match where her and her partner won. So its a good story to see her come from what baseball fans would call the Triple A minor leagues to winning a tournament on the WTA tour. Congratulations Melinda, it looks like you will be a little too good to be in Midland next February.


Next week the men return to action with 2 tournaments. A hardcourt tournament in Metz, France and a clay tournament in Bucharest, Romania.

The women play 2 hardcourt tournaments. One in Seoul, South Korea and another in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Just a quick guess, but i don't think you will see the tournament in Uzbekistan feature too many of the "top" players. I just don't see Uzbekistan as a desired destination. I could be wrong, but by the looks of my picks, ITS RARE. :)