Friday News and Notes

Fabrice Santoro "The Magician" who is known for his awkward shots and unusual slices and spins on his ground strokes that can be compared to a knuckleball pitcher in major league baseball may not be done as planned.  Santoro is set to retire at the end of the year, but he may make one more appearance in 2010.  It was brought to his attention recently that if he played in the 2010 Australian Open he would be the first to achieve playing in a grand-slam tournament in each of 4 consecutive decades.  So that has sparked his interest, but has not made a definitive decision.  The 36 year old Frenchman said "We'll see how I feel.  I'll have to be able to go 5 sets."  The Magician may just have one more trick up his sleeve.

David Nalbandian the Argentine who's game is as up-and-down as his weight is set to be back in January.  Nalbandian who when in shape and focused is easily a top 10 player and can beat anyone is recovering after missing most of the 2009 season after having hip surgery.  The same surgery Lleyton Hewitt had a few years ago.  Hewitt hasn't been the same player as he once was, but is still very servicable.  I wonder if Nalbandian has the motivation to do the work to come "all the way back" to where he once was.  We'll have to wait and see.

                                            

James Blake who had a pathetic 2009 season highlighted by losing in the 1st round of both the French Open at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, has parted ways with his long time coach Brian Barker.  Barker was the only coach Blake has ever had, so I'm sure it was a tough move, but the one time top 10 player has sank to #24.  Jobber-journeyman Kelly Jones will be his coach for the rest of the season.  No word on if Jones will be with Blake in 2010.

Novak Djokovic and Dinara Safina have both moved up in the rankings.  Djokovic has passed Andy Murray and taken back the #3 mens spot from Andy Murray.  Safina is now ranked #1 again in the womens world rankings.  She is only 5 points ahead of Serena Williams who was bumped to #2.  With Safina losing and pulling out of Doha, and Serena's success so far at the year end championships Serena will undoubtably take over the #1 ranking once again.  Look for these 2 to "flip-flop" all during the 2010 season barring injury or a Serena suspension.

Middle of the Week Tournament Updates.

In Doha, at the WTA Sony Ericsson Championships Serena Williams is rolling through her round robin grouping.  Serena ended the first round 3-0 defeating her sister Venus, Elena Dementieva, and Svetlana Kuznetsova.  Venus ended up going 1-2 with only a win over Kuznetsova.  Dementieva and Kuznetsova play tomorrow and if Dementieva wins she goes on to the next round as the 2nd place competitor in the maroon group.  If Kuznetsova wins there will be a 3-way tie for 2nd with Venus, Kuznetsova, and Dementieva all having a 1-2 record.  Which a tiebreaker will be used to determine who advances

The White grouping this week saw Dinara Safina retire from her match against Jelena Jankovic and then pull out of the tournament completely. Vera Zvonareva has taken Safina's spot in the tournament. Caroline Wozniacki leads the white group with a 2-0 record. Victoria Azarenka and Jelena Jankovic are both 1-1.  Vera Zvonareva inherits Safina's lone loss and a loss of her own and is at the bottom with a 0-2 record.
The round robin play ends on Friday.

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On the mens side its a little bit more cut and dry.  Each of the 3 tournaments are into the quarterfinal round.
Here are the quarterfinal matchups:

St. Petersburg, Russia
Denis Istomin vs. Marat Safin
Bjorn Phau vs. Sergiy Stakhovsky
Horacio Zeballos vs. Ernests Gulbis
Igor Kunitsyn vs. Victor Hanescu

If Safin can keep his shit together, he has a good chance at winning a tournament before retiring at the end of the year.  He can beat any of the players left. 

Vienna, Austria
Marin Cilic vs. Feliciano Lopez
Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. Nicolas Almagro
Janko Tipsarevic vs. Gael Monfils
Jurgen Melzer vs. Radek Stepanek

All these matchups have intriguing qualities.  Lopez is playing like he should and not just being a pansy.  Cilic is probably the best player of the bunch, but has been pushed in the early rounds.  Kohlschreiber can surprise people.  Janko is playing better tennis and Monfils is a nutjob with tons of talent.  And then you have the 2 grizzled gutsy veterans in Melzer and Stepanek.  I wonder how this all will shake out.

Lyon, France
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Arnaud Clement
Ivan Ljubicic vs. Florent Serra
Marc Gicquel vs. Michael Llodra
Julien Benneateau vs. Gilles Simon

The only non-Frenchman left in Lyon is Croation Ivan Ljubicic.  I like Tsonga to cruise to atleast the finals.  He'll probably face Gilles Simon.  Whole lot of Frenchman left in the draw.  They all can't possibly surrender.

Andre Agassi + Crystal Meth = A Clean House

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In Andre Agassi's soon-to-be released autobiography he admitted to using crystal meth in 1997.  In which he failed a drug test administered by the ATP.  He told the ATP that he might of accidentally or unknowingly took the substance.  He claimed that he drank a soda that was spiked with meth, by his assistant.  This seemed like a good enough excuse and Agassi was not penalized for the failed drug test.

He wrote about his first time taking meth:  "I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I've just crossed,". 

"There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I've never felt so alive, so hopeful — and I've never felt such energy."

"I'm seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds."

The book seems like an interesting read.  I'll have to check it out.  I'm sure his transformation early life and failed marriage to actress/model Brooke Shields to his now family man, charity working, being married to fellow tennis legend Steffi Graf.  Should be good stuff.

Anyone with a maid or owns a hotel with cleaning ladies.  Time to crack out the meth and get the work done in half the time.

Caroline Wozniacki Still Being Probed.....

Not that kind of probed.  Caroline Wozniacki is being probed for gambling allegations that she retired from a match purposely.

At the Luxembourg Open Wozniacki was playing Anne Kremer a player who was from Luxemboug.  Wozniacki who has been hampered by injuries the last month was in control of the match and cruising to an easy win.  She had won the first set 7-5 and was up 3-0, but she was still struggling with her injuries.  In the WTA on-court coaching is allowed in the smaller events.  During the 3-0 change over her father came onto the court and talked to her in, and in Polish told her to retire.  He knew that she wouldn't be able to play in the next round the very next day, and didn't want to jeopardize their chances at this weeks WTA Championships in Doha, Qatar.  Wozniacki did not retire, but continued to play until the next changeover where she was up 5-0 and one game away from winning.  At that time she decided to do what she thought was good sportsmanship and retire, and let the native girl from Luxembourg continue to the next round because she knew she wouldn't be able to play, so why not let her have a chance.

The whole gambling conspiracy comes that all of a sudden a bunch of money began to be placed on Anne Kremer in this match.  Its kind of odd for a player getting handily beaten with basically no chance of winning barring a miracle would get so much money placed on them at this point of the match.  Its just weird and seems awfully fishy.  Reports are that when the Wozniacki's dad came down to talk her into retiring he was overheard by television microphones.  Which probably was the main root of all the money being placed on Kremer.  I believe that this is what happened.

So the probing continues and Wozniacki has a distraction at this weeks Championships.  She will probably be cleared of any wrong-doing, and there will be no more investigations.  Hell if Davydenko can get away with it, I cannot see how Wozniacki will be served with any type of penalty.

So get off this girls back.  She was trying to do the "right" thing and let a player who is actually from Luxembourg take her place,  because she could not play on in the tournament.  It was a kind gesture that seemed to turn against her.  I know this may be crazy, but lets look at how the gambling process goes.  Who lets people bet on tennis after the match has started?  Thats like saying I want to put money on the Yankees when they are up 10-3 with 2 outs in the 9th inning.  How about this logical idea.  ONCE A MATCH HAS STARTED NO MORE ACTION WILL BE TAKEN.  That just might cut down on all these gambling and fixed matches conspiracy theories....It's just a thought.

And the curse of Verdasco's weiner continues.....

get well soon Caro.

Women's Year End Championships In Doha Preview And Also A Look At This Weeks ATP Events.

Serena Williams and the lineswoman she went "ape-shit" on won't be able to "hug-it-out" or "bury the hatchet" this week at the WTA year end championships in Doha, Qatar.  Serena is in the field qualifying as one of the top 8 players in the world rankings.  The line judge who's name is unknown was invited to work the matches in Doha will not be attending for family reasons.....Good on her.  Don't give Serena a chance to make herself look good in a fake way.

The ITF continues its investigation on whether to fine Serena more than the already levied fine of $10,500, or add a suspension which could include Grand Slam events.  I don't really know how much more investigating needs to go into it.  The incident has been on television and posted on the internet everywhere....So here it is one more time..



The thing that caught my attention recently about this is Serena has come out and said that at the time she thought it was a possibility she MAY HAVE foot-faulted.  Thats as close as an admission of guilt and maybe she was wrong as you will get from the classless bitch.  So hopefully the ITF puts her ass into timeout for as long as possible.  I won't miss her.  Or her punishment could be to just have to play Justine Henin in every tournament.  That way she will be embarrassed.  I'm cool with either/or.

Alright onto Doha.  This is a round robin event where the top 8 womens players in the world based on their 2009 performance not overall ranking are invited to compete for the year end championship.  The 8 players are broken into groups 2 groups of 4.

The 2 groups and their 2009 ranking:

WHITE:
Dinara Safina #1
Caroline Wozniacki #4
Victoria Azarenka #6
Jelena Jankovic #8

MAROON:
Serena Williams #2
Svetlana Kuznetsova #3
Elena Dementieva #5
Venus Williams #7

The white group seems to be pretty weak.  Safina is a headcase right now and can barely win a match, Wozniacki has retired from 2 of her last 3 tournaments with lingering injuries.  Azarenka hasn't been playing up to her potential and Jankovic is both bothered by injuries and not playing real well.  So to me it looks like Azarenka and Jankovic will advance out of this group.

The Maroon group is more stacked.  No I wasn't talking about Serena's boobs.  Serena is rusty and doesn't seem to care about the "smaller" tournaments.  But when motivated and in shape there aren't too many that can beat her.  Kuznetsova is continually steady, and a true professional.  Dementieva can look great and beat anyone one day and just flounder and get beat by almost anyone another day.  She is tough to predict.  Venus is the weakest of this group.  She hasn't been playing well, and it almost seems like she is losing a step or just not caring.  Put a fork in her.  She's done..... I like Dementieva and Serena moving onto the final four single elimination bracket.

I see a Dementieva - Azarenka final with Azarenka being the upset winner.

Alright the men are continuing playing some smaller tournaments this week, before they have their year end championships in London.

Lets start off in Lyon, France where #1 seed and countryman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is playing with fellow countryman Gilles Simon.  After them two the quality of players drops off. 

Marin Cilic is the #1 seed in Vienna, Austria, which seems to have the best field of the three ATP tournaments this week.  Other players competing are:  Radek Stepanek, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Gael Monfils, John Isner, Feliciano Lopez, and Jurgen Melzer.

The tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia lacks star quality.  When the #30 ranked Mikhail Youzhny is your #1 seed you know its pretty weak.  Other players in the field are:  Victor Hanescu, Viktor Troicki, Jeremy Chardy, Igor Andreev, Marat Safin, and Richard Gasquet.

The Results for Moscow, Stockholm, and Luxembourg Are In.

This weeks tournaments have concluded and here are the quick results:

We'll start on the men's side of things.
MOSCOW - Russian Mikhail Youzhny defeated Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in the final.
STOCKHOLM - The often injured Marcos Baghdatis showed some signs of his former self in beating Olivier Rochus to take the Stockholm Open title.

And now the women.
MOSCOW - Italian Francesca Schiavone who has been showing good form the last month or so took the Kremlin Cup championship by defeating Olga Govortsova of Belarus in the final.
LUXEMBOURG - Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland upset the #6 seed German, Sabine Lisicki to win the Luxembourg Open championship.

Martina Hingis: "I'm Not Coming Back".

5-time Grand Slam winner and former #1 ranked women's tennis player in the world Martina Hingis announced she will NOT be following in Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin's footsteps and coming back to the WTA tour.

The 29 year old Hingis was suspended for 2 years after testing positive for cocaine in 2007.  After the results were made public Hingis went on to deny she had ever taken drugs at any time in her life....So Martina I take it them lines you were doing off ex-boyfriend Sergio Garcia's nuts were just powdered sugar?

Hingis' suspension is now over.  The suspension was lifted on September 30, 2009.  Even though she is now allowed to continue her tennis career, Hingis says that she is content in retirement, and that she probably would of retired anyways, due to her continuing downward slope in both tournaments and the rankings.  She also cited that having a lack of a life while on tour is also a reason why she will remain retired.

Well atleast you can now have a life Martina.  Tennis won't be getting in the way of getting trashed at raves.  And you can continue your post-tennis career of trying to emulate Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.  I'll give you some credit, you got your fame for actually being talented in something.  Congrats and enjoy your next line....uh, I mean retirement. 

Ivo Minar Is a Cheater...Really?

Czech tennis player Ivo Minar, ranked #69 in the world has been suspended for 8 months after testing positive for the banned stimulant methylhexanamine, according to the International Tennis Federation.  Minar says he took a food substance that had the substance in it.  Since when did you eat through your nose or a pipe Ivo?  Yes, it does come in a pill form, but them Czech's seem hardcore and I think would prefer to smoke or inhale their shit.

The ITF announced his suspension will end on March 10, 2010, and also ruled that Minar's results in Stuttgart, Gstaad, and Hamburg should be disqualified.  I went back and did some research to see if Ivo was actually doing better all hopped up on a performance enhancer.  Well in all 3 tournaments where he could be disqualified from he lost in the 1st round.  So basically he did just as good as you or I would do.  He didn't win one pissing match.

So I ask for lenience on the behalf of Ivo Minar.  Its obvious the guy pretty much sucks.  Whether it was inadvertant or not he took something that is thought to be "performance enhancer".  Ivo Minar may actually be proof that this drug didn't help him do jack shit on the tennis court.  The guy lost every match during the time he was suspected of being on the stuff.  It can't be that "good".  What it comes down to is Ivo Minar, whether clean or dirty is pretty pathetic.

2 Players Caught Bringing Whores Back To Hotel in Stockholm.

2 players identified only as "foreign citizens" were detained, along with their escorts this past Sunday. Both players were scheduled to play in this weeks Stockholm Open in Stockholm, Sweden.

Investigations are still continuing so the organizers would not comment. The investigations although would not stop either of the players from competing.

A prosecutor in the case had issued a summary punishment, which allows suspects to avoid trials in minor offenses if they sign a confession. It is not known if the players had signed that confession or not.
Sweden has a crazy prostitution law in which they punish the solicitors and not the whores.
I've done some investigative work myself. Looking at the field and wondering who could be guilty of this. Now this is not officially who did the crime, but just a guess. Hopefully my predictions of who was going to bang a hooker are better than my actual tennis tennis prognostications. So I've come to the conclusion that these two guys probably need to pay someone in order to get laid:

                                                                      Florent Serra
                                                 

Oscar Hernandez

 

What a great loss....

Simona Halep the 17 year old tennis player from Romania has decided to remove her 34DD boobs. Reports say that she has already made an appointment for this fall to get breast reduction surgery. I did not know the exact date of the procedure, for all I know her huge boobs could be gone, or are just clinging on to their last days as I type this. Now Simona, you know you can change your mind right? Anna Kournikova didn't need to play well to become famous. Hell she never even won a tournament. Odds are she rolled in more cash than most of the greats just based on her god given abilities...or I mean looks. She had no abilities. Well atleast not on the tennis court. Simona you are letting down all your fans. I know the boobs slow you down and hurt your range of motion on the ground strokes. Think about the other strokes all your fans accomplish while "admiring" you. Its a fair trade in the end. You are probably making a lot more people happy this way, rather than being selfish and trying to better yourself in your career. Thats just blasphomy!! How dare you!!......Don't forget you won the Junior French Open last year, and that was with monster boobs. They may be good luck. Now do you really want to take the chance of chopping them off?

Well I'm not sure if they have been eliminated or not. Hopefully there is still time to save them. A moment of silence and lets look back on the good days....

**** on a side note. How come when I tried to put the pictures at the end of this post they automatically go to the top? I had the curser below the last paragraph and did the insert photo option. WTF!?!?! I suck at life......and blogging.

***** Another side note. My friend Joel is awesome and fixed it for me. I think he is great and not an asshole.

Russia, Sweden, and Luxembourg OH MY!!!

I was starting to get bored of my own blogging. I'm not a professional. I'm not going to bore people to sleep with stats. I'm going to make it a little more fun.......Yawn.

We got some smaller garbage tournaments this week. Players just playing close to home trying to pad that bank account a little more.

Moscow is a joint tournament. The women and men both have tournaments. The fields on both sides are pretty much Russian and Eastern European players. The men feature Russian mafia favorite Nikolay Davydenko and a bunch of jobbers. Well the once excellent Marat Safin is in the field and plays Davydenko in the first round. Davydenko will kick Safin's ass in this match, and go on to win the tournament. How do I know this. The KGB told me so.

Vera Zvonareva is the top seed with boo-boo prone Jelena Jankovic is the 2nd seed. Both are hypochondriacs and will act like they were shot if they happen to slip and fall. Its like watching soccer. Flavia Pennetta will win this tournament. She seems the most mentally tough of the bunch.

The WTA tournament in Luxembourg features the return of Kim Clijsters to tournament play. I think she has been too busy playing mommy and her focus is lacking for a turd tournament in Luxembourg. Wozniacki is hurt well kinda, maybe not. I'll take her to win hurt or not.

The other mens tournament is in Stockholm, Sweden. Countryman Robin Soderling is the top seed, with Tommy Haas as the 2nd seed. Juan Carlos Ferrero is the 3rd seed, and after that the field looks like a bunch of guys they found at the local Y. I like Soderling to win in his hometown. He'll have the home court advantage. (if there is such a thing in tennis.)

Davydenko wins Shanghai Masters....Stosur and Wickmayer also win titles.

I already did this blog once and there was a problem with it being posted. I'm not going to bother retyping everything, so heres the short version.

Davydenko defeats Nadal in the final of the Shanghai Masters event.

Samantha Stosur takes the title in Osaka, Japan by beating Francesca Schiavone in the final.

Yanina Wickmayer, the young Belgian keeps showing more and more promise. She won the WTA tournament being held in Linz, Austria. She defeated Petra Kvitova in the finals.

Quick Update and Predictions

First off, I need to rename this blog. I did a google search and a facebook search and found that there already is a "Fuzzy Yellow Balls" site. We all know that mine is way better and kicks their site's ass. I don't want to be confused for being affiliated with them chumps so I will be changing the name very soon. Any recommendations will be considered, although I think I may already have thought of one.

Lets get to this weeks action. The tournaments are well in progress since its already Wednesday.

The women have 2 smaller hardcourt tournaments. One is in Osaka, Japan and the other is being held in Linz, Austria.

Lets start with the one being held in Linz first. This is a 32 woman field event.

Top 4 seeds and world rankings:
1. Flavia Pennetta (#10)
2. Agnieszka Radwanska (#11)
3. Yanina Wickmayer (#25)
4. Carla Suarez Navarro (#30)

My pick is Pennetta over Radwanska in the final. Yeah, I know. I'm going out on a limb. Looking at the rest of the field they are head and shoulders above the rest. I really had no choice. Currently they are finishing up the 1st round today, and both Pennetta and Radwanska are still alive

The 2nd WTA event is being held in Osaka, Japan. This also is a 32 woman field

Top 4 seeds and world rankings:
1. Caroline Wozniacki (#5)
2. Marion Bartoli (#13)
3. Samantha Stosur (#14)
4. Francesca Schiavone (#26)

My prediction at the beginning of the week was Marion Bartoli over Stosur in the final. Wozniacki has been struggling with injuries, so it was hard for me to pick her to do real well this week. As of Wednesday Bartoli is into the quarterfinals, and Stosur will play her 2nd round match to reach the quarters tomorrow.

The men are playing a ATP Masters Series event in Shanghai China. All the big names are in this tournament other than Roger Federer and Andy Murray who pulled out due to injury. Murray has a sore wrist. Hmmm I wonder how he got that? Roger who knows. Mirka probably kicked his ass when he didn't put the toilet seat back down.

Top 4 seeds and World Rankings:
1. Rafael Nadal (#2)
2. Novak Djokovic (#4)
3. Juan Martin Del Potro (#5)
4. Andy Roddick (#6)

My pick before the tournament started was Del Potro over Roddick in the final. Well I didn't realize both these guys are pansys and Del Po is still on his booze and bitch hangover from the U.S. Open. Roddick probably needed his diaper changed and both ended up retiring from early round matches. So that pick was garbage... As of Wednesday the tournament finished off the 2nd round matches and now are into the 3rd round. Nadal, Djokovic, Soderling, Tsonga, Monfils, Davydenko, "Cheating Chilean" Gonzalez, Simon, and Berdych are still around. A few surprises to make it into the 3rd are Rainer Schuettler, Jurgen Melzer, and Ivan Ljubicic......Watch out for Tsonga and Djokovic to make a run. They seem to be playing at the top of their game right now. Look for Nadal to have a say as well.

Beijing and Tokyo Results.

Svetlana Kuznetsova and Novak Djokovic won in Beijing this weekend. Svetlana defeated Aggie Radwanska in the final 6-2, 6-4. Kuznetsova after her win gave this little gem of a quote "'I like the tournament, especially that the prize money is higher than the men's, I think we deserve it." Now is she crazy? I have no problem with women making equal money, but more is just obsurd. After thinking about it, I realized why the women were paid more at the same venue. The mens tournament in which Novak Djokovic defeated Marin Cilic in the final 6-2, 7-6 was a considerably "smaller" level tournament. Now they had some big names with Nadal, Djokovic, Verdasco, Roddick, Soderling etc. in the field, but the total field size was only 32 players. The women's tournament in Beijing was what they call a "Premier Mandatory" event which had a field of 64. Its just a bigger event, and more important in relativity to their respective tours. This was a big time WTA event. Not a grand slam, but just a notch below. While this was just a regular mens tour stop. That is probably why the monetary difference was different. It was brought to my attention and people were kind of shocked by the pay difference. Plus when Kuznetsova uses that quote to kind of rub it in or bring more attention to that she won more money than the male winner. It was just stupid on her part. But she is the one walking away with $775,500 bucks. I'd talk shit too probably.

Now lets get to the results:

Like i mentioned Kuznetsova defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in the China Open final 6-2, 6-4.
My prediction of Dementieva over Serena in the final was once again off. This is the second time in the past few weeks I picked Dementieva to win. I've learned my lesson.

I hit on the mens Beijing tournament. I picked Djokovic over Nadal. Djokovic did end up winning the tournament, but it wasn't over Rafael Nadal. Djokovic defeated Marin Cilic 6-2, 7-6 to take the title. He walked away with $500,000. Not a bad for a weeks pay. I wonder if he was kicking, screaming, and sulking he didn't make as much as the girls. Knowing him, there's a good chance.

The Tokyo event featured Juan Martin Del Potro's return after his U.S. Open Championship. It was short lived. Jobber Eduoard Roger-Vasselin upset DelPo in the first round. So my prediction went to piss after that. My runner-up pick and Muhammad Ali look-a-like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the title in Tokyo by defeating Russian Mikhail Youzhny, who is more famous for busting his head open with his own racket in frustration rather than his actual tennis game. Tsonga won 6-3, 6-3

Tomorrow will feature a look at this weeks events and a possible name change for "Fuzzy Yellow Balls".

3 Big Tournaments this week. ( A Preview)

The tour stops in Asia continue this week, with 2 ATP tournaments and a WTA tournament.

Let me start on the women's side with the WTA's China Open in Beijing, China. This is a WTA Premier Event which is an equivalent to the ATP's "Masters Series". It features the return of Serena Williams coming off her U.S. Open meltdown.

Top 4 Seeds and World Ranking:
1. Dinara Safina (#1)
2. Serena Williams (#2)
3. Venus Williams (#3)
4. Elena Dementieva (#4)

Pretty much all the other top players are at this event. Sharapova is in the field after last weeks win. Jelena Jankovic is playing even though she retired from an injury in last weeks final. Azarenka, Pennetta, Wozniacki, Kuznetsova, all are in the field. The only major omission is Ana Ivanovic who is shutting down for the year. MY PREDICTION: Elena Dementieva over Serena Williams.

The men also have a ATP tournament in Beijing, China. Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick are back playing for the first time since the U.S. Open.

Top 4 Seeds and World Ranking:
1. Rafael Nadal (#2)
2. Novak Djokovic (#4)
3. Andy Roddick (#6)
4. Nikolay Davydenko (#8)

Other notables in the tournament are: Fernando Verdasco, Robin Soderling, Fernando Gonzalez, Marin Cilic, David Ferrer, Marat Safin, Ivo Karlovic, and James Blake. MY PREDICTION: Novak Djokovic over Rafael Nadal in the final.

The other ATP tournament is being held in Tokyo, Japan. U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro is in a strong field.

Top 4 seeds and World Ranking:
1. Juan Martin Del Potro (#5)
2. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (#7)
3. Gilles Simon (#10)
4. Gael Monfils (#13)

Other notables playing in Tokyo are: Tomas Berdych, Radek Stepanek, Stanislas Wawrinka, Lleyton Hewitt, Fabrice Santoro, and John Isner. MY PREDICTION: Juan Martin Del Potro over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Davydenko, Simon, and Sharapova all claim victories this week.

Maria Sharapova keeps showing improvement by winning this weeks Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan. Sharapove beat Jelena Jankovic in the final. The final was short due to Jankovic retiring due to injury. Knowing the way Jelena is with her injuries I'm sure its not as bad as she will dramatically hype it to be. Either way Sharapova showed to be in good form during the week, and looks to be back at the top of her game for next season. The tournament as a whole had a lot of upsets. Venus, Kuznetsova, Dementieva, Zvonareva, Ivanovic, Wozniacki, and Flavia Pennetta were all seeds that were ousted early without winning a match. Making my prediction of a Dementieva-Kuznetsova final look just plain silly.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia #1 Nikolay Davydenko was able to claim victory after defeating Fernando Verdasco in today's final. Davydenko showed he still is a factor and is dangerous in the ATP tour by defeating Verdasco, Soderling, and Monfils to take the Proton Malaysian Open title.... Robin Soderling my predicted winner fell in the semifinals to eventual champ Davydenko.

Gilles Simon was back in the winner's circle again this week. He defeated Viktor Troicki in the final of the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok, Thailand. Gilles had to beat Troicki, Jurgen Melzer, Evgeny Korolev, and Kevin Kim in order to be champion.... My pick Jo-Wilfried Tsong fell in the semifinals to Troicki.