Uncertain Certainties

Tears will fall as fast as her ranking

Only hours before Wimbledon 2014 commences! What the heck will happen you ask? Here are five things that are certain to occur:

• Sabine Lisicki will open play on Centre on Day 2, entering the stadium in tears. Marion Bartoli will watch from the stands wearing Louboutins and a smug look on her face. When Sabine catches sight of Marion looking flawless, the memories of last year's final will overwhelm her and she will be carted off the field, going down to Julia Glushko, 1-6, 0-4 RET.
• Rafael Nadal will beat Lukas Rosol in the second round in five sets, avenging his shock loss to the Czech man in 2012. The match will finish beneath a closed Centre Court roof way four hours after curfew, culminating in a 13-11 final set scoreline. Nadal will later pull out of his third round match against Ivo Karlovic, citing over-elation.
• Sorana Cirstea will reassert herself as the Queen of Romania, upending Simona Halep in the third round. She will promptly lose in the following round to Tara Moore after being paid a handsome sum by a group of British journos.
• Agnieszka Radwanska and Victoria Azarenka will produce a dog fight of a match, rife with shrieks, glares, side-eyes, come-ons, and snubs. A tearful Aga will admonish Vika's grunt during her loser's press conference, while Vika deems the confrontation "hilarious" and that she was "laughing out loud" because of it.
• Grigor Dimitrov will face Andy Murray in a highly anticipated quarterfinal. The match will be awkward for the crowd as they will want to root for the next coming of Roger Federer. Grigor will get off to a quick start in the first set, fall back to earth in the second, and lose the third and fourth sets in romp after scanning the crowd and seeing Maria Sharapova eating gummy candies and judging him.

For things that definitely won't happen, here are my abbreviated picks:

Women's semifinals: Halep def. Sharapova; Azarenka def. Wozniacki

Women's final: Azarenka def. Halep

Men's semifinals: Djokovic def. Dimitrov; Federer def. Kyrgios (why not?)

Men's final: Federer def. Djokovic

Here's to hoping Novak proves me wrong. Happy Wimbledon, everyone!

Oi...

The Australian Open has just begun and I have no idea what will happen. Well, I have an idea, but it will likely mean very little come Day 14. Anyway, I can give you a 41% guarantee that the following WILL happen. Here are my picks for Champion and "Surprise Semifinalist":

• Men's Champion: Novak Djokovic - He's coming in with a head of steam. I understand that an entire offseason has happened and that new coach Boris Becker can throw a small hitch in his game, but Nole has been the king of Melbourne Park for three years running. I can't foresee anyone bringing him down, especially with Nadal's semi-shaky Doha title run (and his ridiculously tough draw) and Andy Murray's limited match play since the U.S. Open.
• Surprise Semifinalist: John Isner - Much like Novak, he's coming in with some momentum ahead of a solid title run in Auckland. He was fortunate enough to be in the quarter anchored by a rusty Murray and an erratic Federer. Big John's big serve should do a ton of damage and he should feel no pressure this year, having missed last year's Oz due to injury.
• Women's Champion: Serena Williams - I'm not gonna bother rationalizing this pick. NEXT.
• Surprise Semifinalist: Andrea Petkovic - She was drawn into the slightly unstable Sharapova quarter and she has a manageable path. She plays No. 32 seed Magdalena Rybarikova in the first round, but Magda is known to crap out in Slams. Petko could get JJ in the third round.

I'll stop myself here before I make myself look dumb. Looking forward to enjoying the Happy Slam and lots of coffee on weekday mornings. Sleep is for the weak. Or for the smart, whichever.

Sugar Crash: Maria's Up, Down, Then Out 2013

This December, I'm going to attempt to profile a few players to watch in advance of the 2014 season. Leave a comment on any of these postmortems if there is a player you think I overlooked!

It's never too early to practice your "concerned WAG" face

Maria Sharapova has had another interesting, albeit less successful, year. She began 2013 crushing everyone in her path in Melbourne and ended it on an operating bed and many a red carpet. So what happened between January and October that has her with a new(er) coach, a repaired shoulder, and a correspondence gig at the Sochi Winter Olympics this coming February? Let's take a look, Good, Bad, & Ugly style:

The Good

Overall, MaSha's season, despite being pretty much M.I.A. in the second half, was actually pretty good. She showed just how dominant she can be during that ridiculously blazing start in Melbourne and her crushing of Caroline Wozniacki to win Indian Wells, one of her two titles for the year. She also showed that she isn't as far off from beating Serena as we previously thought, by taking a set in the Miami final and playing her in a very tough straight-set loss in the Roland Garros final one round after fighting through her nemesis, Victoria Azarenka, in topsy-turvy three-setter. Even though Serena owned on the red dirt, Claypova wasn't really far behind, defending her Stuttgart title and making the Madrid final.

(P.S. MaSha also officially started dating ATP heartthrob Grigor Dimitrov, and cemented their relationship status by cheering him on vociferously in his second round Wimbledon match. Respect.)

The Bad

The one burning question going into 2014 is whether Shara's shoulder is ready to go. She pulled the plug on her season after her poor loss to Sloane Stephens in Cincinnati, citing right shoulder bursitis. She had a previous surgery on her right rotator cuff causing a ten-month absence from the tour between 2008 and 2009. She has proven that she can come back stronger than ever, but will a second injury be too much for her to reach the summit once more?

The Ugly

"The Ugly" of MaSha's 2013 season is basically the 12 days after her Western & Southern Open exit and the commencement of the U.S. Open. She canned Jimmy Connors (and sent him into a spiraling alcohol-induced depression), embraced the silly, quirky, and splashy rumors of her changing her name to "Maria Sugarpova," and decided to retire her racquet for the year and attend sponsor events instead. It was confusing, and with her recent announcement of joining the NBC Winter Olympics coverage team, you wonder if she's already in a post-tennis state of mind. Sochi is MaSha's hometown, but it's still a bit ... spooky to see how much she has done in the last few months that does not concern tennis in the slightest.

2014 Outlook

For the most part, I think MaSha will be fine. I don't think we will see her revved up in full come January and is vulnerable to an early-round exit in Melbourne, but she is usually so very focused and dedicated to her tennis and I can't see that suddenly stopping, even with her shoulder issues. She had such a good 2013 prior to Wimbledon's Black Wednesday (still finished the year at No. 4) that I can't imagine her falling way off the pace of Vika and Li Na throughout the coming season. I fully expect her to be back to her sporty self going into the clay season.

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment!

(Edit: and read this wonderfully relevant article on Sharapova by Chris Clarey.)

Slammed Shut

Istanbul and London are right around the corner for the Top 8 women and men, but let's take a moment to look back on four tournaments that supercede the WTA Year-End Championships and the ATP World Tour Finals.

What the heck happened in Melbourne, Paris, SW 19, and New York, you ask? Well, take a seat, grab a drink, and read this recap of the Grand Slams of 2013!

Australian Open

Defending champions pre-tournament with their 2012 trophies.
New photo shoot deemed unnecessary.

What happened: see last year's Australian Open. Actually, that's a slight on Oz 2012, which was a really exciting tournament. This year's Australian was a bit of a yawn. Djokovic won for the third straight year, defeating Andy Murray in four relatively unremarkable sets, and Azarenka defended her 2012 title against Li Na. Sharapova and Serena were cruising through the early stages of the tournament when they were abruptly stopped by Li Na and Sloane Stephens (with help from an injured ankle and back) respectively. There were no real surprise losses on the men's side. As something of an anti-Nadal fan, I definitely missed his presence late in this year's Oz, especially considering how good the final weekend of last year's tournament was with him in it.

What will be remembered: for the women, the big stories of the tournament revolved around Sloane. Her beating Serena was a story that lasted the entire season with many twists and turns throughout. She was also the victim of MTO-gate when Azarenka viciously stole the match from her grasps (lol). We will also remember the rebirth of Stan Wawrinka in that epic match with Djokovic in the 4th round where Stan just ZONED, but Novak dug in and pulled it out in the end. Lastly, although she ended up getting blasted away by Li Na in the semis 2 & 2, Maria Sharapova started the tournament by winning her first TWENTY-EIGHT GAMES. What.

French Open

What happened: exactly what you expected, but you couldn't help, but be impressed by how remarkable the achievements of Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal were. Serena finally won her first Roland Garros title since 2002, the kickstarter of her eponymous "Serena Slam." For someone who had always found the clay a pain, Serena's variety was on display throughout the tournament alongside her ever-present power and she found herself cruising through most of her matches (shoutout to you, Sveta).

This also happened. Who knew protesting same-sex
marriage could make a man look so gay?

Rafa's run was a bit more complicated. He got off to a bit of a slow start in the first three rounds and collided with Djokovic in another 5-set thriller in the semifinals, recovering from a break down in the last set and eeking it out 9-7. While the final versus David Ferrer was the most assured forgone conclusion in tennis history, it was a coronation of Nadal's comeback and his cemented status as the King of Clay with his eighth French Open title (fourth in a row), becoming the winningest player at any single Grand Slam. Sorry, Roger.

What will be remembered: three of the four semifinals will be remembered for many different reasons. The airtight three-setter between Sharapova and Azarenka was one of the best matches of the tournament, Serena's demolition of 2012 finalist Sara Errani in 46 minutes was unreal even for her, and Novak's tragic net violation while up a break in the fifth set against Rafa took the air out of the remainder of his 2013 (until his recent title runs in Beijing and Shanghai).

We will also remember the run of Gael Monfils and the many pictures he inspired, Venus's wonky match with Ula Radwanska, and Andy Murray's boredom. I think we'd all benefit from Andy skipping the French Open from now on. He's probably never going to win the thing and his tweets were such a value add for the for tournament.

I would need a seat if I had blown four match points, too.

Wimbledon

The world pouted with you, Rog :(

What happened: The real question is what DIDN'T happen? Rafa went out to Steve Darcis on the very first day, then EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER was eliminated on Black Wednesday including Victoria Azarenka (injury), Ana Ivanovic (suckitude), Caroline Wozniacki (suckitude aided by injury), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (injury aided by suckitude), and Marin Cilic ("injury"). Sharapova joined the fray when she went down (literally; she slipped on the grass several times) on Court 2 to fellow gruntie Michelle Larcher de Brito. However, all of those exits paled in comparison to the ousting of Roger Federer at the hands of Sergiy Stakhovsky, Fed's first loss before the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam since Roland Garros 2004 (if I could ALL CAPS numbers, I would). A truly historic day in tennis. Serena would join the upset club soon after, blowing a third set lead to Boom-Boom Lisicki in the Round of 16 on Manic Monday. Absolute madhouse of a tournament.

Oh yeah, there were winners at this year's Championships! Sir (well, almost) Andrew Barron Murray made it rain and ended a 77-year drought for a British male singles Wimbledon champion by completely outplaying Djokovic in the final. There were cheers, there were blown calls by Mohamed Lahyani, there were Djokovic meltdowns, there were pointed celebrations at the media. The match had everything. I was even inspired to write down a few thoughts on Andy here.

On the women's side, 2007 finalist Marion Bartoli made the most of the messy draw to scrap her first Slam. With the Top 3 out of the way, Marion didn't drop a set (nor played an opponent ranked above her) culminating with the blitzing of Sabine Lisicki in the final. It would be the last match win of her career. What a way to go out!

Maria's DGAF face.

What will be remembered: other than everything, you mean? Aside from the above, we will remember Jerzy Janowicz's breakthrough to the semifinals, the decimation of the bottom half of the men's draw and the complete shitshow that became of the entire women's draw, Juan Martin Del Potro re-arrival for the second time in 2013, Laura Robson's good showing, and Murray leaving the entire country on the edge of their collective seats during his comeback win versus Verdasco. Off the court, this was also the tournament where Serena and MaSha aired out their dirty laundry about each other's love lives. Tennis drama at its finest. It was phenomenal. I'm slightly embarrassed at how much I enjoyed all of it.

U.S. Open

King of ... Cement?

What happened: competing with the Australian Open for most forgettable Slam of the season. Both finals were good theater, but the finalists were all but guaranteed and the winners were pretty much called weeks before main draw matches got underway. Serena and Rafa capped off career-best seasons by downing their primary rivals and contenders for Player of the Year in Azarenka and Djokovic. So many parallels with Serena and Rafa's season. Both win the French Open, go out early at Wimbledon, and come back with a vengeance in the summer hard court swing and add to their tally of major titles and improve their arguments in their respective G.O.A.T. debates.

What will be remembered: two one-handed backhands soared while one fell away. Stan Wawrinka played another 5-setter with Novak Djokovic in the semifinal, once again going down. He wasn't playing as well as he did in Melbourne, but props for ramming through Berdych and Murray, then taking Novak the distance. Richard Gasquet finally made the quarterfinals, then got all greedy and made the SEMIFINALS. He ended up getting killed by Nadal, but good on ya, Reesh. The same can't be said for Roger Federer, who is starting a new kind of streak. He lost in the Round of 16 to Tommy Robredo in straight sets in what was a confusing match. His forehand couldn't find the court and he quickly lost his first match to Tommy Robredo on his eleventh try, denying us our first Fedal encounter at the U.S. Open. Lame.

She was a little excited.

Serena killed her competition through the semis, but her fourth round match against Sloane featured probably the most exciting set of tennis in the tournament pre-finals. The match had an edge to begin with, with all of their off-court drama and whatnot, but what struck me as incredible was how Serena was able to win with her defense. Sloane was crushing her forehand, yet Serena was there for nearly every one of them. Sloane eventually started to go for too much in the second set, which was one-way traffic for our champion.


So what's to come for the rest of the year? Can Serena remain motivated and hungry to finish the year as strongly as she started (she already won Beijing)? Will Rafa win his first World Tour Finals title? Will Djokovic or Vika (or Maria or Andy or, dare I say, Sloane Jelena?) make any dent in the confidence of the top man and woman of their respective tours? We will see what the end of the season has in store, it could mean good things in 2014 for those who make the most of it!

Cleaning Up the Mess in Madrid

Wow, Madrid! That was the crappiest mandatory ever!

Call me an anti-traditionalist American, but clay tournaments are boring. The matches are slow. The rallies are long...and slow. The days are slow...and long. And Madrid 2013 seemed to magnify all of these issues I have with clay and put them to the forefront. Granted, this is all from my own perspective as an observer, but there were many times I was asking for the blue clay back (especially since I was watching on my iPhone at work and I can't afford to stare at the screen too long to locate the ball mid-rally when my bosses tend to swing by often).

ANYWAY, Madrid had quite a few stories, but we'll focus on the ones that were made on court.

The Stan Man Can: the Swiss #2 (but #1 in our hearts...maybe?) has joined his countryman, Roger Federer, in the Top 10 by his recent clay results, including a thorough beatdown of David Ferrer in Portugal, overpowering a red hot Dimitrov, and outlasting Tsonga and Berdych in back-to-back rounds. It's too bad he ran out of gas in today's final. I would've loved to see him give Rafa a bit more trouble, but who can blame him after playing 10 matches in 11 days over two different tournaments? I thought his crushing loss to Djokovic in Melbourne would deflate him, but it seems to have galvanized him. He's a legitimate threat to the Big Four and I look forward to seeing how he fares through the clay swing and in U.S. hard court season.

Baby Boy: speaking of Dimitrov, Madrid 2013 will be remember as the tournament where Grigor showed what he can do and how he can inspire a crowd. He broke through and took down the #1 ranked player in the world in one of the best matches I've seen in my short life. As a Nole fan, it took me a solid 24 hours to realize how great and important that match was to Grigor's growth. He has the complete offensive arsenal. We would all love to see that amount of talent sustained throughout an entire tournament.

Deja Vu: speaking of Dimitrov, his gf can't catch a break against Serena. MaSha lost, yet again, to SW in the Madrid final in straight sets in undramatic fashion. I don't think she'll ever break through against Serena. It's a nightmare matchup for MaSha and SW will never brain cramp against her like she does against other players such as Anabel Medina Garrigues (what was that bagel all about?).

Coming Up Short: speaking of Dimitrov, he and Kei Nishikori scored huge wins against the world #1 and #2 only to bow out in the very next round. Kei's loss was especially disappointing because he lost to No. 113 Pablo Andujar in a very poor display. It takes more than beating one great player to reach the top. These young guns will have to earn there places amongst the best the hard way.

Who does that?

All in all, Madrid made a few waves, but the tournament as a whole...well, sucked. Hopefully the Djokovic and Federer would have the sense to touch a racquet before their first match at Rome later this week. What are your closing thoughts on our first combined clay event of the season, not counting Oeiras? Miss the blue clay like I do? Leave a comment, or unfollow me on Twitter and delete me off BBM. Whichever you prefer.

Jetlagged

I can confidently say that my body clock has reset to Eastern Standard Time (six days later).

What an Australian Open! ...Okay, it was actually a little anticlimactic. Dare I say Oz was disappointing? Here are a couple of things that made the Happy Slam such a downer:

All flower, no power (or accuracy).

The matchups we were all waiting to see were lackluster or didn't even happen. We all marked Maria Sharapova's third-round clash with Venus Williams on our calendar and were hopeful for an intense, albeit noisy, match since Venus looked almost as good as MaSha through her first two opponents...DUD. MaSha crushed Venus, yet celebrated like she won a thrilling three-set final. I was left with my mouth hanging open in shock because it was such a one-way street.

That wasn't the only one. Serena and MaSha were on a collision course to meet in the finals, but back spasms and Li Na put the respective breaks on their near flawless Oz Open runs. Even Nole vs. Andy was a little hard to watch. The one match that actually lived up to it's billing was Andy vs. Rog in the second men's semis. Most of the others were not up to par.

Another bummer was the crazy number of injuries. Serena rolled her ankle before her first set was over and was laboring throughout her shortened second week, Sloane Stephens had three or four straight opponents take medical timeouts, Andy Murray seemed to slow down a step in the third set of the finals because of those unsightly blisters, and the whole Vika shenanigan made injuries the talk of the tournament. Depressing.

Leave a comment if you think there were even lamer things about this year's Australian Open or if you feel like it wasn't that bad of a Grand Slam at all! Here's to hoping the season goes up from here. Congratulations to Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka for defending their titles! Davis Cup is already upon us. Good luck to Jim Courier and the USA squad!

Vika M.D.

While I was drowsily waiting for what originally was a lackluster match to end, Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stephens decided to bring tons of drama and controversy in the final moments (further delaying my bedtime...).

Serving for the match at 5-3, Vika blew FIVE match points, most of them off of bad errors. Vika was visibly upset with herself during that game, Sloane was finally coming alive with the crowd firmly behind her, and that's when the breathing issues/chest pains/rib aches/knee problems/panic attacks occurred.

What did Vika do about all of this? She committed a crime against tennis humanity, the UNTHINKABLE: she called a medical timeout.

I think I broke my "clutch" bone...

You've probably read the rest of the script. Sloane was left idle for ten minutes, cooling way down, Vika got her nerves untangled where no one can see her, and broke on her very next match point to clinch her second straight Australian Open final. Then she gave the nail-in-the-coffin on-court interview that would forever turn the American tennis contingent against her. When asked what "difficulty" she was facing, Vika bluntly stated her nerves got the best of her during those crucial moments.

Rough. As someone who really enjoys Vika's game and personality, I wanted to fly to Melbourne and rip the mic out of Rennae Stubbs' hand. It's gonna be an uphill battle with the fans and media for at least the rest of the year...

There were many aspects about the MTO which will live in infamy that plain didn't look good. The timing was bad. The duration was bad. The whole thing just seemed wrong. Still, I'm gonna defend Vika for a moment.

First and foremost, she's had breathing issues before. Before 2012, she was the queen of retirements, a few of them with exhaustion as the cause. You absolutely cannot blame her for being cautious. Safety first, kids!

Second, she cleared up her on-court interview in her presser. Vika said she misunderstood the question, and I believe her. It was worded in a very unclear way and even I, an English-speaking American, was lost in translation a little from the phraseology of it. The "difficulty" doesn't equate "injury" for me, so I can only imagine what a non-native English speaker understood.

Third, she didn't do anything illegal! She's well within her rights to take an MTO anytime she isn't feeling okay. Most pundits out there were screaming for a rule change, but, as is the norm with critics, they are yelling and overreacting without providing any practical solutions. What is the ITF gonna do: only allow MTOs before your own serve? Only when your up a break? This seems like a slippery slope. Think back to last year's French Open when Grigor Dimitrov was FLAILING ON THE GROUND, but his trainer couldn't even TOUCH him until he climbed back up his high chair (seriously, that chair was so unnecessarily tall). Is that more fair than allowing an MTO during a changeover? Don't think so. It really isn't Vika's fault Sloane couldn't hold to stay in the match, and it's not like Sloane was serving lights-out up until the last game to begin with.

The other person rooting for Vika.

Nothing left to do but see how this situation affects her preparations for the final against Li Na, who gave Sharapova the business in the semis. Don't worry, Vika, I'll root for you even though I may be one of two people that will do so come Saturday.

Leave a comment to discuss the most talked-about MTO in history or to bash RedFoo's ridiculous hairstyle and fashion choices. Those glasses need to go...

Semis Are Set Sans Serena

Okay, no time because because the the women's semifinals start in a few minutes/seconds, but I must address a few things about what we've seen this past week:

Sloane Stephens defeats a hobbled Serena. I'm thoroughly shocked at the outcome because Serena seemed to have felt better physically in the third set, but so very happy for the teenager. Sloane is here to stay!

Djokovic wins five-set epic against Stan Wawrinka. Once again, Nole had me awake all hours of the night and 'til the wee hours of the morning. A challenge here or there could have altered the complexion of the final moments, but Djokovic prevails.

Sharapova rolling through her opponents. She must have eaten a truckload of these because she is riding the longest sugar-high ever. With Serena out, she has to be the new favorite (Sorry, Vika).

DelPo ousted early. Very disappointing result Down Under. There is a big ol' brick wall in front of him at the majors and he needs to figure out how to scale it. And quick.

Federer schools the cool kids in class. Roger has the most varied offensive arsenal in tennis history and he showed it against two vastly different youngsters. He showed Tomic what finesse was about and he outserved Raonic. The old guy's still got the goods.

Anyway, gotta run! Enjoy the rest of the Australian Open! Sure to be an exciting finish :)

Hot In Hurr'

102 degree whether not withstanding, it has been a blazing-hot Aussie Open two rounds in! The race for the second week has reached a fever pitch and there are some blockbuster matches for us all to drool over.

So what happened through two rounds down under? Well, for those of you too lazy to bother watching, there's been a lot of this:

...major hubbub about this:

...too much of this, and EVERYONE is talking about this:

And I didn't even mention Tomic's cheekiness or Jerzy Janowicz's craziness.

Now it's time to look forward to the third round where there are a handful of intriguing matchups to grab our attention, but none bigger than MaSha vs. Venus. Venus is playing really well and is 2-0 vs. Maria on the GS stage, but Ms. Sugarpova has been beating the daylights out of her opponents so far (see bagel picture above). Venus, however, is a veteran who moves well and hits almost as hard as MaSha, so I do not expecting anything remotely close to a bagel. Still, MaSha's heavy hitting game is a little more consistent so I pick her to win in three tight sets.

Another interesting match up is our new favorite hot-head Jerzy Janowicz against Nico Almagro. They both have big serves, Almagro has the beautiful one-handed backhand, and Janowicz has the huge forehand that can cause damage. What impressed me about JJ was his ability to comeback from two sets down in his now infamous match against Devvarman and I worry about Nico's concentration in long battles. I have Janowicz in 5.

Lastly, our two favorite English-speaking youngsters on the WTA face up. Laura Robson, pseudo-hometown favorite in Melbourne, is just coming off an 11-9 third-set triumph against 8th seeded Petra Kvitova. The bubbly Sloane Stephens had two fairly routine wins in the early rounds against unseeded opponents. There is much at stake for both of these women as the winner of this match would be the favorite in the Round of 16 to get to the quarterfinals. Their most recent meeting was a straight-set victory by Stephens, so I will have to take her in three sets. Still, I may be a bit of a homer for picking her (USA! USA!).

Anyone disagree with my analyses? Any other matches to keep our eye on as we head towards the weekend? Leave a comment and discuss! And remember to hydrate, wear sunscreen, and keep your wide-brimmed hats close.

Ugh...

I wake up this morning thinking I would see hundreds of orgasmic tweets from tennis journos covering Vika vs. Serena that would make me feel as if I were watching the match unfold live, but Azarenka was forced to withdraw due to a bad pedicure, not even joking! Apparently she suffered a toe infection that causes her pain, pain that she endured for the early rounds of Brisbane, but it would be too steep of a hill to climb against Mount Serena. Way to blueball us, Vika...

Still, Pavlyuchenkova can hit the hard, so we can hope for something at least slightly competitive in the final.

The ATP Brisbane is still rockin' though! Young gun Grigor Dimitrov has blasted through to the semis in a very impressive tournament run so far. "Baby Federer" is finally showing his potential over a stretch longer than a single match (or rather a single point). He's even rumored to be dating Maria Sharapova! Respect, Grigor.

And when did Nikolay Davydenko decide to make a reappearance?? He whipped #1 seed David Ferrer in the Doha semis and is ready for a finals showdown with Richard Gasquet. Between Davy and Pav, it's been a Russian Revival this week!

What do you think of these developments? Azarenka should be ready to go for Melbourne, but will lack of big time matchplay hurt her? Can Baby Federer show off his repertoire in a major? Is this just a flash-in-the-pan for the machinelike Russian? Leave a comment to discuss. Australian Open draw out in seven days!