What's up in Basel? Is there are weather delay or just a frozen scoreboard? I was trying to check on how Blake was doing, and he's up 6-3 4-2, but it seems to be stuck there.

Never mind . . . frozen scoreboard it is. It's just changed to 5-3 and deuce in the second.

Hernandez held for 5-4. Now Blake will try to serve it out. Seems like quite a tough quarter of the draw that Blake ended up with.

And Blake is through 6-3 6-4.

Looks like a strong performance from him on serve, never facing a break point and losing only 6 service points in the match.

I just hope Blake gets back to form by the time of the Davis Cup. With Andy walking wounded, the Russians may surprise us in the final.

Back to the topic, it looks like Federer's compatriot Stan is putting up a much better fight against Nalbandian.

6-5 with the fat slob to serve.

poor Fat Dave does get some stick from us....... :P

and didn't the Russians beat you last year? i know they haven't got Safin this year, but seriously, in his current state he won't be much help anyway i don't think. They still have:

Davydenko
Youhzny
Tursunov

now i've posted that, i've just checked the St Petersburg scores and have noticed that Tursy appears to be losing :doh:

Naby out!?!? bck to his routine it seems.

Un Suisse peut en cacher un autre! (TV will understand that i am sure).

Tursunov pulls through 6-4 in the 3rd :clap:

Roger shall avenge his loss to Nalbandian and win here :P

Nalby just displays zero consistency with losses like this. You'd think he'd be super-confident and hitting the ball wonderfully, but he's not :rolleyes:

All credit to Wawrinka though. A superb ballstriker on his day :ok:

It's a matter of pride as well for the nation :D

It just shows you how much of a high he was on running through the top 3 players in the world like that... but it also shows that everyone much like FED can have a crappy day at the office...it happens... but I think if he
is injury free 2008 might just be really interesting.... not sure about the
clay season though..

Mod note: I've edited the topic title to include the other tournaments being played this week. It's possibly easier to keep track that way

:admin:

In Basel, Gonzo beat Karanusic 6-4, 7-6.

Up next is Blake vs. Karlovic and Canas vs. Nieminen on court 2

Updates:

Ancic vs. Youhnzy is just about to start in St Petersburg - I think this could be a really interesting match. Ancic is just coming back in to some form, and although on a good day Misha is brilliant, he also seems to suffer from the Russian disease of inconsistency :shrug:

In Basel - Blake vs. Karlovic is going with serve as is Canas vs. Nieminen.

In Lyon, Rochus and Fish - having gone to a tie-breaks in every single set - are now locked in a third set breaker at 13-13 :huh:

I wouldn't mind Blake doing well here though..just to make the ATp race more interesting.... ruffle a few feathers so to speak... :)

well, he won the first set 6-4, and was up a break in the second, but it looks like he's been broken back now

Nieminen won the first set against Canas 6-4

Misha is a break up on Mario in the 1st set

and Rochus beat Fish 17-15 in the final tie-break

Ljubicic is now playing Ascione in Lyon

Is my scoreboard stuck again? I'm showing no breaks of serve yet in the second set, 2-2.

it looked like Blake broke in the first game of the second set, but Karlovic broke back :shrug:

and now it's showing 3-2 to Blake but on serve :ok:

Blake v. Karlovic 5-4 on serve in the second.

Now would be a good time for another break, James. :D

My understanding is that Blake served first and had a couple of BPs against him but held on. No break in this second set.......so far.

is it heading for a tiebraker...??

Looks to be....

In St Petersburg Youhzny took the first set against Ancic 6-4

and Ljubicic took the first set against Ascione 6-3

from my scoreboard now Karlovic took it 7-6....

hmm blake lost 6-4 6-7 4-6... but Youzhny is through 6-4 6-2

:yahoo: I like Youhzny

In Lyon it's 1 set a piece between Ljubicic and Ascione

Well, at least Fed is consistent with that 6-1 first-set score. He opened with a 6-1 first-set against Del Potro.

Meanwhile, Murray opens his match by breaking to love against Dlouhy.

Fed is now up 3-2 in the second, with a break.

Routine 6-1 6-4 win for Fed.

Murray is serving for the first set 5-2 in St. Petersburg.

Top seed Davydenko out in St. Petersburg, losing 6-1, 5-7, 1-6 to Cilic. The umpire gave him a code violation in the final set for not putting enough effort in, at which point Davydenko blamed an injury... which he declined treatment for. :wacko:

Whatever the cause, the guy really isn't doing himself any favours.

On a positive note, Murray should probably win this tournament now and hopefully end a disappointing season on a high.

He'll have to win this match first, though. After a good start, he'd down 0-3 in the second set, and it's deuce on his serve now.

He manages to hold, though for 1-3.

Davydenko lost :wacko: That'll teach me to go to the gym - he'd just won the first set when i left and i figured it'd be a routine victory :unsure:

anyone checked out any betting sites???? :devil:

gasquet has lost the first set against Tsonga.......he's slowly turning in to safin (although not in looks i hasten to add..... :P )

Murray through pretty easily.

Gasquet in a real struggle against Tsonga in Lyon - he's actually very close to the last place required to qualify for Shanghai, which is somewhat surprising seeing as he's not done much apart from the Wimbledon semi. However, he won Lyon last year and a loss at this stage would be a big setback. Not that I'm surprised to see him join in Blake and Haas's little chokefest - perhaps Berdych will sneak it. He's not far behind either and had a good win against home favourite Wawrinka in Basel earlier.

and Gasquet loses in straight sets to Tsonga :shrug:

does nobody want to go to shanghai :nope:

Blake didn't have a lot to gain from this tournament, anyway. He'd of helped his cause a bit, if he made the final, but he has to do well in the Paris Masters to have a shot at Shanghai.

Gasquet had a little bit better opportunity to gain some ground here, as his 5th best "other" tournament right now is 10 race points vs. 20 race points for Blake's 5th best.

I think Im gonna bet on xfactor, Im crap at betting at tennis! I won on Big B this year so maybe I will stick to the reality tv!

Gasquet said in his post match interview after Rochus that he had a knee injury and (possibly elbow I read somewhere else). Today's result seems to confirm that. Knowing him, he did not even try to fight today.

A wasted case really.

Matches today include:

Basel
Nieminen vs. Gonzo
Mathieu vs. Baghdatis
Federer vs. Kiefer
Karlovic vs. Berdych

St Petersburg
Kohlschreiber vs. Youhzny
Tursunov vs. Murray
Gulbis vs. Cilic

Lyon
Tsonga vs. Rochus
Ljubicic vs. Falla
Grosjean vs. Benneteau

Nieminen took the first set off Gonzo :blink: