It's Time To Play in the Dirt

by Savannah

Clay court play is officially underway. That makes me very happy. It'll be think or go home.

Houston Recap

Wayne Odesnik finally lost to Sam Querrey on Saturday thus sparing the ATP and the ITF the embarrassment of someone handing him a check on Sunday. I guess his speech would've been something like FTW. Fortunately for tennis this won't happen. Now someone needs to sit Odesnik down and make it very clear he is not doing himself, or tennis, any favors by not taking the provisional suspension not that I think he gives a rat's ass. If he did he would've taken it to begin with.

Ponte Vedra Beach Recap

Elena Vesnina snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yesterday afternoon in Florida. Serving at 5-3 in the second set for the match I guess the best that can be said is that she had a brain fart and managed to lose it and the match. The loss negates all of the great play by Elena during the match. Caroline Wozniacki will play Olga Govortsova in the final.

Marbella Recap

Flavia Pennetta won a three set victory over Carla Suarez Navarro. Congratulations to Flavia on her ninth title.

Charleston Main Draw

WOZNIACKI, Caroline (1)/ bye

ZAHLAVOVA STRYCOVA vs Barbora-GULLICKSON, Carly (WC)

LARCHER DE BRITO Michelle vs MANASIEVA, Vesna

QUALIFIER vs SCHNYDER, Patty (16)

WOZNIAK, Aleksandra (12) vs OSTERLOH, Lilia

QUALIFIER vs QUALIFIER

RODIONOVA, Anastasia vs KING, Vania

PETROVA, Nadia (6)/BYE

AZARENKA, Victoria (3)/BYE

QUALIFIER vs KUDRYAVTSEVA, Alla

QUALIFIER vs QUALIFIER

CRAYBAS, Jill vs OUDIN, Melanie (13)

BONDARENKO, Alona (9) vs DITTY, Julie

GOERGES, Julia vs MATTEK-SANDS, Bethanie

DE LOS RIOS, Rossana vs CECIL, Mallory (WC)

ZVONAREVA, Vera (7)/BYE

BARTOLI, Marion (5)/BYE

PERRY, Shenay vs PENG, Shuai

SEVASTOVA, Anastasija vs ARVIDSSON, Sofia

QUALIFIER vs VESNINA, Elena (10)

DUSHEVINA, Vera (14) vs GOVORTSOVA, Olga

CHANG, Kai-Chen vs MAKAROVA, Ekaterina

FICHMAN, SharonR vs YBARIKOVA, Magdalena

STOSUR, Samantha (4)/BYE

HANTUCHOVA, Daniela (8)/BYE

DUQUE MARINO, Mariana vs MORITA, Ayumi

KERBER, Angelique vs RISKE, Alison (WC)

QUALIFIER vs RAZZANO, Virginie (11)

CZINK, Melinda (15) vs KRAJICEK, Michaella

RODINA, Evgeniya vs QUALIFIER

GALLOVITS, Edina vs LEPCHENKO, Varvara

JANKOVIC, Jelena (2)/BYE

Monte Carlo Main Draw

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB)/bye

Florent Serra (FRA) vs Stephane Robert (FRA)

Ernests Gulbis (LAT) vs Marco Chiudinelli (SUI)

Victor Hanescu (ROU) vs [13] Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)

[12] Tommy Robredo (ESP) vs Horacio Zeballos (ARG)

Viktor Troicki (SRB) vs Lukasz Kubot (POL)

David Nalbandian (ARG) vs Andreas Beck (GER)

[7] Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) /Bye

[4] Marin Cilic (CRO) /Bye

Igor Andreev (RUS) vs [WC] Simone Bolelli (ITA)

Olivier Rochus (BEL) vs Andreas Seppi (ITA)

Albert Montanes (ESP) vs [16] Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)

[10] Tomas Berdych (CZE) vs Feliciano Lopez (ESP)

Qualifier vs [WC] Richard Gasquet (FRA)

Julien Benneteau (FRA) vs Qualifier

[6] Fernando Verdasco (ESP) /Bye

[8] Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) /Bye

Fabio Fognini (ITA) vs Michael Llodra (FRA)

Jeremy Chardy (FRA) vs Qualifier

Qualifier vs [11] David Ferrer (ESP)

[15] Jurgen Melzer (AUT) vs Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) vs Philipp Petzschner (GER)

Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) vs Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)

[3] WC Andy Murray (GBR) /Bye

[5] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) /Bye

Nicolas Almagro (ESP) vs Simon Greul (GER)

[WC] Bernard Tomic (AUS) vs Benjamin Becker (GER)

Qualifier vs [9] Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)

[14] Juan Monaco (ARG) vs Qualifier

Michael Berrer (GER) vs Evgeny Korolev (KAZ)

Qualifier vs Eduardo Schwank (ARG)

[2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) /Bye

As The Stomach Churns - Sania Mirza Edition

The reports that Sania was moving her wedding day up by six days have so far proven to be false as far as I know.
There are also reports that an official delegation from Pakistan will attend the wedding.

Hey, it's either this or ranting about the Odesnik situation again.

Match Fixing Part Deux

by Savannah

The whispers getting louder...again.

Charles Happell reports the following:

The spectre of the dreaded "m" word -- match-fixing -- continues to linger over tennis following an extraordinary round-one match in the Monte Carlo Masters this week.

The ATP match in question -- which has been the subject of vigorous debate and speculation on online tennis betting forums -- was played between Argentina’s Martin Vassallo Arguello and Russia’s Igor Andreev on Tuesday.

During the match, the unusual flow of money for Vassallo Arguello, ranked No.69 in the world, meant he was rated as the favourite even after he had lost the first set, 6-2, to the 21st-ranked Russian.

Andreev opened as a $1.35 favourite on Betfair, the online betting exchange, and around $1.33, or 1/3 in the old terminology, with bookies around the world. Many handicappers had Adreev over the odds to dispose of his opponent -- yet money poured in late for the Argentinean.

Despite winning the first set convincingly, Andreev’s odds on Betfair were listed at $2.10, or 10/9, an unbelievable price considering he was the higher-ranked player and had already gone one set ahead.
(...)
The second set started with Vassallo Arguello getting an early break to go up 2-0, but Andreev -- in defiance of the betting trends -- got the upper hand to such an extent that he served for the match at 5-4 and 40-0. With three match points on his serve, Andreev seemingly had the match in the bag.

At this point, Betfair was betting $25.0 or $26.0 on Vassallo Arguello -- in layman’s terms, that means the Argentine was available at 25/1 and there were takers at this price even though realistically, in such a dire predicament, he should have been at 250/1 or longer.

But Vassallo Arguello staged a magnificent comeback to stave off those three match points and force the set into a tie-breaker. Andreev served two double-faults in the tie-breaker but still found himself serving with a 5-4 lead. He lost the next three points, however, and the set.

In the third set, Vassallo Arguello barely raised a sweat in clinching it, 6-2, and the match.

Betfair has paid out on this week’s Monte Carlo result. There may be an innocent explanation for the betting trends, and perhaps the result was no more than a neat coincidence. But one wonders what the ATP made of it, and whether their crack anti-corruption squad will swing into action any time soon.

One fansite is reporting rumors about other matches as well but there are no links.

Monte Carlo Men's Draw

by Savannah

I usually don't post draws but I may start to more often.

[1] NADAL, Rafael ESP vs BYE
KUNITSYN, Igor RUS vs CHELA, Juan Ignacio ARG
SAFIN, Marat RUS vs [WC] HEWITT, Lleyton AUS
QUALIFIER vs [15] STEPANEK, Radek CZE

[9] MONFILS, Gael FRA vs TIPSAREVIC, Janko SRB
SODERLING, Robin SWE vs BOLELLI, Simone ITA
QUALIFIER vs [WC] LJUBICIC, Ivan CRO
BYE vs [5] DEL POTRO, Juan Martin ARG

[4] MURRAY, Andy GBR vs BYE
HANESCU, Victor ROU vs QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER vs BERDYCH, Tomas CZE
QUALIFIER vs [14] CILIC, Marin CRO

[12] NALBANDIAN, David ARG vs MATHIEU, Paul-Henri FRA
ACASUSO, Jose ARG vs GRANOLLERS, Marcel ESP
KARLOVIC, Ivo CRO vs SERRA, Florent FRA
BYE vs [8] DAVYDENKO, Nikolay RUS

================================================== ======

[7] VERDASCO, Fernando ESP vs BYE
GULBIS, Ernests LAT vs KOHLSCHREIBER, Philipp GER
GICQUEL, Marc FRA vs SCHWANK, Eduardo ARG
LOPEZ, Feliciano ESP vs [10] FERRER, David ESP

[16] ALMAGRO, Nicolas ESP vs MONTANES, Albert ESP
[WC] LISNARD, Jean-Rene MON vs ROCHUS, Christophe BEL
BENNETEAU, Julien FRA vs QUALIFIER
BYE vs [3] DJOKOVIC, Novak SRB

[6] SIMON, Gilles FRA vs BYE
QUALIFIER vs KIEFER, Nicolas GER
CHARDY, Jeremy FRA vs MONACO, Juan ARG
SCHUETTLER, Rainer GER vs [11] ROBREDO, Tommy ESP

[13] WAWRINKA, Stanislas SUI vs TROICKI, Viktor SRB
ANDREEV, Igor RUS vs VASSALLO ARGUELLO, Martin ARG
SEPPI, Andreas ITA vs MELZER, Jurgen AUT
BYE vs [2, WC] FEDERER, Roger SUI