Well its been a while since I satisfied my adoring fans with a post, and yet I've been doing absolutely nothing except watching tennis.  Ironic or something.  Anyway Djokovic has continued his splendid run of form (remember he beat Murray in Aussie Open final) by beating Federer in straight sets in the Dubai final.
Gosh seems so long ago that the Fed was unbeatable, after losing in the Aussie Semis to the Djok he no longer holds a current grand slam title, first time in about 6 years!- but at least he got himself into the Dubai final. 

Juan Martin Del Potro who missed almost all of last year with a bad wrist injury and surgery and whose ranking dropped from 4 to 480+ (although keeping a protected ranking of 4 until the summer so he can play in big tournaments without having to qualify) has got into three consecutive semi finals losing to Verdasco, Roddick (who won his 30th title from 50 finals that week), and he'll play Mardy Fish in this weeks Delray Beach Tournament.  He has pulled his ranking back up to 166 and won his 150th tour win.  Very surprising since his attempted come back at the end of last year was extremely short lived and may have undermined his confidence but the super giant tall Argetinian with fuzzy facial hair has showed his mettle.  

In British tennis Elena Baltacha went out early in Dubai and failed to qualfy for Doha (its a pretty tough tournament to qualify for, the top seed in qualifying was ranked 31 in the world) and her ranking has slipped from around 50 to below 70.  Anne Keothothong who did well to get back into the top 100 after winning a round in Australia has also slipped a few places, but Heather Watson who continues to impress has moved up futher to around 130.  And the British women did well winning their Fed Cup tie at the start of the year.  And Jamie Murray is back in the top 50 after getting the semis with Andy a few weeks ago and winning a round in Delray Beach this week.

And Kim Clijsters briefly took over the number one spot when she beat Dokic in the Paris Open quarterfinals, but Wozniaki got it back the next week by winning in Dubai.  Thus prompting all the same old same old babbling about her being number one again (sigh didn't we talk enough the first time).









 

Wozniaki also got to todays Doha final but lost to Zvonereva in straight sets.  Amazingly, considering how successful she was last year getting to two grand slam finals and number two in the world, it had been over a year since Zvonereva had won a title.  And she had to battle hard for three and a half hours against Hantuchova (who beat her last week in Thailand to take her first title in four years) and over two hours against Jankovic (who got to her first semi final in eight months last week and backed it up with another this week) to get into the final where she did'nt disappoint.


And that's the news.

Round Up.

Well, Andy Murray had apparently jumped right off his pedastle this week, or so said the media types, when he lost his first match post Aussie Open final in straight sets to Bagdhatis, but after sneaking in to the doubles with sexy big bro Jamie (who has been having some of his best hair this week) he (they) won three matches and got through to the semi-finals.  This is good news for Jamo who might get back into the top 50 (he leaped up at the end of last year after he and Andy won a 500 tournament), and who is celebrating his birthday today.  Happy 25th big J. 

In Paris aggressively dull Kim Clijsters who has not played a full year of tournaments since her comeback, and who often shows little focus and attention in her matches as she only cares about the grand slams, re-took the number one spot.  She then lost the final in a rather mediocre display to Petra Kvitova, and may lose the number one ranking if Wozniaki plays well enough next week to reclaim it herself. 

And Del Potro has won his first back to back matches this year and got through to his first semi-final since 2009, after his terrible wrist injury knocked him out for much of last year.  He lost to Verdasco in the semi, 4-6 4-6.  His ranking slipped from 4 to about 460 but he has a protected ranking allowing him to play in high profile tournaments and collect some ranking points until the summer when the protected ranking runs out.  Who hopes for a Djokovic v Del Potro US Open final?

Oh what about Nadal, could there be three of them in the final?  Maybe if one of them got tired?  Nadal received the Laureus Award for best sportsman or something.   The award ceremony is in Dubai, and was hosted by Kevin Spacey- I tried to wach some but it was odd.  Kevin Spacey made a joke about Massa getting his driver's test and I turned off.  But heres a picture of Kevin Spacey playing table tennis with Nadal.