What have you been up to ya lazy lot, we're already a week into the tennis new year (and erm the regular new year, in the West) but it's all going on at the moment.
Andy Murray winning his matches in the Hopman Cup (some kind of Davis and Fed combined, with one lady singles match, one manly singles, and one mixed doubles, against other countries. Only this is Dav-Fed lite as it all happens within a week not the whole year) but his partner Laura Robson (the young one that won junior Wimbledon when she was 6 or something, and she's pretty and unnervingly at ease with herself in the public eye so she's held up as the future of British tennis despite the rather quieter and better progress of compatriot Heather Watson, more on her later) lost all hers, and they lost most of their mixed doubles, and then Laura hurt herself so they're not gonna win. It would have been US vs Serbia, with Djokovic (magnificant hair grown back in super fast time, since post Davis Cup win head shave in December) and Ivanovic but she hurt herself too, so they had to pull out and Belgium took their spot.
Heather Watson (who won junior US Open just after LaRo won Wimby but no one seemed to care that much) won 5 matches at the WTA Tournament in Auckland, 3 qualifying and two real rounds getting into the quarter finals beating the 9th seed along the way. She broke top 200 last year, is around 170 now, and will be top 150 by Monday as a result. Deserves a good pat on the back imo. Top seed Maria Sharapova got a couple of wins in before been beated by Greta Arn, who's about 30 but said beating Shazza was like a little girls dream. She sounds slightly annoying. Poor Ole Dinara Safina, former number one, now ranked around 60 after terrible back injury last year, lost in the first round to the second seed Yania Wickmayer.
On the Mens tour, Andy Roddick has cruised through to the semis in Brisbane, and will play South African Kevin Anderson While Soderling plays Stepanek in the other semi. But in Doha Rafa Nadal, suffering from a fever poor lamby, lost in the semis today to Davydenko (who has been playing well all week), but Federer beat Tsonga in the other semi. Hope Davy can bring it tomorrow.
And how was your week?
Mixed fortunes for the British players- all the men went out in the first round apart from Andy Murray, Elena Baltacha, Anne Kepthothong, and Laura Robson all won their first round matches though. Unfortunately for Heather Watson she hurt her elbow in the middle of her first round match, a real shame since she had been winning comfortably, but lost rather uncomfortably 6-2 4-6 4-6. And Anne Keothothong has lost her second round against Kvitova, but Murray of course is through to the third round. Laura Robson's match against Maria Sharapova was postponed due to rain until tomorrow when Baltacha will also play against Shuai Peng. Jamie Murray also won her first round match in the men's doubles (which was reduced to best of three sets to get this damn grand slam back on schedule).
In other news there was a mega match between Lleyton Hewitt against Soderling, with Soderling winning 6-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4., followed by a cracker between this years French Open champ Li Na and German star Lisicki. The young German got the quarter finals in 2009 but didn't play last and had dropped out of the top 200 with a bad ankle injury. She's now up to number 62 and rising as she knocked out Li Na in a nail biter 3-6, 6-4, 8-6. This was followed by a short regulation win for Federer against French Mannarino in straight sets. 
And a round up of other results:
John Isner (who beat Mahut in three sets this time around) lost to Almagro in the second round, Ivanovic won her match easily, as did Djokovic, and Nadal, Serena on the other hand needed another three sets to get through her match against Simona Halep, Schiavone won in two though, and Azarenka won 6-0, 6-3, Juan Martin Del Potro continued his come back with a four sets win over Olivier Rochus although the match was held over from last night and after Rochus had won the first set- Del Pot responded by taking off his shoes and throwing them into the crowd, which was odd, Fish, Gasquet, Roddick, and Berdych all won in three, but Stanislav Wawrinka isn't having a great grass season as he lost to Bolelli 6-7, 3-6, 6-7, big shock when Jelena Jankovic lost her first round match, and Zvonareva beat her doubles partner Vesnina in straight sets. 
Heather Watson (who won junior US Open just after LaRo won Wimby but no one seemed to care that much) won 5 matches at the WTA Tournament in Auckland, 3 qualifying and two real rounds getting into the quarter finals beating the 9th seed along the way. She broke top 200 last year, is around 170 now, and will be top 150 by Monday as a result. Deserves a good pat on the back imo. Top seed Maria Sharapova got a couple of wins in before been beated by Greta Arn, who's about 30 but said beating Shazza was like a little girls dream. She sounds slightly annoying. Poor Ole Dinara Safina, former number one, now ranked around 60 after terrible back injury last year, lost in the first round to the second seed Yania Wickmayer.
