If I were Andy Roddick, I’d be scared of playing in Shanghai again. Seriously.

You guys remember how this tournament went for him last year? I’ll remind you. He injured his knee against Wawrinka and was out for the rest of the season missing the World Tour Finals.

I was hoping (I bet he was too) this year would be different. It started well. Andy cruised in the 1st round due to Kohls’ retirement. I didn’t watch his match but he was up a set when he got injured. He received medical treatment first and returned to the court with his right thigh taped. Unfortunately he couldn’t move properly and was forced to retire against Garcia-Lopez.

Same tournament. Same court.

After the match Roddick said “The past couple of days in practice, I feel like I’ve been kind of moving like an elephant, kind of slow, just trying to protect it,” Roddick said. “I strained it a little bit worse (today), and it was to the point where moving at all felt like I was getting stabbed in the leg. It’s really tough to get hurt or tougher to get hurt up a set and a break.”

This is a big blow in his bid to qualify to London and finish the year in the Top 10 for the ninth consecutive season. No one knows how serious this injury is or if it will keep him away for long. Roddick hopes to come back in time for Basel.

I feel really bad for him. Get well soon, Andy.

Apart from Rafa’s loss everything went like expected in Shanghai.

Federer, Muzz, Nole, Jo and Pico scored straight set wins.
It was Nole’s 50th win of the year. He absolutely crushed Richie. You take out the heat and the Serbian seems a completely different player. By reaching quarterfinals Muzz qualified for London. Pico is in his 2nd QF in Masters 1000 Event this year. I always have the same feeling when watching Fed coming back after being absent for a while…he never left. Still makes tennis look effortless. Finally, I didn’t expect Jo to be this strong after so much time away. I missed him and I’m happy he’s healthy again.

Tomas lost to Garcia-Lopez, but I can’t say I was totally surprised because he’s been sick for the past days. Surprisingly, GarLo is only Spaniard left in the draw.

Soderling beat Ferrer in straight sets, avenging last week defeat in Beijing. It was a tight match match with a few breaks of serve. The Swedish prevailed at the end and is close to qualify for the WTF for the 2nd time.

Quarterfinal matches promise to be at least interesting. I’ll try not to miss Soderling vs Federer and Muzz vs Tsonga.

On a side note. What the hell is wrong with people? You have a Masters 1000 Event with the entire Top 20 and there’s no one in the stands. They are empty most of the time. Get yourself together, for reals.

Rafa lost. I know, we’re not very used to those two words combined but sometimes it happens.

Melzer defeated Nadal 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 and played some of the best tennis I’ve ever seen from him. First time he has beaten the Spaniard.
To be honest, at first I was shocked, but then I realized how much Rafa has played in the last couple of months. Going deep in pretty much every tourney he got in. No matter how strong you are, physically or mentally, sometimes it’s just too much. Now he gets to rest until Paris. No need to make any drama out of it. All good in Rafaland.

Anyways, huge props to the Austrian. He was aggressive and completely outplayed Rafa in the 1st set. There’s not much I can say about it. He was simply the best player today. One of things I really appreciated was how he approached the match. It’s always difficult to play against Rafa regardless of the surface but he was fearless and just tried to execute his game plan. There were moments of brilliant tennis. Some of the points Melzer won were the points we’re used to see Rafa winning.

It’s a nice reward for an amazing season. Career high of No. 12 and qualified for the WTF after winning Wimbledon in doubles. He reached his first Grand Slam semifinal in RG. First Austrian to do it since Muster won the title in 1995. Let’s not forget he came back from two sets to love and 0-2 deficit to beat Nole. I guess it’s never to late to make the most of your potential.

I’m just mad because Melzer’s win will prevent us from Rafa vs Pico quarterfinal and that’s just not right.

Well there’s a funny picture. (The Fuzzy One has the goofiest smile ever. Its also sort of hilarious to think that he’s 28…)

Woke up this morning to 7-6, 6-3, can’t really say I’m too surprised, once again, the dude deserved this title. And let’s be honest, Rafa is playing well, but he is still clearly a step away from his usual dominant, pinpoint accuracy, crazy self, and I think you’d have to be a little nuts to make TOO huge of a deal out of this, Rafa will be fine come Australia, I have no doubt.

But from a pure tennis nerd, objective perspective, this continues to make things interesting heading into next year, and the first slam (and yeah, I guess YEC). In my eye, the two biggest things for next year are going to be 1) how well can Elf do at the slams and 2) how much gas does Fed have in the tank, and in general, where its the dominance of Rafa/Fed factor going to be at? But now you’ve also got Muzz struggling of late, Nole playing great… and Koala… playing even better? I think pointless guessing of outcomes is silly, but when it comes purely to who is playing at what level, there’s a whole lotta weird stuff going on. Hell, at the rate we’re going, we could have a Koyla/Nole YEC final, how hilarious would that be? Just sayin’. Regardless, I’m actually pretty pumped for Paris, I think there’s going to be a lot of really great matches there. Bring it on, boys.

I told y’all to watch out for Shorty McBaldsky, the dude has been on a tear. So don’t say you weren’t warned. Because, you know, I’m sure you totally were going to. Anyway, Koala The Bear took out Nole not-so-surprisingly in a third set tiebreak. Missed the match, once again, but sounds like it was an epic, I might actually download it and watch the last set or something. Poor Nole though, the dude just absolutely LOVES third set tiebreaks by this point, I’m sure. Still, head up if you’re a Nole fan, the guy is playing great of late, and is taking some serious confidence into the YEC (and hopefully next year, eventually).

*Takes out the chalk, ticks off 9* Nine retirements baby! How should we caption Rafa’s face? “Oh not this shit again”. “What, we’re not allowed to play 3 sets here anymore?” “What’s your last name, Bartoli?”

Not like he was ever going to lose (and he destroyed in the first set), but man, these retirements are past the point of comedy.

And now for the MTR musical tribute to Shanghai, that can only properly be brought to you through the power of a Canadian rock band from the 90′s.

Whatever Asia. I get home to see Rafa take the second set, see Old Man Ljubs is wrapping up his leg, go and make my coffee, come back, and suddenly Rafa has a sweater on and is signing my computer. WTF Mr. Clean? I was all excited to see an exciting third set, but noooo. This is the eight retirement for the tournament, which surely must be some sort of new insane record (and while I’m on it, there were retirements in 2 of the 4 QFs in Osaka). I did catch a little bit of the Nole/Gilles match too, the end, seemed like a pretty competitive match, Nole came out in 3, and is into the semis, which is pretty well going to give him a strangle hold on his usual third spot in the rankings.

WTF is this? Feli had to qualify just to get into a tournament last week and now he makes a semis of a Masters event? I know we’re down Muzz and Fed, but this is a bit insane. Koala The Bear defeated Steps The Sex in three, and continues his mad hot streak that he’s been on. I’m pretty well assuming he’s going to be qualifying for the YEC, he’s been absolutely tearing shit up of late. So that means Koala/Nole, and pretty boys Rafa/Feli for your semis. Also:

RAFAEL NADAL SHIRTLESS. GET ME LOTS OF HITS. RAGH.

Captain Listerine just keeps on truckin’, with a solid win over T-Rob in Shanghai, 61 64. The first set wasn’t close at all, but T-Rob showed up for the second and made things really interesting (I actually saw some live men’s tennis, madness!) They traded holds at love at 3-3, but the commentators pretty well called it “when is he gonna break?”. T-Rob then proceeded to break himself at 4-4, and Rafa served it out, and that was that. Still impressive of T-Rob to show up for the second set, but Rafa looks like he’s getting very close to returning to insane top form, he’s really hitting a consistent stride.

Oh Dick, you cunning bastard. His case was only strengthened again as two more players pulled out of matches due to injury. First, Stan the Man in the third set against The Sex, and secondly Monf in the second against Old Man Ljubs (6-2, 3-0, yikes). That brings the injury pull out for Shanghai up to an absurd seven.

Koala The Bear beat Gonzo once again (he’s only ever lost one of 13 sets against him lifetime) and will take on Steps The Sex next round, where Ljubs will take on Rafa.

Other winners include Nole, Sod over Jo, Gilles over Berd and… Feli… over Melz…? Feli is in a quarterfinal? I am SO confused. Pretty fun final eight though, and some solid match-ups.

Marat’s final Asian run may have been full of love and appreciation from the fans, but thanks to his fellow tour members, he might be leaving with a bit of a bad taste in his mouth. He had a few choice words for Big Berd (whose hand he refused to shake after the match, due to Berd calling a trainer during the match) and Dick (who of course has been voicing concerns over the season length):

“Just come on; just grow up a little bit; 26 years old; just deal with that,” he said. “If you’re losing, just be a man; be a man and lose as a man. Don’t pretend that you are injured and then you start running around and start to hit winners and then all of a sudden you pull the hands up in the air after winning the match? So then of course the guy will say: ‘No, I’ve been injured but then I felt a little bit better’. Of course he will find 10,000 excuses. Still, it’s not enough. You’re playing or you’re not playing. If you’re playing, so just shut…up and play.”

“In 2004 we had this discussion in Olympic Games with Roddick about it and they were blaming me that I’m playing too much, and I was saying that the season is too long. We should make it shorter. And the guys, they jumped on me, like I was the one who was wrong. So look at all of them—everybody is falling apart. Everybody is getting injured left and right, and everybody is complaining the season is long. It takes six years to realise that something is wrong? They just have to deal with that, not when they are 21 and ambitious and want to make money. They have to think a little bit with their brains and to make the career a little bit longer.”

Balls to the wall baby. The dude says it how it is. I didn’t see his match against Berd, but I think we can all agree it is a little lame when players call for the trainer to get a mental break, and clearly aren’t injured at all. It really is disrespectful to their opponent, who is forced to sit and wait. Tough to argue with his points about Dick too. Overall, he just sounds like the guy who has been working at your work way too long and gets frustrated by every little thing that isn’t done perfectly or to exact code or whatever. Only a few more months dude.

Well, that’s impressive. Rusty Lawnmower took out Tree 2 and 4 in just over an hour and 15, without being broken. Not exactly what happened to Tree, he had that huge win over Dick at the USO, great American hard court season, and has been kinda absent ever since. As for Rusty, at 28, the dude has put together a pretty solid year and could find himself in the top 20 before the year is over.

A couple other interesting results include Nic Almagro firing 23 aces on his way to taking out Kohlswhatever in a third set tiebreak, and the big Berd taking out Marin in three. Those Czech boys sure do know how to handle their Croats.

In other WTF news:

Dick apparently fell awkwardly on his ankle and then needed… leg… and back massages?… and then retired in the first set against Stan The Man. He’s apparently headed straight back to the US. Yeah, reluctant to strike, but not reluctant to get the hell out of Asia. He still shouldn’t have much trouble qualifying for London anyway.

Lots of other business as usual stuff, Old Men Ljubs and Haas, Monf, Koyla, Gonzo and Steps all winning. And Pico losing badly on hard courts once again. WTF dude. I know you’re a clay specialist, but you CAN win a match on hard courts, you’re allowed. Really.

Yes, every Marat win does deserve its own post.

6-4, 6-4, mo’fuckers.