It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here. Brodie has a lot of work right now, so we thought I could help and give the blog some love. There’s a lot of catch up to do, so let’s get this thing started.

First of all, congrats to Caro for winning Beijing and being the new No 1. Although I’m not her biggest fan, it is deserved. She’s been the most consistent WTA player and it paid off. Sunshine hasn’t lost a final since IW. That’s saying a lot, right? Also, I’m happy for Bepa. Great results in the 2nd half of the season.

Next, I’m glad Nole got to defend his title in Beijing. I think the USO was a turning point so I’m hoping for good things to happen for the remaining of the season. Last but not least, Rafa won the 7th title of the season in Tokyo after beating Monfils in straight sets. What else can I say? I hope you have energy left for London.

Next stop, Shanghai!

“I missed you so much.” “I’m so sorry baby, I’m glad I’ve got you back.” “Let’s make out.”

…

Wait? Aga retired? Down 5-0? Crap. I believe it was because the entertainment level of the match quite literally bored her to tears. But you didn’t hear it from me.

Caro, Vika, Elena and Franny are your semifinalists in Tokyo.

WTA – Tokyo (Premier 5)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: Caro, Bepa, JJ, Sam

I’d probably have a lot to say, but the epicness of the above picture is distracting me. Um… so begins Caro’s quest for year end number 1? Yeah, start getting used to that idea. Should be some great matches, and looking forward to watching some on TTV.

ATP – Bangkok (250)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: WHO CARES, DELPO IS BACK… Though I think some Rafa guy is there too.

In all honesty, it’ll be interesting to see how hard Rafa pushes himself. No doubt he’ll play hard, rip the ball, and do all the regular Rafa shots. He just might not be chasing down every ball and going for every crazy angle and what have you. That being said, he’s pretty well got a cakewalk to the semis. Would love to see an Ernie/Rafa semi or a Rafa/Fer final, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves…

ATP – Kuala Lumpur (250)

Official Site: Here
Draw: Here
Top Seeds: Sod, Koala, Berd, Youz

Really a damn solid draw and grounp of players with a nice mix of big hitters (Sod, Berd) and more defensive players (Koala, Ferru, Marcos). Definitely worth keeping an eye on the draw later into the week; this tournament could have a pretty awesome finish.

A whole lotta winning that went on today:

Beijing: Kuz def. A-Rad 6-2, 6-4

Djokovic def. Cilic 6-2, 7-6

Tokyo: Tsonga def. Youzhny 6-3, 6-3

Mons, Belgium: Tipsarevic def. Stakhovsky 7-6, 6-3

Another great win for Nole, who has won all four meetings against Cilic, and is making quite a statement at the end of the year. Will be interesting to see how he takes this momentum into Shanghai, with no Fed or Muzz.

Also a solid win for the Kuzonator, who said she normally is tired at the end of the season, but is feeling great, and clearly didn’t have much trouble against the Iron Chef, who is still struggling to qualify for Doha (and probably won’t). Still, she’s had a really great two weeks, and to be honest, was nice to see these two in the final after the slaughter that was the first couple of rounds.

Jo only needed an hour and 9 minutes, and beat the Youz with the same score that he beat Monf with in the semis.

And lastly, Tipsy won a challenger in Belgium, which is cool, but is even more awesome because he got a ridonk trophy that will likely be up for contention in the top 10 trophy YEC that will happen in December. Awesome.

Well, not sure anyone saw that one coming. Sure he dropped a set to Blah, but being routed by Marin? Yikes. 61 63, with Rafa only winning 50% of points off his first serve. Seriously though, how long until this guy has a few massive tournaments and cracks the top 10? He’s definitely someone to keep a close eye on next year, I think.

And speaking of someone intent on finishing the year well, Nole beat Sod 3 and 3, and will take back his will known spot at third in the rankings as of Monday. Really nice to see Nole showing himself as a contender in the late hard court season, especially after his super consistent clay season, the dude deserves the third spot, in my eye. No Rafole finish, but it should be a hell of a final regardless.

And over in Tokyo (which I sort of regrettably have been paying little attention to), Youz beat the Lawnmower in 3, and Jo dinged out Bambi in straights, to set up the final.

Rafa and Marat going toe to toe with Mo in the chair. Um, epic trifecta of awesome. Plus Asian Marat KADS in the audience cheering him on. Epic win. No, it wasn’t close, and yes, Rafa won, but who cares. Happy times. Mo needs more epic matches like this. Make it happen, ATP. Speaking of solid wins:

Over Fergasm, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1. Pretty solid result heading into YEC.

Huh. For a girl who had a semifinal curse all year, she made one last week, and did it again this week, with a solid straight sets win over Lena, 7-5, 6-3. Kinda really hoping she can make the final and maybe even give a run for the title, she deserves a solid result for this year.

Nads finally took out Shuai, Destroyer Of Worlds, Kuz took out Venus Killer Pavs, and Mono just finished knocking off Bepa in three. Ragh. There will be hell to pay if she somehow manages to sneak herself into the final spot for the YEC.

Cilic also beat KoYla, Sodomy beat Old Man Ljubs, so we have Marin/Rafa, and Sod/Nole for the semis.

Oh right, Tokyo. Rusty Lawnmower finally knocked off Vasseline (it was fun while it lasted), Mikhail abyouzhed Berd, Jo beat Enie and Monf beat Stan. That’s actually turning out to be a pretty interesting finish, kind of an odd combo of dudes.

Well, well, well. I actually caught some tennis, and it was damn good. Nads and Serena went toe to toe in the third, all the way to a tiebreak. Nads raced out to a quick 5-0 lead, choked it down to 5-4, but managed to take the final set tiebreak 7-5. Tough to say there was a lack of trying from Serena, she was grunting like in any big time match, and it was typical big babe ball bashing to the max. And thus a new reign of a crappy number 1 begins.

I also saw the end of Bepa/Flavs, which Bepa somehow didn’t choke away after breaking at 5-5 in an insane deuce game. Some seriously close (AKA bad) calls too in the game, one for each player, but I guess that’s how it goes when there’s no hawkeye. Solid win for Bepa as she continues to get her game back on track. As for the dudes…

This picture reminds me of all the epic action shots of Rafa from his last couple of matches in AO… I think I might have just wet myself a little bit. Anyway, he somehow lost the second set to Blah in a tiebreak (yes, I know, really) but pulled out the third 6-3 and will move on. Phew.

And get this, Marat beat… GONZO. I know, pure insanity. He in fact pretty well thrashed him, 6-3 6-4, and served 12 aces and no double faults, and wasn’t broken all match. I know, I’m scared too. There, there, its going to be all right.

In other match news, A-Rad got revenge for Caro over MJMS, Mono won (and will play Bepa next), Ljubs won, and in semi-interesting doubles news, Kleybs/Franny AKA Team Thiefers Of Celebrations beat Team Bluber 11-9 in the super TB.

Over in Tokyo, Jo beat the Reeshman, Youz upset Gilles, and Ernie beat Pico *tear*

Le sigh.

The bad news about this whole Asian tennis swing thing is that 1) I barely see any tennis, and 2) its hard for me to blog about it. The good news is 1) I’m getting real life things (like school work) done and 2) there seems to be plenty of other crap for me to talk about anyway.

Apparently I missed quite the Big Babe Shriekfest, with Masha defeating Vika 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 in 3 hours and 6 minutes. I’m actually thinking I might try and download it later and watch the last set or two. 8 DFs from Msha, but 13 aces and 71% on the first serve. Methinks her team will take it.

Brace yourself for the land of “we don’t care”, JJ lost to Peng, and for the men, Kubot beat Dick in two easy sets, and in Tokyo, Roger-Vasselin (who?) beat a freshly flossed, shaven and cut Elf 4 and 4. Huh. I thought you were good at dealing with slippery guys named Roger. HEYO.

Pretty well everyone else who was supposed to win did. Rafa over Baggy in 3, Blah, Gonzo, Sod, Fergasm and Ljubs. Even this goofball:

For the ladies, Mono over Kleybs, Bepa over Franny, and Flavs, Lena and the Iron Chef won too. Oh, and that Serena chick. Which makes her really good at tennis or something.

Well that happened. And JJ retired at 2-5 in the first set. “I won some lame small tournament earlier this year, here, you have one”. Great way to mark some ground before next year begins for Masha, just more ridiculousness from JJ, as far as I’m concerned. If you missed it:

And then this total mindfuck…

Yeah, they actually lost the final. But there’s this cute pic, and Kleybs and Franny together is just total “WTF”. Kleybs, Franny, how could you? We couldn’t even get one last ray of light for Ai. Epic fail for the finals. Moving right along.

JJ needed two (and a super long first) sets against Nails, Masha needed 3 against the Iron Chef AKA A-Rad, but they got it done, and will tee off in the final.

Can’t say much since I only caught the first set of the JJ match (20 points in the second game alone, and a crowd rivalling that of the Swede/Israel Davis Cup tie) and I wasn’t exactly thrilled to death. Regardless, some solid playing from both ladies to take advantage of an early decimated field, and in my opinion, the WTA really needs players like this (ones who still have something to prove) to finish the year strong to keep things interesting. Should be a good final.