Monday Wrap - Yes, we have Russians

The ATP and WTA Tours are nearing their year-end championships and that means that we’ll have a lot of top players in action the next couple of weeks needing to secure their spots in the top 8 of the year ranking.

Both the men and the women were in action in Moscow last week. The ATP had another two events in Vienna and Stockholm, and some of the lower ranked ladies made their way to Bangkok.

In Vienna, David Nalbandian again failed to impress and he will need to find a rhythm soon or he won’t be able to defend his 2005 Masters Cup crown. Fernando Gonzalez put up a good show by reaching the final, but with 307 points he is still only in 12th position and looks unlikely to qualify.

Ivan Ljubicic won’t be unhappy the indoor circuit has begun. The big hitting Croat didn’t drop a set all week and notched his third title of the season.

In Stockholm, the story of the week was Joachim Johansson’s stunning comeback. The 23-year-old Swede not only won his first ATP match of the season after long-term injuries, but knocked out Rafael Nadal while he was at it. In the semi’s, it was Jarkko Nieminen who put a stop to Pim-Pim’s remarkable run.

Vania King gave the Americans something to cheer about when she took home the Bangkok trophy. The 17-year-old beat Molik, Safarova, Kostanic, Shaughnessy and Tanasugarn on her title run. She also became doubles champion alongside Kostanic. Let’s see if she can back this week up in the next events. We remember Jamea Jackson being bombed the new American supertalent earlier this year, maybe you guys in the States should hold your horses for a while this time.

Then there was this event in Russia, the Kremlin Cup. On the men’s side, a 32-draw event, we had 8 Russian participants. That’s exactly 1/4th of the participants. Not bad. The women’s draw handed out bye’s to the top 4 seeds, so we had only 28 participants here. No less than 15 players originated from the host country. That’s more than half of the draw! Wonder what the Asian events will look like in 5 – 10 years…

Of course we had 2 all-Russian finals in Moscow at what we can next year just refer to as the Russian National Championships. Saves the Russian Tennis Federation the effort of organising these championships on a separate date.

Nicole Vaidisova got close to spoiling the Russian fun when she looked set to take out Nadia Petrova in the semi’s, but in the end there was no reason to hold back on the vodka. The winner did come as quite of a surprise, but Anna Chakvetadze is a name to remember. It’s quite likely we’ll see her in the Top 10 next year.

On the men’s side, it was the enjoyable blogger Safin who made it through to the final, but a solid Davydenko edged out a three-set win to close in on a ticket to Shanghai.

The entire ATP’s Top 10 will compete at the Masters Series event of Madrid this week. Come on Rafa, we all want to see that one match-up in the final.