Howdy. . . Just dropping by to give y'all a place to gather and chat on what shapes up as an interesting—and historic—if otherwise sleepy summer Sunday. At the Farmer's Classic In Los Angeles, Mike and Bob Bryan will be trying to win a record 62nd main tour doubles title. What's even more impressive is that, coincidentally but appropriately, this is career final No. 100 for the "not separated at birth" twins. Good luck to them.
A little further north in California, Maria Sharapova is playing Victoria Azarekna in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. It's Sharapova's first big final in quite some time, and Azarenka is still trying to find the game that earned her the title at the premier mandatory event in Miami in 2009. This seems like a nice set-up for Sharapova, because Azarenka is the sort who will be happy to play under the terms Sharapova likes best—probing, aggressive, relatively brief baseline exchanges, culminating in a winner or an error (although I suppose that's how all points end. . .) You know what I mean, though—both finalists like to play power baseline tennis. Just step in and smack the ball, let the chips (or earrings or ankle bracelets) fall where they may.
And how about a huge shout-out for Nicolas Almagro? I've wanted to write a post about his guy since I watched his battle with Rafael Nadal in the round-of-16 at Roland Garros—a match that invited comment about Almagro's obvious class as a player. But it was bumped off my to-do list by other, more momentous events. Anyway, I'll try to catch up with Almagro at the U.S. Open, but his secret is out now, even if some of you knew it all along—this guy can play, big-time.
Today, Almagro dispatched Richard Gasquet to add the title of Gstaad to the one he won at Bastad just a few weeks ago (there's a Monty Python skit in there somewhere). And he posted some quality wins in recent weeks, over, among others, Robin Soderling, Fernando Verdasco and Tommy Robredo (although Tommy these days seems to be everyone's "quality win").
And let's acknowledge Juan Carlos Ferrero's title quest at Umag (he crushed Andreas Seppi in the final), and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, undoubtedly the most frustrating name to spell on the WTA rolls, will battle Elena Vesnina in the Istanbul final.
The summer certainly is heating up; I'm going swimming in the pond, and then mowing hay.
-- Pete